17/05/2026

theSun on Sunday MAY 17, 2026

WORLD 8

BRICS split over war in Iran

Zelensky vows revenge after attack KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky promised retribution against Russia on Friday after laying red roses at the rubble of a Kyiv apartment building where a missile strike killed 24 people, including three children. “Ukraine will not allow any of the aggressor’s strikes that take the lives of our people to go unpunished,” Zelensky said after meeting top military and intelligence officials to discuss retaliatory long-range strikes. Zelensky said later in his nightly video address that retaliatory actions had already been approved. He pointed to a strike on an oil refinery that the military said triggered a large fire in the central Russian city of Ryazan. Four people were killed in the Ryazan strike that damaged high-rise apartment buildings, the governor of Russia’s Ryazan region said. Zelensky had earlier laid flowers and spoken to rescue workers at the site of the attack in Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district, on the left bank of the Dnipro River. Kyiv officials declared Friday a day of mourning, with flags at half-mast across the city of three million. Residents brought flowers, stuffed animals and sweets to a makeshift memorial at the destroyed housing block. About 20 Western diplomats came to show solidarity. – Reuters Strike halts busy NY commuter line NEW YORK: About 3,500 workers at New York’s Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) went on strike yesterday after failing to reach a wage agreement, halting the busiest commuter rail system in the United States. The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) serves nearly 300,000 passengers daily and is owned and operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The International Brotherhood of Teamsters union said the strike, the first in 32 years, was launched by five unions. It said the workers had gone three years without raises during the bargaining process. “This strike would not have happened if the MTA and LIRR offered members the reasonable terms the government recommended,”said Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen President Mark Wallace. US President Donald Trump had signed an executive order in January to appoint a second emergency board to mediate and avert work stoppage at LIRR, after the unions asked him to intervene. Trump had initially named a board in September last year to head off the labour dispute. – Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a joint statement with his defence minister that Haddad was an architect of the Oct 7, 2023. Medics in Gaza said at least seven people, including three women and a child, were killed and at least 50 were injured in airstrikes targeting an apartment and a vehicle. Medics in Gaza said the first airstrike targeted an apartment in the Gaza City area of Rimal, killing at least four and wounding several others. A second Israeli airstrike soon after targeted a vehicle on a nearby street, killing three, the medics said. Reuters video footage from the scene showed flames engulfing an apartment in a mostly bombed-out building. Palestinians could be seen pulling at least one body from the wreckage, wrapped in a white plastic tarp. Gaza’s Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said hundreds of people had been living inside the building that was targeted. “The missile was fired without any warning or notification. “We are talking about a number of (dead). We are talking about a big number of wounded, among them families,” Basal said. Israel has escalated its attacks in Gaza in the five weeks since halting its joint bombing with the US in Iran. – Reuters Turkiye and handed over to the Americans. Defence attorney Andre Dalack said it was too early to discuss details of the case. He raised concerns about Al-Saadi’s detainment. “We understand he’s being held in solitary confinement, which we think is both cruel and unnecessary,” Dalack said. – Reuters Shaheen Al Marar, who represented the Gulf country, said the UAE had faced repeated Iranian attacks since Feb 28 targeting civilian and critical infrastructure and held Tehran fully responsible. Al Marar also accused Iran of obstructing maritime routes, including the Strait of Hormuz. He said the UAE did not seek protection from others and was fully capable of deterring what he called “unprovoked aggression”. Members of the grouping had expressed respective national positions and shared a range of ߑ perspectives, India’s statement said. These ranged from the need for an early resolution of the crisis and the value of dialogue and diplomacy to respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, it said. Also figuring in the talks were the importance of upholding international law, ensuring safe and unimpeded maritime commerce through international waterways, and protecting civilian infrastructure and lives. The statement said BRICS ministers “recalled that the Gaza Strip is an inseparable part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory”. They also flagged the importance of unifying the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under the Palestinian Authority. India’s statement, as the bloc’s chair for 2026, said member countries called for the developing world to stick together to address global challenges. – Reuters

Members express national positions, says statement

Without naming the UAE, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told a news conference that a BRICS member blocked some parts of the statement. “We have no difficulty with that certain country, they have not been our target in the war. We only hit American military bases and American military installations that are unfortunately on their soil,” he said, adding that he hoped things would change when BRICS leaders meet later this year. “I hope by the time we come for the summit, they come to a good understanding that Iran is a neighbour, we have to live with each other, we have lived for centuries ߑ and we have to live for centuries to come.”

NEW DELHI: Top diplomats from BRICS nations, including rivals Iran and the United Arab Emirates, failed to issue a joint statement on Friday after a two-day meeting in Delhi, leaving host India to release only a chair’s statement that exposed their differences. Tehran had wanted the grouping of emerging economies to condemn the US Israeli war on Iran and accused US ally the UAE of direct involvement in military operations against it. Iran has struck the UAE with missiles and drones several times since the war began on Feb 28. “There were differing views among some members in regard to the situation in the West ߑ Asia/Middle East region,” India said in the statement and outcome document.

The UAE later said in a Foreign Ministry statement that it categorically rejected Iran’s allegations and what it called attempts to justify attacks on the UAE, saying it reserved its full sovereign, legal, diplomatic and military rights to respond to any threat or hostile act. Deputy Foreign Minister Khalifa Israeli strike targets Hamas military chief

comment on the fate of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, who became the group’s military chief in the Gaza Strip after Israel’s killing of commander Mohammad Sinwar in May 2025.

GAZA: Gaza medics said Israel killed at least seven Palestinians, including a child, in airstrikes on Friday that Israel said targeted Hamas’ armed wing chief. Hamas did not respond to a request for

A first responder escorting a woman and child through the site of a strike in Rimal, Gaza City on Friday. – AFPPIC

Iraqi man faces terror charges in New York court NEW YORK: An Iraqi national accused of involvement in attacks against US interests in Europe has been arrested and sent to the US to face six terrorism-related counts. Al-Saadi is accused of coordinating or supporting nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and the United States, “including his efforts to kill on US soil”, said US Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York.

The charges come amid heightened US scrutiny of Iran-backed militias accused of targeting American personnel and allies across regions. US officials said he was taken into American custody overseas and transported to the US, where he appeared before a magistrate and was ordered detained pending trial. ABC News reported he was detained in

Justice Department prosecutors said the suspect, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, was a senior member of an Iran-backed group and accused him of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organisation.

The US government and independent experts say the Kata’ib Hezbollah group operates at the direction of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.