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The Cradle is an online news magazine covering West Asian geopolitics from within.
❗️Gary Lineker, BBC’s highest-paid presenter, has left the British news company following a social media post he shared last week condemning Israel and Zionism. He shared someone else’s video that included an emoji of a rat, which is an old anti-Semitic trope.
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On this day last year, Iran announced the deaths of President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, alongside several other senior officials, following a fatal helicopter crash in the mountainous northwest region of the country.
The incident occurred on 19 May 2024, as their convoy was returning from a visit to the Azerbaijan border. After hours of uncertainty and a tense overnight search operation through dense fog and treacherous terrain, Iranian authorities confirmed the crash and their deaths on the morning of 20 May.
President Raisi, who served just under three years, left behind a legacy defined by loyalty, an assertive nuclear posture, and unflinching support for West Asia’s resistance movements, from Lebanon to Yemen. His presidency emphasized internal unity, strategic autonomy, and what has often been called “rational resistance” – a doctrine that blended deterrence with diplomacy. Raisi also spearheaded a decisive “Look East” policy that brought Iran into closer alignment with Russia and China, solidifying Tehran’s position within BRICS, the SCO, and the Eurasian Economic Union as part of a broader multipolar vision.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, revered as one of Iran’s most capable modern diplomats, was widely seen as the voice of the oppressed in global forums. Fluent in the language of both diplomacy and defiance, he reoriented Iran’s foreign policy by restoring ties with key regional players without compromising the Islamic Republic’s principles. A staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause and the Axis of Resistance, he was hailed in death as the “martyr of the resistance.” His tenure turned resistance into a structured regional alliance, and his diplomacy into a moral campaign against imperial injustice.
Though officially deemed an accident, the crash has continued to spark speculation in Iran and abroad, with many questioning whether Raisi and Amir-Abdollahian were, in fact, assassinated – victims of sabotage, and not a mechanical failure.
One year on, their deaths remain etched in memory, not merely for the tragedy, but for the legacy of steadfast resistance and diplomacy they carried to the very end.
France, UK, Canada threaten 'concrete actions' if Israel continues Gaza invasion
More than 18 months into the US-sponsored genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, Netanyahu's allies are urging him to halt his 'egregious actions'
Yemen adds Haifa port to target list in response to Israeli escalation in Gaza
Israel is carrying out a new operation to displace the entire population of Gaza, and has killed over 500 people in just a few days
❗️Israel has killed at least 67 Palestinians in attacks on the Gaza Strip since dawn today.
(Medical sources to Al Jazeera)
Israel allows five aid trucks into Gaza after 73-day blockade
The UN estimates 500 aid trucks a day are needed in Gaza as half a million Palestinians face starvation
❗️Israeli settlement of Harsha announces that Yossi Yehuda, a soldier from the army's combat engineering unit, was killed in the Gaza Strip earlier today. He is the son-in-law of Yehuda Eliyahu, head of the Settlement Administration at the Ministry of Defense.
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❗️The Palestinian Islamic Jihad's (PIJ) Quds Brigades reports that yesterday, its fighters successfully detonated a pre-planted field of barrel explosives targeting an Israeli military convoy that had advanced into the Abu Hadaf neighborhood in the al-Qarara area, northeast of Khan Yunis. The fighters confirmed the operation upon returning from the combat zone and observed a helicopter landing at the scene to evacuate dead and wounded soldiers.
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Israel Isolated? US and Europe Urge Restraint While Gaza Burns
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BREAKING | At least seven Palestinians were killed and others wounded in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a tent in Al-Mawasi area, southwest of Khan Yunis in south Gaza.
This brings the total number of Palestinians killed since dawn today to 91.
❗️Footage shows the aftermath of Israeli strikes on electricity generators in the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip.
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❗️Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi:
– Uranium enrichment in Iran will continue whether an agreement is reached or not and whether there are negotiations or not.
– An agreement can be reached to build confidence regarding the type of enrichment and ensure that the country does not pursue a nuclear weapon.
❗️Al-Manar correspondent:
"An Israeli enemy force consisting of infantry troops and a military bulldozer, protected by a Merkava tank, advanced toward Lebanese territory in Wadi Hunin."
❗️Israel Hayom, citing an EU source:
EU foreign ministers will discuss suspending the partnership agreement with Israel tomorrow.
❗️Israel Broadcasting Corporation (KAN):
"All participants in the secret operation in Khan Yunis, including those from the government, signed a confidentiality agreement regarding the details of the operation. In Israel, no details were discussed about what happened, and they maintained a very high level of secrecy."
❗️European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the EU will meet today to decide whether or not it will lift its sanctions on Syria. She also condemned Israel’s 'military operations' in Gaza, stating that the limited aid allowed into the strip is like "a drop in the ocean."
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❗️An Israeli drone strike in the southern Lebanese town of Al-Mansoureh failed to assassinate its target, injuring nine people, including two children, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
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❗️French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that Israel’s limited steps to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza fall short, cautioning that the renewed 'military offensive' must end or face repercussions.
"It (the situation) is unsustainable because the Israeli government's blind violence, the blocking of humanitarian aid have turned Gaza into a place for dying, not to say a cemetery," Barrot told France Inter radio today.
⭕️ Iran has received a proposal for a fifth round of nuclear negotiations with the United States and is currently reviewing it, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi.
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❗️A short while ago, Israeli warplanes launched a series of brutal raids and belts of fire on several areas east of Jabalia in northern Gaza.
Israel has not ceased its attacks on north, central, and southern Gaza.
BREAKING | Yemeni Armed Forces announces the start of a naval blockade on the port of Haifa.
"All companies with ships currently at or heading toward the aforementioned port (Haifa Port) are hereby informed that Haifa Port has from this moment become part of the target bank, and they must take the contents of this statement — and future ones — into full consideration."
❗️Gaza Ministry of Health:
– “ A complete power outage has struck the Indonesian Hospital after the occupation forces targeted the electric generators."
– “Targeting the electric generators means the hospital has entirely ceased operations."
– “Destroying electric generators in hospitals strikes at the core of healthcare services and effectively shuts down hospital operations in the Gaza Strip."
– “The Ministry of Health views the occupation’s systematic actions against hospitals with extreme seriousness and warns of catastrophic scenarios if the targeting of healthcare facilities continues."
❗️Chairman of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor Ramy Abdu:
"Out of five trucks that entered Gaza today, two were loaded with shrouds.
"White bags labeled “SHROUDS” in blue—this isn’t food, it’s preparation for mass death. Gaza isn’t being fed. It’s being buried."
❗️Israel Hayom citing Likud MK Amit Halevy:
"Operation Gideon's Chariots could exact a heavy price."
❗️10 released Palestinian prisoners arrived at Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza Strip.
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India says China 'provided intel' to Pakistan during border clashes
China provides weapons to Pakistan but says it seeks good relations with India and an end to the conflict through dialogue
BREAKING | US President Donald Trump announces that Russia and Ukraine will "immediately start negotiations toward a ceasefire."
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❗️Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged that Israel be barred from participating in international cultural events like the Eurovision Song Contest due to its brutal war on Gaza, drawing a parallel to the exclusion of Russia.
"We cannot allow double standards, not even in culture," he stated.
"I believe that no one was shocked three years ago when Russia was asked to withdraw from international competitions after it invaded Ukraine and not participate, for example, at Eurovision. Therefore, Israel should not do so either," he said.
Trump’s Persian Gulf realignment is a diplomatic nightmare for Israel
Trump’s embrace of Gulf monarchies over his traditional Israeli ally marks a seismic reconfiguration of US power in West Asia.
By Giorgio Cafiero
❗️Quds Brigades reports that its fighters were able to detonate several explosives, prepared in advance, in an Israeli military convoy. The operation happened during an Israeli incursion into the Abu Hadaf neighborhood in the Al-Qarara area, northeast of Khan Yunis, and a helicopter landed in the area to transport dead and wounded Israeli soldiers.
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