08/06/2026

MONDAY | JUNE 8, 2026

/thesuntelegram FOLLOW / Malaysian Paper

ON TELEGRAM m RAM

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US eyes Iranian assets for Gulf allies to repair damage

LIMA: Peruvians voted in a tight run-off presidential election yesterday that will either continue Latin America’s rightward shift or buck the trend with a leftist candidate who rattled markets. Voters are choosing between conservative Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former hardline president Alberto Fujimori, who was later jailed for human rights abuses, and leftist Roberto Sanchez, a cowboy-hat wearing candidate emulating imprisoned former president Pedro Castillo’s rural appeal. Polls are showing the candidates in a statistical tie. Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica and Ecuador have all elected right-wing presidents in their latest elections, and Bolivia ended two decades of socialist rule in last year’s presidential contest. Peruvian voters have told pollsters they are overwhelmingly concerned with crime. Rates of homicide and extortion have soared, leading to widespread protests and the ouster of former president Dina Boluarte. Fujimori, who previously tried to distance herself from her father’s authoritarian, tough on-crime policies, won the first round of voting in April as she leaned into his legacy. She compared his fight against left-wing Maoist insurgents to the country’s struggle with organised crime. Sanchez is hoping he can replicate Castillo’s victory by focusing on Peru’s other major political issue, inequality and the vast socioeconomic divide between capital Lima and rural regions. Sanchez has promised an agenda of ambitious reform, including a new constitution, overhaul of mining concessions and boosting investment in rural regions. – Reuters ISRAELI SPYING AT ‘CRITICAL’ THREAT LEVEL: PENTAGON WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has raised its counterintelligence threat level for Israel to its highest level, US media reported on Saturday. The Pentagon’s Defence Intelligence Agency said Israel’s “ability to conduct human espionage and technical collection is at a critical level”, NBC News said, citing US officials. The move came after concerns that Israel had been attempting to spy on top US officials to get information on “the Trump administration’s internal deliberations and decision-making on the conflicts in the Middle East,” the network said. The New York Times cited reports of Israeli efforts to eavesdrop on senior officials, including President Donald Trump’s top negotiator, Steve Witkoff, and the Pentagon’s top policy official, Elbridge Colby. – AFP Peru votes in tight presidential run-off ONE KILLED, FIVE HURT IN ISRAEL SHOOTING ATTACKS KOKHAV YA’IR: At least one person was killed and five others wounded in shooting attacks in Israel yesterday, authorities said, with one of the perpetrators killed. Israel’s emergency service Magen David Adom said a man about 35 years old had died of gunshot wounds. The service also “provided medical treatment and evacuated to hospitals five injured people, including two in serious condition and three in moderate condition, with penetrating injuries to their bodies”, it said. Police said they had located a vehicle suspected of involvement and killed a suspect believed to be responsible near the town of Kokhav Yair, a few kilometres away from the occupied West Bank. Rescuers said attacks also took place in the nearby towns of Tzur Natan and Tzur Yitzhak. Israel’s military said one perpetrator had been killed and searches were ongoing for a second. – AFP

of Hormuz, early on Saturday after shooting down drones launched by Iran that US Central Command says posed a threat to maritime traffic. Two more Iranian attack drones that were threatening shipping in the strait were shot down, the US military said on Saturday. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it retaliated against US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, and Kuwait’s army said it engaged seven ballistic missiles that passed over residential areas, resulting in material damage but no casualties. In Bahrain, sirens sounded and residents were urged to seek shelter. Kuwait and Bahrain condemned the strikes. Iran later said it had hit US bases in both countries with ballistic missiles, but the US military said six missiles were intercepted and a seventh did not reach its target. – Reuters

Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, told CNN that a peace deal to end the three month-old war hinged on the release of US$24 billion (RM96.7 billion) in Iranian assets frozen by the United States. The source did not specify what kind of assets the Treasury was examining. The language used to describe the new measures did not appear limited to frozen assets. The threat to redirect Iranian assets could create a new irritant to a fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran, which was tested again this weekend with strikes by both nations. Peace negotiations appear to have stalled, although a minister from mediator Pakistan travelled to Tehran on Saturday with a letter for Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, ISNA news agency reported. US forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites in Goruk and Qeshm Island, both in the Strait

DUBAI: The US will attempt to redirect Iranian assets to Gulf states for rebuilding and repairs of damage caused by Iran, a source familiar with the matter said, as Tehran followed up a wave of strikes against Kuwait and Bahrain. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has directed a team to assess costs for damage inflicted on Gulf allies by Iran, the source said on Saturday, adding the US will consider using Iranian assets for repairs of any future destruction as well. The disclosure came a day after Mohsen o Pakistani minister visits Tehran with letter for supreme leader

Civil defence forces and volunteers attempt to extinguish a fire in a field in the Palestinian town of Huwara in the occupied West Bank on Saturday after an arson attack by settlers. – AFPPIC

BR I E F S

Palestinian farmers race to harvest wheat AS SAWIYAH: With pitchforks and a makeshift combine the size of a golf cart, Hamad Jazi and his nephews race under the blazing sun to collect wheat from their West Bank field. Shielded by what rights groups describe as impunity from the law, some settlers have harassed rural Palestinian communities, vandalising property and crops, committing arson and sometimes killing.

settlers killed or stole 8,000 goats or sheep in the West Bank in 2026. According to his ministry’s data, 41,000 olive trees, a crop as emblematic to Palestinians as it is ubiquitous in the West Bank’s rocky hills, were damaged by settlers or Israel’s military in 2026. “In the past, when we went out into the fields, the olive harvest was a celebration, the grain harvest was a celebration,” said Jazi. Now, “we live those moments like thieves. We go and ‘steal’ our own olives or our own crops”, he said, complaining that the Israeli military requires him to coordinate with it before entering his fields. Hikmat Abu Ras, head of As-Sawiya’s village council, told AFP that his and neighbouring communities have faced near daily attacks from settlers. He said: “Gates block the entrances to villages, camps, and cities. Movement is restricted. You race against time just to make sure the settler does not come and seize what is on your land.” – AFP

Israeli settlers have recently set fire to crops in the area, and Jazi fears his wheat could suffer a similar fate. Their village of As-Sawiyah, in the centre of the occupied West Bank, sits in a valley dominated by hills on top of which three settlements stand. “The settlers have set fires twice already – yesterday and the day before,” Jazi said. “If you think back 10, 15 or 20 years ago, this season used to be a season of abundance. Today, you are racing against time just to harvest quickly and leave.” Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank in settlements that are illegal under international law, among some three million Palestinians. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

By all metrics, 2026 has been one of the most violent years to date, with an average of six attacks per day, according to data from UN humanitarian agency OCHA. The surge in violence goes hand in hand with the proliferation of settlements in the West Bank, which part of the Israeli political class is threatening to annex. Settlers in rural areas vandalise property and start fires, at times sowing terror in villages, as shown in videos posted on social media, sometimes by the perpetrators themselves. The attacks have sparked criticism inside Israel, where the opposition accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and his far-right allies of turning a blind eye to acts of settler violence. According to Mahmud Fatafta of the Palestinian Authority’s Agriculture Ministry,