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Tehran Says Militias Ready to Retaliate to Soleimani’s Assassination

A photo posted by Quds Force Commander Esmail Ghaani on Twitter while delivering a speech in the parliament on Wednesday, December 30, 2020.
A photo posted by Quds Force Commander Esmail Ghaani on Twitter while delivering a speech in the parliament on Wednesday, December 30, 2020.
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Tehran Says Militias Ready to Retaliate to Soleimani’s Assassination

A photo posted by Quds Force Commander Esmail Ghaani on Twitter while delivering a speech in the parliament on Wednesday, December 30, 2020.
A photo posted by Quds Force Commander Esmail Ghaani on Twitter while delivering a speech in the parliament on Wednesday, December 30, 2020.

Iranian officials have vowed to retaliate to the assassination in early 2019 of General Qassem Soleimani, the mastermind of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) foreign operations.

Soleimani’s successor, Esmail Ghaani, presented on Wednesday a report to lawmakers on the latest regional developments during a closed-door session.

The IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency quoted Tabriz deputy Ahmed Alireza Beygi as saying that Ghaani informed MPs that pro-Iran militias in the region were on high alert.

“The demise of the American forces is imminent,” Ghaani said.

He further implicitly threatened to target US President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, head of the Central Intelligence Agency and all those responsible for Soleimani’s assassination in a January 3 Baghdad drone strike.

In a post on Twitter, Ghaani warned the officials involved in Soleimani’s murder of having to learn how to live secretly like Salman Rushdie, stressing that Iran will “avenge the unjust shedding of Soleimani’s blood.”

In another tweet, he said the enemy’s bones are being crushed.

“The main goal of avenging Soleimani’s blood is to eliminate America from the region,” he added.

His tweets implicitly indicated ballistic missile attacks on two Iraqi bases that housed US forces on Jan.8, 2019. The attacks, however, resulted in no casualties.

During the weekly cabinet session on Wednesday, President Hassan Rouhani said the attack on Ain al-Assad airbase in western Iraq was a “small slap.”

He began his speech by referring to a symbolic image that was circulated for the severed hand of Soleimani, who held the highest military rank in Iran and was the second powerful man after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

“You cut the hand of our General, so your legs shall be cut off from the region,” Rouhani stressed.

“One of the effects of this stupid and disgraceful act was the end of Trumpism,” he said.

Rouhani described Trump as a “brutal criminal.”

“I am confident that the conditions after Trump will be better for the stability of the entire region," he said.

Chief of Iran's Judiciary Ebrahim Raisi said Trump is the prime suspect in Soleimani’s assassination.

“He himself confessed to this crime before the world and cannot be protected from punishment.”

In a legal and judicial follow-up session in the case, Raisi said the assassination will never be forgotten, neither its tragedy nor the people’s demand to punish the perpetrators.

There is enough evidence to demand punishment for the perpetrators of this heinous crime, Raisi affirmed.

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World

Kherson Residents Urged to Flee as Russian Attacks Intensify

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, cars burn as firefighters try to put out a fire following a Russian drone attack in Kyiv region, Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, cars burn as firefighters try to put out a fire following a Russian drone attack in Kyiv region, Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
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Kherson Residents Urged to Flee as Russian Attacks Intensify

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, cars burn as firefighters try to put out a fire following a Russian drone attack in Kyiv region, Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, cars burn as firefighters try to put out a fire following a Russian drone attack in Kyiv region, Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

A drone attack early Friday killed one man in Kherson, hours after authorities urged residents to leave as intensifying Russian attacks on the southern Ukrainian city risk cutting power supplies ahead of the long winter.

Russian forces are positioned on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River, which borders the city briefly occupied by Moscow in 2022, making it particularly vulnerable to shelling.

The drone attack early Friday in Kherson's Korabelnyi district killed a 61-year-old man who was taken to hospital with a "penetrating chest wound", Yaroslav Shanko, the head of the Kherson city administration, said.

Three others wounded were taken to hospital in the Dniprovsky district.

The attack came after regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin on Thursday urged residents of Kherson, "especially families with children and elderly people", to "please leave", in a Telegram post.

Prokudin said there was an "extremely difficult security situation" in the city, which had about 280,000 inhabitants before the start of Russia's invasion in February 2022. It was occupied by Russian forces from March to November of that year.

"The enemy is intensifying its attacks every day on the region's critical infrastructure," he said, adding that on Wednesday "Russian forces again attacked Kherson's district heating plant with glide bombs".

The facility "sustained very serious damage", he said, adding that Kherson may find itself "without electricity or heating not for hours or days but for a long period".

Ukrainian stocks of interceptor missiles have also started to dwindle.

"There is no way to destroy these types of drones or aerial bombs in any region of our country," he said.

Last winter, Russia repeatedly targeted Ukrainian power plants, plunging millions of people into cold and darkness.

President Volodymyr Zelensky warned earlier this month that Ukraine had "virtually no intact thermal power plants".

- Repeated attacks on Kyiv -

Russia and Ukraine have for several months been ramping up their long-range strikes, increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure such as logistics warehouses and oil and port facilities.

These attacks are causing a rising number of civilian casualties.

Further from the front line, Ukraine's capital Kyiv has been particularly targeted this summer.

On Thursday, the capital spent nearly 15 hours under air raid alert due to repeated drone attacks, according to local authorities.

This "shows another way Russia is using its weapons to disrupt civilian life", the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in response, warning that Moscow "continues to choose terror and war".

In the face of Russian bombardments, Zelensky has consistently appealed to allies for new air defense systems.

While Ukraine has in recent days received fresh promises of military aid from European countries, including France, it primarily relies on advanced US Patriot systems to protect its airspace.

Deliveries of these missiles have sharply decreased, however, as US stockpiles depleted because of the Middle East war.

Four and a half years after Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, negotiations, briefly undertaken with US mediation to end the conflict, are at a standstill.

Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov has nonetheless visited troops fighting on the Ukrainian front to congratulate them on their "successes" in the eastern Donetsk region.

During the visit he said the Russian army was now only a few kilometers from Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, cities whose capture is a key objective for the Kremlin.

World

South Korea Backs Trump Bid to Revive North Korea Talks, Seeks Nuclear Progress

US President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019. (Reuters)
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South Korea Backs Trump Bid to Revive North Korea Talks, Seeks Nuclear Progress

US President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019. (Reuters)

South Korea supports US President Donald Trump's efforts to resume dialogue with North Korea, but aims to ensure its security posture is not weakened and that Seoul is not sidelined, South Korea's national security adviser said on Friday.

Seoul believes the resumption of talks between the US ‌and North Korea ‌should focus on progress on the North Korean ‌nuclear weapons ⁠issue and must ⁠not undermine the country's security readiness, Wi Sung-lac told reporters.

"One point to keep in mind is the need to coordinate with the United States to ensure that any resumption of US-North Korea dialogue leads to substantive progress on the North Korean nuclear issue, alongside efforts to establish a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula," Wi said.

To achieve these ⁠aims, policy coordination and communication between South Korea and ‌the United States were more important than ‌ever, he said.

Wi cited Trump's order earlier this month to substantially scale ‌back major joint military drills between the two allies, saying the ‌US president was signaling a willingness to engage with North Korea.

At the same time, Seoul should ensure it was not "sidelined" in Washington's efforts to restart talks with Pyongyang, Wi said.

Trump cited in part Seoul's refusal to offer help ‌in the Iran war for cutting short the Ulchi Freedom Shield drills this month and said they sent ⁠a wrong ⁠message to North Korea. Trump has been seeking a new summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The two met three times in 2018 and 2019.

South Korea, Japan and the United States will conduct joint military drills from September 9 to 11 to test readiness against North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons threats, South Korea said on Friday.

Wi said South Korea is seeking to deepen cooperation with Washington on a range of issues that have sometimes caused friction between the allies.

These include South Korean investment in the US agreed under a trade deal, the treatment of US-listed e-commerce firm Coupang, security cooperation, intelligence sharing and the transfer of wartime operational control, he said.

World

Grossi: Nuclear Talks with Iran Currently 'Stalled'

Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, in Washington. (Grossi on X)
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, in Washington. (Grossi on X)
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Grossi: Nuclear Talks with Iran Currently 'Stalled'

Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, in Washington. (Grossi on X)
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, in Washington. (Grossi on X)

Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said on Thursday that talks on Tehran’s nuclear program remain stalled, adding that the nuclear file has reached an “impasse.”

At a press conference with US Energy Secretary Chris Wright in Washington, Grossi said the nuclear issue will not be a priority until key issues, including the situation surrounding the Strait of Hormuz and other broader matters, are clarified.

He said that, under the current circumstances, there is no clear channel for advancing discussions on the nuclear issue.

Grossi said contacts with both the US and Iran are continuing, noting that the IAEA remains engaged in dialogue with both sides.

He added that Iran’s position is that no progress on the nuclear issue can be achieved until broader progress is made in the overall negotiations.

However, the IAEA chief said both sides identified key nuclear issues and areas requiring joint cooperation.

He spoke about contacts between US special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and Iranian representatives, and expressed hope that the process could yield results in the near future.

Grossi also said that Iran still possesses around 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium.

His remarks came while Tehran refuses to let IAEA inspectors visit facilities hit during the 12-day US-Israeli conflict in 2025.

For his part, Wright said Wednesday that Washington would prefer a diplomatic solution with Iran but was prepared to destroy its nuclear facilities “if necessary.”

“Iran has a nuclear weapons program and our goal is to stop it,” he said.

“An agreement must be reached with Iran under which it renounces nuclear armament,” he added.

The IAEA chief said he discussed with Wright nuclear non-proliferation issues, including Iran and his recent visit to Syria.

Grossi arrived in the US ahead of the launch of the IAEA's initiative ATLAS, designed to aid the deployment of civil nuclear applications at sea.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said that any inspection of nuclear facilities damaged in military attacks must be carried out in accordance with Iranian law, with the approval of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, and only after specific security protocols have been established.

Eslami said that requests to inspect the affected facilities under the current circumstances are “not acceptable.”

He then accused the US and Israel of pressuring the IAEA to inspect Iranian nuclear facilities damaged by military strikes.

“At a time when the IAEA has no such protocol and is not taking a position either, it is only the United States and Israel that are applying pressure for the Agency to go to the damaged sites and inspect them,” he said.

“The reason for this pressure is that they want to see what happened to these sites as a result of the military operations they carried out,” Eslami added.