27/03/2026

FRIDAY | MAR 27, 2026

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Hezbollah rejects truce talks

Two killed in Russian strikes KHARKIV: Russian attacks killed two individuals in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv and the region around it, and a strike on the Danube port of Izamil damaged port facilities and energy infrastructure, officials said. Prosecutors in the region yesterday said a woman injured in an attack on the city of Kharkiv had died of her injuries in hospital. They said nine individuals were injured in strikes on two districts of the city, a frequent target of Russian forces, 18km from the border. They also said a Russian drone killed a man in his car in a district closer to the border. Officials in the port of Izamil said the town had come under attack and there had been damage to the port and to energy facilities. On the Russian side of the border, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Ukrainian drones had killed an 18-year-old man on a motorcycle in a village near the border. – Reuters The government cracked down hard on the Starlink terminals in 2025, and those caught using them face imprisonment. – AFP Activists work to connect Iranians via Starlink WASHINGTON: With the war in Iran leading to a near-total internet blackout in the country, activists around the world, especially in the United States, are mobilising to help Iranians stay connected via Starlink. Despite being banned, Elon Musk’s satellite internet system has gained ground in Iran thanks to a network of international activists, multiple individuals involved in the efforts told AFP. The efforts began in 2022, when mass protests broke out following the death of Mahsa Amini, who was being held by Iran’s police for violating the country’s strict dress code for women. “As of this year, we have more than 300 devices that we have delivered to the country,“ said Emilia James of the US-based organization NetFreedom Pioneers. She declined to go into further detail to protect the operation and the users. Global charity Holistic Resilience executive director Ahmad Ahmadian said his organization purchased Starlink devices in European countries or elsewhere, before moving them into Iran via “neighboring countries.”

Naim on Wednesday said his group would have none of it: “When negotiations with the Israeli enemy are proposed under fire, this is an imposition of surrender.” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli strikes and artillery shelling in several locations in the south on Wednesday, where the health ministry said at least eight individuals were killed. The NNA also reported an airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold. Israel’s military said it struck a “command centre” there after a renewed evacuation warning. An AFP correspondent saw a street covered in debris, including shattered cement and warped metal, after the

forces in nine border towns. Israel’s military said one of its soldiers was severely wounded by rocket fire in southern Lebanon and another by mortar shell, having earlier reported an officer being lightly injured in combat. Rockets fired towards the Haifa area in northern Israel resulted in no injuries. Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In an attempt to put an end to the fighting, Lebanon’s president is calling for direct negotiations with Israel, which has so far rebuffed his proposal.

early morning strike, while an apartment building’s upper floors appeared damaged. The area has been targeted multiple times during the conflict and is largely empty of residents, who have fled. In southern Lebanon, Israel’s military said ground troops “dismantled a weapons storage facility” and the air force killed “several terrorists”. Hezbollah said its fighters targeted Israeli troops “massed in the border towns of Naqura and Qawzah” and in sites across the border “with more than 100 rockets” on Wednesday. The Lebanese health ministry said 42 health workers are among more than 1,000 individuals killed in Lebanon. – AFP

BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said negotiations with Israel under fire would amount to “surrender”, as the Iran-backed group launched attacks and Israel said it was expanding a “buffer zone” inside Lebanon. Israel, which occupied southern Lebanon for around two decades until 2000, has kept up strikes on its northern neighbour and sent ground troops to take control of a strip up to the Litani River, about 30km from the border. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military had already “created a genuine security zone” and was now expanding it, pushing deeper into Lebanon. “We are simply creating a larger ‘buffer zone’ that could prevent a ground invasion of Israel and missile attacks,” Netanyahu said in a video shared by his office. Meanwhile, Hezbollah issued dozens of statements claiming attacks on Israeli forces and said it also launched missiles yesterday at military sites in central Israel, where air raid sirens sounded. Israeli media said six Hezbollah rockets headed for central areas were all intercepted. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres called on both sides to cease fire. He cautioned Israel against replicating “the Gaza model” in southern Lebanon as some Israeli officials have suggested, raising fears of mass displacement. Hezbollah said its fighters had launched more than 80 attacks on Wednesday, the largest daily number in the current war and attacked Israeli o Israel continues offensive, pushes deeper into Lebanon Wednesday insisted that Iran was taking part in peace talks, suggesting Tehran’s denials were because Iranian negotiators fear being killed by their own side. “They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly. But they’re afraid to say it, because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people,“ Trump told a dinner for Republican members of Congress. The US leader’s comments came after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that “we do not intend to negotiate”. Trump repeated his assertion that Iran was being “decimated” in the

A paramedic walks among the rubble at a site damaged in an Israeli strike in Nabatieh, Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. – R EUTE R S PIC

Iran afraid to admit it wants deal, says Trump WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump on

was dealing with in Tehran following the assassination of supreme leader Ali Khamenei, whose son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public. Reports have suggested the Trump administration’s interlocutor is Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s speaker of parliament and one of its most prominent non-clerical figures. Leavitt also declined to confirm reports that top US officials, including Vice President JD Vance, were set to hold talks with the Iranians in Pakistan, which has emerged as a key mediator. Trump is moving thousands of troops to the Gulf amid speculation that he might order a ground invasion. – AFP

Iranian state media earlier cited an unidentified official as saying that the Islamic republic had responded “negatively” to a reported 15-point plan from Washington. “If Iran fails to accept the reality of the current moment, if they fail to understand that they have been defeated militarily and will continue to be, President Trump will ensure they are hit harder than they have ever been hit before,“ Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “President Trump does not bluff and he is prepared to unleash hell. Iran should not miscalculate again.” When asked if negotiations with Iran had stalled, Leavitt replied: “Talks continue. They are productive.” She declined to say whom the US

conflict, now in its fourth week, even though Tehran still maintains an effective stranglehold over the crucial Strait of Hormuz oil route. Lashing out at his domestic opponents, Trump also claimed Democrats were trying to “deflect from all of the success that we’re having in this military operation”. In a reference to calls from Democrats for him to seek the approval of Congress for the conflict, Trump added: “They don’t like the word ‘war,‘ because you’re supposed to get approval, so I’ll use the word military operation.” The White House earlier said Trump was ready to “unleash hell” if Iran did not admit defeat, while also insisting that Tehran is still taking part in talks.

G7 convenes over situations in Middle East, Gaza and Ukraine PARIS: Foreign ministers from the G7 met with European nations and allies outside Paris yesterday seeking to narrow differences with the US on the Middle East war while keeping other crises such as Ukraine and Gaza high on the agenda. the Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey in the countryside outside Paris comes as the White House said President Donald Trump is ready to “unleash hell” if Iran does not accept a deal to end the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic. Marco Rubio will join fellow top diplomats from Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Japan and the UK, but only on the second day.

of a zone in south Lebanon. In a bid to broaden the scope of G7, whose origins go back to the first G6 summit held in the Chateau de Rambouillet in 1975, France has also invited foreign ministers from key emerging markets Brazil and India, as well as Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. – AFP

tension and rivalry we are witnessing with very concrete consequences for our fellow citizens,“ French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told AFP. With Lebanon pulled into the war as Iran-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel, Barrot also urged Israel to “refrain” from sending in forces to take control

One of the objectives of France, which holds the rotating G7 presidency this year, is “to address the major global imbalances which explain in many respects the level of

Making his first trip abroad since the war started, US Secretary of State

The two-day meeting of seven leading industrialised democracies at