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Belgium Requests Iran Transfer Imprisoned Aid Worker

A poster at the Wallonia-Brussels Federation’s headquarters demands the release of Olivier Vandecasteele in February. (AFP)
A poster at the Wallonia-Brussels Federation’s headquarters demands the release of Olivier Vandecasteele in February. (AFP)
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Belgium Requests Iran Transfer Imprisoned Aid Worker

A poster at the Wallonia-Brussels Federation’s headquarters demands the release of Olivier Vandecasteele in February. (AFP)
A poster at the Wallonia-Brussels Federation’s headquarters demands the release of Olivier Vandecasteele in February. (AFP)

Belgium submitted a request to Iran on Tuesday that jailed aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele be sent back to his country, which has agreed to a prisoner transfer treaty with Iran.

Belgian Vandecasteele was arrested on a visit to Iran in February 2022 and sentenced in January to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes on charges including spying.

Belgium's justice minister has said he was convicted "for a fabricated series of crimes" and in retribution for a 20-year jail term given to an Iranian diplomat in 2021 over a foiled bomb plot.

Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said she had informed her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian of the “transfer request for our compatriot Olivier Vandecasteele.”

"I denounced his conditions of detention and requested a visit by our ambassador in Iran," she said.

The family of Vandecasteele recently said he was being held in solitary confinement and complained that "he could no longer sleep and could barely stand up straight because of excruciating muscle and nerve pain."

"His life is at stake: the lack of concrete action and quick results could put Olivier in an irreparable situation."

Iran has said it is open to a prisoner swap, indicating it would seek the return of the diplomat Assadollah Assadi, the first Iranian official to face trial for suspected terrorism in Europe since Iran's 1979 revolution.

The treaty's implementation was postponed due to legal challenges submitted by the Iranian opposition “People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran”.

In July last year, Belgium and Iran signed a prisoner-swap treaty that Brussels viewed as a path to free Vandecasteele, and the opposers viewed as a path to free Assadi.

Belgium's Constitutional Court suspended the treaty in December to look into its legality.

The Court rejected in March a challenge by the Iranian opposition but warned that in case the Iranian convict was transferred to his country then the Belgian government should make sure the rule is appealable.

Belgium submitted the official request to send Vandecasteele back to his country when the treaty became effective.

A foreign ministry spokesperson did not reply when asked if the Belgian transfer request was seen as leading to a prisoner exchange.

For its part, the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, and Development Cooperation didn’t comment on a question about whether Iran officially requested handing over Assadi.

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Russia Condemns ‘Irresponsible’ Talk of Nuclear Weapons for Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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Russia Condemns ‘Irresponsible’ Talk of Nuclear Weapons for Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)

Discussion in the West about arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons is "absolutely irresponsible", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, in response to a report in the New York Times citing unidentified officials who suggested such a possibility.

The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office.

"Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union. That would be an instant and enormous deterrent. But such a step would be complicated and have serious implications," the newspaper wrote.

Asked about the report, Peskov told reporters: "These are absolutely irresponsible arguments of people who have a poor understanding of reality and who do not feel a shred of responsibility when making such statements. We also note that all of these statements are anonymous."

Earlier, senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said that if the West supplied nuclear weapons to Ukraine then Moscow could consider such a transfer to be tantamount to an attack on Russia, providing grounds for a nuclear response.

Ukraine inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union after its 1991 collapse, but gave them up under a 1994 agreement, the Budapest Memorandum, in return for security assurances from Russia, the United States and Britain.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last month that as Ukraine had handed over the nuclear weapons, joining NATO was the only way it could deter Russia.

The 33-month Russia-Ukraine war saw escalations on both sides last week, after Ukraine fired US and British missiles into Russia for the first time, with permission from the West, and Moscow responded by launching a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile into Ukraine.

Asked about the risk of a nuclear escalation, Peskov said the West should "listen carefully" to Putin and read Russia's newly updated nuclear doctrine, which lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons.

Separately, Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said Moscow opposes simply freezing the conflict in Ukraine because it needs a "solid and long-term peace" that resolves the core reasons for the crisis.