Trump first called on Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday. Otherwise, the US Army will bomb Iranian power plants, the US President threatened. On Monday he extended the deadline by five days. Iran had threatened to attack seawater desalination plants in the Gulf region in the event of attacks on its energy infrastructure. This could trigger a humanitarian catastrophe.
Two Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon
Two Israeli soldiers were killed in Lebanon during the day. Israel’s army reported the death of a 21-year-old in the evening, and in the morning it had already announced the death of another soldier, also 21 years old. According to military information, four soldiers have been killed so far in the Israeli ground operations that recently began in the south of the neighboring country.
According to Israeli media reports, one of the two soldiers was killed in a rocket attack by the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. According to the army, other soldiers were also injured in the incident. The other soldier was killed in a shootout with members of the Iran-backed Shiite organization, local media reported.
After about a year of war between Israel and Hezbollah, a ceasefire was agreed in November 2024. After the Iran war began almost a month ago, Hezbollah resumed its attacks on Israel, and Israel responded with heavy air strikes and ground operations in its northern neighbor.
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Donald Trump seems to want a deal in the Iran war and is at least publicly optimistic. The Iranian regime is militarily inferior but refuses to negotiate. What’s behind it? Read the full article here.
Iran lowers minimum age for security forces to twelve years
Around a month after the start of the Iran war, the authorities in Tehran lowered the minimum age for volunteer security forces in the capital to twelve years. Rahim Nadali, a representative of the Revolutionary Guards, announced this in a televised speech on Thursday. There are “a very large number of volunteers” among the youth who want to “contribute to the resistance front against the great tyrant,” Nadali said, using a term coined by the Iranian leadership for the United States.
The volunteers’ missions include collecting security-related information and patrols. The measure is related to the increased security presence in the capital since the beginning of the war. The authorities have set up numerous checkpoints there to prevent possible protests against the Islamic Republic.
The controls are carried out primarily by the so-called Basij militias, a paramilitary volunteer force with an estimated 600,000 members nationwide.
Iran rejects Trump’s ultimatum – he reacts
According to Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran will not bow to any ultimatum from US President Donald Trump. “No one can give Iran and Iranians an ultimatum,” he said on Platform
