Daily News Pakistan

Iran's Parliament speaker identifies the Strait of Hormuz as the Islamic Republic's principal strategic asset, stressing that the country will not retreat from its sovereign rights over the vital waterway. Speaking in a televised interview on Tuesday, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said a recently negotiated memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States provides only a temporary exemption from fees for maritime services in the strait and does not alter Iran's position on the issue of sovereignty. "These are our territorial waters," he said. "We will not allow the United States to create controversy or sophistry by claiming that Iran has militarized the Strait of Hormuz." He added that Iran "will never, under any circumstances, retreat from this position." Qalibaf described the waterway as "a divine gift that God granted us during this war" and "our greatest instrument of power." Iran closed the waterway to enem...

Iranian and US negotiating teams were due in Doha this week, but Iran said on Monday no meeting had been scheduled as weekend missile fire from both sides tested the interim ceasefire to end the four-month-old war. US President Donald Trump is sending his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his envoy Steve Witkoff to lead the negotiating team, according to his press secretary Karoline Leavitt. While Iran is sending its technical delegation to Qatar this week, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said this had "no relation" to the Americans' visit and no talks between the two sides were scheduled. "We will not have any negotiation meetings at any level with the American side in the coming days," Baghaei said. The disagreement over whether the sides would even meet underscored the fragility of a June 17 accord to pause a conflict that has disrupted global oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz and created a political headache for Trump ahead of November'...

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei has called on Iran’s Judiciary to pursue and restore the nation’s rights that have been violated as a result of the US-Israeli wars of aggression since last year. In a Sunday message issued on the anniversary of the martyrdom of Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti and his companions, designated as the Judiciary Week, Ayatollah Khamenei said one of the most important legal and judicial issues facing the entire Iranian nation at the present time is pursuing and restoring those rights violated by “international criminals and arrogant and aggressive powers.” The Leader said that safeguarding the rights of the Iranian people extends beyond individual legal matters and includes defending the country’s collective rights against crimes committed by foreign aggressors. He said the Judiciary in the Islamic Republic has the responsibility to protect people’s rights, revive public rights and legitimate freedoms, combat corruption, enfor...

The death toll from twin earthquakes in Venezuela more than doubled on Friday to 589, interim president Delcy Rodriguez said, as rescuers boosted by international teams raced to find survivors beneath collapsed buildings. Rescuers used heavy machinery but also just bare hands in a race to pluck out people caught under rubble in the earthquake zone west of the capital Caracas. At one of the flattened buildings, AFP saw workers using sledgehammers to break the debris and calling for "absolute silence" to detect cries from survivors. However, the abrupt increase in the official toll was only expected to keep rising. "Regrettably, we now have 589 people who died," Rodriguez told a televised meeting with military and civilian officials. The previous official toll had been 235, while Health Minister Carlos Alvarado said late Thursday that another 4,300 people were listed as injured. Help has begun to arrive, with Salvadoran, Swiss and Mexican rescue teams already on ...

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf says the Islamabad memorandum of understanding “became a declaration of America’s defeat,” emphasizing that the agreement was not the result of pressure but of Iran’s resistance and dignity. Speaking Wednesday at the 20th Conference of the Parliamentary Union of OIC Member States in Baku, Azerbaijan, Qalibaf said the MoU demonstrated that dialogue succeeds when the other side abandons attempts to impose its will on a civilized nation. “The Islamabad memorandum of understanding became a declaration of America’s defeat,” he stated. Qalibaf emphasized that the fierce resistance of Iran’s Armed Forces and the people’s heroic stand imposed heavy costs on the US and the “fake Israeli regime.” He noted that the war was not merely a military confrontation but “an organized effort to change regional strategic balances and impose will upon a free nation.” The United States and Israel launched an unprovoked war against Iran on February 28, ass...

Foreign Minister of Iran Seyed Abbas Araghchi has said the tireless Pakistani and Qatari mediation has delivered major progress to end Lebanon War. In a post on his X handle today, he said oil and petrochemical exports are waived, blockade lifted, some frozen assets released and major reconstruction and development plan have been launched for Iran.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday he would resign, with a new leader to be in place ​by the time parliament returns in September, paving the way for Britan to have its seventh leader in 10 years. Less than ‌two years after he won a landslide election victory that promised to end chaos in British politics, Starmer said it was clear that his party wanted him to go.  He said nominations for anyone to replace him would open on July 9. However his rival Andy Burnham is the clear frontrunner. "The question my party is asking now is whether I am ​best placed to lead us into the next general election, I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and ​I accept that answer with good grace," he said. The threat to Starmer, which had ⁠been building for months, increased sharply on Friday when Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, decisively won a parliamentary election to return to Westminster, beating a candidate ​from Nigel Farage's Reform UK pa...