World
‘Overshadow Gaza crimes’: World reacts to US attacks on Iraq and Syria

The United States has conducted a wave of air strikes on Iran-aligned targets in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for an attack that killed American soldiers in Jordan.
On Saturday, Iraq said 16 people, including civilians, were killed on its soil, and a monitoring group reported 18 people were killed in Syria.
Washington has warned of more strikes to purportedly deter the Iran-backed “axis of resistance” amid Israel’s war on Gaza. In announcing the overnight attacks, US President Joe Biden said: “Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing.”
Here is how the world reacted to the US action:
Iran
“The attacks are a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria, international law, and a clear violation of the United Nations Charter,” said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Nasser Kanaani.
“In addition to an all-out support of the US for four months of relentless and barbaric attacks by the Zionist regime against the residents of Gaza and the West Bank, and military attacks on Yemen and violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country, last night’s attacks on Syria and Iraq were another adventurous action and another strategic error by the US government which will have no result but to intensify tensions and instability in the region.”
“The attacks merely support the goals of the Zionist regime. Such attacks increasingly involve the US government in the region and overshadow the crimes of the Zionist regime in Gaza.”
Iraq
“This aggressive strike will put security in Iraq and the region on the brink of the abyss,” the Iraqi government said in a statement, and denied Washington’s claims of coordinating the air raids with Baghdad as “false” and “aimed at misleading international public opinion”.
The presence of the US-led military coalition in the region “has become a reason for threatening security and stability in Iraq and a justification for involving Iraq in regional and international conflicts”, read the statement from Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s office.
“Iraq reiterates its refusal to let the country be an arena for settling scores,” said government spokesperson Basim Alwadi.
Yahya Rasool, the Iraqi military spokesperson, said the attacks “constitute a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, undermine the efforts of the Iraqi government, and pose a threat that could lead Iraq and the region into dire consequences”.
“The outcomes will have severe implications on the security and stability in Iraq and the surrounding region,” Rasool added.
Syria
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the strikes served to “inflame the conflict in the Middle East in an extremely dangerous way” and added to Washington’s “record of violations against Syria’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the safety of its people, proving once again that it is the main source of global instability”.
The military said: “The area targeted by the American attacks in eastern Syria is the same area where the Syrian Arab Army is fighting the remnants of the Daesh [ISIL] terrorist organisation, and this confirms that the United States and its military forces are involved and allied with this organisation, and are working to revive it as a field arm for it both in Syria and Iraq by all dirty means.”
“The aggression of the American occupation forces at dawn today has no justification other than an attempt to weaken the ability of the Syrian Arab Army and its allies in the field of fighting terrorism, but the army.”
Islamic Resistance in Iraq
The coalition of US and Israel-opposed armed groups in Iraq, which had “suspended” its attacks earlier this week, said it launched drones at a US base in Erbil.
Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed reported from Baghdad that Iraqi groups have also carried out attacks with missiles targeting the al-Tanf military base in Syria which is home to US personnel, as well as the Ain al-Assad base in western Iraq.
Hamas
“We condemn in the strongest terms the American aggression against Iraq and Syria, and consider it a dangerous escalation, an infringement on the sovereignty of the two Arab countries, and a threat to their security and the stability of the region, in service of the occupation’s expansionist agenda and covering up its horrific crimes against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” read a statement from Hamas.
“The administration of US President Biden bears responsibility for the consequences of this brutal aggression against both Iraq and Syria, which adds fuel to the fire, and we affirm that the region will not witness stability or peace except by stopping the Zionist aggression, crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing against our people in the Gaza Strip, and ending the Zionist-Nazi occupation.”
European Union
“Everybody should try to avoid that the situation becomes explosive,” said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
While Borrell did not address the US strikes directly, he repeated a warning that the Middle East “is a boiler that can explode”.
He pointed to the war in Gaza, violence along the Israel-Lebanon border, bombings in Iraq and Syria, and attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. “That’s why we call everybody to try to avoid an escalation.”
United Kingdom
“The UK and US are steadfast allies. We wouldn’t comment on their operations, but we support their right to respond to attacks,” a British government spokesperson said in a statement.
“We have long condemned Iran’s destabilising activity throughout the region, including its political, financial and military support to a number of militant groups.”
Poland
“Iran’s proxies have played with fire for months and years, and it’s now burning them,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters as he arrived for a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels.
US House speaker
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives, accused Biden of “placating” Tehran after the strikes, and said that “to promote peace, America must project strength”.
Council on American-Islamic Relations
“Instead of waging war across the Middle East, the Biden administration should demand an end to the far-right Israeli government’s ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza,” said CAIR’s National Executive Director Nihad Awad.
The US has ignored Israel’s “escalating human rights abuses”, maintained its troops in Syria, Iraq and other places “where they are not welcome”, and refused to re-enter the Iranian nuclear deal, Nihad noted.
“These latest strikes in Iraq and Syria are just further evidence of the total failure of the president’s Middle East policy. President Biden should change course to protect both American soldiers and people of the region from more violence … Justice and freedom for the Palestinian people – not more bombs – is what can build a more peaceful future for the region.”
Analysts
“I’m not surprised there has been this reprisal and retaliation by the United States,” HA Hellyer, a military analyst at the UK-based think tank Royal United Services Institute, told Al Jazeera, adding that if the US wants to de-escalate and not go to war with Iran, the key to that is Gaza.
Washington has “failed to apply any real leverage in order to bring a ceasefire to Gaza, which I think would really diminish the tensions in the region and remove the fuel for this sort of escalation taking place, which is likely to continue over the coming days and weeks and beyond”, he added.
Joshua Landis, associate professor and director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, told Al Jazeera that politicians in Washington are pressuring Biden for a stronger response as the US presidential election looms.
“He has to respond, but at the same time he’s made it very clear he does not want to escalate, and that means two things; he can hit Syrians, that’s easy and nobody cares about the Syrian government, but the Americans do care about the Iraqi government.”
“America does not want to get ejected from Iraq, particularly not before the elections in November. So, it wants to be strong but it doesn’t want to kill too many Iraqis.”

World
State Department notified Congress of intent to reorganize USAID, Rubio says

World
United Kingdom could be only G7 nation not to produce its own steel; Chinese owner blames Trump tariffs

The United Kingdom could be the first G7 nation not to manufacture its own steel, with a major steel firm blaming President Donald Trump’s tariffs for the planned closure of its two blast furnaces.
British Steel, which is owned by Jingye, the Chinese steel group, announced plans to close its two blast furnaces in England, The Telegraph reported. The closures put 2,700 jobs at risk and the end of steel production in the United Kingdom after 150 years. Jingye bought British Steel in 2020.
Jingye said the “imposition of tariffs” had made the blast furnaces and steel-making operations “no longer financially sustainable”.
THE LEFT THINKS TRUMP’S TARIFFS ARE A DECLARATION OF WAR. BUT THEY’RE CLUELESS ABOUT THE BATTLEFIELD
A flag with a British Steel logo at the entrance to the steelworks plant in England. The Chinese firm that owns the steelmaker is blaming President Donald Trump’s tariffs for the potential closure of two blast furnaces in England. (Anna Gowthorpe/PA via AP)
Trump has imposed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the United States that went into effect earlier this month.
Jingye said it has invested billions of dollars to maintain operations since 2020 but that losses have ballooned to around hundred of thousands of dollars daily.
The closures could have national security implications.
“There is a reason why Russia bombed all the blast furnaces in Ukraine pretty much straight away; because countries need steel not just for defense but to build the roads and the infrastructure,” said Sarah Jones, the energy minister.
Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the Community union, said: “We urge Jingye and the government to get back around the table to resume negotiations before it is too late.”
TRUMP’S 25% TARIFF INCREASE ON ALL STEEL, ALUMINUM IMPORTS TAKES EFFECT, PROMPTING RETALIATION FROM EUROPE

President Donald Trump speaks to an audience. (Donald Trump/Truth Social)
“Given that we are now on the cusp of becoming the only G7 country without domestic primary steelmaking capacity, it is no exaggeration to say that our national security is gravely threatened,” he added.
Trump has fought to keep U.S. Steel in American hands. Nippon Steel, a Japanese company, said it was willing to increase investment in U.S. Steel facilities to $7 billion as it tries to convince Trump thah the Pittsburgh steelmaker would be in good hands with foreign ownership.
“We are also going to keep U.S. Steel right here in America,” Trump said during a September 2024 campaign rally.
Trump first opposed the deal in February 2024, but said earlier this year that Nippon would negotiate an investment in U.S. Steel, rather than a purchase, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
World
Myanmar-Thailand earthquake death toll passes 1,000

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
Myanmar’s military rulers say at least 1,002 people killed following earthquake that also left at least 10 dead in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok.
The death toll from a huge earthquake that hit Myanmar and Thailand has passed 1,000, as rescuers dug through the rubble of collapsed buildings in a desperate search for survivors.
At least 1,002 people were killed and nearly 2,376 injured in Myanmar’s Mandalay region – the country’s second-largest city and close to the epicentre of the quake – the country’s military government said in a statement on Saturday.
“It was a pretty uncomfortable night for lots of people. They chose to sleep outside. We saw them in parks putting mattresses outside their homes,” Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng reported from the capital Naypyidaw.
“There were still aftershocks, several we felt this morning. They were not significantly large ones, but enough to make people feel uncomfortable returning into built-up structures,” he added.
In the Thai capital Bangkok – located 1,000km (620 miles) from the epicentre in Myanmar – about 10 more deaths have been confirmed.
“Infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and buildings were affected, leading to casualties and injuries among civilians. Search and rescue operations are currently being carried out in the affected areas,” Myanmar’s military said in the statement, which raised the death toll sharply from a previously reported 144 deaths.
The shallow 7.7-magnitude quake struck northwest of the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar in the early afternoon on Friday, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.
The quake destroyed buildings, downed bridges, and buckled roads across swathes of Myanmar, and due to patchy communications in remote areas, many believe the true scale of the disaster has yet to emerge.
Rescuers in Bangkok laboured through the night on Friday searching for workers trapped when a 30-storey skyscraper under construction collapsed, reduced in seconds to a pile of rubble and twisted metal by the force of the shaking.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said that about 10 people had been confirmed killed across the city, most in the skyscraper collapse. But up to 100 workers were still unaccounted for at the building site, close to the Chatuchak weekend market that is a magnet for tourists.
“We are doing our best with the resources we have because every life matters,” Chadchart told reporters at the scene.
“Our priority is acting as quickly as possible to save them all,” the governor said.
Bangkok city authorities said they will deploy more than 100 engineers to inspect buildings for safety across the city after receiving more than 2,000 reports of damage.
-
World1 week ago
Commission warns Alphabet and Apple they're breaking EU digital rules
-
News1 week ago
Zelenskyy says he plans to discuss Ukraine ceasefire violations in a call with Trump
-
News1 week ago
Trump’s Ending of Hunter Biden’s Security Detail Raises Questions About Who Gets Protection
-
Technology1 week ago
Streaming services keep getting more expensive: all the latest price increases
-
Sports1 week ago
The BookKeeper – Exploring Manchester City’s finances during a season of change
-
News1 week ago
NASA Astronauts Don’t Receive Overtime Pay for Space Mission But Get $5 a Day
-
Business1 week ago
Trump Administration Lifts Ban on Sugar Company Central Romana Over Forced Labor
-
Culture1 week ago
‘Can’t-miss’ Men’s NCAA Tournament games on Thursday and Friday: truTV FTW?