The captain of the Flydubai jet targeted in Wednesday’s attempted hijacking said his co-pilot asked to pray just minutes before striking him from behind with a cockpit crash axe, as new evidence revealed the suspect’s apparent affinity for al-Qaeda and pro-al-Qaeda propaganda calling for further attacks on aircraft carrying Americans and Israelis.
A senior United Arab Emirates official on Friday publicly described the attempted crashing of a Flydubai passenger jet as a “terrorist act” for the first time, as Israel investigates if the Omani co-pilot accused of trying to bring down the aircraft was acting on behalf of another party.
The Omani co-pilot accused of trying to crash a Flydubai passenger jet carrying more than 170 people, nearly all of them Israeli, had previously been barred from flying over concerns about extremist views and identified as a security risk — and has indicated to investigators that he intended to crash the aircraft in Israel, according to reports Friday.
Captain Smit Machchhar, the copilot of Flydubai Flight FZ1073, appeared on camera for the first time since the dramatic incident.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the Omani co-pilot accused of trying to bring down an Israel-bound Flydubai jet had “undergone Islamist radical indoctrination,” as investigators probe whether he acted alone or received outside direction.
Dr. Hamad Saif al-Shamsi, attorney general of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), announced Thursday that a team of public prosecutors will investigate the averted crisis aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073 on Wednesday morning as a possible organized terrorist attack.
Prime Ministers Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Narendra Modi of India celebrated flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar on Wednesday after the details of how Flydubai Flight FZ1073 appeared to have thwarted a potential hijacking came to light.
Saudi Arabia allegedly declined a request from Israel to allow some of its military planes to bring back the stranded passengers of Flydubai Flight FZ1073 following Wednesday’s foiled hijack attempt, according to a report published by Reuters.
President Donald Trump hailed the extraordinary Flydubai rescue as “the most amazing story” Wednesday after speaking “at length” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while saying the co-pilot accused of stabbing the captain and attempting to crash the Israel-bound jet was “perhaps a terrorist.”
An Israeli passenger who helped overpower the co-pilot accused of trying to crash a Tel Aviv-bound Flydubai jet recounted how he put the attacker in a chokehold before grabbing the controls of the plunging aircraft himself — an extraordinary intervention Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later hailed as heroic.
Israeli officials quickly announced that the bloody “brawl” aboard flydubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday was in fact a thwarted hijacking attempt, in which the copilot of the plane tried to knife the captain and then crash the aircraft.
Khalifa Shaheen al-Marar, Minister of State for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), touted his country’s efforts at diplomacy and mediation during his address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Monday.
President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, saying Tehran is “losing so badly” after the U.S. turned its attempt to close the waterway against it with what he called the “greatest blockade ever in military history” — while making clear he remains willing to reach an agreement on terms he considers acceptable.
President Donald Trump said Thursday he is approaching a “big decision” over whether to resume large-scale U.S. strikes against Iran in an effort to bring the nearly seven-month conflict to an end, ahead of talks with Gulf leaders that could help shape Washington’s next move.
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen scrambled to deny on Wednesday that they launched a drone at the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia the day before amid growing condemnation from Muslim nations and organizations.
Israel and Morocco agreed Wednesday to elevate their diplomatic missions to full embassies and exchange ambassadors at a U.S.-backed summit in New York, reaffirming the “spirit of the Abraham Accords” as Washington pushes to deepen and expand the landmark normalization agreements six years after President Donald Trump first brokered them.
The BRICS economic and security coalition, bonded by their mutual desire to eradicate American global dominance and little else, held its sixth high-level summit this weekend during the administration of President Donald Trump – and its novel-length “joint declaration” did little to hide how much its influence and unity has eroded in the Trump years.
Iran’s top security official warned President Donald Trump on Monday that the strategic balance around the region’s critical waterways has changed, ruling out negotiations until Tehran’s sweeping conditions are met and declaring that American “damage control won’t stop what’s coming.”
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen on Friday declared they have taken control of Perim, a small volcanic island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital shipping chokepoint that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. The capture came one day after the Houthis took control of the port city of Mokha with assistance from Iran.
Intense fighting between the Iran-backed Houthi insurgents and the internationally recognized government of Yemen continued on Wednesday.
Iran is down to roughly two months of gasoline as the U.S. blockade and President Donald Trump’s escalating economic offensive choke off the regime’s oil exports and remaining financial lifelines — a rapidly worsening crisis that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday branded the “Jaws of Death for the Iranian Economy.”
Mojtaba Khamenei, the alleged “supreme leader” of Iran who has yet to be seen in public since being proclaimed the head of his country’s government, took the opportunity of the anniversary of the birthday of Muhammad to complain that “West Asian” Muslim states had shown insufficient “unity” against America and Israel.
Ship tracking firms reported that two supertankers carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday night.
President Donald Trump on Sunday posted a ten-second A.I.-generated video of Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal being “blown to smithereens,” as he put it, shortly after the first U.S. airstrikes against Iran in a month. None of the actual strikes was confirmed to have targeted Kharg Island.
Iranian “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei called on Gulf states to unite against the United States and Israel as their “real enemy” in a written message Sunday, an overture to neighbors Tehran has spent months attacking and threatening as the Islamic Republic faces mounting military and economic pressure.
Iran threatened neighboring countries Saturday against joining President Donald Trump’s escalating “economic war” against the Islamic Republic, warning those cooperating with Washington will be considered “enemies.” The totalitarian regime further cautioned any U.S. supporters will have their interests targeted while threatening “earthquake-like” retaliation as the United States prepares to unleash what it has billed as the toughest sanctions campaign in history.
President Donald Trump declared all-out economic warfare against the Iranian regime in a social media post on Wednesday, comparing his strategy to the D-Day invasion of Normandy in World War II and threatening “tremendous economic consequences” for any country that does business with Iran.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Wednesday suspended all trade with Iran, after suffering the latest wanton missile attack from Iranian forces.
Iranian officials fired back at President Donald Trump on Tuesday, calling him “delusional” and declaring a “post-American order” in the Persian Gulf after the president posted a map labeling the Strait of Hormuz “New U.S. Territory” and insisted the strategic waterway is “open and operating.”
Chinese state-run shipping companies COSCO and CMES hare reportedly stopped trying to send their oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
Trade industry sources said on Tuesday that Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia, has resumed loading tankers with product at its Juaymah and Ras Tanura oil terminals, which lie within the contested waters of the Strait of Hormuz.
Six years after President Donald Trump launched the Abraham Accords, Jared Kushner marked the anniversary declaring the Middle East is once again at an “inflection point” and arguing that the region has an opportunity to build on the historic agreements and “do it again.”
President Donald Trump said Monday that negotiations with Iran are already underway, calling the current talks Tehran’s “last chance” before what he warned would be a military campaign larger than any attack since World War II, while insisting he would rather pursue diplomacy than authorize such an operation.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that a deal with Iran is “imminent” and negotiations will begin Monday afternoon over the Strait of Hormuz and Tehran’s nuclear program, one day after he called off what he described as a potentially massive U.S. attack on the Islamic Republic.
Saudi Arabia on Thursday held the first planning session for its proposed Red Sea maritime defense coalition which would secure the vital trading passage through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Gulf of Aden against piracy and terrorism, primarily from the Iran-backed Houthi separatists of Yemen.
The oil-producing nations of the Persian Gulf are stepping up their efforts to divert shipping away from the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has been launching terror strikes on civilian vessels.
Iran launched cruise missiles at two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, killing one crew member and wounding eight others.
Jordanian state media on Thursday reported that eight to ten missiles launched by Iran were intercepted within Jordan’s airspace, while Qatar reported drone attacks.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to mount an intensive search and rescue operation for a Boeing 737-400 cargo plane that disappeared over the Arabian Sea on Tuesday night.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose profile has been lower than usual throughout the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) drama between the United States and Iran, met with Persian Gulf leaders on Tuesday and Wednesday to answer their questions about the peace deal.
