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Joe Biden expects Iran to attack Israel ‘sooner than later’
US President Joe Biden says he expects Iran to attack Israel “sooner than later”, as fears grow of Iranian retaliation over an air strike that killed top commanders early this month.
Israel has not admitted attacking an Iranian consulate in Syria but is widely believed to have been behind it.
US officials have told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, that a major attack on Israel could happen imminently.
Israel says it is ready to defend itself. Mr Biden told Iran : “Don’t.”
“We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel,” Mr Biden said. “We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed.”
Iran backs Hamas, the Palestinian group fighting Israel in Gaza, as well as various proxy groups throughout the region, including some – such as Hezbollah in Lebanon – that frequently carry out strikes against the Israelis.
On Friday, Hezbollah said it had launched “dozens” of rockets from Lebanon towards Israel. An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman said around 40 missiles and two explosive drones had been launched. No casualties were reported and there were no indications of involvement from other actors.
A US official told CBS the barrage was separate from any expected Iranian attack on Israel.
BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner says Iran is deliberately keeping the Middle East and Washington guessing.
Ever since the lethal 1 April strike on the consulate building in Damascus, from which Israel believes Iran was directing its covert arms supplies to Iranian proxies in Lebanon and Syria, Iran’s security establishment has been debating its response.
This is all about calibration. Hit too hard and Israel will respond with devastating force. Go too lightly and Iran will risk being seen as weak and ineffective. From a tactical perspective, it makes no sense for Iran to respond right now, when the region is on full alert and when the US has been telling the world what to expect.
Pragmatists in Tehran and Qom will be urging restraint, while hawks, including the ageing Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, will be demanding a firm response.
But Iran does not want a full-scale war, nor do its neighbours on the Arab side of the Gulf. Governments there have already asked Iran for restraint. The question now, our correspondent says, is whether it is the hawks or the doves who prevail.
The mounting tensions have led countries including the US, UK, India and Australia to warn against travel to Israel. Germany called on its citizens to leave Iran.
The US state department also barred diplomatic staff and their families in Israel from travelling outside the cities of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beersheba.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met members of his war cabinet amid the warnings.
Some Israelis said they were not worried about a potential Iranian attack. “We know that we are surrounded by enemies, in the south, in the north, the east and the west,” Daniel Kosman told AFP news agency at a market in Jerusalem. “We are not afraid, I can promise you. Look around: people are going out.”
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the strike in Damascus but is widely considered to have carried it out (BBC)
The Israeli government has not issued any new advice to its people on top of existing guidance to stock up on water, food for three days and essential medicine. Israeli radio, however, reported local authorities had been told to prepare for the possibility of an attack, including by assessing the readiness of public shelters. Last week, the Israeli military cancelled home leave for combat troops, bolstered air defences and called up reservists.
Thirteen people were killed in the 1 April missile strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus. They included senior Iranian military leaders, among them Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon.
Israel has not commented but is widely considered to have carried out the attack.
Officials in several countries have been trying to dissuade Iran from launching an attack, fearing it could spark a wider regional war.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken to the foreign ministers of China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in an attempt to convince them to use their influence with Iran.
After meeting the commander of US Central Command on Friday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the bond between the two countries had been strengthened by the threat, adding “we will know how to respond”.
The war in Gaza was sparked when Hamas attacked Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking more than 250 hostage. Israel says that of 130 hostages still in Gaza, at least 34 are dead.
More than 33,600 Gazans, the majority of them civilians, have been killed during Israel’s campaign in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says.
The conflict has also seen Israel trade almost daily fire across its northern border with Hezbollah, while Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Yemen have attempted to hit Israeli territory as well as US bases in Iraq and Syria.
Yemen’s Houthi movement has also attacked shipping in the Red Sea, sinking at least one ship and prompting the US and UK to conduct air strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
(BBC)
Rajat Patidar led defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) into the final with the quickest innings of 90 or more in the IPL, scoring a delightful unbeaten 93 off 33 to take his team to 254 for 5, the highest total in an IPL playoff, against the best attack of the tournament, Gujarat Titans (GT). Having finished in the top two, GT still have a chance to make the final at their home ground in Ahmedabad in Qualifier 2 as they await the winner of the Eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals. The last eight IPLs have been won by the side winning this fixture: Qualifier 1.
Asked to bat first in chase-friendly Dharamsala, RCB came out full of intent and skill despite missing the injured Phil Salt, but GT nearly snuck back in with a period of 22 balls, 18 runs and two wickets of set batters in a single Jason Holder over. In the time that Patidar scored 93 off 33, the other end, including extras, produced 68 off 37 legal deliveries.
Having never scored more than 233, GT needed something special, and only Jos Buttler came close to that with 29 off 11. The RCB fast bowlers ran riot and took out half the side within the powerplay.
RCB would have dearly loved to have Salt back, but his absence allowed them to play Jacob Duffy as the fourth overseas player. Venkatesh Iyer started the innings with two fours off the first two balls, moving around in the crease to try to mess with the lengths of the GT fast bowlers. It took Virat Kohli four balls to lay bat on Kagiso Rabada’s hard lengths, but Venkatesh ramped him for a six first ball even though he got into a tangle.
Even though Rabada came back immediately with the wicket of Venkatesh, the makeshift opener had done his job with 19 off seven. Immediately after the wicket, Kohli charged at Siraj and drove him over mid-off. Some classic batting – a flick off the hip, a late cut and a square cut – from Devdutt Padikkal consigned Rabada to 18 in his second over and brought up the team fifty in just four overs.
Rattled, GT had to move away from bowling Siraj and Rabada through the powerplay for the first time in eight matches.
Holder and Rashid Khan combined to bring GT back into the contest. Holder kept hitting the hard lengths, and Rashid bowled his first two overs for no boundary. In between, Holder managed to remove Kohli and Padikkal for 43 off 25 and 30 off 19. Not big innings but ones that understood the assignment.
Having gone funky with their selection – no Romario Shepherd in the batting-first XI so they could play an extra bowler if Shepherd was not needed – RCB promoted Krunal Pandya to likely maintain ideal points of entry for Tim David and Jitesh Sharma. While Krunal did his job with 43 off 28, it was the other batter that led to dropping jaws.
Patidar broke the spell off 22 quiet balls with a pulled six off a Holder ball that wasn’t quite short enough. After a boundary-free first over from Kulwant Khejroliya, playing his first game of T20 cricket since last April, Prasidh Krishna created two opportunities in the 14th over. The first one, a leading edge, fell between the converging wicketkeeper and deep third. The second one went straight to Rabada at deep square leg, but was dropped with Patidar on 26 off 20. At the end of the 14th over, RCB were an even 140 for 3, the last time you could say the match was even.
Starting with no-balls from Khejroliya in the 15th over, the flood gates opened for 114 runs in the last six overs. Two of his nine sixes were bona fide highlights reels for the year. The first an extra-cover drive off Rashid from the crease, and then a back-foot drive over cover off Rabada, who by now had the purple cap. That shot off Rabada left even Kohli awestruck.
The GT bowlers didn’t quite try a quick bouncer at him, but Patidar nicely steered a slow bouncer over short fine with a delayed hook. At one point, even a century seemed likely, but he didn’t quite get enough strike.
For the first time ever, both innings of an IPL match started with two fours as B Sai Sudharsan hit Duffy for fours, but the GT openers were not as successful as the RCB top order at upsetting the bowlers’ lengths. Both Shubman Gill and Sudharsan tried charging at Bhuvneshwar, but got only two runs from his first over.
The pressure was mounting, but the first wicket came in an unconventional manner, with Sudharsan losing his bat as he cut Duffy away for four. The bat ricocheted onto the leg stump before the ball could reach the fence. Bhuvneshwar then extended his dominance over Gill with a wobble-seam delivery that got his leg stump. Now Bhuvneshwar leads the head-to-head with six wickets in 79 balls for just 80 runs.
No option left, Buttler came out swinging, looked dangerous, but Josh Hazlewood got the better of him with a knuckle-ball legcutter. The rest was always going to be a formality but RCB carried it out in style. Rasikh Salam bowled a double-wicket maiden to get Nishant Sindhu and Jason Holder to leave GT five down within the powerplay. Duffy ended up with three wickets, Bhuvneshwar reclaimed the purple cap, and only some late damage control from Rahul Tewatiya prevented this from becoming the biggest defeat in an IPL playoff match.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 254 for 5 in 20 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 19, Virat Kohli 43, Devdutt Padikkal 30, Rajat Patidar 93*, Krunal Pandya 43, Jitesh Sharma 15*; Kagiso Rabada 2-54, Jason Holder 2-39, Prasidh Krishna 1-53) beat Gujarat Titans 162 in 19.3 overs (Sai Sudarshan 14, Jos Buttler 29, RahulTewatia 68; Jacob Duffy 3-39, Bhuvenshwar Kumar 2-28, Josh Hazelwood 1-39, Rasik Salam 2-24, Krunal Pandya 2-16) by 92 runs
[Cricinfo]
Defending champions SC Jaffna Kings have made three signings, headlined by Shakib, while Galle Gallants and Colombo Kaps have signed two players each.
The Paddy Marketing Board has approximately 115,000 metric tonnes of paddy stocks purchased from farmers, which are currently stored in the Board’s warehouses, and it has been planned to retain a sufficient buffer stock from these reserves and sell the remaining quantity in order to provide the necessary storage space and financial resources for the purchase of paddy from farmers during the upcoming Yala season.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to sell the aforementioned paddy stocks
following a formal tender procedure.
Patidar leads the way as Royal Challengers Bengaluru storm into second straight final
Kandy Royals sign Vijay Shankar for LPL 2026
Cabinet approves sale of Paddy stocks held by the Paddy Marketing Board
Amendment to the Promotion of Export Agriculture Act, No. 46 of 1992 to be gazatted
Ms. M.K.D.N. Madampe, appointed as Director General of the Department of Management Services
Cabinet approves collaboration agreement between Sri Lanka and Brazil for the implementation of the “Sugarcane Project in Sri Lanka”
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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