I. Coast president Ouattara tapped to run for fourth termSat, 21 Jun 2025 19:48:22 GMT
Ivory Coast leader Alassane Ouattara’s party on Saturday tapped him to run for president again, two days after the country’s two main opposition parties joined forces to fight his possible candidacy.Ouattara himself has not yet confirmed whether or not he will run for a fourth term as president of the west African country.But delegates accepted …
I. Coast president Ouattara tapped to run for fourth termSat, 21 Jun 2025 19:48:22 GMT Read More »
Iran threatens ‘more devastating’ response to Israel’s attacks
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian warned Saturday of a “more devastating” retaliation should Israel’s nine-day bombing campaign continue, saying the Islamic republic would not halt its nuclear programme “under any circumstances”.Israel said on Saturday it had killed three more Iranian commanders in its unprecedented offensive, while Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed Tehran’s alleged progress towards a nuclear weapon had been set back by two years.”We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat,” Saar told the German newspaper Bild, asserting Israel would keep up its onslaught.Israel and Iran have traded wave after wave of devastating strikes since Israel launched its aerial campaign on June 13, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.On Saturday, Israel said it had attacked Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site for a second time, with the UN nuclear watchdog reporting that a centrifuge manufacturing workshop had been hit.Iran denies seeking an atomic bomb, and on Saturday Pezeshkian said its right to pursue a civilian nuclear programme “cannot be taken away… by threats or war”.In a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Pezeshkian said Iran was “ready to discuss and cooperate to build confidence in the field of peaceful nuclear activities”.”However, we do not agree to reduce nuclear activities to zero under any circumstances,” he added, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.Referring to the Israeli attacks, he said: “Our response to the continued aggression of the Zionist regime will be more devastating.”Iran’s armed forces threatened to strike shipments of military aid to Israel “from any country”.Israel’s main arms supplier is the United States, whose President Donald Trump warned on Friday that Tehran had a “maximum” of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes as Washington weighed whether to join Israel’s campaign.- ‘Not prepared to negotiate’ -Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Istanbul on Saturday for a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to discuss the conflict.Top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met Araghchi in Geneva on Friday and urged him to resume nuclear talks with the United States that had been derailed by the war.But Araghchi told NBC News that “we’re not prepared to negotiate with them (the Americans) anymore, as long as the aggression continues”.Trump, dismissive of European diplomatic efforts, said he was unlikely to ask Israel to stop its attacks to get Iran back to the table.”If somebody’s winning, it’s a little bit harder to do,” he said of Israel’s campaign. Any US involvement would likely feature powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses to destroy an underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo.US B-2 stealth bombers capable of carrying bunker busters were flying across the Pacific Ocean, according to tracking data and media reports, fuelling speculation over their intended mission.Iran’s Huthi allies in Yemen on Saturday threatened to resume their attacks on US vessels in the Red Sea if Washington joined the war, despite a recent ceasefire agreement.- Hundreds killed -A US-based NGO, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, said on Friday that based on its sources and media reports at least 657 people have been killed in Iran, including 263 civilians.Iran’s health ministry on Saturday gave a toll of more than 400 people killed and 3,056 in the Israeli strikes.Iran’s retaliatory strikes have killed at least 25 people in Israel, according to official figures.The Israeli military said it launched a fresh wave of strikes on Saturday in the area of southern Iran’s Bandar Abbas, targeting drones storage sites and a weapons facility.Iran’s Tasnim news agency said air defences were activated in the area.Overnight, Iran said it targeted central Israel with drones and missiles. Israeli rescuers said there were no casualties after an Iranian drone struck a residential building.On the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, Israel said Saturday that an Iranian terror plot targeting Israeli citizens had been “thwarted”.- ‘Tired’ -Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate said more than 450 missiles had been fired at the country so far, along with about 400 drones.In Tel Aviv, where residents have faced regular Iranian strikes for nine days, some expressed growing fatigue under the constant threat from Iran.”In the middle of the night, we have to wake the children and take them to the shelter,” Omer, who gave only his first name, told AFP, adding he still supported Israel’s war aim of denying Iran a nuclear weapon.The streets of Tehran, meanwhile, were still largely quiet Saturday, though a few cafes and restaurants were open.In the afternoon, supporters of the government gathered briefly in front of the headquarters of state television to wave Iranian, Palestinian and Hezbollah flags to a soundtrack of electronic music whose lyrics called for the “death of Israel”.Western powers have repeatedly expressed concerns about the expansion of Iran’s nuclear programme, questioning in particular the country’s accelerated uranium enrichment.International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi has said Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 percent.However, his agency had “no indication” of the existence of a “systematic programme” in Iran to produce a bomb.Grossi told CNN it was “pure speculation” to say how long it would take Iran to develop weapons.burs-csp/smw/ami
Protesters slam war profiteering, Israel at French air fair
Thousands marched on Saturday outside a French trade fair, calling for an end to war profiteering and Israel’s offensive in Gaza in the latest demonstration to hit the event.The long-planned protest at the Paris Air Show outside the French capital also comes as Israel’s war with Iran drags on into a ninth day, with Tehran threatening to hit back in force at Israel’s offensive against its arch-rival.The presence of Israeli defence firms at the show has already become a bone of contention, with the French government on Monday sealing off the booths of five Israeli firms on the grounds that they were displaying offensive weapons that could be used in Gaza.”Their wars, their profits, our deaths, stop the genocide in Palestine,” read the banner at the head of the march, which organisers claimed drew more than 4,000 protesters.”As we speak, people are dying and our governments are not doing anything to stop it,” Nora, 29, told AFP at the protest. Draped in a Palestinian flag, the project leader in the pharmaceutical industry said that she felt “rage” at the footage coming out of Gaza, including that of “mothers kissing their dead children” in the besieged Palestinian territory.Police have arrested seven people aiming to disrupt the trade fair, the Paris public prosecutor office said, with officers discovering a helium canister and nearly 200 balloons during the searches.Six of the arrests were made on Friday and the other on Saturday, the prosecutor’s office added.Drawing some 100,000 visitors a day, the Paris Air Show at the Le Bourget airfield, nine kilometres (five miles) to the north of the capital, is usually dominated by displays of the aerospace industry’s latest cutting-edge planes. But Monday’s shuttering of the stands of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael, UVision and Elbit, as well as Aeronautics, which make drones and guided bombs and missiles, sparked a row with Israel.Israel’s President Isaac Herzog branded Paris’s closure of the Israeli firms’ booths “outrageous”, comparing it to “creating an Israeli ghetto”.It came days after Israel, claiming Iran was on the verge of obtaining a nuclear bomb, launched a surprise barrage on June 13 which killed top Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists.Tehran immediately hit back with a flurry of missiles, with the two countries trading wave after wave of devastating strikes since.
Belarus frees jailed opposition leader after appeal from US
Belarus freed top opposition figure Sergei Tikhanovsky and over a dozen other political prisoners Saturday following an appeal from the White House, Minsk said, a sign of warming ties between Washington and Belarus-ally Moscow.The release came just hours after US special envoy Keith Kellogg met Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, the highest-profile visit of a US official to the authoritarian state in years.Tikhanovsky’s wife Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who took the mantle of the opposition movement after her husband’s jailing, thanked US President Donald Trump directly for brokering the deal.European politicians and members of Belarus’s exiled opposition also welcomed the news.The European Union hailed Tikhanovsky’s release as a “symbol of hope” and a leading activist calling it an “important moment”.Tikhanovsky, 46, had been imprisoned for more than five years.The popular Youtuber had planned to run against Lukashenko in the August 2020 presidential election, but was arrested and detained weeks before the vote.He was sentenced in 2021 to 18 years in prison for “organising riots” and “inciting hatred”, then to another 18 months for “insubordination”.Svetlana — a political novice at the time of his arrest — ran against Lukashenko in her husband’s place but lost after what the opposition described as widespread falsification. She later fled Belarus.”It’s hard to describe the joy in my heart,” she said in a post on X following her husband’s release.- Transferred to Lithuania -Among the 13 others freed were Radio Liberty journalist Igor Karnei, arrested in 2023 and jailed for participating in an “extremist” organisation.They have now been transferred from Belarus to Lithuania, where they were receiving “proper care”, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said.Swedish-Belarusian citizen Galina Krasnyanskaya, arrested in 2023 for allegedly supporting Ukraine, was also freed, said Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.Belarus, ruled by Lukashenko since 1994, has outlawed all genuine opposition parties. It is the only European country to retain the death penalty as a punishment.The eastern European country still holds more than 1,000 political prisoners in its jails, according to local human rights group Viasna.- ‘Sincerest joy’ -Lukashenko’s spokeswoman said the Belarusian leader ordered the release of the prisoners on Trump’s “request”, Russian state media reported.There was no immediate comment from the White House.Since taking office, Trump has engaged in direct talks with Vladimir Putin, ending his predecessor’s policy of isolating the Russian president.The two nuclear powers have since worked to normalise diplomatic ties, which have for years lingered at their lowest point since the Cold War.Tikhanovsky was for years held incommunicado, and in 2023 his wife was told that he had “died”.In a video published by Viasna on Saturday, he appeared almost unrecognisable, his head shaven and face emaciated.A charismatic activist, Tikhanovsky drew the ire of authorities for describing Lukashenko as a “cockroach” and his campaign slogan was “Stop the cockroach.” Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in the 2020 election, a result that sparked massive opposition protests which authorities violently suppressed.The Belarusian autocrat claimed a record seventh term in elections earlier this year that observers dismissed as a farce.Fellow Belarusian political activists and foreign politicians welcomed the release of the 14 on Saturday.Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski expressed his “sincerest joy”, while Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics called Tikhanovsky’s freedom a “much awaited and long overdue moment”.Pavel Latushko, a former culture minister in Belarus who supported the 2020 protests against Lukashenko, said all those released had been jailed illegally. He hailed Tikhanovsky’s release as an “important moment”.European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen also welcomed Tikhanovsky’s release.”This is fantastic news and a powerful symbol of hope for all the political prisoners suffering under the brutal Lukashenka regime,” she said on X.Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Tikhanovsky’s release was “fantastically good news”, in a post to X.”At the same time, we must not forget the many other prisoners in Belarus. Lukashenko must finally release them,” he added.