Iran’s new president vows balance with all countries, warns US his country won’t be pressured

Update Iran’s new president vows balance with all countries, warns US his country won’t be pressured
FILE PHOTO: Iran’s President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a gathering with his supporters at the shrine of Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in south of Tehran, Iran July 6, 2024.(Reuters)
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Updated 13 July 2024
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Iran’s new president vows balance with all countries, warns US his country won’t be pressured

Iran’s new president vows balance with all countries, warns US his country won’t be pressured
  • Pezeshkian hailed his country’s relations with Russia and China
  • Added he looks forward to engaging in constructive dialogue with European countries

TEHRAN: Iran’s newly elected president said his government will create “balance in relations with all countries” in line with national interests and the prerequisites for peace but stressed to the United States that his country “will not respond to pressure.”
Masoud Pezeshkian penned “My Message To The New World” in the country’s state-owned Tehran Times late Friday, praising the latest presidential election that “demonstrated remarkable stability” and vowing to uphold “promises I made during my campaign.” 
Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old heart surgeon and longtime lawmaker, bested hard-liner former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili to clinch July 5’s runoff election to replace President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in May.
He said in his message his administration would “prioritize strengthening relations with our neighbors” and urged Arab countries to use “all diplomatic leverages” to push for a lasting ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip that started Oct.7.
Iran has long supported the militant group Hamas, and Pezeshkian on Wednesday expressed his all-out support of “the Plastesinan resistance” in a message to the group’s chief Ismail Haniyeh.
Pezeshkian, in the letter Friday, hailed his country’s relations with Russia and China which “consistently stood by us during challenging times.” He said Moscow was “a valued strategic ally” and his government would expand bilateral cooperation. He also expressed willingness to “support initiatives aimed at” achieving peace between Russia and Ukraine in the ongoing war that entered its third year.
The president also said he looked forward to furthering cooperation with Beijing and applauded it for brokering a deal to normalize relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia after seven years of diplomatic tensions.
Pezeshkian said he looks forward to engaging in constructive dialogue with European countries “based on principles of mutual respect” despite a relationship that has known “its ups and downs.”
In May 2018, the US unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — a nuclear agreement that also included Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. Since then, Western powers have accused the Islamic Republic of expanding its nuclear program and enriching uranium to an unprecedented 60 percent level, near-weapons-grade levels. The US has issued severe, mainly economic, sanctions against Iran.
Pezeshkian accused the European countries of reneging on commitments made, following the US withdrawal, to ensure “effective banking transactions, effective protection of companies from US sanctions, and the promotion of investments in Iran.” However, he added there were still many opportunities for collaboration between Iran and Europe.
He then addressed the US, underscoring his country’s refusal to “respond to pressure,” adding that Iran “entered the JCPOA in 2015 in good faith and fully met our obligations.” Pezeshkian said the US backing out has inflicted “hundreds of billions of dollars in damage to our economy” and caused “untold suffering, death and destruction on the Iranian people — particularly during the Covid pandemic” due to sanctions.
Pezeshkian said Western countries “not only missed a historic opportunity to reduce and manage tensions in the region and the world, but also seriously undermined the Non-Proliferation Treaty.” He emphasized that “Iran’s defense doctrine does not include nuclear weapons.”
Iran has held indirect talks with President Joe Biden’s administration, though there’s been no clear movement toward constraining Tehran’s nuclear program for the lifting of economic sanctions.
Pezeshkian also accused the US administration in his open letter of escalating “hostilities” by assassinating General Qassem Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s regional military activities, who was killed in a US drone strike in neighboring Iraq in 2020.
Besides regional turmoil and tense relations over Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s president faces many challenges locally. He must now convince an angry public — many under financial duress due to sanctions, stubbornly high inflation and unemployment — that he can make the changes promised while dealing with an administration still largely governed by hard-liners.
Pezeshkian has aligned himself with other moderate and reformist figures since his Presidential campaign. His main advocate has been former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who reached the 2015 JCPOA. Pezeshkian appointed Zarif as the head of the Strategic Council for the transition period of the administration. The council, comprised of experts and advisers, will focus on assessing potential candidates for key cabinet positions and ensuring a seamless handover of leadership


24 killed as pro-Ankara factions clash with Syria’s Kurdish-led SDF

24 killed as pro-Ankara factions clash with Syria’s Kurdish-led SDF
Updated 6 sec ago
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24 killed as pro-Ankara factions clash with Syria’s Kurdish-led SDF

24 killed as pro-Ankara factions clash with Syria’s Kurdish-led SDF
  • The latest bout of fighting was sparked by attacks by the Turkiye-backed fighters on two towns south of Manbij, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
  • Swathes of northern Syria are controlled by the US-backed SDF, which spearheaded the fight that helped oust the Daesh group from its last territory in Syria in 2019

BEIRUT: At least 24 fighters, mostly from Turkish-backed groups, were killed in clashes with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northern Manbij district, a war monitor said on Thursday.
The violence killed 23 Turkish-backed fighters and one member of the SDF-affiliated Manbij Military Council, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based war monitor said the latest bout of fighting was sparked by attacks by the Ankara-backed fighters on two towns south of Manbij.
Swathes of northern Syria are controlled by a Kurdish-led administration whose de facto army, the US-backed SDF, spearheaded the fight that helped oust the Daesh group from its last territory in Syria in 2019.
Turkiye accuses the main component of the SDF, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which both Washington and Ankara blacklist as a terrorist group.
Fighting has raged around the Arab-majority city of Manbij, controlled by the Manbij Military Council, a group of local fighters operating under the SDF.
According to the Observatory, “clashes continued south and east of Manbij, while Turkish forces bombarded the area with drones and heavy artillery.”
The SDF said it repelled attacks by Turkiye-backed groups south and east of Manbij.
“This morning, with the support of five Turkish drones, tanks and modern armored vehicles, the mercenary groups launched violent attacks” on several villages in the Manbij area, the SDF said in a statement.
“Our fighters succeeded in repelling all the attacks, killing dozens of mercenaries and destroying six armored vehicles, including a tank.”
Turkiye has mounted multiple operations against the SDF since 2016, and Ankara-backed groups have captured several Kurdish-held towns in northern Syria in recent weeks.
The fighting has continued since rebels led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad on December 8.
 


King Charles donates to International Rescue Committee’s Syria aid operation

King Charles donates to International Rescue Committee’s Syria aid operation
Updated 03 January 2025
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King Charles donates to International Rescue Committee’s Syria aid operation

King Charles donates to International Rescue Committee’s Syria aid operation
  • Donation will fund healthcare, protect children, provide emergency cash 

LONDON: King Charles III has helped pay for urgent humanitarian aid needed in Syria after the fall of Bashar Assad.

Charles made an undisclosed donation to International Rescue Committee UK to fund healthcare, protect children and provide emergency cash.

The king is the patron of the charity, which says Syria is facing profound humanitarian needs despite the defeat of the Assad regime by opposition forces.

Khusbu Patel, IRC UK’s acting executive director, said: “His Majesty’s contribution underscores his deep commitment to addressing urgent global challenges, and helping people affected by humanitarian crises to survive, recover and rebuild their lives.

“We are immensely grateful to His Majesty The King for his donation supporting our work in Syria. This assistance will enable us to provide essential services, including healthcare, child protection and emergency cash, to those people most in need.”

The charity said it was scaling-up its efforts in northern Syria to evaluate the urgent needs of communities. Towns and villages have become accessible to aid groups for the first time in years now that rebel forces have taken control of much of the country.

The charity said Syria ranks fourth on its emergency watchlist for 2025 and a recent assessment found that people in the northeast of the country were facing unsafe childbirth conditions, cold-related illnesses, water contamination, and shortages of medical supplies.

Charles last month said he would be “praying for Syria” as he attended a church service in London attended by various faiths.

The king met Syrian nun Sister Annie Demerjian at the event, who described the situation in her homeland after the regime had been swept from power.


Israel strikes Syrian army positions near Aleppo: monitor

Israel strikes Syrian army positions near Aleppo: monitor
Updated 16 min 44 sec ago
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Israel strikes Syrian army positions near Aleppo: monitor

Israel strikes Syrian army positions near Aleppo: monitor
  • Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes targeted defense and research facilities

BEIRUT: Israel bombed Syrian army positions south of Aleppo on Thursday, the latest such strikes since the overthrow of longtime strongman Bashar Assad, a war monitor and local residents said.

Residents reported hearing huge explosions in the area, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes targeted defense and research facilities.
The observatory said that “at least seven massive explosions were heard, resulting from an Israeli airstrike on defense factories... south of Aleppo.”
There was no immediate information on whether the strikes caused any casualties.

Syrian state TV also reported about an Israeli strike in Aleppo without providing details.
A resident of the Al-Safira area told AFP on condition of anonymity: “They hit defense factories, five strikes... The strikes were very strong. It made the ground shake, doors and windows opened — the strongest strikes I ever heard... It turned the night into day.”
Since opposition forces overthrew Assad in early December, Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes on Syrian military assets, saying they are aimed at preventing military weapons from falling into hostile hands.
 


After Ocalan visit, Turkiye opposition MPs brief speaker, far-right leader

After Ocalan visit, Turkiye opposition MPs brief speaker, far-right leader
Updated 03 January 2025
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After Ocalan visit, Turkiye opposition MPs brief speaker, far-right leader

After Ocalan visit, Turkiye opposition MPs brief speaker, far-right leader

ISTANBUL: A delegation from Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish opposition DEM party met Thursday with the parliamentary speaker and far-right MHP leader amid tentative efforts to resume dialogue between Ankara and the banned PKK militant group. DEM’s three-person delegation met with Speaker Numan Kurtulmus and then with MHP leader Devlet Bahceli.

The aim was to brief them on a rare weekend meeting with Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party who is serving life without parole on Imrali prison island near Istanbul.

It was the Ocalan’s first political visit in almost a decade and follows an easing of tension between Ankara and the PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil and is proscribed by Washington and Brussels as a terror group.

The visit took place two months after Bahceli extended a surprise olive branch to Ocalan, inviting him to parliament to disband the PKK and saying he should be given the “right to hope” in remarks understood to moot a possible early release.

Backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the tentative opening came a month before Syrian rebels began a lightning 12-day offensive that ousted Bashar Assad in a move which has forced Turkiye’s concerns about the Kurdish issue into the headlines.

During Saturday’s meeting with DEM lawmakers Sirri Sureyya Onder and Pervin Buldan, Ocalan said he had “the competence and determination to make a positive contribution to the new paradigm started by Mr.Bahceli and Mr.Erdogan.”

Onder and Buldan then “began a round of meetings with the parliamentary parties” and were joined on Thursday by Ahmet Turk, 82, a veteran Kurdish politician with a long history of involvement in efforts to resolve the Kurdish issue.


Iraq’s Sulaimaniyah city bans groups accused of PKK links

Iraq’s Sulaimaniyah city bans groups accused of PKK links
Updated 03 January 2025
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Iraq’s Sulaimaniyah city bans groups accused of PKK links

Iraq’s Sulaimaniyah city bans groups accused of PKK links

SULAIMANIYAH: Authorities in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah have banned four organizations accused of affiliation with the Turkish-blacklisted Kurdistan Workers Party, activists said Thursday, denouncing the move as “political.”

The four organizations include two feminist groups and a media production house, according to the METRO center for press freedoms which organized a news conference in Sulaimaniyah to criticize the decision.

PKK fighters have several positions in Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdistan region, which also hosts Turkish military bases used to strike Kurdish insurgents.

Ankara and Washington both deem the PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkiye, a terrorist organization.

Authorities in Sulaimaniyah, the Iraqi Kurdistan region’s second city, have been accused of leniency toward PKK activities.

But the Iraqi federal authorities in Baghdad have recently sharpened their tone against the Turkish Kurdish insurgents.

Col. Salam Abdel Khaleq, the spokesman for the Kurdish Asayesh security forces in Sulaimaniyah, told AFP that the bans came “after a decision from the Iraqi judiciary and as a result of the expiration of the licenses” of these groups.