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Passengers wait at the departure terminal ground of Rafik Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday August 5 2024. Turkey and Japan became the latest countries to urge their citizens to leave Lebanon amid rising tensions
THE Middle East was poised for wider war today as tensions between Israel and countries it has attacked approaching boiling point.
US ally Jordan was reportedly seeking to dissuade Iran from retaliating to the murder in its capital of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, with whom Israel was supposedly negotiating a Gaza ceasefire.
Hezbollah, one of whose commanders was killed in an Israeli bombing of the Lebanese capital Beirut, fired two drones at an Israeli military base in response to recent “attacks and assassinations,” with two Israeli soldiers wounded, according to the Israeli Defence Forces.
Tehran retaliates with attacks on Israel, the Gulf Arab states and crude oil flows
History shows from Iraq to Libya, and now Iran, that regime-change fantasies rarely deliver stability — but they always deliver human and economic cost, says MARYAM ESLAMDOUST
While Trump praises the ‘successful’ attack on Iranian nuclear sites, the question arises as to the real motives behind this escalation. MARC VANDEPITTE explores the issues