International Glance
Israel informed the US this week that it is running critically low on ballistic missile interceptors as the conflict with Iran rages on, US officials told Semafor.
Israel had reportedly entered the current war already low on interceptors that were fired during last summer’s conflict with Iran. Israel’s long-range defense system has strained under Iran’s attacks; CNN reported that Iran was adding cluster munitions to its missiles, which may exacerbate the depletion of the stock.
The US has been aware of Israel’s low capacity for months, one US official said: “It’s something we expected and anticipated.”
This official emphasized to Semafor that the US is not running similarly low on interceptors of its own. That comment comes amid broader concerns about interceptor depletion from a longer military engagement in Iran leaving the US in a poor position.
It’s also unclear whether the US might seek to sell or share any of its own interceptors with Israel, which would pose its own strain on domestic supplies. The US has included missile defense assets in past provisions of military aid to Israel.
Israel Is Running Critically Low On Interceptors, Semafor Reports
Russian Losses Have Exceeded New Recruits for 3 Straight Months, Syrsky Says
Russian military losses have exceeded the number of new recruits joining the Russian army for three consecutive months, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky said on Friday, March 13.
Syrsky made the statement after meeting with his Swedish counterpart, General Mikael Claesson, who visited Ukraine to discuss military cooperation and support.
“The Kremlin has no intention of stopping offensive actions, although it is suffering significant losses on the battlefield, which for three months in a row have exceeded the number of reinforcements joining the Russian army,” Syrsky said in a post on Facebook.
The exact number of either Russian and Ukrainian casualties is unknown. However, a joint investigation by the BBC Russian Service and research group Mediazona put the number of verified Russian losses in Ukraine at 200,186 on Feb. 25.
Israeli settler violence rises in West Bank under Iran war curbs
Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank are taking advantage of curbs on movement imposed during the war on Iran to attack Palestinians, with military roadblocks preventing ambulances reaching victims quickly, rights groups and medics say.
Settlers have killed at least five Palestinians in the West Bank since the United States and Israel began airstrikes against Iran on February 28, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
A sixth man died after inhaling tear gas fired during an attack, according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem.
Israel’s military blocked many West Bank roads with iron gates and mounds of earth on the first day of the war and has largely shut crossings with Israel.
The Israeli military says the curbs are preemptive measures while it is carrying out airstrikes on Iran and against Lebanese group Hezbollah, which has fired missiles at Israel in solidarity with Tehran.
Palestinians in remote West Bank villages say the roadblocks have left them increasingly exposed to settler violence.
The Israeli military has also continued to carry out the raids it frequently conducts in Palestinian cities and towns during peacetime to arrest Palestinians, often without charge, they say.
Mojtaba Khamenei’s First Message Threatens Wider War
Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, issued his first public message Thursday since assuming power after the death of his father, Ali Khamenei. The statement was delivered as a written text read by a presenter on state television. That unusual format immediately fueled questions about both his health and the degree of his control over the country at a moment of acute regional crisis.
Unlike his father, Ali Khamenei, who rose to the supreme leadership after serving as Iran’s president, Mojtaba Khamenei has remained almost entirely out of public view. This was not only his first message as supreme leader, but effectively his first known public political address.
That contrast matters because Ali Khamenei entered the office with years of visible national political experience behind him. Mojtaba Khamenei, by comparison, has never given interviews and has never spoken publicly, making Thursday’s statement his first known public address.
The tone of Mojtaba Khamenei’s first message appeared aimed at establishing continuity. Much of it presented the current crisis as an extension of the struggle led by his father, suggesting that although Ali Khamenei is dead, his political and ideological struggle continues.
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Elon Musk's AI platform wrongly claimed that footage of a fire in Glasgow was related to an incident in Tel Aviv, and it also confused a video appearing to show oil fires in Iran with a 2017 blaze near Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, in a dizzying stream of social media posts since the US attacked Iran, Trump has variously called for a mass uprising, demanded the country’s unconditional surrender, claimed that he would be directly involved in choosing Iran’s next leader, suggested that Iran is being beaten to hell, and vowed to widen his target list.
But his most significant post called the assassination of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country”.
This was a chance the Iranian people did not take. They instead came out onto the streets by the thousands to mourn Khamenei while the bombing was taking place.
In addition to that, the killing of the Iranian head of state, in itself an event unique in modern history, might have done the very opposite of what Trump and the “brains” of the operation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had intended.
The assassination of Khamenei might have revitalised and given new direction to the Islamic Republic and the Iranian revolution.
Ukrainian Anti-Drone Specialists Already Working in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE
President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on Wednesday that Ukrainian anti-drone experts have begun work on defending Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates from Iranian attacks.
The US and Israel launched a massive air bombardment campaign on Iran on Feb. 28, killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and plunging the region into turmoil.
Ukraine – which has now been under attack from Iranian-made Shahed drones and the Russian-made drones modeled on them for over four years – has responded by offering material assistance to the countries bearing the brunt of Iran’s response.
“Three of our teams have gone – strong teams of experts, military personnel, engineers, different people. Today the military are already communicating and already working,” Zelensky told reporters, with his spokesperson later confirming that he was referring to the three Gulf states, according to AFP.
Sanctions on Israeli settlements are working – even without the US
Amid an unforgiving global news cycle – and as nations weigh their options in responding to the yet unbuilt West Bank settlement project that would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state” – a telling sanctions-related development in Israel passed largely unnoticed outside Israeli media. In Tel Aviv, the new year began with a protest by a violent extremist settler group that has faced UK sanctions since October 2024.
The trigger was a new Israeli banking directive, rushed out to placate Israel’s hardliners, that they said did too little to shield Israelis from international sanctions.
The protest – and the response from the pro-settlement extremist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who himself faces sanctions from Australia, Canada and the UK – makes one thing clear: sanctions on extremist Israelis are working, and this remains true even after the Trump administration rolled back all Biden-era sanctions on Israeli settlers last year.
That lesson carries immediate relevance as governments now have an opportunity to give teeth to their long-standing opposition to the E1 settlement plan – a move that would fracture the territorial contiguity of the West Bank and the viability of a Palestinian state. The tenders, which seek bids from developers, call for proposals to develop 3,401 housing units in E1 – a stretch of land east of Jerusalem – and are expected to be awarded on 16 March.
Smotrich, who oversees the West Bank settlement planning body that approved the E1 settlement plan, has simultaneously waged war on the settler sanctions movement since its inception two years ago. In February 2024, Smotrich publicly browbeat Israeli banks and regulators for complying with sanctions on Israeli settlers, vowing to use “all available tools” to prevent banks from enforcing the sanctions
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