MEA officials to brief Parliamentary panel on safety and repatriation of Indian diaspora during West Asia conflict

New Delhi [India], March 17 (ANI): A meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs will be held tomorrow in which the representatives of the Ministry of External Affairs will brief the members on safety, security and repatriation of diaspora during the ongoing conflict in West Asia.The Committee will also be briefed by the representatives of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on the outcomes of the recent Al Summit.The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs is chaired by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.

The meeting is taking place amid the escalating conflict in West Asia. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in joint military strikes by the US and Israel on February 28. Iran has been targeting US assets in several Gulf countries and tensions have disrupted international supply chains. Iran has virtually closed the Strait of Hormuz, a critical transit route for global energy supply.Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been appointed the new Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic.Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed on Tuesday that Ali Larijani, Iranian Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, was killed in an overnight airstrike in Tehran."Larijani and the Basij commander were eliminated tonight and joined the head of the destruction plan, Khamenei, and all the thwarted members of the evil axis in the depths of hell. The Prime Minister and I have instructed the [Israel Defence Forces] to continue hunting down the leadership of the regime of terror and oppression in Iran," Katz said, as quoted by TPS.He also confirmed that Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of Iran's Basij paramilitary force, was killed in the same series of strikes. (ANI)