UN nuclear inspectors should have access to Iran bases: US

Ambassador Nikki Haley, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, speaks to the media on August 25, 2017 at the United Nations in New York. / AFP / Don Emmert
Updated 26 August 2017
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UN nuclear inspectors should have access to Iran bases: US

JEDDAH: US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley voiced concern on Friday that nuclear inspectors were not granted access to Iranian military bases.
“I have good confidence in the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), but they’re dealing with a country that has a clear history of lying and pursuing covert nuclear programs,” Haley told a news conference after returning from a trip to Vienna, where the agency is based.
“We’re encouraging the IAEA to use all the authorities they have, and to pursue every angle possible,” to verify Tehran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, an Iranian-American political scientist, said there are several sites in Iran that are pursuing its nuclear program without notifying the IAEA.
“Iran conducts major nuclear research in its military bases, specifically the Parchin site,” he told Arab News on Friday.
“There’s a recently revealed site in Parchin called Pajouhesh Kadeh (Research Institute), which is operated by the Center for Explosives, Blast Research and Technologies. This center is believed to be the main player behind attempts to weaponize Iran’s nuclear program.”
Under the terms of the nuclear deal, Iran is prohibited from conducting advanced nuclear research and development, but it appears to still be doing so, he said.
“Iran has long been determined not to allow the IAEA to inspect its military sites. This issue raises significant suspicions,” Rafizadeh added.
“Without the inspection of Iran’s military sites, specifically Parchin, it would be impossible to ensure whether or not Tehran is complying with the nuclear deal.”
He said Tehran has a long history of defying the IAEA’s terms and deceiving the international community regarding its nuclear program and activities.

UN mission in Lebanon
Meanwhile, the US is wrestling with other UN Security Council members over renewing the UN peacekeeping mission mandate in Lebanon, which Washington is calling to strengthen against the wishes of Paris and Moscow.
Annual renewal of the mandate, which expires at the end of August, is normally uneventful, but the Trump administration this year is pushing to bolster the force’s authority against arms movements by the Shiite militia Hezbollah.
“The Security Council cannot adopt a business-as-usual approach when so much is at stake,” said Haley in a statement on Wednesday.
“We call on the members of the Security Council to join us in taking real action to make UNIFIL a stronger peacekeeping mission and to stand up against forces of terror in Lebanon and around the region.”
She said beefing up the force is necessary as “Hezbollah openly boasts about its illegal stockpile of weapons and publicly threatens” Israel, a key US ally.
But France on Wednesday said it wants the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon to stick to its current mandate.
Anne Gueguen, France’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, told reporters that Paris saw no need to change the 2006 Security Council resolution that sets the mission’s current mandate.
“We want to keep the mandate as such,” she said. Gueguen spoke before the talks on whether to extend the mandate for another year.
After the talks, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow also saw no need to change the mandate, a position he said was shared by many at the session. “We think this mandate should be renewed in the present form,” he said.


Netherlands to send 175 million euros of military aid to Ukraine, expands drone cooperation

Updated 58 min 29 sec ago
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Netherlands to send 175 million euros of military aid to Ukraine, expands drone cooperation

THE HAGUE: The Netherlands will provide Ukraine with 100 drone-detection radars and 20 medical evacuation vehicles as part of a new 175 million euro ($202 million) aid package, Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said on Tuesday.
Delivery of the radars, which will help identify incoming drones and relay data to air defense systems, is expected to be completed by year-end.
In a statement on Friday, the Dutch Defense Ministry specified that 80 million euros of the package will go toward drone support through the international drone coalition.
The move on Tuesday follows a 500 million euro deal to produce 600,000 drones with the Ukrainian defense industry, Brekelmans said ahead of a NATO Summit in The Hague.
The Netherlands has pledged about 10 billion euros in military support for Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in early 2022.


Zelensky-Trump meeting planned Wednesday: Ukraine presidency

Updated 24 June 2025
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Zelensky-Trump meeting planned Wednesday: Ukraine presidency

KYIV: Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump are planning to meet Wednesday on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague, a senior source in the Ukrainian presidency told AFP.
“The teams are finalizing the details,” the source told AFP, adding that the talks were scheduled for the “early afternoon” in the Netherlands and would focus on sanctions against Russia and arms procurement for Kyiv.


Myanmar woman arrested for Suu Kyi ‘happy birthday’ post: local media

Updated 24 June 2025
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Myanmar woman arrested for Suu Kyi ‘happy birthday’ post: local media

  • The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reported on Monday that Hinn Yin Phyu was an MRTV employee who had been arrested after posting a “happy birthday” message for Suu Kyi, citing sources close to the detained woman

YANGON: A Myanmar woman arrested by the junta for “spreading propaganda” is being detained over a Facebook post celebrating the 80th birthday of jailed democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, local media said.
Suu Kyi was the figurehead of Myanmar’s decade-long democratic thaw, becoming de facto leader as it opened up from military rule, but she has been incarcerated since February 2021 when the generals snatched back power in a coup.
She is serving a 27-year sentence on charges rights groups dismiss as fabricated and on Thursday marked her birthday behind bars while her son urged followers to publish messages declaring their support.
Myanmar’s junta said in a statement over the weekend it had arrested two Facebook users for “inciting and spreading propaganda on social media with the intention to destroy state stability.”
One of those detained — Hinn Yin Phyu — was arrested at accommodation for employees of state media station MRTV in the capital Naypyidaw on Saturday, the statement said, without providing details of her posts.
The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reported on Monday that Hinn Yin Phyu was an MRTV employee who had been arrested after posting a “happy birthday” message for Suu Kyi, citing sources close to the detained woman.
“May you live long and be free from illness, may you be free from the suffering caused by separation from your loved ones throughout your life, and may you only meet good people,” said the now-deleted post, according to DVB.
Despite being blocked in a digital crackdown accompanying the coup, Facebook remains Myanmar’s most popular social media platform.
State notices announcing arrests over social media use are commonplace but usually provide scant detail of alleged transgressions.
A spokesman for Myanmar’s junta could not be reached for comment on the arrest.
Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize as she refused to enter exile to escape her first period of incarceration by Myanmar’s military.
As she guided the country through its democratic interlude her reputation was tarnished on the international stage after she defended the military for their crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority.
When the generals toppled her government it sparked a protest movement that security forces swiftly crushed in the streets.
Since then the country has descended into civil war as pro-democracy activists formed guerrilla units to fight back, alongside ethnic armed organizations that have been battling the military in Myanmar’s fringes for decades.


China plans to show off new equipment at parade marking 80th anniversary of Japan’s WWII surrender

Updated 24 June 2025
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China plans to show off new equipment at parade marking 80th anniversary of Japan’s WWII surrender

BEIJING: China plans to hold a military parade Sept. 3 marking the 80th anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender and featuring the People’s Liberation Army’s newest weaponry.
President and head of the military Xi Jinping will deliver a speech on the occasion, which will feature “new-type combat capabilities,” including hypersonic weapons and a range of electronic gear, said Wu Zeke, identified as a senor officer of the PLA, the ruling Communist Party’s military wing.
The force is the world’s largest standing military with more than 2 million members and an increasingly sophisticated arsenal of missiles, aircraft carriers and fighter aircraft.
Military parades are a favorite of Xi’s, held primarily to mark the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, Japan’s surrender and the anniversary of the PLA’s founding. Relentlessly drilled marching units, armored columns and aerial units all feature on such occasions.
Wu said inclusion of the latest generation weaponry demonstrates the PLA’s “strong ability to adapt to technological trends and evolving warfare, and to prevail in future wars, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Japan launched an invasion of China in 1937, seizing much of eastern China. Most of the fighting against Japan was carried out by the Nationalists, who later withdrew to the island of Taiwan after being driven out of the mainland by the Communists.
Much of China’s massive military upgrading has been aimed at conquering Taiwan, which China still considers part of its territory, as well as replacing the United States as the main military power in the Asia-Pacific.


China’s Xi urges Singapore leader to jointly resist ‘hegemony’

Updated 24 June 2025
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China’s Xi urges Singapore leader to jointly resist ‘hegemony’

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Singapore’s prime minister to join the fight against “hegemony” and protectionism in trade as they met in Beijing on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s first official visit to China lasts until Thursday.
He met Xi on Tuesday morning at Beijing’s opulent Great Hall of the People, with the Chinese leader urging their two countries to work to “stand on the right side of history and on the side of fairness and justice,” according to state broadcaster CCTV.
He told Wong that “the world cannot return to hegemony or be dragged back to the law of the jungle,” a veiled swipe at the United States, after President Donald Trump launched a barrage of tariffs this year on countries including China and Singapore.
Wong, in turn, told Xi he believed the Singapore-China relationship was “more important than before” in a time of “global turbulence and uncertainty.”
“We can work together to establish closer ties and... continue to strengthen multilateralism and the rules-based global order for the benefit of all countries,” Wong said.
Wong, who succeeded Lee Hsien Loong, the son of founding premier Lee Kuan Yew, in 2024, has warned the trade-dependent city-state could be hit hard by Trump’s tariffs.
Although Trump imposed a baseline 10 percent tariff on Singapore, the country is vulnerable to a global economic slowdown caused by the much higher levies on dozens of other countries because of its heavy reliance on international trade.
Following his meetings in Beijing, Wong will head to the northern Chinese city of Tianjin for a meeting of the World Economic Forum.