19/05/2026

TUESDAY | MAY 19, 2026

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Gaza aid flotilla intercepted

Iran has responded to latest peace proposal TEHRAN: Iran said yesterday it had responded to a new US proposal aimed at ending the war, adding that exchanges were continuing despite media reports describing Washington’s demands as excessive. Washington and Tehran have been swapping proposals in an effort to end the conflict which broke out on Feb 28. The two sides have held a single round of talks so far amid a fragile ceasefire in place since April 8. “As we announced yesterday, our concerns were conveyed to the American side,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said during a press briefing yesterday, adding that exchanges were “continuing through the Pakistani mediator”, without providing details. Baqaei defended Iran’s demands including the release of Iranian assets frozen abroad and the lifting of long standing sanctions. “The points raised are Iranian demands that have been firmly defended by the Iranian negotiating team in every round of negotiations,” he said. He also defended an Iranian stipulation that the US pay war reparations, describing the conflict as “illegal and baseless”. On the possibility of another military confrontation, Baqaei said Iran was “fully prepared for any eventuality”. On Sunday, Fars news agency said Washington had presented a five-point list, which included a demand for Iran to keep only one nuclear site in operation and transfer its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to the United States. The US had refused to release “even 25%” of Iran’s frozen assets or pay any reparations for war damage, according to Fars. The report said the US had also made clear it would only cease hostilities when Tehran engages in formal peace negotiations. Mehr news agency said “the United States, offering no tangible concessions, wants to obtain concessions that it failed to obtain during the war, which will lead to an impasse in the negotiations”. It described the US conditions as “excessive”. In an earlier proposal, which was sent last week, Iran had called for an end to the war on all fronts, including Israel’s campaign in Lebanon, as well as a halt to a US naval blockade on Iranian ports in place since April 13. It also called for the lifting of all US sanctions on Iran and the release of its assets frozen abroad. Fars said that Iranian proposal had emphasised that Tehran would continue to manage the Strait of Hormuz. – AFP

o Four Israeli warships intercept aid vessels

“We are sure that at least two to three boats” have been stopped, Gorkem Duru, a member of the Turkiye branch of the Global Sumud Flotilla, who is not on board, told AFP. “But some of them continue” towards Gaza, Duru said, adding that “communication links with the ships were cut off”. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the aim of the flotilla was to “serve Hamas, to divert attention from Hamas’s refusal to disarm, and to obstruct progress on Trump’s peace plan”. Under the ceasefire plan proposed by President Donald Trump, which took effect in October and has largely halted the fighting in Gaza, the territory is to be fully demilitarised, including the disarmament of Hamas. The ministry rejected claims that Gaza was facing aid shortages. “The Gaza Strip is flooded with aid. Since October alone, more than 1.58 million tonnes of humanitarian aid and thousands of tonnes of medical supplies have entered Gaza,” it said. Israel controls all entry points into Gaza. – AFP

“We demand safe passage for our legal, non violent humanitarian mission. Governments must act now to stop these illegal acts or piracy meant to maintain Israel’s genocidal siege on Gaza. “Normalisation of the occupation’s violence is a threat to us all.” Around 50 ships had departed from southwestern Turkiye on Thursday as part of the flotilla. Earlier yesterday, Israel vowed to prevent the convoy from reaching Gaza. “Once again, a provocation for the sake of provocation: another so-called ‘humanitarian aid flotilla’ with no humanitarian aid,” the Foreign Ministry posted on X. “This time, two violent Turkish groups – Mavi Marmara and IHH, the latter designated as a terrorist organisation – are part of the provocation,” the ministry said, vowing not to allow any breach of the Israeli blockade on Gaza. “Israel calls on all participants in this provocation to change course and turn back immediately,” it said.

TEL AVIV: Israeli forces intercepted a Gaza bound aid flotilla yesterday after it sailed from Turkiye last week, in the latest attempt to breach Israel’s blockade of the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. The Global Sumud Flotilla is the latest of numerous attempts since the beginning of the Gaza war to deliver aid to the Palestinian territory by sea, and the second within a month, with a previous convoy intercepted by Israeli forces on April 30. “Global Sumud Flotilla is under attack!” the flotilla wrote on X, saying four Israeli warships had approached their vessels. “Military vessels are intercepting our fleet and IOF forces are boarding the first of our boats in broad daylight,” it said, with the flotilla tracker showing several vessels intercepted west of Cyprus.

Turkish protesters carrying a mock boat symbolising the Global Sumud Flotilla as they march towards the US Embassy in Ankara on Sunday. – REUTERSPIC

Israeli strikes kill Islamic Jihad commander and daughter BEIRUT: Israeli strikes killed seven people in Lebanon on Sunday, including an Islamic Jihad commander, Lebanese authorities and state media said, despite a fragile ceasefire. on the outskirts of the city of Baalbek in the country’s east had killed Islamic Jihad commander Wael Abdel Halim and his 17-year old daughter.

evacuation warning on Saturday. Israeli airstrikes hit three of the four villages following the warning, the NNA said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “holding territory, clearing territory, protecting Israel’s communities, but also fighting an enemy that is trying to outsmart us”. “We are facing the challenge of neutralising FPV (First-Person view) drones,” he said, as Hezbollah has increasingly made use of drones. The latest exchanges of fire came after envoys from Israel and Lebanon held a third round of negotiations in Washington and agreed to extend the ceasefire. – AFP

Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to strike widely in southern Lebanon and issues frequent evacuation warnings to towns and villages across the south. Two Israeli strikes also hit the town of Sohmor in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa valley on Sunday. The Israeli army later issued an evacuation warning to four villages near the southern coastal city of Sidon, dozens of kilometres from the border area, which were also subject to an

The Health Ministry published a “preliminary toll” for Israel’s strikes on Sunday, with three people killed in the town of Tayr Felsay, including a child, and two killed in the town of Tayr Debba, including another child. It said 11 people were wounded in those strikes and four more were wounded in strikes in two other southern towns. National News Agency (NNA) said an Israeli missile strike around midnight on an apartment

Spanish court acquits Shakira of tax fraud MADRID: Spain’s High Court has acquitted Colombian pop star Shakira of tax fraud and overturned the €55 million (RM254 million) fine imposed in 2021 by the Spanish tax agency, according to a court document seen by Reuters yesterday. including interest, Shakira’s defence said. The judge ruled that authorities had failed to prove that Shakira spent more than 183 days in Spain in 2011, as required by Spanish law to be considered a tax resident in the country.

Shakira as saying she hoped the ruling would set a precedent for “thousands of ordinary citizens who are abused and crushed every day by a system that presumes them guilty and forces them to prove their innocence while facing financial and emotional ruin”. In November 2023, Shakira reached a deal with prosecutors to avoid a trial in Barcelona. – Reuters

The ruling can still be appealed before the Supreme Court and does not affect tax years after 2011. “This decision comes after an eight-year ordeal that has taken an unacceptable toll, reflecting a lack of rigour in administrative practice,” Shakira’s lawyer, Jose Luis Prada, said in a statement. The same statement quoted

Spain through her relationship with former Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique and had her centre of activities in the Mediterranean country. But the High Court ruled that the fines were unlawful as they were “based on the assumption that the appellant’s tax residence was in Spain for the 2011 fiscal year, a fact which has not been proven”.

Acting on an appeal by the singer, the court ordered the Treasury to reimburse her with over €60 million,

At the time, the tax agency had argued that Shakira was linked to