Sunday, April 19, 2026

For regrowing human limbs, this salamander gene could hold the key

Wake Forest biologist collaborates on research to lay groundwork for potential treatments

Wake Forest University

Investigating a common gene in three very different species – axolotls, mice and zebrafish – scientists have discovered the potential for a novel gene therapy aimed at eventually regrowing limbs in humans, according to new research published this week.

“This significant research brought together three labs, working across three organisms to compare regeneration,” said Wake Forest Assistant Professor of Biology Josh Currie, whose lab studies the Mexican axolotl salamander. “It showed us that there are universal, unifying genetic programs that are driving regeneration in very different types of organisms, salamanders, zebrafish and mice.”

The research, with results appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, included David A. Brown, a plastic surgeon who studies digit regeneration in mice at Duke University, and Kenneth D. Poss, who studies fin regeneration in zebrafish at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Each year, around the world, more than 1 million limb amputations occur because of vascular diseases such as diabetes, traumatic injuries, cancer or infections, according to annual Global Burden of Disease statistics. The number is expected to rise with the aging population and the increase in diabetes diagnoses.

That looming challenge has inspired Brown, Currie and Poss to search for a treatment beyond prosthetics, for something that could replace the complex senses and motor skills of an actual limb.

They might have found the start of a solution in something called SP genes, which the scientists discovered are vital for limb regeneration and shared by the mouse, zebrafish and axolotl.

Therapy makes up for missing gene

The scientists chose to study these three animals for specific reasons:

The axolotl excels at regeneration, with the ability to regrow complete limbs; tails, including the spinal cord; parts of the heart, brain, liver, lungs and jaw.
Zebrafish offer one of the best models for appendage regeneration because their tail fins regrow rapidly and have unlimited capacity for regrowth. The zebrafish also can regenerate its heart, spinal cord, brain, retinas, kidneys and pancreas.
Mice represent mammals like humans, and they already can regenerate the tips of their digits. Humans, too, can regrow their fingertips when an injury preserves the nailbed. That allows regrowth of flesh, skin and bone.

Currie said that once the scientists determined the regenerating epidermis, or skin, of all three species expressed the SP genes SP6 and SP8, they set out to test what the genes do and how they work.

Biology Ph.D. student Tim Curtis Jr. contributed to the research in the Currie lab, with assistance from undergraduate Elena Singer-Freeman, a Goldwater Scholar and 2025 Wake Forest biochemistry and molecular biology graduate.

Emulating the abilities of salamander genes

In salamanders, SP8 does the work in regenerating limbs. Using CRISPR gene-editing technology, Currie’s lab removed SP8 from the axolotl genome. Without SP8, the axolotl could not properly regenerate the limb bones; a similar result occurred with the mouse digits missing SP6 and SP8.

With that information in hand, Brown’s lab used a tissue regeneration enhancer found in zebrafish to develop a viral gene therapy.

That therapy delivered a secreted molecule called FGF8, a gene that is usually turned on by SP8, to encourage digit bone regrowth and partially restore the regenerative effects of the missing SP genes in mice.

Human limbs don’t have that kind of regenerative power – but might someday, with a therapy that emulates the abilities of SP genes.

“We can use this as a kind of proof of principle that we might be able to deliver therapies to substitute for this regenerative style of epidermis in regrowing tissue in humans,” Currie explained.

Building the foundation for human therapies

Although it will require much more research to take the findings from mouse digits to human limbs, Currie called this study foundational in the search for therapies to regrow limbs after injury or disease.

“Scientists are pursuing many solutions for replacing limbs, including bioengineered scaffolds and stem cell therapies,” Currie explained. “The gene-therapy approach in this study is a new avenue that can complement and potentially augment what will surely be a multi-disciplinary solution to one day regenerate human limbs.”

He said the decision to collaborate among scientists studying such different animals made all the difference in this research.

“Many times, scientists work in their silos: we're just working in axolotl, or we're just working in mouse, or just working in fish,” Currie said. “A real standout feature of this research is that we work across all these different organisms. That is really powerful, and it's something that I hope we'll see more of in the field.”

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About Wake Forest University

The University’s motto, Pro Humanitate, reflects a commitment to academic excellence and to using ideas, knowledge and talents on behalf of humanity. The Winston-Salem, N.C., campus is home to nearly 9,000 students with more studying at Wake Forest locations in Charlotte, N.C., Washington, D.C., and around the world. In addition to the undergraduate College, the University encompasses the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, as well as Schools of Business, Law, Medicine, Divinity and Professional Studies. Founded in 1834, Wake Forest embraces a University-wide approach to developing leaders of character and integrity. Learn more at www.wfu.edu.

Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2532804123

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Enhancer-directed gene delivery for digit regeneration based on conserved epidermal factors

Article Publication Date

14-Apr-2026

How France fell for reimagined 19th-century workers’ canteens

By AFP
April 18, 2026

The resurrection of the Bouillon Chartier kicked off the scene

- Copyright AFP/File Fred DUFOUR

Daphné ROUSSEAU

So-called bouillon restaurants are mushrooming all over France, reviving a traditional low-cost Gallic meal concept that can compete with fast-food on prices and easily beat it on quality.

“It’s exploding! 253 bouillon restaurants have opened in France in four years,” Bernard Boutboul, a restaurant consultant, told AFP.

“It’s an ultra-intensive expansion, driven by a trend of returning to traditions, with the reappearance of iconic French dishes at very low prices.”

Created in the 1850s by the butcher Adolphe-Baptiste Duval to fill workers’ stomachs with hearty meals, Duval’s ran 250 restaurants in the capital by the turn of the 20th century.

That made them France’s first mass chain of restaurants, serving traditional recipes at low prices in high-volume and bustling restaurants.

But as eating habits changed, with higher quality and more expensive brasseries dominating the French food market, and international and fast-food trends appearing, the bouillon concept fell out of favour.

Its revival began in 2005 with the resurrection of the Bouillon Chartier, an ornate Parisian landmark that had been slowly fading.

“A bouillon is the gateway to French gastronomy,” explained Christophe Joulie, part of the gastronomic family who took over the Chartier.

He modernised the kitchens and put beef bourguignon with macaroni back on the menu.

“For me, you have to be able to have a starter, main course and dessert for under 20 euros,” he said.

With its leek vinaigrette for one euro and bills scribbled on paper tablecloths by apron-clad waiters, the restaurant hums with activity as locals and tourists alike pack out its tables, which crucially cannot be reserved.

“In a world where fast food is taking up more space, it’s French-style fast food, because we serve a full dish for less than a sandwich at McDonald’s,” said Joulie.

– ‘Dust off’ –

Even multi-Michelin-starred French chef Thierry Marx has got in on the act, attracted by the idea of providing quality food at affordable prices.

He has opened a bouillon in a northern Paris suburb.

“In the 1960s, it took the equivalent of an hour of the minimum wage to eat at a bistro,” he told AFP. “Today, with an hour of minimum wage, you only get fast food, something from the bakery — or a bouillon dish.”

Other restaurateurs with a keen eye for the market have sensed an opportunity.

“We looked at needs and changing habits and realised there was demand for intergenerational social spaces with no price-based exclusion,” Enguerran Lavaud, director of Groupe Bouillon Restaurants, told AFP.

“I wanted to dust off the bouillon -— its mass-market French dishes available from noon to midnight.”

Boosted by its Instagram presence, his Bouillon Pigalle now serves 2,300 customers a day, often with long queues along the pavement.

Since 2017, the concept has spread, attracting more and more restaurateurs across France from Angers to Nancy and Toulouse.

Some are adapting the concept.

In the Romainville suburb northeast of Paris, a family of Mauritian origin took over a large brasserie in 2026 to turn it into a “Mauritian-style bouillon”.

There is an Italian bouillon in Paris too.

Industry insiders say they do not fear competition around what has become a “bouillon culture”.

“But there are bouillons and bouillons: those that can’t sustain the low prices over time, and whose menus change all the time, won’t make it to 2027 or 2028 because you have to protect the quality of the experience to protect volume — and therefore prices,” warned Lavaud.

According to consultant Bernard Boutboul, you specifically need “at least 300 seats and not exceed an average bill of 18 euros”.

AI ‘agent’ fever comes with lurking security threats

By AFP
April 19, 2026

People lining up to have OpenClaw installed on their laptops at Baidu's headquarters in Beijing in March - Copyright AFP VALERIE MACON

Mona GUICHARD

Artificial intelligence “agents” promise to save users time and energy by automating tasks, but the growing power of systems like OpenClaw is setting cybersecurity experts on edge.

Powered by a wave of hype, OpenClaw today claims more than three million users worldwide.

The system allows users to create so-called agents, tools based on a large language model (LLM) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude that can carry out online tasks.

“We’ve moved from an AI you could talk with via a chatbot to an agentic AI, which can take action… the threat and the risks are definitely much greater,” said Yazid Akadiri, principal solutions architect at Elastic France, an IT security company.

In an article titled “Agents of Chaos” that has yet to be peer-reviewed, a 20-strong team of researchers studied the behaviour of six AI agents created with OpenClaw.

They spotted a dozen potentially dangerous actions executed by the systems, from deleting an email inbox to sharing personal information.

Many users have posted similar stories of OpenClaw mishaps online.

“When you deploy agents, you have no control over what they’ll do, and when you try to look at what they’re doing, you’ll find them going far beyond the limits you set,” said Adrien Merveille, an expert at the Check Point cybersecurity agency.

And the security gaps are not limited to the agents’ own mistaken actions.

To carry out useful work, the tools need access to personal accounts for email, calendars or search engines — drawing the attention of cyberattackers.

– ‘Delete your database’ –

AI agents are likely to become top targets for hackers as their use spreads, said Wendi Whitmore, chief security intelligence officer at cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks.

“As soon as (attackers) are inside an environment, (they’re) immediately going to the internal LLM (agent) that’s being used and using that then to interrogate the systems for more information.”

Palo Alto’s Unit 42 research division said in early March that it had found traces of attempted attacks in the form of hidden instructions for agents added to websites.

One such command ordered any agent who might read it to “delete your database”.

Other cybersecurity firms and researchers have warned that attackers could gain access to agents via so-called skills — downloadable files that users can add to their systems to give them new abilities.

Among such files freely available for download, some include hidden instructions for malicious actions like exfiltrating data.

OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger says he is well aware of the risks.

“I purposefully didn’t make it simpler so people would stop and read and understand: what is AI, that AI can make mistakes, what is prompt injection — some basics that you really should understand when you use that technology,” he told AFP in March.

Whitmore argued that expecting users to create their own guardrails for agents is “pretty unrealistic”.

“People are going to adopt innovation and really see what it’s capable of before they ask the questions about, ‘how do I secure my own data?’,” she predicted.

“That’s going to cause some significant challenges in terms of data breaches in 2026.”

Humans far behind as robot breaks record at Beijing half marathon

By AFP
April 19, 2026

The number of humanoid entries at the Yizhuang half marathon jumped from around 20 last year to more than 100 - Copyright AFP Pedro PARDO

Ludovic EHRET

A humanoid robot competing against flesh-and-blood runners broke the world record at a Beijing half marathon on Sunday, showcasing the rapid technological advancement achieved by Chinese makers.

Spectators lined the roads in Yizhuang in the capital’s south to watch the machines and their human rivals race, each group in a separate lane to avoid accidents or collisions.

Some of the robots were highly agile, moving like famous runners such as Usain Bolt, while others had more basic capabilities.

The winning humanoid, equipped with an autonomous navigation system and running for Chinese smartphone maker Honor, completed the roughly 21-kilometre (13-mile) course in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, at an average speed of about 25 kilometres per hour, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

That was far faster than the top human in Sunday’s race, while also surpassing the current men’s world record of 57:20 held by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo.

The result represented spectacular progress from last year, when robot-runners fell repeatedly and the best took more than two hours and 40 minutes to finish.

The number of humanoid entries jumped from around 20 last year to more than 100, according to organisers, a sign of the sector’s growing popularity.

– ‘Pretty cool’ –

Han Chenyu, a 25-year-old student who watched the race from behind a safety barrier, barely had time to take out her phone and snap a picture of the leading robot as it whizzed past.

She told AFP she was enthusiastic about such leaps in technology and thought the event was “pretty cool”.

But, she added, “as someone who works for a living, I’m a little worried about it sometimes. I feel like technology is advancing so fast that it might start affecting people’s jobs”, particularly with artificial intelligence growing increasingly sophisticated.

Humanoid robots have become a common sight in China in recent years, in the media as well as in public spaces.

Xie Lei, 41, who watched Sunday’s race with his family, said robots could “become part of our daily lives” within several years, potentially used for “things like housework, elderly companionship or basic caregiving” or “dangerous jobs, even firefighting”.

The humanoid half marathon aims to encourage innovation and popularise the technologies used in creating and operating such machines.

In a sign of the industry’s strength, investment in robotics and so-called embodied AI amounted to 73.5 billion yuan ($10.8 billion) in China in 2025, according to a study by a government agency.

“For thousands of years, humans have been at the top on planet Earth. But now, look at robots. Just in terms of autonomous navigation, at least in this specific sport event, they’re already starting to surpass us,” Xie said.

“On one hand, it does make you feel a little bit sad for humanity. But at the same time, technology, especially in recent years, has given us so much imagination.”

Direct Talks With Israel Spark Outrage Across Lebanon

Aseel Saleh | 15 Apr 2026

The Lebanese government has pushed to separate itself from the US-Iran ceasefire talks, seemingly putting itself in a position of weakness.

Lebanon protests talks with Israel. Photo: screenshot

Thousands of people took to the streets of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, over the weekend to protest the Lebanese government’s decision to engage in direct talks with Israel.

The negotiations between Beirut and Tel Aviv will be mediated and sponsored by the United States and were scheduled to begin in Washington on Tuesday, April 14, according to the Media Office of the Lebanese Presidency.

The Lebanese grassroots have always opposed direct talks with Israel because they represent a form of normalization, which has for decades been popularly and officially rejected in the country.

The rejection of the talks has become firmer in the last two and a half years due to Israel’s non-stop aggression on the country, which has continued despite the US-mediated ceasefire deal with Hezbollah that was reached in November 2024.

Moreover, the announcement of the talks provoked the indignation of the Lebanese people as it came two days after Israel committed multiple massacres across Lebanon, leaving hundreds of people killed.

Lebanese people have also rejected their government’s decision to separate the ceasefire talks from the US-Iranian talks on the pretext of preserving Lebanon’s sovereignty. Iran has already set a ceasefire in Lebanon as a condition in its 10-point proposal to end the regional war with the US and Israel.

Separating Lebanon from Iran talks

Analysts argue that by insisting on separate talks, the Lebanese government puts the country in a weak position as it has no leverage against Israel.

Lebanese Foreign Minister, Youssef Raggie, wrote a statement about discussions he had with his German counterpart outlining the government’s approach to the matter.

“I received a phone call from the German Foreign Minister, Johann Wadephul, who expressed his country’s firm support for the efforts being made by the Lebanese government to extend its sovereignty and achieve stability, emphasizing that Germany is working to reach a ceasefire. He also informed me of the allocation of humanitarian aid to the Lebanese people worth 45 million euros.

On my part, I thanked him for his country’s humanitarian and political support, and I clarified to him that Lebanon is seeking, through direct negotiations with Israel, to reach a ceasefire, stressing that establishing this path has effectively enshrined the separation between the Lebanese file and the Iranian track. I also affirmed that the Lebanese state alone monopolizes the decision to negotiate on behalf of Lebanon, in a clear message that reestablishes the principle of national sovereignty at the heart of Lebanese diplomacy.”

Lebanese-American journalist, Rania Khalek, criticized Raggie’s argument about Lebanon’s sovereignty, saying:

“This is the Lebanese Foreign Minister telling the Germans that he rejects folding Lebanon into a broader US-Iran ceasefire, under the guise of Lebanese sovereignty and the desire to negotiate directly with Israel.

He has zero leverage with the Israelis. The behavior of Lebanese officials like him puts us all in greater danger by extending the war on Israel’s terms.”

“It is better to say nothing than to actively oppose Lebanon being part of a regional ceasefire.” She added.

Khalek also pointed out that Raggie is a member of the Lebanese Forces party, which she said “has historically collaborated with the Israelis.”

Although the Lebanese government is rushing to hold direct talks with Israel, the latter has not stopped its airstrikes on Lebanon till the moment of writing this article, which means that Netanyahu’s government is applying the strategy of “negotiations under fire”.

A genocide supporter is leading the negotiations from Israel’s side

It seems that the negotiations were already initiated with a phone call between Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, and his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, on Friday, April 10.

Both Leiter and Moawad are expected to lead the next stage of the talks. While there is scant information about Moawad’s background, the available information on Leiter’s history has raised controversy.

Leiter is a far-right ultra-nationalist Israeli politician, who has been affiliated to parties and movements complicit in massacres, illegal settlement and annexation of Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank, including the Likud Party and Kach Party.

As a youth, he was involved in the Jewish Defense League (JDL), which was classified by the United States as a “terrorist organization” for being linked to several violent attacks carried out in the US, including the assassination of Palestinian-American activist Alex Odeh in California in 1982.

The Israeli diplomat has also been known for his support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and for hailing the Israeli aggression on the Qatari capital, Doha, which was launched against the Arab country last September to assassinate Hamas negotiating team.

Furthermore, he served in the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, which left thousands of people killed.

Leiter is also a proponent of normalization between Israel and Arab countries under the Abraham accords, and he believes that the ongoing conflict will enhance the opportunities for more Arab states to join the process.

Hezbollah urges the Lebanese State to cancel direct talks with Israel, threatens to capture IOF soldiers

Hezbollah Secretary General, Sheikh Naim Qassem, called on the Lebanese state to adopt a “heroic stance” and cancel the direct negotiations with Israel, in a televised speech on Monday, April 13.

Qassem described the decision as “part of a series of free concessions” made by the Lebanese government to Israel, warning it to stop “disavowing and antagonizing the resistance, at a time when it should be supporting it and benefiting from its capabilities.”

He also threatened that Hezbollah fighters will capture IOF soldiers “whenever the opportunity arises”, affirming that they “engage in hit-and-run tactics, using various means of resistance.”

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch

INDIA

Noida Fury: Labour Unrest in Increasingly Unequal Economy

Shirin Akhter | 15 Apr 2026

What erupted in Noida was a warning -- of the consequence of a system that has steadily stripped workers of both voice and security.

Image Courtesy: CITU Facebook

In Uttar Pradesh’s Noida, a protest over wages turned into a spectacle of fire and fury. Vehicles were torched, property vandalised, police deployed in force, the now-familiar script of law and order breakdown was repeated. In the aftermath, wages were reportedly revised upward by around 21%, a concession that came only after the situation had escalated. To reduce this fury to indiscipline or mob excess is to wilfully look away. What erupted in Noida was the consequence of a system that has steadily stripped workers of both voice and security. This should not be looked upon as an isolated outburst. It was a signal, and a deeply unsettling one.

Protests do not become violent in a vacuum. They turn volatile only when every institutional route to justice is blocked. India’s labour market stands hollowed out from within; collective bargaining has withered, grievance redressal mechanisms fail to inspire confidence, and the State appears increasingly distant as a mediator. In such a setting, negotiation is not only difficult, it is rendered meaningless. Workers find themselves complaining into a void, repeating demands that go unheard. It is then that the streets become the site of protest. Turning into a space where the presence of the working class can not be ignored.

Protest is not the beginning of the crisis; it is what remains when every other avenue has been exhausted. What happened in Noida was not a sudden breakdown of order; it was the slow unravelling of trust reaching its inevitable conclusion.

To understand how, one has to step back and look at the longer trajectory of India’s economic transformation. Growth did come, but with privileges of flexibility for capital and a steady erosion of security for labour. Informalisation has not remained confined to the margins; it has seeped into the very core of what we still call the formal sector.

Jobs that once promised stability now carry the anxieties of informality: short-term contracts, uncertain wages, little or no social protection, and the constant fear of replacement. Workers are indispensable to production, yet treated as if they are easily dispensable. They create value, but remain excluded from the basic assurances that give work its dignity. This is not an accidental outcome; it is built into the way the system now functions.

The recent protests reveal the quiet collapse of a social contract that once, however imperfectly, structured relations between labour, capital, and the State. That contract rested on a simple understanding that workers would offer discipline and productivity and employers would provide fair wages and a degree of stability, and the State would stand in between, ensuring that neither side could simply override the other. This understanding has now fractured.

What remains is not negotiation but confrontation, not trust but accumulated resentment. What we are witnessing is not merely economic distress; it is a loss of faith in the very possibility of being heard. The eventual 21% wage revision raises an uncomfortable question; if the demand could be conceded after the violence, why was it denied before it?

There is always a temptation to treat such incidents as aberrations, moments of excess that can be contained, explained somehow, and forgotten. This is a comforting illusion. The fury of the working class in Noida illuminates something far more structural, the fact that when wage demands find no institutional space, they do not disappear; they return, sharper and more urgent. When grievances are ignored far too long, they intensify. When survival begins to feel uncertain, restraint becomes a fragile expectation. People do not choose disruption lightly or in a hurry. They arrive at it when every other language has failed them.

This is also a story about the changing texture of everyday life for the working class. Across the country, wages have struggled to keep pace with the rising cost of living, food, fuel, rent, transport, everything essential has become more expensive. At the same time, inequality has widened in ways that are both visible and deeply felt. The distance between those who accumulate and those who struggle to get by is no longer abstract; it is lived, daily, in the contrast between aspiration and reality. For many workers, even a small setback, a delayed payment, a denied increment, can unsettle an already fragile balance.

The global context has only sharpened these pressures. Conflicts across regions have disrupted supply chains, pushed up energy prices, and added to inflationary burdens. These are often discussed in macroeconomic terms, but their effects are felt at the micro level. They show up in household budgets that no longer stretch as they once did, in anxieties about the next month’s expenses, in the quiet fear that things may get worse. That fear matters. It changes how people respond to uncertainty, how long they are willing to wait, how much they are willing to endure.

What burned in Noida was the belief that the system still listens. Workers today are not just underpaid; they are unheard. Not just insecure; they are made to feel invisible within an economy they sustain with their labour. The anger we see is not only about wages; it is about dignity, about recognition, about the need to be acknowledged as participants rather than expendable inputs. The fact that concessions often follow conflict, rather than negotiation, reveals a system that responds not to voice, but to rupture.

The case of protests in Noida, is not an anomaly. It is a warning. A labour regime that erodes voice cannot expect silence indefinitely. An economy that deepens inequality cannot remain socially stable. A State that steps back from welfare mediation will eventually confront the consequences of that withdrawal.

The images of burning vehicles are dramatic, but they are not the story. They are symptoms. The real story lies in the slow erosion of the conditions that make dialogue possible. To prevent Noida from becoming a recurring pattern, there is an urgent need to rebuild and strengthen institutional mechanisms of labour negotiation, ensure credible grievance redressal, and restore the State’s role as an active and trusted mediator in labour–capital relations.

Shirin Akhter is Associate Professor at Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi. The views are personal.

Over 3,700 Killed in US-Israel Attacks on Iran

Abdul Rahman | 16 Apr 2026

It is widely speculated that the US and Iran may resume their talks, which were abruptly discontinued last week in Islamabad, with Trump hinting the end of the war is “very close”.

Destruction of the Pasteur Institute in Iran by US-Israeli strikes. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

According to an interim assessment presented by Iran, the roughly 40 day-long US-Israeli war on the country caused USD 270 billion worth in damages, which is more than half of Iran’s total GDP of over USD 475 billion.

The figure was quoted by one of the official spokespersons of Iran, Fatemeh Mohajerani, in an interview with Russian Ria Novosti on Tuesday, April 14.

Mohajerani also insisted that Iran has firmly raised the issue of war reparations during the Islamabad talks with the US and will continue to press for it as part of a peace deal.

According to the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), the US and Israel bombed more than 125,000 civilian structures during the war that began on February 28, damaging hundreds of schools, hospitals, universities, medical research centers, residential homes, historical monuments, and other public infrastructure, such as railways and bridges, Press TV reported.

The IRCS claimed it had to carry out over 6,000 rescue operations and dig out over 7,000 citizens from rubble created due to US-Israeli bombings.

According to Iran’s Ministry of Health, more than 3,750 Iranians, including women and children, were killed in the indiscriminate bombings carried out by the US and Israel during the war and thousands of others were injured.

Meanwhile, Iranian ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani condemned the US statement that Iran hides its military hardware in civilian sites, calling it a cynical attempt to justify its war crimes of targeting civilian infrastructure during its aggression.

US blockade of Iran is illegal

In a separate instance, Iravani also called the US naval blockade of Iran a gross violation of his country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and demanded immediate condemnations from the UN and efforts to prevent the US from making any more provocative steps.

The US imposed the blockade on Iran on Monday after peace talks in Islamabad failed. Iranians have claimed that the talks failed due to Washington’s insistence on Iran completely giving up its civil nuclear program, among other maximalist demands.

Iravani wrote a letter in protest to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the president of the Security Council, claiming that the blockade violates article 2, paragraph 4 of the UN charter, which prohibits threats or the use of force against a member country.

Iran also claimed that in the absence of any international action against US provocations and violations it reserves the right to “take all necessary and proportionate measures to protect its sovereignty, territorial integrity and national interests.”

Further round of talks possible

The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) confirmed on Tuesday that Iran is in constant talks with Pakistan even after the failure of the first round of talks with the US in Islamabad on Sunday.

“Future rounds of talks could occur anywhere and at any time,” the IRNA quoted unknown official sources saying on Tuesday.

Later Esmail Baghaei, official spokesperson of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed the news, hinting there could be another round of talks between the US and Iran in the coming days.

The speculations about the second round of talks intensified after US President Donald Trump claimed that the war with Iran is “very close to over”.

In an interview with Sky News on Wednesday, Trump said that the end of the war is “very possible” after claiming Iranians want to make a deal “very badly”.

In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump had claimed that the next round of talks with Iran would be taking place within two days in Pakistan.

The first round of talks between the US and Iran were held last weekend in Islamabad, days after both the countries agreed to a two-week long temporary ceasefire on April 7. The talks, which lasted over 21 hours, however, ended abruptly.

Iran claimed that the talks ended abruptly, despite a deal being “inches away”, accusing the US of suddenly shifting its demands and taking a maximalist approach.

Courtesy: Peoples dispatch

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