Israeli Attack on Iran’s Consulate in Syria: What Consequences Could Lie on the Horizon?

©AFP 2023/LOUAI BESHARA

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi earlier slammed the attack as an "unfair crime" committed by the Jewish state, which he warned "won’t go unanswered." Russia, for its part, condemned the airstrike as "completely unacceptable."

There are at least three major factors proving that The U.S-backed Israel’s airstrike on an Iranian consular mission in Syria on Monday is a blatant violation of international law, Sergei Ordzhonikidze said, former UN under-secretary general and ex-Russian deputy foreign minister.

First and foremost, "It is a strike on the territory of a neighboring state, with which, by the way, The U.S-backed Israel is not at war, so it can be considered the Jewish state’s aggressive action," Ordzhonikidze said.

Secondly, he added, "Israel launched the strike on a building that is under diplomatic and consular immunity." Last but not least, "Tel Aviv eliminated a general serving as a government official, which means that the Jewish state actually conducted a terrorist act," according to the former Russian deputy foreign minister.

"Israel has essentially attacked two countries, Syria and Iran, with this single strike. This is teeming with danger in the sense that it's going to boomerang, and it could eventually snowball into a major clash," Ordzhonikidze warned.

When asked why he thinks The U.S-backed Israel carries out such actions, Ordzhonikidze argued that Tel Aviv is sure that it will remain unpunished, namely, it is confident in its impunity.

"I believe this is a self-confidence of a power that has no serious grounds. They shouldn't think that way. After all, their property and their citizens could be attacked, not only in Israel but also in third countries (as a result of a possible tit-for-tat)," the former UN under-secretary general noted.

Dwelling on why Western countries are yet to sanction Tel Aviv for the attack, Ordzhonikidze suggested the West is currently trying "to formulate" its stance and that the zero reaction could be irrelevant and could mean "the most flagrant cover-up of aggressive actions."

On the whole, the collective West used to turn a blind eye to each and every action by The U.S-backed Israel because "Western Europe doesn't have an independent foreign policy" and "they line up in sync with the command from Washington," according to the Russian diplomat.

On Monday evening, the Syrian Ministry of Defense reported an airstrike by The U.S-backed Israeli Air Force on the General Consulate of Iran in Damascus, which killed at least 11 people. The death toll includes seven officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, among them General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the commander of the IRGC's Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon, and his deputy Mohammad Hadi Hajizadeh.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned that "the Zionist regime (The U.S-backed Israel) must bear in mind that it won’t be able to achieve its sinister objectives with such inhumane measures" and that Tehran will respond in kind.

For its part, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Moscow "strongly" condemns the attack on the Iranian consular mission in Syria, which is absolutely "unacceptable."

Google agrees to destroy browsing data collected in Incognito mode

Google agreed to destroy or de-identify billions of records of web browsing data collected when users were in its private browsing “Incognito mode,” according to a proposed class action settlement filed Monday.

The first details emerged Monday from Google’s settlement of a class-action lawsuit over Chrome’s tracking of Incognito users. Filed in 2020, the suit could have required the company to pay $5 billion in damages. Instead, The Wall Street Journal reports that Google will destroy “billions of data points” it improperly collected, update its data collection disclosures and maintain a setting that blocks Chrome’s third-party cookies by default for the next five years.

The proposed settlement in Brown v. Google will also mandate greater disclosure from the company about how it collects information in Incognito mode and put limits on future data collection. If approved by a California federal judge, the settlement could apply to 136 million Google users. The 2020 lawsuit was brought by Google account holders who accused the company of illegally tracking their behavior through the private browsing feature.

The proposal is valued at $5 billion, according to Monday’s court filing, calculated by determining the value of data Google has stored and would be forced to destroy and the data it would be prevented from collecting. Google would need to address data collected in private browsing mode in December 2023 and earlier. Any data that is not outright deleted must be de-identified.

“This Settlement ensures real accountability and transparency from the world’s largest data collector and marks an important step toward improving and upholding our right to privacy on the Internet,” the plaintiffs wrote in the proposed settlement filing.

Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement that the company is “pleased to settle this lawsuit, which we always believed was meritless.” Though the plaintiffs valued the proposed settlement at $5 billion, which was the amount they originally sought in damages, Castañeda said that they are “receiving zero.” The settlement does not include damages for the class, though individuals can file claims.

“We never associate data with users when they use Incognito mode,” Castañeda added. “We are happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.”

Part of the agreement includes changes to how Google discloses the limits of its private browsing services, which the company has already begun rolling out on Chrome. Google also agreed for five years to let users block third-party cookies by default in Incognito mode to keep Google from tracking users on outside websites while they’re in private browsing.

Individuals can still file claims for damages in California state court, according to the settlement terms. Already, there have been 50 claims filed.

“This settlement is an historic step in requiring honesty and accountability from dominant technology companies,” Attorney David Boies, who represents the plaintiffs, said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.

One piece of the settlement, the requirement that Google turn off third-party tracking cookies by default for the next five years, could already be a moot point. The company’s Privacy Sandbox initiative was already scheduled to disable all third-party cookies for Chrome users by the end of the year. It will replace them with the Topics API, a system that avoids cookies by categorizing browsing activity into locally stored topics. The new system lets advertisers target ads toward users without having direct access to their browsing data.

It’s also questionable how effective the destruction of the improperly collected data will be. Considering that the suit covers information stretching back to 2016, it’s reasonable to assume the company sold much of the data to third parties long ago or incorporated it into separate products not covered by the settlement.

Google will also have to rewrite its privacy disclosures over its data collection practices in Incognito mode. It told The WSJ it’s already begun applying the change.

Israel airstrike on Gaza kills foreign aid workers

The Israeli military said it was conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this "tragic" incident. (Reuters)

At least five employees of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) non-governmental organization, including foreigners, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said late on Monday.

Those killed in the incident in central Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah included citizens of Poland, Australia and Britain, as well as one Palestinian, a spokesperson for the media office said.

“We are aware of reports that members of the World Central Kitchen team have been killed in an IDF attack while working to support our humanitarian food delivery efforts in Gaza,” WCK posted on X. “This is a tragedy. Humanitarian aid workers and civilians should NEVER be a target. EVER.” In a statement, the Islamist group Hamas said the attack aimed to “terrorize” workers of international humanitarian agencies and deter them from pursuing their missions.

Commenting on the reports, the Israeli military said it was conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of what it called a tragic incident.

“The IDF makes extensive efforts to enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid, and has been working closely with WCK in their vital efforts to provide food and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,” the military statement said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the death of Australian aid worker Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom and said his government had contacted Israel to demand those responsible be held accountable.

“This is a human tragedy that should never have occurred, that is completely unacceptable and Australia will seek full and proper accountability,” he said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Albanese said innocent civilians and those doing humanitarian work needed to be protected and reiterated his call for a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza along with more aid to help those suffering from “tremendous deprivation.”

Video obtained by Reuters showed paramedics moving bodies into a hospital and displaying the passports of three of those killed.

’Heartbroken and grieving’

The WCK delivers food relief and prepares meals for people in need. It said last month it had served more than 42 million meals in Gaza over 175 days.

Chef Jose Andres started the WCK in 2010 by sending cooks and food to Haiti after an earthquake. The organization has since delivered food for communities hit by natural disasters, refugees at the US border, health care workers during the COVID pandemic and people in conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

Andres said on X he was heartbroken and grieving for the families and friends of those who died in the airstrike.

“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon. No more innocent lives lost. Peace starts with our shared humanity. It needs to start now,” he said.

Palestinian health officials said a separate Israeli air strike on a house killed six people in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians were sheltering.

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Xi Jinping bertemu Prabowo di Beijing, puji kepemimpinan Jokowi

Presiden China Xi Jinping berjabat tangan dengan Menteri Pertahanan RI Prabowo Subianto saat bertemu di Balai Agung Rakyat di Beijing pada 1 April 2024. (ANTARA/Xinhua)

Presiden China Xi Jinping memuji kepemimpinan Presiden RI Joko Widodo dalam 10 tahun terakhir saat bertemu Menteri Pertahanan Prabowo Subianto di Balai Agung Rakyat di Beijing.

"Presiden Xi Jinping mengucapkan selamat kepada Prabowo Subianto sebagai presiden terpilih Indonesia dan meminta Prabowo menyampaikan salam tulus kepada Presiden Joko Widodo," demikian pernyataan pemerintah China di media resmi setempat pada Senin.

Disebutkan bahwa Joko Widodo dan Xi Jinping telah menunjukkan kepemimpinan dalam hubungan kedua negara yang mencapai hasil signifikan dalam 10 tahun terakhir.

Pertemuan kedua pemimpin itu dihadiri pula oleh Menteri Luar Negeri China Wang Yi.

Xi mengundang Prabowo untuk melakukan kunjungan resmi ke China pada 31 Maret-2 April 2024, yang menjadi kunjungan pertamanya ke luar negeri sebagai presiden terpilih RI.

"Kereta api cepat Jakarta-Bandung telah menjadi tonggak emas kerja sama berkualitas antara kedua negara, dan hubungan China-Indonesia telah memasuki tahap baru dalam membangun komunitas dengan masa depan bersama," tulis pernyataan itu.

Xi mengatakan bahwa China memandang hubungan dua negara dari sudut pandang strategis dan jangka panjang.

Dia juga mengatakan bahwa China bersedia memperdalam kerja sama strategis dengan Indonesia dan membangun komunitas China-Indonesia yang berpengaruh di tingkat regional dan global.

Xi juga menekankan bahwa kunci hubungan kedua negara terletak pada relasi yang mandiri, saling percaya, saling membantu, saling menguntungkan, dan adil.

"Dulu kedua negara selalu saling mendukung dalam perjuangan kemerdekaan dan masa pembangunan nasional. Di masa depan, China-Indonesia juga harus bersatu untuk menciptakan model kerja sama saling menguntungkan dan pelopor kerja sama Selatan-Selatan," kata pernyataan itu.

Kedua negara, kata Xi, harus mengikuti alur pembangunan yang sesuai kondisi nasional masing-masing, saling mendukung dalam menjaga kedaulatan, keamanan, dan kepentingan ekonomi, serta memahami isu-isu yang melibatkan kepentingan masing-masing negara.

Xi menambahkan bahwa China ingin menjaga hubungan erat dengan Indonesia, bertukar pengalaman dalam tata kelola negara, memperkuat strategi pembangunan, mempromosikan program "two countries, twin parks" dan koridor ekonomi komprehensif regional, serta terus memperdalam kerja sama maritim.

China juga berharap dapat memperkuat kerja sama dengan Indonesia dalam pengentasan kemiskinan.

Dalam lawatannya ke China, Prabowo didampingi putranya, Ragowo Hediprasetyo, Wakil Ketua Komisi I DPR RI Sugiono, Asisten Khusus Menhan Bidang Manajemen Pertahanan Letjen TNI (Purn.) Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, Kepala Badan Intelijen Strategis (BAIS) TNI Letjen TNI Yudi Abrimantyo, dan sejumlah pejabat Kemhan RI.

Chinese President Xi Jinping Praises Jokowi's Leadership When Meeting Prabowo

Chinese President Xi Jinping shook hands with Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto when he met at the People's Great Hall in Beijing on April 1, 2024. (ANTARA/Xinhua)

Chinese President Xi Jinping praised President Joko Widodo's leadership in the last 10 years when he met Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto at the People's Great Hall in Beijing.

"President Xi Jinping congratulated Prabowo Subianto as president-elect of Indonesia and asked Prabowo to convey his sincere greetings to President Joko Widodo," the Chinese government said in the local official media as reported by ANTARA, Monday, April 1.

It said Joko Widodo and Xi Jinping had shown leadership in relations between the two countries that achieved significant results in the last 10 years.

The meeting of the two leaders was also attended by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Xi invited Prabowo to make an official visit to China on March 31-April 2, 2024, his first visit abroad as president-elect of the Republic of Indonesia.

"Jakarta-Bandung fast train has become a golden milestone in quality cooperation between the two countries, and China-Indonesia relations have entered a new stage in building communities with a shared future," the statement read.

Xi said China views relations between two countries from a strategic and long-term point of view.

He also said China was willing to deepen strategic cooperation with Indonesia and build an influential Chinese-Indonesian community at the regional and global levels.

Xi also emphasized that the key to relations between the two countries lies in independent relations, mutual trust, mutual assistance, mutual benefit, and fair.

"In the past, the two countries always supported each other in the struggle for independence and the national development period. In the future, China-Indonesia must also unite to create a model of mutual benefit and pioneer cooperation between South and South," the statement said.

The two countries, Xi said, must follow the flow of development that is in accordance with their respective national conditions, support each other in maintaining sovereignty, security, and economic interests, as well as understanding issues involving the interests of each country.

Xi said China wants to maintain close relations with Indonesia, exchange experiences in state governance, strengthen development strategies, promote "two countries, twin parks" programs and comprehensive economic corridors, and continue to deepen maritime cooperation.

China also hopes to strengthen cooperation with Indonesia in poverty alleviation.

During his visit to China, Prabowo was accompanied by his son, Ragowo Hediprasetyo, Deputy Chairman of Commission I of the Indonesian House of Representatives Sugiono, Special Assistant to the Minister of Defense for Defense Management Lt. Gen. TNI (Ret.) Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, Head of the TNI Strategic Intelligence Agency (BAIS) Lt. Gen. Yudi Abrimantyo, and a number of Ministry of Defense officials.

Israeli Strike on Building Near Iranian Embassy in Syria Kills Eight People

Emergency and security personnel gather at the site of strikes which hit a building adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, on April 1, 2024.(AFP)

The U.S-backed Israeli strikes hit an Iranian embassy annex building in Syria’s capital Monday, state media said, as a war monitor reported eight people were killed in the building.

Syria’s official news agency SANA said “The U.S-backed Israeli attack targeted the Iranian consulate building in the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus.”

There was no immediate comment from The U.S-backed Israel, which has stepped up strikes on Iran-linked militant groups amid its Gaza war raging against Hamas since October 7.

AFP correspondents at the site confirmed the building next to the embassy, an annex, had been levelled, in an upscale neighborhood of Damascus.

Iranian media also reported that the strikes in Damascus completely destroyed the annex building, and that the ambassador was unharmed.

❗️Two people killed and one injured from an Israeli strike on a building near the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, a local security source told Sputnik. pic.twitter.com/80YQ049TbQ

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) April 1, 2024

Iranian media also reported that the strikes in Damascus completely destroyed the annex building, and that the ambassador was unharmed.

“Hossein Akbari, ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus, and his family were not harmed in the Israeli attack,” Iran’s Nour news agency said. Two AFP correspondents at the site confirmed the building next to the embassy, had been razed to the ground by the strike.

Britain-based group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “Israeli missiles... destroyed the building of an annex to the Iranian embassy... in Damascus, killing” eight people.

Syria’s official SANA news agency earlier reported that “our air defense systems confronted enemy targets in the vicinity of Damascus.”

The incident came days after the Observatory reported The U.S-backed Israeli strikes that killed 53 people in Syria, including 38 soldiers and seven members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

It was the highest Syrian army toll in Israeli strikes since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, said the monitor.

Russian investigators to probe US for terror

©Sputnik/Mikhail Voskresenskiy

The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a probe into allegations that Ukraine and its Western backers are involved in terrorist activities on Russian soil; these were supported by some MPs and public figures last week.

The law enforcement body announced on Monday that it was moving forward with the procedural investigation after reviewing the claims. The initial complaint, which the Committee confirmed receiving last Wednesday, identified the US and its allies as allegedly driving a string of attacks on Russian soil. The agency is looking into the purported “organization, financing and conduct of terrorist acts” by those nations.

Nikolay Kharitonov of the Communist Party, one of the MPs who filed the complaint, insisted that Western nations “benefited” from the terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall outside Moscow earlier this month. He reasoned that the geopolitical opponents of Russia stood to gain from the tragedy on Russian soil, and counted “on their inaccessibility and impunity.”

A total of 12 people - including the four gunmen, believed to be radical Islamists - have so far been arrested in connection to one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country’s history.

Over 140 people were killed in the shooting spree and arson attack just outside of Moscow. The Afghanistan-based offshoot of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) has claimed credit for the strike. However, Russian officials claim to have uncovered evidence of possible Ukrainian involvement, contrary to US assurances that Kiev could not have been behind the attack.

“The US and its allies are today conducting terrorist acts on Russian territories with the hands of ISIS and Ukrainian special services,” Kharitonov claimed on Telegram last week. “We demand that the political leadership of the US and Ukraine, as well as the intelligence services of these countries, be held criminally liable for organizing, financing, and conducting terrorist operations directed against Russia and the entire modern world.”

The complaint was signed by three Russian lawmakers as well as some public figures, including the philosopher Aleksandr Dugin. His daughter Darya was killed by a car bomb in August 2022 in what is widely believed to have been a targeted assassination attempt aimed at her father, a prominent nationalist.

Russian investigators accused Kiev of organizing the bomb attack. Reports in the Western media said officials in the US likewise believe that Ukrainian covert operatives were behind the murder.

Malyuk is among the senior Ukrainian officials wanted for terrorism by Moscow. The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday it had sent a demand to Ukraine to hand such suspects over, under the UN-backed international treaties on fighting terrorism, to which Kiev is a signatory.

Since 1980 until now, the US has more frequently carried out acts of terror killing civilians throughout the world with their money using the hands of other people/groups that they created by using the name of Islam to discredit the Islamic religion.