UK foreign secretary slammed the decision ,calling it a “totally inhumane and wholly unjustified decision.”…reports Asian Lite News
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his foreign secretary Dominic Raab condemned the new one-year prison sentence that was issued by an Iranian court to UK-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
This comes after the 42-year-old UK-Iranian national was sentenced on charges of “propaganda activities against the regime,” after serving a five-year term previously imposed on her in 2016, Sputnik reported while citing UK media.
“Iran’s decision to sentence Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to another year in prison is cruel, inhumane and wholly unjustified. She must be allowed to return to her family in the UK and we will continue to do all we can to get her home,” Johnson tweeted.
Iran's decision to sentence Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to another year in prison is cruel, inhumane and wholly unjustified. She must be allowed to return to her family in the UK and we will continue to do all we can to get her home.
UK foreign secretary also took the social media platform to condemn the alleged new sentence, calling it a “totally inhumane and wholly unjustified decision.”
“We continue to call on Iran to release Nazanin immediately so she can return to her family in the UK. We continue to do all we can to support her,” Raab added.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016 a she headed back to Britain with her daughter after a family visit. She was sentenced to five years in jail after being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran’s clerical establishment.
Her family and the Foundation, however, denied the charges.
In March, after her prison term expired, Iranian authorities released her from house arrest and had her ankle tag removed, but did not allow her to return to the UK. (ANI)
The US crews issued multiple warnings via bridge-to-bridge radio and loud-hailer devices, but the IRGCN vessels continued their close range maneuvers,” said US Navy….reports Asian Lite News
A US Navy patrol ship fired warning shots at Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) vessels in international waters of the northern Persian Gulf, the Navy said.
Three IRGCN armed speed boats Monday rapidly approached US Navy patrol coastal ship USS Firebolt and a US Coast Guard patrol boat to “unnecessarily close range with unknown intent, including a closest point of approach of 68 yards (62 meters) to both US ships,” the Navy said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The US crews issued multiple warnings via bridge-to-bridge radio and loud-hailer devices, but the IRGCN vessels continued their close range maneuvers,” the statement said. “The crew of Firebolt then fired warning shots, and the IRGCN vessels moved away to a safe distance from the US vessels.”
IRGCN repeatedly crossed the bows of the U.S. vessels at an unnecessarily close range(Twitter)
US media reported that it was the first time the US Navy had fired on Iranian vessels in nearly four years, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The incident also came amid indirect talks between the US and Iran in Vienna to revive the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Iran gradually stopped implementing parts of its commitments under the JCPOA in May 2019, one year after former US President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the agreement and re-imposed sanctions on Iran.
Pakistani has closed the border with Iran at Gwadar, Turbat and Panjgur about a month ago and stopped the vehicles which had crossed into Pakistan from Iran…reports Asian Lite News
Four men died due to starvation while they were stranded in border areas of the Makran division of Balochistan due to the closure of the Iran-Pakistan border.
Pakistani authorities have closed the border with Iran at Gwadar, Turbat and Panjgur about a month ago and stopped the vehicles which had crossed into Pakistan from Iran at the check-posts of Frontier Corps, Dawn reported.
Hundreds of pick-ups and other vehicles loaded with Iranian petrol and diesel were stuck up in the border areas when authorities stopped them from moving ahead after they crossed into Pakistan from Iran.The drivers of these vehicles have no other source to get food and water. Four drivers died after their condition deteriorated due to the non-availability of food and water.
Fence along the Pakistan Iran Border
Family members of one of the deceased drivers, identified as Fazal Ahmed, said that people with stranded vehicles were facing an acute shortage of food and water due to the closure of the border with Iran. They urged the government to act immediately to save the lives of hundreds of people.
Hundreds of people belonging to different walks of life held a rally in Gwadar in protest against the suspension of trade activities at the Pak-Iran border. Chanting slogans, they marched on different roads of Gwadar.
Addressing the protesters, speakers opposed the closure of the border with Iran and said that they would close national highways in Makran if their demands were not accepted by April 23.
The president of the Border Trade Union, Mohammad Aslam, while speaking at a press conference along with Mir Shahdad Dashti and Gulzar Dost, said that the majority of people in Makran earned their livelihoods from the trade with Iran
Rouhani urged for the promotion of Tehran-Islamabad ties in trade, energy and border markets, adding it is necessary for both sides to implement the signed agreements to further cooperation..,reports Asian Lite News
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called for the enhancement of security and economic cooperation between Tehran and Islamabad.
“Security is a common concern for the two countries, and it is essential to boost cooperation in this regard,” Rouhani said in a meeting on Wednesday with visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
He also stressed the need to promote security along the Iran-Pakistan borders, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Iranian President urged for the promotion of Tehran-Islamabad ties in trade, energy and border markets, adding it is necessary for both sides to implement the signed agreements to further cooperation.
Also, Iran stands ready to work with Pakistan towards the peace process in Afghanistan, he noted.
The signing of the MoU is a manifestation of the importance the leadership of the two countries(Twitter)
The Pakistani Foreign Minister, for his part, hailed the relations between the two countries as “cordial” and called for the promotion of all-out ties.
Iran and Pakistan will hopefully witness a new chapter in their ties, especially in the fields of trade and economy, said Qureshi.
He also backed the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as a “big diplomatic achievement”.
“We are very happy that the JCPOA has been preserved with the efforts of Iran, and today we are witnessing negotiations again to revive this multilateral agreement,” the Pakistani diplomat said.
The signing of the MoU is a manifestation of the importance the leadership of the two countries(Twitter)
The two countries also signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday to establish joint border markets in efforts to strengthen cross-border economic exchanges.
The agreement, which was signed by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Qureshi, aims to promote economic relations between the two countries and the welfare of border residents.
The border markets will be administrated based on the agreements and protocols between the two sides.
Qureshi arrived in Tehran on Tuesday for a three-day official visit.
Earlier on Wednesday, the third joint border crossing between the two countries was opened.
Both Russia and Iran have already partnered with India to establish new trade routes that exclude China. India’s much required Eurasian pivot can take wings with New Delhi’s deeper commitment to the Iranian port of Chabahar, which starts from Mumbai and heads to Afghanistan, en route to the heart of Central Asia…reports Asian Lite News
Tired and broken, the United States has announced its unceremonious exit from Afghanistan. The decision, in many ways, is a throwback to a similar moment in recent history—the pullback of the Soviet forces from the strife torn nation after Moscow’s ill-fated intervention in Afghanistan in 1979. The Soviet Union was then a superpower, although ailing, when it decided to move forces across the Hai ratan bridge now in Uzbekistan, only to face defeat in a country which has been well described as the “graveyard of empires”.
After President Joe Biden’s announcement of pulling out of Afghanistan by September 11, the US forces would be scurrying back to the mainland, without achieving most of their mission objectives as announced after the collapse of the twin towers in 2001. After the 9/11 terror attacks, the US had ousted Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, who were fully backed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. During their rule, the Taliban had sheltered the worst of the international terror groups in Afghanistan, headed by Al Qaeda.
But after 20 years of western intervention, and after copious drain of blood and treasure, the Taliban are back, now lying-in wait to make a full-fledged comeback in the badlands of the AfPak. And over the years, the Taliban have not severed their links with Al Qaeda and ISIS and ISKP, AQIS and the Haqqani Network.
With the exit of the western forces, regional powers in Afghanistan’s periphery are set to fill the vacuum left behind by the vanquished western nations.
Acknowledging defeat, US President Joe Biden has personally pleaded for the regional countries to script Afghanistan’s post-withdrawal future. “We’ll ask other countries, other countries in the region, to do more to support Afghanistan, especially Pakistan, as well as Russia, China, India, and Turkey. They all have a significant stake in the stable future for Afghanistan,” Biden said in his major speech announcing the closure of another infamous chapter in Afghanistan.
As regional powers realign ahead of the departure of western forces, what are India’s options that would enable New Delhi to protect its core interests?
Despite the overhang of regional powers over Afghanistan, it is important to note that there are significant fault lines among the local powers that will be in play once the Americans leave.
Among the regional powers, a new power cluster comprising China-Pakistan-Turkey is emerging which is working closely to exercise dominance inside Afghanistan.
As reported earlier by India Narrative, it is in Afghanistan that interests of Turkey, Pakistan, and China strongly converge. For Turkey, an entrenchment in Afghanistan will turn Kabul into a springboard for forays into broader Central Asia — a resource rich region with which Ankara shares deep seated cultural and linguistic ties.
For Pakistan, Turkey’s assistance is badly needed to re-acquire its “strategic depth” to counter India and Iran, and to seal a security threat from across the Durand Line.
For China, tighter control will allow the extension of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), to access Afghanistan’s resources including lithium, the feedstock of Beijing’s electric car revolution. It would also help prevent the seepage of Islamic extremists from Afghanistan into the Wakhan corridor, and help prevent the destabilisation of China’s strategic Xinjiang region.
As regional powers realign ahead of the departure of western forces, what are India’s options that would enable New Delhi to protect its core interests?
For starters, India has to quickly and fundamentally readjust its strategic prism and look afresh at Afghanistan and its neighbourhood. With the US virtually out of the equation, New Delhi has no option but to find a powerful niche within the ambit of divided regional powers. For India, the key would be to re-bond with Russia and Iran, both regional powers and deep civilizational states, wedded to multipolarity.
While both countries have forged strong strategic ties with China, perceptible watchers of the region are fully aware that this was done not out of choice but out of compulsion. The imposition of crippling sanctions, in violation of the Iran nuclear deal of 2015, turned the Iranians away from the Europeans, their natural partners, in the direction of China. But becoming a satellite of China, is simply not in the Persian civilization’s DNA. Consequently, the Iranians are bound to welcome the reforging of a historic relationship with Russia and India to balance their ties with China. Both Russia and Iran have already partnered with India to establish new trade routes that exclude China. India’s much required Eurasian pivot can take wings with New Delhi’s deeper commitment to the Iranian port of Chabahar, which starts from Mumbai and heads to Afghanistan, en route to the heart of Central Asia.
Russia too will welcome a further deepening of a time-tested strategic relationship with India. Despite their close ties with China, the Russians are banking on the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which excludes China as the framework to re-stablish their influence in Central Asia, Caucasia and the Slavic core of Central Europe. India fits into this script perfectly. Keen to stem overwhelming Chinese influence in Central Asia, Russia along with Iran is inviting India to join new pan-Eurasian trade routes outside the framework of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Fully aware of the region’s inner dynamics, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar last month called for the integration of the Chabahar route with the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC), which passes through Iran, Russia, and then threads through Caucasia towards the Black Sea coast, as a pan-Eurasian undertaking minus China.
In 2001, India, Iran and Russia held extensive consultations in Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital to forge a pan-Eurasian response to address the fluidity of the post-9/11 situation in Afghanistan. Building on its “strategic autonomy” doctrine, and with Tehran and Moscow as the constants, it is not impossible for India to regain its centrality among the regional powers that are rushing in to fill the vacuum in Afghanistan ahead of the US withdrawal from Kabul.
(This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)
EU Foreign Affairs spokesman Peter Stano told an online press conference on Monday that the reported incident in Natanz “could have been an act of sabotage”…reports Asian Lite News
The European Union (EU) has strongly rejected any attempts to derail diplomatic efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal currently underway in Vienna.
EU Foreign Affairs spokesman Peter Stano told an online press conference on Monday that the reported incident in Natanz “could have been an act of sabotage”, but insisted that there had been no official attribution over who was responsible, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Natanz uranium enrichment site near Tehran was hit by a power outage on Sunday as negotiators in Vienna were seeking to re-admit the US to the 2015 pact, officially known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, after former President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.
“There has been no official attribution and there are several accusations that we are aware of, but it has to be clarified what happened and who is behind it. We still need to clarify the facts in detail as quickly as possible,” he said.
Stano said that any attempt to derail the diplomatic negotiations underway in Vienna to salvage the JCPOA must be completely rejected.
“We reject any attempts to undermine, derail or weaken diplomatic efforts on the nuclear agreement… All issues concerning the nuclear program have to be resolved by diplomatic means because there is no other sustainable alternative,” he stressed.
Two meetings of the JCPOA Joint Commission were held last week in Vienna, chaired by Enrique Mora, the deputy secretary general and political director of the EU External Service Action Service, and attended by representatives from China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and Iran.
Washington sent a delegation led by US Special Envoy to Iran Robert Malley.
They did not meet their Iranian counterparts face-to-face, but a shuttle diplomacy approach was adopted with the intensified help of the coordinators.
Jerusalem, Sept. 13, 2020 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a briefing on COVID-19 pandemic in Israel at his office in Jerusalem, on Sept. 13, 2020. Israel will reimpose a nationwide lockdown for three weeks, beginning on Friday, to slow a rapid resurgence of coronavirus infections, the government decided on Sunday. (Yoav Dudkevitch/JINI via Xinhua/IANS)
“We both know the horrors of war. We both understand the importance of preventing war and we both agree that Iran must never possess nuclear weapons,said Netanyahu…reports Asian Lite News
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country will never allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.
He made the remarks while addressing a joint press conference here on Monday with visiting US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin.
Addressing Austin, Netanyahu said: “We both know the horrors of war. We both understand the importance of preventing war and we both agree that Iran must never possess nuclear weapons.
“My policy as Prime Minister of Israel is clear: I will never allow Iran to obtain the nuclear capability to carry out its genocidal goal of eliminating Israel.
“Israel will continue to defend itself against Iran’s aggression and terrorism.”
Iran has repeatedly denied its attempts to obtain nuclear weapons and says its nuclear facilities are meant for civil purposes only.
Netanyahu then went on to say that “Israel has no greater ally and certainly no greater ‘mishpucha’ (family in Hebrew) than the US”.
“And I can say equally that the US has no greater ally and no greater ‘mishpucha’ than Israel.”
Thanking the Prime Minister for the “discussion on a range of regional security challenges, including Iran’s destabilising activities”, Austin said that Washington’s “commitment to the US-Israel strategic partnership is ironclad”.
“The US supports normalization between Israel and the Arab and Muslim world,” he added.
Austin’s two-day visit marks the first by a US official since President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January.
Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz
On Sunday, Austin met Defence Minister Benny Gantz during he said that he was committed to boosting the Jewish state’s security and “continuing our close consultations on threats posed by Iran”.
This meeting came on the same day after Iran’s nuclear facility in Natanz was attacked.
Iran has blamed Israel for the accident took place in a part of the electricity distribution network of the facility.
Austin’s visit also comes as the White House has been holding indirect talks over possible renewing of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Meanwhile, the Defence Secretary is not expected to visit the Palestinian Territories, although US President Joe Biden has signalled that he wants to rebuild ties with the Palestinians.
The previous administration of Donald Trump made several major diplomatic moves which were welcomed by Israel but denigrated by the Palestinians, including moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, and weakening support for a two-state solution.
Austin is expected in Germany on Tuesday, and in Brussels after that.
“The Zionists want to sabotage Iran’s nuclear achievements and the nuclear negotiations (in Vienna) with these terrorist operations,”said Zarif…reports Asian Lite News
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday described the cyberattack on the Natanz nuclear facility as an act of terrorism and blamed Israel for it.
The plant in central Iran produces, among other things, new centrifuges for uranium enrichment, dpa news agency reported.
“The Zionists want to sabotage Iran’s nuclear achievements and the nuclear negotiations (in Vienna) with these terrorist operations,” Zarif told Parliament on Monday.
Neither, however, will happen, he said.
“Our revenge is that we will continue successfully in both areas,” Zarif added.
Israel has so far not commented on the allegations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
“The activities of the Israeli army in the Middle East are not hidden from the enemies,” Israeli Chief of General Staff Aviv Kochavi said on Sunday.
“They are watching us, seeing our capabilities, and carefully considering their moves.”
Israel considers Iran’s nuclear programme a serious threat because Tehran has missiles with a range of up to 2,000 km that could hit anywhere in the Jewish state.
If the missiles were equipped with nuclear warheads, Israel’s existence would be seriously threatened.
Tehran insists it has no nuclear warheads and will only use the missiles for a retaliatory strike.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price informed that two working groups in the meeting were focused on respective steps for Tehran and Washington to revive the nuclear deal…reports Asian Lite News
The US has called the talks in Vienna over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal “a constructive step”, but rejected Tehran’s position of “maximalist demands”
“These discussions in Vienna, even though we are not meeting directly with the Iranians, as we have said, it is a welcome step, it is a constructive step, it is a potentially useful step,” Xinhua news agency quoted State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters in Washington at a press briefing on Tuesday.
“We don’t anticipate any immediate breakthrough,” he said.
“We know there will be difficult discussions ahead but again this is a healthy step forward.”
Price noted that two working groups in the meeting were focused on respective steps for Tehran and Washington to revive the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“What is on the table in Vienna today and over the next handful of days are those initial indirect discussions about that first step, what Iran would need to do to resume compliance with the JCPOA and what the US would need to do to resume its compliance with the JCPOA,” he said.
He expected the US could have a better understanding of a roadmap for how both sides get to mutual compliance with the nuclear deal following the discussions in Vienna.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who is leading Tehran’s delegation in Vienna, said earlier in the day that the US must remove all its sanctions against the Islamic Republic in one step if it seeks to rejoin the nuclear deal.
Price, however, made clear that the US would not accept “maximalist demands” from Iran.
“I think what we can essentially rule out are the maximalist demands that the United States do everything first and only in turn would Iran then act, I don’t think anyone is under the impression that that would be a viable proposal,” he said.
The Joint Commission of the JCPOA resumed talks in Vienna on Tuesday as senior diplomats of China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK, and Iran met behind closed doors in the Grand Hotel Wien.
Media reports said the US delegation led by Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley was put up at a nearby hotel.
The US and Iranian negotiators did not have direct talks, but a shuttle diplomacy approach was adopted with the intensified help of the coordinators.
Washington withdrew from the deal in 2018 and tightened sanctions on Iran under former President Donald Trump.
In response to the US moves, Iran suspended the implementation of parts of its obligations under the deal.
The aim of the consultations is to pave the way for the US to return to the agreement and to motivate Iran to comply with it again…reports Asian Lite News
Top diplomats are due to meet in Vienna on Tuesday to try to save the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), this time under new auspices.
The aim of the consultations is to pave the way for the US to return to the agreement and to motivate Iran to comply with it again, reports dpa news agency.
The round of talks between the remaining partners – Russia, China, France, the UK and Germany – is the first dialogue with Iran since US President Joe Biden took office in January.
Unlike his predecessor Donald Trump, Biden wants to revive the agreement.
According to information from Tehran, there will be no direct contact between Washington and Tehran at this stage.
The agreement is considered an important building block for arms control, as it is intended to prevent the Islamic Republic from building a nuclear weapon.
In 2018, Washington withdrew from the deal and tightened sanctions on Iran under former President Donald Trump.
In response to the US moves, Iran suspended the implementation of parts of its obligations under the deal.
The two countries are in a standoff over reviving the nuclear deal.
The Biden administration has said that if Iran returns to full compliance with the JCPOA, Washington would do the same.
But Iran insists its full compliance will only take place once US sanctions are removed.
