Egypt-led group of 21 Muslim countries condemn Israel’s attacks on Iran
The group has denounced Israel’s attacks on Iran and called for urgent de-escalation and nuclear disarmament “without selectivity”. The latter refers to Israel’s nuclear programme.
The group warned that the conflict risked spiralling further and called for an immediate ceasefire. They also expressed their support for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, calling on all states in the region to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
The signatories are Algeria, Bahrain, Brunei, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Gambia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia, Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates.
Trump weighing use of US bomb on Iranian nuclear facility, NYT says
The US president is deliberating whether to enter the conflict with Iran to bomb its nuclear enrichment facility at Fordo, according to The New York Times.
The facility can only be reached using the US’s biggest “bunker buster” bomb, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, using American B-2 bombers, according to The Times.
“If he decides to go ahead, the United States will become a direct participant in a new conflict in the Middle East, taking on Iran in exactly the kind of war Mr. Trump has sworn, in two campaigns, he would avoid,” reporters David E Sanger and Jonathan Swan write.
Notably, the piece is tagged under “analysis” instead of news, and does not cite a source or sources for its contention that such a strike is under consideration.
Donald Trump’s ‘contradictory narratives’ in dealing with Iran: Analyst
Middle East analyst Hassan Mneimneh said the Trump administration has issued two contradictory narratives on its approach to Iran.
One narrative insists that the US is “just demanding a return to the negotiations” and there is no intent to attack Iran “at the moment”.
The second narrative, which Trump appears to be promoting personally through “snippets and sound bites”, is that the US is colluding with Israel in its war on Iran. Trump is “applauding what Israel is doing and preparing, it seems, for an action on the part of the US,” Mneimneh told Al Jazeera.
“Which one is it in reality? Clearly we are not in a position to know. But only the second narrative seems to be supported by facts,” he said.
“One cannot conceive of a situation in which the US will accept the type of parity that Iran has succeeded in establishing in terms of causing harm at least – it doesn’t have the ability to destroy any kind of programme in Israel. But the ongoing war does not seem to be able to stop unless there is some sort of US intervention – or a diplomatic one,” he said.
