Israel’s offensive on Iran is a threat to everyone says Jordan’s King to EU parliament

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Updated 17 June 2025
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Israel’s offensive on Iran is a threat to everyone says Jordan’s King to EU parliament

AMMAN: Israel’s expanded offensive on Iran is a threat to everyone, said Jordan’s King Abduallah II to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

“There is no telling where the boundaries of this battleground will end… the attacks on Iran threaten a dangerous escalation in our region and beyond,” he said.  

“If our global community fails to act decisively we become complicit in rewriting what it means to be human. If Israeli bulldozers continue to illegally demolish Palestinian homes, olive trees and infrastructure, so too will they flatten the rails that defy moral grounds,” he added. 

He reiterated the need for the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state and the importance of granting Palestinians the right to freedom and statehood. 

“Global security won’t be assured until the global community acts to end the three-year war in Ukraine and the world’s longest and most destructive flashpoint, the eight-decade-long Palestinian Israeli conflict,” said AlHussein.

The King cited the failure of international law and intervention in Gaza and said what was considered an atrocity 20 months ago has now become routine. 

“Weaponizing famine against children, targeting of health workers, journalists and children have all become normalized after the failure of the international community,” he said. 

Europe’s leadership will be vital in choosing the right course of history, said the King and assured Jordans position in its support to the EU.

“This conflict must end and the solution is rooted in international law. The path to peace has been walked before, and it can be walked again if we have the courage to choose it and the will to walk it together,” he concluded.

On Tuesday morning, Israel warned hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate the middle of Iran’s capital as Israel’s air campaign on Tehran appeared to broaden on the fifth day of an intensifying conflict.

Israel on Friday said it targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders at the start of what it warned would be a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military operation on Iran would “continue for as many days as it takes” to “roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival.”

Since then, Iran has launched retaliatory attacks on TelAviv with some missiles intercepted before impact and some striking buildings in Israel. 

Health authorities reported that 1,277 people were wounded in Iran. Iranians also reported fuel rationing.

The conflict has also forced most countries in the Middle East including Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon to close their airspace. Dozens of airports have stopped all flights or severely reduced operations, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded and others unable to flee the conflict or travel home. 


UN peacekeepers say Israeli forces fired on them in southern Lebanon

Updated 11 December 2025
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UN peacekeepers say Israeli forces fired on them in southern Lebanon

  • “Yesterday, peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line were fired upon by IDF soldiers in a Merkava tank,” UNIFIL said
  • It said that both the peacekeepers and the Israeli tank were in Lebanese territory

BEIRUT: The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said Wednesday that Israeli forces fired on its peacekeepers a day earlier in the country’s south, urging Israel’s army to “cease aggressive behavior.”
It is the latest such incident reported by the peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, where UNIFIL acts as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon and has been working with Lebanon’s army to support a year-old truce between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.
“Yesterday, peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line were fired upon by IDF (Israeli army) soldiers in a Merkava tank,” a UNIFIL statement said, referring to the de facto border.
“One ten-round burst of machine-gun fire was fired above the convoy, and four further ten-round bursts were fired nearby,” the statement said.
It said that both the peacekeepers and the Israeli tank were in Lebanese territory at the time of the incident and that the Israeli military had been informed of the location and timing of the peacekeeping patrol in advance.
“Peacekeepers asked the IDF to stop firing through UNIFIL’s liaison channels... Fortunately, no one was injured,” it said.
Last month UNIFIL said Israeli soldiers shot at its troops in the south, while Israel’s military said it mistook blue helmets for “suspects” and fired warning shots.
In October, UNIFIL said one of its members was wounded by an Israeli grenade dropped near a UN position in the country’s south, the third incident of its kind in just over a month.
“Attacks on or near peacekeepers are serious violations of (UN) Security Council Resolution 1701,” UNIFIL said on Wednesday, referring to the 2006 resolution that formed the basis of the November 2024 truce.
“We call on the IDF to cease aggressive behavior and attacks on or near peacekeepers working to rebuild stability along the Blue Line,” the peacekeepers said.
Israel carries out regular attacks on Lebanon despite the truce, usually saying it is targeting sites and operatives belonging to Hezbollah, which it accuses of rearming.
It has also kept troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.
On Saturday, a UN Security Council delegation visiting Lebanon urged all parties to uphold the ceasefire.
It emphasized that the “safety of peacekeepers must be respected and that they must never be targeted,” after gunmen on mopeds attacked UNIFIL personnel last week.