A proposal forwarded by Russia’s foreign ministry for signing of a strategic partnership agreement with Iran was approved by the president of the Russian Federation. | Vladimir Putin expressed his approval through a decree that was issued on Wednesday. The decree stated that signing of such an agreement would be “expedient,” without specifying the timing of its expected conclusion. The development came a day after Russia’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu visited the Iranian capital Tehran, meeting with senior Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian. Meeting with the chief executive, Shoigu emphasized that Putin had asked him to convey the message to the Iranian officials that Russia’s position on cooperation with Iran on regional issues had not changed.

■ Russian-Pakistani Relations Are Surprisingly Taking On Strategic Dimensions (Andrew Korybko's Newsletter)

Muslims in Iran and many other countries are celebrating Eid al-Fitr at the conclusion of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, after the new moon of the lunar month of Shawwal was sighted the previous night. | Naqareh drums were played at the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the eighth Shia Imam, in Iran's northeastern city of Mashhad on Wednesday morning, and Muslim worshippers who had fasted for a month took part in Eid prayers there and across the country early in the morning of the occasion of the festive event, which marks the end of Ramadan – the holiest month in the Islamic calendar. ● In the capital, Tehran, people gathered at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla (Congregational Prayers Site) to perform Eid al-Fitr prayers. Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei led the prayers.

■ Palestinians commemorate Eid al-Fitr amid oppression, genocide (Al Mayadeen)

Mike Whitney | Recent developments suggest that Israel’s full-scale ground offensive in Rafah could take place at any time. [...] Once the ground forces are deployed, the Palestinians will be forced to flee to the Egyptian border where they will seek refuge from the Israeli onslaught. | [...] The expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza is not aimed at quashing terrorism but at changing the demographic makeup of the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The fact is that one cannot preserve a Jewish-majority state without a clear Jewish majority. By annexing the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank, Israel will dramatically increase the number of Arabs within its borders putting that core principle at risk. [...] Clearly, what Israel wants is a Palestine without the Palestinians, and in the last six months they have done everything in their power to achieve just that. Now that the goal is within their grasp, they will do anything –even jeopardize relations with their most important ally– to reach their objective. [...] Everything from the clearing of land in the Sinai desert to the issuance of humongous loans to Egypt, to the secret meetings of Intel chiefs in Doha (CIA, Mossad, Egypt’s General Intelligence) to the blustery pronouncements of Israeli officials, to the frenetic leapfrogging of Anthony Blinken from Jedda to Jerusalem to Doha to Cairo and back again, suggests that we are about to begin the final phase of Israel’s malignant ethnic cleansing operation.

Palestinians, forcibly evacuated from Al-Shifa Hospital after the Israeli army's attacks, said the people left behind in the hospital were killed or detained by Israeli forces. | The Israeli army, which has been continuing its attacks on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, raided the Al-Shifa Hospital, located in the north of Gaza and the largest health center in the region, on March 18. Israeli forces continued the siege of the hospital, which they had previously attacked on the grounds that it was the "command center of Hamas."

Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said it is the sovereign decision of Pakistani government to move forward on Pakistan and Iran gas pipeline project. | She expressed these words while responding to the queries of the media persons regarding yesterday’s US congressional hearing, at her weekly news briefing in Islamabad today. She made it clear that at this point, there is no room for any discussion or waiver from any third party for the construction of the pipeline inside Pakistan’s territory. She said Pakistan has also conveyed to the US authorities the importance of this project for its energy security.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan army, said in a statement that 12 people, including 10 security forces and law enforcement agencies personnel, were killed and 39 others were injured in these attacks that took place mostly in the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwest Balochistan provinces. | "With the deployment of 137,000 army personnel and civil armed forces at approximately 6,000 selected most sensitive polling stations and over 7,800 quick response force teams, a safe and secure environment for the public was ensured," said the ISPR. During various operations, five terrorists were also killed, it added.

Prosecutors have argued that the politician mishandled a classified cable sent to Islamabad by the country’s ambassador to the US | A Pakistani court has sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan to ten years behind bars. He has been charged with leaking state secrets, according to the spokesman for the politician’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI). ● The charges relate to the so-called cipher, a classified cable sent to Islamabad by the Pakistani ambassador to Washington in 2022, shortly after the start of the Ukraine conflict. The document allegedly suggested that the US wanted to remove Khan over his neutrality regarding the hostilities. ● The ex-Pakistani PM called the cipher case on Tuesday “false,” adding that it “is being completed in violation of constitutional requirements and legal regulations.” “This is not a trial but a fixed match outcome of which was predetermined,” he added.court has sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan to ten years behind bars. He has been charged with leaking state secrets, according to the spokesman for the politician’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI).

Islamabad has accused Tehran of ignoring “serious concerns” over militants operating from its territory | Pakistan has said it launched a series of airstrikes on “terrorist hideouts” in southern Iran, claiming the “precision” operation neutralized several militants. The attack comes after Tehran acknowledged its own raids on another terrorist group based in Pakistan. ● Meanwhile, Iranian officials, cited by local media, said that explosions in the Sistan-o-Balochistan province had killed seven non-Iranian nationals, including three women and four children. Tehran has also demanded an “immediate explanation” from Pakistan about the strikes, Iranian broadcaster Press TV reported, citing an unnamed informed source.

■ Iran condemns Pakistan’s border attack, summons Pakistani chargé d'affaires (PressTV)
■ Pakistan Launches Strikes on Iran's Saravan Region, Sistan, Balochistan Provinces - Reports (Sputnik News)
■ Pakistan attacks ‘terrorist hideouts’ in Iran (Al Jazeera)(Video)
■ India reacts to escalation between Iran and Pakistan (RT.com)

The Creech 14 | May 10, 2009 ("CreechAFB") | The armed drones, MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers: Sanitized Remote-Control Death. | In 2009 President Barack Obama dramatically escalated the CIA’s secret air war in Pakistan and the U.S. military occupation of Afghanistan. Relying heavily on unmanned drones for surveillance and air strikes, armed drones and drone-assisted gunships have raised death and destruction to a new level. Soaring civilian casualties demand a public discussion of the legality and morality of drone warfare. ● A drone is a remote-control spy plane that can also launch bombs to kill people. Variously called an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Unmanned Air System (UAS) or Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), today the focus is on the Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV). As drone technology races toward robotic weaponry, the UCAV is the lethal multi-mission drone of future warfare.

■ Another war crime in Afghanistan: US massacres nine children in air strike (03/05/11)

Moon of Alabama | The U.S. government under Joe Biden had developed plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza by moving all of its 2.3 million people into Egypt. The NSC spokesperson had confirmed that plan (US 'actively working' to establish safe corridor for Gaza civilians: White House ) This all was based on a plan originally developed by radical Zionist within the government of Israel: Leaked: Israeli plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza

■ New Document Leak on Plan to Expel Gaza Population (Joe Lauria)

Washington took issue with the PM’s neutral stance on Russia’s military operation in Ukraine | “People here and in Europe are quite concerned about why Pakistan is taking such an aggressively neutral position” on Ukraine, US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu warns his Pakistani counterpart in the cable, blaming the PM alone for the offending policy. ● While Ambassador Asad Majeed Khan attempts to correct the American, pointing out that Pakistan’s position on Ukraine is shared across the government, Lu counters that it is the PM’s behavior that is the problem, but that “if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington.” “Otherwise, I think it will be tough going ahead,” he threatens, adding that Europe will follow the US’ lead in the “isolation of the prime minister.”

Torrential rains and raging floods have swept away entire villages. Train carrying 394 tons of aid leaves from Ankara: Turkiye's second "Kindness Train" set off for Pakistan with aid for the victims of catastrophic floods which have submerged one-third of the South Asian country. ● The train, which left the capital Ankara on Thursday, is carrying 394 tons of disaster relief materials. ● This shipment is being coordinated by the state-run Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD). ● The sendoff ceremony was attended by AFAD President Yunus Sezer and Pakistan's Ambassador to Ankara Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi. ● Nearly 1,200 people have lost their lives, while more than a million houses have been destroyed or damaged since mid-June, according to Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority.

Watch | Horrifying images and videos from Pakistan's 'monsoon on steroids' (08/30/22)

To assist the tens of millions of people devastated by the unrelenting "monsoon on steroids" that have drowned a third of the country and killed more than 1,100 people, aid activities have been stepped up throughout the inundated nation of Pakistan. ● In an emergency appeal on Tuesday, the UN has requested $160 million to assist Pakistan in dealing with floods that have killed more than 1,100 people, affected 33 million people, and devastated homes, businesses, infrastructure, and agriculture. ● Hundreds of thousands of women, children, and men, according to Pakistan's foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, were living outside without access to food, clean water, shelter, or even the most basic medical treatment.

- 1350 people killed
- 50M people displaced
- 900K livestock deaths
- 1M houses washed away
- 40+ reservoirs breached
- 220+ bridges collapsed
- 90% cropped damaged
- $10B loss to economy
- 1/3 country underwater

As the Israeli aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip continues, Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk expressed his full support for Tel Aviv, Israeli media reported on Sunday. 💬 “As a Ukrainian whose country is under a very brutal attack by its neighbor, I feel great sympathy towards the Israeli public,” Korniychuk said in a statement. “Attacks on women and children are reprehensible,” Korniychuk added. “Terrorism and malicious attacks against civilians are the daily reality of Israelis and Ukrainians and this appalling threat must be stopped immediately.”

Gaza Update: death toll in Israeli aggression reaches 43 Palestinians – many children
Gaza this Evening: Israeli Aggression and Palestinian Resistance (PHOTOS)
31 martyrs, including 6 children, in Israeli continued aggression on the Gaza Strip (08/08/22)

At least eight people have been killed and three others wounded in the latest assassination drone strike carried out by the US forces in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar. ● Afghan border police spokesman, Edris Mohmand, identified the victims as Taliban militants, adding that the aerial assault took place in the Lal Pur district of the province on Sunday morning. The Taliban have made no comments on the incident yet. The US-led foreign forces in Afghanistan have recently increased their air raids against civilian areas. The United States carries out targeted killings through drone strikes in Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Somalia.

At least five people have been killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan’s northwestern restive tribal region near the Afghan border. ● Two missiles were fired on Saturday at a compound in Mada Khail neighborhood of Datta Khail area in North Waziristan. Local security officials confirmed the drone strike in Pakistan’s volatile northwest, warning that the death toll is expected to rise. It is difficult to verify the exact number of the dead as the area is off-limits to journalists. The US military carries out targeted killings through drone strikes in several Muslim nations such as Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia. Pakistan has borne the brunt of the notorious attacks, with large numbers of its citizens being killed.

At least 130 people, most of them students as young as 12, have been killed and at least 122 others injured in a Taliban seizure of a military-run school in the city of Peshawar, Pakistan, according to provincial authorities. ● The numbers of dead and injured may still rise as the casualties of the assault are counted. Some 500 students and teachers were in the Army Public School on Warsak Road at the time of the attack. Pakistan’s military said most of the civilians escaped, but some had been taken hostage by the assailants. According to media reports, as many as 10 militants dressed in Pakistani military uniforms entered the school compound on Tuesday at around noon. They torched a car at the site and proceeded with a raid on the facility. “Seven to eight people attacked us, then an army soldier came to us and he asked [the] principal and teachers to take the children out of compound from the back gate. There were thousands [of] students in college. They were moved to auditorium, they can’t come out until the fight is ended,” Arshad Khan, a student at the school, told RT's Ruptly.

Sputnik News: Pakistani Tragedy Result of Permissive Attitude Towards Religious Violence

A package of tough fascist, far-reaching "counter-terrorism laws" tabled in Israel on Wednesday would make waving the Palestinian flag at demonstrations illegal and convictions for throwing firecrackers punishable by deportation to the Gaza Strip. ● In a move designed to halt the glorification of terrorism, the proposed law would also criminalize the printing of posters frequently distributed amongst the Palestinian community in the aftermath of attacks that celebrate the killers as "martyrs" [to celebrate killers as martyrs/heroes is an exclusive right of the Jews]. On Wednesday the eight-point plan was submitted to Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who ordered it in response to a recent spate of shooting, hit-and-run, and stabbing terror attacks centered on Jerusalem that have killed at least 11 Israelis. Clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli forces have become a frequent occurrence in the holy city following a summer of unrest, including a bloody 7-week war in Gaza that killed more than 2,100 Palestinians [mostly civilians] and 66 [duly celebrated] Israeli soldiers.

PressTV: Israel to nab Palestinians over Facebook posts

A US drone destroyed a house in Mada Khel village of North Waziristan today, killing six people and wounding three others. None of the slain were identified, but all were labeled “suspects.” ● If that story sounds awfully familiar, it’s because it is. Today’s attack marks the 500th confirmed US drone strike outside of actual warzones, with just about 10 years worth of strikes. The strikes were extremely rare at first, a couple a year in Pakistan during the waning years of the Bush Administration. Now the attacks are increasingly common, not just in Pakistan but in Yemen as well. The 500 attacks have killed some 3,674 people, and while only 473 are listed as confirmed civilians, the vast majority of the others slain have never been conclusively identified, remaining forever “suspects.”

Human rights activists from Pakistan and India, Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi, have named as the joint winners of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. ● They earned the award by “their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education,” the award’s committee said in a statement. "The Nobel Committee regards it as an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism," said Thorbjoern Jagland, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. ● Seventeen-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head two years ago by the Taliban when she was on her way to school. She was targeted for being an active campaigner for girls’ rights to education, which the Taliban opposes. Malala survived the attack, and underwent treatment in the UK. She has continued her fight for human rights from there, as she is unable to return to Pakistan, facing death threats from the Taliban. ● Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, reacted to the award by describing Malala as the “pride of Pakistan.” Yousafzai becomes the youngest Nobel Prize winner, bypassing Australian-born British scientist Lawrence Bragg, who received the Nobel Prize for Physics at the age of 25. ● 60-year-old Kailash Satyarthi, the other joint winner of the Peace Prize, is an Indian children's rights advocate. He has actively campaigned against the use of child labor and in 1998 initiated an annual global march against the practice. The Nobel Committee has praised Satyarthi for “maintaining Gandhi’s tradition” in his human rights campaigning. "It's an honor to all those children still suffering in slavery, bonded labor and trafficking," Satyarthi told CNN-IBN TV after he learned of the award, Reuters reported. ● Malala and Satyarthi will receive the prize, worth about $1.1 million, at a December 10 ceremony in Oslo, Norway.

PressTV: Pakistan's Malala, India's Satyarthi jointly win Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Institute: Announcement: The Nobel Peace Prize for 2014

At least ten people have been killed following yet another bombing of Pakistan's tribal belt in the northeast of the country by US assassination drones. ● According to local security sources, the US drones struck a compound and a vehicle at a small market in the town of Datta Khel near the Afghan border. The sources [conveniently] further identified the casualties from the drone attack as "militants" [civilians]. Washington claims the targets of the drone attacks are militants, but local officials and witnesses maintain that civilians have been the main victims of such raids over the past few years.

A US assassination drone attack kills at least 11 people in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region near the border with Afghanistan. ● According to reports, the drone fired eight missiles at a building in North Waziristan region early on Saturday morning. The US carries out targeted killings through drone strikes in several Muslim nations such as Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia. US drone attacks in other countries have intensified since Barack Obama became the country's president.

Another US drone attack on Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt has killed at least 15 people amid the ongoing military campaign in the region by Pakistani armed forces. ● The strike by the pilotless US aircraft on Wednesday hit the border region of North Waziristan, where government troops have been engaged in fierce fighting aimed at purging the entire area of pro-Taliban militants and their fortifications, according to Pakistani authorities. “A US drone fired two missiles targeting a militant compound in Zoi Saidgai area, killing at least 15 insurgents,” said a high-ranking security official in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan.

There are an estimated 30 million slaves in the world today, more than at any other time in history. In case you missed it, earlier this month Real Clear World ran a profile of what slave labor looks like in Pakistan today. There are 1.8 million “debt laborers” in the country, and 2.2 million slaves over all (only India and China have more). The debt laborers are kept under the thumb of landlords who sell them back and forth and cook up ways of keeping them in bondage.

Walk Free: It is estimated that 29.8 million people are forced to live in slavery around the world today

US drones killed 16 Islamist "militants" at their "hideouts" in north-western Pakistan, in the first strikes by the unmanned aircraft in almost six months, officials said Thursday. Drones fired around 20 missiles at two separate locations in North Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border, destroying compounds and vehicles allegedly used by "militants", security officials said. At least 10 suspected members of the Haqqani group of Afghan Taliban were killed in strikes early Thursday in the Dandy Darpa Khel area. Overnight, six militants, including Uzbek members of the Taliban, were killed in a separate drone attack in the Ghulam Khan area of North Waziristan, officials said.

Sampath Perera ■ Jinnah International Airport in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi was raided by an Islamist insurgent group late Sunday night. The fighting continued until Monday, causing a suspension of all operations at the airport, which is used by about 44,000 passengers daily. At least 37 people died, including 10 attackers, according to official accounts. [...] Soon after his election, Sharif pledged support for the US “war on terrorism,” which has served as a vehicle for asserting American hegemony over the region. However, his election promises of negotiations with the TTP reflected concerns within the Pakistani elite about the conflict’s damage to the crisis-ridden economy. The TTP’s apparent ability to target positions in major cities and industrial centres is undermining his government’s agenda to attract foreign investment. [...] The intensifying crisis in Pakistan is inseparably bound up with the escalating geo-political tensions in the region produced by Washington’s drive for dominance over the resource-rich Central Asian landmass, which is accompanied by its “pivot” to Asia to encircle China economically and militarily.

Karachi’s Airport has resumed operations today, but a deadly late night attack shut it down for many hours overnight. It appears that ten militants entered the airport Sunday night, most likely uniformed as airport security personnel, and killed up to 18 people before they were killed by airport security and rapidly responding military units. The TTP, Pakistan’s Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the attack. The New York Times and Reuters, however, chose to be very selective in how they reported the TTP’s claim of responsibility. Both news outlets left out the TTP’s prominent mention of the US drone strike in November that killed TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud in describing the TTP’s reasons for the attack. By contrast, AP and the Washington Post included the TTP’s reference to the drone strike.

The Pakistani Taliban on Monday claimed responsibility for an attack on Karachi airport that left at least 23 people dead, reportedly including 10 attackers. The group said the act was in revenge for their late leader Hakimullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US drone strike in November. The airport was chosen for the attack "because it serves as the biggest air logistics centre supplying goods for the Crusaders' war in Afghanistan and Pakistan", Umar Media, the official media wing of the Pakistani Taliban, said on its Facebook page. Pakistani officials said a military operation against the militants, who attacked the country’s busiest airport late on Sunday, ended shortly before dawn on June 9. However, security forces later announced that the military operation had been relaunched after gunfire at the airport resumed. For more, see here and here for a report on Pakistan's Dawn news site.

The White House has officially admitted that fake vaccination programs have been used by the United States as a cover for covertly stealing DNA samples from the public as part of the so-called "war on terror." The aim of the scheme, carried out in the Middle East, was to use DNA analysis to identify suspected terrorists who would then be targeted to be killed by the United States. As the New York Times reported in 2011, "In the months before Osama bin Laden was killed, the Central Intelligence Agency ran a phony vaccination program in Abbottabad, Pakistan, as a ruse to obtain DNA evidence from members of Bin Laden's family thought to be holed up in an expansive compound there." "CIA agents recruited a senior Pakistani doctor to organize the vaccine drive in Abbottabad, even starting the "project" in a poorer part of town to make it look more authentic," reports The Guardian.