KAZAN, Russia: Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to increase ties with Iran during talks with his counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in Russia, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday.
The meeting between the two on the sidelines of a BRICS summit was their first since Pezeshkian was elected president following the death of his predecessor, Ebrahim Raisi, in a helicopter crash.
Xi pledged that “no matter how the international and regional situation changes, China will unswervingly develop friendly cooperation with Iran,” Xinhua said.
The promise of continued support comes as Middle East tensions soar over Israel’s ongoing war with Iran-backed militants in Gaza and Lebanon, and as the world awaits an Israeli response to Tehran’s latest missile attack.
At a BRICS plenary session on Wednesday, Pezeshkian urged members of the grouping to “use all their collective and individual capacities to end the war in Gaza and Lebanon.”
Xi meanwhile repeated his call for a ceasefire, saying: “We need to... stop the killing and work tirelessly for a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian issue.”
He told Pezeshkian in their meeting that an “early ceasefire and end of war in Gaza are the key to easing regional tensions,” Xinhua said.
China supports Iran “in safeguarding national sovereignty, security and national dignity, steadily advancing its own economic and social development,” Xi said, according to Xinhua.
The pledge echoed similar comments by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi after a meeting last month with Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
China is a close partner of Iran, its largest trade partner, and a top buyer of its sanctioned oil.
Both countries have faced Western pressure in the form of sanctions, most recently because of their stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Xi pledges to boost Iran ties in talks with Pezeshkian
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Xi pledges to boost Iran ties in talks with Pezeshkian
- Xi pledged that “no matter how the international and regional situation changes, China will unswervingly develop friendly cooperation with Iran,” according to Xinhua news agency
- China is a close partner of Iran, its largest trade partner, and a top buyer of its sanctioned oil.
Hungary to withdraw from ICC as Netanyahu arrives despite warrant
“Hungary will withdraw from the International Criminal Court,” Gergely Gulyás, who is Prime Minister Viktor Orbán chief of staff wrote in a brief statement. “The government will initiate the withdrawal procedure on Thursday, in accordance with the constitutional and international legal framework.”
The announcement came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, despite an international arrest warrant against him over his conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip.
Hungary’s government, led by right-wing populist Orbán, extended the invitation to Netanyahu in November after the ICC, based in the Hague, Netherlands, issued the warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity.
Orbán, a close Netanyahu ally, has called the arrest warrant “outrageously impudent” and “cynical.” Member countries of the ICC, such as Hungary, are required to detain suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil, but the court has no way to enforce that and relies on states to comply with its rulings.
Tornadoes, heavy rains rip across central, southern US
- Violent storms are forecast to ravage the country for several days
Tornadoes ripped across a wide swath of central and southern United States on Wednesday, destroying homes and businesses and bringing down power lines and trees.
The National Weather Service said there had been at least 15 reports of tornadoes in at least four states by late Wednesday.
Eight people have been injured across Kentucky and Arkansas, including one critically injured in Kentucky’s Ballard County, local officials said.
Late Wednesday, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency across the state due to the storms, which also brought hail and torrential rain.
The NWS said millions of people were under alerts for tornadoes and flash floods and that dangers would continue into early Thursday.
Violent storms are forecast to ravage the country for several days, the NWS said, with Wednesday just “the beginning of a multi-day catastrophic and potentially historic heavy rainfall event.”
“The word for tonight is ‘chaotic,’” said Scott Kleebauer, a NWS meteorologist. “This is a large expanse of storms migrating slowly to the east, stretching from southeast Michigan down into southeastern Arkansas.”
The town of Nevada, Missouri, was hit by a tornado. Writing on social media, the state’s Emergency Management Agency said it caused “major damage to several businesses, power poles were snapped and several (empty) train cars were flipped onto their sides by the powerful storm!“
The NWS issued tornado and flash flood warnings for parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Oklahoma.
It called the rain threats for Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi in the coming days a “generational flood event” with some locations forecast to see as much as 15 inches (38.1 cm) of rain by the weekend, which could cause rivers to burst their banks and cause “catastrophic river flooding.”
More than 400,000 customers had their power knocked out across the storm-hit area, according to PowerOutage.us.
Boat carrying migrants capsizes near Greek island
- Greece is one of the main entry points into the European Union for people fleeing conflict and poverty
- The Greek government has cracked down with increased patrols at sea
ATHENS: A broad search and rescue operation was underway early Thursday near the eastern Greek island of Lesbos after a boat carrying migrants capsized while heading to the island from the nearby Turkish coast, Greece’s coast guard said.
Weather in the area was reported to be good, and it was unclear what caused the boat to overturn early Thursday morning. The coast guard said 23 people have been rescued. There was no immediate information on the survivors’ nationalities or the type of vessel they had been using.
There were no specific reports of missing people, but a sea and land search and rescue operation was continuing, with three coast guard vessels, an air force helicopter and a nearby boat searching for potential further victims.
Greece is one of the main entry points into the European Union for people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, with many making the short but often treacherous journey from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands in inflatable dinghies.
The Greek government has cracked down with increased patrols at sea, and many smuggling rings have shifted their operations south, using larger boats to transport people from the northern coast of Africa to southern Greece.
Search for long-missing flight MH370 suspended: Malaysia minister
- The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Kuala Lumpur: The latest search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been suspended, Kuala Lumpur’s transport minister said, more than a decade after the plane went missing.
“They have stopped the operation for the time being, they will resume the search at the end of this year,” Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a voice recording sent to AFP on Thursday by his aide.
The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has not been found.
Loke’s comments come just one month after authorities said the search had resumed, following earlier failed attempts that covered vast swathes of the Indian Ocean.
An initial Australia-led search covered 120,000 square kilometers (46,300 square miles) in the Indian Ocean over three years, but found hardly any trace of the plane other than a few pieces of debris.
Maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity, based in Britain and the United States, led an unsuccessful hunt in 2018, before agreeing to launch a new search this year.
“Right now, it’s not the season,” Loke said in the recording, which was made during an event at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday.
“Whether or not it will be found will be subject to the search, nobody can anticipate,” Loke said, referring to the wreckage of the plane.
Myanmar earthquake toll crosses 3,000; forecast rains pose new threat for rescuers
- Last Friday’s 7.7-magnitude quake jolted a region home to 28 million, toppling buildings and flattening communities
- Conditions could get even tougher for the huge relief effort after weather officials warned of unseasonal rain
BANGKOK: The death toll from Myanmar’s devastating earthquake has surpassed 3,000, with hundreds more missing, as forecasts of unseasonal rain presented a new challenge for rescue and aid workers trying to reach people in a country riven by civil war.
Last Friday’s 7.7-magnitude quake, one of the Southeast Asian nation’s strongest in a century, jolted a region home to 28 million, toppling buildings, flattening communities and leaving many without food, water and shelter.
Deaths rose to 3,003 on Wednesday, with 4,515 injured and 351 missing, Myanmar’s embassy in Japan said on Facebook, while rescuers scramble to find more.
But conditions could get even tougher for the huge relief effort after weather officials warned unseasonal rain from Sunday to April 11 could threaten the areas hardest-hit by the quake, such as Mandalay, Sagaing and the capital Naypyidaw.
“Rain is incoming and there are still so many buried,” an aid worker in Myanmar told Reuters. “And in Mandalay, especially, if it starts to rain, people who are buried will drown even if they’ve survived until this point.”
There have been 53 airlifts of aid to Myanmar, the embassy in Japan added in its post, while more than 1,900 rescue workers arrived from 15 countries, including Southeast Asian neighbors and China, India and Russia.
Despite the devastation, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing will leave his disaster-stricken country on Thursday for a rare trip to a regional summit in Bangkok, state television said.
It is an uncommon foreign visit for a general regarded as a pariah by many countries and the subject of Western sanctions and an International Criminal Court investigation.
Unseasonal rain
The rains will add to the challenges faced by aid and rescue groups, which have called for access to all affected areas despite the strife of civil war.
The military has struggled to run Myanmar since its return to power in a 2021 coup that unseated the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The generals have been internationally isolated since the takeover and Myanmar’s economy and basic services, including health care, have been reduced to tatters amid the strife.
On Wednesday state-run MRTV said a unilateral government ceasefire would take immediate effect for 20 days, to support relief efforts after the quake, but warned authorities would “respond accordingly” if rebels launched attacks.
The move came after a major rebel alliance declared a ceasefire on Tuesday to assist the humanitarian effort.
Nearly a week after the quake, searchers in neighboring Thailand hunting for survivors combed a mountain of debris left after a skyscraper in the capital, Bangkok, collapsed while under construction.
Rescuers are using mechanical diggers and bulldozers to break up 100 tons of concrete to locate any still alive after the disaster that killed 15 people, with 72 still missing.
Thailand’s nationwide toll stands at 22.
