The European Union has awarded its top human rights prize to the Belarus opposition movement and its leader, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. They received the Sakharov Prize for their challenge to what EU leaders view as Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko’s long, hard-line reign.
The Iranian Islamic regime has announced it is beginning a massive air defense drill across half of Iran’s airspace this week, the Jerusalem Post (JP) reports. Set to start on Wednesday, the drill follows the expiration on October 18 of the ten-year long UN arms embargo on Iran, and renewed Iranian interest in upgrading its military and defense technology.
An exiled Iranian dissident group says Iran has developed a new nuclear bomb-making facility, the Washington Times reports. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a French- and Albanian-based group working to overthrow the Iranian regime, said Friday it has learned that there is a new facility in Sorkheh-Hesar in northeast Iran.
Authorities in Belarus have authorized police to use lethal force if necessary against anti-government protesters, prompting more European Union sanctions. The move comes after officials confirmed that at least 713 people were detained since Sunday during mass protests against the reelection of the country’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in a disputed vote.
The U.S. government imposed new sanctions on 18 Iranian banks as Washington turned up the pressure on Tehran by further isolating it from the global banking system and hindering the country’s attempts to build nuclear weapons.
France and Germany said on Wednesday they would propose European Union sanctions against Russian individuals after receiving no credible answers from Moscow over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent.
Lebanon’s parliament speaker said on Thursday that a framework had been agreed for talks with Israel to end a long-running maritime border dispute between the two nations that are formally at war.
Authorities in Belarus have admitted detaining hundreds of people in a weekend of massive protests against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko across the country.
The European Union said Thursday it doesn’t recognize Alexander Lukashenko as the President of Belarus after being sworn in for a sixth term during a secret ceremony.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed Tuesday that the next US leader must accept Tehran’s demands, ruling out compromise as Donald Trump vies for reelection.
President Trump will impose sanctions on China if Beijing authorizes arms sales to Iran following his move to dismantle the 2015 nuclear deal and renew international sanctions on Tehran.
The United States has imposed sanctions on more than two dozen people and entities involved in Iran’s atomic activities or its missile and conventional weapons programs, as Washington unilaterally seeks to enforce a UN arms embargo against the Middle East country.
Leaked documents suggest that one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest friends used a prominent British bank to launder millions of dollars and evade Western sanctions. Separately the company of U.S. President Donald Trump allegedly benefited from laundered money, but officials denied those charges.
The Trump administration announced Monday that its sanctions on Chinese companies which use Muslim Uighur slave labor could affect up to $250 million worth of goods that come from the Xinjiang region of China, the Western Journal reports.
As the US believes Iran has continued to develop nuclear weapons, and as the United Nations arms embargo on Iran expires next month, the State Department announced Wednesday that it is pressing forward with “snap back” sanctions that are provided for under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Iran Nuclear deal, Fox News reports. Under the terms of the JCPoA, snapback sanctions can be re-imposed if Iran is perceived to be violating the terms of the agreement. However, as the Trump administration withdrew from the JCPoA in 2018, UNSC members Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia have unequivocally stated the US has no authority to unilaterally enforce snapback sanctions once the current embargo is lifted on October 18.
State Department officials said Wednesday that it will push forward with U.S. sanctions against Iran, and will impose sanctions on anyone who violates the United Nations arms embargo — despite its expiration next month under the 2015 nuclear deal.
As talks were underway between the Vatican and Belarus, reports emerged that Belarusian authorities detained dozens of pro-democracy protesters.
A California Superior Court has ordered Pastor John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church to stop holding indoor services in defiance of county COVID-19 health regulations, Courthouse News reports. Giving his ruling on Thursday, LA County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff said he was making the order because “there is an immediate threat to public health and safety due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are working toward forming a “strong foundation” for future, high level “cooperation,” the leaders’ respective national media have reported. The Turkish and Iranian media reports followed a video conference the two leaders held on Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post said.
Police have tried to disperse demonstrators in the Belarusian capital where some 100,000 people demanded the resignation of long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko. Sunday’s rallies in Minsk and other cities came as a police crackdown on dissidents and activists intensified.