BRUSSELS: The EU imposed sanctions on Monday on prominent Iranian officials and entities, including airlines, accused of taking part in the transfer of missiles and drones for Russia to use against Ukraine.
European Union foreign ministers approved the sanctions on seven entities, including Iran Air, and seven individuals, including deputy defense minister Seyed Hamzeh Ghalandari and senior officials of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, the bloc said.
Leading European powers Britain, France and Germany adopted similar sanctions last month over Iranian missile transfers to Russia, as did the United States.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the adoption of the sanctions by the entire bloc, while adding: “More is needed.”
“The Iranian regime’s support to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is unacceptable and must stop,” she posted on X.
Two other Iranian airlines, Saha Airlines and Mahan Air, were hit under the EU measures, along with two procurement firms blamed for the “transfer and supply, through transnational procurement networks, of Iran-made UAVs and related components and technologies to Russia.”
The sanctions also target two companies involved in the production of propellant used to launch rockets and missiles.
Those targeted are subject to an asset freeze and banned from traveling to the European Union.
Iran rejects Western accusations it has transferred missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine.
According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, dozens of Russian military personnel have received training in Iran on using the Fath-360 missile, which has a range of 120 kilometers (75 miles).
EU sanctions Iran over ballistic missiles for Russia
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EU sanctions Iran over ballistic missiles for Russia
- European Union foreign ministers approved the sanctions on seven entities
Father accused of Sara Sharif’s murder confessed to UK police, jurors told
- Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking, after what prosecutors say was a campaign of “serious and repeated violence”
LONDON: The father of Sara Sharif, a 10-year-old girl who was found dead in her home in Britain, told police “I beat her up too much,” prosecutors said at his murder trial on Monday.
Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking, a town southwest of London, after what prosecutors say was a campaign of “serious and repeated violence.”
Her father Urfan Sharif, 42, his wife and Sara Sharif’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and the girl’s uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are on trial at London’s Old Bailey court charged with her murder.
The trio are alternatively charged with causing or allowing the death of a child. All three deny the charges against them and blame each other for her death, prosecutors say.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones told jurors on the first day of the trial on Monday that Urfan Sharif called British police, having fled to Pakistan after Sara Sharif’s death.
“He used what you may think is an odd expression,” Emlyn Jones said. “He said: ‘I legally punished her and she died’.”
Emlyn Jones said that Urfan Sharif also told police: “I beat her up. It wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.”
The prosecutor said a note in Urfan Sharif’s handwriting was also found next to his daughter’s body, which read: “I swear to God that my intention was not to kill her. But I lost it.”
Emlyn Jones told the jury that each of Urfan Sharif, Batool and Malik “played their part in the violence and mistreatment which resulted in Sara’s death.”
The three defendants all deny responsibility for any of violence and abuse and each “seeks to deflect the blame onto one or both of the others,” Emlyn Jones said.
Urfan Sharif blames his wife Batool, Emlyn Jones said, and his apparent confessions to the police were designed to “protect the true guilty party.”
The prosecutor added that Batool’s case is that Urfan Sharif was a “violent disciplinarian” and that she was scared of him, while Malik says he was unaware of any abuse or violence.
The trial is expected to run until December.
India accuses Canada of ‘deliberate’ smear campaign in latest diplomatic row
- Last year’s murder of a Sikh separatist activist in Surrey is at the center of diplomatic row
- India ‘reserves the right to take further steps’ after latest allegations, foreign ministry says
NEW DELHI: India said on Monday that the Canadian government was deliberately smearing New Delhi for political gain, after being told by Canada that its envoy and other diplomats in Ottawa were named ‘persons of interest’ in an investigation.
India and Canada have been under diplomatic strain since last September, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country was investigating “credible allegations” that agents of the Indian government were involved in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen of Indian descent who was shot dead by masked gunmen in Surrey, British Columbia.
The Indian government rejected the allegation as “absurd” then, and the two countries expelled their senior diplomats in reciprocal moves. India also moved to suspend visa services for Canadian citizens, which have since been restored.
After over a year, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said the government received diplomatic communication from Canada on Sunday “suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats were ‘persons of interest’”in an ongoing investigation.
“The Government of India strongly rejects these preposterous imputations and ascribes them to the political agenda of the Trudeau Government that is centered around vote bank politics,” the ministry said in a statement issued on Monday.
“This latest step follows interactions that have again witnessed assertions without any facts. This leaves little doubt that on the pretext of an investigation, there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains.”
The Canadian government “has not shared a shred of evidence” with New Delhi since their allegations last year, it added.
At the center of the Canadian investigation is Nijjar, who was an outspoken supporter of the Khalistan movement, which calls for a separate Sikh homeland in parts of India’s Punjab state.
The movement is outlawed in India and considered a national security threat by the government, which formally designated Nijjar as a terrorist.
He was shot dead last June outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, which has a significant number of Sikh residents.
Canada is home to the world’s largest Sikh community outside India — about 770,000 people, or 2 percent of its entire population.
The Indian government said Trudeau has long been hostile to India, adding that his government “has consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists to harass, threaten and intimidate” Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada.
“India now reserves the right to take further steps in response to these latest efforts of the Canadian Government to concoct allegations against Indian diplomats,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Spanish PM says ‘no withdrawal’ of UN force from Lebanon
- Spain condemns Netanyahu’s call for the force to pull back
- Sanchez affirmed his commitment to a UN Security Council resolution that bolstered the force’s role in 2006
MADRID: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday said there would be “no withdrawal” of the UN peacekeeping force from southern Lebanon after Israeli attacks and calls to leave.
Israel’s offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia has thrust the UNIFIL force deployed in Lebanon since 1978 into the spotlight.
The force, which involves about 9,500 troops from some 50 nations led by a Spanish general, has reported multiple Israeli attacks in recent days that injured five of its troops and sparked international condemnation.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on them to withdraw for their own safety and said their presence had “the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields.”
Spain condemns Netanyahu’s call for the force to pull back and “there will be no withdrawal of UNIFIL,” Sanchez told a forum in Barcelona.
Sanchez affirmed his commitment to a UN Security Council resolution that bolstered the force’s role in 2006 following the last major conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which stipulated that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should be deployed in south Lebanon.
That commitment “makes more sense today than ever after seeing what is happening on the ground,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez has been one of the most strident critics of the Netanyahu government’s war in Gaza, which was sparked by last year’s unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel.
The war has drawn in Iran-backed groups from across the region including Hezbollah, with Israel last month escalating its cross-border fire with the group and launching a ground offensive in southern Lebanon.
UN refugee chief urges states to drop border controls as displacement crises worsen
- More than 123 million people displaced around the world
- Continued air strikes set to worsen Lebanon displacement
- Calls for drastic increase in support for Sudanese refugees
GENEVA: The head of the UN refugee agency warned on Monday that displacement crises in Lebanon and Sudan could worsen, but said tighter border measures were not the solution, calling them ineffective and sometimes unlawful.
Addressing more than 100 diplomats and ministers in Geneva at UNHCR’s annual meeting, Filippo Grandi said an unprecedented 123 million people are now displaced around the world by conflicts, persecution, poverty and climate change.
“You might then ask: what can be done? For a start, do not focus only on your borders,” he said, urging leaders instead to look at the reasons people are fleeing their homes.
“We must seek to address the root causes of displacement, and work toward solutions,” he said. “I beg you all that we continue to work — together and with humility — to seize every opportunity to find solutions for refugees.”
Without naming countries, Grandi said initiatives to outsource, externalize or even suspend asylum schemes were in breach of international law, and he offered countries help in finding fair, fast and lawful asylum schemes.
Western governments are under growing domestic pressure to get tougher on asylum seekers and Grandi has previously criticized a plan by the former British government to transfer them to Rwanda.
In the same speech he warned that in Lebanon, where more than one million people have fled their homes due to a growing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the situation could worsen further.
“Surely, if airstrikes continue, many more will be displaced and some will also decide to move on to other countries.”
He called for a drastic increase in support for refugees in Sudan’s civil war, saying lack of resources was already driving them across the Mediterranean Sea and even across the Channel to Britain.
“In this lethal equation, something has got to give. Otherwise, nobody should be surprised if displacement keeps growing, in numbers but also in geographic spread,” he said.
The UNHCR response to the crisis that aims to help a portion of the more than 11 million people displaced inside Sudan or in neighboring countries is less than 1/3 funded, Grandi said.
The number of displaced people around the world has more than doubled in the past decade.
Grandi, set to serve as high commissioner until Dec. 2025, said the agency’s funding for this year had recently improved due to US support but remained “well below the needs.”
Scottish nationalist politician expelled by party over ‘utterly abhorrent’ Gaza remarks
- John Mason: Israel would have ‘killed 10 times as many’ people if it wanted to commit genocide
- SNP spokesperson: ‘To flippantly dismiss the death of more than 40,000 Palestinians is completely unacceptable’
LONDON: A Scottish National Party politician has been expelled for “utterly abhorrent” comments about the war in Gaza, The Guardian reported.
John Mason, the member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Shettleston, said on social media in August: “If Israel wanted to commit genocide, they would have killed 10 times as many.”
It came in response to a post by former SNP colleague Sandra White, who wrote: “We know what Israelis hope to achieve they are already committing genocide in Gaza.” She added that “innocent children are being massacred.”
A party spokesperson said of Mason’s remarks: “To flippantly dismiss the death of more than 40,000 Palestinians is completely unacceptable. There can be no room in the SNP for this kind of intolerance.”
Mason’s comments prompted a furious backlash from party supporters and colleagues, with former SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford posting on X: “You are not fit for public office. You are an embarrassment and not fit to represent anyone.”
On Sunday, Mason said on X: “Very disappointed to be expelled from the SNP over my comments on Israel, Gaza, and whether or not there has been genocide.
“I continue to believe that we should be able to tolerate a variety of views within the party as long as we are all committed to Scottish independence.”
Mason posted on Facebook that he stood by his remarks, but that his “primary desire” for the conflict is “peace talks, negotiations, and eventually peace.”
He added: “Too many lives have already been lost in Israel, Gaza, and beyond and, as I said when I spoke in parliament, many people feel that Israel has moved from a position of self-defence to seeking revenge.
“However, I personally do not believe that Israel has tried to commit, has committed, or is committing genocide.
“They certainly have the ability to kill many more Palestinians than they have done. That is not to say that the loss of life already is not too many.”
