Headlines
We’ve Crushed Iran’s Nuclear, Missile Programmes, Netanyahu Boasts
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Saturday that the joint US-Israeli campaign against Iran has succeeded in “crushing” the Islamic republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
Netanyahu’s comments came as Iranian and US officials held two rounds of face-to-face talks in Pakistan in a bid to end the Middle East war, with a third round expected later on Saturday evening or Sunday, Iranian state television reported.
“We have succeeded in crushing the nuclear programme, and crushing the missile programme,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement, adding that the war against Tehran had also weakened Iran’s leadership and its regional allies.
“We have reached a situation in which Iran no longer has a single functioning enrichment facility.”
Netanyahu said the United States and Israel had prevented Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb by launching a war in June 2025, followed by the current campaign that began on February 28.
He said the latest war was launched after intelligence indicated that the now deceased Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei had sought to expand the country’s nuclear and missile programmes even after the June 2025 war.
“He sought to bury both missile production and nuclear production deep, deep beneath a mountain, in a way that even B-2 aircraft could not reach. Once again, we could not stand by. We acted,” Netanyahu said.
“Most of its missile production capacity has disappeared. They still have missiles, they still have stockpiles, but it is shrinking.”
He said there were “enormous achievements” in the war effort.
“They are reflected in this weakened regime, which is now even seeking a ceasefire,” he said.
Netanyahu added that, for decades, Iran’s leadership and its allies had threatened Israel.
“They wanted to strangle us, and (now) we are strangling them. They threatened us with annihilation, and now they are fighting for survival.”
On Lebanon, Netanyahu said the country had approached Israel regarding a potential peace deal.
“In the past month, it has reached out several times to begin direct peace talks,” Netanyahu said.
“I have given my approval, but on two conditions: we want the dismantling of Hezbollah’s weapons, and we want a real peace agreement that will last for generations.”
On Friday, Lebanon’s presidency said that a meeting would be held with Israel in Washington next week to discuss a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war and the potential start of negotiations between the neighbours.
Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been clashing since March 2, two days after the start of the Iran war, following rocket fire by the Lebanese armed group at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Khamenei.
Since then, Israel has killed at least 2,020 people in Lebanon, including 248 women, 165 children and 85 medical and emergency personnel, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Israel carried out its largest air attack this week on Lebanon since March 2, which it says left hundreds of Hezbollah fighters dead.
Even as Netanyahu spoke, around 800 Israeli protesters rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest against the wars in Iran and Lebanon, accusing Netanyahu of attempting to derail the ceasefire with Iran.
“In Bibi, we don’t trust,” read one banner, using Netanyahu’s nickname, as protesters chanted: “No to endless wars, no to a government of death”.
Protester Martin Goldberg said Netanyahu was not in favour of a ceasefire with Iran.
“What happened immediately after the ceasefire in Iran, Israel launched one of its largest attacks in Lebanon, which in my opinion, was an attempt to try and sabotage the ceasefire with Iran,” the 61-year-old demonstrator told AFP.
“Israel is pretty openly saying that they’re not interested in a ceasefire in Iran, and they don’t want a peaceful solution in Iran.”
The Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, has thrown the 2027 race wide open by zoning
its presidential ticket to the South for a single four-year term, a move that instantly puts Peter Obi and other southern aspirants in play.
The decision came at the party’s national convention on Saturday after a motion by Rep. Afam Victor Ogene of Anambra’s Ogbaru constituency. Delegates adopted it without dissent.
Under the arrangement, the South gets the ticket for 2027 only. Once that four-year term ends, the ticket automatically shifts back to the North.
The zoning formula settles months of backroom jostling inside the NDC over where the party should field its standard-bearer. By locking the North into a wait-and-hold position, the convention has effectively cleared the runway for southern heavyweights to move.
For Obi, the former Anambra governor who ran in 2023, the resolution removes the biggest structural hurdle to picking up the NDC’s form. Other southern aspirants now have the same green light to purchase and process nomination forms.
Party leaders framed the deal as a balance between regional equity and political strategy ahead of 2027. Critics inside the party will watch whether the “automatic” handoff to the North holds once the race gets hot.
For now, the South has its window. The question is who walks through it first.
The Senate has amended its Standing Orders, limiting eligibility to contest for its presiding officers and principal officers to only members of the 10th Senate.
In the new rules, a senator shall only qualify to contest for Senate Presidency and Deputy Senate Presidency if he/she has won election to the Senate for at least one term of four years.
To be eligible to contest for any principal office, a senator must have won election for two consecutive periods, the last one must immediately precede the inauguration of the next Senate.
By implication, any senator who plans to vie to become a presiding officer in the 11th Senate (2027-20231) must have been a senator for at least one term preceding the inauguration.
For principal offices (chief whip, deputy whip, minority whip, etc), the senator must have been a member of the current 10th Senate, or they are not eligible to contest.
Under the new provision on “qualification of presiding officers”, it is stated in Order 3,”A Senator vying for the Office of the President of the Senate and the Deputy President of the Senate must have served at least one term of four (4) years in the Senate as a senator of the Federal Republic.”
Similarly, nomination for the positions shall strictly follow ranking in the following order: former president of the Senate; former deputy president of the Senate; former principal officers of the Senate; senators who had served for at least one term of four (4) years; and senators who had been members of the House of Representatives.
According to the provision, it is only the absence of the above that a first-term senator can be nominated to contest for the positions of presiding officers.
Under Order 5, a senator seeking to be a principal officer must have “served as a senator for at least two consecutive terms immediately preceding such nomination. “
The Senate passed the rules after a lengthy executive session presided over by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, on Tuesday.
The new rules impliedly gives Akpabio, other former presiding officers, principal officers and ranked senators the right of first refusal.
Findings indicated that the new rules might be what some sources described as “self-serving” or designed to serve the interest of the present presiding officers and members of the 10th Senate.
For instance, some State governors contesting the 2027 election to the Senate in the hope of vying for the presidency of the Senate, are effectively barred by the new rules.
It was also learnt that even within the Senate, the new rules will stop some senators from vying to become principal officers as they would not have attained two consecutive terms prior to 2027.
The National Publicity Secretary of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, has claimed that the party favoured Peter Obi more than any other aspirant while with them.
Abdullahi said this while faulting Obi’s claim that internal wrangling was part of the reason he defected to the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).
Featuring on Arise Television’s Prime Time, Abdullahi said Obi and Kwankwaso’s defection means a lot because they are significant politicians.
He said: “I will be lying to say that their defection didn’t mean anything because these are two significant frontline politicians in this country and when you lose those two politicians then you will fill that you have lost something.
“But it’s not a mortal blow because what we are trying to do is to build a broad based coalition that would include everyone.
“The reason we are building this coalition is because our individual parties have been destabilized and the only way out was to come together.
“There was a consensus among us that the direction this country is going was quite precarious and the only way we can win election and rescue the country from the misrule of the APC is to build a party that is formidable enough.
“Obi and Kwankwaso have a different political idea of what the party should be doing.
“Obi said himself that once we present two candidates against President Tinubu, we have given him a chance. I wonder what has changed.
“So if the legal challenges are the reason that we have left after creating the impression that ADC is drowning in these mountains of legal challenges, the answer is no.
“At the moment, we have only three cases which are flimsy without trying to be prejudicial, as the National Publicity Secretary of ADC.
“I can tell you that none of the aspirants and leaders have been favoured like Peter Obi.”
