International
Iran says Biden demands same as Trump’s on nuclear issue
AFP
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday accused US President Joe Biden’s administration of making the same demands as his predecessor Donald Trump in talks to revive a nuclear accord.
The multilateral deal that offers Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme was torpedoed by Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from it in 2018.
A last round of negotiations between Iran and the deal’s remaining parties to revive the 2015 accord concluded in June with no resumption in sight.
“America’s current administration is no different from the previous one because what it demands from Iran on the nuclear issue is the same thing that Trump demanded,” Khamenei said in televised remarks.
He said that Biden’s administration wants “the same thing today, it’s no different. (Trump) said it in one way and these (say it) in different words.”
“The Americans truly have no shame on the nuclear issue, and even though they withdrew from the JCPOA… they now talk in a way and make demands as it was (Iran) that withdrew,” he said, quoted by his official website in reference to the deal by its official name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Khamenei made the remarks in a meeting with President Ebrahim Raisi’s newly formed cabinet, during which he acknowledged public trust in government had been “damaged”.
The ultraconservative Raisi won a June 18 election marred by record low turnout and an absence of significant competitors.
He succeeded the moderate Hassan Rouhani, the architect of the political opening that culminated in the nuclear agreement between Tehran and six major powers.
A year after Trump’s decision to withdraw from the deal and impose sanctions on Iran, the Islamic republic retaliated by gradually waiving most of the key nuclear commitments that it had accepted under the agreement.
Six rounds of nuclear talks between Iran and world powers — with the US indirectly taking part — were held in Vienna between April and June.
The last round concluded on June 20, with no date set for another.
“Behind the scenes of America’s foreign policy, there is a predator wolf that sometimes changes to a cunning fox,” Khamenei said.
– ‘Reciprocal response’ –
Khamenei’s remarks came after a senior security official in Tehran said Iran reserves the right to a “reciprocal response” to Washington, after what it deemed as threats by Biden.
Biden received Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the White House on Friday and said the United States was committed to ensuring “Iran never develops a nuclear weapon”.
“We’re putting diplomacy first and seeing where that takes us. But if diplomacy fails we’re ready to turn to other options,” he said.
Biden and Bennett’s “emphasis on using ‘other options’ against #Iran, in addition to being an illegal threat against another country, establishes the Islamic Republic of Iran’s right for a reciprocal response against ‘available options’,” Admiral Ali Shamkhani, secretary-general of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, wrote on Twitter.
Bennett, like his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu, fiercly opposes the revival of the nuclear deal.
In his speech, Khamenei also called on Raisi to “repair” the public’s damaged trust in government.
“It’s a great asset for a government to be able to attract the people’s trust, which has unfortunately been slightly damaged. You must repair this”.
The way to achieve this was to ensure the “words and actions” of officials become one and to keep promises.
Iran has in recent years been hit by several protests over the economy and living conditions made worse by punishing US sanctions.
The latest was protests over water shortages that erupted in July in southwest Iran, where, according to Iranian media, at least four people were killed.
Human rights groups outside of Iran have previously accused the Islamic republic of using force against protesters.
Iran has denied the charges and blamed violence at protests on “opportunists” and “rioters” linked to its enemies.
International
Colombian President Gustavo Petro announces talks with clan del Golfo outside country
Colombian President Gustavo Petro stated on Friday that his government has begun talks outside the country with the Clan del Golfo, Colombia’s main criminal group also known as the Gaitanist Army.
“We have started conversations outside Colombia with the self-called Gaitanist Army,” the president said during the handover of 6,500 hectares of land to farmers in the Caribbean department of Córdoba.
The president noted that his administration “has seized more cocaine than any other government” because it seeks to “cut off the finances (of criminal groups) that fuel violence in many regions of Colombia.”
“A bill has been introduced that I hope the Congress studies thoroughly, because it essentially elevates restorative justice even for serious crimes,” Petro said.
The initiative he referred to was presented by his Minister of Justice, Eduardo Montealegre, aimed at “the consolidation of total peace.”
According to the Ministry of Justice, the bill seeks to provide the government with clear regulations to achieve the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of illegal armed groups.
For groups such as the Clan del Golfo, a judicial submission process will be applied, which could bring possible legal benefits if they genuinely cooperate, surrender weapons, and dismantle their groups.
International
María Corina Machado thanks OAS allies for condemning Venezuela’s growing repression
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado expressed her gratitude on Thursday to the “allied” countries that spoke out at the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) regarding the increasing repression in Venezuela. Through her X account, she highlighted that “our regional allies took a firm stand in favor of democracy and the freedom of Venezuelans.”
The statement came a day after Gloria de Mees, rapporteur of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for Venezuela, presented before the OAS the worsening situation in the country, just over a year after the elections in which President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner over opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who denounced electoral fraud.
Machado, who shared videos of speeches by representatives from Canada, the United States, Paraguay, Chile, and Panama, insisted that “Venezuela is the most urgent conflict in the Western Hemisphere and its definitive resolution is everyone’s responsibility.” She affirmed that “silence and inaction” are forms of “complicity” and urged international justice to act with “greater speed and firmness.”
Before her participation at the OAS, De Mees told EFE that the repression “is not new, but now it is systematic” and has intensified, affecting not only human rights defenders, journalists, and dissidents but “everyone, because there is fear of retaliation.”
International
Over 240 guatemalans detained at Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz await deportation
At least 249 Guatemalans are currently detained at the Alligator Alcatraz detention center in Florida, United States, awaiting deportation, the Guatemalan government reported this Friday.
The Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs detailed that the figure was confirmed by U.S. authorities to Guatemalan diplomats in Miami, Florida, during a visit to the center where they had the opportunity to interview 37 of their compatriots.
“The Guatemalans we spoke with said they have been at the detention center for only a few days and have been able to communicate with family members and lawyers. Most of them were detained due to their irregular immigration status,” the Ministry stated.
According to the same source, another visit by Guatemalan diplomats has been authorized soon to meet with other nationals held at the detention center in Florida.
Alligator Alcatraz, opened just over a month ago, was built in only one week on an abandoned airport in the Everglades, a natural area west of Miami, surrounded by alligators and swamps. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sees it as a model for other centers, while activists consider it a symbol of human rights violations.
Democratic lawmakers reported the presence of 750 migrants “in cages” after entering the site on July 12. The facility currently has a capacity for 2,000 people, which could increase to 4,000, according to the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), which manages the site.
Every year, thousands of Guatemalans leave the Central American country to migrate irregularly to the United States in search of better living conditions and to escape the poverty and violence that plague Guatemala.
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