World

Do not sabotage Iran deal with new conditions, West tells Russia

Published

3 years ago

March 9, 2022

Do not sabotage Iran deal with new conditions, West tells Russia

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Western powers on Tuesday warned Russia in opposition to wrecking an nearly accomplished deal on bringing the USA and Iran again into compliance with the 2015 nuclear accord, as Iran’s high negotiator was set to return from consultations in Tehran.

Eleven months of talks to revive the deal which lifted sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program have reached their last phases.

REPUBLICANS TROUBLED BY ONGOING TALKS TO REVIVE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL: ‘RUSSIA SHOULD NOT BE AT ANY TABLE’

However they’ve been sophisticated by a last-minute demand from Russia for ensures from the USA that Western sanctions concentrating on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine wouldn’t have an effect on its enterprise with Iran.

Iran’s new President-elect Ebrahim Raisi speaks throughout a press convention in Tehran, Iran, on Monday.
(AP Photograph)

U.S. Underneath Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland mentioned Russia was searching for to reap additional advantages from its participation within the effort to revive the nuclear settlement, but it surely won’t succeed.

“Russia is making an attempt to up the ante and broaden its calls for with regard to the (nuclear deal) and we’re not enjoying ‘Let’s make a deal’,” Nuland, the No. 3 U.S. diplomat, informed a Senate International Relations Committee listening to.

Iran’s high negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani is due again in Vienna on Wednesday after unexpectedly returning to Tehran on Monday for consultations, an Iranian and a European official mentioned.

The talks’ coordinator, Enrique Mora of the European Union, mentioned on Monday the time had come for political selections to be taken to finish the negotiations.

“The window of alternative is closing. We name on all sides to make the choices obligatory to shut this deal now, and on Russia to not add extraneous situations to its conclusion,” Britain, France and Germany mentioned in a joint assertion to the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation Board of Governors.

Iran has sought to take away all sanctions and it needs ensures from the USA that it’ll not abandon the settlement as soon as extra, after then-U.S. President Donald Trump walked out of the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.

Diplomats have mentioned till now that a number of variations nonetheless wanted to be overcome within the talks, together with the extent to which sanctions on Iran, notably its elite revolutionary guards, could be rolled again and what ensures Washington would give if it have been to once more renege on the deal.

Satellite photo provided from Planet Labs Inc. shows Iran's Natanz nuclear facility.

Satellite tv for pc photograph offered from Planet Labs Inc. reveals Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility.
((Planet Labs by way of AP))

Two Western officers mentioned there was now a last textual content on the desk and people points had been resolved.

Whereas they could not rule out additional last-minute surprises, they mentioned the final large open query was whether or not Russia’s calls for have been manageably slender and restricted to nuclear cooperation spelled out within the settlement, as Moscow’s envoy to the talks has informed different events, or a lot broader, as Russian International Minister Sergei Lavrov has described them.

RUSSIA TIES POSSIBLE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL REVIVAL TO UKRAINE SANCTIONS

“We’re very near an settlement. It’s important we conclude whereas we nonetheless can,” France’s International Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre informed reporters in a day by day briefing.

“We’re involved by the dangers that additional delays may weigh on the potential for concluding,” she mentioned.

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Moscow threw the potential wrench within the works on Saturday, simply as months of oblique talks between Tehran and Washington in Vienna seemed to be headed for an settlement, with Lavrov saying the Western sanctions over Ukraine had change into a stumbling block for the nuclear deal.

The EU’s Mora and Russia’s high negotiator Mikhail Ulyanov held talks in Vienna on Tuesday night, exchanging views on the “present developments and manner forward,” Moscow’s envoy mentioned on Twitter.

Western officers say there’s widespread curiosity in avoiding a nuclear nonproliferation disaster, and they’re making an attempt to determine whether or not what Russia is demanding regards solely its commitments to the Iran deal. That may be manageable, however something past that may be problematic, they are saying.

The brand new settlement would result in Russia taking in extra extremely enriched uranium that may be taken out of Iran to carry Tehran again into compliance with the unique deal’s caps on the purity and quantity of the enriched uranium it’s stockpiling.

Members of the Iranian revolutionary guard march during a parade to commemorate the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war

Members of the Iranian revolutionary guard march throughout a parade to commemorate the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq battle
(Reuters)

Rosatom, a state-run firm fashioned by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2007, is essential to that and has nonetheless not been added to Western sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken performed down the problem throughout a go to to Estonia on Tuesday and mentioned Russia and the USA nonetheless shared a need to forestall Iran from buying a nuclear weapon.

European negotiators from France, Britain, and Germany had already briefly left the talks as they believed that they had gone so far as they might go and it was now as much as the 2 primary protagonists to agree on excellent points.

Further reporting by Dubai Newsroom, Simon Lewis and Andrius Sytas in Tallinn; Writing by John Irish and Dominic Evans; Enhancing by Jonathan Oatis, Nick Macfie and Richard Pullin

World

Venezuela’s Opposition Candidate Says His Son-In-Law Was Kidnapped

Published

4 hours ago

January 7, 2025

Press Room

Venezuela’s Opposition Candidate Says His Son-In-Law Was Kidnapped

The man widely called the true winner of Venezuela’s tainted presidential election said on Tuesday that his son-in-law had been kidnapped by hooded men in Caracas, the capital.

Edmundo González said that his son-in-law, Rafael Tudares, was walking Mr. González’s grandchildren to school when he was “intercepted” by hooded men dressed in black, and taken away in a gold van.

“At this time he is missing,” he wrote on X.

The reported kidnapping comes one day after Mr. González met at the White House with President Biden, whose administration recognizes Mr. González as president-elect, in an effort to put international pressure on President Nicolás Maduro, the longtime authoritarian leader who claims he won Venezuela’s July election.

On Monday the Maduro government, in a statement, called the meeting “a flagrant violation of international law and a crude attempt to perpetuate imperialist interference in Latin America.”

Mr. González, 75, was forced to flee the country shortly after millions of Venezuelans voted for him, and he is now living in exile in Spain. He has promised repeatedly to return to his country to be sworn in on Friday, when Maduro, in power since 2013, is scheduled to be inaugurated for another six-year term.

The Maduro government has imposed a $100,000 bounty on Mr. González and he likely faces arrest if he returns.

The Venezuelan government has unleashed a wave of repression against anyone who challenges its declared victory, arresting about 2,000 people and charging most with terrorism. Human rights groups have described it as Venezuela’s most brutal campaign of repression in recent decades.

The government has released hundreds of those prisoners in recent months, in what many analysts saw as a signal to President-elect Donald J. Trump that it is willing to ease up on human rights in exchange for favorable treatment.

The U.S. State Department called the disappearance an attempt to “intimidate Venezuela’s democratic opposition.”

A spokesman for the Maduro government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Diosdado Cabello, a top official in Mr. Maduro’s government and one of his most powerful allies, did not refer directly to the episode in public remarks on Tuesday, but said, “today we have just dismantled a very dangerous group” of “foreign mercenaries from the United States and Colombia.’’

Mr. Tudares’ wife, Mariana González, said in a statement that her husband was a victim of “persecution.”

“At what point did it become a crime to be Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia’s family?” she said.

World

At least 9 miners are trapped in a coal mine in India's northeastern Assam state

Published

5 hours ago

January 7, 2025

Press Room

At least 9 miners are trapped in a coal mine in India's northeastern Assam state

At least nine workers are trapped inside a flooded coal mine in India’s northeastern Assam state, officials said Tuesday, as authorities summoned the army to help in the rescue operation.

The miners became trapped on Monday morning in the Umrangso area in Dima Hasao district, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) south of the state capital, Guwahati.

13 YOUNG MINERS FEARED DEAD IN INDIA’S REMOTE NORTHEAST

The workers are “feared trapped 300 feet below the ground after water gushed in from a nearby unused mine. We are mobilizing resources to rescue them,” said Kaushik Rai, a local government minister who is monitoring the rescue efforts.

Army soldiers and a national disaster management team at the site used ropes and cranes to assist the ongoing operation.

This image provided by the Indian Army shows an aerial view of the site where at least nine workers are trapped inside a coal mine, in the Umrangso area of Dimapur Hasao district in the northeastern state of Assam, India, on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Indian Army via AP)

Rescuers found three helmets, some slippers and a few other items, Rai said. “The divers have been able to dive into 35 or 40 feet of water inside the mine. The water level now is estimated at 100 feet,” he said.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on the social media platform X that the mine appeared to be illegal and that police had arrested one person as they investigate the case.

Workers at the site said over a dozen miners had been trapped inside the mine, which has minimum safety measures, and some managed to escape as water from a nearby unused mine began filling the mine.

In India’s east and northeast, workers extract coal in hazardous conditions in small “rat hole” mines that are narrow pits in the ground, usually meant for one person to go down, and are common in hilly areas. The coal is usually placed in boxes that are hoisted to the surface with pulleys. In some cases, miners carry coal in baskets up on wooden slats flanking the walls of the mines.

Accidents in illegal mines are frequent and the livelihoods of those who do such mining depend on the illegal sale of coal. At least 15 miners were killed after getting trapped in one such mine in Meghalaya state in 2019.

World

Herbert Kickl invites ÖVP to hold coalition talks

Published

5 hours ago

January 7, 2025

Press Room

Herbert Kickl invites ÖVP to hold coalition talks

The head of Austrian far-right Freedom Party, Herbert Kickl, invited the conservative Austrian People’s Party to coalition talks after being tasked with forming a government.

Austrian far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Herbert Kickl extended an olive branch to the conservative Austria’s People Party (ÖVP) on Tuesday, inviting them to coalition talks.

His comments come after Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen gave him the green light to attempt to form a ruling coalition.

Though the two parties have a history of clashing heads, Kickl said during a press conference that he would officially extend the invitation once his party’s leadership approved the move in a meeting on Tuesday evening.

The conservative ÖVP is the only viable coalition partner for the FPÖ, but Kickl urged the party to be “honest” in talks or face the threat of a snap election amidst rising support for his own political group.

Kickl said early steps in talks would be small and that it still needs to be seen whether the coalition would be viable or not. However, he also said he does not want to lose any time and now wants to start a “massive political firefighting operation.”

During his statement on Tuesday, Kickl pointed out that it had been 100 days exactly since parliamentary elections in September but described the three months since the results came in as “lost.”

Coalition talks between the far right and conservatives aren’t guaranteed to succeed, but there are no longer any other realistic options in the current parliament and polls suggest that a new election soon could strengthen the Freedom Party further.

Kickl’s party secured victory in those elections, winning 28.8% of the vote and surpassing outgoing Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative ÖVP, which came in second.

Van der Bellen initially tasked Nehammer with forming a government. However, the ÖVP refused to enter a coalition with the FPÖ under Kickl – leading to a political stalemate.

Efforts to form a governing alliance without the FPÖ failed by early January, prompting Nehammer to announce on Saturday that he would resign.