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On the front page of the press, the strikes which hit the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, yesterday. An attack attributed to Israel and which killed, in particular, two commanders of the Al-Quds force, the external branch of the Revolutionary Guards. The Iranian newspaper
Khorasan
discusses the death of General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy, General Mohammad Hadi Haj Rahimi, "two martyrs of an attack by the Zionist regime", accused of having "violated all diplomatic rules and laws international". Israel, described by the
Tehran Times
, as a “rogue regime”. On the front page of the Iranian daily, which demands that the Jewish state "pay" for these assassinations, a photo showing the destruction of the consular section, which adjoined the Iranian embassy, where a giant portrait of General Qassem Soleimani still sits. – the former commander of the Al-Quds force, killed by an American drone in Iraq in 2020. According to the opposition site
Iranwire
, General Zahedi, suspected of having played “a crucial role in providing Lebanese Hezbollah with Iranian-made missiles", would also have been a key player in the repression of anti-regime demonstrations, from 2017 to 2019.
Yesterday's attack is unprecedented since the start of the war in Gaza: it is the first time that Israel has killed Iranians on Iranian territory.
The
New York Times
cites "four Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity", who confirm that the Jewish state is indeed at the origin of this attack, but deny the diplomatic status of the targeted building, which they present as "an outpost of the Revolutionary Guards", which would have made it, according to them, "a legitimate military target". These explanations do not convince
Haaretz
. The left-wing Israeli daily, which evokes a "severe blow" to Iran and Hezbollah, believes that the Jewish state has "constantly increased" the price demanded of its adversaries on the northern front since the start of the war in Gaza and until this attack, presented as a “dangerous turning point”. "Israel is betting on escalation: has war become inevitable?": in Lebanon,
L'Orient Le Jour
affirms that "these developments cannot be separated from American pressure to prevent Israel from launching a ground operation Rafah, replaced by targeted assassinations and intermittent military operations.”
In the press, also, revelations on the "Havana syndrome", suffered for several years by dozens of American diplomats. This mysterious “syndrome”, which is said to have affected American and Canadian diplomats stationed in Cuba in 2016, claiming to be suffering from migraines, dizziness, nausea, and vision problems, has led to much speculation. According to the investigation carried out by several international media, including the German magazine
Der Spiegel
, "elements" indicate that these "abnormal health incidents" could have been caused by "directed energy weapons", "wielded by members of unit 29155" of the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service responsible for operations abroad. The Kremlin denies these accusations, but
The Washington Post
, which recalls that American intelligence agencies concluded that "it (was) very unlikely that a foreign adversary is responsible" for these health problems, asks them to "look again", notably because it is proven that unit 29155 "experimented with exactly the type of military technology" suggested by experts as a plausible cause, namely: "non-lethal acoustic weapons", concretely, "directed energy devices based on sound and radio frequencies".
A word, also, of the stir caused in Spain by the broadcast of a video showing two black men beaten by police officers in Madrid. According to
El Pais
,
this intervention, which was muscular to say the least, took place last Friday in the popular district of Lavapies and triggered an investigation by the Ministry of the Interior, after complaints were filed by several anti-racist organizations accusing the police of police violence. . “Police violence against blacks, racist insults in football”: “What is the problem of racism in Spain?” : the Argentinian newspaper
Clarin
reports a survey according to which 37% of black people living in Spain say they have suffered discrimination or been victims of racism over the last 5 years. A scourge that does not spare La Liga players. The newspaper mentions the latest incident, the insults suffered last Saturday by Marcos Acuna, the Argentine player of Sevilla FC, treated as a "monkey" by supporters. An incident which does not constitute an isolated event
in Spanish football
either , as evidenced by the 18 complaints for racist insults filed by the Brazilian Vinícius Júnior, of Real Madrid.
In the "football" section, still, the unpublished testimony, published by
L'Equipe
, of Manchester United defender Raphaël Varane. The player admits to having suffered concussions in the middle of a match, with direct consequences on his health and his performance. The former French international expresses his concerns about a still little-known danger in the world of football, about which he says he wants to speak out to protect the health of the players. “Personally, I don’t know if I will live to be 100, but I know that I have damaged my body,” he testifies. “The dangers of heading must be instilled on all amateur football fields and among young people.”
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