Currently Online 
EU condemns Iranian attack
The European Union has condemned Iran’s retaliatory attack on Israel “in the strongest terms” and called for an immediate ceasefire across the Middle East.
“The dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliation risks … spiralling out of control,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell posted on X.
The EU condemns in the strongest terms Iran’s attack against Israel.
The dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliation risks to spiralling out of control. An immediate ceasefire across the region is needed.
The EU remains fully committed to contribute to avert a regional war.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) October 1, 2024
Iranian armed forces warn Israel and allies against retaliation
The General Staff of the Iranian armed forces has threatened the US and Israel with direct military action if they launch attacks on Iranian soil.
In a statement, the armed forces praised the IRGC’s missile attacks on Israel – which were backed by the Iranian army and the Defence Ministry – as Iran’s legitimate right in response to Israeli aggression.
“The General Staff warns that if the aggressor regime acts to retaliate, it must await the destruction of its infrastructures in the occupied Palestinian territories on a massive and all-encompassing scale,” it said.
“And if the countries backing the regime, including the US, intervene directly in violating and attacking Islamic Iran, their centres and interests across the region will simultaneously be confronted with the decisive attack of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Two people injured by shrapnel in Jordan
Two people were injured by shrapnel falling in several provinces of Jordan following an Iranian missile attack on Israel, the country’s interior ministry has said.
The ministry said shrapnel was reported by citizens in various provinces, including the capital Amman, Balqa, Zarqa, Madaba and Karak.
‘Complete failure of the Biden administration in the Middle East’
In a statement on Telegram, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Biden administration had revealed its “complete helplessness in resolving crises”.
“Complete failure of the Biden administration in the Middle East” where a “bloody drama … is only gaining momentum”, said Zakharova.
Russia, which has good relations with Israel and Palestine, has tried to position itself as an alternative mediator amid the Gaza war. Earlier this year, it hosted a conference with representatives from Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad, aimed at bridging the sometimes bitter divides between the Palestinian groups.
‘Every time Israel did what it shouldn’t, the US rewarded it’
This is the last thing any American president or presidential candidate wants to see one month before the election.
The scenes above Israel do not look good in the US in an election year, there’s no doubt about that. There’s also no doubt that Biden brought it upon himself and his administration.
Since the beginning, he was against the widening of the war – but what does that really mean? For Biden’s administration, the war is not widening if Israel attacks Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, Syria and even Iran, but if all of them attack Israel – and then that requires American involvement.
As Israel continues nonstop to carry out its genocide in Gaza and its crimes in the West Bank, and to expand its operation in Lebanon and carry assassinations nonstop, even in Tehran, then clearly, a response was coming.
Biden should have seen it coming, that this would eventually bring a tragic end to his policy. And when? Right before the elections.
Unlike the conventional wisdom, I actually believe that Biden, even as a lame-duck president, still has leverage. The problem is not that he doesn’t have leverage but that he doesn’t use it. Every time Israel did what Israel shouldn’t do, according to the US, it was rewarded, it was not punished.
Kamala Harris says she will always ensure Israel has ability to defend itself
Vice President Harris, who is the Democratic presidential candidate, said she supports President Biden’s decision to use US military assets to help shoot down Iranian missiles.
“I will always ensure that Israel has the ability to defend itself against Iran,” she said, calling Iran a “destabilising force in the Middle East”.
Meanwhile, Trump, the Republican former president, has repeatedly sought to frame Democrats as stoking escalation in the Middle East by emboldening response.
His campaign said in a statement that the Biden administration has been “empowering the Iranian terrorist regime ever since they took office”.
