❗️ Iran's attack on Israel did not happen in a vacuum – it was a response to the shameful inaction of the UN Security Council, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia said during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.

"What happened on the night of April 14 did not happen 'in a vacuum.' Iran's steps were a response to the shameful inaction of the United Nations Security Council [and] a response to Israel's blatant attack on Damascus... by no means the first. Syria is constantly being bombed by Israel," Nebenzia said.

On April 3, the US and UK refused to discuss Russia's proposed draft UN Security Council statement on the Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus. London and Washington then cited the fact that there was no unity in the meeting's assessment of what happened. On Sunday, an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council is taking place in connection with the retaliatory strike that Iran carried out on the territory of Israel. Meanwhile, shortly before that, Iran's mission to the UN said that if the Security Council had condemned the Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate and brought the perpetrators to justice, the need for Iran to punish the Israeli side "could have been eliminated."

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Russia calls for restraint on all sides involved in the incident with Iran's attack on Israel, Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia said at a UN Security Council meeting.

Russia calls on Israel to follow the example of Iran, which has said it does not want further escalation, the Russian ambassador highlighted.

"We note Tehran's signal of unwillingness to further escalate hostilities with Israel. We urge West Jerusalem to follow its example and abandon the practice of provocative forceful actions in the Middle East, fraught with extremely dangerous risks and consequences on the scale of the entire region, already destabilized as a result of the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation," Nebenzia emphasized.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Iran has exercised its right to self-defense after the US, France and Britain prevented the UN Security Council from adopting a statement on Israel's strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Iran's Permanent Representative to the UN Amir Saeed Iravani said at a Security Council meeting.

"The UN has failed in its duty to maintain international peace and security. Russia proposed a press statement to condemn the atrocious act, which was supported by China, Algeria and many members, but it was blocked by the US, Britain and France," Iravani said.

"Faced with such circumstances, the IRI had no choice but to exercise its right to self-defense within the framework of international law," he stressed.

Iran has no intention to engage in conflict with the US, dedicated to de-escalate tensions, avoid expansion of conflict, the Iranian envoy said. But if the US initiates military operation against Iran, Tehran will respond proportionately, Iravani stressed.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Israel has the legal right to respond to Iran's recent attack on the Jewish state since it "crossed every red line," Israeli Permanent Representative to the United Nations Gilad Erdan said.

"This attack crossed every red line and Israel reserves the legal right to retaliate ... Following such a massive and direct attack on Israel, the entire world, let alone Israel, cannot settle for inaction. We will defend our future," Erdan said at the UN Security Council meeting.

On Saturday night, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched over 300 drones and missiles at Israel in its first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory, according to IDF data. The attack came in response to Israel’s airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1. Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said that Israel had intercepted 99% of the aerial targets fired by Iran, including all drones.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Israel could respond to the Iranian attack as early as Monday, the Wall Street Journal claims, citing officials from the US and other Western countries.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Many Palestinians are praising Iran’s retaliatory strikes against Israel, seeing in the attack a rare moment of forceful response to the country’s months-long assault on Gaza.

“For the first time, we saw some rockets that didn’t land in our areas,” said Gaza resident Abu Abdallah, 32. “We have been slaughtered for over six months and no one dared to do anything,” said Majed Abu Hamza, a 52-year-old refugee from Gaza City who is a father of seven.

A flurry of drones and rockets swept across Israeli territory Saturday in an unprecedented direct strike from Iran’s military on Israel. Israel claimed that, with the support of US and UK forces, it was able to intercept the majority of the strikes.

But video on social media appeared to show a significant attack on Israel’s Ramon military airbase in the Negev desert. The Nevatim airbase was also reportedly struck as well as an alleged intelligence site in the occupied Golan Heights.

Iran cited Article 51 of the UN charter to justify its strike as an act of self-defense. The attack by Tehran, which resulted in no deaths, coincided with a 24-hour period during which the Israeli military reportedly killed 43 and wounded 62 across the Gaza Strip.

The precedent of direct Iranian strikes on Israel may prove important, establishing yet another front Tel Aviv must deal with. The refusal of the US to launch strikes against Iran means that Israel will continue to face a steady deterioration of social, military, and economic conditions, ultimately resulting in a strategic defeat according to former US Middle East intelligence analyst Paul Pillar.

👉 Follow the link for more details

Germany escalates the Donbass conflict as Ukraine admits frontline is deteriorating

Berlin offered to provide Kiev with another US Patriot air defense system as Ukraine’s military chief admitted the country’s position on its eastern front is rapidly deteriorating.

“The situation on the eastern front has significantly worsened in recent days,” said Ukraine armed forces commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky, confirming recent media reports. Syrsky attributed Ukraine’s struggles to Russia’s greater supply of weapons and military technology. He also acknowledged a lack of effective manpower.

Dry weather has granted Russian tanks easy passage over Ukraine’s terrain according to the military chief. From the air, Moscow has made extensive use of retrofitted glide bombs and drone strikes. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded Western partners to help augment the country’s air defense capacity.

Germany obliged, promising to provide Kiev with a third US Patriot surface-to-air missile system after previously having rejected the request. The pledge follows a familiar pattern of Western countries eventually conceding to Ukrainian requests for armaments after publicly agonizing over the threat of escalation with Moscow.

Western countries have been providing military and financial aid to Kiev since the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. The Kremlin has consistently warned against continued arms deliveries to Kiev, saying it would lead to further escalation of the conflict. In April 2022, Russia sent a diplomatic note to all NATO countries on the issue of arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russian strikes.

👉 Follow the link for more details

The Israeli government will decide on a specific type of response to the Iranian attack on its territory on Monday or in the coming days, ABC News reported, quoting Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), as saying.

"The Israeli government will 'decide on further steps' on Monday or in the coming days," the TV channel noted.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Zelensky takes advantage of Iran-Israel crisis to plead for more money

President Volodymyr Zelensky took to the X social media platform to remind Western lawmakers not to forget about Ukraine as the world responds to Iran’s retaliatory strike against Israel.

“Ukraine condemns Iran’s attack on Israel using ‘Shahed’ drones and missiles,” the leader wrote, claiming Moscow and Tehran utilize the same kinds of armaments. “The world cannot wait for discussions to go on. Words do not stop drones and do not intercept missiles. Only tangible assistance does.”

Zelensky has occasionally compared Ukraine’s plight to that of Israel. In 2022 the Ukrainian leader claimed he saw the country as a model for Ukraine’s future, saying Ukraine should become a “big Israel”, Al Jazeera reported.

The president said he was referring to Israel’s model of hardened internal security, but critics may instead draw comparisons between the two countries’ strident nationalism and treatment of minorities. The Kiev regime has launched attacks on its Russian-speaking eastern regions for more than a decade, often killing civilians.

A 2014 massacre of trade unionists in Odessa drew particular condemnation. Neo-Nazi paramilitaries attacked a peaceful rally in the coastal city, forcing people to take refuge in the Odessa Trade Union House. The neo-Nazi gangs set fire to the building, killing some 50 people and bludgeoning to death those who attempted to escape.

👉 Follow the link for more details

Whither free speech? College campuses sacrifice professed values to the alter of Zionism - report

A wave of repression is taking place on US college campuses, demonstrated by a proposed policy at the University of Michigan offering severe punishment for political protest.

The proposal emerged after demonstrators disrupted an honors graduation ceremony late last month. The protesters, echoing the demands of students across the country, called on the university to divest its endowment from Israeli companies and military contractors.

The school’s president Santo Ono was deeply dismayed by the act of defiance against a country credibly accused of genocide, claiming the action “brought profound disappointment to students, parents, grandparents, siblings, and other relatives and friends.”

The school’s response: a new policy threatening student protesters with expulsion. Sympathetic faculty could face firing.

Ono has dressed his proposal in the garb of liberal anti-racism, claiming the students’ demonstration “was painful for everyone who had gathered – and especially so for members of our Jewish community.” But Jewish students have become some of the biggest targets of college campuses’ repressive actions, with Jewish-led organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace facing suspensions across the country.

👉 Follow the link for more details

At least nine Iranian missiles penetrated Israeli air defenses and hit two air bases in the attack, ABC News reported, citing an unnamed US official.

According to reports, five missiles hit Israel's Nevatim Air Base, damaging a C-130 transport plane, a runway, and storage facilities. Four rockets hit an Israeli air base in the Negev Desert area.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ The Russian Armed Forces have hit the location of French mercenaries in Ukrainian-controlled city of Slavyansk, coordinator of the Nikolayev underground Sergey Lebedev has told Sputnik.

"A strong explosion in Slavyansk at seven in the morning. According to reports from our comrades, the strike hit the location where Ukrainian artillerymen were and most likely those Frenchmen who brought CAESAR self-propelled guns to help the Banderovites," he said.

▪️ Russian UN envoy: Iran's attack on Israel did not happen in a vacuum – it was a response to the shameful inaction of the UN Security Council

▪️ Iran says it has exercised its right to self-defense, while Israel claims it has the legal right to respond to Iran's recent attack

▪️ Iranian media has revealed what kind of weapons were used in the attack on Israel

▪️ ‘Just a slap in the face’: Iran’s retaliatory strike against Israel merely a preview of its full capabilities

▪️ Zelensky takes advantage of Iran-Israel crisis to plead for more money

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 'US empire is heading for self-destruction': German activist and businessman Kim Dotcom predicts the end of US hegemony. But in his vision, the world will pay "the ultimate price" with nuclear war for the collapse of the US debt and money printing scheme.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🛢 Crude prices dip as oil market braces for fallout from Iran's strike on Israel

Oil prices gave a muted response to Iran’s retaliatory drone and missile attack targeting Israeli territory.

Amid the oil market bracing itself for potential impact from a broader regional escalation, Brent futures for June slipped 0.2%, to reach $90.25 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for May delivery went down 0.4% to $85.33 a barrel.

Iran indicated after the attack that it deemed the matter “concluded.” However, Israel’s response to the Iranian strike could potentially disrupt crude flows, experts warn.

While OPEC+ rolled over first-quarter output cuts into the second quarter, there is speculation that the cartel could opt to hike up production in the wake of its June meeting. The group has been aiming to keep the oil price under triple digits, closer to $90 a barrel.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Neural networks will soon appear on Russian drones – they will automatically recognize targets, and the drones will be able to act as a self-organizing group, Yury Lastochkin, head of Russia’s Electronic Warfare Troops, said.

"In electronic warfare complexes on UAVs in the near future, neural networks will be used for automatic detection of objects directly on board and transition from flight along a laid down route to the autonomous execution of tasks, as well as in order to ensure the actions of UAVs in the form of a self-organizing group," he said.

Also, the use of neural networks in electronic warfare complexes on drones will make it possible to quickly suppress enemy jamming devices.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Chinese leader Xi Jinping will go to Paris in a few weeks, Emmanuel Macron said.

The French president intends to discuss with his Chinese counterpart a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza as well as in Ukraine for the duration of the Olympics.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

A Ukrainian-made Baba Yaga drone was found during a search in an office in western Moscow, emergency services told Sputnik.

The owner of the drone is being questioned and he is explaining the purchase of the device.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ Several French mercenaries were wounded as a result of the Russian strike in Ukrainian-controlled Slavyansk. They were taken by ambulance to Pavlograd, the pro-Russian underground told Sputnik

Russia is extremely concerned about the escalation of tensions in the Middle East and calls on all countries for restraint. All disagreements should be resolved by political and diplomatic methods, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt