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Khamenei Calls for Overhaul of Iran’s Cultural System 

A woman walks after the morality police shut down in a street in Tehran, Iran December 6, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
A woman walks after the morality police shut down in a street in Tehran, Iran December 6, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Khamenei Calls for Overhaul of Iran’s Cultural System 

A woman walks after the morality police shut down in a street in Tehran, Iran December 6, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
A woman walks after the morality police shut down in a street in Tehran, Iran December 6, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Iran’s Supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday called for "revolutionary reconstruction of the country's cultural system", state media reported, as nationwide protests kept up pressure on the authorities. 

"It is necessary to revolutionize the country's cultural structure... the supreme council should observe the weaknesses of culture in different fields of the country," Khamenei said during his meeting with a state cultural council. 

Iran has been rocked by unrest since the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 in police custody after her arrest for “inappropriate Islamic attire”. 

The demonstrations have posed one of the strongest challenges to the republic since the 1979 revolution. 

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Kremlin Says US Position Ruling Out NATO Membership for Ukraine Gives Satisfaction

Cars drive in front of Moscow's Kremlin along Tverskaya street in Moscow, Russia, 21 March 2025. (EPA)
Cars drive in front of Moscow's Kremlin along Tverskaya street in Moscow, Russia, 21 March 2025. (EPA)
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Kremlin Says US Position Ruling Out NATO Membership for Ukraine Gives Satisfaction

Cars drive in front of Moscow's Kremlin along Tverskaya street in Moscow, Russia, 21 March 2025. (EPA)
Cars drive in front of Moscow's Kremlin along Tverskaya street in Moscow, Russia, 21 March 2025. (EPA)

The Kremlin said on Monday that the position of US President Donald Trump's administration on ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine gave Moscow satisfaction, but declined to comment on Trump's hopes for a deal this week.
US envoy General Keith Kellogg said on Sunday that NATO membership was "off the table" for Ukraine. Trump has repeatedly said previous US support for Ukraine's bid to join NATO was a cause of the war, Reuters said.
"We have heard from Washington at various levels that Ukraine's membership in NATO is excluded," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters." Of course, this is something that causes our satisfaction and coincides with our position."
Peskov said that Ukrainian membership of the US-led alliance would "pose a threat to the national interests of the Russian Federation. And, in fact, this is one of the root causes of this conflict."
Putin has repeatedly said that Russia would be willing to end the war if Ukraine officially dropped its NATO ambitions and withdrew its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.
Reuters reported in November that
Putin was ready to negotiate a deal with Trump, but would refuse to make major territorial concessions and would insist Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.
Trump said on Sunday he hopes Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week to end the conflict in Ukraine.
Asked about those remarks, Peskov said: "I don't want to make any comments right now, especially about the time frame."
"President Putin and the Russian side remain open to seeking a peaceful settlement. We are continuing to work with the American side and, of course, we hope that this work will yield results," Peskov said.
He refused to comment directly on a Bloomberg report that the United States is prepared to recognise Russian control of Crimea as part of a broader peace agreement.
"Work on finding a peaceful settlement cannot take place, and should not take place, in public," Peskov said. "It should take place in an absolutely discrete mode."