Washington-Tehran: Europe and the Arabs

Global media outlets have been closely following developments in the ongoing military confrontations between the United States and Iran, particularly the announcement by the US president regarding the rescue of a pilot whose plane crashed in Iran. Before the rescue of the missing fighter pilot was confirmed, Iranian state media reported airstrikes that killed at least four people in an area of ​​Iran where the American pilot was believed to have been located. The Tasnim news agency previously quoted a local governor as saying that at least three people were killed in attacks targeting a mountainous region in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, in southwestern Iran.

The governor blamed the United States and Israel for the attacks. Since then, Fatah Mohammadi, the deputy governor of the province, told local Iranian media that the death toll had risen to four. It remains unclear whether these attacks are related to the rescue operation of the missing American pilot. According to reports from European media outlets in Brussels, including the Belgian newspaper Nieuwsblad, which published an article on Sunday morning titled "Iran: 'US Plane Shot Down During Rescue Operation,'" the Iranian news agency Tasnim reported that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced it had shot down a US aircraft on Sunday that was participating in a rescue operation for an American pilot. Tasnim wrote: "Islamic fighters destroyed an enemy US aircraft that was searching for the pilot of a downed fighter jet, south of Isfahan," without confirming US President Donald Trump's statement that the pilot of the F-15 shot down on Friday had been rescued. This came after The New York Times, citing a source, reported that two US transport planes were disabled inside a remote base in Iran during the pilot rescue mission. The Times explained that orders were issued to destroy the disabled planes inside Iranian territory to prevent their capture. On Sunday morning, US President Donald Trump announced the rescue of the second missing American pilot in Iran and confirmed the rescue of the first, after their F-15 fighter jet was shot down in Iran on Friday, praising it as one of the "most The search and rescue operation was one of the most daring in US history,” he added, noting that it involved deploying dozens of American fighter jets and aircraft. “We have him back! Americans!” Trump tweeted on Truth Social, minutes after US media outlets broke the story. He continued, “Over the past few hours, the US military has conducted one of the most daring search and rescue operations in US history to rescue one of our most distinguished servicemen, a highly respected colonel. I am pleased to report that he is now safe and sound.”

Iran Executes Two Men for Allegedly Collaborating with the US and Israel

The Iranian judiciary announced on Sunday the execution by hanging of two men convicted of acting on orders from Israel and the United States during the wave of anti-government protests that erupted earlier this year.

The judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported: “Mohammad Amin Beiglari and Shahin Vahidparast were executed (...) after the case was reviewed and the Supreme Court upheld the final verdict.”

The two men had participated in the protests that peaked in January, prior to the US-Israeli attack on Iran.