DUBAI: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel’s “genocide” of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip should stop “immediately,” state TV reported on Tuesday, a day before US President Joe Biden is due to visit Israel.
Israel has vowed to annihilate the Tehran-backed Hamas movement that rules Gaza after fighters burst into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,300 people, mainly civilians, in the deadliest day in the country’s 75-year-old history.
“No one can confront Muslims and the resistance forces if the Zionist regime’s crimes against Palestinians continue ... the bombardment of Gaza must stop immediately,” Khamenei told a group of students in Tehran.
“The world is witnessing the Zionist regime’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,” he said.
Backing the Palestinian cause has been a pillar of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution and a way the Shiite-dominated country has fashioned itself as a leader of the Muslim world.
Israel, which Tehran refuses to recognize, has long accused Iran’s clerical rulers of stoking violence by supplying arms to Hamas. Tehran says it gives moral and financial support to the group.
“We must respond, we must react to what is happening in Gaza,” Khamenei said, adding that Israeli officials should face trial for their “crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.”
Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip with air strikes that have killed more than 2,800 Palestinians, a quarter of them children, and driven around half of the 2.3 million Gazans from their homes. It has imposed a total blockade on the enclave, blocking food, fuel and medical supplies, which are rapidly running out.
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Iran’s Khamenei says Israel must halt ‘genocide’ of Palestinians in Gaza
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Iran’s Khamenei says Israel must halt ‘genocide’ of Palestinians in Gaza
- Backing the Palestinian cause has been a pillar of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution
US resumes food aid to Somalia
- The United States on Thursday announced the resumption of food distribution in Somalia, weeks after the destruction of a US-funded World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse at Mogadishu’s port
NAIROBI: The United States on Thursday announced the resumption of food distribution in Somalia, weeks after the destruction of a US-funded World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse at Mogadishu’s port.
In early January, Washington suspended aid to Somalia over reports of theft and government interference, saying Somali officials had “illegally seized 76 metric tons of donor-funded food aid meant for vulnerable Somalis.”
US officials then warned any future aid would depend on the Somali government taking accountability, a stance Mogadishu countered by saying the warehouse demolition was part of the port’s “expansion and repurposing works.”
On Wednesday, however, the Somali government said “all WFP commodities affected by port expansion have been returned.”
In a statement Somalia said it “takes full responsibility” and has “provided the World Food Program with a larger and more suitable warehouse within the Mogadishu port area.”
The US State Department said in a post on X that: “We will resume WFP food distribution while continuing to review our broader assistance posture in Somalia.”
“The Trump Administration maintains a firm zero tolerance policy for waste, theft, or diversion of US resources,” it said.
US president Donald Trump has slashed aid over the past year globally.
Somalis in the United States have also become a particular target for the administration in recent weeks, targeted in immigration raids.
They have also been accused of large-scale public benefit fraud in Minnesota, which has the largest Somali community in the country with around 80,000 members.
In early January, Washington suspended aid to Somalia over reports of theft and government interference, saying Somali officials had “illegally seized 76 metric tons of donor-funded food aid meant for vulnerable Somalis.”
US officials then warned any future aid would depend on the Somali government taking accountability, a stance Mogadishu countered by saying the warehouse demolition was part of the port’s “expansion and repurposing works.”
On Wednesday, however, the Somali government said “all WFP commodities affected by port expansion have been returned.”
In a statement Somalia said it “takes full responsibility” and has “provided the World Food Program with a larger and more suitable warehouse within the Mogadishu port area.”
The US State Department said in a post on X that: “We will resume WFP food distribution while continuing to review our broader assistance posture in Somalia.”
“The Trump Administration maintains a firm zero tolerance policy for waste, theft, or diversion of US resources,” it said.
US president Donald Trump has slashed aid over the past year globally.
Somalis in the United States have also become a particular target for the administration in recent weeks, targeted in immigration raids.
They have also been accused of large-scale public benefit fraud in Minnesota, which has the largest Somali community in the country with around 80,000 members.
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