Iranian Nobel Peace laureates call for end to war

Iranian human rights activists and Nobel Peace Prize laureates Narges Mohammadi and Shirin Ebadi have urged that the war between Israel and Iran end.

“Stop the war and choose dialogue over destruction,” they said in a statement on the Nobel Women’s Initiative website.

“This war, initiated by Israel in violation of international law, is already causing immense suffering and threatens to ignite a broader regional and global conflict. Civilians, including women and children, are being killed,” the statement read.

It added that Ebadi, alongside civil society activists, is demanding “an immediate stop to uranium enrichment, an end to attacks on vital infrastructure in both Iran and Israel, and full respect for human rights, including non-interference in each country’s internal affairs”.

Ebadi, who received the 2003 award for her efforts for democracy and the rights of women, children and refugees, lives in exile in the UK.

Mohammadi received her award in 2023 for her fight for women’s rights and against the death penalty in Iran. She is serving a lengthy sentence in Tehran’s Evin
prison.


Meeting tomorrow between Iranian, European top diplomats ‘very important’

Former UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths has expressed hope that tomorrow’s planned meeting between Iran’s foreign minister and European counterparts will “shine a light on possible alternatives to war”.

The meeting, scheduled in Geneva tomorrow, is “well-timed” and opportune “not because they’re going to solve the problem”, but because it gives Iran a discrete way to relay its expectations and any concessions it may be willing to make, Griffiths told Al Jazeera.

“A diplomatic solution as evinced by those talks tomorrow could be very, very important,” he said. “A diplomatic deal is always more messy, less efficient in some ways, but it’s safer.”

Iran’s foreign minister to appeal to UK, France and Germany for help in stopping the fighting

The Iranian foreign minister will travel to Geneva to meet with his British, French and German counterparts on Friday in the hopes that they could exert pressure on Trump to rein in Israel’s attacks on his country, Foad Izadi, a professor of international relations at Tehran University, tells Al Jazeera.

“Iran has been flexible in giving concessions [on nuclear enrichment],” he said, speaking from Tehran. “The problem that we have is, as we saw today from the Israeli defence minister, they want regime change.

“They knew that Iran’s nuclear programme is not weaponising. Most of the world knew that already. “Now we realise the real reason for attacking Iran – they want to change the government of Iran, which is not going to happen.”

Conflict with Iran has not stopped Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip

The Israeli military has not stopped its operations and attacks across the Gaza Strip.

We’re seeing Palestinians still being killed in makeshift tents, in public spaces, and also in residential buildings. This has been happening every single day, and whatever is happening in Iran has not affected what is going on in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier today, the Israeli forces attacked a charging point which Palestinians use to charge their phones, batteries, and LED lights.

Palestinians are being killed as they are trying to get aid, trying to get food every single day.


_{Relatives of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks mourn as the bodies are taken to al-Shifa Hospital for funeral preparations in Gaza City}

Israeli attacks kill 84 Palestinians in Gaza on Thursday so far

Palestinian Health officials say 84 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks across Gaza today. At least 59 of those were killed in Gaza City and the north of the enclave, while 16 were killed while waiting for aid assistance near the Netzarim Corridor.


_{Relatives mourn Palestinians who were killed while seeking aid in the Gaza Strip}

Shelling the aid seekers: Israel’s ‘Humanitarian’ project in Gaza

It’s official.  If not, it ought to be.  Israeli forces freely butcher Palestinians in Gaza of all stripes, standing and states of desperation.  They do so casually or indifferently or maliciously.  True, they might get the odd militant here and there, but the supposedly professional Israeli Defence Forces is rather good at killing civilians.  In what is becoming an almost daily occurrence, Israeli security personnel are slaughtering those seeking humanitarian aid from facilities that are obscenely restricted and appallingly located. What is unclear in the process is how devastating Palestinian militias armed and supported by the Israelis have been in pushing up the mortality count.

In one incident on 17 June, Israeli tanks – not exactly a light form of population control – fired into a crown scrounging for aid from trucks in Gaza.  The resulting death toll was impressively outrageous: 59 killed.  A further 14 were also killed by IDF gunfire and air strikes in the enclave, taking the death toll for 17 June to 73. On this occasion, Israel’s normally mendacious publicity arm in the IDF seemed to concede that the firing had taken place.  It followed that yet another cleansing review would take place. 

... https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250619-shelling-the-aid-seekers-israels-humanitarian-project-in-gaza/

_{Palestinians flock to the aid center set up by the US and Israeli-led Gaza Humanitarian Relief Foundation on the Coastal Road in the Sudaniya area to receive food package in northern Gaza City, Gaza on June 17}

Trump will decide on US involvement in Israel-Iran conflict within two weeks: White House

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says that US President Donald Trump will decide on whether the US will get involved in the Israel-Iran conflict in the next two weeks.

Citing a message from Trump, Leavitt told reporters, “Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.”

The White House spokesperson says the US government maintains that it is a “fact that Iran has never been closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon”.

She says the US is “monitoring and watching” the developments in the Israel-Iran conflict and the US president was just in an intelligence briefing and he continues to be briefed by his National Security Council.

He also remains in “constant communication with our Israeli counterparts, most notably, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu”.

She also said Trump has made it clear he always wants to “pursue diplomacy, but … the president is unafraid to use strength if necessary”.

‘This is a war on the Iranian people’

Iranian American analyst Negar Mortazavi says Israeli attacks are targeting Iran as a nation, not just the governing system.

“This is a war on the Iranian people as much as it is on the regime,” Mortazavi told Al Jazeera.

“Anybody who wasn’t sure about where the ‘freedom bombs’ would be dropped is now clear-eyed that there’s no way the ‘freedom bombs’ will only come on military and nuclear targets to free the people. No, the ‘freedom’ bombs are also coming in people’s homes. Civilians are being killed in big numbers.”


Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah renews warning for US against entering war

Abu Ali al-Askari, the spokesperson of the Iran-allied group, says if the US joins Israel in its assault, it will suffer severe consequences and lose the investments it was promised from Gulf states.

“There is no doubt that US bases in the region will resemble fields for hunting ducks, the straits of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb will be closed and the oil ports in the Red Sea will stop, not to mention what will happen to its aircraft in the sky,” he said in a statement.

Trump’s two-week deadline could be a ploy

Al Jazeera’s senior analyst Marwan Bishara says Trump may still carry out strikes on Iran within the two-week deadline that his spokesperson just announced. “He could actually use that as a pretext in order to camouflage whatever his intentions are and attack tomorrow,” Bishara said.

Trump had renewed commitment to diplomacy with Iran hours before the Israeli strikes began last week.

Bishara said the US president could also be pausing his decision to allow talks between Iranian and European officials tomorrow and see where they may lead. “If one has to over-interpret, I would say the following: He’s giving the Europeans some time so that everyone could save face,” he said.

'Aid being deliberately engineered' to displace Palestinians, NGO says

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 72 people on Thursday, including 21 who had gathered near aid distribution sites as famine looms after more than 20 months of war. Speaking on FRANCE 24, Super-Novae NGO president Alexandre Chatillon says that 'aid is being deliberately engineered' to drive a population to a small area and allow Israel to keep control of northern Gaza.

Israel’s ‘self-damning outrage’ over hospital bombing called out

Social media responds to Israeli hypocrisy on Iran strikes

Pro-Israel accounts on social media rushed to condemn Iranian strikes on Israeli civilians — but users were quick to expose the hypocrisy: those same accounts had cheered similar attacks on Palestinian civilians for nearly two years.

Iran-backed Shiite militia in Iraq vows to attack US regional bases if Trump decides to enter conflict

An Iran-backed powerful Shiite militia in Iraq vowed on Thursday to attack US military bases in the Middle East if the Trump administration enters the Israel-Iran conflict.

“We reaffirm, with even greater clarity, that should the United States enter into this war, the deranged (US President Donald) Trump shall forfeit all the trillions he dreams of seizing from this region. Operational plans have been established for that purpose,” Abu Ali al-Askari, the security leader of Kataib Hezbollah, said in a statement today.

“Undoubtedly, American bases throughout the region will become akin to duck-hunting grounds,” the statement added.

Al-Askari also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, as well as the narrow Bab-el-Mandeb waterway leading into the Red Sea from the south. He went on to say that “oil ports along the Red Sea will cease operation — not to mention the unforeseen surprises that may await its aircraft in the skies.”

Hezbollah chief says group stands with Iran

Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Naim Qassem has broken his silence, releasing a lengthy statement expressing support for Iran against Israeli attacks and US threats.

He said Trump’s suggestion that the US could assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is an “aggression” against all the people of the region.

Despite its deep ties with Iran, Hezbollah has been sitting on the sidelines since the start of the Israeli assault. Weakened by its devastating war with Israel last year, the group has not activated the Lebanese front.

“We, in Hezbollah and the Islamic Resistance, are not neutral between the legitimate and independent rights of Iran and America’s malevolence and its aggression with the cancerous tumour, Israel,” Qassem said.

The statement left the door open for a possible intervention by Hezbollah, saying that the group will do “what it sees appropriate” to confront “this heinous American-Israeli aggression”.

Iranian official suggests Israel’s plan for Iran failed

Senior Iranian official Mohsen Rezaee says Israel aimed to create chaos in the country by killing top military leaders, but the plan was repelled.

“In the next stage, it intended to turn Iran into Syria and plunge it into a 10-year insecurity,” Rezaee said.

Israeli attacks kill 92 Palestinians in Gaza so far today

At least 92 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza on Thursday so far, Palestinian health officials say.

Today’s death toll includes 64 people killed in Gaza City and the north of the Strip, as well as 16 killed while seeking aid near the Netzarim Corridor in northern Gaza.

Main events on June 19th

• The White House has said US President Donald Trump will make a decision on whether the US will join in the Israel-Iran conflict in the next two weeks.
• Israel and Iran exchanged fire for a seventh consecutive day, with Israel’s military saying it bombed dozens of sites across Iran, including the Arak heavy-water nuclear reactor.
• Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639 people and wounded 1,329 others, according to the Washington-based human rights group, Human Rights Activists.
• More than 250 Israelis were injured in a volley of dozens of Iranian missiles, including four in critical condition, with the Soroka medical centre in the southern city of Beersheba among the structures hit.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not exclude the possibility of targeting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after Defence Minister Israel Katz said “eliminating” Iran’s supreme leader is one of the country’s war goals.
• Israeli forces have continued their attacks on Gaza, with health authorities reporting at least 92 deaths on Thursday, including 16 Palestinians gunned down while waiting for food assistance near the Netzarim Corridor.

Israeli military continues attacks across Iran

The Israeli military has continued to attack targets across Iran over recent hours. Incidents include:

Israeli General RAGEQUITS Interview After Being Caught LYING

He Pushed for War with Iran—Now Netanyahu’s Trapped by It

China’s Xi tells Putin that Beijing, Moscow should push for a ceasefire

During a call this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russian President Vladimir Putin that their most “urgent task” is to push for a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.

Xi said the “parties to the conflict, especially Israel, should cease hostilities as soon as possible to prevent the situation from spiralling further and to avoid the spread of war”, according to a Chinese readout of the call.

“Major countries with special influence on the parties to the conflict” – a possible reference to the US – should work to stop the conflict and not extend it, Xi said, and only “dialogue and negotiations” will end the fighting.

Notably absent from Xi’s talking points were any remarks on who was at fault for instigating the conflict.

Beijing was more explicit during a call between chief diplomat Wang Yi and the foreign minister of Oman this week, where Israel’s attack on Iran was described as a violation of “international law and norms” and a threat to Iran’s sovereignty.

US rivals – China, Russia – would welcome Trump’s intervention in Iran, another ‘long war’

While China’s chief concern may be keeping Iran’s oil pipelines open and regional trade and investment flowing, it would also benefit indirectly from a US intervention, said Australia National University’s Alam Saleh who spoke to Al Jazeera earlier.

“If they intervene, that will make China and Russia very happy. They wish for the United States to get involved with an open-ended, long war with a country which is relatively strong. Iran is not the Houthis in Yemen, it’s not the Taliban in Afghanistan, and – of course – it’s not Syria or Iraq,” he said.

“If the United States intervenes, [China and Russia] will try to prolong this war by a kind of support for Iran, to keep it alive, to fight, to prostrate the United States for another few years in the region at least,” he said.

“However, they will not intervene or interfere directly.”

Well Russia can't and China is happy to see the US grind itself down. The silver lining is that WW3 is still unlikely. Whatever happens next will be mostly contained in the ME with China and Russia using Iran as a proxy battleground :/ Not all that different from how US has kinda used Ukraine to weaken Russia. Enough support to keep Ukraine alive, not enough for a decisive victory repelling the invaders.

Tens of thousands gather in Iraq in support of Iran

Thousands of Iraqis have gathered for Friday prayers in Baghdad’s Sadr City, chanting against the US and Israel amid the attacks on Iran, according to footage posted online.

Sadr City, also known as Revolution City, is a suburb of the Iraqi capital and has an estimated population of more than one million, mostly Shia Muslims. The area was named after the populist Shia and militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, who is known as a close ally of Iran’s ruling religious leaders and a fierce US critic.

Iran’s foreign minister in Geneva ‘to listen’, not negotiate

Abbas Araghchi is in Geneva for a meeting with his counterparts from France, Germany and the United Kingdom, as Israel continues its strikes across the country. Iranians are saying that, first, they’re not going to negotiate while those strikes continue, and that, second, they’re going to strike back and continue with their retaliatory measures.

Araghchi has said, first of all, he is there to listen to what the Europeans have to say – he is not there for negotiations as long as the strikes continue. But at the same time, the Iranians are trying to send out a message that they’re not closing the door to the possibility of diplomacy, and that’s the fundamental reason for Araghchi being in Geneva.

He’s said Iran’s missile programme is not going to be negotiable while we’re being targeted on a daily basis. While Iran is trying to keep the door open to diplomacy, the chance for a diplomatic trajectory to get a tangible achievement looks really low from an Iranian perspective.

You have to keep in mind that Iran was already in the middle of a diplomatic conversation with the Americans, with the sixth round of talks scheduled before they were disrupted by the Israeli strikes.

Iran defending itself against ‘barbaric’ aggression: Foreign minister

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has just spoken at the United Nations in Geneva. Here is a summary of what he said:

Geneva talks should demand complete rollback of Iran nuclear programme: Israeli envoy

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva says he expects European foreign ministers to demand a complete rollback of Iran’s nuclear programme during their meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Daniel Meron, was commenting on the talks between Araghchi and the foreign ministers of Germany, France and the UK, as well as EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, taking place today in Geneva.

Araghchi has said he is not prepared to hold negotiations with any party while Israel strikes his country, and that Iran’s missile programme is non-negotiable.