Two of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top rivals announced they would join forces in an upcoming election to oust his coalition government, with a focus mainly on domestic issues such as military conscription for the ultra-Orthodox.

But on issues like Iran, Gaza and Lebanon, the joint party led by right-wing Naftali Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid is expected to pursue a security posture similar to that of Netanyahu — who heads the most right-wing government in Israel’s history — meaning Israel’s foreign policy would remain largely unchanged.

The new party, called “BeYachad” meaning “together” in Hebrew, has not released a formal policy platform. But below is what is known about their positions on regional conflicts, based on recent public comments.

Iran

Bennett, 54, and Lapid, 62, have staunchly backed Netanyahu’s decision to jointly attack Iran with the US, reflecting broad public support in Israel for the war.

At the start of Israel’s aerial bombardment in Iran, Lapid told Reuters in an interview that it was a “just war against evil.”

Both Bennett and Lapid have since criticised Netanyahu, 76, for what they describe as a failure to achieve Israel’s main objectives in the war, including toppling Iran’s government.

However, neither man has called for a resumption in fighting since the April 8 ceasefire.

A source close to their new party described Bennett and Lapid as “hawkish” and “tough on Iran”.

They are also “pragmatic and understand the need for diplomatic agreements and the work that happens after the military use of force to achieve strategic goals,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe their party’s priorities.

Lebanon

Bennett and Lapid have also both staunchly supported Israeli military operations in Lebanon while questioning an April 17 ceasefire that has failed to halt fighting between the Israeli military and Hezbollah.

Shortly before Israel’s military invaded southern Lebanon in March, Lapid said that Israel must take whatever steps were necessary to protect Israelis.

After the ceasefire with Hezbollah was announced in April, Lapid said the only solution was the permanent removal of the threat to northern Israel.

Bennett sharply criticised the ceasefire, saying in an April 17 Facebook post: “One can already count backwards towards the next round. Hezbollah began this morning to rebuild southern Lebanon and is becoming stronger with missiles ahead of the next round.”

Gaza

On the war in Gaza, where Israel continued to carry out deadly strikes despite a ceasefire last October, both Bennett and Lapid criticised Netanyahu for not fully destroying Hamas after the October 7, 2023 attack.

In January, Lapid said Netanyahu’s government had achieved the “worst possible outcome” in Gaza, saying that Hamas still has tens of thousands of armed fighters. Hamas retained control of a sliver of territory on Gaza’s coast under the ceasefire.

In a Facebook post this month, Bennett said Netanyahu’s policies — including allowing some aid into the enclave after restricting all humanitarian supplies for three months in 2025 — had helped Hamas regain control.

“This is with the help of hundreds of aid trucks that Netanyahu’s government brings them every day,” Bennett wrote.

Netanyahu has cast Israel’s devastating military assault that destroyed much of Gaza and killed more than 72,000 Palestinians as a success.

He has held out the possibility of resuming a full-scale war if Hamas fails to disarm under a US-backed process, something the group has thus far rejected.

Palestinian statehood

With public opinion polling showing that most Israelis oppose the formation of an independent Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, a Bennett-Lapid government would be unlikely to bring a major policy shift on the Palestinians.

Netanyahu opposed the establishment of a Palestinian state, and his government accelerated settlement building plans in the West Bank, in what ministers in his government said was part of a bid to destroy any future for Palestinian independence.

In 2022, Lapid, who like many in Israel’s political centre and left are not outright opposed to Palestinian sovereignty, said that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the right thing to do.

When asked by US broadcaster ABC during a 2024 interview why he opposed a two-state solution, Bennett said he believed it would lead to violence against Israelis.

On the West Bank, Netanyahu, Bennett and Lapid all spoke forcefully against settler violence toward Palestinians.

Such attacks escalated under Netanyahu, who critics accused of allowing settlers free rein to burn Palestinian villages and harm villagers. Netanyahu’s office denied this.

India named veteran politician Dinesh Trivedi as its next high commissioner to Bangladesh on Monday, in a rare appointment of a non-foreign service officer as New Delhi seeks to reset ties with its eastern neighbour.

Ties between the countries soured after a popular uprising forced Bangladesh’s long-serving Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to New Delhi in 2024, where she remains.

Trivedi’s appointment highlights India’s push to rebuild trust with Bangladesh as it faces stiff competition from China for influence and business.

Trivedi, 75, a former railways and health minister, joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2021 from a regional party in West Bengal, a border state that plays a key role in India’s ties with Bangladesh and where Modi has been seeking to expand his party’s influence in ongoing local elections.

“He is expected to take up the assignment shortly,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement about Trivedi.

Relations between the two countries began improving only after an election in February brought Tarique Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party to power, replacing an interim government that had veered strongly towards China.

Bangladesh’s foreign minister visited Delhi this month seeking increased fuel and fertiliser supplies, closer energy cooperation and eased travel restrictions, but one of the biggest sticking points remains India’s refusal so far to extradite Hasina.

The man accused of shooting a US Secret Service agent as he tried to breach security at a Washington dinner attended by President Donald Trump is facing federal charges of attempting to assassinate the president, a judge said in court on Monday.

Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, also faces firearms charges in a three-count complaint.

Allen wore a blue prison jumpsuit at his first appearance in Washington federal court, two days after authorities said they foiled an attack at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, an annual black-tie gathering of journalists and politicians.

“He attempted to assassinate the president of the United States, Donald J Trump,” prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine said in court.

Allen has not yet responded to the allegations. Seated at the defence table flanked by US Marshals, Allen said he would answer all questions truthfully and that he had a master’s degree in computer science.

US Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaughordered Allen detained while the case moves forward. Sharbaugh scheduled another hearing over Allen’s continued detention for Thursday.

‘Friendly federal assassin’

Allen left a manifesto with family members referring to himself as the “Friendly Federal Assassin” and discussing plans to target senior Trump administration officials, who were present in the hotel ballroom.

Blanche said his targets likely included Trump himself.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday described the Saturday night attack as the third major assassination attempt against Trump, after two attempts on his life in 2024. She compared the rhetoric in the manifesto to criticism of Trump by his political opponents.

“Much of the manifesto of the would-be assassin is indistinguishable from the words that we hear daily from so many,” Leavitt said. “The entire Democrat Party has made their pitch to voters across the country that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to democracy, that he is a fascist.”

Prominent elected Democrats have condemned the shooting.

Allen booked a room at the Washington Hilton hotel, where the dinner took place, and travelled from California to Washington by train, officials said.

The shooting on Saturday rattled the press dinner, a prominent event on Washingtons social calendar, sending attendees scrambling under tables and prompting law enforcement to whisk senior officials out of the room. Trump, who was set to deliver remarks later in the evening, was rushed off the stage by security personnel after shots were fired.

Secret service agent struck

The suspect allegedly fired a shotgun at a Secret Service agent at a checkpoint inside the hotel before being tackled and arrested, according to authorities.

Video footage Trump posted online showed the suspect sprinting through a hallway outside the ballroom.

US officials have said the suspect was subdued just inside a security perimeter and have touted his takedown as a law enforcement success. But the incident has revived concerns about the safety of Trump, who survived two assassination attempts during his 2024 presidential campaign, and other US officials.

The Secret Service agent was struck but a tactical vest stopped the shot, and the agent was released from a hospital hours later.

Allen, who authorities said was armed with a handgun and multiple knives, in addition to the shotgun, was also taken to a local hospital to be evaluated following the shooting.

Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla will arrive in the United States later on Monday for a four-day trip, a tour which has taken on even greater prominence after the White House Correspondents’ dinner shooting and amid acrimony between the close allies.

The state visit, by far the most high-profile and consequential of Charles’s reign, marks the 250th anniversary of the US declaration of independence from British rule, and is the first visit to the country by a British monarch for two decades.

It begins with a private meeting with self-proclaimed royal fan US President Donald Trump, and includes an address to Congress and a lavish dinner at the White House.

Press dinner shooting just days before visit

But the long-planned trip has become enmeshed in the political spat between the two countries over the US-Israeli war on Iran, which led Trump to voice deep displeasure with the British government for failing to support the offensive.

The shooting on Saturday at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, with the president and officials in his administration the likely targets according to the US acting attorney general, has cast a further pall over the visit.

Buckingham Palace said the trip would still go ahead as planned following discussions between British and US authorities to determine if the incident would impact on the royals’ plans.

“The king and queen are most grateful to all those who have worked at pace to ensure this remains the case and are looking forward to the visit getting underway tomorrow,” a palace spokesperson said on Sunday.

Trump has criticised UK over Iran stance

On arriving in Washington, the king and queen have a private tea with the president, an unabashed lover of the British royal family who regularly describes Charles as a “great man”, and his wife, First Lady Melania Trump.

The 77-year-old king, who is still undergoing treatment for cancer, will address Congress the next day — just the second time a British monarch has done so.

The royals will then head on to New York, where they will commemorate those killed in the Sept 11, 2001 attacks ahead of the 25th anniversary, while the queen will also mark the centenary of children’s stories featuring Winnie the Pooh.

The US trip concludes in Virginia with the king meeting those involved in conservation work, a nod to his half-century of environmental campaigning.

The government of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is hoping the visit will shore up the future of the two allies’ “special relationship”, which is at its lowest point since the Suez Crisis in 1956.

Britain’s ambassador to the US, Christian Turner, said the visit would underscore the shared history, sacrifice and common values between the two countries, adding that the approach would be a very British one of: “Keep calm, carry on.”

While Trump has eased his criticism of Britain in recent days over its response to the Iran war, an internal Pentagon email has set out how the US could review its position on Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands as punishment for its lack of support, once again straining ties.

One issue off the table during the visit is the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

Royal sources have said it was not possible for the royal couple to meet any victims of Epstein during the tour, as some have requested, to avoid impacting on any potential criminal cases.

Charles’ brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, whose reputation and royal standing has been destroyed over his links to the late US sex offender, is currently facing police inquiries over his connections. The former Prince Andrew has denied any wrongdoing.

The conflict in the Middle East has disrupted supplies of crucial raw materials and pushed up prices of the printed circuit boards (PCB) used in almost all electronic devices, from smartphones and computers to AI servers, industry sources and executives said.

The disruption is a fresh blow to electronics manufacturers which are already grappling with soaring memory chip costs and highlights the broadening impact of the Iran war that has wreaked havoc on supply chains, plastics, and oil supplies.

Iran struck Saudi Arabia’s Jubail petrochemical complex in early April, forcing a halt in production of high-purity polyphenylene ether (PPE) resin a critical base material used to manufacture PCB laminates.

SABIC, which accounts for approximately 70 per cent of the world’s high-purity PPE supply and operates in the Jubail complex on the Gulf coast, has been unable to resume output, severely tightening the availability of the material worldwide, according to one source. Shipping in and out of the Gulf has also been severely disrupted by the war.

PCB prices have been climbing since late last year, driven by a growing appetite for AI servers. Demand has been accelerating sharply since March as manufacturers scramble to secure raw material supplies and soften the impact of skyrocketing costs, three industry sources told Reuters.

In April alone, PCB prices surged as much as 40pc from March, Goldman Sachs analysts said in a recent note. Cloud service providers are willing to accept further increases as they expect demand will outstrip supplies over the coming years, they added.

The global PCB industry is projected to increase by 12.5pc to reach $95.8 billion in 2026, according to a recent report from Prismark.

Daeduck Electronics, a South Korean PCB maker whose customers include Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and AMD, has begun discussions with customers over price increases, a senior executive at the company told Reuters.

The executive, who declined to be named due to sensitivity of the subject, said his priority has now changed from meeting customers to suppliers, as the waiting time for chemical materials such as epoxy resin have stretched to 15 weeks from three weeks previously.

The sharp rise in PCB prices was also driven by a shortage of other key materials, including glass fiber and copper foil, according to one source. Copper foil prices have surged as much as 30pc so far this year, with the rally gaining momentum in March, the source added.

Copper accounts for around 60pc of total raw material costs in PCB manufacturing, according to Victory Giant Technology, a major Chinese PCB supplier for Nvidia. The Chinese firm warned earlier this month that the Middle East conflict could push up prices for key materials including resin and copper.

Multi-layer PCBs can cost around 1,394 yuan ($204) per square metre, with higher-end models for AI servers costing around 13,475 yuan, according to Victory Giant.

Swiss International said that a flight from Delhi to Zurich had to abort its takeoff early on Sunday after an engine issue, adding that four passengers and one crew member were injured.

The airline did not elaborate, but the Economic Times reported that one of the engines had caught on fire as the plane was accelerating down a runway and that the passengers were injured during an emergency evacuation.

“Shortly after 1am local time on April 26, an issue occurred with one of the engines during the takeoff of flight LX147 in Delhi. The crew aborted the takeoff and, after assessing the situation, decided as a precaution to evacuate the aircraft,” Swiss International said in a statement.

It said that it had set up a task force to look into the incident, adding that the injured passengers were taken to a hospital, while the crew member had sustained a sprained ankle.

The airline had earlier said that six passengers had been injured but revised the number.

There were 228 passengers, four infants and 13 crew members on board the aircraft, which was an Airbus A330.

Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport declared an emergency following the incident, but runway operations have since resumed, said a source familiar with the matter who was not authorised to speak on the issue and declined to be identified.

In its statement, the airport said its operations remained unaffected.

The suspect arrested in the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooting on Saturday was identified by a law enforcement official as Cole Tomas Allen, a Los Angeles-area man who appears from social media sites to be a Caltech graduate working as a part-time teacher and game developer.

The official said Allen, approximately 31 years of age, is a resident of Torrance, California, a coastal town that is part of the South Bay area adjacent to Los Angeles abutting Santa Monica Bay.

The chief of the District of Columbia Police Department said investigators believe the suspect was a guest at the Washington Hilton hotel, where the annual dinner was taking place, but that no motive had been determined.

Meanwhile, Facebook posts appearing to relate to Allen show that he had been designated Teacher of the Month in December 2024 by the Torrance office of C2 Education, a nationwide private test-preparation and tutoring service for college-bound students.

A LinkedIn profile in the suspect’s name described him as a “mechanical engineer and computer scientist by degree, independent game developer by experience, teacher by birth”.

Allen obtained a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 and a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 2025, according to the profile.

Caltech said in a statement that a person of that name graduated in 2017.

Under job experience, the profile shows he has worked for the past several years as a part-time teacher at C2 Education and as a self-employed game developer.

He previously worked as a mechanical engineer for a company called IJK Controls in South Pasadena for a year, and before that, he worked as a Caltech teaching assistant.

The profile also included a local newspaper article “on a robotics competition my team won” at Caltech in 2016. Under “Causes,” it listed only: “Science and Technology.”

The Secret Service said the suspect was armed with a shotgun and was taken into custody after opening fire at a Secret Service agent in the Washington Hilton Hotel, outside the ballroom where the event was attended by US President Donald Trump, his wife Melania, Vice President JD Vance and several cabinet secretaries.

A gunman fired shots in the hotel hosting the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, causing United States President Donald Trump and his cabinet to be rushed out before the suspect was taken into custody.

Here is a timeline of the incident and its immediate aftermath.

Around 8:35pm ET (5:35am PKT on Sunday): Guests at the Washington Hilton dinner took cover when shots were heard, video footage showed.

Soon after, Secret Service agents rushed towards Trump, escorting the president and his cabinet from the ballroom.

A sole gunman had rushed a Secret Service checkpoint in a lobby, Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll later told reporters.

The suspect charged the Secret Service checkpoint in the hotel’s lobby area and was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives, Carroll said.

As the suspect ran through that checkpoint, Secret Service members intercepted him.

A Secret Service agent was injured and transported to a local hospital, the mayor said, adding the suspect was also transferred to a local hospital where he was evaluated.

“We do know that law enforcement exchanged gunfire with the individual. … The suspect in this case, he was not struck by gunfire,” Carroll said.

“Law enforcement … they actually tackled him into the ground and handcuffed him.”

Around 9:17pm ET (6:17am PKT): Trump made his first comments after the shooting, saying law enforcement “acted quickly and bravely.”

Trump posted on Truth Social that “the shooter has been apprehended”. Trump said he recommended that the event continue.

About 20 minutes later: Trump posted again, saying law enforcement asked him and others to leave the premises and that he was complying with that request. The event will be rescheduled “within 30 days”, Trump said.

Around 10:30pm ET (7:30am PKT): Trump addressed the media in a press conference at the White House, accompanied by the director of the FBI and the acting US attorney general.

Trump and other law enforcement officials said preliminary information suggested the suspect was a lone shooter.

Around 11:13 pm ET (8:13am PKT): Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters the suspect was being charged with using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.

The US State Department has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it says are widespread efforts by Chinese companies, including AI startup DeepSeek, to steal intellectual property from US artificial intelligence labs, according to a diplomatic cable seen by Reuters.

The cable, dated Friday and sent to diplomatic and consular posts around the world, instructs diplomatic staff to speak to their foreign counterparts about “concerns over adversaries’ extraction and distillation of US AI models”.

“A separate demarche request and message has been sent to Beijing for raising with China,” the document states.

Distillation is the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger, more expensive ones as part of an effort to lower the costs of training a powerful new AI tool.

This week, the White House made similar accusations. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

OpenAI has warned US lawmakers that DeepSeek was targeting the ChatGPT maker and the nation’s leading AI companies to replicate models and use them for its own training.

China rejects accusations

The Chinese Embassy in Washington on Friday reiterated its stance that the accusations are baseless.

“The allegations that Chinese entities are stealing American AI intellectual property are groundless and are deliberate attacks on China’s development and progress in the AI industry,” it said in a statement to Reuters.

DeepSeek, whose low-cost AI model stunned the world last year, on Friday launched a preview of a highly anticipated new model, called the V4, adapted for Huawei chip technology, underlining China’s growing autonomy in the sector.

DeepSeek also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It has previously said that its V3 model used naturally occurring data collected through web crawling, and it had not intentionally used synthetic data generated by OpenAI.

Many Western and some Asian governments have banned their institutions and officials from using DeepSeek, citing data privacy concerns. Nevertheless, DeepSeek’s models have consistently been among the most used on international platforms that host open-source models.

The State Department cable said its purpose was to “warn of the risks of utilising AI models distilled from US proprietary AI models, and lay the groundwork for potential follow-up and outreach by the US government”.

It also mentioned Chinese AI firms Moonshot AI and MiniMax. Neither company immediately responded to a request for comment.

The cable said, “AI models developed from surreptitious, unauthorised distillation campaigns enable foreign actors to release products that appear to perform comparably on select benchmarks at a fraction of the cost but do not replicate the full performance of the original system.”

It added that the campaigns also “deliberately strip security protocols from the resulting models and undo mechanisms that ensure those AI models are ideologically neutral and truth-seeking”.

The White House accusations and the cable come just weeks before US President Donald Trump is set to visit Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

They could well raise tensions in a long-running tech war between the rival superpowers, which had been lowered by a detente brokered last October.

India will bid to host the 2038 Asian Games in Ahmedabad, the country’s Olympic chief told Reuters on Saturday, in its latest push to stage elite multi-sport events.

The world’s most populous nation will stage the 2030 Commonwealth Games in Ahmedabad and is also bidding for the 2036 Olympic Games in the western Indian city.

“Indian Olympic Association has already sent an expression of interest to OCA (Olympic Council of Asia) for organising the 2038 Asian Games in Ahmedabad,” IOA President P. T. Usha told Reuters by telephone from China.

“I met the OCA president and other functionaries here and they are all happy and want to support us.”

Former Olympian Usha is in China to attend the Asian Beach Games in Sanya.

“They had an EC (executive committee) meeting here where they discussed it. They will be sending an evaluation committee to India very soon,” she added.

India hosted the inaugural Asian Games in 1951 in New Delhi and again in 1982 in the capital city.

The country hosted the 2010 Commonwealth Games, which were mired in mismanagement and allegations of corruption.

Nagoya in Japan will host this year’s Asian Games, while Doha has been awarded the 2030 edition and Riyadh 2034.

The US Senate will vote as soon as next week on a Democratic-led effort to prevent US President Donald Trump from launching an attack on Cuba, Senate aides said on Friday, responding to the Republican’s threats to take military action against the island.

Democratic Senators Tim Kaine, Adam Schiff and Ruben Gallego introduced the Cuba War Powers Resolution last month. Under Senate rules, the Senate’s Republican leaders must allow it to come up for a vote.

“The president’s saber rattling toward Cuba makes clear where his sights are next,” Schiff said in a statement when the resolution was introduced.

Exact timing of the vote has not yet been announced, but aides said they expected it before May 1.

Under Trump, US forces have launched strikes on boats off Venezuela and gone into Caracas to seize President Nicolas Maduro, and, with Israel, waged war on Iran since February 28, all without authorisation from Congress.

Trump has since said “Cuba is next,” while touting US military action in Venezuela and Iran. He did not specify what he plans to do with the island nation, but has frequently said he believes its government is on the verge of collapse.

Democrats have tried, and failed repeatedly in both the Senate and House of Representatives, to force Trump to stop military action and obtain lawmakers’ authorisation before launching military operations.

Trump’s fellow Republicans, who hold a slim majority in both the Senate and House, have almost unanimously voted to block the resolutions that have come up to date and there has been no indication yet that any are shifting position.

Although the US Constitution says that Congress, not the president, can declare war, that restriction does not apply to short-term operations or to counter an immediate threat.

The White House says Trump’s actions are within his rights as commander-in-chief to protect the US by ordering limited military operations. Congressional Republicans accuse Democrats of filing the resolutions only to attack Trump.

NEW DELHI: Ankit Yadav, a seafarer from India, has been stuck on a boat at an inland Iranian port for about 2-1/2 weeks, surviving with his three fellow mariners on limited rations of tomatoes and potatoes.

He is one among thousands of seafarers from India and other nations who are stranded in and around the Strait of Hormuz, as the war in Iran disrupts trade along one of the world’s busiest ship routes.

Ankit, who is in his early 30s, was on a small vessel carrying steel and plying between Iran, Kuwait and Oman. He said he could have left the conflict zone had the vessel received permission to sail to Oman and then be repatriated to India, but that could not happen because of the blockade imposed by the US Navy.

“The shipping company I work for is not ready to give us the sign-off because they do not want to pay higher air ticket prices, and we cannot afford to buy them on our own. The only way out is the governments help, he told Reuters by phone.

Conflict disrupts vital routes, delays rescue

Salman Siddiqui, another Indian seafarer, is also at an Iranian port on a Comoros-flagged cargo vessel that was bound for Oman from Iran.

The only thing we do here is plan how to spend the night and pray to God that we do not get hit during an attack, Siddiqui said, speaking to Reuters from the vessel that is currently harboured at Khorramshahr.

It is a kind of relief that a ceasefire is in place and we do not hear the same number of explosions like we used to see and hear earlier,” he told Reuters by phone.

India ranks among the world’s top three suppliers of seafarers with a workforce of more than 300,000. The attacks on vessels have raised security concerns among seafarers who are unwilling to return to sea.

“We have heard more than 100 explosions. It is scary when you see projectiles flying and exploding very near your vessel, Siddiqui said.

Surindra Kumar Chaurasia was among the lucky ones who were repatriated to India. He had been on a vessel near Sharjah port with 20 other crew members waiting for approval to load urea when the conflict broke out.

We were stranded in the Persian Gulf for about four days, and then our shipping company was able to negotiate with Iran for safe passage. While stranded, we saw ships being attacked by drones, warning messages from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on VHF radio, fighter jets and more, Chaurasia said.

His captain received a route from the IRGC, and they sailed close to Iranian and Omani waters because there were sea mines on the other side, he said. India’s shipping ministry has facilitated the repatriation of about 2,680 Indian seafarers since the outbreak of the conflict.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2026