Russia blocked a US attempt to have the UN Security Council issue a statement on last week's incident involving an unidentified aircraft flying over Georgian air space and dropping a missile near a village, calling it "premature."
Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the council should not take a stand since a high-level Russian military delegation had just arrived in the Georgian capital, Tblisi, for talks with Georgian experts on the incident.
"We are looking forward to serious and constructive and substantive discussions with the Georgian experts of this incident," he said Thursday. "It would be premature for the council to take any kind of stand on this matter."
US Deputy Ambassador Jackie Sanders said "the United States deplores this attack" and supports Georgia's call for an emergency meeting of the council.
"We thought it was really important that the Security Council make a statement on this issue," she said. "Russia was not prepared today to have a formal statement or press statement. This is an ongoing situation. We intend to pursue it."
Georgia accused Russia last week of "an act of aggression," saying it has "incontrovertible evidence" that Russian jets launched a missile near the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Russia's air force has flatly denied that its planes crossed into Georgia's air space.
But on Wednesday a group of eight international military experts determined that the plane, which flew over Georgian territory on Aug. 6, had come from Russian air space, releasing the missile on the final flight.
The experts, who included a Latvian air traffic controller, two Swedish defense experts and US analysts, did not identify the aircraft, but agreed with Georgian conclusions that the missile that landed was a Russian-made, anti-radar Raduga Kh-58.
Churkin appeared to dismiss this and other investigations, saying "the Georgian side has gone out of its way to create all sorts of noise around it, and as a result of it all there is a lot of conflicting information, a lot of conflicting evidence and assertions surrounding this incident."
"But from the outset we have been saying what is required is a thorough professional discussion and investigation between Russian and Georgian experts," he said.
Churkin said Moscow hoped that Georgia would create "proper conditions" for a serious discussion with the Russian delegation, which includes air force chief of staff Lieutenant-General Igor Khvorov and senior officials from the defense and foreign ministries.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the