Author: ALJAZEERA

After a heated quarterfinal match, it came down to penalties. Qatar’s goalkeeper Barsham had three saves, pushing his team into the semifinals of the Asian Cup. Uzbekistan striker Odildzhon Hamrobekov says his team could not have given any more. “We came to the pitch to win but a penalty [shootout] is always won by the team who have more luck,” he told the official broadcast. “Everything was perfect at the Asian Cup – all the organisation – so I would like to thank them. “I would like to express my gratitude to all the support given by the fans.” There…

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Education City Stadium, Qatar – Iran, backed by their thousands of vociferous supporters, have knocked out favourites Japan and earned a spot in the semifinals of the AFC Asian Cup 2023 with a famous 2-1 win. In a match billed as an early final of the tournament – given both teams’ history in the competition, their FIFA rankings and strong squads – Iran turned the tables on the four-time champions on a cool Saturday afternoon at Education City Stadium in Qatar. In a tournament that is now well-known for its late drama, Iran’s captain Alireza Jahanbakhsh delivered one of the…

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Washington has carried out attacks against pro-Iran groups in Syria and Iraq.The United States says its attacked at least 85 targets in Iraq and Syria, using long-range bombers flown directly from the US. They were carried out in response to a drone attack on an army base in Jordan last weekend, that killed three American soldiers. Armed groups backed by Iran are targeting the US for its support for Israel’s war on Gaza. President Joe Biden says the US’s attacks are just the beginning of its retaliation. So how will Iran react? And could this lead to a wider regional…

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Bab Ezzouar, Algiers – There are two steps to preparing to jump from the roof of one building to another. Step one: Measure the distance and practice landing on solid ground. Step two: Rehearse running up to the edge. Bilal Ahmedali is training with two friends and fellow parkour athletes on the roof of an abandoned mall in the Bab Ezzouar neighbourhood of Algiers. The shopping complex’s west wing bends like a horseshoe with a five-metre gap between its ends, and a nine-metre drop to the red-tiled courtyard below. Months earlier, while training on the same rooftop in a larger…

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Iran’s Foreign Ministry says overnight US strikes are ‘violations of the sovereignty and territorial integrity’ of the two countries.Iran says the attacks by the United States inside Iraq and Syria are a “strategic error” that will only add to tensions and instability in the Middle East heightened by Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The US forces launched a wave of air strikes against Iranian-backed fighters in Iraq and Syria on Friday in retaliation for a drone attack in Jordan that killed three American soldiers on Sunday. US President Joe Biden later said the strikes “will continue at times and places…

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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…

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Israeli intelligence accuses a UN refugee agency of collusion with Hamas – and the media take it at face value.Israel has for years been claiming that the United Nations refugee agency (UNRWA) is in cahoots with Hamas. The latest allegations – which coincided with the International Court of Justice’s order for Israel to prevent genocide – bear the hallmarks of a distraction tactic. So far, the media have taken the bait. Contributors:Diana Buttu – Palestinian lawyerTal Mimran – Former Israeli government adviserAbdaljawad Omar – Academic, Birzeit UniversityKenneth Roth – Former executive director, Human Rights Watch On our radar Last month,…

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It is interesting that it was Israeli leaders and their allies in Washington who first brought the term “genocide” into the Gaza conflict. In the aftermath of Hamas’s attack on October 7, they repeatedly brought up references to the Holocaust. A number of Holocaust and genocide scholars and centres followed suit in condemning Hamas. This included a group of more than 150 Holocaust scholars, who signed a statement released in November condemning Hamas’s “atrocities … [which] unavoidably bring to mind the mindset and the methods of the perpetrators of the pogroms that paved the way to the Final Solution”. This…

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