International

Iran TV journalist stabbed in ‘murder plot’

Published

9 months ago

March 31, 2024

Pouria Zeraati, 36, flashed a victory sign while dressed in a hospital gown as he recovers after being knifed by a two-man team in Wimbledon

Iran TV journalist stabbed in ‘murder plot’

An Iranian TV journalist who was stabbed outside his flat in southwest London in an apparent murder plot has vowed to return to work as he shared a defiant photo from his hospital bed.

Pouria Zeraati, 36, flashed a victory sign while dressed in a hospital gown as he recovers after being knifed by a two-man team in Wimbledon.

He was rushed to hospital after the stabbing on Friday, where he is in a stable condition. He is said to be doing ‘very well’ and bravely smiled in an Instagram snap he shared to reassure his 619,000 followers.

The prominent dissident journalist, who works for the Iran International TV channel, has been repeatedly targeted by Tehran as the media organisation is openly critical of the government’s regime.

It is believed his attackers were either agents working directly for the Iranian government or a criminal gang hired by Tehran targeted Mr Zeraati, who hosts the high-profile Last Word show in London.

They escaped the scene in a waiting car, counter terror police investigating the attack has said. MI5 is also supporting officers in the hunt for the knifemen.

According to The Times, initial indications suggest one of the gang asked Zeraati for cash and then held him in a bear hug while the second operative approached and stabbed the opposition journalist in the leg.

Mr Zeraati’s wife, Oldouz Rezvani, 37, was inside their home as her husband was knifed on the street outside as he made his way to work.

His work colleague Adam Baillie spoke to the couple in hospital yesterday, according to The Sunday Times, who said his wife was touched by all the messages of support and was ‘very happy that he’s still alive’.

‘Pouria says he is feeling a lot better and is really looking forward to getting back to work, but we don’t know when that is likely to be,’ he said.

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A neighbour who was walking with a friend down Queensmere Road, where the attack took place, and witnessed the aftermath, has told the Evening Standard that they saw the alleged assailants flee the scene.

He said: ‘It’s a very quiet suburban road and we saw two young men sprinting towards us, about 20 yards away and then got into a car. They sped off.

‘It felt odd. The two men were laughing, quite clearly laughing. I looked two of them in the eye – they were no more than a cricket pitch length away from me.’

He said they took down the number plate seconds before they came across a man who was trying to flag them down in need of assistance.

‘We tried to give first aid and take his jeans off. He had been stabbed, I think four times. He had his jeans on and he had a pool of blood on his leg. It was [awful] to see.’

The unnamed neighbour, who does not know Mr Zeraati personally, went on to say that the stabbing was ‘really out of character for the area,’ and that he believed ‘It was targeted, not a random attack.’

In December, it was revealed that Iranian officials plotted to kill two of Zeraati’s colleagues, Sima Sabet and Fardad Farahzad.

Ex-BBC journalist Ms Sabet said that following the attack on Mr Zeraati, police warned her to leave her home.

‘The Metropolitan Police’s Counter-Terrorism Unit last night urged me to immediately leave my residence following a knife attack on [Mr Zeraati], and stay elsewhere until further notice,’ she posted on X today.

She described the attack on Mr Zeraati as a ‘serious warning and an extremely troubling act for all journalists and opponents of the Islamic Republic in Britain and other Western countries’.

Speaking to the BBC yesterday, she said she was ‘outraged’ by the attack and slammed the government, suggesting it was not taking the threat ‘seriously’.

‘We should feel safe, this is our country, this is our home, we are UK nationals being threatened at our home,’ she said.

‘If the UK government were taking this seriously, if the UK government had met with me… we have to have a channel of being communicated to, being heard by the government.’

As the threat to Ms Sabet and her colleague came to light at the end of last year, Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev was jailed for spying on journalists at Iran International on behalf of Tehran.

The station admitted they have been regularly targeted by Iran’s revolutionary guards.

The London-based dissident channel aims to provide independent coverage of Iran, but the Tehran regime has declared it a terrorist organisation.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has been targeting journalists and their families, Mr Baillie said.

Iran’s charge d’affaires in the UK Mehdi Hosseini Matin said ‘we deny any link’ to the incident.

Mr Baillie told BBC Radio 4’s Today: ‘We can’t say. The fact that counter-terrorism is leading the investigation probably speaks for itself.

‘Along with our colleagues at BBC Persian, Iran International has been under threat, very heavy threats, for the last 18 months since the IRGC said ‘we’re coming for you‘, which they have consistently repeated.’

He said the IRGC ‘get in touch through proxies, they don’t leave a paper trail’.

‘No one’s going to call up from the IRGC and go ‘hey, it’s us’, but families have been taken in for questioning and threatened.’

He added: ‘The scale of that has increased dramatically over the last few months, and the scale and the type of questioning is more aggressive, ‘tell your relatives to stop working for this channel’ and so on.’

The Met said in a statement the motivation for the attack was not yet clear, his occupation coupled with recent threats towards UK-based Iranian journalists meant the probe was being led by specialist counter-terrorism officers.

Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: ‘While we are keeping an open mind, given the occupation of the victim and our publicised concerns about the threat to employees of that organisation, the investigation is being led by the Counter Terrorism Command.

‘I must stress that, at this early stage of our investigation, we do not know the reason why this victim was attacked and there could be a number of explanations for this.

‘While we continue to assess the circumstances of this incident, detectives are following a number of lines of inquiry and our priority at this time is to try and identify whoever was behind this attack and to arrest them.

‘I appreciate the wider concern this incident may cause – particularly amongst others in similar lines of work, and those from Iranian communities.

‘We continue to work closely with the victim’s organisation and as a precaution we’ll have additional patrols in the Wimbledon area as well as other sites around London to provide reassurance over the coming days to those affected and concerned.

‘Finally, I would urge anyone in the Wimbledon area who may have seen anything or anyone acting suspiciously today to get in touch with us.’

Since 2022, a number of plots to either kidnap or kill British or UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the Iranian regime have been disrupted by police, it is understood.

Iran TV journalist stabbed in ‘murder plot’

dailymail

International

UN health chief at Yemen airport during Israeli strikes

Published

23 hours ago

December 27, 2024

Trends Admin

Dr Tedros said he was unhurt after the bombardment

UN health chief at Yemen airport during Israeli strikes

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN staff were at Yemen’s international airport in Sanaa on Thursday during Israeli air strikes which are reported to have killed at least six people.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said they were about to board a plane when the attacks began.

Houthi-run Saba news agency said three people were killed at the airport and 30 injured. It said another three people were killed and 10 wounded in the western Hodeidah province.

The Iran-backed rebel group described the attacks – which also hit power stations and ports – as “barbaric”. Israel’s military said it carried out “intelligence-based strikes on military targets”.

It is unclear whether the fatalities were civilians or Houthi rebels.

In a statement on X, Dr Tedros said he was in Yemen “to negotiate the release of UN staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation” in the country. He provided no further details about who the UN detainees were.

Referring to the strikes on Sanaa’s airport, he said: “The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge – just a few meters from where we were – and the runway were damaged.

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“We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave,” Dr Tedros added.

UN Secretary General António Guterres called the strikes “especially alarming”.

“I regret the recent escalation between Yemen and Israel, and remain deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation in the region.” he wrote on X.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its “fighter jets conducted intelligence-based strikes on military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime on the western coast and inland Yemen”.

It targeted “military infrastructure” at Sanaa’s airport as well as the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations, and sites in the Al-Hudaydah, Salif and Ras Kanatib ports on the west coast, the IDF said.

In comments shortly after the strikes, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it would “continue to cut off the terror arm of the Iranian axis of evil until we complete the job”, adding “we are only just starting with [the Houthis]”.

Early on Friday, the IDF reported that one missile fired from Yemen was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory.

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of the Houthis’ supreme revolutionary committee, called Thursday’s strikes on Yemen “barbaric” and “aggressive”.

He said that “confrontations with American and Israeli arrogance” will continue until the conflict in Gaza stops.

Several people injured by the strikes at the airport in Sanaa told Houthi-run broadcaster Al Masirah that the runway was struck three times before the airport’s control tower was also hit.

One man, who identified himself as Dr Abbas Rajeh, said the police hospital he works in treated 10 patients after the attacks – one had already died, another was in critical condition, and others had minor injuries or broken bones.

Iran described the strikes as a “clear violation of international peace and security”.

Houthi rebels have been attacking Israel since the first months of the Gaza war, which began in October 2023.

A Houthi missile strike injured more than a dozen people in Israel last week.

Israel has carried out intermittent strikes against Houthis in retaliation.

Earlier this week, Israel’s defence minister said the country was preparing to “strike hard” at the Houthis, warning it would “decapitate” the group’s leadership.

The Houthis are an armed political and religious group backed by Iran. The group has ruled large parts of western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, since ousting the internationally recognised government in 2015.

UN health chief at Yemen airport during Israeli strikes

BBC

International

Baby freezes to death overnight in Gaza as ceasefire delays

Published

2 days ago

December 26, 2024

Trends Admin

The father of Sila, Mahmoud Al-Faseeh, wrapped her in a blanket to try and keep her warm in their tent in the Muwasi area, but it wasn’t enough. (Getty Images)

Baby freezes to death overnight in Gaza as ceasefire delays

JERUSALEM: A baby girl froze to death overnight in Gaza, while Israel and Hamas accused each other of complicating ceasefire efforts that could wind down the 14-month war.

The 3-week old baby was the third to die from the cold in Gaza’s tent camps in recent days, doctors said, deaths that underscore the squalid conditions, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crammed into often ramshackle tents after fleeing Israeli offensives.

Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The offensive has caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are packed into tent camps along the coast as the cold, wet winter sets in. Aid groups have struggled to deliver food and supplies and say there are shortages of blankets, warm clothing and firewood.

Israel has increased the amount of aid it allows into the territory, reaching an average of 130 trucks a day so far this month, up from around 70 a day in October and November. Still, the amount remains well below than previous months and the United Nations says it is unable to distribute more than half the aid because Israeli forces deny permission to move within Gaza or because of rampant lawlessness and theft from trucks.

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The father of 3-week-old Sila, Mahmoud Al-Faseeh, wrapped her in a blanket to try and keep her warm in their tent in the Muwasi area outside the town of Khan Younis, but it wasn’t enough, he told The Associated Press. He said the tent was not sealed from the wind and the ground was cold, as temperatures on Tuesday night dropped to 9 degrees Celsius (48 degrees Fahrenheit.) Muwasi is a desolate area of dunes and farmland on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast.

“It was very cold overnight and as adults we couldn’t even take it. We couldn’t stay warm,” he said. Sila woke up crying three times overnight and in the morning they found her unresponsive, her body stiff.

“She was like wood,” said Al-Faseeh. They rushed her to a field hospital where doctors tried to revive her, but her lungs had already deteriorated. Images of Sila taken by the AP showed the little girl with purple lips, her pale skin blotchy.

Ahmed Al-Farra, director of the children’s ward at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, confirmed that the baby died of hypothermia. He said two other babies — one 3 days old, the other a month old — had been brought to the hospital over the past 48 hours after dying of hypothermia.

Meanwhile, hopes for a ceasefire looked complicated Wednesday, with Israel and the militant Hamas group that runs Gaza trading accusations of delaying an agreement. In recent weeks, the two sides appeared to be inching toward a deal that would bring home dozens of hostages held by the militants in Gaza, but differences have emerged.

Although Israel and Hamas have expressed optimism that progress was being made toward a deal, sticking points remain over the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, people involved in the talks say.

On Wednesday, Hamas accused Israel of introducing new conditions related to the withdrawal from Gaza, the prisoners and the return of displaced people, which it said was delaying the deal.

Israel’s government accused Hamas of reneging on understandings that have already been reached.” Still, both sides said discussions are ongoing.

Israel’s negotiating team, which includes members from its intelligence agencies and the military, returned from Qatar on Tuesday evening for internal consultations, following a week of what it called “significant negotiations.”

During its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, Hamas and other groups took about 250 people hostages and brought them to Gaza. A previous truce in November 2023 freed more than 100 hostages, while others have been rescued or their remains have been recovered over the past year.

Israel says about 100 hostages remain in Gaza — at least a third whom it believes were killed during the Oct. 7 attack or died in captivity.

Sporadic talks have taken place for a year, but in recent weeks there’s been a renewed push to reach a deal.

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next month for his second term, has demanded the immediate release of Israeli hostages, saying on social media that if they’re not freed before he is sworn in, there will be “HELL TO PAY.”

Families of the hostages are becoming increasingly angry, calling on the Israeli government for a ceasefire before Trump is sworn in.

After Israel’s high-level negotiation team returned from Doha this week, hostage families called an emergency press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, pleading for a ceasefire and a complete end to the war.

Shir Siegel, the daughter of Israeli-American Keith Siegel, whose mother was released after more than 50 days in captivity, said every delay could endanger their lives. “There are moments when every second is fateful, and this is one of those moments,” she said.

Families of the hostages marked the first night of Hannukah with a candle lighting ceremony in Tel Aviv as well as by the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The agreement would take effect in phases and include a halt in fighting, an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and a surge in aid to the besieged Gaza, according to Egyptian, Hamas and American officials. The last phase would include the release of any remaining hostages, an end to the war and talks on reconstruction.

Baby freezes to death overnight in Gaza as ceasefire delays

ARAB NEWS

International

At least 10 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza

Published

2 days ago

December 26, 2024

Trends Admin

At least 10 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza

At least 10 people were killed and more than a dozen wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza early on Thursday, medics with the Gaza health authorities said.

Five people were killed and 20 wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, the medics reported. They warned the death toll could rise as many remained trapped under the rubble.

In a separate incident, five journalists were killed when their vehicle was struck in the vicinity of Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat in central Gaza, the enclave’s health authorities said. The journalists worked for the Al-Quds Al-Youm television channel.

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Palestinian media and local reporters said the vehicle was marked as a media van and was used by journalists to report from inside the hospital and Nuseirat camp.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the reported strikes.

On Wednesday, Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel traded blame over their failure to conclude a ceasefire agreement despite progress reported by both sides in past days.