04/04/2026

SATURDAY | APR 4, 2026

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UN delays vote authorising force to protect Hormuz strait

Kuwaiti air defence systems

ISTANBUL: stated yesterday that its air defence systems were responding to missile and drone attacks, Anadolu Ajansi reported. The Kuwaiti army said explosions heard in parts of the country were the result of air defence systems engaging “enemy targets”. It did not specify the source of the attacks or provide further details but called on the public to follow official safety instructions. On Thursday, Kuwait’s armed forces said they detected and dealt with two cruise missiles and 13 hostile drones over Kuwaiti airspace during the previous 24 hours, with no casualties or material damage reported. The region has been on alert since the United States and Israel launched an air offensive against Iran on Feb 28. – Bernama-Anadolu responding to missile attacks Kuwait

and Chinese vetos, the text “faces tall odds to make it through the Security Council”, said International Crisis Group analyst Daniel Forti. “It is hard to see them supporting a resolution that treats stability in the strait exclusively as a security issue, instead of one that also grapples with the need for a durable political end to the hostilities.” Normally, around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Its near-total closure is impacting global supplies of important commodities including oil, liquefied natural gas and fertiliser, leading to sharp rises in energy prices. Security Council mandates authorising member states to use force are relatively rare. During the Gulf War, a 1990 vote allowed a US-led coalition to intervene in Iraq, while in 2011 a similar vote permitted Nato’s intervention in Libya. – AFP

France’s Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont said on Thursday “it is up to the council to quickly devise the necessary defensive response” after members voted in March to condemn Iran’s blocking of the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron said a military operation to free the waterway is “unrealistic”. It is not certain that Russia and China, who both wield veto powers, will back the draft resolution. “Authorising member states to use force would amount to legitimising the unlawful and indiscriminate use of force, which would inevitably lead to further escalation of the situation and lead to serious consequences,” said Chinese Ambassador Fu Cong. Russia, a long-time ally of Tehran, has denounced what it calls one-sided measures. Considering the possible Russian UN

o Final draft allows member states to use ‘all defensive means necessary and commensurate with circumstances’

GENEVA: The United Nations (UN) Security Council has postponed a vote scheduled for yesterday on authorising the use of “defensive” force to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian attacks, according to the official programme. The 15-member body was set to vote yesterday morning on a draft resolution brought by Bahrain, but by Thursday night the schedule shifted. The reason given was that the UN observes Good Friday as a public holiday, according to diplomatic sources, despite this fact being known when the vote was first announced. No new date has been given for voting on the draft. Iran has placed a stranglehold on the key shipping lane, threatening fuel supplies and roiling the global economy, in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes that triggered the month-old Middle East war. “We cannot accept economic terrorism affecting our region and the world. The whole world is being affected by the developments,” said Bahrain’s UN Ambassador Jamal Alrowaiei this week. He said the text, which has gone through several amendments and is supported by the United States, “comes at a critical juncture”. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for countries struggling with fuel shortages to “go get your own oil” in the Strait of Hormuz, adding that US forces would not help them. A sixth and final draft, seen by AFP, allows member states, either unilaterally or as “voluntary multinational naval partnerships”, to use “all defensive means necessary and commensurate with the circumstances”. It applies to the strait and adjacent waters to “secure transit passage and deter attempts to close, obstruct or otherwise interfere with international navigation through the Strait of Hormuz”. The measure would last for a TEHRAN: On Thursday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called on international health organisations and doctors worldwide to respond to what he described as a “crime against humanity” following attacks on medical facilities in Iran. “What message does attacking hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and the Pasteur Institute (of Iran) as a medical research centre convey? “As a specialist physician, I urge the World Health Organisation, the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and physicians worldwide to respond to this crime against humanity.”

period of at least six months. The draft resolution has been molded in a bid to rally several countries that have appeared skeptical, including Russia, China and France. Revised wording no longer explicitly invokes Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which allows the Security Council to authorise armed force to restore peace. The latest version, which was scheduled to be voted on at 11am (1500 GMT) yesterday before the postponement, also emphasises the defensive nature of any intervention, a stipulation that seems to have alleviated French concerns.

Iranians during “Sizdeh Bedar” (Nature Day) gathering in front of Tehran’s Mellat park on Thursday, the same day Trump vowed to bomb the Islamic republic ‘back to the Stone Ages’. – AFPPIC

Iran decries strikes on medical facilities as ‘crime against humanity’ Iranian authorities said airstrikes have damaged the Pasteur Institute, warning that the attack poses risks to public health and international medical cooperation. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei condemned launched a joint offensive on Iran on Feb 28, killing more than 1,340 people. Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel as well as Jordan, Iraq and Gulf countries hosting US military assets. Washington’s terms. The law experts said in the letter the conduct of US forces and statements by senior US officials “raise serious concerns about violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including potential war crimes”. “stupid rules of engagement”. The letter was published on the website of policy journal Just Security. The experts said they are “seriously concerned about strikes that have hit schools, health facilities and homes“, noting a strike on a school in Iran on the war’s first day.

Over 100 international law experts in the United States signed an open letter on Thursday saying American strikes on Iran may amount to war crimes, after US President Donald Trump reiterated his threats this week to strike Iran’s power and desalination plants. Trump said on Wednesday the war could escalate if Iran did not give in to

the strike as “heartbreaking, cruel, despicable and utterly outrageous”. “The American-Israeli aggressors have attacked the Pasteur Institute of Iran, the oldest and most prestigious research and public health centre in Iran and the entire Middle East.” Regional tensions have escalated since the United States and Israel

The US military said in March it elevated the investigation into a Feb 28 strike on an Iranian girls’ school after media reports revealed that the probe showed US forces were likely responsible. The Iranian Red Crescent says 175 were killed in the strike. – Reuters

The letter particularly noted a mid-March comment from Trump in which he said the United States may conduct strikes on Iran “just for fun”. It also cited comments from Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth from early March, in which he said the United States does not fight with