Israel warns residents of Lebanon’s Tyre to evacuate

Confiscations of assets belonging to exiled Iranians will weaken their protests in front of the Islamic Republic’s embassies overseas, a judge said on Tuesday.

“When an expatriate sees that a home, shop or any other asset they owned in Tehran, Isfahan or any other Iranian city has been seized, anti-Iran gatherings outside embassies of European and American countries clearly become emptier, weaker and more hopeless,” said the head of Isfahan province’s judiciary, according to judiciary-linked Mizan News.

Asadollah Jafari described the seizures as a judicial tool to counter what he called “the enemy’s economic and media war.”

Continue reading

“When an expatriate sees that a home, shop or any other asset they owned in Tehran, Isfahan or any other Iranian city has been seized, anti-Iran gatherings outside embassies of European and American countries clearly become emptier, weaker and more hopeless,” said the head of Isfahan province’s judiciary, according to judiciary-linked Mizan News.

Asadollah Jafari described the seizures as a judicial tool to counter what he called “the enemy’s economic and media war.”

Iranian judicial authorities have been ordering the seizure of assets belonging to dozens of people, many living abroad, over allegations of cooperation with Israel and actions against national security.

Since the January protests, Iranians abroad have held regular demonstrations outside Iran’s embassies and consulates in Europe, North America and elsewhere, in support of protesters inside Iran and against the Islamic Republic’s crackdown.

Jafari said the confiscation of assets belonging to expatriates are aimed at having a “deterrent effect.”

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the pilots involved in an incident in the Strait of Hormuz were fine and that the United States would issue a report on the incident.

"The pilots are fine... We are going to issue a report tomorrow, but the pilots are fine," he said en route to White House.

Trump said he had a “very good conversation” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and did not blame him for hitting back after Israel was attacked by Iran.

“We had a very good conversation and he was hit and he hit back. And I can't blame him for that,” Trump said. “They were going back and forth and now they both agreed, through me, to stop.”

He added that the United States was close to reaching a deal with Iran, arguing that an agreement would be more effective than further bombing.

“If we go and bomb, which we can do very easily if we want, and we spend another two or three weeks bombing, they’ll have nothing left whatsoever,” Trump said.

“But you won’t have the strait open for months,” he said. “If we do the bombing, a lot of people are going to be killed. Who wants to do that? I don’t.”

US forces did not join Israel’s latest attacks on Iran and Lebanon, the Financial Times reported, citing a US defense official.

The official said the United States did launch interceptors to defend its troops in Israel.

The report described the move as a sign of "Washington’s displeasure at the last strikes on Lebanon and Iran."

A US Army Apache helicopter went down near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday and its two crew members were safely rescued, The New York Times reported, citing two people briefed on the incident.

The cause was not immediately clear, with one of the people saying the helicopter may have been shot down by Iranian fire, suffered mechanical failure or encountered another problem.

The incident came after days of escalating and easing hostilities in the region, as Israel and Iran exchanged strikes before stepping back.

The Trump administration had not disclosed the incident by the time the Times contacted the White House for comment, the report said.

"The AH-64 Apache gunship, which is armed with Hellfire missiles, is one of the most fearsome types of aircraft operating in the region. They patrol the strategic waterway in part to deter small-boat attacks and to shoot down drones," read the report.