China urges Iran and Pakistan to exercise restraint following air strike

According to AFP, China on Wednesday has urged Pakistan and Iran to show restraint, after Islamabad denounced what it described as the unprovoked violation of its airspace by Iran.

According to a statement released by the Foreign Office (FO) after midnight, strikes in Pakistani territory resulted in deaths of two innocent children while injuring of three girls.

While the Pakistan FO did not mention the location of the incident, Iranian state media said the attack took place in the border town of Panjgur in Balochistan.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said the focal point of this operation was the region known as Kouh-Sabz (green mountain) in Balochistan.

“Two key strongholds of the Jaysh al-Dhulm (Jaish al-Adl) terrorist group in Pakistan were specifically targeted and successfully demolished by a combination of missile and drone attacks”, the Tasnim news agency said.

Reports from the area suggested that a missile hit a mosque, partially damaging it and injuring some people.

According to AFP, hours before the attack, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar had met Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Iran offered no immediate official comment but its state-run Nour News agency said the attack destroyed the Pakistan headquarters of the Jaish al-Adl.

Speaking at a regular briefing today, China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said, “We call on both sides to exercise restraint, avoid actions that would lead to an escalation of tension and work together to maintain peace and stability.”

“We consider both Iran and Pakistan as close neighbours and major Islamic countries,” she added.

It must be noted that both Iran and Pakistan are close partners of Beijing and members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation — a political and security union of countries spanning much of Eurasia, including China, India and Russia.

‘Unacceptable and condemnable’

In a post on social media platform X, caretaker Balochistan Information Minister Jan Achakzai expressed disappointment and said terrorism was a common threat to all countries in the region that required coordinated action.

“Such acts of air space violations by Iran undermine neighbourly relation, trust and renewed trade linkages established with Balochistan,” he added.

Pakistan has acted with restraint whenever there’s been turbulence on the Pak-Iran border by terrorist groups, and always sought collective responses to the transnational challenge of terrorism.

Last month, at least 11 Iranian police officers were killed in an attack overnight on a police station in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan. Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, while visiting the site, had urged Pakistan to prevent terrorist groups from establishing bases within its borders, the official news agency of Iran reported at the time. He had also noted that initial investigations suggested the assailants had entered Iran from Pakistan.

 

Democrats send Biden stern message on Gaza

A group of Senate Democrats voted Tuesday in favor of advancing a resolution sponsored by Bernie Sanders to potentially freeze US military aid to Israel, sending a pointed message to President Biden that the war in Gaza is becoming a major problem for his party, reports The Hill.

The Senate voted 72 to 11 to table the matter, but the number of Democrats who supported the measure reflects rising dissatisfaction among progressives over the civilian casualties in Gaza, which are now said to exceed 24,000. Liberals are also frustrated over the lack of a clear timeline for ending the war. 

Nine Democrats voted with Sanders, as did Rand Paul a frequent critic of US foreign aid.  

Sanders, the Senate’s leading critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’ handling of the siege and invasion of Gaza, says it’s immoral.  

On Tuesday he pounded his colleagues over the mounting death toll and the extensive use of American-supplied bombs and artillery shells in what had been heavily populated civilian areas.

“Whether we like it or not, the United States is complicit in the nightmare that millions of Palestinians are now experiencing,” he declared on the Senate floor, warning that hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza are starving right before our eyes.

He cited media reports that Israel dropped more than 22,000 American-supplied bombs on Gaza in a six-week span, including 2,000-pound bombs that can destroy entire neighborhoods. 

Elizabeth Warren who voted to advance the resolution, said she wanted to send a message. 

“Prime Minister Netanyahu has to understand that he does not get a blank check from the United States Congress,” she said.

“We have a responsibility to stand up now and say that given how Netanyahu and his right-wing war Cabinet have prosecuted this war, we have serious questions that we are obligated to ask before we go further in our support.” 

She said while the Biden administration is pushing the Netanyahu regime to reduce civilian deaths and ratchet down the intensity of the fighting, “Congress [has] a role here to play as well to make sure that Mr. Netanyahu understands we’re not writing blank checks.”  

The other Democrats who voted for the resolution were Laphonza Butler, Martin Heinrich, Mazie Hirono, Ben Ray Luján, Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley, Chris Van Hollen and Peter Welch.  

A group of progressive Democrats is also looking at attaching conditions to US military aid to Israel.  

Greek vessel hit by missile in Red Sea

A Malta-flagged, Greek-owned vessel has been hit with a missile in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, maritime security firm Ambrey reports It is thought to be the third incident involving the bulk carrier, believed to be named Zografia, in 24 hours.

Tuesday's incident comes as the US military announced it had seized Iranian-supplied weapons bound for the Houthis during an operation last week. Meanwhile, the US has hit more targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

An official told CBS, the BBC's American partner, that the US conducted further strikes on Houthi positions overnight.

The US and UK launched a wave of airstrikes against dozens of Houthi targets on Januart 11 following attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.

The Houthis have vowed to retaliate and on Sunday the US said it had shot down a missile fired towards one of its warships from a Houthi area of Yemen.

Several vessels have been targeted by the movement's fighters since November in protest at Israel's war with Hamas.

The Houthis say they are targeting vessels which are Israeli-owned, flagged or operated, or are heading to Israeli ports.

The Red Sea connects the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal but several shipping lines have announced they are now diverting round the Cape of Good Hope to reach Europe instead.

The US said on Tuesday that analysis from the weapons it seized from a ship near the Yemen coast suggested the Houthis had been using the same kind of weapons in their Red Sea attacks.

"This is the first seizure of lethal, Iranian-supplied advanced conventional weapons (ACW) to the Houthis since the beginning of Houthi attacks against merchant ships in November 2023," US Central Command said in a statement.

US and British forces no longer can pass Bab el-Mandeb Strait, declares Yemen

Yemen  has declared that the US and British forces can no longer pass through the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait as tensions grow in the region following US-led military strikes.

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the political bureau of the Ansarullah resistance movement, issued the warning on Monday after the United States and its allies bombed Yemen amid frustration with anti-Israel naval operations in the Red Sea.

He said that the Yemeni armed forces are developing their missile capabilities to bring new surprises soon.

“The American and British forces can no longer pass through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait,” a sea route chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and by extension the Indian Ocean, he added.

“The Axis of Resistance has regained control over the region. The Americans will regret their acts of aggression against Yemen and they will be a loser.”

The US and Britain, backed by Bahrain, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands, struck more than 60 targets at almost 30 locations in Yemen on Friday, killing five people and injuring six others.

On Saturday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said that a follow-on action was conducted against a Yemeni radar facility by the Navy destroyer USS Carney using Tomahawk land attack missiles.

Bukhaiti said that the Yemeni forces are capable of confronting the Americans and that they will block the passage of US and Israeli ships through the Red Sea.

Earlier on Monday, the Yemeni forces hit a US-owned container ship with a ballistic missile off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden.

Centcom said that the attack on the Gibraltar Eagle caused no injuries or significant damage and that the vessel is continuing its journey.

The operation occurred two hours after another ballistic missile was fired toward the southern Red Sea.

Brigadier General Yahya Saree, spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, said all American and British ships and warships participating in the aggression are hostile targets.

The US has offered untrammeled support for Israel during the onslaught that has so far killed more than 24,100 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 60,834 others.

In solidarity with the Palestinians in besieged Gaza, the Yemeni armed forces have targeted ships in the Red Sea with owners linked to Israel or those going to and from ports in the occupied territories.

In response, the US has formed a military coalition against Yemeni forces in the Red Sea and endangered maritime navigation in the strategic waterway.

  

Iran strikes Mossad center in Iraqi Kurdistan

According to Tehran Times, on early Tuesday morning the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) fired barrages of ballistic missiles at Syrian positions of terrorists who were involved in the recent attacks inside Iran, as well as an Israeli Mossad espionage center in the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

The IRGC said the first missile strike targeted gathering places of commanders and main elements of recent terrorist attacks in the Iranian cities of Kerman and Rask.

The strike came after gathering points of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group were identified in the occupied territories of Syria and destroyed with a number of ballistic missiles, the IRGC stated.

Daesh claimed responsibility for two suicide attacks that killed nearly 100 people and wounded 280 at a memorial service for top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in the southeastern city of Kerman on January 03.

Last month, another terrorist attack hit a police station in the border city of Rask in the southeastern province of Sistan-Balouchestan, killing 11 police officers and injuring at least six others.

In a statement the IRGC announced that another missile strike has been launched at a main espionage center of the Israel's Mossad spy agency in the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

It said the strike was a sign of the IRGC’s full intelligence superiority over the Zionist regime's bases and activities in the region, Press TV reported.

The IRGC added that its missile strike on the Iraqi Kurdistan region has totally destroyed the Mossad center there.

The Mossad center was used to develop espionage operations and plan acts of terrorism across the region, especially in Iran, the IRGC said in its statement. 

The missile strike against the Mossad center, the statement said, was in retaliation for the recent assassinations of the resistance front’s commanders, especially those of the IRGC, by Israel.

General Seyed Razi Mousavi, a member of the IRGC serving as a military adviser in Syria, was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in a residential neighborhood in the suburbs of Damascus on December 25, 2023.

The IRGC also assured the Iranian nation that it will find the malicious terrorist groups that are active against Iran wherever they are and will punish them for their shameful deeds.

 

Iran registers highest oil output rise among OPEC members

A latest report released by the US Department of Energy stated that Iran has been the top OPEC member in terms of production increase in 2023, with an increase of 330,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) affiliated with the Department of Energy mentioned in its latest report that the total oil production of Iran was estimated at 2.87 million bpd at the end of 2023. Iran’s oil production stood at 2.54 million bpd in 2022.

The figures show that total OPEC oil production was 26.89 million bpd in 2023 which shows 630,000 barrels fall year on year. OPEC produced 27.52 million bpd in 2022.

This report has put Iran's oil production in the last month of last year at 3.17 million bpd.

Iran was the third-largest OPEC producer after Saudi Arabia and Iraq in December 2023.

The 330,000-bpd increase in Iran’s 2023 oil production indicates that sanctions have been ineffective on Iran's oil industry.

Back in June 2023, Bloomberg reported that the production and export of Iranian oil in 2023 reached record highs since the country came under US sanctions more than five years ago.

The report published in late June 2023 stated that Iran was shipping the highest amount of crude in almost five years despite US sanctions.

Bloomberg cited energy analysts as saying that Iran’s oil exports have surged to the highest level since the US unilaterally re-imposed sanctions on the country in 2018.

A Reuters report, also said in June last year, that Iranian crude shipments continued to rise in 2023 with higher shipments to China, Syria, and Venezuela. The report quoted consultants, shipping data, and a source familiar with the matter.

A large chunk of Iran’s crude oil goes to China which is the world’s major importer of energy. Several European customers including Germany, Spain, and Bulgaria also imported oil from Iran.

Iran has not released official figures about its oil exports over the past years amid efforts to evade Washington’s illegal sanctions.

 

Iran and India reach final agreement on Chabahar port development

Iran and India have reached the final agreement for the development of Iran’s southeastern Chabahar Port. The agreement to develop the strategic port was reached during a meeting between Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash and Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

In this meeting, the Iranian minister proposed the formation of a joint transportation committee to expand cooperation between the two sides and stated that the formation of this working committee will enable the activation of transit capacities and the use of the North-South corridor.

The Indian minister, for his part, emphasized his country's readiness for new investments in the fields of transportation and transit in Iran and invited the Iranian minister to visit India.

As Iran's only oceanic port on the Gulf of Oman, Chabahar Port holds great significance for the country both politically and economically. The country has taken serious measures for developing this port in order to improve the country’s maritime trade.

The port consists of Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti terminals, each of which has five berth facilities. The port is located in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan Province and is about 120 kilometers southwest of Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province, where the China-funded Gwadar port is situated.

In May 2016, India, Iran, and Afghanistan signed a trilateral agreement for the strategically-located Chabahar port to give New Delhi access to Kabul and Central Asia.

Later, based on a separate deal with Iran, India agreed to install and operate modern loading and unloading equipment including mobile harbor cranes in Shahid Beheshti Port in Chabahar.

Under the framework of the mentioned agreement, the Indian side has been operating in Shahid Beheshti port in the form of a build–operate–transfer (BOT) contract; this is the first time that such a contract has been implemented in one of the country's ports with 100 percent foreign investment.

The first consignment of Indian equipment for the development of port activities at Chabahar port worth US$8.5 million arrived in the southeastern port in January 2021.

Back in last July, India’s ambassador to Tehran said Iran’s southeastern Chabahar Port is a golden opportunity for India to expand its economic ties.

“Chabahar's position in the expansion of trade exchanges in West Asia, Eurasia, and even Europe is unique,” the envoy said during a visit to the port.