⚡️🇹🇷🏳️ Turkey has deployed ASELSAN Şahin anti-drone systems in Northern Cyprus.

@wfwitness

—🇭🇷❌🇷🇸 WATCH: Croatian PM Andrej Plenkovic has rejected Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s narrative that defense cooperation between Croatia, Kosovo and Albania poses a “threat” to Serbia, calling it a completely invented, fabricated thesis for domestic political purposes.

➡️ Plenkovic said neither Croatia nor Kosovo or Albania intend to endanger anyone’s territorial integrity, stressing that the trilateral cooperation is not directed against Serbia.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇦🇱❌🇮🇷 NEW: Albania will reportedly move next week to:

- Designate Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism

- List Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization

- Classify Hezbollah as a terrorist group.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—❗️🇺🇸❌🇮🇷 NEW: Security expert Adrian Shtuni warns that the US–Iran conflict could destabilize Kosovo and other Western Balkan states through economic shocks, hybrid warfare, terrorism, and diversion of Western attention away from the region.

➡️ He notes that Russia or Iran-linked groups could exploit the situation by backing Serbian paramilitaries to stage provocations or sabotage, while radicalized individuals might target US assets in Kosovo under the narrative of defending a Muslim country.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—☦️ 🇷🇸 UPDATE: Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said the Patriarch’s letter on Kosovo and Metohija is “very important” and expressed confidence that President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump, who “often emphasize protecting Christian values,” will understand the needs of the Serbian people there.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

🇺🇸❌🇮🇷❗️🛢💵 — Senator Lindsey Graham said President Trump’s decision to expand the war to Kharg Island, a key hub of Iran’s oil and gas sector, was necessary, bold, and highly effective in his view.

He argued that striking such a strategic location could significantly shorten the conflict because targets of that importance are rarely exposed in warfare.

Graham added that if Iran loses control of the oil infrastructure on Kharg Island, the country’s economy would suffer severe damage.

He concluded that whoever controls Kharg Island could ultimately shape the course and outcome of the war.

—🇷🇸💰🇭🇷/🇧🇦/🇲🇪 NEW: Serbia is ready to buy energy companies in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro even at the highest market price, with the aim of creating a larger, integrated regional energy company that would boost energy security and efficiency across the region, President Aleksandar Vučić said.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇲🇰/🇦🇱 NEW: Former North Macedonia president Stevo Pendarovski warned that overturning the Albanian language law would create a “major problem”, noting that Albanian is an official language as it is spoken by over 20% of the population, yet its implementation in state institutions and courts remains incomplete.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🪖🇽🇰 NEW: Kosovo’s Defence Minister Ejup Maqedonci says Pristina plans to invest more than €1 billion in its army over the next four years, targeting modernization of combat capabilities, new infrastructure and the development of domestic defence industry in line with a changing European security environment.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

🚨🇵🇰⛴️🇮🇷 - Pakistan owned tanker becomes the first non-Iranian cargo to transit through Strait of Hormuz with AIS on.

The Aframax tanker Karachi, carrying Abu Dhabi’s Das crude, has become the first non-Iranian cargo to transit the chokepoint while broadcasting its AIS signal, suggesting that select shipments may be receiving negotiated safe passage.

- MarineTraffic

—🇷🇸🤝🇮🇱 NEW: Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has confirmed that Belgrade and Israel have “excellent cooperation” in the defense sector, stating that “they sell weapons to us, we sell weapons to them, and that will continue.”

➡️ Media and flight-tracking reports note multiple recent Israeli cargo flights to Belgrade after Serbia lifted an eight-month embargo on arms exports, with Serbian state arms factories confirming that exports restarted in February.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

🇮🇷❌🇷🇴🇺🇸🪖 Iran warns Romania after US troops deployment!

Iran has told Romania that it could react “politically and legally” if the United States uses military bases on Romanian territory for operations against Tehran. The statement was made by the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmaeil Baghaei.

The warning comes after the Romanian Parliament approved the decision of the Supreme National Defense Council regarding the temporary deployment of US troops and equipment in Romania, in the context of tensions in the Middle East.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that Romania is not a party to the conflict and that the military systems hosted on the country’s territory are strictly defensive in nature, in accordance with the United Nations. The institution recalled that the bilateral agreement signed in 2006 allows the US to use military bases in Romania.

For his part, Defense Minister Radu Miruță stated that Iran’s statements refer to possible legal and political consequences, not to direct military threats. He stressed that the presence of the US military contributes to strengthening Romania's deterrence capacity.

According to the authorities, approximately 400-500 US military personnel and military equipment, including Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker tanker aircraft, are to be temporarily deployed for a maximum of 90 days. They will operate from Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base and Câmpia Turzii Air Base. The first three aircraft have already landed at Air Transport Base 90.

@Wallachian_Gazette

—🇽🇰 NEW: Political analysts say tensions between PM Albin Kurti and President Vjosa Osmani have further escalated, as their once-allied camps now openly clash over the dissolution of parliament, the stalled election of a new head of state, and Kosovo’s positioning with key international partners, including the United States.

➡️ The deepening rift comes after Osmani’s controversial move to dissolve the Assembly and Kurti’s challenge at the Constitutional Court, turning their personal split into a full-blown institutional standoff ahead of new snap elections.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇩🇪❌🇺🇸 NEW: German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has ruled out sending German warships to help the United States reopen the Strait of Hormuz amid the war with Iran.

➡️ He said that “this is not our war, we have not started it,” and questioned what “a handful or two handfuls of European frigates” could do that the powerful U.S. Navy cannot.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇬🇷❌🇺🇸 NEW: Greece will not participate in any military operations in the Strait of Hormuz, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said on Monday.

➡️ He stressed that Athens will limit its involvement to the EU naval mission Aspides in the Red Sea and has no intention of being drawn into war.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English