US issues rare Middle East red alert warning to its citizens in the region

🔮 Against the backdrop of growing speculation over the last weeks that the US and Israel may launch a new attack against Iran before or after the mid-term elections in the US and next week’s elections in Israel, a new US Department of State travel alert issued on Wednesday evening was relayed by news agencies and wider media as an urgent signal as to the imminence of war restarting, with the Gulf nations bearing the brunt of a potentially larger conflict.

🔮 French President Emmanuel Macron issued a stern warning on Wednesday in Doha about the Gulf's fragile security situation, urging “extreme caution” to avoid escalating tensions that could reignite conflict, after talks with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

🔮 Qatar will soon announce a new defence partnership, Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on Monday, while also calling for talks and closer economic ties with Iran to prevent further conflict.

🔮 “Iran and groups supportive of Iran may target other US interests overseas or at locations associated with the United States and Americans throughout the world, including US businesses and other institutions,” the alert said.

🔮 Netanyahu asked him if the door was closed with a pin mechanism and the captain answered that on the inside of the cockpit the door had a twist handle and that from the outside it could be opened with a code. Machchhar remembered hearing the whooshing sound of the aircraft plunging downwards and the passengers screaming. Realising what was happening, he told Netanyahu how he reached for the internal twist handle and with “a sharp, quick turn” managed to finally open the door, letting the passengers in who subdued the co-pilot and stabilised the plane. The Israeli prime minister told him that he is a hero with “an unbelievable courage, inviting him and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to light a celebratory flame on Israel’s next Independence Day, the highest honour usually reserved for Israeli citizens.

🔮 Hailed as a global hero for saving the passengers, Machchhar said "I was fighting for my life," adding that "when I was lying on the floor I could feel the aircraft was going down.

🔮 Iran’s foreign minister has proposed a seven-day roadmap to Washington by which Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the US lifts its naval blockade, together with other conditions aimed at ending the war.

🔮 But moving on, Trump said the US and China were working towards “more balanced” trade relations and that their talks would focus on foreign affairs, trade, financial cooperation, security and artificial intelligence which they identified as a major topic.

🔮 No treaty sets out what a state may do when it is attacked through a network rather than by a weapon.

🔮 And we will be prepared," Al Marri said.