Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday closed the door on meeting US President Donald Trump, despite last-minute European efforts to ease tensions as the US again ramped up punishing sanctions.
French President Emmanuel Macron had shuttled between his US and Iranian counterparts over two days at the UN, trying to arrange a historic encounter that he hoped could reduce the risk of all-out war in the Middle East.
However, Rouhani, addressing the UN General Assembly, said that he would refuse talks so long as the US maintains its economic pressure.
“I would like to announce that our response to any negotiation under sanctions is negative,” Rouhani said.
He dismissed the idea of a photo-op with Trump, who is fond of drama and held three made-for-TV meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“Memento photos are the final stage of negotiations, not the first one,” he said.
He expressed doubt over the sincerity of the Trump administration to negotiate, pointing to officials’ boasts of applying “the harshest sanctions in history” against Iran.
“How can someone believe them when the silent killing of a great nation, and pressure on the lives of 83 million Iranians, especially women and children, are welcomed by American government officials?” Rouhani said.
“The Iranian nation will never, ever forget and forgive these crimes and these criminals,” he said.
Trump had already ruled out easing economic pressure and, hours before Rouhani’s speech, his administration said that it was stepping up sanctions.
In a proclamation posted on the White House Web site on Wednesday, Trump authorized the restriction and suspension of entry of senior Iranian government officials and their immediate family into the US, calling Tehran “a state sponsor of terrorism.”
“Given that this behavior threatens peace and stability in the Middle East and beyond, I have determined that it is in the interest of the United States to take action,” the proclamation said.
On Trump’s last scheduled day at the annual UN summit of world leaders, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the US would punish Chinese companies and their chief executives for buying Iranian oil.
“We’re telling China, and all nations — know that we will sanction every violation of sanctionable activity,” Pompeo told a group opposed to Iran’s clerical regime on the sidelines of the meeting.
“This is one of the largest sanctions actions the United States has taken against entities and individuals identified as transporting Iranian oil since our sanctions were reimposed in November 2018,” Pompeo said in a statement.
“This action is aimed to deny the Iranian regime critical income to engage in foreign conflicts, advance its ballistic missile development and fund terror around the world,” he said.
China, which is embroiled in a trade spat as well as myriad other disputes with the US, is believed to be the biggest foreign buyer of Iranian oil.
China’s military news agency yesterday warned that Japanese militarism is infiltrating society through series such as Pokemon and Detective Conan, after recent controversies involving events at sensitive sites. In recent days, anime conventions throughout China have reportedly banned participants from dressing as characters from Pokemon or Detective Conan and prohibited sales of related products. China Military Online yesterday posted an article titled “Their schemes — beware the infiltration of Japanese militarism in culture and sports.” The article referenced recent controversies around the popular anime series Pokemon, Detective Conan and My Hero Academia, saying that “the evil influence of Japanese militarism lives on in
DIPLOMATIC THAW: The Canadian prime minister’s China visit and improved Beijing-Ottawa ties raised lawyer Zhang Dongshuo’s hopes for a positive outcome in the retrial China has overturned the death sentence of Canadian Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian official said on Friday, in a possible sign of a diplomatic thaw as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to boost trade ties with Beijing. Schellenberg’s lawyer, Zhang Dongshuo (張東碩), yesterday confirmed China’s Supreme People’s Court struck down the sentence. Schellenberg was detained on drug charges in 2014 before China-Canada ties nosedived following the 2018 arrest in Vancouver of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟). That arrest infuriated Beijing, which detained two Canadians — Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig — on espionage charges that Ottawa condemned as retaliatory. In January
Two medieval fortresses face each other across the Narva River separating Estonia from Russia on Europe’s eastern edge. Once a symbol of cooperation, the “Friendship Bridge” connecting the two snow-covered banks has been reinforced with rows of razor wire and “dragon’s teeth” anti-tank obstacles on the Estonian side. “The name is kind of ironic,” regional border chief Eerik Purgel said. Some fear the border town of more than 50,0000 people — a mixture of Estonians, Russians and people left stateless after the fall of the Soviet Union — could be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next target. On the Estonian side of the bridge,
Jeremiah Kithinji had never touched a computer before he finished high school. A decade later, he is teaching robotics, and even took a team of rural Kenyans to the World Robotics Olympiad in Singapore. In a classroom in Laikipia County — a sparsely populated grasslands region of northern Kenya known for its rhinos and cheetahs — pupils are busy snapping together wheels, motors and sensors to assemble a robot. Guiding them is Kithinji, 27, who runs a string of robotics clubs in the area that have taken some of his pupils far beyond the rural landscapes outside. In November, he took a team
RSS