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The leading Balkan news channel in English on Telegram.
—🇮🇱/🇭🇷/🇮🇷 NEW: Israel’s ambassador in Zagreb has urged Croatia to sever diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, triggering sharp pushback from Croatian institutions and politicians.
➡️ The President’s Office stressed that, as a sovereign state, Croatia alone decides its foreign policy based on its own interests, while MP Armin Hodžić warned that foreign embassies will not dictate Zagreb’s external relations or “give political lessons” to its institutions.
➡️ The Foreign Ministry meanwhile condemned Iran’s attack on neighboring countries but confirmed Croatia will not break diplomatic ties with Tehran.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🪖🇷🇴 NEW: Romanian company OVES has developed and successfully tested an AI-enabled cruise missile dubbed "Sahara," offering a range of up to 250 km with a 10 kg explosive payload.
➡️ The firm is also working on extended-range variants between 500–600 km and 900–1,100 km, positioning the system as a scalable, lower-cost cruise missile option.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
🇬🇧🇨🇾🇱🇧 — The Cypriot Foreign Ministry announced that the drone attacks targeting British bases in Cyprus originated from Lebanon.
"It has become necessary to focus on the Lebanese front, and we cannot rule out any possibility," the ministry added.
@thewarreporterr
—🇮🇷/🇧🇬 NEW: Iran’s ambassador has stated that Bulgaria is not a legitimate target for Iranian military action, addressing concerns that Sofia could be drawn into any potential escalation.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇨🇾❓🪖🇬🇧 NEW: Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said “nothing has been ruled out” regarding the future of the UK’s sovereign bases on the island, after talks in Nicosia with MI6 chief Blaise Metreweli and days after an Iranian-made drone struck the RAF Akrotiri base.
➡️ The drone incident has reignited long-standing political opposition to the bases, with Akel and other parties rejecting a parliamentary resolution condemning the attack and instead warning that the British military presence poses security risks for Cyprus.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇺🇳/🇱🇧/🇷🇸 NEW: Three UNIFIL peacekeepers were injured after heavy fire hit a UN base in Al Qawzah, southwestern Lebanon; one was evacuated to a hospital in Beirut, while two are being treated at a UN medical facility, and a fire inside the base has been extinguished.
➡️ Contrary to claims circulating online, Serbian peacekeepers are not stationed at the struck base but are deployed along the coast between Tyre and Naqoura.
🔗 Dunav Intel
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
🇬🇷🏛️💙❌🇺🇸 During a speech focusing on the Iran-Israel/US conflicts leader of the right-wing Greek Solution (EL) party, Kyriakos Velopoulos, attacked US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle and referred to her as “Milfoil” and a “socialite”:
The Americans came here and told us, Mrs.... Milfoil, what is the name of this lady, Mr. Argyros' close friend, who told us: “Close the [Piraeus] port, it's Chinese”
🇺🇸🇮🇱❌🇮🇷 — The president’s comments expressing serious interest in deploying ground troops have not focused on a large-scale ground invasion of Iran, but rather on the idea of a small contingent of U.S. troops that would be used for specific strategic purposes, the U.S. officials, the former U.S. official and the person with knowledge of the discussions said.
📝 They said Trump has not made any decisions or given any orders related to ground troops.
—❗️🇮🇱 ✈️ 🇷🇸 NEW: Israeli cargo Boeing 747-412F (flight LOY732, reg. 4X-ICK) operated by Challenge Airlines IL flew from Tel Aviv to Belgrade yesterday before returning to Tel Aviv shortly after departure from Serbia, in what Dunav Intel flags as a new possible delivery of Serbian ammunition to Israel amid the ongoing Israel–Iran war.
➡️ The same aircraft type and route have previously been associated with confirmed Serbian munitions shipments that continued on to Beersheba’s Nevatim air base, though that base is reportedly unavailable due to current operations against Iran.
🔗 Dunav Intel
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🪧🇽🇰 NEW: Kosovo feminist groups will hold a Women’s Day protest on 8 March in Prishtina, targeting what they describe as “colonialism” in the Middle East and Kosovo’s role in Trump’s Board of Peace, of which the country is a founding member.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇷🇸🤝🇮🇱 NEW: Authorities in Republika Srpska have deployed gendarmerie units and introduced heightened security measures after intelligence warnings of a potential terrorist threat allegedly originating from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with armed patrols, sniper teams, drone surveillance and vehicle checks reported in parts of the entity and security tightened around Jewish cultural and community sites in Banja Luka.
🔗 Dunav Intel
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🪖🇬🇷 NEW: An X post by commentator Peter B calling the Greek military “the most underrated in the world” and “the beacon of bravery and hope during WW2” has gone viral, drawing tens of thousands of views and sparking debate over Greece’s wartime record and modern military reputation.
➡️ The post highlights Greece’s resistance against Nazi Germany and references historical praise of Greek soldiers’ bravery, resonating strongly with Greek users and diaspora accounts amplifying the message.
🔗 Peter B
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇺🇦🤝🇺🇸❌🇮🇷 NEW: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Washington has requested Kyiv’s assistance in defending against Iranian-made Shahed attack drones, which both Russia and Iran have repeatedly used in recent conflicts.
➡️ The statement suggests expanding US-Ukrainian cooperation beyond the battlefield in Ukraine to counter Tehran’s drone threat globally.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇮🇱 ✈️ 🇲🇰 NEW: North Macedonia has evacuated a group of its citizens from Israel, with Foreign Minister Timco Mucunski saying they were transferred to Sharm el-Sheikh and then flown to Skopje on a government aircraft under a coordinated operation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇹🇷❌🇬🇷 NEW: Türkiye has lodged protests over Greece’s latest deployments in the Dodecanese and eastern Aegean, claiming violations of the demilitarized status of the islands under the Treaty of Lausanne and the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty.
➡️ Greek commentators note that Türkiye is not a party to the 1947 Paris Treaty by which Italy ceded the Dodecanese to Greece and therefore has no standing to invoke its clauses, while Athens insists its measures are purely defensive in response to regional tensions.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
🇦🇪🤝🇰🇷❌🇮🇷❗️ — According to South Korean officials, approximately 30 ballistic missile interceptors are scheduled to be delivered to the UAE tomorrow aboard a C-17 transport aircraft.
▶️The interceptors are being transferred from South Korea’s reserve stockpiles.Читать полностью…
▶️Under the current defense agreement, a total of ten M-SAM-II air defense batteries are planned for deployment.
▶️At present, two of these M-SAM-II systems are already operational in the UAE.
—🇮🇷/🇧🇦 WATCH: A small pro-Iran march was held in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital Sarajevo in open defiance of a police order banning the gathering on security grounds.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇦🇱/🇮🇹 FACT: The oldest known Arbëresh (Italo-Albanian) flag still in existence is the Piana degli Albanesi flag from 1744, preserved by the Petrotta family in Sicily, Italy.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—✈️🇹🇷🤝🏳️ NEW: Türkiye is set to deploy four F-16 fighter jets to Ercan (Tymbou) airport in northern Cyprus on Sunday, following Greece’s deployment of four F-16s to Paphos earlier this week amid heightened tensions after Iranian-made drones and missiles targeted Cyprus and Türkiye.
➡️ Multiple NATO and EU states, including France, Italy, Spain and the UK, have already sent or announced naval and air assets to the island and surrounding waters, with Athens and Ankara now signalling rare alignment over Cyprus’ role in the unfolding regional crisis.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇹🇷🤝🏳️ NEW: Türkiye’s defence ministry warned it “will not hesitate” to use its guarantor powers against “hostile attitudes” threatening Turkish Cypriot security, after an Iranian-made drone targeted the British Akrotiri base in Cyprus and a ballistic missile fired from Iran was shot down over Türkiye’s Hatay province, reportedly aimed at Incirlik airbase.
➡️ Ankara’s message came as Greece deployed F-16s and frigates to Cyprus and prepares to send an air force delegation to Türkiye as a “confidence-building measure,” underscoring how the widening regional conflict is now intersecting directly with the Cyprus file.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇷🇸📞🇮🇱 NEW: Serbian FM Marko Đurić held a phone call with Israeli FM Gideon Sa'ar, focusing on the current regional situation and reiterating the strength of bilateral relations between Serbia and Israel.
➡️ Đurić underlined Belgrade’s interest in further developing political and economic cooperation with Israel and restated Serbia’s support for de-escalation efforts in the Middle East, including backing an initiative for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇷🇸 (🇧🇦) /🇺🇸 NEW: Serb member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency Željka Cvijanović has held a second meeting in just over a month with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in Washington, focused on energy and infrastructure projects.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
🇺🇸🇮🇱❌🇮🇷❗️ — President Donald Trump has privately expressed serious interest in deploying U.S. troops on the ground inside of Iran, according to two U.S. officials, a former U.S. official and another person with knowledge of the conversations
📝 Trump has discussed the idea of deploying ground troops with aides and Republican officials outside the White House while outlining his vision for a post-war Iran in which Iran’s uranium is secure and the U.S. and a new Iranian regime cooperate on oil production similar to how the U.S. and Venezuela are, the sources said.
—🇭🇷 ✈️ 🇦🇪 WATCH: A Croatia Airlines plane, organized by the Croatian government and foreign ministry, has landed in Dubai to evacuate the most vulnerable groups of Croatian citizens for repatriation to Croatia, the MFA announced.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—❗️🪖🇬🇷🤝🇧🇬 NEW: Greece has extended its anti-ballistic “umbrella” to Bulgaria, with the Hellenic Defence Minister telling his Bulgarian counterpart in a phone call that Greek forces will protect Bulgarian airspace and territory from any potential Iranian ballistic missile attack, building on Athens’ longstanding role in NATO air policing over the southern Balkans.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
Cypriot monastery shelters evacuees amid drone crisis
https://orthochristian.com/176121.html
After receiving the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol, the community opened its available spaces to displaced families, housing each in a separate room.
🇷🇺❌🇮🇱🇺🇸 — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov:
Russia will do everything to create an atmosphere that will make US and Israel operation against Iran impossible
—🇹🇷🤝🇪🇸❌🇺🇸 WATCH: A Turkish news anchor ended a live broadcast by switching to Spanish and thanking Spain for “standing on the right side of history”, a clip that has already drawn over 1 million views on X.
🔗 Daily Turkic
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
—🇦🇱🤝🇦🇿 NEW: Albanian PM Edi Rama has condemned Iran’s drone attack on Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan region, calling it a grave act of aggression against a neighboring country and urging that Iran be classified as a “terrorist state” and isolated internationally.
✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English
🇸🇦❌🇮🇷❗️ — URGENT: Saudi authorities have issued a nationwide warning to citizens ahead of possible military operations related to the escalating conflict with Iran.
▶️The government urged the public not to share photos or videos of any military activity inside the Kingdom, warning that such material could expose sensitive information like location data and timestamps that adversaries could exploit.
🇸🇦💬Official message:
“To all citizens, residents, and visitors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , we stress that in the coming hours images or videos related to military movements inside the Kingdom may circulate. It is strictly prohibited to publish, repost, share, or interact with any such content across social media or messaging platforms. Every photo or video contains hidden digital data including location coordinates, time of capture, and technical details that hostile parties could use to analyze the movements of our armed forces and harm national security. Publishing such material, even with good intentions, is irresponsible and poses a direct risk to the safety of the country and its people. The security of the homeland is everyone’s responsibility. Your commitment to not sharing such content directly supports the efforts of our leadership and armed forces in protecting the nation. We repeat: do not publish, do not forward, do not interact with, and do not spread any military-related content.”Читать полностью…