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Khatibzadeh: Iran does not tolerate Israel near its borders

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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khatibzadeh-Iran

Saeed Khatibzadeh said Ilham Aliyev’s remarks are surprising because they come at a time when Tehran and Baku have good relations based on mutual respect and there are normal channels through which the two sides can talk at the highest level. 

Khatibzadeh added that the Iranian and Azeri foreign ministers also engaged in serious and meticulous discussions over the same issue and related matters on the sidelines of the UN recent General Assembly in New York.  According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, the top diplomats agreed to continue the talks. 

Khatibzadeh reiterated that Iran has always opposed any occupation of territory and stressed the need for respecting the territorial integrity of countries and internationally recognized borders. He said good neighborliness is a key matter and all neighbors are expected to observe it.  

He added that the recent Iranian military drills along the northwestern border was a sovereign issue and was aimed at protecting regional security. He however said that Iran will not tolerate the Israeli regime’s presence near its borders even if it’s ceremonial and the Islamic Republic will do anything that it takes to protect its national security.

Beirut blast investigation halted for second time

By
IFP Media Wire
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On Monday, Tarek Bitar was forced to suspend the probe after ex-Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk, one of multiple officials under investigation, filed a complaint against him last week.

The court will decide whether Bitar will continue his investigation into the port blast that killed more than 200 people, wounded around 7,500, and caused widespread devastation in the capital on August 4, 2020. It was later revealed that the blast detonated at a warehouse storing 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive substance, which sat there for around six years before the disaster.

If the judiciary removes the top judge, Bitar will become the second investigator to be dismissed since the launch of the inquiry. His predecessor, Fadi Sawan, was removed in February after ex-ministers accused of negligence complained that he was acting out of his jurisdiction.

Last month, Bitar issued the ex-caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab, a subpoena after he failed to turn up to his inquiry. However, the secretary general of Lebanon’s parliament told the judge that his order was an excessive use of power.

The blast also caused significant political instability in Lebanon, with Diab resigning from his PM role amid major protests in the days after the explosion. Lebanon has only just announced a new government, headed by Prime Minister Najib Mikati, which put an end to 13 months of political deadlock.

On the blast’s anniversary, masses marched through Beirut to commemorate the tragedy. Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters descended on the streets and burned barricades outside of the Lebanese parliament to demonstrate against the injustice of no senior politicians having yet been held accountable for the disaster.

UK army on standby over fuel crisis

By
IFP Media Wire
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Fuel prices in the country have reached highest level in eight years and several petrol stations ran dry amid panic buying.

The army is on standby with soldiers at “increased preparedness” to help deliver fuel if necessary, the defence secretary has said.

It comes after long queues continued in many places on Monday after some motorists apparently ignored pleas to stop panic-buying.

Army tanker drivers will now receive specialised training ahead of any possible deployment.

“The men and women of our armed forces stand ready to alleviate the transport pressures where they are felt most,” stated Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.

“That is why I have authorised their increased preparedness so they are ready to respond if needed,” he added.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng issued the Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (MACA) request, the mechanism for armed forces to lend support in times of need.

He said the fuel industry expected demand to return to normal “in the coming days”, but that “it’s right that we take this sensible, precautionary step”.

“The UK continues to have strong supplies of fuel,” he added.

“However we are aware of supply chain issues at fuel station forecourts and are taking steps to ease these as a matter of priority,” he stated.

“If required, the deployment of military personnel will provide the supply chain with additional capacity as a temporary measure to help ease pressures caused by spikes in localised demand for fuel,” he noted.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has also authorised an extension to ADR driver licences, which allow drivers to transport goods, such as fuel.

It will apply to licences expiring between 27 September and 31 December, and extend their validity until 31 January 2022.

“Extending ADR licences will further help ease any pressures on fuel drivers by removing the need for refresher training courses and ensuring they can keep providing their vital service on our roads,” Shapps said.

Petrol retailers have been hoping for a return to normal after motorists drained pumps over the weekend – but there appeared to be little sign of that on Monday.

Environment Secretary George Eustice has announced there were signs panic-buying was “calming down” and that motorists were “getting back to normal buying habits”.

Speaking on Sky News programme The Great Debate, he said demand was about 50% higher than normal on Saturday but that it was now around 20% above average.

A joint statement from the likes of BP, Shell UK, Esso Petroleum/ExxonMobil and Wincanton also urged drivers to buy fuel normally.

“There is plenty of fuel at UK refineries and terminals, and as an industry we are working closely with the government to help ensure fuel is available to be delivered to stations across the country,” they said.

“As many cars are now holding more fuel than usual, we expect that demand will return to its normal levels in the coming days, easing pressures on fuel station forecourts. We would encourage everyone to buy fuel as they usually would,” they continued.

“We remain enormously grateful to all forecourt staff and HGV drivers for working tirelessly to maintain supplies during this time,” they added.

The panic-buying has led to industries from taxi drivers to the meat processing sector – and even non-league football – facing difficulties and prompted calls for health workers to get priority.

The British Medical Association said there was a real risk that some would not be able to get to work.

Unison called on ministers to use emergency powers to “designate fuel stations for the sole use of key workers” – a call backed by the Royal College of Nursing.

“The Government has to take control. It’s no good ministers wasting time on a pointless blame game or pretending there’s no problem,” noted Unison general secretary Christina McAnea.

“Essential staff must be able to get to their jobs so they can continue to provide the services so many rely upon,” McAnea added.

The Petrol Retailers’ Association (PRA), representing two-thirds of all UK forecourts, said that with many drivers’ tanks now full it was watching for an “easing of demand”.

The crisis mushroomed after the disclosure last week that a small number of petrol stations had seen supply disrupted due to the nationwide shortage of HGV drivers.

Some retailers, such as Asda and EG group, have been restricting sales to £30 a time.

Even if the frenzy does abate, motorists could face another headache as the price of Brent crude oil continues to climb.

It rose for a sixth day on Tuesday to hit a three-year high of over $80 a barrel – likely to lead to higher prices at the pumps.

Iran Hits Back at Israel over “False” Accusations

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Iran Hits Back at Israel over “False” Accusations

Iran’s UN mission has slammed the “false” and “baseless” accusations of the Israeli prime minister against the Islamic Republic.

On Monday, Naftali Bennet repeated the regime’s past allegations that Iran is violating its IAEA obligations and moving toward a nuclear weapon. 

Bennet also accused Iran of arming proxies in the region with armies of drones in preparation for attacks on Israel. 

In response, the Iranian mission said the regime is trying to “cover up its expansionist and destabilizing policies and its criminal behavior in the region”.

The mission said Israel has committed all four “core” crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression, defined in international law.

The mission said instances of such crimes are waging at least 15 wars on regional countries and on Gaza, including the 11-day aggression earlier this year that killed 256 Palestinians, many of them children and women, and keeping an inhumane blockade on the coastal strip.

The mission said it is blatant for Israel to try to pose Iran’s conventional weapons capabilities, or its civilian nuclear program, as a threat to the region, while the regime itself maintains the most sophisticated conventional weapons along with various weapons of mass destruction, including an arsenal of nukes.   

“He [the Israeli PM] … openly violated the UN charter and once more employed a language of threat against my country. He should not have any illusions about our ability and will to defend our security and our interests…. We have shown that we will not hesitate to use our inherent right to defend ourselves against any threat at any time,” the mission said.

The Iranian mission also addressed the UAE’s repetition of its “unfounded” claim to the three southern Iranian islands of Abu Mousa, the Lesse Tunb and the Greater Tunb.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran reiterates its fixed and fundamental position that it does not recognize any dispute between Iran and the Emirates [on the ownership of the islands]. These three islands have been inseparable parts of the Iranian soil and any claim to the contrary is strongly rejected,” the mission said.

ICC says to focus on Taliban, Daesh war crimes; ignoring US’s

By
IFP Media Wire
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A statement on the ICC website on Monday said the request was being made to the court’s judges in light of developments since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan last month.

Karim Khan, who took over in June, stated the situation in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover meant war crimes were no longer likely to be investigated properly.

A lawyer for alleged victims of US torture in Afghanistan was “stunned” after Khan announced he would “deprioritise” the investigation into American forces, a probe that has long enraged Washington.

The ICC had already spent 15 years looking into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan before opening a full investigation last year.

The Hague-based ICC’s inquiry had been put on hold in 2020 after the now-deposed government in Kabul announced it would try to investigate war crimes allegations itself.

Set up in 2002 to tackle the world’s worst crimes, the court has the authority to step in where national governments are unable or unwilling to bring people to justice for war crimes.

But Khan said that the “current de facto control of the territory of Afghanistan by the Taliban, and its implications [including for law enforcement and judicial activity in Afghanistan] represents a fundamental change in circumstances necessitating the present application”.

The ICC’s limited resources and the need to focus on cases most likely to result in convictions meant he would now narrow his focus in Afghanistan, Khan added.

“I have therefore decided to focus my office’s investigations in Afghanistan on crimes allegedly committed by the Taliban and the Islamic State – Khorasan Province and to deprioritise other aspects of this investigation,” he continued.

The ICC prosecutor specifically mentioned the deadly August 26 attack on Kabul airport claimed by Daesh in more than 100 Afghan civilians were killed and 13 US service members.

The court had found there was a reasonable basis to believe war crimes had been committed between 2003 and 2014, among them suspected mass killings of civilians by the Taliban, as well as suspected torture of prisoners by Afghan authorities and, to a lesser extent, by US forces and the CIA.

But the United States is not a party to the ICC, and imposed sanctions against the office of the prosecutor for investigating the role of US forces.

Shifting the focus of the probe could help mend the court’s relationship with Washington.

If the request is approved, the investigation will face an uphill battle to gather evidence, as the Taliban rulers appear unlikely to cooperate in the same way as the governments in place since the Taliban’s last period in power ended in 2001.

Prominent Iranian Actor Dies of COVID-19, laid to rest

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Atlasi, a professional actor and dubber, died on September 26, 2021.

He had been hospitalized after contracting the coronavirus and remained in hospital for two weeks before passing away.

He was born in 1939 in the northwestern Iranian city of Urmia and began his career in the cinema industry in 1964.

Iranians will remember his acting in a number of films, including the popular TV series “The Patriarch.”

Seoul says North Korea launches ‘unidentified projectile’

By
IFP Media Wire
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According to Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff gave no indication of what type of missile had been fired. However, the senior brass typically only issue alerts if they believe the test was of a ballistic missile.

The DPRK has used the Sea of Japan to test a number of new short-range ballistic missiles in recent years, but the socialist country also recently unveiled a new missile fired from a train car, intended to enhance its survivability from a strike by another nation. They have also recently tested a long-range cruise missile.

According to Japan’s Kyodo News, the Japanese Defense Ministry reported the DPRK had fired a single missile and there was a low possibility it had landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

The US military later announced there is no immediate threat from the North Korean missile launch.

“We are aware of the missile launch and are consulting closely with our allies and partners. While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies, the missile launch highlights the destabilizing impact of the DPRK’s illicit weapons program,” the United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) said in a statement.

“The U.S. commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remains ironclad,” it added.

The test launch came just moments before the DPRK’s ambassador to the United Nations was set to address the UN General Assembly underway in New York.

Taking the podium in New York, Ambassador Kim Sung said no one can deny the DPRK’s right to self defense and to test weapons, given the hostile policies of other nations.

“The possible outbreak of a new war on the Korean Peninsula is contained not because of the U.S.’s mercy on the DPRK,” Kim stated, adding, “It is because our state is a growing reliable deterrent that can control the hostile forces in the attempts of a military invasion.”

However, he indicated that if the US gives up its “hostile policy, we are also prepared to respond willingly at any time”.

Kim added that if the US is serious about ending the Korean War, it should give up its hostile policy and stop its military exercises aimed at the DPRK, as well as the deployment of strategic weapons.

“But it is our judgment that there is no prospect at the present stage for the US to really withdraw its hostile policy,” Kim said.

Earlier on Monday, a spokesperson for the US Department of State noted Washington is “prepared to meet with the DPRK without preconditions and we certainly hope that the DPRK will respond positively to our outreach”.

The test comes a day after Kim Yo Jong, Deputy Department Director of the Publicity and Information Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea, also said the country remains open to an inter-Korean summit with leaders from the Republic of Korea, as the South is officially known, but only if mutual “respect” and “impartiality” are guaranteed and the South drops its double-standards.

Last week, South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for a joint declaration on ending the state of war with the DPRK. The two nations discussed such an endeavor in 2018 amid a historic rapprochement and laid the groundwork for it in two declarations in April and September of that year. However, as peace talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-US President Donald Trump stalled, so did inter-Korean talks.

The largest stumbling blocks have been strangling economic sanctions against the DPRK intended to force it to give up its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs, and the continued presence of 28,000 US troops in South Korea. Seoul has continued to engage in military drills with the US, which the North has announced indicate the South’s lack of seriousness about peace.

A state of war has existed since 1950 between the DPRK on one side and South Korea and the United States on the other. When the Japanese Empire surrendered to the Allies in 1945, ending World War II, the Soviet Union had only liberated half of Korea, which was a Japanese colony. Consequently, a socialist government prevailed in the north, and a capitalist government formed in the south, which passed to American control. The divide erupted in a civil war in 1949 that the North threatened to win, but a US-led military intervention in 1950 pushed the communist Korean People’s Army back almost to the Chinese border.

A Chinese all-volunteer force under North Korean command helped turn the tide of the war, and by the time a ceasefire was signed in 1953, the front lines had been pushed almost to where they were when the war began. However, the brutal war, which included massacres on both sides and US strategic bombing that leveled North Korean cities, left more than 2 million Koreans dead. A permanent peace treaty has never been signed, and Korea remains divided by a heavily defended demilitarized zone.

Taiwan seeking weapons against China

By
IFP Media Wire
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Taiwan needs to have long-range, accurate weapons in order to properly deter a China that is rapidly developing its systems to attack the island, the DM stated.

Taiwan this month proposed extra defence spending of almost $9 billion over the next five years, including on new missiles, as it warned of an urgent need to upgrade weapons in the face of a “severe threat” from giant neighbour China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory.

Speaking in parliament, Chiu noted Taiwan needed to be able to let China know they could defend themselves.

“The development of equipment must be long range, precise, and mobile, so that the enemy can sense that we are prepared as soon as they dispatch their troops,” he added, referring to Taiwan’s missile capability.

In a written report to parliament to accompany Chiu’s appearance, the ministry announced both medium- and long-range missiles were being used in intercept drills at a key test facility on Taiwan’s southeastern coast.

Chiu declined to give details to reporters of how far Taiwan’s missiles could reach, something the government has always keep well under wraps.

Taiwan offered an unusually stark assessment of China’s abilities in its annual report on China’s military, saying they could “paralyse” Taiwan’s defences and are able to fully monitor its deployments.

Chiu said it was important that Taiwan’s people were aware of the danger facing them.

Asked what China would attack first in the event of a war, Chiu answered that it would be Taiwan’s command and communications abilities.

“On this the Chinese Communists’ abilities have rapidly increased. They can disrupt our command, control, communications and intelligence systems, for example with fixed radar stations certainly being attacked first,” he continued, adding, “So we must be mobile, stealthy and able to change positions.”

President Tsai Ing-wen has made bolstering and modernising defences a priority, to make the island into a “porcupine” that is hard to attack.

Taiwan has complained for months of repeated Chinese military activity near it, particularly of air force jets entering Taiwan’s air defence zone.

China has been ramping up efforts to force the democratically governed island to accept Chinese sovereignty. Most Taiwanese have no shown no desire to be ruled by autocratic Beijing.

Source: Reuters

Iran Loses to Kazakhstan in 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup Quarterfinals

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Iran’s national futsal squad lost 3-2 to their rival and failed to advance to the quarterfinals.

Iran finished the first half 2-0, but Kazakhstan piled up the pressure and managed to score three goals only to find themselves among the top four teams.

In the semifinals, Argentina will face Brazil on Wednesday and Kazakhstan will play against Portugal on Thursday.

Belarus says jointly with Russia to respond to NATO drills

By
IFP Media Wire
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The United States is actually creating NATO bases in Ukraine under the guise of training centers, Lukashenko said at a meeting with top officials from the security, defense and law enforcement agencies on Monday.

“Ukraine-related issues require special attention. You can see that NATO troops are being dragged there. The United States is establishing bases in Ukraine. Clearly, we need to respond to that,” he pointed out, as cited by the BelTA news agency.

According to Lukashenko, he has repeatedly discussed the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“The Russian president and I have been holding consultations on the issue, we have agreed that we need to take some action,” Lukashenko emphasized. 

“Otherwise, we will have to face an unacceptable situation on the border of Belarus and Russia, even missiles of the necessary range may be deployed there. We did not sign up for it and we cannot let it happen,” the Belarusian president stressed.

“Unfortunately, the Ukrainian authorities don’t care a bit about their own people and they don’t hear our concerns,” Lukashenko added.

Ukraine began joint military exercises with the US and other NATO countries last week, amid increased activity of the Western military alliance near Russia’s borders.

The Kremlin also warned on Monday that the expansion of NATO military infrastructure in Ukraine crossed a red line for Moscow. 

Source: TASS

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