UN Chief Congratulates Biden, Says US 'Essential' to Global Cooperation

UN chief Antonio Guterres. (Reuters)
UN chief Antonio Guterres. (Reuters)
TT

UN Chief Congratulates Biden, Says US 'Essential' to Global Cooperation

UN chief Antonio Guterres. (Reuters)
UN chief Antonio Guterres. (Reuters)

UN chief Antonio Guterres congratulates US President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, a UN spokesman said on Monday, describing US partnership with the world body as an “essential pillar” of global cooperation.

Biden will succeed President Donald Trump, who has been critical of the 193-member United Nations and wary of the value of multilateralism during his four years in office. Guterres took up his role just a few weeks before Trump in 2017.

Guterres “reaffirms that the partnership between the United States and the United Nations is an essential pillar of the international cooperation needed to address the dramatic challenges facing the world today,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

Since taking office, Trump has quit the UN Human Rights Council, the World Health Organization, the UN cultural agency UNESCO, a global accord to tackle climate change and the Iran nuclear deal. The Trump administration cut funding for the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

Biden, who was vice president under Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, has pledged to rescind Trump’s decision to abandon the WHO and quickly rejoin the Paris climate accord, a signature achievement of the Obama-Biden administration.

Biden has also said he will rejoin the Iran nuclear deal, also negotiated under the Obama administration, if Tehran also returns to compliance.

On the election of Harris, who will become the first female US vice president, Dujarric said Guterres “is always pleased when a woman leader breaks yet another ceiling.”



Iran Top Court Overturns Rapper Toomaj Salehi’s Death Sentence, Lawyer Says

People hold placards bearing portraits of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, who is arrested in Iran, and portraits of children (L), who were killed during the protests in Iran, during a rally in support of Iranian women in Istanbul, on November 26, 2022. (AFP)
People hold placards bearing portraits of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, who is arrested in Iran, and portraits of children (L), who were killed during the protests in Iran, during a rally in support of Iranian women in Istanbul, on November 26, 2022. (AFP)
TT

Iran Top Court Overturns Rapper Toomaj Salehi’s Death Sentence, Lawyer Says

People hold placards bearing portraits of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, who is arrested in Iran, and portraits of children (L), who were killed during the protests in Iran, during a rally in support of Iranian women in Istanbul, on November 26, 2022. (AFP)
People hold placards bearing portraits of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, who is arrested in Iran, and portraits of children (L), who were killed during the protests in Iran, during a rally in support of Iranian women in Istanbul, on November 26, 2022. (AFP)

Iran's supreme court has overturned Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi's death sentence on charges linked to the country's 2022-23 period of unrest, his lawyer wrote in a post on the X social media platform on Saturday.

"The death sentence of #Toomaj_Salehi was overturned and based on the appeal decision ...of the Supreme Court, the case will be referred to (another) branch for consideration," attorney Amir Raisian wrote on X.

There was no immediate official confirmation of the ruling.

Salehi's songs supported protests sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish Iranian woman arrested for allegedly wearing an "improper" hijab.