Tag Archives: UN

The U.N. atomic watchdog on Friday flagged a new breach by Iran of its nuclear deal with major powers on the day those powers met to revive the agreement, a report by the agency seen by Reuters showed, likely raising tensions with Western powers. The International Atomic Energy Agency avoids …

Envoys from China and Russia to the Iran nuclear talks said on Friday there had been progress in efforts to bring Iran and the United States back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal and that all sides would reconvene next week. Former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the …

The Biden administration announced on Wednesday it would provide $235 million in U.S. aid to the Palestinians, restarting funding for the United Nations agency supporting refugees and restoring other assistance cut off by then-President Donald Trump.in U.S. aid to the Palestinians, The package, including humanitarian, economic and development assistance, was …

Forces in Zawiya in western Libya on Wednesday released more than 100 captives taken from Khalifa Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) to solidify a months-long ceasefire and moves towards national unity. The men had been held since April 2019 when Haftar launched an assault to seize control of the …

Gunmen assassinated an eastern Libyan commander wanted for war crimes on Wednesday, medics said, underscoring the risks of violent escalation on the ground that poses the biggest challenge to Libya’s new unity government. Mahmoud al-Werfalli was shot from a car outside a hospital in Benghazi alongside two of his bodyguards, …

An air attack on an oil refinery in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Friday caused a fire that was brought under control, the energy ministry said, after Yemen’s Houthi group said it targeted the site with six drones. The refinery is operated by state-controlled oil giant Saudi Aramco. The attack, …

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday condemned an escalation in fighting in Yemen’s Marib, calling for the Houthis to end an offensive on the government’s last northern stronghold, and pushing for the government to allow fuel into Hodeidah port. In a statement, the 15-member council also condemned cross-border attacks against …

The United States was joined by Russia, China and Pakistan on Thursday in calling on Afghanistan’s warring sides to reach an immediate ceasefire, at talks that showed Washington’s determination to win backing from regional powers for its plans. Just six weeks before a deadline for the United States to pull …

The UAE has called on the UN Security Council to condemn the obstruction of the delivery of humanitarian aid by armed groups and demand that they fully respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, state news agency WAM reported. The UAE submitted the written statement to the UN Security Council …

A powerful car bomb near a police station on Friday night killed at least seven people and wounded more than 50 others in Afghanistan’s western Herat province, officials said. Herat Governor Sayed Abdul Wahid Qatali said several women and children were among the dead. He added that at least 53 …

The U.S. State Department said on Thursday that “some hopeful progress” has been made toward a ceasefire in Yemen, but more commitment was needed from the parties to the civil war. The comments were in a statement on a just-concluded visit to the region by Timothy Lenderking, the U.S. special …

Libya’s long-divided parliament on Wednesday approved an interim government mandated to bring the fractured country together after a decade of chaos and violence, and to oversee elections in December as part of a U.N.-backed peace plan. The parliament’s approval of Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh’s cabinet by 132 votes to two …

The United States on Monday expressed alarm at “genuine security threats” to Saudi Arabia from Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis and elsewhere in the region after attacks on the heart of the Saudi oil industry, and it would look at improving support for Saudi defences. Earlier in the day, the U.S. Embassy …

Britain, France and Germany have scrapped a U.S.-backed plan for the U.N. nuclear watchdog to criticise Iran for reducing cooperation with its inspectors, in a bid to avoid escalation and make room for diplomacy, diplomats said on Thursday. Tehran and Washington have emerged from U.S. President Donald Trump’s attempts to …

Yemen’s Houthi forces fired a cross-border missile at a Saudi Aramco facility in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea city of Jeddah, a Houthi military spokesman said on Thursday, but there was no immediate confirmation from Saudi authorities. Saudi Aramco, whose oil production and export facilities are mostly in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern …

Britain, France and Germany are pressing ahead with a U.S.-backed plan for a resolution by the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s board criticising Iran for curbing cooperation with the agency, despite Russian and Iranian warnings of serious consequences. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors is holding a quarterly meeting …

The Dutch parliament on Thursday passed a non-binding motion saying the treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in China amounts to genocide, the first such move by a European country. Activists and UN rights experts say at least one million Muslims are being detained in camps in the remote western …

In the week since Washington offered to talk with Tehran about reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran has curbed U.N. monitoring, threatened to boost uranium enrichment and its suspected proxies have twice rocketed Iraqi bases with U.S. soldiers. In return, the United States and three allies, Britain, France and Germany, …

Inconsistencies in the Iran government’s explanation of the shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane last year raise questions over whether it was intentional, an independent U.N. investigator said on Tuesday, but she had found no concrete evidence that it was. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they shot down the Ukraine …

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday Iran might enrich uranium up to 60% purity if the country needed it and would never yield to U.S. pressure over its nuclear programme, state television reported. Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six powers, which it has been breaching since the United …

Erik Prince, the private security executive and supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump, “at the very least” helped evade an arms embargo on Libya, according to excerpts from a United Nations report seen by Reuters. Independent U.N. sanctions monitors accused Prince of proposing a private military operation – known …

The United States plans to take no additional actions in response to pressure from Iran before talks with Tehran and major powers about returning to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the White House said on Friday. Tehran and Washington have been at odds over who should make the first step …

he United Arab Emirates said on Friday that Sheikha Latifa, one of the ruler of Dubai’s daughters, was being cared for at home as the U.N. human rights watchdog asked the UAE for proof that she is alive amid growing international concern about her fate. The BBC’s investigative news programme …

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met incoming Libyan prime minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh in Cairo on Thursday and offered his country’s support in achieving stability in its troubled neighbour,‮ ‬the presidency said in a statement. Egypt has welcomed the announcement of a new interim government – the latest U.N.-brokered effort to …

Israel held out the possibility on Tuesday that it would not engage with US President Joe Biden on strategy regarding the Iranian nuclear program, urging tougher sanctions and a “credible military threat” against its arch-enemy. The remarks by Israel’s envoy to Washington came at a touchy juncture for Prime Minister …

Egypt, Cyprus and Greece have demanded respect for the sovereignty and sovereign rights of states in their maritime areas in the eastern Mediterranean. The demand came in a joint statement from the three countries’ foreign ministers during their meeting in Athens, where they discussed cooperation to deepen their political and …

Libya’s eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar has offered his backing for a peace process that seeks to end a decade of chaos, after meeting the head of a new transitional presidential council. The military commander met with Mohammed Younes Menfi, a former diplomat who also comes from eastern Libya, and who …

France, Germany and Britain on Friday condemned Iran’s decision to produce uranium metal, which they said was in breach of commitments made by Tehran to the international community. The U.N. nuclear watchdog said this week that Iran had followed through on its stated plan to make uranium metal, which Tehran …

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said he will revoke terrorist designations of Yemen’s Houthi movement effective Feb. 16, even as he warned that members of the group could be hit with more sanctions. The Trump administration imposed the specially designated global terrorist (SDGT) and foreign terrorist organization …

The sisters of prominent Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul said on Thursday they wanted real justice for her, and the lifting of a travel ban, the day after she was released from prison on a suspended sentence. Hathloul, 31, has campaigned for women’s right to drive and to end …

Unknown gunmen attacked a United Nations convoy on the outskirts of Afghanistan’s capital on Thursday, killing five Afghan security force members who were escorting the international agency’s vehicles, the UN and officials said. The attack took place near Kabul, according to an Afghan interior ministry official, adding they believed the …

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group said it carried out a drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport on Wednesday which the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi forces in Yemen said caused a fire in a civilian aircraft. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said four Houthi drones were used in an attack that …

The United States is weighing a wide array of ideas on how to revive the Iranian nuclear deal, including an option where both sides would take small steps short of full compliance to buy time, said three sources familiar with the matter. Such a modest approach could slow the deterioration …

Joe Biden has said Iran must cut its uranium enrichment before any return to talks over the regime’s nuclear program. The US president said he would not ease any of the tough sanctions imposed by Donald Trump after he withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, while Iran is not sticking …

The United States said on Friday it intends to revoke the terrorist designation for Yemen’s Houthi movement in response to the country’s humanitarian crisis, reversing one of the most criticised last-minute decisions of the Trump administration. The reversal, confirmed by a State Department official, comes a day after President Joe …

Participants in talks on Libya’s political future were preparing for a ballot on Friday morning to select a new interim government, part of a U.N. process aimed at resolving the country’s decade of chaos with elections in December. Candidates for prime minister and for roles in a new presidency council …

Iran will be weeks away from building a nuclear bomb if it stays on its current path, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Monday. In his first TV interview since his appointment was confirmed last month, Blinken said Tehran was months away from being able to produce enough …

Myanmar’s military seized power on Monday in a coup against the democratically elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in early morning raids. The army said it had carried out the detentions in …

Iran executed on Saturday an ethnic Baluch militant convicted of killing Revolutionary Guards members, the judiciary’s official website reported, a day after the United Nations urged Iranian authorities to spare his life. The Mizan site said Javid Dehghan, who it said was a leader of the Sunni militant group Jaish …

Italy has halted the sale of thousands of missiles to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Friday, citing Rome’s commitment to restoring peace in war-ravaged Yemen and protecting human rights. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are part of an Arab coalition that …

President Joe Biden has named Robert Malley as special U.S. envoy for Iran, a senior official said on Thursday, giving the veteran diplomat a leading role in one of most daunting and politically divisive foreign policy challenges facing the new administration. Malley was a key member of former President Barack …

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said the State Department was taking a “very urgent and very close look” at the Trump administration designation of Yemen’s Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization and wants to make sure aid groups can deliver assistance to the country. Former U.S. …

Independent U.N. sanctions monitors accused Yemen’s government, in a report seen by Reuters on Tuesday, of money-laundering and corruption “that adversely affected access to adequate food supplies” and said the Houthi group collected at least $1.8 billion in state revenue in 2019 to help fund its war effort. The annual …

The United States on Monday approved all transactions involving Yemen’s Houthi movement for the next month as Washington reviews a Trump administration designation of the Iran-aligned group as a foreign terrorist organization. The move appeared designed to allay fears of companies and banks involved in commercial trade to Yemen, which …