Nuclear Chief: Iran Can Enrich Uranium ‘At Any Rate’

Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) head Mohammad Eslami (Reuters)
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) head Mohammad Eslami (Reuters)
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Nuclear Chief: Iran Can Enrich Uranium ‘At Any Rate’

Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) head Mohammad Eslami (Reuters)
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) head Mohammad Eslami (Reuters)

Iran can enrich uranium whenever it wants, and at any rate, announced head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami.

In an interview with Iranian television, Eslami stated that the US wanted to stop Iran's nuclear technology but failed.

Asked about the failed negotiations to revive the nuclear deal, Eslami said that it was proved that the US reasons for not agreeing were mere excuses and that Washington's primary goal was to prevent Iran's progress.

Asked about reaching 60 percent of enriched uranium, the official said this step had a noticeable impact, and it was only normal to affect the negotiations.

He added that the US officials have an impression that Iran is a nuclear state and they cannot get rid of that quickly. More importantly, they realized these local abilities could not be eliminated.

Eslami pointed out that Iran recently carried out an unprecedented amount of enrichment, proving to all, whether friends or enemies, that the Iranian ability is real and undeniable.

Negotiations to revive the nuclear agreement between Iran and the major powers stalled in Vienna more than a year ago. Last September, the EU's attempt to renew the talks failed.

Tehran enriched uranium to 20 percent at the Natanz plant days after US President Joe Biden assumed his position in January 2021 and raised the enrichment rate to 60 percent at the facility in April.

In January 2022, Tehran began enriching uranium by 20 percent at the Fordow facility, and in June, it raised the enrichment to a purity of 60 percent.

In February, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said Iran's estimated stockpile of enriched uranium had reached more than 18 times the limit set out in the 2015 accord between Tehran and world powers.



Ukraine Targets Key Crimean City a Day after Striking Russia’s Black Sea Fleet Headquarters

This handout satellite image released on September 23, 2023, by Planet Labs PBC shows an aerial view of the city of Sevastopol after a missile attack struck the headquarters of Moscow's Black Sea fleet in annexed Crimea on September 22, 2023, sparking a huge fire and leaving at least one Russian serviceman missing. (Handout / Planet Labs PBC / AFP)
This handout satellite image released on September 23, 2023, by Planet Labs PBC shows an aerial view of the city of Sevastopol after a missile attack struck the headquarters of Moscow's Black Sea fleet in annexed Crimea on September 22, 2023, sparking a huge fire and leaving at least one Russian serviceman missing. (Handout / Planet Labs PBC / AFP)
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Ukraine Targets Key Crimean City a Day after Striking Russia’s Black Sea Fleet Headquarters

This handout satellite image released on September 23, 2023, by Planet Labs PBC shows an aerial view of the city of Sevastopol after a missile attack struck the headquarters of Moscow's Black Sea fleet in annexed Crimea on September 22, 2023, sparking a huge fire and leaving at least one Russian serviceman missing. (Handout / Planet Labs PBC / AFP)
This handout satellite image released on September 23, 2023, by Planet Labs PBC shows an aerial view of the city of Sevastopol after a missile attack struck the headquarters of Moscow's Black Sea fleet in annexed Crimea on September 22, 2023, sparking a huge fire and leaving at least one Russian serviceman missing. (Handout / Planet Labs PBC / AFP)

Ukraine on Saturday morning launched another missile attack on Sevastopol on the occupied Crimean Peninsula, a Russian-installed official said, a day after an attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet left a serviceman missing and the main building smoldering.

Sevastopol was put under an air raid alert for about an hour after debris from intercepted missiles fell near a pier, Gov. Mikhail Razvozhayev wrote on the messaging app Telegram. Ferry traffic in the area was also halted and later resumed.

Loud blasts were also heard near Vilne in northern Crimea, followed by rising clouds of smoke, according to a pro-Ukraine Telegram news channel that reports on developments on the peninsula. Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, has been a frequent target for Ukrainian forces since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of the neighboring country in February 2022.

Ukraine's intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, told Voice of America on Saturday that at least nine people were killed and 16 others wounded as a result of Kyiv's attack on the Black Sea Fleet on Friday. He claimed that Alexander Romanchuk, a Russian general commanding forces along the key southeastern front line, was “in a very serious condition” following the attack.

Budanov's claim couldn't be independently verified, and he didn't comment on whether Western-made missiles were used in Friday's strike.

The Russian Defense Ministry initially said that Friday's strike killed one service member at the Black Sea Fleet headquarters, but later issued a statement that he was missing.

Ukraine’s military also offered more details about Friday's attack on Sevastopol. It said the air force conducted 12 strikes on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters, targeting areas where personnel, military equipment and weapons were concentrated. It said that two anti-aircraft missile systems and four Russian artillery units were hit.

Crimea has served as the key hub supporting Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Sevastopol, the main base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet since the 19th century, has had a particular importance for navy operations since the start of the war.

Ukraine has increasingly targeted naval facilities in Crimea in recent weeks while the brunt of its summer counteroffensive makes slow gains in the east and south of Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War said. Military experts say it is essential for Ukraine to keep up its attacks on targets in Crimea to degrade Russian morale and weaken its military.

Elsewhere, Ukraine’s military said Saturday that Russia launched 15 Iranian-made Shahed drones at the front-line Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast, as well as Dnipropetrovsk province farther north. It claimed to have destroyed 14 of the drones.

Separately, Zaporizhzhia regional Gov. Yuri Malashko said that Russia over the previous day carried out 86 strikes on 27 settlements in the province, many of them lying only a few kilometers (miles) from the fighting. Malashko said that an 82-year-old civilian was killed by artillery fire.

In the neighboring Kherson region, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said at least one person died and three other people were wounded over the past day because of Russian shelling. Russia fired 25 shells targeting the city of Kherson, which lies along the Dneiper River that marks the contact line between the warring sides, Prokudin said.

Residential quarters were hit, including medical and education institutions, government-built stations that serve food and drinks, as well as critical infrastructure facilities and a penitentiary, he said.


No ‘Sea of Death’: Pope Calls for Pan-European Action on Migration

French President Emmanuel Macron (2ndL) and his wife Brigitte (L) greet Pope Francis upon his arrival at the Palais du Pharo in the southern port city of Marseille on September 23, 2023. (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron (2ndL) and his wife Brigitte (L) greet Pope Francis upon his arrival at the Palais du Pharo in the southern port city of Marseille on September 23, 2023. (AFP)
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No ‘Sea of Death’: Pope Calls for Pan-European Action on Migration

French President Emmanuel Macron (2ndL) and his wife Brigitte (L) greet Pope Francis upon his arrival at the Palais du Pharo in the southern port city of Marseille on September 23, 2023. (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron (2ndL) and his wife Brigitte (L) greet Pope Francis upon his arrival at the Palais du Pharo in the southern port city of Marseille on September 23, 2023. (AFP)

Pope Francis on Saturday condemned "belligerent nationalisms" and called for a pan-European response to migration to stop the Mediterranean, where thousands have drowned, from becoming "the graveyard of dignity".

Francis spoke out in favor of welcoming migrants, in a long speech that concluded a Church conference on Mediterranean issues in Marseille, a French port that for centuries has been a crossroads of cultures and religions.

"There is a cry of pain that resonates most of all, and it is turning the Mediterranean, the 'mare nostrum', from the cradle of civilization into the 'mare mortuum', the graveyard of dignity: it is the stifled cry of migrant brothers and sisters," he said, using Latin terms meaning "our sea" and "sea of death".

Francis was welcomed at the windy portside where the conference center is located by President Emmanuel Macron, with whom he was due to have a private meeting later on Saturday before returning to Rome.

The pope began the day by visiting a center for the needy in Marseilles' Saint Mauront district, one of France's poorest, run by the order of nuns founded by Saint Mother Teresa.

Later at the conference, he called for "an ample number of legal and regular entrances" of migrants, with emphasis on accepting those fleeing war, hunger and poverty, rather than on "preservation of one's own wellbeing".

According to UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, about 178,500 migrants have come to Europe via the Mediterranean this year, while about 2,500 died or went missing.

Governments in several European countries, including Italy, Hungary, and Poland, are led by outspoken opponents of immigration.

Francis called on people to "hear the cries of pain" rising from North Africa and the Middle East.

"How greatly we need this at the present juncture, when antiquated and belligerent nationalisms want to make the dream of the community of nations fade!" he said. He did not name any countries.

While Francis has said often that migrants should be shared among the 27 EU countries, his overall openness towards migrants, including once calling their exclusion "scandalous, disgusting and sinful," has riled conservative politicians.

His 27-hour trip has been dominated by migration issues. On Friday, he said migrants who risk drowning at sea "must be rescued" because doing so was "a duty of humanity" and that those who impede rescues commit "a gesture of hate".


US, South Korea, Japan Raise Concerns over Russia-North Korea Military Cooperation

A handout photo made available by South Korean Foreign Ministry shows (L-R) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin posing for a photo during a meeting in New York, USA 22 September 2023. (EPA/South Korean Foreign Ministry)
A handout photo made available by South Korean Foreign Ministry shows (L-R) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin posing for a photo during a meeting in New York, USA 22 September 2023. (EPA/South Korean Foreign Ministry)
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US, South Korea, Japan Raise Concerns over Russia-North Korea Military Cooperation

A handout photo made available by South Korean Foreign Ministry shows (L-R) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin posing for a photo during a meeting in New York, USA 22 September 2023. (EPA/South Korean Foreign Ministry)
A handout photo made available by South Korean Foreign Ministry shows (L-R) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin posing for a photo during a meeting in New York, USA 22 September 2023. (EPA/South Korean Foreign Ministry)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and South Korean, Japanese counterparts expressed "serious concern" over the discussion of military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, including possible arms trade, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

Blinken, South Korea's Foreign Minister Park Jin and Japan's Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa agreed to respond firmly to any acts that threaten regional security in violation of UN Security Council resolution in a brief meeting on Friday, the ministry said in a statement.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un made a weeklong visit to Russia last week and discussed military cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

US and South Korean officials have expressed concern that the summit was aimed at allowing Russia to acquire ammunition from the North to supplement its dwindling stocks for its war in Ukraine.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Wednesday that if Russia helped North Korea enhance its weapons programs in return for assistance for its war in Ukraine, it would be "a direct provocation" and Seoul and its allies would not stand idly by.


Zelenskyy Speaks before Canadian Parliament to Shore up Support for Ukraine

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, center left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center right, greet supporters after a rally at the Fort York Armory in Toronto on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. (The Canadian Press via AP)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, center left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center right, greet supporters after a rally at the Fort York Armory in Toronto on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. (The Canadian Press via AP)
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Zelenskyy Speaks before Canadian Parliament to Shore up Support for Ukraine

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, center left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center right, greet supporters after a rally at the Fort York Armory in Toronto on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. (The Canadian Press via AP)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, center left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center right, greet supporters after a rally at the Fort York Armory in Toronto on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. (The Canadian Press via AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Canada on Friday to stay with his country to victory as he went to the Canadian Parliament seeking to bolster support from Western allies for Ukraine’s war against the Russian invasion.

Zelenskyy flew into Canada's capital late on Thursday after meetings with President Joe Biden and lawmakers in Washington. He spoke at the United Nations' annual meeting on Wednesday.

"Moscow must lose once and for all. And it will lose,” Zelenskyy said during his address in Parliament.

Zelenskyy said Canada has always been on the “bright side of history” in fighting previous wars and said it has helped saved thousands of lives in this war with aid. He also thanked Canadians for financial support and for making Ukrainians fleeing war feel at home in Canada.

Zelenskyy repeatedly thanked Canada and received a number of standing ovations from dignitaries and parliamentarians.

Zelenskyy linked the suffering of Ukrainians now to the 1930s genocide caused by Stalin, when the Soviet leader was blamed for creating a man-made famine in Ukraine believed to have killed more than 3 million people. He noted that it was in Edmonton, Canada, where the world's first monument was erected in 1993 to commemorate the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide.

He expressed hope that a monument would one day be raised in Canada to Ukraine’s victory over Russia's invasion, “maybe in Edmonton.”

“I have a lot of warm words and thanks from Ukraine to you,” Zelenskyy said in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office before his speech. “You have helped us on the battlefield, financially and with humanitarian aid. ... Stay with us to our victory."

It is Zelenskyy’s first visit to Canada since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. He previously addressed the Canadian Parliament virtually after the war started.

Trudeau called the visit an opportunity to show Zelenskyy “how strongly and unequivocally we stand with Ukraine" and announced an additional $650 million Canadian ($482 million) over three years for 50 armored vehicles that will be built in Canada.

“We are shifting our approach to provide multiyear assistance to ensure Ukraine has the predictable support it needs for long term support,” Trudeau said at a news conference.

Trudeau said Canada has provided nearly $9 billion Canadian (US$6.7 billion) in military, financial and humanitarian support to Ukraine since the war began.

Zelenskyy and Trudeau also attended a rally in Toronto with the local Ukrainian community late Friday.

“I'm happy to be here with my wife, the first lady. Three days together, the first time from the beginning of full-scale war,” Zelenskyy said.

Canada is home to about 1.4 million people of Ukrainian descent, close to 4% of the population.

More than 175,000 Ukrainians have come to Canada since the war started and an additional 700,000 have received approval to come as part of an initiative that supports temporary relocation of those fleeing the war. The initiative allows for an open work permit for three years with pathways to permanent residency and citizenship.

Zelenskyy is facing questions in Washington about the flow of American dollars that for 19 months has helped keep his troops in the fight against Russian forces. A hard-right flank of Republicans, led by Donald Trump, Biden’s chief rival in the 2024 race for the White House, is increasingly opposed to sending more money overseas.

“We are grateful to the United States and, with all due respect to our allies, the United States provides the largest share of assistance. And the assistance our soldiers on the battlefield really need,” Zelenskyy said at an earlier news conference.

He also faces challenges in Europe as well as cracks in what had been a largely united Western alliance behind Ukraine. Late Wednesday, Poland’s prime minister said his country is no longer sending arms to Ukraine, a comment that appeared aimed at pressuring Kyiv and put Poland’s status as a major source of military equipment in doubt as a trade dispute between the neighboring states escalates.

Ukrainian troops are struggling to take back territory that Russia gained over the past year. Their progress in the next month or so before the rains come and the ground turns to mud could be critical in rousing additional global support over the winter.

The Group of 7 industrial nations in July promised to reach individual agreements with Ukraine to provide long-term military help.

"Considering the reluctance of many Republicans in US Congress to further support Ukraine and the tensions between Ukraine and some of its key allies like Poland, Canada is seen as a reliable supporter of Ukraine so Zelenskyy will be in friendly territory during his visit to Canada,” said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.

“A key fact to keep in mind here is that 4% of Canadians are of Ukrainian descent, including Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.”


Taiwan Raises Concerns about Situation ‘Getting Out of Hand’ with China Drills

 Taiwanese soldiers salute during a drill in Hsinchu County, northern Taiwan, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. (AP)
Taiwanese soldiers salute during a drill in Hsinchu County, northern Taiwan, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. (AP)
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Taiwan Raises Concerns about Situation ‘Getting Out of Hand’ with China Drills

 Taiwanese soldiers salute during a drill in Hsinchu County, northern Taiwan, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. (AP)
Taiwanese soldiers salute during a drill in Hsinchu County, northern Taiwan, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. (AP)

The increased frequency of China's military activities around Taiwan recently has raised the risk of events "getting out of hand" and sparking an accidental clash, the island's defense minister said on Saturday.

Taiwan has said that the past two weeks has seen dozens of fighters, drones, bombers and other aircraft, as well as warships and the Chinese carrier the Shandong, operating nearby.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has in recent years carried out many such drills around the island, seeking to assert its sovereignty claims and pressure Taipei.

Asked by reporters on the sidelines of parliament whether there was a risk of an accidental incident sparking a broader conflict given the frequency of the Chinese activities, Taiwan Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said: "This is something we are very worried about".

Warships from China's southern and eastern theater commands have been operating together off Taiwan's east coast, he added.

"The risks of activities involving aircraft, ships, and weapons will increase, and both sides must pay attention," Chiu said.

China has not commented about the drills around Taiwan, and its defense ministry has not responded to requests for comment.

Chiu said that when the Shandong was out at sea, which Taiwan first reported on Sept. 11, it was operating as the "opposing force" in the drills. Ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang added that China's Eastern Theatre Command forces were the "attacking force", simulating a battle scenario.

Taiwan's traditional military planning for a potential conflict has been to use its mountainous east coast, especially the two major air bases there, as a place to regroup and preserve its forces given it does not directly face China unlike the island's west coast.

But China has increasingly been flexing its muscles off Taiwan's east coast, and generally displaying its ability to operate much further away from China's own coastline.

China normally performs large-scale exercises from July to September, Taiwan's defense ministry has said.

On Saturday the ministry said China had largely dialed back its drills, reporting that over the previous 24-hour period it had only spotted two Chinese aircraft operating in its air defense zone.

Taiwan has frequently said that it would remain calm and not escalate the situation, but that it won't allow "repeated provocations" from China, whose forces have so far not entered Taiwan's territorial seas or airspace.


First Red Cross Aid Convoy Heads to Karabakh since Azerbaijan Retakes Region

FILE PHOTO: Vehicles of Russian peacekeepers leaving Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region for Armenia pass an Armenian checkpoint on a road near the village of Kornidzor, Armenia September 22, 2023. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Vehicles of Russian peacekeepers leaving Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region for Armenia pass an Armenian checkpoint on a road near the village of Kornidzor, Armenia September 22, 2023. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File Photo
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First Red Cross Aid Convoy Heads to Karabakh since Azerbaijan Retakes Region

FILE PHOTO: Vehicles of Russian peacekeepers leaving Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region for Armenia pass an Armenian checkpoint on a road near the village of Kornidzor, Armenia September 22, 2023. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Vehicles of Russian peacekeepers leaving Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region for Armenia pass an Armenian checkpoint on a road near the village of Kornidzor, Armenia September 22, 2023. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File Photo

An aid convoy of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) headed to Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday, the first since Azerbaijan retook the breakaway region three days ago, as ethnic Armenians there complained of being abandoned by the world.

The Armenians of Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, were forced to declare a ceasefire on Sept. 20 after a lightning 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Russia's defense ministry said the Armenian fighters had begun handing over their weapons to Azerbaijan - including more than 800 guns and six armored vehicles - under Russian supervision. Moscow has about 2,000 peacekeepers in the area.

Azerbaijani officials resumed talks on Saturday with Samvel Shahramanyan, the head of the self-styled Republic of Artsakh, as the Armenians call Karabakh, Azerbaijani media reported, but no further information was immediately available.

The mountainous region is home to around 120,000 Armenians, many of whom have been without adequate food or fuel supplies for months due to an effective blockade by Azerbaijani forces.

Russia said it had delivered more than 50 tons of food and other aid to Karabakh.

The ICRC said it had supplied 28,000 diapers as well as blankets and fuel. A Reuters witness saw a small ICRC aid convoy approaching Armenia's border with Azerbaijan on Saturday afternoon but then journalists were ordered to leave the vicinity before the trucks crossed the frontier.

More than 20 other aid trucks, bearing Armenian number plates, have been lined up along a nearby roadside since July. Azerbaijan said at the time this convoy amounted to a "provocation" and an attack on its territorial integrity.

Lack of visibility

Azerbaijan wants to integrate the long-contested region of Karabakh and has promised to protect the Armenians' rights but says they are free to leave if they prefer. Armenians say they fear they will be persecuted if they stay.

Azerbaijan's interior ministry said on Saturday its main task was ensuring the safety of the Armenian civilian population and that it was providing them with tents, hot food and medical assistance.

"We are also working on issuing documents to the Armenian population, passports and so on," ministry spokesman Elshad Hajiyev told Reuters. "There are already people who have applied to us."

US Senator Gary Peters, who visited the Armenia-Azerbaijan border on Saturday, said the situation in Karabakh required international observers and transparency from Azerbaijan.

"I think the world needs to know exactly what's happening in there," Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, told reporters. "We've heard from the Azerbaijani government that there's nothing to see, nothing to worry about, but if that’s the case then we should allow international observers in to see."

Armenia, which lost a 2020 war to Azerbaijan over the region, has prepared space for tens of thousands of Armenians from Karabakh, including at hotels near the border, though Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says he does not want them to leave their homes unless it is absolutely necessary.

Azerbaijan launched its "anti-terrorist" operation on Tuesday against Nagorno-Karabakh after some of its troops were killed in what Baku said were separatist attacks.

The Karabakh region was more militarized than Baku realized, Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijan's president, said on social media on Saturday, publishing a list of weapons and ammunition that had been seized in the past three days, including four tanks, 300 explosives and 441 mortar shells.

'Abandoned world'

Accounts of the fighting were chilling.

Armenui Karapetyan, an Armenian in Karabakh, said he was now homeless, holding just a few possessions and a photograph of his 24-year-old son who died in 2020, after leaving his home in the village of Kusapat.

"Today we were thrown out into the street - they made us vagabonds," Karapetyan told Armenia A1+, a partner of Reuters.

"What can I say? We live in an unfair, abandoned world. I have nothing to say. I feel sorry for the blood of our boys. I feel sorry for our lands for which our boys sacrificed their lives, and today... I miss the grave of my son."

Thousands of Karabakh Armenians have massed at the airport seeking the protection of Russian peacekeepers there.

Svetlana Alaverdyan, from the village of Arajadzor, said she had fled with just the clothes on her back after gun fights gripped the village.

"They were shooting on the right, they were shooting on the left - we went out one after another, without taking clothes," she told Armenia A1+.

"I had two sons - I gave them away, what else can I give? The superpowers resolve their issues at our expense."


Netanyahu at UN Issues ‘Nuclear’ Threat to Iran, Later Retracted

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City, US, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City, US, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)
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Netanyahu at UN Issues ‘Nuclear’ Threat to Iran, Later Retracted

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City, US, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City, US, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday warned Iran at the United Nations of a "nuclear threat" in what his office quickly walked back as a slip of the tongue.

Netanyahu, who has repeatedly used the UN stage to issue dark warnings about Tehran, briefly gave pause at the General Assembly when he appeared to threaten nuclear attack if Tehran pursues its own atomic bomb.

"Above all -- above all -- Iran must face a credible nuclear threat. As long as I'm prime minister of Israel, I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons," he said.

His office soon afterward said that Netanyahu had misspoken and that his prepared text said "credible military threat" instead of "credible nuclear threat."

"It was misread as credible nuclear threat. The prime minister stands by the original text of the speech," the prime minister's office said.

Israel has a widely known but undeclared nuclear program. As of January, Israel was believed to possess a stockpile of around 90 nuclear warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Tehran denies seeking a nuclear bomb but has breached limits on uranium enrichment set in a US-brokered 2015 deal following former president Donald Trump's withdrawal from the agreement and reimposition of sweeping sanctions.

Richard Gowan, who follows the United Nations for the International Crisis Group, said it was not uncommon for leaders to misread speeches.

US President Joe Biden, in a key section of his General Assembly speech on Tuesday, warned that giving in to Russia on Ukraine would abandon the principles of the United States when he meant United Nations.

"It's no secret that Israel has a nuclear deterrent of its own. But I don't think that Netanyahu was planning to advertise his nukes at the UN," Gowan said.

No 'veto' by Palestinians

Netanyahu also said in his speech that Israel and the Arab states were united by feeling a threat from the "tyrants of Tehran" -- the Shiite clerics who have ruled Iran since 1979.

Israel in 2020 established relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, its first normalizations with the Arab world in decades after making peace with neighboring Egypt and Jordan.

The so-called Abraham Accords of 2020 have "heralded the dawn of a new age of peace," Netanyahu said.

He firmly rejected the insistence of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who in his own UN speech on Thursday said that there could be no peace in the Middle East without a Palestinian state.

"We must not give the Palestinians a veto over new peace treaties with Arab states," Netanyahu said.

"The Palestinians could greatly benefit from a broader peace. They should be part of that process. But they should not have a veto over the process."

Netanyahu, a close ally of Trump, went out of his way to praise the diplomacy by Biden, who has criticized the right-wing Israeli leader over a judicial overhaul seen by critics as undermining democracy.


Turkish Police Detain 10 Accused of ISIS Links, Minister Says

Turkish police detained 10 people believed to be linked to ISIS. (Getty Images/AFP)
Turkish police detained 10 people believed to be linked to ISIS. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Turkish Police Detain 10 Accused of ISIS Links, Minister Says

Turkish police detained 10 people believed to be linked to ISIS. (Getty Images/AFP)
Turkish police detained 10 people believed to be linked to ISIS. (Getty Images/AFP)

Turkish police detained 10 people believed to be linked to ISIS and have arrested five of them, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Friday.

Yerlikaya said Türkiye’s MIT intelligence agency, police, and counter-terrorism squads carried out an operation in the western coastal city of Izmir after intelligence showed the suspects had hidden supplies in the city.

The authorities discovered explosive gels, materials used to make explosives, as well as weapons and ammunition hidden in the mountainous region of Izmir's Bornova district, Yerlikaya added.

"As a result of the operation, 10 suspects were detained. Of these, five were arrested and judicial control rulings were made for five others," the minister said on social media platform X.

Under judicial control rulings, the suspects may leave police detention but they have certain conditions and oversights imposed on them.

Footage from the operation, shared by Yerlikaya on X, showed several police cars in a mountainous area, with police searching inside of a small cave for the hidden materials. It also showed authorities searching a house and detaining the suspects. Reuters could not independently verify the footage.

ISIS has conducted numerous attacks across Türkiye, including on a nightclub in Istanbul on Jan. 1, 2017, in which 39 people were killed. Turkish police have carried out several operations targeting the militants.


Pope Arrives to Marseille with a Message to the EU on Migration

Pope Francis is welcomed as he arrives at Marseille International Airport in Marseille, southern France for a two-day visit, Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, where he will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (AP)
Pope Francis is welcomed as he arrives at Marseille International Airport in Marseille, southern France for a two-day visit, Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, where he will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (AP)
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Pope Arrives to Marseille with a Message to the EU on Migration

Pope Francis is welcomed as he arrives at Marseille International Airport in Marseille, southern France for a two-day visit, Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, where he will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (AP)
Pope Francis is welcomed as he arrives at Marseille International Airport in Marseille, southern France for a two-day visit, Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, where he will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (AP)

Pope Francis arrived at the French port city of Marseille on Friday for a lightning visit that will center on Europe's migration crisis, lamenting that migrants today face "a terrible lack of humanity".

Francis arrived in Marseille after a short flight from Rome and was greeted by French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.

While greeting individual journalists on the plane taking him to Marseille, one of them mentioned that his trip was taking place in the wake of a new surge of thousands of migrant arrivals last week at the Italian island of Lampedusa.

"It is cruelty, a terrible lack of humanity," he said, referring to the situation of migrants in the Mediterranean in general.

Francis is making the 27-hour trip to Marseille to conclude a meeting of Catholic young people and bishops from the Mediterranean area.

Speaking to reporters on the plane, he also lamented that after migrants were held in terrible conditions in camps, specifically mentioning Libya, they were then put out to sea to meet an uncertain fate at the hands of unscrupulous human smugglers.

Nearly, 130,000 migrants have arrived in Italy so far this year, according to government data, nearly double the figure for the same period of 2022.

That, Italy's right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says, makes migration a problem for the entire EU, not just the burden of frontline receiving countries such as Italy, Malta and Spain.

While Francis has said often that migrants should be shared among the 27 EU countries, his overall openness towards migrants, including once calling their exclusion "scandalous, disgusting and sinful," has riled conservative politicians, not least in France.

"He behaves like a politician, or the head of an NGO, and not a pope," said Gilles Pennelle, general director of the far-right Rassemblement National party of Marine Le Pen, President Emmanuel Macron's main challenger in last year's presidential vote.

"I think that the Christian message is one of welcome on an individual level, but it (migration) is an immense political problem and whether or not to welcome migrants is for politicians to decide," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Heroes and victims

Francis has said the visit is "to Marseille, not France," and one of the first events will be a visit on Friday evening to a monument to the heroes and victims of the sea.

It will have echoes of Francis' first visit as pope - in 2013 to Lampedusa, where he paid tribute to migrants who died at sea and condemned "the globalization of indifference".

The French bishops deliberately chose the diverse port city for the week-long "Mediterranean Encounters" event. It has a long history of migration - particularly from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa - and the influences of these different cultures are still felt in its streets.

"It is a cosmopolitan city that has not completely embraced the French republican idea, where many keep their double-triple identities," Cesare Mattina, a sociologist at the University of Aix-Marseille, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Marseille is a rare French city where migrant populations still live in the center. Indeed, a former bishop of the city was fond of saying: "In Marseille you can go around the world in 80 hours, not 80 days," a play of words on the title of the Jules Verne novel.

But Marseille is no immigration utopia. The city has many of the problems that plague most urban centers - crime, drugs, racism and indifference.

The city's current archbishop, Cardinal Jean Marc Aveline, an Algerian-born Frenchman, said the meetings would also discuss social issues, economic disparities, the environment and climate change.

Macron is scheduled to meet the pope twice during the visit and is expected to attend a papal Mass on Saturday, which has landed him in hot water with left-wing critics who say it violates strict separation of state and faith, known as laïcité.


Ukraine Launched a Missile Strike on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet Headquarters, Russian Official Says 

Smoke rises from the shipyard that was reportedly hit by Ukrainian missile attack in Sevastopol, Crimea, in this still image from video taken September 13, 2023. (Reuters TV via Reuters)
Smoke rises from the shipyard that was reportedly hit by Ukrainian missile attack in Sevastopol, Crimea, in this still image from video taken September 13, 2023. (Reuters TV via Reuters)
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Ukraine Launched a Missile Strike on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet Headquarters, Russian Official Says 

Smoke rises from the shipyard that was reportedly hit by Ukrainian missile attack in Sevastopol, Crimea, in this still image from video taken September 13, 2023. (Reuters TV via Reuters)
Smoke rises from the shipyard that was reportedly hit by Ukrainian missile attack in Sevastopol, Crimea, in this still image from video taken September 13, 2023. (Reuters TV via Reuters)

Ukraine carried out a fiery missile strike Friday on the main headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, a Russian official said. Videos and photos showed large plumes of smoke over the building in Sevastopol in annexed Crimea.

The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said there was no information about casualties. He said firefighters were battling a blaze, and more emergency forces were being brought in, an indication that the fire could be massive.

A stream of ambulances was arriving at the fleet’s headquarters and shrapnel was scattered hundreds of meters (yards) around, the Tass news agency reported.

Razvozhayev initially warned Sevastopol residents that another attack was possible and urged them not to leave buildings or go to the city center. He later said there was no longer any air strike danger but reiterated calls not to go to the central part of the city, saying roads were closed and unspecified “special efforts” were underway.

Ukrainian officials, who have claimed responsibility for a series of other recent attacks on Crimea, didn’t immediately announce Kyiv launched the strike.

Sevastopol residents said they heard explosions in the skies and saw smoke, Russian news outlets reported. Images circulated in Ukrainian Telegram channels showed clouds of smoke over the seafront. The Associated Press could not immediately verify the videos.

The attack comes a day after Russian missiles and artillery pounded cities across Ukraine, killing at least five people as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Joe Biden and congressional leaders in Washington with an additional $24 billion aid package being considered.

The port city of Sevastopol serves as the main base for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

Last week, the Russian-installed authorities there accused Ukraine of attacking a strategic shipyard in the city, damaging two ships undergoing repairs and causing a fire at the facility.

The Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in an act that most of the world considered illegal, has been a frequent target since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than 18 months ago. The attack on the shipyard was the biggest in weeks.

In other developments, ongoing shelling in the southern Kherson region killed one man and injured another, said regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin.

“Kherson has been restless since the morning,” he said on Telegram.

Russian shelling sparked fires in a residential building and a garage.

In Kharkiv, regional Gov. Oleh Synyehubov said over 14 settlements came under attack. A house was damaged and a fire broke out in Vovchansk, in Chuguyiv district. There were no casualties, the governor said.