• Congress leadership condemns Modi for ties, demands answers.
• Cites Modi’s meetings with Trump, Israel trip to allege connection.
• Govt denies any advisory role or meaningful contact with Epstein.

Freshly released files tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have sparked attention after an email mentioning Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi surfaced in the latest batch published by the US Department of Justice, drawing a sharp response from New Delhi.

The Jerusalem Post reported on Saturday that one of the emails, attributed to Epstein, refers to Modi’s 2017 state visit to Israel — the first ever by an Indian prime minister.

The message claims Modi acted on Epstein’s advice during the trip, a suggestion Indian authorities have firmly rejected.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the only verifiable fact in the email is Modi’s official visit to Israel, calling the rest of the claims unfounded and misleading.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal dismissed the remarks as the musings of a convicted criminal, saying there was no evidence of any meaningful contact or advisory role involving Modi and Epstein.

Despite the denial, opposition parties have cited the reference to press the government for an explanation.

Meanwhile, local media reported that the main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, strongly criticised Prime Minister Modi, calling any alleged link with Epstein a matter of deep national shame.

Congress, in a recent statement, said Epstein wrote in an email that Modi took his advice before visiting Israel, claiming Modi “danced and sang” there for the benefit of the US president.

The party said Modi visited Israel from July 4 to 6, 2017, and that Epstein’s email was written three days after the trip. 

It added that Modi had met then US President Donald Trump in June 2017, before the Israel visit, claiming this showed a long-standing and deep connection between Modi and Epstein.

The opposition party said the issue concerns national dignity and international credibility and that Modi must answer questions about what advice he took from Epstein and the meaning of the claims made in the email.

Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He was jailed in 2008 for soliciting paid sex from a minor.

A fresh cache of files released on Friday related to the investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein contains documents that refer to numerous high-profile figures.

President Donald Trump, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and British billionaire Richard Branson are among some of the people named in the documents.

• Tasnim news agency rejects reports of IRCG official targeting.
• Iranian media says govt investigation cause of explosion.
• Blast comes amid heightened tensions Tehran and Washington.
  

An explosion occurred at Iran’s southern port of Bandar Abbas on Saturday, Iranian media reported, without giving a cause for the blast.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency said that social media reports alleging that a Revolutionary Guard navy commander was targeted in the explosion were “completely false”.

Iranian media said the blast was being investigated but gave no further information. Iranian authorities could not immediately be contacted for comment.

The port of Bandar Abbas lies on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway between Iran and Oman which handles about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil.

The reported explosion comes amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington after Iranian the biggest protests to convulse the country in three years, and also amid ongoing Western concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme.

The nationwide protests erupted in December over economic hardship and posed one of the toughest challenges to the government.

At least 5,000 people were killed in the protests, including 500 members of the security forces, an Iranian official told Reuters.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said an “armada” was heading toward Iran. Multiple sources said on Friday that Trump was weighing options against Iran that include targeted strikes on security forces.

Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused US, Israeli and European leaders of exploiting Iran’s economic problems, inciting unrest and providing people with the means to “tear the nation apart”.

Despite repeated threats of military action against Iran, Trump predicted that Tehran would seek to negotiate a deal rather than face American military action.

“I can say this, they do want to make a deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday.

Asked if he had given Iran a deadline to enter talks on its nuclear and missile programmes, Trump said “yeah, I have,” but refused to say what it was.

“We have a large armada, flotilla, call it whatever you want, heading towards Iran right now,” Trump said, referring to a US naval carrier group in waters off Iran.

• Iranian army chief says attack would endanger Israel’s security.
• Armed forces “at full defensive and military readiness”: Hatami.
• Centcom warns IRGC against “unsafe behaviour” near US forces.

Iranian army chief Amir Hatami on Saturday warned the United States and Israel against an attack, saying his country’s forces were on high alert following Washington’s heavy military deployments in the Gulf.

He also insisted the Tehran’s nuclear expertise could not be eliminated, after Trump said he expected Tehran to seek a deal to avoid US strikes.

“If the enemy makes a mistake, without a doubt it will endanger its own security, the security of the region, and the security of the Zionist regime,” Hatami said, according to the official IRNA news agency.

He noted that Iran’s armed forces were “at full defensive and military readiness”.

Washington sent a naval strike group to the Middle East led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, with Trump threatening to intervene militarily in the two weeks of anti-government protests.

The deployment has raised fears of a possible direct confrontation with Iran, which has warned it would respond with missile strikes on US bases, ships and allies — notably Israel — in the event of an attack.

On Friday, Trump said he predicted that Iran would seek to negotiate a deal over its nuclear and missile programmes rather than face American military action.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said earlier that Tehran was ready for nuclear talks, but its missiles and defence “will never be negotiated”.

‘Nuclear technology cannot be eliminated’

The US carried out strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites in June when it briefly joined Israel’s 12-day war against its regional foe.

Israeli attacks also hit military sites across the country and killed senior officers and top nuclear scientists.

But Hatami on Saturday insisted that Iran’s nuclear technology “cannot be eliminated, even if scientists and sons of this nation are martyred”.

On Friday, US Central Command (Centcom) said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) would conduct “a two-day live-fire naval exercise” in the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit hub for global energy supplies.

In a statement, Centcom warned the IRGC against “any unsafe and unprofessional behaviour near US forces”.

The United States designated the IRGC a terrorist organisation in 2019, a move the European Union followed on Thursday.

The EU decision drew angry reactions from Tehran, which vowed to reciprocate.

Protests

Nationwide protests against the rising cost of living erupted in Iran on December 28, before turning into a broader anti-government movement that peaked on January 8 and 9.

Iranian authorities have said the protests began peacefully before turning into “riots” involving killings and vandalism, blaming the United States and Israel for fomenting the unrest in a “terrorist operation”.

The official death toll from the authorities stands at 3,117.

The protests have since subsided.

On Saturday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian urged his government to heed public grievances after the demonstrations.

“We must work with the people and for the people and serve the people as much as possible,” Pezeshkian said in a speech broadcast on state TV.

“If we act justly, the people will see it and will accept it, and under such conditions, no power can cripple a government, a society, or a nation that acts justly, fairly, and on the basis of rights.”

On Saturday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visited the shrine of Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, in southern Tehran.

In a video carried by his official website, Khamenei offered prayers at the shrine on the occasion of 10-day celebrations marking the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Revolution.