Thomas-Greenfield also highlighted that Russian President Vladimir Putin placed the country’s nuclear deterrent forces on a “special” alert amid the rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine….reports Asian Lite News
Amid the Moscow-Kyiv crisis, the United States ambassador at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Linda Thomas-Greenfield, on Sunday (local time), said that Russia propagates lies about Ukraine’s conduct.
“We will vote on a resolution that’ll hold Russia to account for its indefensible actions & violations. As we speak, rockets continue to rain down across Ukraine… for an unjustifiable assault fabricated out of lies. Russia propagates lies about Ukraine’s conduct” Thomas-Greenfield said at the UNSC meeting on Ukraine.
Thomas-Greenfield also highlighted that Russian President Vladimir Putin placed the country’s nuclear deterrent forces on a “special” alert amid the rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
“Just this morning, Russian President Putin put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert, even though he’s invading a country with no nuclear weapons and is under no threat from NATO,” she said.
Meanwhile, Dame Barbara Woodward, UK Ambassador to the United Nations, voted in favour of convening an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“The UK welcomes the result of this vote today. By voting in favour of convening an emergency special session of the UNGA on Ukraine tomorrow, the members of this council have laid bare Russia’s diplomatic importance,” Woodward said.
She also urged all UN members to call for the immediate withdrawal of the Russian forces from Ukraine and “end this war”.
“Russia again was isolated in opposing this resolution. But it cannot stop the world from coming together to condemn its invasion of Ukraine. We urge all members of the UN to call for the immediate withdrawal of the Russian forces and end this war,” Woodward added.
Moreover, for the first time in four decades, the UNSC has decided to call for an emergency special session in the UNGA on Ukraine. 11 of the 15 member states voted in favour while only Russia voted against it. China, India, and the United Arab Emirates abstained. (ANI)
The agencies advised Russians in Europe to register in the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Foreign Assistant smartphone app…reports Asian Lite News
The Russian government has announced that it is working on a plan to evacuate its citizens from Europe, after an array of European countries closed their airspace to all Russian airlines amid Moscow’s military conflict with Kiev, RT reported.
Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency and Federal Tourism Agency revealed on Sunday that they were working with the Russian Foreign Ministry to evacuate Russians from European nations as they continue to impose sanctions on Russia, cutting off Russian aircraft from their airspaces.
“The work to organise the evacuation of Russian citizens from the European countries is being carried out by the Federal Air Transport Agency together with the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Federal Tourism Agency. After clarifying the required carrying capacities, a schedule will be formed,” the statement said.
“Russian airlines are ready to fulfill their obligations to passengers and deliver them home, subject to flexible approaches and constructive decisions of the aviation authorities of European countries on this issue,” it continued.
The agencies advised Russians in Europe to register in the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Foreign Assistant smartphone app, RT reported.
As most European countries currently prohibit Russian aircraft from entering their airspaces, Russians in Europe might be evacuated home through Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Egypt, among other countries still open to Russian aircraft, Dmitry Gorin, the vice president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry (PCT), told RIA Novosti on Sunday.
He noted that tour operators were working to transport “400 independent and organised tourists from Budapest, Hungary, 500 organised tourists from Bulgaria and about 200 from Portuguese Madeira” back to Russia.
The Russia-Ukraine crisis has also fanned concerns over supplies of key commodities including wheat and metals in an already struggling economy,…reports Asian Lite News
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will address the nation today over the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the country’s economy.
The development comes amid news of another imminent petrol hike in Pakistan, reported Samaa TV.
According to analysts, the price of petroleum products may increase by Pakistani Rs 8 to Rs 12 after the price of crude oil in the international market hit over USD 100 a barrel for the first time since 2014.
Earlier this month, the Imran Khan government had dropped a “petrol bomb” on the masses by increasing the prices of petroleum products by up to PKR 12.03 per litre. Petrol in Pakistan now costs PKR 159.86 per litre.
The Russia-Ukraine crisis has also fanned concerns over supplies of key commodities including wheat and metals in an already struggling economy, reported the media outlet.
On Thursday, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) released data showing that Pakistan’s Current Account Deficit (CAD) rose to an all-time high of USD 2.56 billion in the month of January 2022.
At the same time, Pakistan’s debt and liabilities hit an all-time high of Rs 51.724 trillion in December 2021 with external debt rising by a staggering 20 per cent during the first half of the current fiscal (2021-22).
Notably, the Ukraine crisis is also expected to weigh on the Pakistan currency as a large current account deficit, surging energy and oil prices, and volatility in financial markets will likely put the Pakistani rupee under pressure next week, Geo News reported.
Meanwhile, the Imran Khan government has been facing flak from both the opposition and masses over the record increase in oil prices as well as the dependency on loans and bailouts.
The massive rise in inflation in Pakistan could also result in demand destruction and may create difficulties for the government to meet its tax targets, according to a report by Dawn. (ANI)
The MEA officials will arrive in Moldova by Monday morning to facilitate border crossing…reports Asian Lite News
India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Sunday said that more than 1,000 Indian students have been evacuated so far and more will be airlifted by Monday via neighbouring countries of Ukraine.
Briefing the media here, he said that till now four flights have come back with Indian students and two are likely to depart tonight or by tomorrow morning to evacuate more students. “The Government of India has launched ‘multi-pronged’ Operation Ganga to evacuate our citizens stranded in Ukraine. This evacuation process will be at government cost,” he said.
He also said that the Indian Embassy in Kiev and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had issued a number of advisories prior to the start of war. Four thousand of our nationals had left before the conflict began, pursuant to these advisories. “We estimated that about 15,000 citizens were left in Ukraine,” he added.
Noting that since the airspace in Ukraine was closed, the Foreign Secretary further said, “We have identified land evacuation options from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Romania wherein the specific border crossing points have been identified and the MEA had deployed teams to assist in the evacuation process.”
Admitting that border crossing to Hungary and Romania is functioning, however, the exit point to Poland is choked due to lakhs of foreign nationals trying to escape from that point. Those who are near the borders of Hungary and Romania are guided towards their border points in phases. He also said that the MEA officials have advised the stranded Indians to move towards westward to reach Uzhhorod in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary and from there they can take a train to reach the Romanian capital Bucharest and from there they will be airlifted.
He also said that a hotline facility has been set up at the Indian Embassies in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Romania and the numbers have been flashed in advisories, on the website and social media handles of the Ministry. This will work as an interface between the Indians there and the officials engaged in the evacuation process.
The Foreign Secretary also informed that the Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar has spoken to his counterparts in Hungary and Moldova seeking their support in evacuation of Indian nationals. The MEA officials will arrive in Moldova by Monday morning to facilitate border crossing.
Listing out the flights planned for evacuation for Indians via neighbouring countries, Shringla said that a total of nine flights were planned by the government through the civil aviation ministry via Bucharest and three via Budapest. Out of these 12 flights, five have come back with Indians so far.
Responding to a question, Shringla also said that a First Secretary level officer in the Indian embassy in Moscow has been asked to make arrangements for stay of Indian evacuees once the situation at the Russian border eases. Right now it is a conflict zone, therefore the evacuation cannot be from the Ukraine-Russian border.
“I called up both ambassadors of Russia & Ukraine separately, conveyed my concerns on the safety of Indian citizens. I shared the locations where Indian citizens are concentrated. Both ambassadors took note of our concerns & assured us of the safety of Indian citizens,” the Foreign Secretary added.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine has published pictures of the border service facilities in the Kyiv region that were shot by Russian troops on Thursday Feb. 24, 2022 not long after Russian troops launched their anticipated attack on Ukraine.(Photo:IANS/Twitter)
The university said it is working with MIT researchers leading Skoltech projects to make sure students can complete their research and academic work….reports Asian Lite News
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is severing ties with a research university it helped establish more than a decade ago in Russia, citing the country’s unacceptable military actions in invading Ukraine.
The Cambridge university said it notified the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow on Friday that it was exercising its right to terminate the MIT Skoltech Program.
Federal law enforcement officials and foreign policy experts have long voiced concerns about the potential for espionage and technology theft arising from MIT’s partnership with the school, which has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government, GBH News reported.
This step is a rejection of the actions of the Russian government in Ukraine, MIT said in a statement posted on the program website. We take it with deep regret because of our great respect for the Russian people and our profound appreciation for the contributions of the many extraordinary Russian colleagues we have worked with.
The university said it is working with MIT researchers leading Skoltech projects to make sure students can complete their research and academic work.
About 21 faculty members and 38 students and postdoctoral researchers at MIT are impacted by the change, though none are currently at the school in Moscow, The Boston Globe reported.
The Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology said in a statement to the newspaper it has nine ongoing projects with MIT and remains in close contact with our colleagues at MIT.
MIT partnered with the nonprofit Skolkovo Foundation in 2011 to establish the research university as part of a Russian government effort to create a science and technology hub akin to California’s Silicon Valley or Massachusetts’ Kendall Square.
As part of the agreement, MIT helped recruit students and faculty, hosted Skoltech students at MIT, and allowed MIT instructors to teach and pursue research at the Russian school, the Globe reported.
We affirm our steadfast belief in our colleagues at Skoltech,” MIT said in its statement. They are fellow scholars who have devoted themselves to an ethos of openness and who have contributed their own expertise and knowledge to build a unique and pioneering academic center in Russia.
Special flight carrying Indian students stranded in Ukraine arrived at Delhi airport on Sunday evening from Romanian capital Bucharest…reports Asian Lite News
External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar on Sunday spoke to his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto in Hungary and expressed gratitude for providing support so far in evacuating Indians from the Hungarian-Ukrainian border.
“Called up Hungarian FM Peter Szijjarto. Thankful for the evacuation support provided so far. Requested further cooperation on the Hungary-Ukraine border,” he said, in a tweet.
He also dialled his Moldovan counterpart Nicu Popescu to seek support for facilitating entry of Indian nationals on Ukraine-Moldova border.
“Appreciate his ready response & strong support. MEA representatives will accordingly reach there tomorrow,” he said, in another tweet.
Poland, Romania and Hungary are allowing Indian students who escape from Ukraine to enter without any visa.
So far, around 1,000 students have been evacuated from Ukraine while more will be airlifted by Monday via neighbouring countries.
The Ministry of External Affairs on Sunday said that till now four flights have come back with Indian students evacuated via Romania and Hungary and two flights are likely to depart Sunday night or by Monday morning to evacuate more students.
“The Government of India has launched ‘multi-pronged’ Operation Ganga to evacuate our citizens stranded in Ukraine. This evacuation process will be at government cost,” Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Sunday.
Called up Hungarian FM Peter Szijjártó.
Thankful for the evacuation support provided so far. Requested further cooperation on the Hungary-Ukraine border.
A special flight carrying Indian students stranded in Ukraine arrived at Delhi airport on Sunday evening from Romanian capital Bucharest.
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who was at the airport to receive the returning Indian students, said that every student stuck in Ukraine is being brought back.
“PM (Narendra) Modi is himself monitoring the situation and we have sent teams to the neighbouring countries of Ukraine. The MEA has also set up a control room regarding the ongoing situation,” he added.
The Russians supported Pakistani dissidents who organised terror attacks inside the country, including hijacking Pakistani civilian aircraft and attempts to assassinate Zia, said Riedel…reports Asian Lite News
The Russians supported Pakistani dissidents, who organised terror attacks inside the country, including hijacking Pakistani civilian aircraft and attempts to assassinate General Zia-ul-Huq, writes Bruce Riedel.
Bruce Riedel is a senior fellow and director of the Brookings Intelligence Project, part of the Brookings Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence.
He retired in 2006 after 30 years of service at the Central Intelligence Agency, including postings overseas. He was a senior advisor on South Asia and the Middle East to four presidents of the US in the staff of the National Security Council at the White House.
The Afghan resistance did virtually all the fighting against the Russian 40th Army that occupied Afghanistan starting on Christmas Eve 1979.
President Jimmy Carter rapidly mobilised a strategic alliance to fight the Russians. Within two weeks he had persuaded Pakistani leader Zia ul-Huq to support the mujahideen with refuge, bases, and training in Pakistan, Riedel writes.
‘The US and Saudi Arabia would jointly fund the insurgency. The Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), would be the patrons of the mujahideen; the CIA and the Saudi intelligence service would be the financiers and quarter masters of the war.
No CIA officer ever was deployed in Cold War Afghanistan. Our British counterparts, MI6, did send officers into Afghanistan to deliver select weapons and training. “The ISI did all the rest; it was Zia’s war. The ISI trained and occasionally led the mujahideen in battle, even striking into Soviet Central Asia,” Riedel writes.
The Russians supported Pakistani dissidents who organised terror attacks inside the country, including hijacking Pakistani civilian aircraft and attempts to assassinate Zia (who died in a suspicious plane crash in 1988), Riedel said.
Pakistani fighters engaged Soviet aircraft in dogfights. The Pakistani tribal border areas became dangerous and unruly. A Kalashnikov culture emerged that still haunts Pakistan today, he added.
For Washington and Riyadh, the operation was fairly inexpensive. The Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal, has written that the Saudis spent $2.7 billion supporting the Afghans; the CIA spent about the same. Saudi private sources led by then-governor of Riyadh province, now King Salman, raised another $4 billion for the rebels. Saudi citizens, including Osama bin Laden joined the mujahideen but very few actually engaged in combat, Riedel wrote.
The Afghan people paid a horrible cost for the war. at least a million Afghans died, five million became refugees in Pakistan and Iran, and millions more were displaced in their own country. But they won.
The Soviets never sent enough soldiers to defeat the insurgents and could not recruit enough Afghans to fight with them. The Pakistanis were not intimidated by the Russians. The Afghan people fought for their independence, Riedel said.
Estonia has also been providing Ukraine with Stingers since January, and in order to do that had to get US permission….reports Asian Lite News
The US for the first time has approved the direct delivery of Stinger missiles to Ukraine as part of a package approved by the White House on Friday. The exact timing of delivery is not known, but officials say the US is currently working on the logistics of the shipment.
The officials agreed to discuss the development only if not quoted by name. The exact timing of delivery is not known, but officials say the US is currently working on the logistics of the shipment.
The decision comes on the heels of Germany’s announcement that it will send 500 Stinger missiles and other weapons and supplies to Ukraine. The high-speed Stingers are very accurate and are used to shoot down helicopters and other aircraft. Ukrainian officials have been asking for more of the powerful weapons.
Estonia has also been providing Ukraine with Stingers since January, and in order to do that had to get US permission.
Abe questions US over Taiwan
Meanwhile, Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe asked the US to ditch its strategic ambiguity over Taiwan and make it clear that it would defend Taipei from a Chinese invasion.
The still very influential politician made it clear that a Taiwan contingency is a Japan contingency as the westernmost island of Yonaguni is mere 110 km from Taiwan’s main island. “If China were to secure wide air superiority, it would also cover Japanese airspace,” and added that PLA operations would also affect Japanese territorial waters.
Abe’s statement, made during an interview to Japanese TV, poses not only a question to the Joe Biden administration but also to the government in Tokyo, which is still to junk its pacifist doctrine and continues to have serious USD investment in mainland China.
With Russia invading Ukraine on the pretext of civilizational linkages with Kyviv, China can surely follow suit and repeat Ukraine in Taiwan. After all, this month, President Xi Jinping got a written assurance from Russian President Putin that Taiwan was part of China on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics.
The blunt ask from the US by Abe can be seen in the context of the Ukraine invasion, where Putin has shown the mirror to Europe, which till recently wanted to distance itself from the US, and the US for its inability to protect an ally who had roots in the Biden administration.
Just as German and French corporates are compromised with Russia and China, the US honchos including the media are still wary of upsetting Beijing for the fear of supply chains being cut. Being the autocrats that they are, both Putin and Xi clearly mean what they say as they don’t have to cater for domestic audience and political compulsions for furthering the so-called nationalistic agenda. Biden, Europe, and Japan, on the other hand, will have to run their decisions through domestic audiences and legislatures.
The same problem is faced by a raucous democracy like India, where the old guard still living in the 1970s is in favour of Putin, and the younger lot in favour of the US and Ukraine.
Fact is that after its disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, the US and Europe have been hit the second time by their inability to deter Putin from invading Ukraine with the sole purpose of expanding the Russian sphere of influence and installing a pro-Russia political regime in Kyviv. One must remember that Ukraine was born out of the defeat that the erstwhile Soviet Union faced at the hands of US-supported Afghan jihadis which led to final troop withdrawal in 1989.
The point that Abe has raised is significant as mere diplomatic vocabulary from the US or the west is not going to deter China from capturing Taiwan but boots and weapons on the ground.
This question must be mulled by the QUAD leaders also seriously so that the grouping does not become another talk shop like the UNSC. The Ukraine situation is also a red rag to the ASEAN countries particularly Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore, which have been playing all sides since China declared its nine-dash line in the South China Sea to the UN in 2009.
The government said that Putin’s nuclear alert represented an unacceptable escalation of the invasion in Ukraine, reports Asian Lite News
The government has sharply reacted to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear alert that was issued in view of escalating tensions with Ukraine. Citing aggressive statements by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Putin on Sunday ordered to increase the readiness of Russia’s nuclear weapons amid fears that the full-scale attack on Ukraine might lead to a nuclear war.
The United States said on Sunday that Putin’s nuclear alert represented an unacceptable escalation of the invasion in Ukraine.
This is a pattern that we’ve seen from President Putin through the course of this conflict, which is manufacturing threats that don’t exist in order to justify further aggression,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC on Sunday.
Meanwhile, a senior official of the Pentagon told reporters the United States government had no doubts that’s Putin’s nuclear alert was genuine. The official, however, said that there were no details regarding how wills the alert be implemented.
“We believe that this is not only an unnecessary step for him to take, but an escalatory one. Unnecessary because Russia has never been under threat by the West, by NATO and certainly wasn’t under any threat by Ukraine. And escalatory because it is clearly potentially putting in play forces that, if there’s a miscalculation, could make things much, much more dangerous,” the Pentagon official told reporters on Sunday on the condition of anonymity.
Russia’s nuclear announcement comes as its forces face strong resistance from the Ukrainian military. The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces described Sunday as a difficult time as Russia continued shelling in almost all directions.
Despite Moscow and Kyiv being ready to hold talks in Belarus, Russian forces continued their invasion in Ukraine as they took over another city- Berdyansk late Sunday. The forces have also made advances towards Kherson, a city situated in South Ukraine.
According to Ukraine’s interior ministry, more than 350 civilians have been killed and 1,684 wounded since the attack began on February 24.
Iran, Guinea, Vanuatu resume voting rights in UNGA
Rare UN session to consider collective action
The UN Security Council on Sunday voted on a draft resolution deciding to convene an emergency special session of the General Assembly to recommend collective action on the situation in Ukraine, two days after a similar resolution, sponsored by 81 nations, was shot down at the council on Friday by the Russian veto.
Possible action could include the use of armed force, but this has never happened in the history of the UN.
This is the first time in 40 years that a decision to hold an emergency special session of the 193-member GA has been made, and only the 11th time since the UN’s inception.
The draft resolution was tabled by the US and Albania, the two co-penholders on Ukraine. It is a so-called “Uniting for Peace” resolution, which allows a deadlocked council to refer the situation in question to the General Assembly.
The vote would require a two-thirds majority of UN member states and the affirmative vote of only nine security council members. Such GA resolutions have then historically been adopted despite a negative vote by a permanent member.
The resolution argues that the lack of unanimity among the Security Council’s permanent members on the Ukraine crisis has prevented the UN’s most important body from exercising its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.
A total of 11 council members voted in favor, with China, UAE and India abstaining. Russia vetoed it.
:The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine has published pictures of the border service facilities in the Kyiv region that were shot by Russian troops on Thursday Feb. 24, 2022 not long after Russian troops launched their anticipated attack on Ukraine.(Photo:IANS/Twitter)
Sunday’s vote took place amid a large-scale attack by Russian military forces on major cities in Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, with hundreds of deaths and injuries reported.
This morning there were reports that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to hold direct talks on the border of Belarus.
The UAE’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Mohamed Abushahab, welcomed such an announcement, and reiterated his call for a cessation of hostilities and for dialogue as the only way forward.
Abushahab stressed that the protection of civilians in Ukraine should remain a top priority.
“Civilians trying to reach safety must be able to leave unhindered,” he said, adding that it was of paramount importance for aid to reach those in need.
In her explanation of the vote, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that council members who support the resolution recognize that this is “no ordinary moment,” one that calls for “extraordinary actions to meet this threat to our international system and do everything we can to help Ukraine and its people.”
Thomas-Greenfield told fellow ambassadors: “Those of us here, safely sitting in this hallowed hall, have a moral responsibility to respond to Russia’s desecration of human life.”
She said that the response includes both humanitarian aid for millions of Ukrainians in need and military support, and “holding the sole aggressor, Russia, accountable for its actions.” She vowed to “not let atrocities slide.”
Thomas-Greenfield called on council members to be inspired by Ukrainians’ courage and to look for Ukrainian people’s resilience “in the face of Russian guns and soldiers and bombs and rockets.”
She also welcomed the Ukrainians’ “courage to sit down and talk (and) their continued willingness to participate in peace talks.”
Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia told the council that Western attempts to disregard his country’s security concerns regarding NATO’s expansion are against the UN Charter.
He said the current crisis broke out not as a result of the launch of military operations in Ukraine but eight years ago when “you turned a blind eye to Ukrainian nationalists’” activities in the Eastern Donbas region.
“Russia does not shell civilians or civilian infrastructure. The threat to civilians is posed by Ukrainian nationalists,” Nebenzia added, accusing so-called “nationalists” of following the same tactics as Daesh, using civilians as human shields, and releasing criminals from jail and providing them with weapons.
Ukraine’s UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said it was extremely alarming that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has resorted today to open nuclear blackmail,” and urged the world to take Putin’s threat “very seriously.”
Iran’s Chief Nuclear Negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani will return to Austrian capital Vienna to continue talks aimed to resolve the remaining issues…reports Asian Lite News
Bagheri Kani was back to Vienna on Sunday evening “with a specific agenda to follow the negotiations aimed at resolving (remaining) problems in a run for an agreement,” the report said on Sunday.
In its latest meeting, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council reviewed the process and results of negotiations in Vienna, and stressed the need to fulfill the legal and logical demands of Iran within the red lines of the Islamic republic, according to the report.
On Saturday evening, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian wrote on his Twitter account that Iranian officials are “seriously reviewing draft of the agreement”.
“Our red lines are made clear to western parties. Ready to immediately conclude a good deal, should they show real will,” he said.
Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, Xinhua news agency reported.
However, former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, which prompted the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments in 2019 and advance its halted nuclear programs.
Since April 2021, eight rounds of talks have been held in Austria’s capital Vienna between Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties, namely Britain, China, France, Russia plus Germany, with the US indirectly involved in the talks, to revive the landmark deal.
