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Russia Trying to Get Ballistic Missiles from Iran, Says Britain 

British Ambassador to the United Nations Barbara Woodward speaks during a meeting of the UN Security Council members at the United Nations headquarters in New York, US, October 27, 2022. (Reuters)
British Ambassador to the United Nations Barbara Woodward speaks during a meeting of the UN Security Council members at the United Nations headquarters in New York, US, October 27, 2022. (Reuters)
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Russia Trying to Get Ballistic Missiles from Iran, Says Britain 

British Ambassador to the United Nations Barbara Woodward speaks during a meeting of the UN Security Council members at the United Nations headquarters in New York, US, October 27, 2022. (Reuters)
British Ambassador to the United Nations Barbara Woodward speaks during a meeting of the UN Security Council members at the United Nations headquarters in New York, US, October 27, 2022. (Reuters)

Russia is attempting to obtain more weapons from Iran, including hundreds of ballistic missiles, and offering Tehran an unprecedented level of military and technical support in return, Britain's UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward said on Friday. 

Since August Iran has transferred hundreds of drones - also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) - to Russia, which had used them to "kill civilians and illegally target civilian infrastructure" in Ukraine, Woodward said. 

"Russia is now attempting to obtain more weapons, including hundreds of ballistic missiles," Woodward told reporters. 

"In return, Russia is offering Iran an unprecedented level of military and technical support. We're concerned that Russia intends to provide Iran with more advanced military components, which will allow Iran to strengthen their weapons capability," she said. 

She also said that Britain was "almost certain that Russia is seeking to source weaponry from North Korea (and) other heavily sanctioned states, as their own stocks palpably dwindle." 

The Iranian, North Korean and Russian missions to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Iran last month acknowledged that it had supplied Moscow with drones, but said they were sent before the war in Ukraine. Russia has denied its forces used Iranian drones to attack Ukraine. 

Iran has promised to provide Russia with surface-to-surface missiles, in addition to more drones, two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters in October. 

The United States said on Wednesday that it has seen the continued provision of Iranian drones to Russia, but that Washington had not seen evidence that Iran has transferred ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine. 

Woodward spoke ahead of a Security Council meeting later on Friday, requested by Russia, on weapons from the Ukraine conflict that Russia says are "falling into the hands of bandits and terrorists" elsewhere in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 

The United Nations is examining "available information" about accusations that Iran supplied Russia with drones, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council in a report earlier this week in the face of Western pressure to send experts to Ukraine to inspect downed drones. 

Britain, France, Germany, the United States and Ukraine say the supply of Iranian-made drones to Russia violates a 2015 UN Security Council resolution enshrining the Iran nuclear deal. 

Russia argues that there is no mandate for Guterres to send UN experts to Ukraine to investigate the origin of the drones. 

Guterres said in the latest report that the transfer of drones or ballistic missiles - with a range of more than 186 miles (300 km) - from Iran to another country would require prior approval from the Security Council. 

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World

EU to Slash Asylum Cases from 7 Nations Deemed Safe

FILE - A convoy of buses carry Syrian refugees who return home from Lebanon, arrive at the Syrian border crossing point, in Jdeidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)
FILE - A convoy of buses carry Syrian refugees who return home from Lebanon, arrive at the Syrian border crossing point, in Jdeidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)
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EU to Slash Asylum Cases from 7 Nations Deemed Safe

FILE - A convoy of buses carry Syrian refugees who return home from Lebanon, arrive at the Syrian border crossing point, in Jdeidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)
FILE - A convoy of buses carry Syrian refugees who return home from Lebanon, arrive at the Syrian border crossing point, in Jdeidet Yabous, Syria, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)

The European Union on Thursday said it would drastically reduce asylum claims from seven nations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia by considering them safe countries of origin, prompting widespread outrage from human rights groups on International Migrants' Day.

An agreement between European Parliament and the European Council, or the group of the 27 EU heads of state, said that the countries would be considered safe if they lack “relevant circumstances, such as indiscriminate violence in the context of an armed conflict.”

Asylum requests by people from Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Kosovo, India, Morocco and Tunisia will be "fast-tracked, with applicants having to prove that this provision should not apply to them,” read the announcement of the agreement. “The list can be expanded in the future under the EU’s ordinary legislative procedure.”

In 2024, EU nations endorsed sweeping reforms to the bloc’s failed asylum system. The rules were meant to resolve the issues that have divided the 27 countries since well over 1 million migrants swept into Europe in 2015, most fleeing war in Syria and Iraq.

Under the Pact on Migration and Asylum, which goes into force in June 2026, people can be sent to countries deemed safe, but not to those where they face the risk of physical harm or persecution.

According to The Associated Press, Amnesty International EU advocate Olivia Sundberg Diez said the new measures were “a shameless attempt to sidestep international legal obligations" and would endanger migrants.

French MEP Mélissa Camara said the safe countries of origins concept and others agreed to by the Council and Parliament “opens the door to return hubs outside the EU’s borders, where third-country nationals are sometimes subjected to inhumane treatment with almost no monitoring” and “undoubtedly places thousands of people in exile in situations of danger.”

Céline Mias, the EU director of the Danish Refugee Council said that "we are deeply worried that this fast-track system will fail to protect people in need of protection, including activists, journalists and marginalized groups in places where human rights are clearly under attack.”

Alessandro Ciriani, an Italian MEP with the European Conservatives and Reformists group, said the designation sends a firm message that the EU has toughened its borders.

“Europe wants enforceable rules and shared responsibility. Now this commitment must become operational: effective returns, structured cooperation with third countries and real measures to support EU member states,” he said.

He said that clear delineations of safe and unsafe nations would rid the EU of “excessive interpretative uncertainty” that led to a kind of paralysis for national decision makers over border controls.

The measures also allows individual nations within the bloc to designate other countries safe for their own immigration purposes.

World

Rubio Says US Sanctioning ICC Judges for Targeting Israel

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to traveling journalists at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, Ontario, on November 12, 2025 after the G7 foreign ministers meeting. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to traveling journalists at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, Ontario, on November 12, 2025 after the G7 foreign ministers meeting. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / POOL / AFP)
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Rubio Says US Sanctioning ICC Judges for Targeting Israel

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to traveling journalists at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, Ontario, on November 12, 2025 after the G7 foreign ministers meeting. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to traveling journalists at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, Ontario, on November 12, 2025 after the G7 foreign ministers meeting. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / POOL / AFP)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that the US was sanctioning two judges of the International Criminal Court for targeting Israel.

"Today, I am designating two International Criminal Court (ICC) judges, Gocha Lordkipanidze of Georgia and Erdenebalsuren Damdin of Mongolia, pursuant to Executive Order 14203," Rubio said in a statement, referring to the order President Donald Trump signed in February sanctioning the ICC, Reuters reported.

"These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel's consent," he said.

The United States and Israel are not members of the ICC.

The US sanctions in February include freezing any US assets of those designated and barring them and their families from visiting the United States.

World

US Imposes Sanctions on Vessels Linked to Iran, Treasury Website Says

A crew member raises the Iranian flag on Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, as it sits anchored after the Supreme Court of the British territory lifted its detention order, in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain, August 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
A crew member raises the Iranian flag on Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, as it sits anchored after the Supreme Court of the British territory lifted its detention order, in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain, August 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
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US Imposes Sanctions on Vessels Linked to Iran, Treasury Website Says

A crew member raises the Iranian flag on Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, as it sits anchored after the Supreme Court of the British territory lifted its detention order, in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain, August 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
A crew member raises the Iranian flag on Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, as it sits anchored after the Supreme Court of the British territory lifted its detention order, in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain, August 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jon Nazca

The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on 29 vessels and their management firms, the Treasury Department said, as Washington continues targeting Tehran's "shadow fleet" it says exports Iranian petroleum and petroleum products, Reuters reported.

The targeted vessels and companies have transported hundreds of millions of dollars of the products through deceptive shipping practices, Treasury said.

Thursday's action also targets businessman Hatem Elsaid Farid Ibrahim Sakr, whose companies are associated with seven of the vessels cited, as well as multiple shipping companies.