Russian President and Iran allyVladimir Putin has called on Tehran to avoid attacking civilians during its expected assault on the Jewish state over the assassination of Hamas’ top leader, according to senior Iranian sources.
As Tehran pressed Moscow to deliver Russian-made Su-35 fighter jets on Monday, the Kremlin’s National Security Secretary Sergei Shoigu delivered a message from Putin asking Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to practice restraint, the sources told Reuters.
Moscow is the latest superpower to urge Iran to offer a measured response to the death of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in an alleged Israeli bombing in Tehran last week.
Russia’s Security Council Sergei Shoigu (left) delivered Putin’s message while meeting with Iranian officials this week.AP
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Russia issued its warning while in the process of providing advanced air defense systems to Tehran in preparation for its retaliatory attack on Israel, according to the New York Times.
The Iranian defense ministry has denied such reports.
While Putin has criticized Haniyeh’s killing as a “very dangerous assassination” that threatens the stability of the Middle East, while also blaming the US as Israel’s top ally, the Russian president has stressed that the war in Gaza cannot be allowed to spread across the region.
Russia’s warning comes after the US and Jordan issued similar concerns, with Iran expected to face additional deterrence from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), an intergovernmental group consisting of 57 member states.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed his group will seek revenge against Israel during the funeral of one of its commanders.AP
Tehran had called for an emergency meeting of the OIC on Wednesday to discuss Haniyeh’s assassination and Iran’s response.
OIC officials issued a statement Wednesday morning condemning Haniyeh’s death on Iranian soil and Israel’s war in Gaza.
And while officials skirted around discussing Iran’s impending attack on Israel, they claimed the OIC needed to “avoid the risk of full-scale regional war that would undermine the security and stability of the entire Middle East region.”
Israel continues to attack Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon during near-daily skirmishes with the terror group.AFP via Getty Images Along with Iran, Hezbollah has vowed to launch its own retaliatory attack against Israel for the death of a senior commander who was killed a day before Haniyeh.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Hezbollah will pay a heavy price should its near-daily attacks against northern Israel escalate to a point of no return.
“This may also deteriorate into a war. It’s not theoretical, it’s real,” Gallants said during a military event on Wednesday.
The violentTren de Araguagang, running rife across the Big Apple, is expanding its reach across the US — and is being tied to a brutal Colorado jewelry store heist in which two female staffers were pistol-whipped and threatened with death.
The Venezuelan prison gang was tied to the caught-on-camera Denver heist from June 25 when a suspect, Jean Torres Roman, 21, was arrested in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and turned over to the Denver County Sheriff’s Office last week.
Roman crossed the border illegally in 2023 — but was only identified as a member of Tren de Aragua early last month, Homeland Security sources told The Post.
Torres Roman allegedly carried out the heist along with several others who remain at large, according to Border Report.
Homeland Security agents arrested Jean Torres Roman, 21.HSI El Paso
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The group allegedly entered the store pretending to be clients, before launching a brutal attack on the female store employees, according to the outlet.
Horrifying surveillance footage shows the group of men chasing after the female employees, who can be seen trying to hide in a back room before the men rip the door open and pistol-whip two women, who fall onto the floor, KDVR reported.
The gunmen also threatened one of the women, who was trying to reach for a panic button, saying they would kill her if she moved, according to the report.
Eight robbers took off with an undisclosed amount of jewelry. The value of the jewelry they took is also unknown, per Border Report.
Torres Roman was determined to be a member of the gang on July 2, per sources.
He crossed the southern border illegally last September in El Paso, Texas, per DHS sources. He was later released into the US with a future court date despite saying he had no fear of returning home.
After his latest arrest, Torres Roman was booked into a Denver jail on state charges, which include attempted first-degree murder, attempted aggravated robbery and menacing. He has a US Marshals’ hold on his case.
In June, SWAT officers allegedly took several people, including Torres Roman, into custody at a motel in El Paso. Torres Roman and others were held on immigration charges until recently, according to Border Report.
Records show Torres is being held under a $1 million bond in Colorado. He is set to appear Aug. 21 in Denver District Court.
The recent attack “spotlights a growing trend of criminal activity in Denver and other sanctuary jurisdictions,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) former Denver chief, John Fabbricatore, told The Post.
The gang, whose name translates to “The Aragua Train,” which is a reference to the region in Venezuela it hails from, has sent its members across the southern border, where they’ve posed as asylum seekers.
Police in Denver are still searching for seven suspects caught on camera during the jewelry store heist.Denver Metro Crime Stoppers
Members of the gang have flocked to major metropolitan areas of the country including New York, Chicago, Miami and Denver, where they’re openly recruiting other migrant arrivals to join their money laundering, gun smuggling, theft and human trafficking operations, according to reports.
The Border Patrol only began tracking the group last year, recording the apprehensions of 70 of the gang’s members at the border, according to federal data.
The gang’s members have gotten wise to border vetting procedures and began telling younger recruits to refrain from getting the group’s tattoos to stay under the radar, sources have told The Post.
Right now, “it’s far too easy for criminals to enter the US,” a Border Patrol source told The Post.
“We have zero access to other nations’ criminal databases and with this administration’s uselessness in deterring these criminals, they will keep entering undetected,” said the source.
