Iran yesterday said it was not holding talks with France over its ballistic missile development, after Paris said it was ready to impose more sanctions if European attempts to address the program in discussions with Tehran made no progress.
“There has been no talks, whether secret or not secret, about our missile program with France or any other country,” Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Bahram Qasemi told a weekly news conference, broadcast live on state TV.
French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Friday said that France was ready to impose further curbs if no progress was made in talks over the program, described by Tehran as purely defensive, but seen in the West as a destabilizing factor in a volatile region.
“Our missile program is a defensive programme that we only discuss it inside the country. I cannot confirm holding any secret talks with France over our missile program,” Qasemi said, when asked about Le Drian’s remarks. “We talk about regional and political issues with France ... but our missile capability is not negotiable ... we have repeatedly said that during our political talks with France.”
A UN Security Council resolution, which enshrined Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with major powers in 2015, “called upon” Tehran to refrain for up to eight years from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons.
Iran says its missile tests are not in violation of the resolution and denies its missiles are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
US President Donald Trump exited the deal in May last year and has reimposed sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the pact in return for Tehran curbing its nuclear program.
At meetings between European and Iranian diplomats last year, Britain, France, Germany and Italy, pressed for gestures on Iran’s role in Syria’s war and for help to end the conflict in Yemen.
However, several bilateral talks on the ballistic missile program have yielded no results and France, Britain and Germany are now considering whether to push for sanctions and asset freezes and travel bans on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Iranians developing the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile programme, diplomats have told said.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS