The Times of Israel is liveblogging Thursday’s events as they happen.
At UN, US calls for pressuring Iran ‘to stop escalating its proxy conflict against Israel, others’
UN Security Council countries on Wednesday call for stepped-up diplomatic efforts to avert a wider Middle East conflict, during the emergency meeting called after the killings of two terror leaders raised tensions.
China, Russia, Algeria and others condemn the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which Iran’s UN ambassador calls an act of terrorism, while the US, UK and France raise what they say is Iranian support for destabilizing actors in the region.
Robert Wood, deputy US ambassador to the UN, urges members of the Security Council with influence over Iran “to increase pressure on it to stop escalating its proxy conflict against Israel and other actors.”
Iranian Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani claims Tehran has consistently exercised maximum restraint but reserves its right to respond decisively. He calls on the Security Council to condemn Israel and punish it with sanctions.
Israel’s deputy representative to the UN, Jonathan Miller, calls on the Security Council to condemn Iran for support of regional terrorism and increase sanctions on Tehran.
“We will defend ourselves and respond with great force against those who harm us,” Miller says, calling on the world to support Israel.
Pentagon announces plea deal with 9/11 mastermind, 2 of his accomplices
The United States has reached plea agreements with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants, the Pentagon announces.
“The specific terms and conditions of the pretrial agreements are not available to the public at this time,” the Pentagon says in a statement.
The other two men who reached plea deals are Mohammed’s accomplices Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawasawi.
Citing unidentified Pentagon officials, the New York Times reports that the three agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges in exchange for a life sentence, allowing them to avoid the death penalty.
Among the other acts of terror that Mohammed has confessed to since being captured in Pakistan over two decades ago are the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, who according to a Pentagon transcript he admitted to personally beheading. He has never been charged for Pearl’s murder.
Security Council holding emergency meeting on Mideast tensions after terror chiefs killed
The UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting after a set of airstrikes hours apart killed two top terror group officials in the Middle East, raising concerns that a regional war could erupt.
The killings of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran and of a top Hezbollah commander in Lebanon have stirred a diplomatic scramble at the UN and elsewhere to try to contain the complex, mounting tensions.
“The various attacks over the past few days represent a serious and dangerous escalation,” UN Undersecretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo says as the council meeting begins. She calls for diplomatic efforts “to change the trajectory and seek a path toward regional peace and stability.”
It appears unlikely that the Security Council can coalesce around any joint message on the airstrikes. The United States, a key ally of Israel, and Russia, which has close ties with Iran, are both council members with veto power.