Latest news with #PeaceTalks
Gulf Business
a day ago
- Politics
- Gulf Business
US strikes Iran's main nuclear sites, says Trump
US forces have hit Iran's three main nuclear sites overnight, President Donald Trump announced. He warned Tehran that further strikes would follow unless it agreed to peace. 'The strikes were a spectacular military success,' Trump said in a televised Oval Office address. 'Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.' He added: 'If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill.' According to CBS News, the US approached Iran diplomatically on Saturday, signalling that no further attacks were planned and that Washington was not seeking regime change. Trump named the three nuclear sites targeted as Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow. Speaking to Fox News, he said six bunker-buster bombs were dropped on Fordow, while 30 Tomahawk missiles hit the other two sites. The full extent of damage at the site may take days or longer to assess due to its fortification. In Tehran, an Iranian official quoted by Tasnim news agency confirmed 'enemy airstrikes' had struck part of the Fordow facility. Hassan Abedini, deputy political head of Iran's state broadcaster, said authorities had removed materials from the sites before the strikes. 'The enriched uranium reserves had been transferred from the nuclear centres and there are no materials left there that, if targeted, would cause radiation and be harmful to our compatriots,' he told the channel.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Ukraine received at least 20 bodies of Russian soldiers in recent exchanges, Zelenskyy says
Ukraine's president said that Russia repatriated at least 20 of its own dead soldiers in recent exchanges with Ukraine, describing it as a result of Moscow 's disorganization in carrying out large swaps of wounded POWs and remains of troops. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that an Israeli citizen was among the dead Ukraine had received in recent exchanges. He spoke to journalists on Friday but his comments were embargoed until Saturday. Officials did not disclose the identities of the bodies. 'They threw the corpses of their citizens at us. This is their attitude toward war, toward their soldiers. And this is already documented. Sometimes these bodies even have Russian passports,' he said. He said the Russian side insisted the dead were all Ukrainians. Journalists were shown a Russian passport and ID belonging to one of the 20 dead Russians. According to the document, the man came from the Moscow region. Zelenskyy doubts Putin wants peace The exchanges of the dead and wounded soldiers are the only tangible result of direct peace talks in Istanbul. In June, Ukraine and Russia agreed to exchange the bodies of fallen soldiers in a 6,000-for-6,000 format during the second round of negotiations. Ukraine was concerned that the number was too high and that the sides did not have enough time for forensic examinations and checking the identities of the dead. Zelenskyy said he suspected Russia's plan was to play along with peace talks to appease the U.S. and stave off more sanctions but without ending the war that Russian President Vladimir Putin believes he is winning. He said that because of this, Ukraine would be 'in a really difficult situation' of deciding whether to continue the talks in Istanbul. Impact of Iran-Israel war on Ukraine Zelenskyy said Ukraine was against Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, because of its military partnership with Russia, but stopped short of expressing explicit support for Israel's strikes. He repeated that the new war in the Middle East will affect Ukraine indirectly. 'Iran gave the Russians everything to kill us. They gave them martyrs, they gave them missiles, and they gave them licenses. The fact that their production capacities have now become weaker is (a) positive for us. But at certain points it may already be too late,' he said, also citing Russia's military cooperation with North Korea. Russia has modified Iran-made Shahed drones and has used them, often hundreds at a time, in barrages targeting Ukraine. Zelenskyy said 39 Russian companies were involved in the production of Oreshnik, an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. He said 21 of them are not under sanctions. 'And therefore it is absolutely incomprehensible why sanctions should not be imposed urgently,' he said. Russia attacked Ukraine with the missile in November, marking a serious escalation in the war and Russia's capabilities. Ukraine looks to Europe to boost domestic weapons Zelenskyy dispelled reports that Patriots air defense systems were destroyed in recent Russian drone and missile barrages. He also said Ukraine has started using domestically produced interceptors to shoot down Shahed drones and is seeking financing from Germany to ramp up the weapon's production. He added he sent signals to Western partners asking them to give up 0.25% of their GDP to support Ukraine's local defense industry. Zelenskyy said it's likely he would attend a NATO summit later this week, but that he would make a final decision on Monday. Though Zelenskyy did not meet Trump who had left early the Group of Seven summit in Canada last week, Ukraine's Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and the head of the president's office, Andriy Yermak, gave U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent a list of weapons Ukraine is hoping to purchase. 'We will wait feedback,' Zelenskyy said, adding the package of weapons included Patriot systems. The weapons package would be among the topics Zelenskyy plans to discuss with Trump in their next meeting, he added, as well as the issue of sanctions. 'Frankly, it seems to me that we need to talk about a new breath in the diplomatic track,' he said. 'We need greater certainty and greater pressure from the world on Putin.' ___
Telegraph
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
South Korea stops blasting K-Pop and propaganda at North
South Korea's military has been ordered to stop playing K-Pop music and political propaganda through loudspeakers in the direction of North Korea. Seoul suspended the broadcasts along its demilitarised border on Wednesday morning as part of attempts by its new Left-wing government to cool tensions with its neighbour. A spokesman for South Korea's defence ministry said: 'The decision was made as part of efforts to carry out the promise of restoring inter-Korean trust and peace on the Korean Peninsula.' The two countries are technically still at war because no formal peace treaty was ever signed to officially end the Korean War, despite a ceasefire in 1953. Lee Jae-myung, who was elected South Korea's new president last week, has vowed to restart talks with Pyongyang, which had considered the broadcasts to be an act of war and previously threatened to blow the loudspeakers up. Mr Lee said in his inaugural speech that he would 'open a communication channel with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula through talks and co-operation'. The broadcasts, which have been running on and off since the 1960s, had included a wide range of music and messages, from pop songs to more sensitive segments on democracy and capitalism. North Korea has also played broadcasts over the border, including messages condemning South Korea and its allies, but these have tended to be harder to hear because of the poor quality of the speakers used. The broadcasts on the South Korean side were paused in 2018 after the North sent balloons filled with waste paper, cloth scraps, cigarette butts and manure over the border. They resumed in July last year. A couple of weeks after they restarted, a new rubbish-filled balloon fell on the South Korean presidential compound, prompting questions about the security of the country's key facilities. Information wars The balloons had been sent in retaliation for propaganda drops by South Korea over the years, which have included USB sticks of television dramas and leaflets criticising the North Korean regime. Earlier this week, South Korea's ministry of unification also called for the end of the leaflet campaigns. However, it comes amid efforts by Pyongyang in recent years to bolster its information war and restrict outside information. The regime passed a law in 2020 which increased the punishment for anyone caught consuming or sharing foreign media, with unverified reports that some individuals had even been executed. In 2023, Pyongyang also outlawed common South Korean phrases and made it illegal to speak in a South Korean accent. Mr Lee's overtures to the North are a departure from the more hard-line approach of his predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol. Mr Yoon, who was impeached following a short-lived declaration of martial law in December 2024, had ended engagement with Pyongyang and threatened to destroy the regime if it ever deployed nuclear weapons. North Korea has yet to comment on the loudspeakers announcement, though it has previously rejected efforts from both Seoul and the United States to resume engagement.
Reuters
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Kremlin says it is still talking to Ukraine about exchanging bodies of dead soldiers
MOSCOW, June 10 (Reuters) - Russia is still ready to return the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed in the war and is in talks with Kyiv on the subject, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. It said some of the bodies were still waiting inside refrigerated trucks for a handover. Russia has previously said that the trucks, initially carrying over 1,000 bodies, have been parked near an exchange point since at least Saturday for Ukraine to collect and has complained that Kyiv has not yet done so. Such an exchange was agreed during a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on June 2. The Kremlin said it did not yet know exactly how many bodies of Russian soldiers Ukraine was ready to hand over.
Telegraph
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Russia ‘pushing into new Ukrainian region'
Russian forces are attempting to push into a new Ukrainian region, Moscow said. Moscow's defence ministry said forces from a tank unit had 'reached the western border of the Donetsk People's Republic and are continuing to develop an offensive in the Dnipropetrovsk region'. DeepStateMap, a Ukrainian open-source intelligence map monitoring the front line, suggested Russian forces were around 100 metres from the border near the town of Horikhove. Russian advances in Ukraine accelerated in May after a slower winter campaign, according to analysis of the frontline. Vladimir Putin's troops seized 507 sq km of Ukrainian territory last month, up from 379 sq km in April and 240 sq km in March. The gains were concentrated in the eastern Donetsk region, which borders Dnipropetrovsk. The renewed momentum on the battlefield comes amid a push by the US to broker a peace deal. Russia and Ukraine have met twice for talks in Istanbul, though appear no closer to a ceasefire.
