Washington, July 6 (IANS) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its Indo-Pacific partners, including South Korea, plan to discuss resilience, support for Ukraine, disinformation, cybersecurity and emerging technologies during their summit in Washington next week, a senior US administration official said.

The NATO summit is set to take place in the US capital from Tuesday to Thursday. The leaders of the alliance’s four Indo-Pacific partners (IP4) – South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Japan have been invited to the summit that marks the 75th anniversary of NATO’s founding, reported Yonhap news agency.

“We are bringing together some of our closest non-NATO partners to have a discussion around issues like resilience, cyber, disinformation, and technology,” the official said in a virtual briefing.

He added, “This particular grouping of IP4 as we call them in NATO lingo — Australia, Japan, New Zealand and ROK (Republic of Korea) ,These are some of our closest partners that we work with in the region”.

The NATO summit involving Indo-Pacific partners is set to take place on Thursday.

The official did not elaborate on the issue of resilience. In a NATO context, resilience refers to the capacity to prepare for, resist, respond to and quickly recover from shocks and disruptions across the full spectrum of threats, according to an article on NATO’s Allied Command Transformation website.

At the NATO gathering, there will be a “strong” demonstration of U.S. and allies’ support for Ukraine, the official said, highlighting Washington’s plan to announce new steps to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences and military capabilities.

“Together, the Washington summit will send a strong signal to Putin that if he thinks he can outlast the coalition of countries supporting Ukraine, he’s dead wrong,” he said.

“We are also sending an important message to the rest of the world, including through our partnerships in the Indo-Pacific, as we stand together united and in support of democratic values,” he added.

The summit comes amid growing concerns about Biden’s mental health and physical fitness, which was called into question again following a poor debate performance last week.

Observers said that Biden is likely to capitalise on the summit to highlight that he is up for the job and capable of leading the nation for another four year term.

“Foreign leaders have seen Joe Biden up close and personal for the last three years. They know who they are dealing with and they know how effective he’s been,” the official said.

“What the president has done over the last three years is to reinvigorate the NATO alliance, including expanding it, making it more capable. He has stood up to President Putin’s unprecedented aggression against Ukraine by mobilising a coalition of a minimum of 50 allies and partners to provide capabilities to Ukraine.”

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 6 (IANS) Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist and former Health Minister of Iran, on Saturday, won the 14th presidential election by beating his rival, Saeed Jalili, local media reported.

Masoud Pezeshkian got 16,384,402 of the total 30,573,931 votes in the runoff, reports Iran International News.

The voter turnout, however, stood at 49.8 per cent, relatively lower than the first phase of the elections, as over 50 per cent of the eligible voters boycotted the elections.

Voting for the Iran presidential runoff commenced on Friday morning, with two top contenders, Masoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili, a principlist and the former chief negotiator in the nuclear talks between Tehran and world powers, in the run.

Iran went to polls on June 28, and the next day, Spokesman of Iran’s Election Headquarters Mohsen Eslami announced the results for the first phase, in which Pezeshkian garnered 42.6 per cent of the total votes, while Jalili got 38.8 per cent.

Despite leading the race, none of the candidates were able to cross the 50 per cent mark required to win the presidential race.

Iran’s 14th presidential election, which had initially been set for 2025, was rescheduled following the unexpected death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on May 19.

–IANS

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United Nations, July 6 (IANS) The world organisation has warned of a “heightened risk of a full-scale war” along the Lebanon-Israel border where 901 Indian peacekeepers are deployed.

“The UN is deeply concerned at the increase in the intensity of exchanges of fire across the Blue Line yesterday, which heightens the risk of a full-scale war”, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesperson’s office said on Friday.

“Escalation can and must be avoided. We reiterate that the danger of miscalculation leading to a sudden and wider conflagration is real,” it added.

After an Israeli drone killed a senior commander of the Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon on Wednesday, the militia responded by sending a barrage of 100 rockets into Israel.

The well-entrenched Hezbollah, which has the backing of Iran has threatened to continue attacks on Israel in solidarity with Hamas under Israeli assault in Gaza.

The decades-long tensions in the area have intensified since October 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, which launched a retribution on Gaza that it controls.

In solidarity with Hamas, Hezbollah said attacks on Israel till there is a ceasefire in Gaza, raising fears of a wider regional conflict.

Civilians have suffered the most from the volley of attacks between Hezbollah and Israel.

About 60,000 Lebanese have reportedly been displaced, and, according to United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, about 20,000 Israelis have also been forced to flee the border areas because of the attacks.

“Israel has effectively lost its sovereignty in the northern quadrant of its country because people don’t safe to go to their homes,” he said on Monday underscoring the risk of war.

He added that an agreement reached through diplomacy was needed to end the security risks and ensure that “forces are pulled back.”

The spokesperson’s office also emphasised that a “political and diplomatic solution is the only viable way forward.”

The Indian peacekeepers are a part of the 10,000-strong 49-nation UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) charged by the Security Council to work with Lebanese national forces to keep order in the volatile section known as the Blue Line that separates Lebanon and Israel.

In effect, the mission also acts as a buffer between the two countries at times caught in the crossfire between Israel and Hezbollah.

The spokesperson’s office said that the Foreign Affairs Committee of Lebanon’s Parliament visited UNIFIL to express support for the mission and its mandate on Thursday.

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon met with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to emphasise “the need for de-escalation across the Blue Line,” it added.

Lebanon’s writ is weak in the region where Hezbollah controls vast tracts of territory.

Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who Israel blamed for rockets into the country, was the second Hezbollah commander killed in less than a month.

Last month another Hezbollah commander, Taleb Abdallah, was killed by Israel in Southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah retaliated with about 150 rockets and drones, but international diplomacy kept it from further escalation.

At another peacekeeping mission in the region, the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) charged with maintaining the ceasefire between Israel and Syria, 202 Indian troops are deployed.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)

–IANS

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United Nations, July 6 (IANS) The United Nations has expressed grave concerns about intensified clashes along the Lebanon-Israel frontier, known as the Blue Line.

The world body on Friday highlighted the mounting tensions following an increase in exchanges of fire between Lebanese and Israeli forces, Xinhua news agency reported.

This recent surge in hostilities, which occurred on Thursday, “heightens the risk of a full-scale war”, according to a note from the office of the spokesperson for the UN secretary-general.

The note underscored the necessity of restraint, noting, “Escalation can and must be avoided. We reiterate that the danger of miscalculation leading to a sudden and wider conflagration is real,” and emphasised that “a political and diplomatic solution is the only viable way forward”.

On the same day, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, engaged with key Lebanese officials including Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati to discuss the urgency of de-escalation along the Blue Line.

The UN note also reiterated calls from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a renewed commitment to Security Council resolution 1701, which was adopted in August 2006 to seek a full cessation of hostilities shortly after a month of deadly warfare between Israel and Hezbollah ended with a fragile truce.

–IANS

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United Nations, July 6 (IANS) Over 1 million people in the Caribbean have been affected by Hurricane Beryl, UN humanitarians have said.

Some 40,000 people have been affected in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, more than 110,000 people in Grenada, and 920,000 people in Jamaica, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday, citing current estimates.

As a category 4 hurricane that has claimed at least 11 lives so far, Beryl left a trail of destruction in Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on Monday, then impacting Jamaica on Wednesday. The hurricane is currently affecting Belize and Mexico, Xinhua news agency reported.

The International Organization for Migration reported that in Grenada, the hurricane caused extreme damage to the islands of Carriacou and Petit Martinique, where 70 per cent and 97 per cent of buildings were damaged, respectively. In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 90 per cent of homes on Union Island were affected, while on the island of Canouan, nearly all buildings sustained damage.

OCHA said it has deployed teams to Caribbean nations to support their response efforts, and $4 million has been made available from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund to kickstart humanitarian operations in Grenada, Jamaica, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

“We continue to support and work closely with the authorities, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Agency, and our partners to assess and respond to the devastation caused by Hurricane Beryl,” the office said.

–IANS

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