President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, recently said the United States must return to the policy of “maximum pressure” and that the Iranian regime’s weakness has reopened what the future of Iran will look like.

“I believe this year should be considered a year of hope, it should be considered a year of action, and it should be considered a year of change,” Kellogg, who served in Trump’s first administration, said at an event sponsored by an Iranian opposition group, The National Council of Resistance of Iran, in Paris.

The retired lieutenant general said that Iran’s development and acquisition of a nuclear weapon would be the most destabilizing event for the Middle East. Kellogg reminded the opposition group that then-President Trump walked away from the Iran nuclear deal during his first term, even with opposition from those who served in the first administration.

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“For the United States, a policy of maximum pressure must be reinstated, and it must be reinstated with the help of the rest of the globe, and that includes standing with the Iranian people and their aspirations for democracy,” Kellogg said.

Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, during his first term in 2018 and reapplied crippling economic sanctions. While some, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, applauded the move, the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany had urged the president to remain committed to the deal.

The remarks, made just days before Trump is set to take office for his second term, are yet another signal of how a second Trump administration will face the threat posed by Iran in a new environment with much of the Middle East embroiled in conflict since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel. 

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An Iranian military truck carries surface-to-air missiles past a portrait of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a parade on the occasion of the country’s annual army day on April 18, 2018 in Tehran, Iran. (ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

“The beginning of the end of Iran’s primacy began, ironically, a year ago, on 7 October,” Kellogg said.

Kellogg noted that pressures applied to Iran would not only be kinetic or military force, but must include economic and diplomatic as well.

Attendees at the Paris meeting From left: John Bercow, former Speaker, British House of Commons, Hyhoria Nemyria, former deputy prime minister, Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, former prime minister, Ukraine, Liz Truss, former prime minister, United Kingdom, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, Gen. Keith Kellogg, special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Yanez Yanša, former prime minister of Slovenia, Gen. James Jones, National Security Advisor to President Obama, former NATO commander, Ola Elvestuen, Member of Norwegian Parliament, Minister of Climate and Environment of Norway (2018-2020), Gen. Todd Wolters, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. (Siavosh Hosseini, The Media Express)

Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), told the event that the fall of Syria’s longtime dictator, Bashar al-Assad, provided a unique opportunity for Iranians to remake their own future.

“Khamenei and his IRGC were unable to preserve the Syrian dictatorship, and they certainly cannot preserve their regime in the face of organized resistance and uprising. The regime will be overthrown,” Rajavi said.

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Rajavi said it was a decisive moment in the history of Iran. The National Council of Resistance of Iran, according to Rajavi, has a path forward for a democratic Iran, which includes a step-by-step process after the overthrow of the current regime. A transitional government would be formed for a maximum of six months, and its main task would be to hold free elections for a Constituent Assembly and transfer power to the people’s representatives.

Demonstrators in Iran protesting the regime in 2022. (Credit: NCRI)

“The overthrow of the mullahs’ regime is the only way to establish freedom in Iran and peace and tranquility in the region,” a hopeful Rajavi said.

Kellogg championed these ideas and said a “more friendly, stable, non-belligerent, and a non-nuclear Iran” must be the near term goal and that the United States needs to exploit Iran’s current weaknesses.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baqaei slammed France for hosting what the Iranian government called a “terrorist group” and accused the French government of violating its international legal obligations to prevent and fight terror.

Former South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has been arrested after a dramatic and drawn-out showdown with law enforcement officials.

Police and corruption officers on Wednesday scaled the walls of his residential compound, where he had been holed up for nearly two weeks, evading arrest, after his short-lived declaration of martial law on December 3. The officers broke through the barbed wire and barricades his security personnel had erected.

Hundreds of officers pushed past Yoon’s small army of personal security to take the leader into custody after a court issued a warrant for his detention.

The former president’s imposition of martial law had rattled the country, and he was swiftly impeached and removed from his duties.

Now Yoon faces numerous criminal investigations for insurrection. Here’s everything to know about his arrest:

Who is Yoon Suk-yeol?

Yoon is a storied former prosecutor who led the conservative People Power Party (PPP) to election victory in 2022 despite a lack of political experience.

Before taking the country’s top job, Yoon was called “Mr Clean” for prosecuting an array of prominent businessmen and politicians, analysts told Al Jazeera at the time of his election.

The former leader with affluent roots shot to national fame in 2016 when, as the chief investigator probing then-President Park Geun-hye for corruption, he was asked if he was out for revenge and responded that prosecutors were not gangsters.

While in office, the former president faced challenges in advancing his agenda in an opposition-controlled parliament and was dogged by personal scandals as well as rifts within his own party.

What’s the latest?

After more than 3,000 police officers were mobilised to break into Yoon’s compound, the leader was arrested and taken in for questioning.

“I decided to respond to the CIO’s investigation, despite it being an illegal investigation, to prevent unsavoury bloodshed,” Yoon said in a pre-recorded video statement released shortly after his arrest. He referred to the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, which is heading the criminal probe.

According to Al Jazeera’s Patrick Fok, reporting from Seoul, this was the second attempt by investigators to bring him in after they tried to arrest him a week ago.

Yoon faces the charge of insurrection, the only one that South Korean presidents are not immune from. His arrest marks the first one of a sitting South Korean president.

What’s the impact of his arrest?

Despite polls showing that a majority of South Koreans disapprove of Yoon’s martial law declaration and support his impeachment, the political standoff has given oxygen to his supporters, and his PPP party has seen a revival in recent weeks.

Support for the PPP stood at 40.8 percent in the latest Realmeter poll, released on Monday, while the main opposition Democratic Party’s support stood at 42.2 percent, a difference that is within the poll’s margin of error and down from a gap of 10.8 percentage points last week.

The narrowed margin suggests that a presidential election could be close if Yoon is formally removed from office by the Constitutional Court examining the legality of his impeachment. Previously, in the days after the brief martial law declaration, the Democratic Party’s leader, Lee Jae-myung, was widely viewed as the firm favourite.

Beyond the political effects, the weeks-long government turmoil has rattled Asia’s fourth largest economy.

Some of Yoon’s supporters have also drawn parallels between him and United States President-elect Donald Trump, echoing claims by Trump that the former and incoming American president has been the target of a witch-hunt by elites who have long controlled the levers of power. South Korea is one of Washington’s key security partners in East Asia.

Who is in charge in South Korea?

South Korea currently has an acting president, Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok.

Choi has been in the role since December 27 when the legislature voted to impeach Yoon’s initial successor, Han Duck-soo, over his refusal to immediately fill three vacancies on the Constitutional Court.

Han had been acting president since Yoon was impeached on December 14 over his martial law declaration and his presidential powers were suspended.

After Yoon was arrested, Choi met with diplomats from the Group of Seven nations, including the US, Japan, Britain and Germany, as well as a representative of the European Union to reassure them that the government was stable.

How are South Koreans reacting?

As local broadcasters reported that Yoon’s detention was imminent, the president’s supporters descended upon his residence, chanting, “Stop the steal!” and “”Illegal warrant!” and waving glow sticks alongside South Korean and US flags.

The “stop the steal” slogans referred to Yoon’s unsubstantiated claims of election fraud in April’s parliamentary elections, which the opposition won – one of the reasons Yoon gave to justify his martial law declaration. It was also used by Trump and his supporters as he falsely claimed he won the 2020 presidential election in the US.

“Police estimate as many as 6,500 supporters of [the former president] turned out overnight, urging their leader to keep fighting on,” Fok said.

Some of his supporters also lay on the ground outside the residential compound’s main gate.

“It is very sad to see our country falling apart,” Kim Woo-sub, a 70-year-old retiree protesting Yoon’s arrest outside his residence, told the Reuters news agency.

“I still have high expectations for Trump to support our president. Election fraud is something they have in common, but also the US needs South Korea to fight China,” he said.

Minor scuffles broke out between pro-Yoon protesters and police near the residence, according to a witness at the scene quoted by Reuters.

Many other South Koreans are angry and believe Yoon has “avoided facing responsibility for his failed martial law”, Fok said.

“I think it’s wrong for the leader of a rebellion to not face any legal consequences, and even though an arrest warrant has been issued, [he has] continue[d] to resist that,” Cho Sun-ah, an anti-Yoon protester told Al Jazeera.

The Democratic Party, meanwhile, hailed Yoon’s detention with a top official calling it “the first step” to restoring constitutional and legal order.

The country’s parliament speaker echoed those sentiments.

“We should concentrate our efforts on stabilising state affairs and restoring people’s livelihoods,” Woo Won-shik said.

What’s next?

Authorities now have 48 hours to question Yoon, after which they must seek a warrant to detain him on the charge of attempting a rebellion or he will be released.

If Yoon is formally arrested, investigators may extend his detention to 20 days before transferring the case to public prosecutors for indictment.

According to a CIO official, however, Yoon is refusing to talk and has not agreed to have interviews with investigators recorded on video.

Yoon’s lawyers have said his initial arrest warrant is illegal because it was issued by a court in the wrong jurisdiction and the team set up to investigate him had no legal mandate to do so.

Presidential guards were stationed on the CIO floor where Yoon is being questioned, a CIO official said, but he will likely be held at the Seoul Detention Center, where other high-profile South Korean figures, including former President Park and Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y Lee, have also spent time.

Yoon faces the death penalty or life in prison if found guilty of insurrection.

In a parallel investigation, the Constitutional Court on Tuesday launched a trial to rule on parliament’s impeachment of Yoon.

If the court endorses the impeachment, Yoon would finally lose the presidency, and an election would have to be held within 60 days.

The opening session of the trial was adjourned on Tuesday after only a brief hearing as Yoon declined to attend, but proceedings could last for months.