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The Israeli strike on a military base near the Iranian city of Isfahan was part of a cycle of retaliation that has alarmed world leaders, but it produced a largely muted response from both on Friday. Television networks and some officials in both countries played down the significance of the strike, which Israeli and Iranian officials confirmed. In Israel, officials described the strike as a limited response designed to avoid escalating tensions. Pundits on the country’s morning news shows said the strike did not appear to cause significant damage to military sites in Iran. In one video that was widely shared online Friday, a girl throws a paper airplane at an apartment building and compares it to the Israeli strike, giggling as the folded paper hits the concrete structure.

Persons: Israel, ” Dana Weiss, General Siavash Mihandoust, Itamar Ben, Tally Gotliv, ” Organizations: ., State, Israel Channel, Israel, National, Likud Locations: Iranian, Isfahan, Syria, Israel, Iran, “ Israel, Brig

is a reporter for The New York Times based in New York. Previously she was a senior writer and war correspondent for the Wall Street Journal for 17 years based in the Middle East.

Organizations: The New York Times, Wall Street Locations: New York

Iran vowed to retaliate, raising fears of even deeper regional turmoil rippling out from the war in Gaza. It was the latest of roughly 140 such rocket and missile strikes against U.S. troops based in Iraq and Syria over the past several months. Across the region, a dizzying array of strikes and counterstrikes risk spinning the conflict into a wider war. In the last week alone, the list of attacks and reprisals has been long and daunting: Iran fired missiles toward Iraq, Syria and Pakistan; Pakistan responded by striking Iranian territory. Turkey hit Kurdish targets in northern Iraq and Syria; Hamas fired rockets toward Israel; Israel continued to pound southern Gaza and struck southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah militants have fired rockets toward Israel in recent months.

Persons: Israel Organizations: U.S Locations: Iran, Israel, Damascus, Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Turkey, Lebanon, Yemen, Aden, United

☆ World Food Program Staff Confronts Cindy McCain Over Gaza Crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Farnaz Fassihi | More About Farnaz Fassihi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As the truce in the Israel-Hamas war was ending on Thursday, Cindy McCain, the executive director of the United Nations’ World Food Program, met virtually with her staff to address an internal uproar over accusations that she was not leveraging her position to speak out against the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Many of the global staff members who gathered were angered by her refusal to publicly call for a cease-fire, and there was a growing demand for her removal. In a video of the meeting shared with The New York Times, several employees read statements sharply criticizing Ms. McCain for being tone-deaf to staff concerns. “You were not here for us — with all due respect, you have failed us,” a woman speaking from Gaza on behalf of Palestinian staff members not present at the meeting says in the video. An annual prize in public service named after her late husband, Senator John McCain, was awarded to the “People of Israel.”

Persons: Cindy McCain, McCain, ”, Ehud Barak, John McCain Organizations: United Nations, Food, The New York Times, United, ” Staff, “ Locations: Israel, Gaza, United Nations, Halifax , Nova Scotia

☆ U.N. Security Council Calls for Dayslong Humanitarian Pauses in Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Farnaz Fassihi | More About Farnaz Fassihi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Wednesday calling for immediate and urgent dayslong humanitarian pauses in the Israel-Hamas war to allow desperately needed aid to reach civilians in Gaza. The resolution passed with twelve votes, with the remaining three members — the United States, Britain and Russia — abstaining. The majority of Security Council member states, voted for a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire on Oct 26. But she said the United States supported many of the resolution’s provisions such as the release of hostages and humanitarian pauses. “We are hopeful that humanitarian pauses will help the U.N. and humanitarian partners deliver aid and enable the safe passage of civilians fleeing violence.”

Persons: Russia —, Linda Thomas, Greenfield, Ms, Thomas, ” Organizations: United Nations Security Council, Diplomats, Security Locations: Israel, Gaza, Malta, United States, Britain, Russia, U.S

Narges Mohammadi, the imprisoned Iranian human rights activist who won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, began a hunger strike on Monday, after she was denied hospital treatment for two blocked coronary arteries, her family said. Last week, she refused to cover her hair with the mandatory hijab when prison authorities wanted to transport her to a hospital. In response, they told her she would not be released for medical care, according to her husband, Taghi Rahmani. “We are extremely worried, there is a history of prisoners dying in prison after hunger strikes,” Mr. Rahmani said in an interview. “Her life is in danger.”

Persons: Narges Mohammadi, Mohammadi, Taghi, ” Mr, Rahmani, “

☆ After Years of Vowing to Destroy Israel, Iran Faces a Dilemma
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Farnaz Fassihi | More About Farnaz Fassihi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For more than four decades, Iran’s rulers have pledged to destroy Israel. Iranian military commanders gloat over training and arming groups across the region that are enemies of Israel, including Hezbollah and Hamas. And when Hamas conducted the Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel that killed 1,400 people, Iranian officials praised it as a momentous achievement, shattering the Jewish state’s sense of security. “I want to reiterate that we are not pursuing the spreading of this war,” Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, said in a recent interview at Iran’s mission to the United Nations. But, he added, “The region is at a boiling point and any moment it may explode and this may be unavoidable.

Persons: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ”, Nasser Imani, Hossein Amir Abdollahian Organizations: Hamas, United Nations Locations: Israel, Iran, Gaza, Tehran, “, New York

The prisoner swap was all arranged, or so the American negotiators thought. After years of painstaking negotiations with Iran, secretly mediated by Persian Gulf nations, top aides to President Biden had finally struck a deal on June 6 that would free four Americans held in one of Iran’s most notorious prisons. In exchange, the United States would unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue and drop charges against Iranians accused of violating U.S. sanctions. The U.S. negotiators knew there could still be last-minute hiccups, but things were moving forward. that Iran had seized another American citizen, a retired woman from California who was doing aid work in Afghanistan.

Persons: Biden Organizations: U.S, White Locations: Iran, Persian Gulf, United States, Tehran, California, Afghanistan

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, denouncing Russia’s “unprovoked aggression,” told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that if it did not break the grip of Russian veto power, it would be powerless to resolve conflicts around the world, adding his voice to the rising calls to reform how the body works. “Ukrainian soldiers are doing with their blood what the U.N. Security Council should do by its voting,” Mr. Zelensky said on Wednesday, arguing that “veto power in the hands of the aggressor is what has pushed the U.N. into deadlock.”Mr. Zelensky’s appearance before the council helped make it the highest-level direct confrontation over the invasion of Ukraine, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia and his American counterpart, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, taking the seats normally occupied by their ambassadors and stating their countries’ cases. Mr. Lavrov and Mr. Zelensky did not cross paths — the Russian did not enter the hall until after the Ukrainian had spoken and left — in a bit of choreography that reflected a session in which the two talked past each other.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia’s, ”, ” Mr, Zelensky, Mr, Sergey Lavrov, Russia, Antony J, Blinken, Lavrov Organizations: . Security Locations: Ukraine

The entire world has a vested interest in helping defeat the Russian invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, casting his appeal for more allies and aid as a matter of security — even survival — for many other nations. Delivering one of the most anticipated speeches of the annual gathering of world leaders, Mr. Zelensky painted Russia as a habitual aggressor, citing Moscow’s military interventions in Moldova, Georgia and Syria, its increased control over Belarus and its threats against the Baltic States. “The goal of the present war against Ukraine is to turn our land, our people, our lives, our resources, into a weapon against you, against the international rules-based order,” he said. Almost 19 months into a war with no end in sight, U.N. leaders had signaled that they wanted this year’s General Assembly, which began on Tuesday, to center on global warming and the sustainable development of poorer countries. They were hoping for less of a focus on Ukraine than last year, when Mr. Zelensky addressed the gathering by video.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, “, ” Organizations: General, Assembly Locations: Russian, Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Georgia, Syria, Belarus, Baltic States

The Americans took off in a plane from Tehran just before 9 a.m. Eastern time and were expected to fly to Doha, the capital of Qatar. Officials said that they would be given brief medical checkups before flying to Washington on a U.S. government plane. Several of the Iranian American prisoners, who hold dual citizenship, had been moved from the notorious Evin prison to a hotel last month, according to officials at the State Department and the National Security Council. The U.S. government had deemed the five wrongfully detained. Their release comes after more than two years of quiet negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

Organizations: Iranian, White House, Officials, State Department, National Security Council Locations: Iran, Tehran, Doha, Qatar, Washington, U.S

☆ U.N. to Meet Amid Growing Divisions, and Demands From the Global South
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Farnaz Fassihi | More About Farnaz Fassihi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The United Nations General Assembly convenes on Tuesday in the shadow of the second year of war in Ukraine, amid a series of climate related catastrophes and at a time of increasing divisions in the world that will hamper efforts to address the litany of problems contributing to the strains. Underscoring the tensions, only President Joe Biden among the leaders of the five nations of the Security Council — the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain — will attend the meeting. This year’s gathering was planned with an eye to growing demands from the nations of the “global south,” an informal group of developing and underdeveloped countries. They have been frustrated by the world’s attention on the conflict in Ukraine while their crises have received minimal attention and funding, diplomats said. Responding to those demands, the U.N. has scheduled discussions during the General Assembly on climate change, sovereign debt relief and ways to help struggling countries reach the U.N.’s development goals on prosperity, health, development, education and gender equality.

Persons: Joe Biden, Britain —, Volodymyr Zelensky Organizations: United Nations, Security Locations: Ukraine, United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, Assembly

☆ ‘An Innocent and Ordinary Young Woman’
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( Farnaz Fassihi | More About Farnaz Fassihi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Her face has lit up a billboard in Times Square, and been painted on murals in Paris and Berlin. It has been splashed on the Barcelona soccer team’s private jet and commemorated on T-shirts with the red, white and green colors of Iran’s flag. At rallies across Iran and the world last year, tens of thousand of men and women waved placards with her face shouting, “Say her name: Mahsa Amini. Her death in Tehran ignited monthslong protests nationwide, led by women and girls who tossed off their head scarves in defiance and demanded the end to the Islamic Republic’s rule. The uprising bearing her name, the “Mahsa movement,” morphed into the most serious challenge to the legitimacy of Iran’s ruling clerics since they took power in 1979.

Persons: “, Mahsa, ”, Iran’s Organizations: Barcelona soccer Locations: Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Los Angeles, Iran, Saghez, Kurdish, Tehran

☆ As Anniversary of Women’s Uprising Nears, Iran Cracks Down
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Farnaz Fassihi | More About Farnaz Fassihi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The professor of artificial intelligence was a rising star at Iran’s elite Sharif University of Technology. He gained wider fame for his vocal support of the women-led uprising that rocked Iran last year. At one point, he refused to teach until Sharif students arrested in the government’s crackdown against protesters were released. The purging of academics like Mr. Sharifi Zarchi is part of a wide and intensifying crackdown by the government before the anniversary of the start of the uprising this month. In the past few weeks, Iran has arrested women’s rights activists, students, ethnic minorities, an outspoken cleric, journalists, singers and family members of protesters killed by security agents.

Persons: Ali Sharifi Zarchi, Sharifi, “ Organizations: University of Technology, Amnesty Locations: Iran

☆ Joining BRICS, Iran Shrugs Off Outcast Status in the West
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Farnaz Fassihi | More About Farnaz Fassihi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Over the past 12 months, Iran has lurched from crisis to crisis. An uprising led by women and young people seeking an end to clerical rule reverberated across the nation. And the prospect of a nuclear deal with the United States appeared ever more dim. Although joining BRICS is not expected to help solve Iran’s formidable economic problems, the primary benefit of joining the group, experts say, would be to prove that Tehran has powerful friends. That could give it leverage in any further negotiations with the United States.

Organizations: United States, BRICS, Analysts Locations: Iran, United, Islamic Republic, Tehran, United States

Dozens of countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, a group encompassing Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa that views itself as a counterweight to the West, and is meeting this week in Johannesburg. Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are thought to be among those most likely to be admitted. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India is said to be concerned about adding nations close to Beijing; India and China have border disputes and tend to consider each other potential adversaries. Here is a look at some of the nations vying to join. Saudi ArabiaThe addition to BRICS of Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s leading oil producers, would add economic clout to the group and bolster its chances of positioning itself as a rival to the U.S.-led financial order.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi Locations: BRICS, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Johannesburg, Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Beijing, U.S

The large crowd of men congregated at the center of a mosque in the central city of Yazd, clad in black and beating their chests rhythmically in unison. They were commemorating Ashura, Shia Islam’s most sacred ritual, showcased annually with great fanfare in Iran as a testament to the Shiite theocracy’s power and strength. The mourners who gathered in Yazd last month and in many other cities across Iran diverged unexpectedly from the script to target the clerical rulers of Iran, turning religious ballads into protest songs about the suffering of Iranians. Oh rain, oh storm, come. They have set fire to our tent.”In Kermanshah, a Kurdish city in western Iran, a religious vocalist known as a maddah stood on the street, microphone in hand, singing about officials “stealing and devouring” resources away from desolate people.

Persons: Ashura Locations: Yazd, Iran, Kermanshah, Kurdish

☆ Americans Held Prisoner in Iran Saw Promise of Better Relations
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Farnaz Fassihi | More About Farnaz Fassihi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When Siamak Namazi traveled to Tehran in the summer of 2015, Iran had just signed a landmark nuclear deal and the government was encouraging expatriates to return home and bring their expertise and dollars. So the 51-year-old Iranian American businessman flew from his home in Dubai to visit his parents and attend a funeral in Iran. But he was arrested and charged with “collaborating with a hostile government” — an allusion to the United States — and eventually became the longest-held American citizen that Iran has acknowledged imprisoning. In January, he went on a hunger strike for seven days to bring attention to his ordeal. On Thursday Mr. Namazi, along with four other dual national Iranian Americans, became part of a prisoner swap deal between Iran and the U.S.

Persons: Siamak Namazi, ”, United States —, Namazi Organizations: Mr, Iranian Locations: Tehran, Iran, Dubai, United States, U.S

One other prisoner, an American woman, had been released into house arrest earlier, according to several people familiar with the arrangements. “But there are simply no guarantees about what happens from here.”He said the Americans were told they would be held at the hotel under guard by Iranian officials. Biden administration officials declined to comment or to confirm details about what Iran will get in return. But the people familiar with the agreement said that when the Americans are allowed to return to the United States, the Biden administration will release a handful of Iranian nationals serving prison sentences for violating sanctions on Iran. The United States will also transfer nearly $6 billion of Iran’s assets in South Korea, putting the funds into an account in the central bank of Qatar, according to the people familiar with the deal.

Persons: Genser, Mr, ”, Biden, United States — Organizations: Evin, United, State Department Locations: Iran, Tehran, American, United States, South Korea, Qatar

U.S. officials have repeatedly denied that they reached any nuclear “deal” with Iran after indirect talks held in Oman earlier this year. Two senior Israeli defense officials said the deal involving the prisoners and the frozen funds is part of the broader understandings reached in Oman. Mr. Rome said the Biden administration likely hopes that formal nuclear talks organized by the European Union could restart later this year. The negotiations, aimed at restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear deal from which President Donald J. Trump withdrew in 2018, collapsed last summer amid what U.S. officials called unacceptable Iranian demands. But Mr. Rome added the Biden administration was unlikely to want a new nuclear agreement ahead of the 2024 election, given the issue’s political volatility.

Persons: Rome, Biden, Donald J, Trump, renege Organizations: U.S, European Union Locations: Iran, United States, Iraq, Syria, Oman, Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, European

☆ Iran Orders Nationwide Shutdown Because of ‘Unprecedented’ Heat
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Farnaz Fassihi | More About Farnaz Fassihi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Iran on Tuesday announced a two-day public holiday in response to “unprecedented” heat, ordering all government agencies, banks and schools to shut down, an unusual move prompted by soaring temperatures that threatened public health and strained the country’s power grid. The nationwide shutdown will run from Wednesday to Thursday, as temperatures exceeded 123 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) in some southwestern cities. Iran’s soccer league also canceled all games in the next few days because of the heat. “Given the unprecedented heat in the coming days and to protect public health, the cabinet has agreed with the Health Ministry’s recommendation for a nationwide shutdown on Wednesday and Thursday,” Ali Bahadori Jahromi, the government spokesman, said in a post on Twitter. Temperatures were well above 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday in more than a dozen Iranian cities, and in the capital, Tehran, they were expected to reach 102 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 39 degrees Celsius) in the coming days, according to Iran’s metrological organization.

Persons: ” Ali Bahadori Jahromi, Iran’s Organizations: Tuesday, Iranian Health Ministry, Twitter Locations: Iran, Tehran

Russia barraged Ukrainian ports for the fourth night in a row on Friday, striking granaries in Odesa and mounting a show of naval force on the Black Sea in a deepening showdown that imperils a vital part of the global food supply. The Kremlin this week withdrew from a year-old agreement that allows ships carrying food from Ukrainian ports to bypass a Russian blockade, and began a concentrated bombardment of facilities used to ship grain and cooking oil across the Black Sea. The Russian military warned that any vessels attempting to reach Ukraine would be treated as hostile, and their nations “will be considered to be involved in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of the Kyiv regime.”On Friday, Russia conducted naval exercises in the northwestern Black Sea — the part near the coastline Ukraine still holds — backing up the suggestion that it could seize or destroy cargo ships of noncombatant nations. Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that a missile boat fired anti-ship cruise missiles and destroyed a “mock target” vessel, while ships and planes of the Black Sea Fleet “practiced isolating an area temporarily closed to navigation” and conducted a drill “to apprehend a mock intruder ship.”Missile strikes around dawn destroyed 100 tons of peas and 20 tons of barley at the port in Odesa, according to Oleg Kiper, the head of the regional military administration. That came two days after an attack on a port just outside Odesa destroyed 60,000 tons of grain to be loaded onto ships, the government said — enough to feed more than 270,000 people for a year, according to the World Food Program.

Persons: ”, Oleg Kiper Organizations: Russia’s Defense Ministry, Black, ”, World Food Locations: Russia, Odesa, Russian, Ukraine, Kyiv, Black

☆ U.N. Officials Urge Regulation of Artificial Intelligence
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Farnaz Fassihi | More About Farnaz Fassihi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The U.N. Security Council for the first time held a session on Tuesday on the threat that artificial intelligence poses to international peace and stability, and Secretary General António Guterres called for a global watchdog to oversee a new technology that has raised at least as many fears as hopes. Mr. Guterres warned that A.I. On Tuesday, diplomats and leading experts in the field of A.I. laid out for the Security Council the risks and threats — along with the scientific and social benefits — of the new emerging technology. Much remains unknown about the technology even as its development speeds ahead, they said.

Persons: General António Guterres, Guterres, — Organizations: . Security, Security

The agreement, known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, was struck a year ago, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, to alleviate a global food crisis after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia had blockaded Ukrainian ports, blocking ships from carrying its grain and sending global prices soaring to record highs. The deal has been extended three times, most recently in May. Russia has repeatedly complained about the agreement, which it calls one-sided in Ukraine’s favor. Moscow has said that Western sanctions, imposed because of Moscow’s devastating war, have restricted the sale of Russia’s agricultural products, and Moscow has sought guarantees that free up those exports.

Persons: upending, António Guterres, “, Vladimir V, Putin, Mr Organizations: Initiative, United, United Nations Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Africa, United Nations, Turkey, Ukrainian, Ukraine’s, Moscow

When a renowned Iranian artist hosted friends at his apartment in Tehran last month, he served, as he did often, a bottle of homemade aragh, a traditional Iranian vodka distilled from raisins, that he had secured from a trusted dealer. His guests and his partner did not drink that evening, so he raised shot glasses to them and drank alone. Within a few hours, the artist, Khosrow Hassanzadeh, 60, felt his vision blur. By the next morning, his sight was gone, he was delirious and short of breath. He was rushed to a hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with methanol poisoning from the aragh, according to his partner, Shahrzad Afrashteh.

Persons: Khosrow Hassanzadeh, Shahrzad Afrashteh Locations: Iranian, Tehran

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