Event: U.S.

The 14th Mirwaiz of Kashmir, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, delivers a Friday Sermon on the first Friday of Ramadan at Jamia Masjid, in Srinagar. File | Photo Credit: ANI Kashmir chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in his Friday sermon at Jama Masjid in Srinagar expressed concern over “disturbing and worrying situation” in Palestine, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. “The situation in the Middle East is very disturbing and worrying. The plight of the people of occupied Palestine facing persecution keeps getting worse. With lack of international accountability for Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, Israel is emboldened to escalate its illegal and inhuman actions, formalising land grabs in West Bank knowing that it will not be held to account,” the Mirwaiz told the congregation.He expressed concern over what he described as “breakdown of international law and the moral conscience of the international community” in Palestine.Highlighting Kashmir’s strong cultural ties with Iran, the Mirwaiz said, “A large number of students from Kashmir study in Iran and the war-like build up is creating panic and worry among the parents and families. We pray for the safety and well-being of the Iranian people and the Kashmiri students studying there, and for peace and stability in the region.” Read | How Pakistan and the Taliban, former allies, slid into ‘open war’ He also termed the latest Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict as “disturbing”. “Two Muslim states Pakistan and Afghanistan are fighting each other, that too in the holy month of Ramzan. Wars only cause grief and loss of life. I hope better sense will prevail and that both neighbours resolve their differences through dialogue and good neighbourly principles,” he added. Published - February 28, 2026 06:37 am IST

Our national security correspondent David E. Sanger maps Iran’s options for retaliation if the United States or Israel strikes.By David E. Sanger, Coleman Lowndes, Abdi Latif Dahir, Samuel Granados, Stephanie Swart, Lazaro Gamio and Ray WhitehouseFebruary 27, 2026

Watch: "I'm not happy", says Trump on US-Iran talksPresident Trump has said he is not happy with Iran in the wake of the latest talks on its nuclear programme, but said he had not yet decided whether to attack the country."I'm not happy with the fact that they're not willing to give us what we have to have. So I'm not thrilled," Trump said in his first comments on negotiations in Geneva that broke up on Thursday without a deal.The US president stressed that he did not want to use military force against Iran, but said sometimes "you have to".Concern over the prospect of US strikes against Iran led a number of countries to issue warnings to their citizens in the region on Friday.The UK temporarily withdrew staff from its embassy in Tehran and updated its travel guidance to advise against "all but essential travel" to Israel.Countries including China, India and Canada urged their citizens to leave Iran as soon as possible due to the prospect of hostilities. Germany advised "urgently" against travel to Israel while France reiterated its advice not to do so.Meanwhile, the US urged its citizens in Iran to leave "immediately". Its embassy in Israel also told some non-emergency staff and their families they could leave the country, advising that they may wish to do so "while commercial flights are available".He has ordered the largest US military build-up in the Middle East since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, while Iran has vowed to respond to an attack with force.Washington and its allies suspect Iran is moving towards developing a nuclear weapon, which Tehran has always denied. It claims its programme is intended for peaceful, civilian purposes despite having enriched uranium up to near weapons-grade level.The president told reporters on Friday: "I say no enrichment... I…

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.President Trump said he had not made a final decision about whether to order military action against Iran.President Trump addressing reporters before leaving the White House for a trip to Texas on Friday.Credit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York TimesFeb. 27, 2026Updated 8:22 p.m. ETPresident Trump said Friday that he was “not happy” about the state of negotiations with Iran over nuclear weapons, but he cautioned that he had not made a final decision about whether to launch a second U.S. military conflict in Iran in less than a year.“I’m not happy with the fact that they’re not willing to give us what we have to have,” Mr. Trump told reporters in Washington, referring to U.S. demands that Iran dismantle its nuclear program.He said that he would “love not to use force” but that “sometimes you have to.”For weeks, Mr. Trump has been weighing strikes on a range of targets in Iran, including military and nuclear sites. The United States has positioned a massive force in the Middle East to prepare for potential orders, and the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on Friday issued a written directive to its workers that if they wanted to leave the country, they “should do so TODAY.”Still, Mr. Trump has done little to sell a potential attack to the American people, and his military objective remains unclear.Any action would come around eight months after the United States dropped bombs on Iran to destroy its nuclear facilities. The president declared that the attack had “obliterated” Iran’s capabilities, but in recent days, he and his aides have said that Iran restarted its nuclear program and had enough nuclear material to build a bomb within…

Yolande Knell,Middle East correspondent, JerusalemandSophie Williams,JerusalemEPAMost of Gaza's population relies on aid for food, medical care and waterIsrael's High Court has temporarily halted a ban on international aid groups from working in the occupied Palestinian territories unless they meet strict new rules.The injunction came ahead of an Israeli deadline for 37 well-known organisations to stop work, something the groups warn will remove a lifeline for vulnerable people and cause "irreparable harm".Four months into a fragile ceasefire in war-torn Gaza, most of the more than two million population relies on aid – for food, medical care and water. In the West Bank, humanitarian organisations have been helping Palestinians who have been forced off their land by rapid Israeli settlement expansion and settler violence.In December, Israel told organisations – including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders), Oxfam, Save the Children, ActionAid and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) – that their registrations had expired. They were given 60 days to renew them – by complying with new rules – or cease operations by 1 March.This week, a group of 17 NGOS jointly petitioned the High Court to suspend the new measures, arguing that Israel has obligations as an occupying power under international humanitarian law.Responding on Friday, Judge Dafna Barak-Erez said there was "a real legal dispute" which would require more time to work through.The right-wing government of Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has taken a tough stance against international and Palestinian NGOs as well as UN agencies, some of which have operated in the region for decades, citing security reasons. It has also passed legislation banning the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, from operating in Israel, impacting its work in the West Bank and Gaza.Israel has claimed that Unrwa - and other organisations, including MSF - have been infiltrated by members…

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Iran’s Students, Undeterred After Deadly Crackdown, Are Protesting AgainThe unrest underlines the intensity of domestic discontent, even as Tehran’s government grapples with the threat of U.S. strikes. Here’s what to know.An image taken from social media on Monday shows students gathering for an anti-government rally at the women-only Al Zahra University in Tehran.Credit...via Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 27, 2026Updated 1:37 p.m. ETStudents at universities around Iran have been staging campus protests calling for the government to be overthrown, in the country’s first large-scale demonstrations since a brutal state crackdown on nationwide dissent last month.The latest protests, which began on Feb. 21, have spread to campuses in at least four major cities, and student groups are pledging to take them to universities across the country on Saturday.While it is difficult to gauge the size of the current protests, the fact that they are happening at all is striking. Thousands of people were killed in January’s crackdown, and the readiness of students to mount further protests reflects the depth of popular outrage.Though the authorities have largely refrained from officially suppressing the protests, demonstrators have clashed with student units of the Basij, a volunteer militia loyal to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.The student protests underscore the challenge Iran’s government faces, both inside the country and beyond. President Trump has amassed U.S. forces around the Middle East, and American and Iranian officials held nuclear talks in Geneva on Friday in a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement that could avert war.Despite some optimism from the Iranian delegation on the outcome of the talks, there was no immediate comment from the American negotiators. An Omani mediator said the two…

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.How a Call From Trump Ignited a Bitter Feud Between Two U.S. AlliesA request made to President Trump about the war in Sudan is at the heart of a diplomatic dispute between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.President Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia at an investment forum in Washington in November.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York TimesFeb. 27, 2026Updated 9:18 a.m. ETBehind the scenes, tensions had simmered for years between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two powerful U.S. allies. It took a call from President Trump to bring those tensions crashing into the open.In November, Mr. Trump called the Emirati president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, to discuss a private conversation he had with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, according to four people briefed on the call by Emirati officials.The American president relayed that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had asked him to impose sanctions on the Emirates during a visit to the White House that month, the four people said. They said the sanctions were over the Emirati government’s support for an armed group fighting in Sudan’s civil war.A Saudi official offered a different account, saying that Prince Mohammed had asked Mr. Trump to place additional sanctions on the Sudanese armed group to prevent it from getting external support, not to impose measures on the Emirates directly. The Saudi leadership made the request because it believed that if the Emirati government backed down, the war in Sudan would end, according to the official.A U.S. official said that Prince Mohammed never asked President Trump to impose sanctions on the Emirates, but did not comment on the call.While the…

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.The June 2025 conflict with Iran depleted Israeli and U.S. stocks of antiballistic missiles. If there is another war, the pressure will be on to destroy Iranian missiles before they can be launched.Israeli air defense systems were activated to intercept Iranian missiles over the Israeli city of Tel Aviv in June.Credit...Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 27, 2026Updated 9:17 a.m. ETIsrael’s multilayered, sophisticated missile-defense system is renowned for protecting its citizens. But the possibility of a new war involving Iran puts a heightened focus on Israel’s stock of ballistic-missile interceptors, which was significantly depleted in 2025.The same goes for the U.S. arsenal of land- and sea-based antiballistic missiles, which provided a vital additional shield for Israel during the 12-day war with Iran last June.That leaves a bracing math problem looming as the Middle East edges closer to conflict: Should missiles start flying again, can Israeli and U.S. forces hunt down enemy launchers quickly enough, and destroy enough missiles on the ground, before their own air defenses run out of interceptors?“I’ve heard the generals and journalists and ministers saying, ‘No, we are good,’” said Ran Kochav, a former commander of Israel’s air and missile defense forces, referring to wall-to-wall optimistic commentary on Israeli television recently. “It’s a false reassurance.”What he circumspectly called Israel’s “inventory issues” can cost Israel in “casualties and problems over the whole country,” Mr. Kochav added. “There is no automatic safe place.”While the Iron Dome system is perhaps the best-known component of Israel’s air defense, it is designed to stop the kind of short-range rockets fired by Hamas. Other systems are more applicable in a conflict with Iran or Hezbollah in Lebanon.Thank you…

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Iran is ready to facilitate dialogue between Afghanistan and Pakistan as conflict escalates. File | Photo Credit: Reuters Iran, Russia and China have expressed concerns about the escalation of conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan on Friday (February 27, 2026). Islamabad’s Defence Minister declared the neighbours at “open war”, with Pakistan bombing three major cities of Afghanistan in retaliation for earlier strikes by Afghanistan. “Our patience has now run out,” Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif posted on X.Afghanistan-Pakistan conflict LIVEIran offered to help “facilitate dialogue” to resolve the conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan.“The Islamic Republic of Iran stands ready to provide any assistance necessary to facilitate dialogue and to enhance understanding and cooperation between the two countries,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X.Russia urges ​Afghanistan ⁠and Pakistan ‌to halt ‌cross-border ‌attacks ⁠immediately ⁠and ​resolve their ‌differences through diplomatic means, ‌the ​RIA news ⁠agency reported ‌on Friday (February 27, 2026), citing ‌the Foreign Ministry.China said that it was “deeply concerned” by fighting between Afghanistan and Pakistan, adding Beijing was talking to the two sides as it called for a ceasefire.China “calls on both sides to remain calm and exercise restraint... achieve a ceasefire as soon as possible, and avoid further bloodshed”, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing.The Ministry and China’s embassies in Pakistan and Afghanistan were “working with relevant parties in both countries on this matter”, she added. Published - February 27, 2026 02:46 pm IST

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Representatives of the countries were in Geneva this week to discuss the fate of Iran’s nuclear program.The U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, who, with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, is negotiating with Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.Credit...Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 26, 2026Iran and the United States concluded a six-hour round of negotiations in Geneva on Thursday with neither a diplomatic breakthrough, nor an impasse on American demands that Tehran completely dismantle its nuclear program. Iranian officials and Omani mediators said the two sides had agreed to continue talking next week in an effort to avert war.The officials described the marathon negotiations that were held in separate morning and evening sessions as positive and progressing. But it was notable that the two American negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, remained silent about the current status of negotiations, with the White House declining to comment.The talks came at a fraught moment, with a huge American naval force and hundreds of fighter jets, refuelers and antimissile batteries surrounding Iran, clearly ready for combat. Going into the talks, it appeared as if Tehran and Washington were teetering on the brink of war, with their publicly stated positions still far apart.President Trump declared again during his State of the Union address on Tuesday that Iran cannot possess the ability to produce a nuclear weapon and must shut down its enrichment program. But he also cited its killing of thousands of protesters, its missile capability and its support for proxy forces like Hezbollah and Hamas to justify possible military action. None of those topics were under negotiation on Thursday.Iran, in turn, has maintained that it has no intention of…

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.The family of Francesca Albanese, a critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, asked a court to void the Trump administration’s sanctions against her.The family of Francesca Albanese sued the Trump administration over its imposition of sanctions against her.Credit...Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 26, 2026The family of Francesca Albanese, a United Nations expert on the occupied Palestinian territories, sued President Trump and top officials on Wednesday, challenging the sanctions that the U.S. government imposed against her over her support for the prosecution of Israeli leaders and international companies involved in the war in Gaza.The civil complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argued that the Trump administration breached her First, Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, unreasonably seizing her property without due process, and violated sanction laws. The complaint asked the court to call the sanctions unconstitutional.The lawsuit was brought by her husband, Massimiliano Cali, and their child, not identified by name, because Ms. Albanese is barred by U.N. policy from bringing the lawsuit in her own name. The complaint said that she lost bank account access, ties to several universities, the ability to travel to the United States and access to her apartment in Washington.“Sanctions, used appropriately, are a powerful tool to disrupt and undermine the activities of terrorists, criminals and authoritarian regimes,” the complaint said. “Sanctions are abused, however, when they seek to silence disfavored points of view and to violate the constitutional rights of people the government does not like.”The White House and Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. The Justice Department declined to comment. A statement from the State Department said…

Closing summary High-stakes talks between the US and Iran over the future of Tehran’s nuclear programme ended without a deal, as Donald Trump weighs military action on a scale that would signify the US’s largest intervention since its invasion of Iraq in 2003. The world remains on edge as Trump has yet to decide on whether he will start a war with Iran. We haven’t heard from the US side, but Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said “good progress” was made on the nuclear issue and sanction relief, and said the two sides had begun to discuss “the elements of an agreement”. He described the talks as “one of our most intense and longest rounds of negotiations”, and confirmed that negotiations would reconvene at a technical level next week in Vienna. A reminder that on 19 February Trump issued a 10-15 day deadline for Tehran to reach a “meaningful deal” with Washington, which would bring us to next Friday, 6 March. But despite the hopeful take from the Iranians and from the Omani mediators, there was no immediate evidence that the dial had shifted on the fundamental issues of Iran’s right to enrich uranium and the future of its highly enriched uranium stocks. A reminder that the US is demanding permanent Iranian guarantees on uranium enrichment and inspection mechanisms so that Tehran will never be able to build a nuclear weapon, a goal it has always denied. Thank you for reading along. We’re pausing our live coverage now, and I’ll leave you with Patrick Wintour and Andrew Roth’s report.Key events1d agoClosing summary1d agoOman says 'significant progress' was made as talks end but brevity appears ominous1d agoOman says round of talks concluded ‘after significant progress’1d agoGeneva talks due to resume imminently1d agoIran says it is 'confident' about 'very serious talks'2d ago'Creative…

High-stakes talks between the US and Iran over the future of Tehran’s nuclear programme ended on Thursday without a deal, as the White House weighs a military operation that would mark its largest intervention in the Middle East in decades.The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, claimed “good progress” had been made at the talks and Omani mediators predicted negotiations would reconvene at a technical level next week in Vienna.But there was no immediate evidence to support suggestions that the two sides had drawn closer on the fundamental issues of Iran’s right to enrich uranium and the future of its highly enriched uranium stocks.Nonetheless, the Iranian and Omani mediators sought to cast the talks in a hopeful light, likely seeking to avert a US threat to launch strikes from its fleet of aircraft and warships that have massed in the region.Araghchi described the talks as “one of our most intense and longest rounds of negotiations”. He confirmed that further contacts would take place in less than a week.The indirect talks in Geneva were held in two sessions, with reports that the US team led by Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, had been disappointed by the proposals put forward by Iran.The brevity of the second session of talks appeared ominous, observers said.Iranian officials rounded on reports in US media that suggested Tehran would be required to end enrichment and allow its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to leave Iran.At one point, to the frustration of Tehran’s team, Witkoff had to break off his talks with Araghchi, to drive across the Swiss city to meet Ukrainian negotiators.The Omani mediators rejected the suggestion of a breakdown, claiming new and creative ideas were being exchanged with an unprecedented openness in what was being billed as a third decisive round of…

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.The national mood is somewhere between anxiety, resignation and anticipation as President Trump considers whether to attack Iran.Near a bomb shelter in June during an Iranian missile attack in Rishpon, Israel. Israelis have been glued to the news recently as President Trump deliberates over whether to attack Iran.Credit...Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York TimesFeb. 26, 2026Across Israel, hospitals have been conducting emergency drills while neighbors share locations of bomb shelters in WhatsApp groups.The national mood is wavering somewhere between anxiety, resignation and anticipation as President Trump deliberates over whether to attack Iran. If he orders a strike, it will most likely bring Israel into its second war with Iran in less than a year, following a 12-day conflict in June.Ruth Bahaj of Jerusalem, 38, said she was trying to maintain a semblance of normalcy, including by heading on a vacation this week. But she and her wife also made preparations, such as cleaning and organizing the fortified shelter in their apartment building.“Plenty of people are anxious, aren’t sleeping at night because they’re checking the news,” Ms. Bahaj said. “But it’s impossible to be tense and at the ready constantly for so long.”Mr. Trump first began threatening to attack Iran last month after Iran’s leaders began a bloody crackdown on mass protests calling for an end to the country’s authoritarian clerical rule. He has ordered a buildup of American military power in the region unparalleled since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.But he has also zigzagged between declaring his readiness to attack Iran and expressing a desire to use a moment of weakness in the country to reach a new diplomatic agreement to rein in…

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.The indictment against an agent of the Shin Bet security agency added to a growing list of Israelis accused of exploiting their positions in the security forces to profit from the war in Gaza.The Erez crossing, one of the few official entry points used by Israel to control the flow of goods into the Gaza Strip, in 2024.Credit...Janis Laizans/ReutersFeb. 26, 2026Israel has indicted an intelligence agent on charges that he profiteered from the smuggling of goods into the Gaza Strip during the two-year war in the territory, Israeli prosecutors said Thursday.The case, which was reported first by the Israeli television network i24 News, is the first instance to become public in which an agent of the Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence agency, has faced such charges since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. But it adds to a growing list of cases against Israeli citizens, including military reservists, accused of exploiting their roles in delivering aid to Gaza for personal gain.Moshe Lador, a former state attorney who said he does not have direct knowledge of the case, called the allegation “an embarrassment for the state of Israel.”If the charges are proven, he said, “it is a brutal abuse of power, especially since the organization the person works for operates in the shadows, which might have made him think he could get away with the crime.”Since the war in Gaza began with a Hamas led-attack on Israel in October 2023, Israel has tightly restricted the entry of food and other essential goods into Gaza and, at times, imposed a full blockade on the Palestinian enclave.The Israeli measures led to a humanitarian crisis during the war, with…

The imagery was sleek, the promises grand. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, presented a “Trump economic development plan” for Gaza—complete with AI-generated renderings of glass towers and marinas which reimagined the devastated enclave as a futuristic tourist destination. However, these glossy images bear little relation to the reality of a population emerging from a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Famine was recently declared, over a million people lack adequate shelter, and the health system has collapsed. Trump’s plan would obliterate Gaza’s history and society by imposing a top-down economic and tourism model. Few Palestinians, if any, have been consulted in its development: in the absence of Palestinian agency, President Trump will “exercise all power and authorities” as chairman of the Board of Peace (BoP).[1] Europeans and Arab states will be asked to buy into this plan for Gaza when they meet under the auspices of Trump’s BoP in Washington on February 19th. But they need to develop an alternative vision for Gaza’s future. Instead of supporting Trump’s Vegas-style real-estate project, Europeans and their allies must ensure Palestinian ownership and political sovereignty remain at the forefront of rebuilding Gaza. Trump’s dystopian delusion America’s blueprint, based on Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s urban spaces, fragments Gaza into seven discontinuous “residential areas” separated by “parks, agriculture and sports facilities”. This echoes Israel’s “Five Finger” strategy to fragment and control the Strip, and reduces Gaza’s total area through the formalisation of an Israeli-controlled sterile buffer zone along its borders with Israel and Egypt. The plan also disregards the historic, cultural and social fabric of Gaza: the Old City of Gaza, home to the Great Omari Mosque and ancient churches, is slated to become an “industrial complex”. The fertile agricultural lands of Beit Lahiya, once known for its strawberries, and dense…