Iranian President absent from COP28 conference in protest against Israel's participation

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is absent from the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) held in Dubai in protest against Israel's invitation to participate amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to the official IRNA agency. 

IRNA reported that Raisi "is not participating in the UN meeting on climate change in the United Arab Emirates due to the invitation of officials in the Zionist regime" to the conference. 

Israeli President Isaac Herzog is one of the approximately 180 heads of states and governments participating in the twenty-eighth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which began its proceedings on Thursday. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian expressed regret to his Emirati counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan during a phone call this week for the "attendance of officials from the occupation regime" at COP28 amid "war crimes and genocide" committed by the "Zionist regime," as he put it. 

Iran supports the Hamas movement, which launched an unprecedented attack inside Israeli territory on October 7, met with a destructive Israeli air campaign and a wide-scale ground assault within the Gaza Strip. 

The truce between Hamas and Israel, in effect since November 24, ended at 5:00 GMT on Friday. The Israeli army announced in a statement that it "resumed fighting against the terrorist Hamas movement in Gaza," while air raid sirens sounded in Israeli towns near the Strip. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of "violating the agreement" and "launching rockets." 

The Ministry of Health, affiliated with the Hamas government, reported the fall of at least 32 casualties, including children, in Gaza with the resumption of military operations. 

AFP