标签： Asia

Fresh claims from a senior official within Somalia’s internationally recognized government have pulled back the curtain on an undeclared Israeli military presence in the breakaway region of Somaliland, stirring new friction across the Horn of Africa and the broader Middle East. The disclosure comes months after Israel made a historic and widely condemned decision to grant formal recognition to Somaliland, a self-declared independent state that has not received endorsement from the United Nations or nearly any sovereign nation. In an exclusive interview with Middle East Eye, the senior Somali government source outlined that the deployment of a 50-strong Israeli military contingent took place in early 2024, shortly after Israel resumed open military conflict with Iran in late February. To evade detection and integrate seamlessly into the local population, Israeli military commanders specifically selected troops of African descent, the majority of whom have Ethiopian heritage, the official added, citing intelligence gathered by Somali security agencies. Israel’s path to formal diplomatic ties with Somaliland began in December 2023, when it became the first country in the world to recognize the region’s independence. That unilateral move immediately drew sweeping condemnation from nearly every government across the African continent and the Middle East, as it upends longstanding international consensus on Somalia’s territorial integrity. By April 2024, Israel had completed the first step of formal diplomatic representation, appointing Michael Lotem as its inaugural ambassador to Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa. When Middle East Eye reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the allegations of a secret troop deployment, military officials declined to address the claims directly, stating that the matter falls under the jurisdiction of the country’s political leadership, rather than military spokespeople. Outlets including MEE also attempted to secure a response from Somaliland’s government, but those requests have so far gone unanswered. While the Israeli government has not confirmed the deployment of troops, senior Israeli officials have openly acknowledged the long history of covert security cooperation between the two sides. During a public meeting with visiting Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi this week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed that discrete collaboration has been ongoing for years, operating outside of public view. “For many years, we cooperated under the radar in a series of operations that will remain classified,” Katz said. “Now we are determined to bring our security cooperation to new heights, for the benefit of both peoples and for the benefit of stability in the region.” Earlier this month, CNN reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the arrangement, that Somaliland has granted Israel access to an additional military facility. This site, the report claims, could be used as a refueling and logistics hub for Israeli aircraft conducting long-range missions targeting Iran. Regional security analysts who specialize in Horn of Africa politics have further speculated that Israel is actively pursuing a permanent naval base along Somaliland’s Red Sea coast. Such a base would position Israel to more effectively counter growing threats from Houthi militants in Yemen, who have targeted commercial shipping in the Red Sea in recent months. In comments released Wednesday, Somaliland’s Defense Minister Mohamed Yusuf Ali denied persistent claims that Israel maintains a military base on Somaliland territory. At the same time, he did not downplay the scope of current bilateral security engagement, confirming that Israeli personnel are supporting Somaliland’s security forces by providing training for both local police and military units. The developing situation has heightened concerns across the region, with many governments warning that deepening Israeli military involvement in Somaliland threatens to destabilize the already fragile security environment in the Horn of Africa and undermine regional efforts to maintain Somalia’s territorial unity.

A fresh round of U.S.-Iran peace negotiations in Switzerland has collapsed abruptly after former President Donald Trump issued a series of unprecedented, incendiary threats against Iran, prompting the Iranian negotiating team to walk out of the talks and demand a formal apology before they will return to the table.

The crisis unfolded after Iran announced it would re-close the Strait of Hormuz — a strategic global oil chokepoint critical to international energy markets — over an intensified Israeli military assault on southern Lebanon that violates an existing ceasefire memorandum of understanding (MOU) covering all regional fronts. In a public tirade Sunday, Trump issued a cascade of threats: he warned Iran would cease to exist as a sovereign state if it followed through on closing the strait, explicitly threatened to assassinate Iranian negotiators, and for the first time publicly pledged a full U.S. military invasion to occupy the entire country.

According to Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst, who reported on Trump’s comments, the U.S. leader told Iranian negotiators that if they closed the strait — a move Iran first announced Saturday — “you won’t even make it back to their f***ing country,” a threat widely interpreted as a reference to targeted assassinations of Iranian officials that have already occurred during the early phases of the ongoing conflict.

Multiple international outlets confirm that the threats directly violated the first clause of the negotiated MOU governing the talks. In response, Iranian negotiators filed a formal complaint with Pakistani and Qatari mediators, who have been facilitating the closed-door discussions at a Swiss mountain resort, before leaving the venue immediately.

In a blunt response to the threats, Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf dismissed Trump’s rhetoric as empty, stating that his delegation does not take American threats seriously. This pattern of escalatory rhetoric followed by no action is nothing new: over recent months, Trump has repeatedly issued extreme threats to wipe out Iran’s entire civilization and destroy the country to pressure Tehran into making concessions, yet has never followed through on the warnings even as Iran has maintained its negotiating position.

“Don’t they think that if their threats had worked, they wouldn’t have ended up in today’s desperate situation?” Ghalibaf asked. He added that the U.S. would be “better be more careful with their statements,” noting that “our armed forces are ready to respond in a different way. No matter what they say, we are the ones who act.”

While the Iranian delegation has left the negotiation venue, indirect talks continue through participating mediators. According to Lebanese outlet Al Mayadeen, the Iranian team has set two non-negotiable conditions for returning to the table: a formal apology from Trump for his threats, and a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory. The Israeli government, for its part, is reportedly considering limited withdrawals from parts of southern Lebanon’s buffer zone, per senior Israeli sources cited by Channel 12, and the officials added that Washington has not pressured Israel for a full pullout.

Sunday’s outburst marks a sharp, sudden reversal from just one week prior, when Trump signaled a major shift by acknowledging Iran’s sovereign right to enrich uranium for civilian nuclear energy, a key longstanding Iranian demand that the U.S. has previously rejected. Analysts say the sudden escalation was triggered by comments from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who reaffirmed that Iran would never surrender its right to enrichment and predicted the U.S. would ultimately be forced to accept this position. In response, Trump reportedly warned Pezeshkian to “watch his mouth” and “shape up,” threatening a full U.S. takeover of remaining Iranian territory if he did not comply.

This latest threat of full occupation stands in stark contradiction to Trump’s own recent comments, in which he acknowledged that extending the war would trigger a major U.S. economic catastrophe, and even acknowledged that limited ground operations — such as a proposed mission to seize Iranian uranium facilities — would be too costly in lives and resources to be justified. The ongoing war with Iran is already deeply unpopular with the U.S. public, even without the deployment of American ground troops: recent polling shows a majority of Republican voters oppose deploying ground troops to escalate the conflict, and senior U.S. military leaders have already shelved plans to seize strategic Iranian sites including Kharg Island out of fear of massive American casualties.

In another controversial remark, Trump told Yingst that the U.S. could position itself as the “guardian angel” of the Strait of Hormuz, collecting tolls from commercial shipping and seizing oil from exporting nations that use the waterway. He offered no details on how the U.S. would secure control of the strait to enact this plan.

Iran’s decision to threaten closing the strait came in direct response to Israel’s deepened occupation and intensified bombing of southern Lebanon, actions that violate the MOU’s ceasefire provisions. Ending Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon is a non-negotiable red line for Tehran in the peace talks: the Israeli campaign has killed more than 4,000 people and displaced over 1.2 million Lebanese civilians from their homes in the region.

Off the record, Trump has privately acknowledged that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deliberately using the Lebanon campaign to sabotage the ceasefire and drag the U.S. into a full-scale regional war. In his conversation with Yingst, Trump acknowledged he was “disappointed Israel can’t put Hezbollah away,” adding that Israel “can’t do anything without knocking buildings down.” He also noted he is close to granting Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, former leader of al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, permission to lead operations against Hezbollah.

Even as Trump has publicly and privately criticized Israel’s actions and accused Netanyahu of undermining peace efforts, he has taken no concrete action to force Israel to comply with the terms of the ceasefire MOU. Analysts warn that this contradictory approach from the White House puts the entire peace process at severe risk.

“The mixed messages coming out of the White House are going to make it much harder to end the war, and could in fact spark further conflict,” noted Jeet Heer, a staff writer at *The Nation*.

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, described Israel’s ongoing military escalations as “an existential threat” to the U.S.-Iran peace process. He told ABC News that Iran’s threat to close the strait ahead of the Geneva talks was intended to signal how seriously Tehran views its demand for an Israeli withdrawal, clarifying the stakes for all parties.

“Israel would prefer for this war to continue until you have a complete defeat of the Iranians, which, of course, is not in the cards,” Parsi explained. “The Israelis sold this war to Trump as a quick, easy fix to the region’s problems that would take no more than four days, and they were dead wrong. Now, Trump is recognizing that U.S. interests necessitate that he pull out of this war and strikes this deal, but the Israelis are trying to sabotage it because they are afraid they’re going to be left out, that the balance in the region is going to shift against their interests. They’re willing to essentially jeopardize their relationship with the United States over this.”

In a landmark ruling that closes another key chapter in South Korea’s post-2024 political upheaval, a Seoul district court handed down a 25-year prison sentence Monday to former justice minister Park Sung-jae, finding him guilty of actively aiding ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived, unlawful 2024 declaration of martial law.

The Seoul Central District Court confirmed that Park occupied a central coordinating role in Yoon’s bid to consolidate power, which unfolded after the president imposed martial law on December 3, 2024 amid a years-long political deadlock with liberal lawmakers who controlled the National Assembly. Court documents outline that Park ordered officials within his ministry to evaluate available detention space at national correctional facilities, a step explicitly taken to prepare for mass arrests of opposition political figures. He also directed state prosecution staff to deploy to Yoon’s ad-hoc martial law command center to back its operational work, and ordered immigration agencies to be on standby to implement immediate travel bans for targeted individuals, the court ruled.

Yoon’s attempt to impose martial law collapsed within six hours, after opposition lawmakers breached a military blockade set up outside the National Assembly building and passed an emergency vote to invalidate the decree. The vote forced Yoon’s own cabinet to reverse the order, setting off a rapid chain of political consequences that ended Yoon’s presidency. Park was the top justice official in Yoon’s administration at the time of the attempted power grab.

In delivering the verdict, presiding Judge Lee Jin-ganto emphasized that Park had violated his core constitutional duty to uphold South Korea’s democratic legal framework by aligning with Yoon’s authoritarian push. “By participating in this plan to undermine the nation’s elected legislature, Park abandoned every obligation he owed to the South Korean people and the rule of law,” Judge Lee noted in the ruling.

Park has consistently denied all charges against him, arguing he was only fulfilling routine responsibilities required during what was framed as a national emergency. As of Monday, his legal team had not yet announced whether they would file an appeal against the conviction and sentence.

This ruling adds to a string of convictions for senior members of Yoon’s ousted administration connected to the 2024 martial law incident. Yoon himself was impeached by the National Assembly on December 14, 2024, formally removed from office by the Constitutional Court in April 2025, and taken into custody in July that same year. He has already been sentenced to life in prison on charges of rebellion stemming from the martial law declaration, and received a separate 30-year sentence for orchestrating unauthorized drone flights over Pyongyang, North Korea, in October 2024. Prosecutors argue the drone incursion was deliberately planned to stoke inter-Korea tensions and create a pretext for imposing martial law domestically. Yoon has filed appeals against both of his convictions.

Other senior officials have already been sentenced for their roles in the scheme. Former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun was handed two concurrent 30-year prison terms: one for his central role in mobilizing military forces to enforce martial law and target opposition politicians, and a second for his involvement in the North Korea drone plot. Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who was initially sentenced to 23 years in prison for helping secure formal cabinet approval for Yoon’s martial law decree to grant it procedural legitimacy, saw his sentence reduced to 15 years on appeal.

Three consecutive days of sustained protests have unfolded in India’s capital New Delhi, as hundreds of students, young working professionals and job-seeking candidates rally to call for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The unrest follows a major paper leak scandal that has upended one of India’s most high-stakes competitive medical entrance examinations.

Organizing the demonstration at Delhi’s iconic protest venue Jantar Mantar is the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), a grassroots political collective that has rapidly gained viral online traction for its sharp, satirical commentary on mainstream Indian politics. Taking aim at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) through its name, the group, which uses a cockroach as its official mascot, has centered its activism on pushing for greater transparency and accountability across India’s education system.

The current wave of protests is rooted in the NEET-UG controversy. The entrance exam for undergraduate medical programs was thrown into chaos earlier this year after widespread allegations of a question paper leak, triggering massive public anger from thousands of aspirants and their families. In response to the outrage, Indian authorities annulled the original exam results and ordered a full re-examination for millions of candidates.

On Sunday, those millions of candidates returned to testing centers across the country to sit for the new exam, held under stringent enhanced security protocols including mandatory biometric identity verification. The National Testing Agency (NTA), the government body tasked with administering NEET-UG, released a statement shortly after the re-test concluded claiming the exam had proceeded without major incident and that no new allegations of paper leaks had been received.

Yet for protesters gathered in central Delhi, the re-examination has done little to resolve the deeper issues at the heart of the controversy. Many demonstrators argue that the scandal is not an isolated incident, but evidence of systemic failure that has let down millions of young students across the country, and that top officials must be held accountable for the breakdown.

“We are here for accountability,” CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke told assembled supporters at the protest site on Sunday, issuing a call for more people across India to join the movement. Dipke, a student at Boston University currently based in India, launched the CJP’s first protest at Jantar Mantar earlier this month before traveling to other Indian cities to expand the movement. Since its launch, the collective has seen steadily growing online engagement and has organized coordinated demonstrations in multiple regions across the country.

The sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar officially began on June 19, after Delhi Police granted a permit for the demonstration that expired at 5:00 PM local time on June 20. When the permit expired, hundreds of protesters refused to vacate the site, vowing to continue their demonstration until Pradhan steps down from his post.

Over the weekend, demonstrators camped out on sidewalks on mattresses, blocked local roads, and endured rising Delhi temperatures as they sang protest songs, debated the need for broad education reform, and received food and water from volunteer supporters. Organizers have accused Delhi Police of deliberately cutting power to the site and restricting access to clean water and public restrooms after the protest permit expired, though they later confirmed basic services had been restored. Delhi Police has not yet issued any public response to these allegations.

The protest has drawn widespread support from members of the public who have no direct connection to the NEET-UG exam, reflecting broader frustration over systemic issues in India’s education and employment sectors. “I came because I believe they are doing the right thing,” said Jyoti Thakur, a 23-year-old storekeeper based in Delhi. “The path to a better society is through a better education system.”

Gaurav Jain, a 39-year-old lawyer who spent one night at the protest camp, echoed that sentiment, saying he joined the movement over his own concerns about systemic lack of accountability, and is calling for a far more transparent and responsible education governance structure.

To date, neither India’s Education Ministry nor the ruling BJP has issued a public response to the demands for Pradhan’s resignation. The BBC has reached out to both institutions for comment, and has not yet received a reply.

The CJP itself emerged just last month, born from a public backlash against comments made by India’s Chief Justice Surya Kant that went viral online. During a recent court hearing, Kant compared some unemployed young people in India to “cockroaches” and “parasites”, remarks that critics condemned as dehumanizing to an entire generation of young people grappling with widespread youth unemployment.

While the Chief Justice later clarified that his comments were directed at people who use fake educational degrees to secure work, not unemployed young people as a whole, the damage had already been done, and the backlash quickly spread across Indian social media. Within days, Dipke launched an online movement around the hashtag #MainBhiCockroach, which translates to “I too am a cockroach”. The movement quickly gained traction, drawing tens of thousands of direct supporters, earning backing from opposition political figures, and amassing more than 22 million followers on Instagram alone.

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Against a backdrop of persistent cross-strait military tension, Taiwan launched a five-day intensive Immediate Combat Readiness Exercise on Monday, focused on sharpening the island’s ability to respond to potential sudden military aggression from mainland China. The drill got underway with visible activity across Taoyuan, the city that hosts Taiwan’s busiest international gateway, Taoyuan International Airport. Visual evidence from the exercise shows main battle tanks maneuvering along public urban streets and major highways, as armored detachments from the Army’s 269th Infantry Brigade carried out combat readiness patrols through the morning hours.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense announced the drills in a public statement released Sunday afternoon, outlining that the training is structured around realistic, real-world scenarios, with core priorities placed on “real-time response, live-fire operations, and on-site tactical execution.” Per Taiwan’s semi-official Central News Agency, the exercise series is specifically designed to simulate the strategic period immediately preceding an enemy’s large-scale amphibious assault. Looking ahead, the exercise framework also leaves room for unscheduled, ad-hoc drill sessions that will test Taiwan’s military’s ability to adapt in real time to ongoing Chinese military activities near the island.

The drills come as China continues its steady pattern of so-called “grey-zone” military pressure against Taiwan, a set of aggressive actions that stop short of full-scale direct conflict. These tactics range from sustained naval patrols near Taiwan’s territorial waters to repeated drone incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. In the 24-hour period from Sunday to Monday morning alone, Taiwan’s defense ministry confirmed that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) deployed 23 aircraft toward the Taiwan area, alongside seven PLA Navy vessels and five additional Chinese government ships.这种持续的常态压力已经成为 daily reality: Chinese military aircraft, drones, and naval vessels conduct operations near the island on a near-daily basis.

This drill is the latest in a series of regular readiness exercises Taiwan has held to upgrade its defense capabilities, as the island faces unrelenting military pressure from Beijing. China claims the self-governing island of Taiwan as an inalienable part of its sovereign territory, and has repeatedly refused to rule out the use of military force to achieve unification. Earlier this June, Taiwan held another major exercise that marked the first time the island has conducted live rocket fire drills toward waters off the coast of mainland China as part of its training.

The report was filed by Wu reporting from Bangkok, Associated Press.

DILI, East Timor – The Southeast Asian nation of Timor Leste (East Timor) is mourning the passing of one of its most revered founding figures: Francisco Guterres, the former president and central leader of the country’s decades-long fight for independence, has died at the age of 71.

Widely recognized by his nom de guerre “Lu Olo”, Guterres passed away on Sunday at Malaysia’s Prince Court Medical Centre, where he had been receiving treatment in an intensive care unit. The announcement of his death was shared via the late leader’s official Facebook page by his family, who did not immediately release details on the specific cause of death.

Guterres’s five-decade public career was inextricably tied to the story of Timor Leste’s path to becoming the world’s youngest sovereign nation in 2002. His single term as president from 2017 to 2022 marked the final chapter of a lifelong commitment to securing freedom and democratic governance for his people.

In a message of condolence shared with Guterres’s family and the people of East Timor, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim paid tribute to the leader’s unwavering dedication. “Throughout his life, he remained committed to the freedom of his people and the building of a democratic nation,” Ibrahim wrote.

Fretilin, the revolutionary political party Guterres led for many years, described his passing as a “profound loss” for all who worked toward the vision of a free, democratic and sovereign Timor Leste. The party highlighted Guterres’s enduring legacy of commitment to the independence movement, as well as his lifelong work to advance national unity, constructive political dialogue, peace and domestic stability across his decades in public life.

Born September 7, 1954, in Ossu, a town in what was then Portuguese Timor’s Viqueque District, Guterres rose to prominence as a core leader of the armed and political resistance during Indonesia’s 24-year occupation of East Timor, which ran from 1975 to 1999. As a senior Fretilin figure, he played an indispensable role in the country’s transition to sovereignty after the 1999 UN-backed independence referendum that set Timor Leste on the path to statehood.

In 2001, Guterres served as president of the Timorese Constituent Assembly, where he oversaw the drafting of the new nation’s foundational constitution. When East Timor formally gained independence in 2002, he became the national parliament’s first speaker. After falling short in several earlier presidential campaigns, Guterres finally won election to the nation’s highest office in 2017. He lost his 2022 re-election bid to current President Jose Ramos-Horta, a longtime comrade from the independence struggle.

Guterres is survived by his wife, Cidalia Lopes Nobre Mouzinho Guterres, and their children. Details of his funeral arrangements are expected to be announced to the public in the coming days.