Blinken speaks to Azeri, Armenian leaders about peace talks

Blinken speaks to Azeri, Armenian leaders about peace talks
Armenian demonstrators block a road outside the town of Tavush, 10 kilometers from the border with Azerbaijan, on April 25, 2024. Dozens of Armenian protesters blocked several roads across the country, including in the capital Yerevan, angry at what they see as territorial concessions to arch-foe Azerbaijan. (AFP)
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Updated 29 April 2024
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Blinken speaks to Azeri, Armenian leaders about peace talks

Blinken speaks to Azeri, Armenian leaders about peace talks
  • Blinken reaffirmed Washington’s support for a peace treaty between the South Caucasus neighbors in separate calls with their leaders
  • Azeri President Ilham Aliyev's press service later said Azerbaijan's FM will soon meet with his Armenian counterpart to continue negotiations

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken to the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan and reaffirmed Washington’s support for a peace treaty between the South Caucasus neighbors, the State Department said on Sunday.

Yerevan suffered a major defeat last September when Baku’s forces retook the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which while part of Azerbaijan had a predominantly Armenian population.
Peace talks have become bogged down in issues including demarcation of the two countries’ 1,000-km (620-mile) border, which remains closed and heavily militarized.
Blinken spoke to Azeri President Ilham Aliyev on Sunday and urged him “to keep up the momentum with his Armenian counterpart, reiterating US willingness to support those efforts,” the State Department said in a statement.
Aliyev’s press service said on Sunday that foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia will soon hold a meeting in Almaty in Kazakhstan to continue negotiations.
“The president considers an important step that ... Azerbaijan and Armenia have begun the process of border demarcation,” Russia’s Interfax news agency cited the press service as saying.
In a separate call with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Blinken reaffirmed US support for progress on a durable and dignified peace agreement, the department said, but did not specify when the call took place.
In his call with Aliyev, Blinken also welcomed the transfer to house arrest last week of a prominent Azerbaijani economist and opposition politician who has been imprisoned since last July while awaiting trial.
Azerbaijan has also detained a string of independent reporters since late last year. Several are now facing trial on charges unrelated to journalistic activity, such as smuggling.
“Secretary Blinken again urged Azerbaijan to adhere to its international human rights obligations and commitments and release those unjustly detained in Azerbaijan,” the State Department said.


Zelensky says Kyiv security guarantees will only work if US provides them

Zelensky says Kyiv security guarantees will only work if US provides them
Updated 13 sec ago
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Zelensky says Kyiv security guarantees will only work if US provides them

Zelensky says Kyiv security guarantees will only work if US provides them

KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said late on Sunday that security guarantees for Kyiv to end Russia’s war would only be effective if the United States provides them, and he hoped to meet US President-elect Donald Trump soon after his inauguration.
In an interview with US podcaster Lex Fridman, Zelensky praised the incoming USpresident, who has vowed to rapidly end the war without explaining how, saying Ukrainians were counting on him to compel Moscow to agree to a lasting peace.
Almost three years after Russia’s invasion, the election of Trump, who returns to the White House on Jan. 20, has sparked hope of a diplomatic resolution to stop the war, but also fears in Kyiv that a quick peace could come at a high price.
Zelensky used the three-hour interview published on YouTube to call for Kyiv’s NATO membership and emphasized his belief that a ceasefire without security guarantees for Kyiv would merely give Russia time to rearm for a new attack.
The Ukrainian leader said the White House under Trump had a vital role to play in providing security guarantees and asserted he and the US president-elect saw eye to eye on the need for a “peace through strength” approach to ending the conflict.
“Without the United States security guarantees are not possible. I mean these security guarantees that can prevent Russian aggression,” he said.
He said he needed to sit down with Trump to determine a course of action to halt Russia, and European governments also needed to have a voice in that process before Kyiv could sit down for direct talks with the Russian side.


Egypt to receive $1.2 billion as part of IMF program in January, finance minister says

Egypt to receive $1.2 billion as part of IMF program in January, finance minister says
Updated 47 min 58 sec ago
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Egypt to receive $1.2 billion as part of IMF program in January, finance minister says

Egypt to receive $1.2 billion as part of IMF program in January, finance minister says

CAIRO: Egypt is expected to receive a $1.2 billion disbursement from the International Monetary Fund this month as part of an $8 billion program with the international lender, Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk said on Sunday.
Last month, the IMF said it reached a staff-level agreement with Egypt on the fourth review of the 46-month Extended Fund Facility arrangement, potentially unlocking the $1.2 billion disbursement.
“The (IMF’s executive) board will convene in January and, God willing, we will receive the amount in January,” Kouchouk told ON TV in an interview, adding Egypt had not requested an increase to the $8 billion loan.
Egypt, grappling with high inflation and shortages of foreign currency, agreed to the expanded IMF program in March. A sharp decline in Suez Canal revenue caused by regional tensions over the last year compounded its economic woes.
Kouchouk also said Egypt is targeting about $3 billion in the remainder of the current fiscal year, which runs until the end of June, through “diverse issuances” to investors, without elaborating further. His comments came in response to a question about whether Egypt plans to offer new bonds to foreign investors this year.


France holds Algerian influencers on charges of urging violence

France holds Algerian influencers on charges of urging violence
Updated 06 January 2025
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France holds Algerian influencers on charges of urging violence

France holds Algerian influencers on charges of urging violence
  • Prosecutors announced the arrests of Imad Tintin and Yousseff on Friday and Interior minister Bruno Retailleau on Sunday announced a third arrest

LYON: French authorities on Sunday held three Algerians suspected of inciting violence in TikTok videos, with at least two of them facing terror-related charges.
The arrests come amid growing political tensions between Paris and its former North African colony.
A video blogger known as “Imad Tintin” was arrested Friday outside Grenoble after publishing a video urging followers to “burn alive, kill and rape on French territory.”
The post was taken down after receiving 800,000 views but hard-line right-wing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau published a video grab on his social media accounts, condemning the publication as “vile.”
A judge on Sunday placed the 31-year-old blogger under judicial supervision, Grenoble prosecutors said.
He was due to appear Monday in a fast-track trial on charges of “direct incitement of an act of terrorism,” the state prosecution service said.
“Imad Tintin” entered France in December 2021 and applied for a residence permit in August 2023 after his marriage to a French woman. But his application was refused and he is also subject to an expulsion order.

In a second case, a 25-year-old Algerian identified as Youcef A. but known on social media as Zazou Youssef was remanded in custody Friday in the western city of Brest, prosecutor Camille Miansoni said in a statement.
He will stand trial there on February 24 on a charge of “publicly advocating an act of terrorism” in posts to his hundreds of thousands of TikTok followers, she said.
He faces up to seven years in jail and a 100,000-euro ($103,000) fine if convicted, the statement added.
Zazou Youssef appeared in a video posted on TikTok on December 31, calling for attacks in France and violence in Algeria.
He was living in France on a temporary residency permit.
TikTok told AFP the account from which the video was posted had been banned for posting several videos that broke its rules on hate speech.

Prosecutors announced the arrests of Imad Tintin and Yousseff on Friday and Interior minister Bruno Retailleau on Sunday announced a third arrest.
The third man was detained in the southern coastal city of Montpellier for violent comments targeting an Algerian activist opposed to that country’s government.
Prosecutors told AFP local authorities had reported a video in which the influencer said of the activist: “Kill him, let him suffer.”
The regional prefect’s office told AFP it was considering withdrawing that blogger’s residence permit and issuing an expulsion order.

Tensions have surged between France and Algeria after President Emmanuel Macron renewed French support for Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara during a landmark visit to the kingdom last year.
Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, is mostly under the de facto control of Morocco. But it is claimed by the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front, who are demanding a self-determination referendum and are supported by Algiers.
French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal, a major figure in modern francophone literature, has meanwhile been imprisoned by the Algerian authorities since mid-November on national security charges.
Mentioning Sansal’s case on Sunday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said he had “doubts” over Algeria’s commitment to a roadmap set out by the two sides in 2022 to smooth post-colonial relations.
“Zazou Youssef” and “Imad Tintin” have joined “the war waged in France by the Algerian regime,” Chawki Benzehra, an Algerian dissident, told AFP.
Benzehra took refuge in France after taking part in pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019.
He accused the Algerian authorities of mobilizing a “significant” number of influencers calling for “violence.”

 


FBI looking into New Orleans attack suspect’s visits to Egypt, Canada

FBI looking into New Orleans attack suspect’s visits to Egypt, Canada
Updated 06 January 2025
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FBI looking into New Orleans attack suspect’s visits to Egypt, Canada

FBI looking into New Orleans attack suspect’s visits to Egypt, Canada
  • The FBI said Jabbar made at least two trips to New Orleans in the months prior to the attack, one in October and the other in November

WASHINGTON: The FBI is looking into past visits to Egypt and Canada by the suspect in the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans that killed 14 people after a truck was rammed into a crowd of revelers, an FBI official told reporters on Sunday.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a US Army veteran aged 42 who had pledged allegiance to the Daesh extremist group, was the suspect in the attack and the FBI says he acted alone. He was killed in a shootout with police after the rampage, which also injured dozens of people and has been labeled by the FBI as an act of terrorism.
“We have also tracked that Jabbar traveled to Cairo, Egypt, from June 22 until July 3 of 2023. A few days later he flew to Ontario, Canada, on July 10 and returned to the US on July 13 of 2023,” Lyonel Myrthil, FBI special agent in charge of the New Orleans field office, said at a press briefing.
“Our agents are getting answers as to where he went, who he met with and how those trips may or may not tie into his actions in our city in New Orleans,” he added.
The FBI also said Jabbar made at least two trips to New Orleans in the months prior to the attack, one in October and the other in November.
The suspect stayed in a rental home in New Orleans during that time, the FBI said, adding he recorded videos with Meta glasses traveling through the French Quarter, the neighborhood in New Orleans where the attack occurred on Bourbon Street.
The New Orleans coroner’s office has identified all 14 deceased victims, among whom the youngest was aged 18 and the oldest was 63. Most were in their 20s.

 

 


Nagasaki atomic bomb survivor, who devoted his life for peace, dies

Shigemi Fukahori is interviewed at the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, southern Japan, on July 29, 2020. (AP)
Shigemi Fukahori is interviewed at the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, southern Japan, on July 29, 2020. (AP)
Updated 05 January 2025
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Nagasaki atomic bomb survivor, who devoted his life for peace, dies

Shigemi Fukahori is interviewed at the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, southern Japan, on July 29, 2020. (AP)
  • Fukahori was only 14 when the US dropped the bomb on Nagasaki on Aug.9, 1945, killing tens of thousands of people, including his family

TOKYO: Shigemi Fukahori, a survivor of the 1945 Nagasaki atomic bombing, who devoted his life to advocating for peace and campaigning against nuclear weapons, has died. He was 93.
Fukahori died at a hospital in Nagasaki, southwestern Japan, on Jan.3, the Urakami Catholic Church, where he prayed almost daily until last year, said on Sunday. Local media reported he died of old age.
The church, located about 500 meters from ground zero and near the Nagasaki Peace Park, is widely seen as a symbol of hope and peace, as its bell tower and some statues and survived the nuclear bombing.
Fukahori was only 14 when the US dropped the bomb on Nagasaki on Aug.9, 1945, killing tens of thousands of people, including his family. That came three days after the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, which killed 140,000 people. Japan surrendered days later, ending World War II and the country’s nearly half-century of aggression across Asia.
Fukahori, who worked at a shipyard about 3 kilometers from where the bomb dropped, couldn’t talk about what happened for years, not only because of the painful memories but also how powerless he felt then.
About 15 years ago, he became more outspoken after encountering, during a visit to Spain, a man who experienced the bombing of Guernica in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War when he was also 14 years old. The shared experience helped Fukahori open up.
“On the day the bomb dropped, I heard a voice asking for help. When I walked over and held out my hand, the person’s skin melted. I still remember how that felt,” Fukahori told Japan’s national broadcaster NHK in 2019.