Russia, UAE call for immediate end to Israel-Iran conflict
Moscow, Jun 18 (PTI): Russia and the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday called for an immediate cessation of the Israel and Iran conflict and an intensification of political and diplomatic efforts to resolve Tehran’s nuclear issue.
According to the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin discussed the issue during a telephonic conversation with his UAE counterpart Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
“The imperative of an early cessation of hostilities and intensification of political and diplomatic efforts in the interests of resolving controversial issues related to the Iranian nuclear programme was emphasised,” the Kremlin said in a statement after the talks.
During the call, Putin also highlighted Russia’s readiness to provide mediation assistance in promoting dialogue between Israel and Iran, and briefed his UAE counterpart on his contacts with a number of foreign leaders about this.
As Israel and Iran continued to strike each other for the sixth day, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the nuclear threat is no longer hypothetical but real in West Asia.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel is pursuing two goals -- to foil Iran's nuclear ambitions and to neutralise its missile production and attack capabilities.
“All this leads not just to escalation, but to a direct threat to the region and the world because attacks are being carried out on peaceful atomic or nuclear facilities,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a radio interview.
She underscored that the nuclear threat has a practical dimension, not a hypothetical one and upheld Tehran’s right to have peaceful nuclear facilities that were now under attack.
Israel launched Operation Rising Lion last week, targeting Iran's nuclear, missile and military infrastructure. Iran later launched retaliatory strikes on Israel.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson, Brig Gen Effie Defrin, at a press conference, said the Israeli Air Force has hit over 1,100 Iranian assets in hundreds of strikes in Iran since Friday.
Iran launched some 30 ballistic missiles at Israel in two barrages overnight, the IDF spokesperson confirmed, claiming that most of the projectiles were intercepted and there were no injuries.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
