Slovenia’s new right-wing Prime Minister Janez Jansa ordered the Palestinian flag removed from the main government building in Ljubljana less than an hour after taking office, signalling a sharp pro-Israel turn in the country’s foreign policy.

The flag had flown there for two years under his predecessor, Robert Golob, whose government accused Israel of violating international law and committing “clear genocidal acts” in Gaza.

Golob’s government made Slovenia the first European Union member to ban all weapons trade with Israel. It also recognised Palestine as an independent state, declared two Israeli ministers personae non gratae and aligned itself with Ireland, Spain and Norway on Palestinian statehood.

Jansa, a close ally of US President Donald Trump and Israel, is expected to reverse several of those measures, including recognition of Palestine.

Israel quickly welcomed the shift. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel would open its first embassy in Ljubljana “without delay.”

Azerbaijan has rejected a CNN report claiming that Israel secretly deployed military and intelligence personnel on its territory for operations against Iran, calling the allegations “completely unfounded.”

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Azerbaijan has repeatedly denied such claims and that its official position was communicated to CNN in advance of the article’s publication. It accused the network of relying on anonymous sources and disregarding Baku’s official response, saying this contradicted “the principles of objectivity, impartiality, and professional ethics of journalism.”

“We have never permitted and will never permit such activities,” the statement said, adding that Azerbaijan is committed to promoting peace, stability, and good neighborly relations in the region.

The ministry demanded that CNN retract the article.

The CNN report claimed that Israel deployed several dozen elite troops and Mossad personnel to locations in southern Azerbaijan near the Iranian border during the recent war with Iran. The report alleged that the forces conducted intelligence-gathering and drone operations, and that one of the operations launched from Azerbaijani territory was the March 4 killing of a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence commander.

Iran has called on the international community to adopt a “zero-tolerance policy” toward armed attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities, telling a special meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors that the United States and Israel carried out 17 waves of strikes against Iranian safeguarded nuclear sites in 2025 and 2026.

In a statement, Iran’s delegation said one of the gravest attacks targeted a structure just 350 meters from the reactor at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, which contains thousands of kilograms of nuclear material. The IAEA Director General has previously said a direct hit on the plant could result in a “very high release of radioactivity to the environment.”

Iran said the attacks constitute war crimes and acts of aggression, entailing international responsibility and individual criminal liability for the perpetrators. It recalled that UN Security Council Resolution 487 (1981) condemned a previous Israeli attack on an Iraqi nuclear facility and obliged Israel to refrain from any such acts in the future.

The United States has opposed two previous IAEA General Conference resolutions on prohibiting attacks on nuclear installations, both proposed by Iran, the statement said.