02/04/2026

THURSDAY | APR 2, 2026

9

Indonesia wants UN probe JAKARTA: Indonesia has called on the United Nations to conduct an investigation into the deaths of three of its Unifil peacekeepers following Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, a Foreign Ministry official said. The ministry’s UN representative, Umar Hadi, made the statement during an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Tuesday. “We demand a direct investigation from the UN, not just Israel’s excuses,” he said. Indonesia said earlier this week that Israeli military operations have put UN peacekeepers in Lebanon at grave risk. The Indonesian peacekeepers were killed in two separate incidents in Lebanon after a bloody weekend in which Lebanese journalists and medics were also killed in Israeli strikes. A roadside explosion appeared to have struck the convoy of two Indonesian peacekeepers killed in southern Lebanon on Monday, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said on Tuesday. The Israeli military said on Tuesday that its review of an incident involving Unifil troops on Monday concluded that Israeli troops did not place an explosive device in the area and that no troops were present there. – Reuters Diplomats said there was a tentative aim to put the text to a vote today. – Reuters Bahrain circulates revised Hormuz draft PARIS: Bahrain has circulated a revised UN Security Council draft resolution on protecting commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, retaining language authorising “all necessary means” but dropping an explicit reference to binding enforcement. Shipping through the waterway, through which roughly a fifth of global oil supplies pass and which underpins Gulf economies, has already slowed to a near-halt after Iran struck vessels amid its conflict with the United States and Israel. Bahrain’s initial draft, seen by Reuters and backed by other Gulf Arab states and Washington, explicitly invoked Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which allows the Security Council to authorise measures ranging from sanctions to military force. Diplomats said adoption of such a resolution would have been unlikely, as Iran’s partners Russia and China were expected to veto it if necessary. A Security Council resolution requires at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes from its five permanent members: the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France. The revised text seen by Reuters, which diplomats said is still under negotiation, removes the reference to Chapter VII, but retains language associated with it. It would authorise states to use “all necessary means commensurate with the circumstances” to ensure passage and prevent interference with navigation. The draft also encourages states that rely on maritime routes through the strait to coordinate defensive efforts.

Iran has will to end war end war

o Tehran seeks guarantees

Kuwait’s international airport after a reported drone strike yesterday. – AFPPIC

Shelly Kittleson, a freelancer, by media advocacy groups as well as Al Monitor , one of the news outlets for which she worked. Al-Monitor in a statement said it was “deeply alarmed” by Kittleson’s kidnapping and called for her “safe and immediate release”. “We stand by her vital reporting from the region and call for her swift return to continue her important work,” the news organisation said. Kittleson is a “legitimate TEHRAN: Iran has the “necessary will” to end the war with the United States and Israel, President Masoud Pezeshkian said, stressing that Tehran was seeking guarantees the conflict would not flare up again. The comment by the head of state, which boosted markets in the United States, came after a day of heavy strikes on Iran and followed a tough warning from the powerful Guard Corps. The Guards threatened to retaliate against leading US tech firms such as Google, Meta and Apple from yesterday if more Iranian leaders were killed in “targeted assassinations”. The Guards charged that 18 companies, also including Intel, Tesla and analytics firm Palantir, were complicit in previous killings and warned they “should expect the destruction of their relevant units in exchange for every assassination in Iran”. US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the war on Feb 28, killing Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei and setting off a wave of retaliatory attacks. Trump has since zigzagged on whether Washington plans to further escalate the war that has roiled the world economy, possibly by deploying American ground forces, or try to end it through negotiations with Tehran. Pezeshkian, in a phone call with the president of the European

journalist” with experience in the Middle East and is based in Rome, according to the International Women’s Media Foundation. Johnson said that the State Department had “fulfilled our duty” to warn the journalist about threats and reiterated a warning for Americans to leave Iraq. “The State Department strongly advise all Americans, including members of the press, to adhere to all travel advisories.” – AFP Council, said Iran had “the necessary will to end this conflict, provided that essential conditions are met, especially the guarantees required to prevent repetition of the aggression”. Responding to a 15-point US plan to end the war last week, Tehran had put forward a counterproposal demanding a mechanism guaranteeing that Israel and the US would not return to war. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, speaking earlier after he visited US troops in the Middle East, vowed that “the upcoming days will be decisive. Iran knows that, and there’s almost nothing they can militarily do about it”. Asked about next steps, Hegseth said that “you can’t fight and win a war if you tell your adversary what you are willing to do, or what you are not willing to do, to include boots on the ground”. Trump had threatened on Monday that if Iran didn’t agree to a deal, US forces would “obliterate” all of its oil wells, its main Kharg Island export terminal, and possibly its water desalination plants. On Tuesday, heavy strikes hit Iran, including the central city of Isfahan and Tehran, where AFP journalists heard blasts, with air defences activated. Iranian media reported damage to a religious centre in Zanjan, while the government said airstrikes had hit a plant making cancer drugs and anaesthetics. – AFP

Kittleson in Baghdad on Tuesday hours before her kidnapping. – AFPPIC

Freelance journalist kidnapped in Baghdad

BAGHDAD: An American journalist was kidnapped on Tuesday in Baghdad, the United States said. The State Department said it had warned the journalist of security risks and was working to ensure the American’s release “as soon as possible”. “An individual with ties to a militia group, Kataib Hezballah, believed to be involved in the kidnapping has been taken into custody by Iraqi authorities,” Dylan Johnson, the

assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, wrote on X. Iraq said that authorities intercepted a vehicle that overturned as they tried to flee. “Security forces were able to arrest one of the suspects and seize one of the vehicles used in the crime,” the Iraqi Interior Ministry said in a statement. An Iraqi security source said the abduction occurred in Baghdad. The journalist was identified as