Iran --- will target US, 'Israel' without
distinction in any attack: Exclusive
October 22nd, 8:03pm
(Al Mayadeen English)
Iran warns it will treat US and Israeli interests as legitimate
targets without distinction in any future aggression ---- as a
senior official highlights Netanyahu’s influence over Trump.
Iran will make no distinction between the US and "Israel" in
the event of any future military aggression, a senior Iranian
security and political official has warned, declaring that
US and Israeli interests will be considered legitimate
targets ------- in defense of Iran’s own interests.
In statements to Al Mayadeen, the official said Tehran’s
previous self-imposed restrictions and constraints
would no longer remain in place, adding that the
scope and nature of potential targets in any
future aggression against Iran would face
no limits.
Any US support for an Israeli attack on Iran would mean
that Tehran would treat US and Israeli targets.. without
distinction, he added.
distinction, he added.
Netanyahu’s influence shapes Trump’s decisions
The senior official further said.. Iran and the international
community had seen the extent of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s influence over US President
Donald Trump’s positions and decisions.
According to the official, Netanyahu’s personal influence
over Trump makes the US president --- willing to do
anything to spare the Israeli prime minister
an electoral defeat.
Trump, he added, was pursuing a course that other key figures
within Washington’s governing establishment did not support
---- warning that he would pay the price for it. In this context,
he recalled recent remarks by US vice president JD Vance,
noting - that they reflect serious disagreements within the
Trump administration on decisions of critical importance.
Vance admits 'lot of mistakes,
fundamental failures' in
US war on Iran
Anadolu Agency had reported that JD Vance acknowledged
“a lot of mistakes and a lot of fundamental failures” in
Washington’s handling of the Iran war, as he faced
questions over the growing human and economic
costs of the war during a CBS News town hall.
Vance was responding to Joey Amor, whose wife, Master Sgt.
Nicole Amor, was among 6 US Army Reserve soldiers killed
in an Iranian strike on a US military site in Kuwait during
the opening hours of the war in late February. At least
21 US service members have been killed ------- and
hundreds wounded - so far.
Vance acknowledged shortcomings in the handling of US
forces, saying, “Sometimes information doesn't filter up
to me,” while pledging to “take every single failure
extremely seriously.”
The vice president also pointed to troop positioning as a
major weakness in the US military’s approach. “I know
that there are some issues with, for example …where
troops were located that we realized was a huge
mistake and that we could do better on. And
we have changed that,” he said.
Asked why Washington had yet to secure a decisive victory
despite President Donald Trump’s initial expectations,
Vance argued that the US had “in some ways …won
decisively,” while acknowledging that the outcome
also depended on Iran’s actions.
“The enemy gets a vote here,” he said.
Source: Al Mayadeen English
________________________________
Israeli army claims new aggression on
Gaza 'only way' to disarm Hamas:
Report
October 22nd, 7:06pm
(PressTV)
The Israeli military reportedly told US officials that
Hamas has rebuilt its combat capabilities in the
besieged Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military, has reportedly told US officials that
Hamas has rebuilt its tunnel network and fighting
capabilities in the besieged Gaza Strip and is
preparing for a renewed confrontation.....
arguing that the Palestinian resistance
movement can only be disarmed
through another full-scale
military aggression.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israeli
military officials presented US Army officers and
Israeli regime officials with an intelligence
assessment claiming that Hamas has no
intention of surrendering its weapons
& is preparing for renewed fighting
in the blockaded strip.
The report comes.. amid the Netanyahu regime’s
reluctance to cooperate with the US-sponsored
20-point plan by President Donald Trump.
Haaretz reported --- that the Israeli assessment
concluded that Hamas could not be disarmed
by an international body and that renewed
military aggression is necessary....... to
dismantle its armed capabilities.
The assessment states that Hamas has reconstructed
its tunnel network and strengthened its weapons
stockpiles and fighting forces in areas of Gaza
that remain under its control.
Israeli estimates put the movement’s operational strength
at approximately 30,000 to 40,000 members, a figure
Israeli media have described as comparable to
its pre-war numbers.
The Israeli regime’s security establishment also
reportedly believes... that Hamas continues to
exercise effective governance across Gaza.
Other Israeli media outlets have raised similar concerns
over the movement’s continued presence as an armed
and political force following two years of devastating
Israeli bombardment & full-scale military aggression.
The Israeli news website Ynet reported that Hamas has
approximately 30,000 personnel across the Gaza Strip,
including administrative employees, lower-level
operatives and members of its military wing.
Hamas had expressed readiness to transfer administrative
authority to a US-backed technocratic body, the National
Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), as
envisaged under the agreement.
However, according to the report, Israel has prevented
the committee from entering the territory and
beginning its work.
Meanwhile, restrictions on Gaza have continued despite
the US-sponsored ceasefire plan. Humanitarian aid
deliveries remain severely limited, while Israeli
forces continue to restrict the entry of
essential medical equipment and
supplies, including wheelchairs.
The Israeli regime has vowed to maintain its military
presence and continue the onslaught in Gaza, while
Hamas has said it will not surrender its weapons
before a process....... toward establishing an
independent Palestinian state begins.
More than 1,500 people have been killed since the Israeli
regime and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas,
which controls Gaza, agreed to a ceasefire mediated by
the regional countries in October 2025..... to end the
Israeli genocide in Gaza that has killed nearly
75,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023.
_____________________________________________
Houthis attacked the building of
the Ministry of Defense of
Saudi Arabia in Riyadh
October 22nd, 12:28pm
(RT.ru)
Members of the Yemeni movement Ansar Allah,
known as the Houthis, attacked the building
of the Ministry of Defense of Saudi Arabia
in Riyadh.
This is reported by Al Masirah.
Ansar Allah also claims to have struck
Saudi airports and the Saudi Aramco
facility in Yanbu.
Earlier, Ansar Allah announced strikes
on Saudi Aramco facilities in
Saudi Arabia.
________________________________________
BBC ‘very compliant to Israel,’ offers
regime’s narrative on Gaza: Insider
October 22nd, 11:16am
(PressTV)
The BBC has been "very compliant to Israel" by promoting
the occupying regime’s narrative regarding the genocide
in Gaza, a senior BBC broadcaster says.
Security guards stand outside the BBC’s London headquarters, which
pro-Palestine activists splashed with red paint in protest of the BBC’s
biased coverage of Israel’s attacks on Gaza. (File photo via Getty)
pro-Palestine activists splashed with red paint in protest of the BBC’s
biased coverage of Israel’s attacks on Gaza. (File photo via Getty)
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been “very
compliant to Israel” by offering the occupying regime’s
narrative on the genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip,
a senior BBC broadcaster has revealed.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the insider told the
Scottish daily newspaper The National --- that the BBC has
been “very compliant to Israel... reporting their arguments
even where it’s screamingly obvious even to viewers that
what's happening in Gaza ---- is an international scandal.”
According to the BBC insider, the London-based public service
broadcaster “has navigated into a position where you can't
use [the word genocide]. And I think that's a mistake.”
The National’s report on Thursday further quoted the unnamed
broadcaster as saying that the BBC has “listened to Israel
very closely and reproduced and reported Israel’s
defense arguments, which is not their role.”
“They should be much more investigative and much more
deliberative about their views,” the source stressed.
More than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the
regime and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas agreed
to a ceasefire mediated by regional countries in October 2025.
The truce aimed to end an Israeli genocidal war on Gaza that
had killed nearly 75,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023.
Last year, the UN Independent International Commission of
Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, concluded
that “Israel has committed genocide against the
Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.”
On June 26, the same commission warned that the Tel
Aviv regime continues to commit “genocide” and
atrocity crimes --- by deliberately targeting
Palestinian children.
However, the unnamed BBC senior broadcaster stressed
that the corporation explicitly refuses to describe the
Israeli aggression against Gazans ...as genocide.
“So many people that are in the mainstream of the charitable
sector of media analysis are comfortable using the word
genocide; the BBC have navigated themselves into a
position where you can't use it. And I think that’s
a mistake,” the source said.
The insider further stressed that “there's a tendency for
the BBC to hide behind objectivity” --- instead of doing
“the core journalism job of bringing truth to power.”
The source noted that BBC staff are afraid to speak out
“because of the threat of job losses and restructuring,
and that there’s a malaise within the organization ---
where people feel troubled...... by how things
are progressing.”
This is not the first time the BBC has been condemned
for its biased reporting on the Israeli-committed
genocide in Gaza.
According to The National, media analysis from various
watchdogs and campaign groups has consistently
found a pro-Israel bias in BBC reporting - since
October 2023.
In a detailed report titled “Truth Under The Rubble: Media
In The Time Of Genocide,” released on July 21, UN
Special Rapporteur for Palestine ------ Francesca
Albanese, leveled heavy criticism at the BBC,
denouncing the corporation for being part
of an interconnected system that is
“intrinsic to genocide.”
She found -- that the Western media “camouflaged” Israeli
responsibility in headlines -- with the BBC facing the most
criticism, as it was found to do so in 83% of its headlines.
The UN report also found that in “more than 100 documented
incidents,” BBC presenters “dismissed assertions that Israel
was committing genocide”, while failing to report the Israeli
leaders’ “genocidal statements.”
“Media references to the Nakba, to decades of occupation and
related brutalities, to the illegality and continued settlement
expansion, and to the 19-year blockade of Gaza are absent
or minimized,” Albanese said in her report, adding that
“October 7, 2023, [is] presented as the origin
of hostilities.”
According to the special rapporteur, genocide depends
not only on the destruction of human beings, but also
on the destruction of the political, moral, and
evidentiary conditions that make that
destruction visible, intelligible -----
and contestable.
_________________________________
Fragmentation of the West Bank
_________________________________
Fragmentation of the West Bank
denounced by military controls
Ramallah, October 22nd, 7:17am
(Prensa Latina)
The secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative,
Mustafa Barghouti, denounced today that Israeli forces
have turned the occupied West Bank into "fragmented
prisons", while settler attacks ------- transform it into
a "battlefield".
In a statement... Barghouti said that more than 1,300 military
checkpoints, most of them closed, isolate Palestinian towns
and villages and hamper the economic, educational and
health services.
He also noted --- that military incursions, mass arrests, home
demolitions and restrictions on farmers' access to their land
aggravate the situation, particularly during the current olive
harvest season.
The Palestinian leader ....accused Israel of using settler groups
to push for settlement expansion ..and said its attacks include
land grabs, burning and destroying olive trees, burning homes
and properties, as well as attacks on farmers.
According to Barghouti, these actions seek to displace the
Palestinian population --- and facilitate the annexation of
territories. He further argued --- that the resistance of
Palestinian communities and popular committees
constitutes an obstacle to these objectives.
He warned that Israel may be taking advantage of
international attention focused on the regional
situation --- to intensify its operations in the
occupied Palestinian territories.
Faced with this scenario, he called on the international
community to adopt measures against the occupation
and settlements, including sanctions and boycotts,
and urged Palestinians - inside and outside their
territories - to support the communities of the
Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Attacks by Israeli forces and settlers on Palestinian farmers
increase during the olive harvest, with reports of assaults,
restrictions on access to their fields, the theft of crops
and the destruction of trees.
Palestinian data cited in the report puts the number of
Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East
Jerusalem, at about 750,000, distributed in
194 settlements and about 400 outposts.
Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian
territories are considered illegal ------- under
international law.