Finland monitors Russian Zapad-2025 drills and warns of potential threats
Finland is closely watching Russia’s ongoing Zapad-2025 military exercises in Russia, Belarus, and the Baltic and Barents Seas, Finnish Defence Forc...
Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan to designate 13 Jewish settlements in the West Bank as independent entities, separating them from their parent communities, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Sunday.
The move follows recent approvals for tens of thousands of new housing units across the region and comes amid heightened security concerns following the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.
Smotrich, posting on X, hailed the decision as a step toward “actual sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” the term Israel uses for the West Bank. “We continue to lead a revolution of normalisation and regulation in the settlements. Instead of hiding and apologising – we raise the flag, build and settle,” he said, arguing that recognizing each settlement as independent will resolve longstanding management challenges.
The decision has deepened tensions in a region already marked by conflict. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the separation as a disregard for international legitimacy and resolutions. Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, denounced the move as a “desperate attempt to impose realities on the ground and consolidate colonial occupation on Palestinian lands.”
Israeli officials have cited security concerns as a key factor in the decision. In recent weeks, Israel has intensified counter-terrorism operations in the West Bank, targeting suspected militants in response to fears of further attacks similar to those on October 7, 2023.
Around 700,000 Israeli settlers now live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem—territory captured by Israel in 1967 during the six-day war. While most of the international community considers these settlements illegal under international law, Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.
The move has been welcomed by pro-settler politicians, with Smotrich—a prominent figure in the far-right Religious Zionism party and a key coalition partner of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—asserting that the new status will facilitate the settlements’ growth and development. Critics, however, warn that such unilateral actions could further complicate the already fraught prospects for a lasting peace in the region.
AnewZ has learned that India has once again blocked Azerbaijan’s application for full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, while Pakistan’s recent decision to consider diplomatic relations with Armenia has been coordinated with Baku as part of Azerbaijan’s peace agenda.
A day of mourning has been declared in Portugal to pay respect to victims who lost their lives in the Lisbon Funicular crash which happened on Wednesday evening.
A Polish Air Force pilot was killed on Thursday when an F-16 fighter jet crashed during a training flight ahead of the 2025 Radom International Air Show.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
On 15 September, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received Salim bin Mohammed AlMalik, Director-General of ICESCO, in Shusha.
Iran has accused a U.S. delegation in Vienna of threatening the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of cutting off financial support if a draft resolution tabled by Tehran is passed. This resolution condemns the military attacks on nuclear sites in June.
On September 14, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev visited the Hadrut settlement in the Khojavend district. The head of state was briefed on the developments in the settlement.
On September 14, 2025, Karen Albertovich Avanesyan, an Armenian-born resident of Khankendi, born in 1967, went from his residence to a forest area near the city, where he had previously hidden an AK-47 assault rifle, four magazines filled with ammunition, and five hand grenades.
The inaugural Assembly of the Turkic World Insurance Union has officially begun today in Shusha, Azerbaijan.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment