News from The Thursday Times' news desk.
India’s Congress has welcomed the West Asia ceasefire but says BJP blunders weakened New Delhi and opened diplomatic space for Pakistan to emerge as a mediator. The statement is a rare public sign that Pakistan’s regional role is now being debated inside India itself.
Army Chief of Staff General Randy George has stepped down after being asked to take early retirement, extending a wider Pentagon leadership shake-up.
Just before Donald Trump was due to address the nation on the Middle East conflict, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian published an open letter to Americans, arguing that Tehran is being falsely cast as a threat and warning that more attacks will bring only suffering, instability and lasting resentment.
Pakistan says the United States and Iran have expressed confidence in its role as a potential facilitator for talks, with Islamabad saying it would be honoured to host negotiations in the coming days.
Joe Kent, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, has resigned with immediate effect, stating that he cannot support the US war in Iran, arguing that Tehran posed no imminent threat, and questioning the basis on which the conflict has been pursued.
Israel says a targeted strike killed Ali Larijani, one of Iran’s most senior security figures, but Tehran had not confirmed the claim at the time of reporting. If verified, it would mark one of the biggest direct blows yet to Iran’s leadership in the current conflict.
Pakistan’s Embassy in Kabul has rejected claims linking it to a visa black market in Afghanistan, saying no private agents or intermediaries are authorised to collect money from applicants.
Iran’s chief of staff Abdolrahim Mousavi was killed in strikes on Tehran, claims Israel’s military. The IDF also says it targeted additional senior security figures and commanders in the capital.
Afghan media and Afghan-linked accounts pushed a dramatic claim that a Pakistani fighter jet was shot down in Nangarhar and the pilot captured, but Pakistan flatly denied any loss as the supposed “proof” failed scrutiny and several posts driving the story were quietly deleted.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, in a message addressed to Sirajuddin Haqqani, recalled the anti-Soviet era by saying Pakistan stood “shoulder to shoulder” with the Haqqanis, hosted Afghan families as guests, and still carries millions of refugees on its soil.
