Tehran, Feb 16 (IANS) Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has launched the main stage of a “combined, intense and targetted” military exercise in the Strait of Hormuz. The drill, dubbed the ‘Smart Control of the Strait of Hormuz’ involves the IRGC’s naval forces and is being conducted under the supervision, control and field monitoring of IRGC’s Chief Commander Mohammad Pakpour, read a statement published Monday on the IRGC’s official news outlet Sepah News.Among the main objectives of…
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Washington, Feb 16 (IANS) US President Donald Trump said he would support Israeli strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile program if negotiations between Washington and Tehran fail, US media reported.Trump made the remarks when he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago in Florida in December, according to a CBS News report, citing two sources familiar with the matter.US military and intelligence officials have also discussed how Washington could assist Israel in potential o…
Munich, Feb 15 (IANS) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that he hopes for serious and substantive discussions in the upcoming peace talks with Russia and the United States in Geneva.”We truly hope that the trilateral meetings next week will be serious, substantive, and helpful for all of us,” Zelensky said during a speech at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday (local time), according to a report on the Ukrainian president’s official website.Zelensky said that the …
Moscow, Feb 11 (IANS) Russia is ready to seek a negotiated solution to the Ukraine crisis based on understandings reached by the leaders of Russia and the United States, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.He said Russia remains fully committed to the outcomes of the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump held in the US city of Anchorage, Alaska in August last year, and noted that Moscow expects its interests to be fully taken into account in the p…
Cairo, Feb 8 (IANS) Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said that he expected a new round of talks with the United States to take place “soon,” describing the meeting held a day earlier as a positive start while cautioning that rebuilding trust would take time.In an interview with Al Jazeera, aired on Saturday and later shared in Persian on his Telegram channel, Araghchi also made clear that Tehran would not relinquish its uranium enrichment program, which he called an “inalienable righ…
Washington, Feb 6 (IANS) The White House said US talks with Iran will take place in Oman, with President Donald Trump’s team pursuing diplomacy while insisting Tehran must accept “zero nuclear capability.”Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner “will be traveling to Oman for those talks tomorrow,” after a reporter noted the discussions had been expected in Turkey before being moved.Leavitt did not give a detailed reason for the venue change, …
Washington, Feb 4, (IANS) US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday confirmed that Ukrainian and Russian technical military teams are holding direct talks with US involvement, calling the engagement an important step even as he cautioned that the most difficult issues remain unresolved.“For the first time in a very long time, we have technical military teams from both Ukraine and Russia meeting in a forum that we’ll also be involved with,” Rubio told reporters, referring to discussions …
Tehran, Jan 31 (IANS) Iran’s Army Chief Amir Hatami on Saturday warned that if the United States makes any mistake, it will definitely jeopardise its own security and that of Israel and the entire West Asia region, according to the official news agency IRNA. Speaking at a national festival in Tehran, Hatami emphasised the Iranian armed forces’ readiness amid escalating tensions with Washington.”Today, the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran are in complete defence and military readiness…
Washington, Jan 30 (IANS) US President Donald Trump said that Russia agreed not to fire on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities for a week during extreme cold, as his envoy described what he called new momentum in talks since Geneva.Trump asked special envoy Steve Witkoff to brief his Cabinet colleagues on the diplomatic track. Witkoff said, “The Ukrainians actually said that we’ve made more progress in the last — since Geneva than they’ve seen in the last four years of that conflict.”Witkof…
Washington, Jan 25 (IANS) US President Donald Trump has directed his negotiating team to pursue a long-term deal to prevent a recurrence of the Ukraine war, senior administration officials said following what they described as productive discussions involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.Recent diplomatic engagements in Davos, Abu Dhabi, and Russia focused on resolving what they termed the remaining open issues in the conflict, including security, p…