Europe \u2018really wants to keep NATO alive\u2019, says German chancellor
\nGerman Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said that Europe wants to work to keep the NATO alliance functioning, despite apparent growing fissures with the US president over the war on Iran.
\nThe tensions have increased after Germany and other European countries refused to support the US and Israeli war against Iran.
\n\u201cWe are really willing to keep this alliance alive for the future,\u201d Merz said news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
\n\u201cWe know that there are some differences. We know that we are seeing challenges, all of us, but our final goal is to bring this conflict to an end and to guarantee that Iran is not able to produce nuclear weapons,\u201d Merz said.
\n\u201cAnd this goal is a common goal between America and Europe.\u201d
\nUK\u2019s HMS Dragon warship to redeploy to Middle East for potential role in Hormuz
\nA British Royal Navy warship is being sent to the Middle East to be ready to join an international mission to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, according to a Defence Ministry spokesperson quoted by the Press Association news agency.
\n\u201cWe can confirm that HMS Dragon will deploy to the Middle East to pre-position ahead of any future multinational mission to protect international shipping when conditions allow them to transit the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
\n\u201cThe pre-positioning of HMS Dragon is part of prudent planning that will ensure that the UK is ready, as part of a multinational coalition jointly led by the UK and France, to secure the strait, when conditions allow,\u201d they added.
\nHMS Dragon is being sent from the eastern Mediterranean, where it had been defending British bases on Cyprus.
\nIsrael will release two foreign activists abducted from a Gaza-bound flotilla later today, before handing them to immigration authorities for deportation, the rights group representing them has said.
\n\u201cToday, the Shabak Israeli intelligence agency informed Adalah\u2019s legal team that Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) activists and leaders Thiago Avila and Saif Abukeshek would be released from Israeli detention today, Saturday 9 May 2026,\u201d Adalah said in a statement.
\nIt added the pair \u201cwill be handed to Israel\u2019s immigration authorities later today and kept in custody pending their deportation\u201d.
\nSpanish national Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian Thiago Avila were abducted and brought to Israel for questioning last week after their flotilla was intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters off Greece.
\nThe package will help the country confront the economic difficulties stemming from the US-Israeli war on Iran, says Stephane Guimbert, the World Bank\u2019s division director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti.
\nThe package, consisting of $800m from the World Bank and a $200m British guarantee, is to support private sector-led job creation, macroeconomic stability and the green transition. The bank\u2019s board approved it on Friday.
\nThe bank\u2019s share was increased from $500m due to \u201cthe uncertainty in the region and the shock facing Egypt, like other countries, because of the war in Iran\u201d, he said.
\nThe financing is on terms unavailable in commercial markets \u2013 at about 6 percent interest, with a maturity of 30 years and a grace period before repayments begin, Guimbert said.
\nThe operation is the second in a three-part programme. The first was approved in June 2024; a third is planned for next year.
\nOther lenders, including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, are expected to provide complementary parallel financing.
\nWe have been speaking with Muhaned Seloom, an assistant professor of international politics at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, on the road ahead for Iran and the US over the ongoing hostilities in the region.
\nSeloom noted that Washington has gone from a diplomatic approach to war and back to talks now.
\n\u201cToday, the US says that we have achieved some military success, and that we want to translate this somehow into a diplomatic success, and the Iranians are pushing back,\u201d he said.
\nHowever, while Seloom underlined that the US started the war, Washington still possesses balance between deterrence, offensive capabilities and diplomacy.
\nIran, on the other side, does not have many cards, except their control of the Strait of Hormuz, he said.
\n\u201cIran now is much weaker than before the war started in February,\u201d Seloom told Al Jazeera. \u201cThere is a difference between surviving a war and succeeding in the war.\u201d
\nWhile Tehran prefers a diplomatic path, he said, Iran is not willing to return to the status quo without getting \u201csomething more\u201d out of the US.
\nWhat is China\u2019s role in the US-Israel war on Iran?
\nMuhanad Seloom, an assistant professor of international politics at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says the US-Israel war on Iran has affected China\u2019s economic as well as strategic interests.
\nSeloom told Al Jazeera that Beijing did not intervene to back Iran in the war, given the \u201cvery costly\u201d risks of consequences. However, it could not leave Iran alone, either, and let \u201cthe international system look as if it\u2019s only the US acting in it\u201d.
\n\u201cChina has already exercised its right of vetoing,\u201d Seloom said, referring to earlier resolutions tabled in the UN Security Council, cornering Iran on its handling of the Strait of Hormuz.
\n\u201cI do not see China supporting Iran in terms of military capabilities for the time being. But maybe some companies, which have been sanctioned by the US, have provided Iran with technical support,\u201d Seloom added.
\nThe war against Iran that the United States and Israel launched on February 28, 2026, will likely end in a retreat. The US cannot continue the war without producing disastrous consequences. A renewed escalation would likely lead to the destruction of the region\u2019s oil, gas, and desalination infrastructure, causing a prolonged global catastrophe. Iran can credibly impose costs that the US cannot bear and that the world should not suffer.
\nThe US-Israel war plan was a decapitation strike, sold to President Donald Trump by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and David Barnea, the director of the Mossad. The premise was that an aggressive joint US-Israeli bombing campaign would so degrade the Iranian regime\u2019s command structure, nuclear programme, and IRGC senior leadership that the regime would fracture. The US and Israel would then impose a pliable government in Tehran.
\nTrump seems to have been convinced that Iran would follow the same course as had occurred in Venezuela. The US operation in Venezuela in January 2026 removed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in what appears to have been a coordinated operation between the CIA and elements inside the Venezuelan state. The US won a more pliant regime, while most of the Venezuelan power structure remained in place. Trump seems to have believed naively that the same outcome would occur in Iran.
\nWe are receiving new information on the previously reported Israeli drone attack in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh.
\nA young girl, who was previously reported as injured, has died at the Nabih Berri Governmental University Hospital in Nabatieh, after she and her father were targeted in a triple-tap drone attack, according to the country\u2019s National News Agency.
\nThe father was reported killed on the spot in the attack, the agency earlier said, adding that the victims were riding on a motorcycle near al-Sabah High School when the first drone attack struck them, followed by two more.
\nIran\u2019s football federation (FFIRI) has said that the men\u2019s national team will take part in the 2026 World Cup this summer, but demanded that joint hosts the United States, Mexico and Canada agree to its conditions amid the US-Israeli war on the country.
\nThe call comes after Canada refused entry to the federation\u2019s chief last month before the FIFA Congress because of his links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the ideological arm of Iran\u2019s military, which it designated as a \u201cterror\u201d group in 2024.
\nIran\u2019s presence at the tournament, which will take place between June 11 and July 19, has been shrouded in uncertainty since the eruption of war on Iran in February.
\n\u201cWe will definitely participate in the 2026 World Cup, but the hosts must take our concerns into account,\u201d the FFIRI said on its official website. \u201cWe will participate in the World Cup tournament, but without any retreat from our beliefs, culture, and convictions.\u201d
\nThe FFIRI president Mehdi Taj told state TV on Friday that Tehran has 10 conditions for attending the global spectacle, seeking assurances over the country\u2019s treatment. The conditions include visas being granted and respect for the national team staff, the team\u2019s flag and its national anthem during the tournament, as well as demands for high security at airports, hotels and routes to the stadiums where they will play.
\nIran\u2019s near-total internet blackout enters 11th week
\nA nationwide near-total internet blackout imposed by the Iranian authorities has entered its 11th week, according to the monitoring group NetBlocks.
\n\u201cThe censorship measure presents an extraordinary barrier to knowledge, information and communications for Iranians trying to go about their daily lives,\u201d the group said in a post on X.
\nThe heavily restricted internet has affected jobs and businesses across the country.
\n#IranWar #MiddleEastConflict #USIsrael #StraitOfHormuz #NATO #LebanonAttack #GazaFlotilla #WorldCup2026 #InternetBlackout #Geopolitics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Europe \u2018really wants to keep NATO alive\u2019, says German chancellor German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said that Europe wants to work to keep the NATO alliance functioning, despite apparent growing fissures with the US president over the war on Iran. The tensions have increased after Germany and other European countries refused to support the US […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}