Helsinki, May 22 (IANS) Technical-level talks involving Russia and Ukraine may take place as early as next week at the Vatican, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said in an interview with national broadcaster Yle.
Stubb said on Wednesday evening that the talks would likely include representatives from the US and European countries, calling the potential meeting a positive step toward broader international engagement in efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine.”It is very probable that next week, for example at the Vatican, there will be a technical meeting involving Ukrainians, Russians, Americans, and Europeans,” he added.He emphasised the growing role of European countries in the peace process.”We are entering a phase where Europe is also involved — and that is what we have been hoping for from the beginning,” Stubb said.On Monday, US President Donald Trump held a phone call with several European leaders including Stubb.The new Pope, Leo XIV, said earlier on Wednesday that the Holy See is ready to promote the peace process in Ukraine, including to host talks.US President Donald Trump welcomed this initiative.Talks between Russia and Ukraine were held in Istanbul on May 16.On May 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a more than two-hour phone call with Trump where the two leaders discussed ways of settling the conflict in Ukraine.Following this call, the US president spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a number of European leaders, with Stubb being among them, to inform them about his conversation with Putin.Stubb maintained that the US has not abandoned its role as a mediator in settling Russia’s war against Ukraine.”There are now more mediators,” he noted.”Earlier, only the US played that role. Now Europe is also participating.”Earlier on May 21, Pope Leo XIV said he was prepared to host the next round of Ukraine-Russia talks at the Vatican following a conversation with Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni.On May 16, Pope Leo XIV had proposed that Ukraine and Russia hold peace negotiations at the Vatican after Russian President Putin refused to fly to Istanbul to meet with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.The same day, Ukrainian and Russian delegations met for the first time in more than three years, sitting down for talks brokered by Turkey.Ukraine’s Defence Minister and head of its delegation, Rustem Umerov, said that the key topics were a 30-day ceasefire and POW exchanges.Turkey’s Foreign Minister later said the delegations agreed on a follow-up meeting and that the ceasefire conditions would be exchanged in writing.Several media outlets reported that during the talks Russia demanded the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions. Moscow’s delegation allegedly threatened to seize Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Sumy regions and stated that “the Russian Federation is prepared to fight forever”.Trump shared details of an earlier conversation with Russian President Putin, and the group discussed ongoing negotiations, a potential ceasefire, and steps toward a lasting peace in Ukraine.–IANSint/khz

Muscat/Tehran, May 22 (IANS) Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi has said that the fifth round of indirect talks between the US and Iran will be held in Rome on Friday. The announcement was made in a post on his official X account.

The talks, aimed at reviving stalled diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program and US sanctions, are being facilitated by Oman, Xinhua news agency reported. Four rounds have taken place since April, three in Muscat and one in Rome.Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on Wednesday that Tehran was still considering whether to participate in the upcoming talks in the face of “excessive demands” from the US, according to Iran’s state news agency IRNA.”We will stand against excessive demands at the negotiating table, but we have never abandoned diplomacy,” Araghchi said, adding that uranium enrichment would continue “with or without an agreement”.He reiterated that Iran is prepared to offer transparency regarding its nuclear activities, but expects negotiations to also address the lifting of US sanctions and embargoes imposed on the country.On Wednesday, Iranian First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Aref told a Cabinet meeting in the Iranian capital Tehran that uranium enrichment on Iran’s soil is the “red line” of Iran’s establishment in its indirect talks with the US.US and Iranian officials have described the previous round of talks in Muscat on May 11 as “difficult but useful,” noting a generally positive tone despite persistent differences.US officials have in recent days called for Iran to fully halt uranium enrichment — an issue Tehran has repeatedly declared to be non-negotiable.Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed doubt this week over the talks.”We don’t think it will lead to any outcome. We don’t know what will happen,” he said.Denying Iran’s right to enrich uranium was “a big mistake,” Khamenei added.His remarks came after the US’ key negotiator in the talks, Steve Witkoff, voiced opposition to any Iranian uranium enrichment.”An enrichment programme can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line. No enrichment,” he told right-wing Breitbart News in an interview published on May 9.Iran has repeatedly insisted its right to maintain uranium enrichment was “non-negotiable”.On Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Iran would keep enriching uranium “with or without a deal” on his country’s nuclear programme.The Islamic republic currently enriches uranium to 60 per cent, far above the 3.67-per cent limit set in the 2015 deal but below the 90 per cent needed for a nuclear warhead.Trump effectively torpedoed the deal in 2018 during his first term, by unilaterally pulling out and reimposing sanctions on Iran’s oil exports and banking sector.A year later, Iran began rolling back its commitments to the agreement, which had offered sanctions relief in return for UN-monitored restrictions on its nuclear activities.The three European powers — party to the 2015 accord — are weighing whether to trigger the “snapback” mechanism, which would reinstate UN sanctions in response to Iranian non-compliance. That option expires in October.Araghchi earlier this month warned of “irreversible” consequences if Britain, France and Germany moved to reimpose sanctions.–IANSint/khz

Jerusalem, May 22 (IANS) Israel’s military has said it intercepted a projectile launched from the Gaza Strip, as fighting escalated across the besieged enclave under its widening military campaign.
In a statement on Wednesday, the military said the projectile was fired from northern Gaza and intercepted by the Israeli Air Force.Air raid sirens sounded in the Lakhish area of southern Israel, Xinhua news agency reported.There were no reports of casualties.No group has claimed responsibility for the launch.The incident comes days after two rockets were fired from central Gaza on Sunday.Israel’s military said one was intercepted while the other landed in an open area.The Israeli military’s spokesperson Lt. Colonel Avichay Adraee warned residents of the northern areas of Gaza to head south for safety ahead of an imminent attack in response to the rocket fire.”The IDF will act with force in the area from which rockets were fired. Terror groups, especially Hamas, are responsible for the suffering of civilians. Your your own safety, head to the south,” Adraee said in his post.According to the Israel Defense Forces, a single projectile launched from the northern Gaza Strip was intercepted by the air defence after crossing into Israeli territory.The IDF confirmed there were no injuries in the incident and said it is continuing to investigate the details.The Ashkelon Municipality also reported that one rocket was intercepted and said no unusual incidents or damage were recorded in the city.The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, stating it was carried out in response to what it called “the Zionist massacre against our Palestinian people”.In a statement, the group said it had “bombed Ashdod and Ashkelon with a barrage of rockets” as retaliation.The exchanges follow the launch of Israel’s latest offensive, Operation Gideon’s Chariots, which Palestinian health authorities said has killed hundreds in its first five days.The Gaza-based health authorities reported on Wednesday that 53,655 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its military campaign more than 19 months ago.–IANSint/khz

Helsinki, May 22 (IANS) The US Department of State has cancelled a Fulbright scholarship awarded…

Beirut, May 22 (IANS) Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met here with his visiting Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas, discussing bilateral relations, regional developments, and international issues of mutual concern.

According to a statement issued on Wednesday following the talks, the two leaders highlighted the “brotherly” relationship between their two countries, stressing shared commitment to deepening cooperation on various levels.Addressing the ongoing Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip, both sides condemned what they described as “the continued Israeli aggression” that has resulted in “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” urging the international community to take immediate action to halt the violence and ensure full protection for civilians, Xinhua news agency reported.The two leaders also denounced repeated Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty and called on international actors — especially the US and France — to pressure Israel into implementing a ceasefire agreement reached under their mediation in November 2024.The statement also announced the formation of a joint Lebanese-Palestinian committee tasked with monitoring living conditions in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.They pledged to enhance coordination to maintain stability within and around the camps, jointly preventing them from becoming “safe havens for radical groups”.On top of that, both sides reaffirmed the principle of exclusive state control over arms in Lebanon and shared the belief that “the era of weapons out of state control in Lebanon” is over.The announcement came at the start of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ three-day visit to Lebanon.Abbas and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun affirmed their “commitment to the principle of exclusive possession of weapons by the Lebanese state and to ending any manifestations that fall outside the framework of the Lebanese state”.Abbas arrived at Beirut airport at about 1 p.m. and immediately headed to the presidential headquarters.A presidential source said the talks focused on the issue of “Palestinian weapons in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, the extension of full Lebanese state authority over these camps and the implementation framework for the plan”.On the issue of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, both leaders stressed the importance of “continued support for UN agency UNRWA, the continuation of its services to refugees and increasing its financial resources to enable it to fulfill its obligations”.They also agreed to form a joint Lebanese-Palestinian committee to monitor the situation in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon and work to improve the living conditions of refugees, “while respecting Lebanese sovereignty and adhering to Lebanese laws.”–IANSint/khz

Jerusalem, May 22 (IANS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reaffirmed his government’s intention to fully reoccupy besieged Gaza, dismissed any agreement to end the war, and brushed aside any speculations of a rift with US President Donald Trump.

“There are certainly 20 hostages still alive in Gaza and up to 38 others believed to have been killed,” he said on Wednesday during a press conference at his office in West Jerusalem.The Palestinian group Hamas has repeatedly expressed its readiness to release Israeli captives in a single exchange in return for an end to the war, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the release of Palestinian prisoners.Netanyahu has rejected those terms, instead demanding the disarmament of Palestinian resistance factions and insisting on the full reoccupation of Gaza.He also laid out his conditions for ending the war: the return of all Israeli hostages, the removal of the Hamas leadership from Gaza, and the complete disarmament of the group.Netanyahu claimed that once these goals are achieved, Israel would move to implement the so-called Trump Plan — widely interpreted as a framework for the relocation of Palestinians from Gaza.Netanyahu also dismissed speculation of a falling out with the US administration following a visit to the Gulf by Trump that left out Israel.Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates hauled in a series of big-ticket business deals, but fuelled widespread media commentary pointing out that Israel, Washington’s closest ally in the region, had not been included.The visit followed Trump’s decision to end a US bombing campaign against the Houthis in Yemen.Netanyahu, who had previously made no public comment on the issue, told reporters at a news conference that he told him: “‘Bibi, I want you to know, I have a complete commitment to you and I have a complete commitment to the state of Israel.'”Amid growing international pressure on Israel, Trump has urged a quick end to the war in Gaza and spoken of the suffering of civilians in the besieged enclave, where an 11-week Israeli aid blockade has created a deep humanitarian crisis.In a separate conversation a few days ago, Netanyahu said US Vice President J.D. Vance had told him: “‘Don’t pay attention to all these fake news stories about this rupture between us'”.–IANSkhz/

Jerusalem/Beirut, May 22 (IANS) The Israeli military have said it launched a drone strike in southern Lebanon, killing a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force.

The military issued a statement on Wednesday, saying that the strike was carried out in the Yater area, without specifying the commander’s name.Meanwhile, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA), citing Khalil Kourani, head of Yater Municipality, said the dead was a citizen identified as Ali Hassan Abdel Latif Sweidan, who was targetted when he was clearing the rubble from his home using his excavator.Earlier in the day, the Israeli military claimed to have killed Hussein Nazih Barji, a Hezbollah operative involved in the group’s weapons development program, during an Israeli drone strike in the Tyre area in southern Lebanon, Xinhua news agency reported.The NNA confirmed the attack, but did not say if the dead was a member of Hezbollah.The incidents were the latest in a series of Israeli attacks despite a ceasefire reached in November 2024 that ended 14 months of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.Israel’s military said it carried out a drone strike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, killing a Hezbollah operative involved in the group’s weapons development programme.The man, identified as Hussein Nazih Barji, was struck while travelling in a vehicle in the Tyre area, according to a military statement accompanied by surveillance footage.Barji was described as “a central figure” in a directorate of Hezbollah that oversees the development, manufacture, and maintenance of weapons, including precision missiles, and works to expand the group’s supply capabilities, Xinhua news agency reported.The military said Barji was “a veteran engineer responsible for building infrastructure for the production of precision surface-to-surface missiles”.His killing was intended to “disrupt Hezbollah’s recovery efforts,” it added.Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on social media platform X that “Barji’s activities represented a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will continue to act to eliminate any threat to the State of Israel.”The Lebanese Health Ministry confirmed the attack, saying that a “hostile” drone targetted a car on the Housh-Ain Baal road in the Tyre district, killing one person from the town of Ramadiyah.Meanwhile, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported another death from an Israeli drone strike on Wednesday on the village of Yater.On Monday, a Hezbollah member was killed and three civilians injured in a spate of Israeli air and ground strikes targetting various areas in southern Lebanon.The official National News Agency (NNA) reported that an Israeli airstrike had targetted the outskirts of the village of Houla. A Lebanese security source confirmed that a Hezbollah member, named Issa Qutaish and originally from Houla, was killed in the strike.The NNA had said that in two additional incidents, two people were injured when an Israeli drone hit a motorcycle in the Wadi Sarbin area, while another individual was wounded in the shoulder as Israeli forces opened fire on him at the entrance of Kafr Kila village.The incidents were the latest in a series of Israeli attacks despite a ceasefire reached in November 2024 that ended 14 months of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.–IANSint/khz

Ottawa, May 22 (IANS) Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand has said that she is summoning the Israeli ambassador over Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF)’s warning shots near a diplomatic tour in the West Bank.
Anand confirmed on Wednesday that four of Canada’s personnel were part of the delegation when Israel Defense Forces fired shots, Xinhua news agency reported.She wrote on her social media account that she spoke with Canada’s Head of Mission in Ramallah earlier on Wednesday and that she was relieved to know Canada’s team is safe.”I have asked my officials to summon Israel’s Ambassador to convey Canada’s serious concerns. We expect a full investigation and accountability,” Anand wrote.Israel Defense Forces said that the tour group deviated from its approved route and soldiers fired warning shots with no one injured in the incident.Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement threatening to impose targeted sanctions on Israel in response to its renewed military offensive in Gaza.Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that it’s “totally unacceptable” that members of the Israeli army fired shots near a diplomatic delegation, which included Canadians, in the West Bank on Wednesday.The federal government confirmed on Wednesday that four Canadian personnel were part of a tour in the city of Jenin when members of the IDF fired in their vicinity. Two were Canadians and two were local staff, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s office said.”We expect a full investigation and we expect an immediate explanation of what happened. It’s totally unacceptable, it’s some of many things that are totally unacceptable that’s going on in the region,” Carney said during a news conference in Ottawa.In a statement the IDF said the tour group, which also included representatives from other countries, “deviated” from the approved route and soldiers fired warning shots to get the delegation to move.The IDF said it “regrets the inconvenience caused”.Anand joins other Foreign Ministers condemning the incident.The Western leaders’ letter followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying his country would control Gaza despite mounting international pressure to lift a blockade on aid supplies that left the enclave on the brink of famine.Netanyahu condemned the joint statement in a social media post and called it “a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7,” referring to Hamas’s attack against Israel in 2023 which ignited the war in GazaConservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also took aim at Carney’s joint statement.”The Hamas terrorists have just thanked Mark Carney for his recent statement on Israel,” he posted online on Tuesday.”Threatening Israel with sanctions and ‘further concrete actions’ while a terrorist group on their borders holds their citizens hostage and refuses to stop attacking Israel is wrong.”Carney said during his Wednesday news conference that he informed US Vice President J.D. Vance of the statement when the two met in Rome over the weekend.When asked for more details on what Canada is preparing to do if Netanyahu’s government doesn’t change course, Carney offered little detail, saying that the intention of his statement with the UK and France was “clear”.In a dire warning this week, the United Nations said 14,000 babies are at risk of acute malnutrition if food stationed at the border is not allowed to reach them in Gaza.According to aid groups, Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Wednesday, but workers have not been able to bring food and supplies to distribution points and to Palestinians in need.–IANSint/khz

Caracas, May 22 (IANS) Another 90 Venezuelan migrants deported by the US arrived in the capital Caracas, the Interior Ministry said.

The migrants, including 77 men, six women and seven children, flew from the US southern state of Texas to the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, which serves the capital Caracas area, Xinhua news agency reported.”Venezuelan government agencies and institutions are guaranteeing the different protocols regarding health and legal security for the arrival of those who were deported by the US government,” the Ministry said on Wednesday in a press statement.Returning migrants were met by representatives of different agencies, such as the Ministry of Health, the National Children’s Institute, the Bolivarian National Police and the intelligence services.Since February, repatriation flights from the US have increased.According to Venezuelan authorities, more than 4,000 migrants have been repatriated from the US and Mexico since the beginning of the year.A two-year-old Venezuelan girl, who had been held by the US government after it deported her mother, returned to Venezuela, where she was received by authorities of the South American country.Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal was taken from her mother’s arms just before she was deported, in an incident that Venezuelan officials described as a “kidnapping”.The toddler returned to Venezuela on Wednesday by a US-registered plane that landed at the the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, which serves the capital Caracas, along with 226 Venezuelan migrants deported from the US, including seven minors and 37 women.Venezuelan First Lady Cilia Flores thanked the people for their solidarity with the minor, noting that the government “remained firm” in demanding her return.The girl’s mother, Yorelys Bernal, who was deported to Venezuela in April, was not at the airport to receive her, but officials said the two would soon be reunited.The separation of Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal from her parents had caused an outcry in the South American nation.Several demonstrations were held in Caracas to denounce her “abduction” by US authorities.President Nicolas Maduro thanked his US counterpart and arch-foe, Donald Trump, for returning the child to Venezuela.Striking an unusually conciliatory tone, he said that “there have been, and will be differences” with the Trump administration but called the return of the toddler a “profoundly humane act of justice”.The little girl is one of several children caught up in Trump’s crackdown on illegal migration.The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the girl was placed in foster care to protect her from her parents, who it claimed were members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua criminal gang.Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said her return was “a great victory,” adding she “should never have been separated from her parents,” and the US government should “recognise the mistakes it has made”.Since February, flights repatriating Venezuelan migrants deported from the US have increased.The toddler’s mother said she and her husband were separated from their daughter when they handed themselves over to US authorities after arriving in the country illegally in May 2024.Her father is believed to have been among a group of Venezuelans sent by the US to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison.The Trump administration said that the Venezuelans it sent to El Salvador were members of Tren de Aragua, but has provided scant evidence to back that claim.The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Maikelys’ father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona, was a Tren de Aragua “lieutenant” who oversaw “homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house”.It said the girl’s mother oversaw the recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution.The mother, Bernal, 20, claimed they were detained because they had tattoos, which US authorities have linked to gang activity.Since February, more than 4,000 migrants have been sent home to Venezuela, some deported from the US and others from Mexico, where they had gathered in the hope of crossing into the US.–IANSint/khz

Washington, May 21 (IANS) US President Donald Trump on Wednesday grilled visiting President of South Africa, Cyril Cyril Ramaphosa, on the persecution of white farmers in his country with a video representation and news articles in a joint media interface at the White House.
At one point, Trump asked staff to dim the lights in the Oval Office and play a video that showed a man calling for killing white farmers and snatching their lands.One clip apparently showed cars carrying bodies of killed farmers.This public White House grilling of a visiting foreign leader at the White House was similar to the clash between President Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance on the one side and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in February. The two sides had called off the rest of the scheduled meetings for the day.However, the South Africans stayed and went on to go through the rest of their meetings.President Ramaphosa, who had sought the meeting, pushed back on the allegations levelled by President Trump, to which the latter said, “But why wouldn’t you arrest that man? That man said, Kill the white farmers. Kill the white farmers. And then he danced, and he’s dancing, dancing.””I’m not sure, but I think if somebody got up in Parliament and started saying, kill a certain group of people that he would be in, he would be arrested very quickly,” President Trump said.”That man is going all over South Africa, and that’s not a small party in a stadium that holds 100,000 people, and I hardly saw an empty seat. That’s a lot of people, that’s a lot of representation.”The South African President had sought to explain away the man in the video as a minor Opposition party figure and that these were fringe elements in South Africa.”Those crosses,” President Trump said of the clip showing cars with bodies and crosses, “we have dead white people, dead white farmers, mostly. And you take a look at Australia, they’re being inundated, and we’re being inundated with people that want to get out, and their farm is valueless… And this is a very serious situation.”Trump has suspended foreign aid to South Africa and has ordered speedy processing of refugee status for white South Africans.–IANSyrj/khz