Month: October 2022

“The remarks of the American president, who is inciting chaos, terror and the destruction of another country, serve as a reminder of the eternal words of the founder of the Islamic republic, who called America the Great Satan,” Raisi said, referring to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei.

“The enemy’s plot must be countered by effective measures to resolve people’s problems,” Raisi added, according to a presidency statement.

Iran has been rocked by protests since 22-year-old Amini’s death on Sept 16, three days after she was arrested by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.

The street violence has led to dozens of deaths, mostly among protesters but also among the security forces, and hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested.

Biden had said on Friday that “we stand with the citizens, the brave women of Iran.

“It stunned me what it awakened in Iran. It awakened something that I don’t think will be quieted for a long, long time,” said the US president.

Earlier on Sunday, Iran’s foreign affairs spokesman Nasser Kanani had shrugged off Biden’s comments, saying that “Iran is too strong for its will to be swayed by the interference… by a politician tired of years of failure”. “We will together defend the independence of Iran,” Kanani wrote on Instagram.

On Oct 6, the United States slapped sanctions on seven senior Iranian officials for involvement in the crackdown.

The US Treasury last month also placed sanctions on the morality police.

Cultural invasion

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards accused the West of a cultural “invasion” of Iranian schools, amid protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.

Street violence over the Kurdish woman’s killing has led to dozens of deaths, mostly of protesters but also members of the security forces, and gatherings have been reported in schools across the country.

“The riots are a path that has come from strategic think tanks in America and England which has spread to our classrooms,” Major General Hossein Salami was quoted as saying on the Guards’ Sepah News website.

“Today the enemy has opened a new area of cultural, political and security invasion… this is the most complex and mysterious battlefield where the enemy has a serious presence,” he said.

“Americans start by having the headscarf removed and continue until the point where our lifestyles become like those of Westerners,” he added.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps which Salami heads are the ideological arm of Iran’s military.

The United Nations children’s agency Unicef has said it is “extremely concerned” over reports of “children and adolescents being killed, injured and detained” in Iran.

Iranian Education Minister Yousef Nouri, quoted on Sunday by local media, denied the arrest of schoolchildren.

The demonstration against the rising cost of living on was called by the left-wing political opposition and led by the head of the France Unbowed (LFI) party, Jean-Luc Melenchon.

Some protesters wore yellow fluorescent vests, the symbol of often violent anti-government protests in 2018 which shook the pro-business centrist government of President Emmanuel Macron.

Opponents of Macron are hoping to build on the momentum created by the refinery standoff which began at the end of last month.

“We’re going to have a week the likes of which we don’t see very often,” Melenchon said on Sunday while speaking on a truck in the middle of the crowd.

“Everything is coming together. We are starting it with this march, which is an immense success.”

Several French unions, but not all, have announced a national day of strikes on Tuesday that is expected to affect road transport, trains and the public sector.

Organisers claimed 140,000 people attended Sunday’s march against the rising cost of living and alleged government inaction against climate change.

Police had predicted around 30,000 people would attend.

The strikes and protests are being closely watched by the government which is aiming to push through a highly controversial change to the pensions system in the next few months.

Macron, who won re-election in April, has pledged to push back the retirement age from 62, with the reform scheduled before the end of the winter.

“I’m really worried,” one ruling party MP said last week. “We need to find a route between the need for reforms and the fact that people are riled up and tired.”

‘Unacceptable’

Four of France’s seven refineries — all belonging to Paris-based energy group TotalEnergies — remained blocked on Sunday.

The French company announced on Friday that it had reached a pay deal with the two largest unions representing staff at its refineries, raising hopes of an end to the standoff.

But the hardline CGT union has refused to accept it, with its members continuing to maintain picket lines.

Budget Minister Gabriel Attal denounced the continuation of the strike as “unacceptable”, while business lobby group Medef said “150 people” were “taking the country hostage”.

“Of course there’s a right to strike, but at some point the country needs to be able to work,” Attal told French media.

Staff at two other refineries owned by the US group Esso-ExxonMobil returned to work at the end of last week, but operations there will need at least a fortnight to return to normal, the company said.

Around a third of petrol stations across the country have supply problems, meaning drivers are often waiting hours to refuel.

Many companies have cut back on travel and deliveries, while even emergency service vehicles face shortages.

The huge profits made by energy groups due to record fuel prices have led to some sympathy for employees pushing for higher wages.

But one poll by the BVA polling group released on Friday suggested that only 37 percent of people supported the stoppages.

Sullivan, speaking on CNN, said no changes to the US-Saudi relationship were imminent as Biden re-evaluates it.

“And so the president isn’t going to act precipitously. He is going to act methodically, strategically and he’s going to take his time to consult members of both parties, and also to have an opportunity for Congress to return so that he can sit with them in person and work through the options,” Sullivan said.

A day after OPEC+ oil producers last week announced output cuts over US objections, Biden vowed to impose “consequences” on Saudi Arabia for siding with Russia in supporting the cuts. The OPEC+ move undermines Western countries’ plans to impose a cap on the price of Russian oil exports in response to Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat who chairs the Senate’s foreign relations committee, called for a halt to most US arms sales to Saudi Arabia after the Opec+ move.

Biden’s options “include changes to our approach to security assistance to Saudi Arabia, but I’m not going to get ahead of the president. What I will say is there’s nothing imminent,” Sullivan said, adding that there was time for Biden to consult Congress.

Sullivan said Biden had no plans to meet Saudi Arabia’s de-facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, at a G20 leaders summit next month in Indonesia.

Asked whether Biden would view Russia’s use of a small tactical nuclear weapon or detonating one in the Black Sea as less serious than a larger bomb, Sullivan said it was “dangerous” to draw such distinctions, and the president would not do so.

“The use of a nuclear weapon on the battlefield in Ukraine is the use of a nuclear weapon on the battlefield in Ukraine. We’re not going to slice the salami,” Sullivan added.

“I hope that those who are saying this are smart enough not to take such steps,” Putin said at a news conference in the Kazakh capital Astana following a summit of ex-Soviet nations.

The Russian president also said he saw “no need” for talks with his US counterpart Joe Biden, as tensions with Washington soar over a litany of issues including Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“We should ask him if he’s ready to hold such talks with me or not. I don’t see the need, to be honest,” Putin said, when asked about a potential meeting with Biden on the sidelines of a G20 summit in November.

Russian president says he sees ‘no need’ for talks with Biden

He added that his participation in the summit hosted by Indonesia is not yet decided. “The question of my trip there has not been finalised. Russia will certainly take part. As for the format, we’re still thinking about it,” Putin told reporters. Speaking earlier this week, Biden said he had “no intention” of meeting with Putin but did not rule out potential talks.

‘No need now for massive strikes’

Putin said he does not plan more “massive” strikes against Ukraine “for now” and that the Kremlin’s aim was not to “destroy” the pro-Western country.

“There is no need now for massive strikes. There are other tasks. For now.

And then it will be clear,“ Putin said. “We do not set ourselves the task of destroying Ukraine.”

He spoke days after Russia unleashed a wave of missile strikes across Ukraine, including on the capital Kyiv.

Putin, who sent troops to Ukraine on February 24, is facing increasing isolation and criticism even from allies.

But he said Russia is “doing everything right” in Ukraine — despite a failed attempt to topple the government and weeks of territorial losses.

“What is happening today is not pleasant. But all the same (if Russia hadn’t attacked in February) we would have been in the same situation, only the conditions would have been worse for us,” he said. “So we’re doing everything right.”

An Israeli military statement said troops came under heavy fire during the operation, in which an armed operative of the militant Hamas group and two other people were arrested. It said troops returned fire and “hits were identified”.

The Jenin Brigade, an umbrella group of different armed factions, said one of its members had been killed.

Atta Abu Rumeileh, a leader for the Fatah group in Jenin, told Reuters that the other man killed was a health official and Fatah member who participated in the fighting.

More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in clashes since the beginning of the year, most since March when the Israeli army launched a crackdown in the West Bank following a series of attacks by Palestinian militants in Israel.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the Palestinian president’s spokesperson, said Israel had “crossed all red lines” and the Palestinian Authority would not allow the situation to continue.

The cities of Jenin and Nablus, both home to sprawling refugee camps, have been at the centre of violence. But there have been incidents in other parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with two Israeli soldiers killed this week.

Roads into Nablus were closed during the week with heavy security checks and on Friday the military said troops carried out an operation in the city and arrested two people suspected of firing on them.

Both the Israeli military and Palestinian officials say groups of young armed men in Nablus and Jenin, often only loosely associated with established political movements, have been at the forefront of clashes.

There have also been repeated clashes between Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Palestinians.

Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza — areas that Palestinians want for an independent state — in a 1967 Middle East war.

The UN General Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution calling on countries not to recognise the four regions of Ukraine that Russia has claimed through referendums held under its occupation.

In the vote, 143 countries out of the 193-member body voted in favour of the resolution, while only five voted against it. Pakistan was among the 35 countries — including India — that abstained.

Later, in a note of explanation submitted to the General Assembly, Pakistan clarified why it had abstained.

UN envoy says respect for states’ territorial integrity applies to held Kashmir as much as Ukraine

Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram explained that Pakistan fully supports the resolution’s call for respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states — a principle which also applies to Ukraine, as to other member states.

“States cannot be torn apart by the use of force. These principles must be consistently and universally respected,” Mr Akram said.

This is an argument that Pakistan has often used at various UN fora while explaining why it does not recognise the elections under Indian occupation forces in held Jammu and Kashmir.

“In the case of the referenda mentioned in the draft resolution, we acknowledge Ukraine’s complex history and the provisions of the Minsk Agreement,” Ambassador Akram said.

He explained that under international law, the right of self- determination applies to peoples who are under foreign or colonial domination, and to “those who have not yet exercised the right to self-determination, as in the case of Jammu & Kashmir.”

Pakistan’s abstention also echoed in the weekly briefing by the FO spokesperson in Islamabad on Friday, when a journalist asked for an explanation of the decision.

The spokesperson said that the abstention was “a well-considered, principled, and objective position on this issue” and it has “enabled us space to engage with both sides.”

He urged the international community also to “understand and respect Pakistan’s independent position, which is based on our own considerations and context.”

The spokesperson pointed out that Pakistan was “unambiguous in pronouncing our position on the illegality and unacceptability of the referenda organised in Ukraine.” He also underlined the reference to held Kashmir in Pakistan’s response, which pointed that India’s illegal actions in the valley were in complete violation of international law, adding that the Indian actions “must also receive similar concern and condemnation.”