Tag: Iran

Israel Planned Bigger Attack on Iran, but Scaled It Back to Avoid War

Israel abandoned plans for a much more extensive counterstrike on Iran after concerted diplomatic pressure from the United States and other foreign allies and because the brunt of an Iranian assault on Israel soil had been thwarted, according to three senior Israeli officials. Israeli leaders originally discussed bombarding several military targets across Iran last week, […]

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Biden’s Win Last Week in the Middle East Is Part of a Bigger Failure

President Biden’s behind-the-scenes crisis management appears to have helped stop a wider war from igniting in the Middle East — for now. But that tactical win for the administration is actually part of its much larger strategic failure in the region. Over the past two weeks, Mr. Biden has scrambled to ensure that the unprecedented […]

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Iran on Edge Amid Airstrikes, Crackdowns and Fear of War

In the early hours of Friday, Mehrdad, an engineer in Isfahan, Iran, woke to the sound of explosions rattling the windows and shaking the ground. In Tehran, passengers about to board flights were abruptly told the airspace was closed. Israel, they soon learned, had attacked Iran. As booms and gunfire went off in the distance, […]

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Israel’s Strike on Iran Highlights Its Ability to Evade Tehran’s Air Defenses

An Israeli airstrike on Iran on Friday damaged an air defense system, according to Western and Iranian officials, in an attack calculated to deliver a message that Israel could bypass Iran’s defensive systems undetected and paralyze them. The strike damaged a defensive battery near Natanz, a city in central Iran that is critical to the […]

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Fears Over Iran Buoy Netanyahu at Home. For Now.

Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel last October, the deadliest in Israeli history, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future has seemed bleak, with critics blaming him for the security failure and his poll ratings plummeting. But a confrontation between Israel and Iran this week — including on Friday when Israel retaliated against last weekend’s missile […]

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Israel’s Strike on Iran: A Limited Attack but a Potentially Big Signal

For more than a decade, Israel has rehearsed, time and again, bombing and missile campaigns that would take out Iran’s nuclear production capability, much of it based around the city of Isfahan and the Natanz nuclear enrichment complex 75 miles to the north. That is not what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet chose to […]

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At G7 Meeting in Capri, Blinken Tackles Rough Seas and Global Crises

Rough seas were a fitting symbol for this week’s meeting of Group of 7 foreign ministers on the Italian island of Capri. Coast Guard ships that ferried V.I.P.s across the Gulf of Naples to the island on Wednesday swayed precariously, leaving the passengers reaching for their motion-sickness medicine — and, in some cases, their sick […]

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Thomas Friedman on Iran, Israel and Preventing a ‘Forever War’

Listen to and follow ‘Matter of Opinion’ Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music The columnist Thomas L. Friedman joined the hosts of “Matter of Opinion” this week to unpack Israel’s and Iran’s latest attacks, what they mean for Gaza and the implications for the region writ large. Below is a lightly edited transcript of […]

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Israel’s Strike Was Smaller Than Expected, and So Was Iran’s Reaction

The relatively limited scope of Israel’s overnight strikes on Iran, and a subdued response from Iranian officials, may have lowered the chances of an immediate escalation in fighting between the two countries, analysts said Friday. For days, there have been fears that a forceful Israeli response to Iran’s attack on southern Israel last weekend could […]

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What We Know About Israel’s Strike in Iran

Israel struck Iran early on Friday, according to officials from both countries, in what appeared to be its first military response to the Iranian attack on Israel last weekend. The strike was the latest in a cycle of retaliation between the two foes that has alarmed world leaders, who fear that back-and-forth attacks could erupt […]

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Reaction to Israel’s Strike in Iran Plays Down Significance

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 […]

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U.S. and Allies Penalize Iran for Striking Israel, and Try to Avert War

The United States and European allies joined together on Thursday to impose new sanctions on Iranian military leaders and weapon makers, seeking to punish Iran for its missile and drone attack on Israel last weekend, while imploring Israel not to retaliate so strongly as to risk a wider war. White House officials said the sanctions […]

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Miscalculation Led to Escalation as Israel and Iran Clashed

Israel was mere moments away from an airstrike on April 1 that killed several senior Iranian commanders at Iran’s embassy complex in Syria when it told the United States what was about to happen. Israel’s closest ally had just been caught off guard. Aides quickly alerted Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser; Jon Finer, […]

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Miscalculation Leads to Escalation as Israel and Iran Clash

Israel was mere moments away from an airstrike on April 1 that killed several senior Iranian commanders at Iran’s embassy complex in Syria when it told the United States what was about to happen. Israel’s closest ally had just been caught off guard. Aides quickly alerted Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser; Jon Finer, […]

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How London Became a ‘Hot Spot’ for Threats Against Iranian Journalists

Iranian journalists in London have experienced death threats, intimidation and online abuse. One broadcaster working for BBC Persian, the Persian-language branch of the BBC World Service, which has its headquarters in London, had her car broken into, and her conversations with family members were tapped. And last month, Pouria Zeraati, a newscaster with Iran International, […]

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Hezbollah Attack Injures at Least 13 in Israeli Border Village

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a cross-border drone and missile attack in northern Israel on Wednesday that emergency officials said had injured at least 13 people, four of them critically. Clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful regional proxy, have intensified in the wake of Israel’s targeted killing of two Hezbollah […]

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Israel Weighs Response to Iran Attack, With Each Choice a Risk

Israeli leaders on Tuesday were debating how best to respond to Iran’s unprecedented weekend airstrike, officials said, weighing a set of options calibrated to achieve different strategic outcomes: deterring a similar attack in the future, placating their American allies and avoiding all-out war. Iran’s attack on Israel, an immense barrage that included hundreds of ballistic […]

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How to Be Pro-Palestinian, Pro-Israeli and Pro-Iranian

Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel over the weekend was a game-changing escalation that requires some game-changing rethinking on the part of Israel and its most important ally, the United States. I call it “the three-state solution.” It begins with the recognition that there is probably zero hope for any resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian […]

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For Israel’s Allies, Iranian Missile Strike Scrambles Debate Over Gaza

Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain was facing a chorus of calls to cut off arms shipments to Israel because of its devastating war in Gaza. On Monday, Mr. Sunak saluted the British warplanes that had shot down several Iranian drones as part of a successful campaign to thwart Iran’s attack on […]

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A Diplomatic Victory of Uncertain Staying Power

It was so close. Had just one missile or drone gotten through and killed a lot of Israelis, American officials feared, the region could have gone up in flames. So when Israeli and U.S. forces, with help from Arab allies, managed a near-perfect defense against last weekend’s aerial barrage from Iran, it represented not only […]

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Israel Weighs Response to Iran’s Attack as Allies Push for Restraint

Israel’s war cabinet on Monday met to weigh possible responses to Iran’s missile and drone attack over the weekend, as the United States, Britain and other allies strongly urged Israel to show restraint and sought to de-escalate tensions between the two regional powers. Some far-right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government called for a […]

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Iran’s Strike on Israel Creates Military Uncertainty, Diplomatic Opportunity

The enormous salvo of Iranian weapons fired at Israel this weekend turned the countries’ long-running shadow war into a direct confrontation, raising fears that the countries’ old paradigm of trading carefully measured blows had been replaced by something more overt, violent and risky. But by Monday, Israel had yet to respond to the Iranian assault. […]

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Putting U.S. Power Behind Israel Will Keep Iran at Bay

Until Iran’s barrage of missiles and drones against Israel, the two countries had avoided open military intrusions into each other’s territory. Tehran most often acted through proxies, and Jerusalem via bombing runs and unacknowledged assassinations in the region. Iran’s unprecedented attack this weekend, which failed to kill a single Israeli, has perhaps now opened the […]

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Netanyahu Weighs Response to Iran, Wary of Alienating Biden

As Israel’s leaders continued on Monday to mull a possible response to the massive Iranian aerial attack over the weekend, they faced several choices, all of which carry their own risks. In the past, Israel has hit back hard when its enemies attacked, hoping to discourage further hostilities. A cross-border raid in 2006 by Hezbollah, […]

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With Nuclear Deal Dead, Containing Iran Grows More Fraught

When Iran agreed to a deal in 2015 that would require it to surrender 97 percent of the uranium it could use to make nuclear bombs, Russia and China worked alongside the United States and Europe to get the pact done. The Russians even took Iran’s nuclear fuel, for a hefty fee, prompting celebratory declarations […]

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House GOP Realizes There Are More Important Issues Than Woke Fridges

In reality, providing trans and nonbinary children with gender-affirming care actually makes them safer. Gender-affirming care decreases the amount of depression and anxiety that trans and nonbinary teenagers feel, and it makes them less likely to consider suicide. Planned Parenthood derided the decision for allowing Bailey to pursue his “sham investigation,” arguing in a statement […]

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House Republicans Ridiculed into Dropping “Appliance Week”

In reality, providing trans and nonbinary children with gender-affirming care actually makes them safer. Gender-affirming care decreases the amount of depression and anxiety that trans and nonbinary teenagers feel, and it makes them less likely to consider suicide. Planned Parenthood derided the decision for allowing Bailey to pursue his “sham investigation,” arguing in a statement […]

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Markets Brace for Israel’s Next Move

An uneasy calm Investors are breathing a sigh of relief on Monday. Global stocks are in the green and oil prices have retreated from last week’s gains after Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel was mostly neutralized in the skies. But the calm could be short lived, as world leaders and markets focus […]

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Iran’s Unprecedented Attack on Israel

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion […]

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Picking a Jury to Try Trump, and What’s Next for Iran and Israel

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