Starmer announces the sending of four more GB fighters to Qatar
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced the dispatch of four more Typhoon military jets to Qatar as the conflict in the Middle East widens. The fighters will join an RAF squadron already present in the Gulf state, a key ally of London, “to strengthen our defensive operations in Qatar and across the region”, the prime minister said at a press conference.
Macron hears from Meloni and Mitsotakis, together to send military vehicles to Cyprus. The Prime Minister: “Commitment to avoid escalation in Lebanon”
In a spirit of European solidarity, the President of the Republic (Emmanuel Macron, ed.) took the initiative this morning to telephone the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis”: this is what Elysée sources report, adding: “They have agreed to coordinate the sending of military assets to Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean and to collaborate to guarantee freedom of navigation in the Red Sea”.
The Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, had a telephone conversation with the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron. This was reported in a note from Palazzo Chigi, explaining that “the two leaders discussed the implications of the conflict in Iran both on the Middle Eastern regional framework and at a global level, focusing in particular on the impact of hostilities on freedom of navigation”. Furthermore, Meloni and Macron “reaffirmed their common commitment to support the Gulf Nations affected by the unjustifiable Iranian attacks and the security of Cyprus and to avoid a military escalation in Lebanon”. And “they agreed to keep in close contact on the evolution of the crisis”.
Iran: drones against Azerbaijan, Baku’s anger
Azerbaijan accuses Iran of launching two drones against the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhchivan, causing four injuries and damage to the local airport, and summons the Iranian ambassador, warning that the attack “will not go unanswered”, while Tehran rejects the accusations and places the responsibility on Israel.
According to the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan, one of the drones hit the airport terminal of the autonomous republic of Nakhchivan while a second unmanned aircraft fell near a school in the village of Chakarabad; Azerbaijani authorities “strongly” condemned the attacks, saying they damaged the airport building and injured civilians. The emergency manager of a hospital in the region, Sahib Abouzarov, said four people were hospitalized with head injuries.
President Ilham Aliyev called it “a terrorist attack” and announced reprisals, while activating a state of alert for all the country’s armed forces.
The Nakhchivan enclave, separated from the rest of Azerbaijan by the territory of Armenia, borders directly on Iran. The General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, however, “categorically” denied having launched drones towards Azerbaijan, claiming that Israel, an ally of Baku and engaged together with the United States in bombing attacks against Iran, was behind the attack.
A video released by the Azerbaijani agency APA, not independently verified, shows a drone crashing near the entrance to the airport causing an explosion. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry specified that it had summoned the Iranian ambassador to express a “strong protest”, denouncing a violation of international law and a further factor of escalation in the region, and warned that Baku “reserves the right to take appropriate measures”. The Ministry of Defense also stated that Azerbaijan is preparing “the necessary reprisals to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country and ensure the safety of civilians and infrastructure”, reiterating that “these belligerent acts will not go unanswered”. Tehran has long expressed concern about relations between Israel and Azerbaijan, an important oil supplier to the Jewish state and recipient of Israeli armaments, fearing that Azerbaijani territory could be used for operations against Iran. Baku had already assured last June that it would “never” allow the use of its territory for attacks against the Islamic Republic. Analysts also note that the BakuTbilisiCeyhan oil pipeline, which crosses Georgia and Türkiye and transports about a third of Israel’s oil imports, could become a strategic target; According to Ilham Shaban, director of the Baku Oil Research Center, in 2024 Azerbaijan exported 2.37 million tons of crude oil to Israel via this infrastructure, whose underground pipeline is difficult to target, but surface installations such as terminals and pumping stations could be vulnerable to possible drone attacks.