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Belgium Says No Deal Reached to Free Jailed Iran Diplomat in Swap

People hold pictures of Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele during a protest against his detention in Iran, in Brussels, Belgium January 22, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman
People hold pictures of Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele during a protest against his detention in Iran, in Brussels, Belgium January 22, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman
    Asharq A-Awsat
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Belgium Says No Deal Reached to Free Jailed Iran Diplomat in Swap

People hold pictures of Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele during a protest against his detention in Iran, in Brussels, Belgium January 22, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman
People hold pictures of Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele during a protest against his detention in Iran, in Brussels, Belgium January 22, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman

Belgium said on Wednesday an Iranian diplomat jailed there for 20 years will not soon be released in a prisoner swap, apparently contradicting Iran's judiciary.

In March, Belgium's Constitutional Court upheld a prisoner exchange treaty with Iran that could lead to Asadollah Assadi being swapped for jailed Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele.

"Belgium has requested an exchange and so have we for our diplomat Asadollah Assadi. Following the necessary protocols, such an exchange will be done soon," Iranian judiciary spokesperson Masoud Setayeshi said on Wednesday.

But a spokesperson for Belgian Justice minister Vincent Van Quickenborne denied a deal had been reached, Reuters reported.

"This is a false message from a rogue state that specializes in making false statements", Van Quickenborne said to Belgian public broadcaster VTM.

"They do this to manipulate and confuse an innocent compatriot and his family."

He also denied there would be a prison swap with another Belgian.

Last week, Belgium submitted a request to Iran that Vandecasteele be sent back to his country in accordance with the prisoner transfer treaty.

Assadi was jailed for 20-years in 2021 over a 2018 foiled bomb plot targeting an Iranian opposition group in Paris.

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

Belgium repeatedly said there were no grounds for the detention of Vandecasteele, saying he was convicted "for a fabricated series of crimes" and in retribution for Assadi's jailing.

Iran has called the accusation that Assadi was linked to an attack in Paris a "false flag" stunt by the exiled National Council of Resistance of Iran, which it calls a terrorist group.

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Cuba Says It Killed Four Gunmen on Speedboat Trying to Infiltrate from US

Cuban coast guard ships docked at the port of Havana. (AFP) 
Cuban coast guard ships docked at the port of Havana. (AFP) 
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Cuba Says It Killed Four Gunmen on Speedboat Trying to Infiltrate from US

Cuban coast guard ships docked at the port of Havana. (AFP) 
Cuban coast guard ships docked at the port of Havana. (AFP) 

Cuba said it thwarted the attempt of gunmen trying to infiltrate from the United States as its coastguard opened fire on Wednesday at a Florida-registered speedboat near its shores, killing four people and wounding six.

Havana's Interior Ministry said the speedboat's passengers opened fire on a coast guard vessel that approached them near an island off the country's northern coast.

The ministry claimed the passengers were armed and intended to “carry out an infiltration for terrorist purposes.”

Handguns, assault rifles and improvised explosive devices were recovered on the speedboat, according to the statement, along with other tactical gear.

The ministry said the 10 passengers are all Cuban citizens living in the US.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was seeking its own facts about the shooting and would “respond accordingly.”

“We're not going to base our conclusions on what they've (Cuba) told us, and I'm very, very confident that we will know the full story of what happened here,” Rubio told reporters while on a trip to the Caribbean nation of St Kitts and Nevis. “As we gather more information, then we'll be prepared to respond accordingly.”

James Uthmeier, Florida's attorney general, said he would direct local law enforcement to investigate the incident.

“The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable,” he said.

In an earlier statement posted on X, the Cuban interior ministry said the Florida-registered vessel was detected near Cayo Falcones, in the country's central Villa Clara province on Wednesday morning.

When a Cuban boat carrying five members of the ministry's border guard approached the vessel for identification, “the crew of the violating speedboat opened fire” and wounded the Cuban commander, the statement said.

It added that “As a consequence of the confrontation, as of the time of this report, four aggressors on the foreign vessel were killed and six injured.”

Those injured were evacuated and given medical assistance, the statement said.

In Washington, US Vice President JD Vance said the White House was “monitoring” the incident but added that he hoped it was not a serious one.

“Certainly, you know, a situation that we're monitoring, hopefully it's not as bad as we fear it could be. But can't say more, because I just don't know more,” Vance told reporters.

The confrontation comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and Cuba, which lies just 160 km across the Florida Straits. It also comes as the US softened a virtual oil siege of the island imposed by President Donald Trump in January after the US ouster of top Cuba ally, Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.

Before Maduro's capture by US forces on 3 January, Cuba had relied on Venezuela for about half its fuel needs.

Faced with an outcry from Caribbean leaders, worried that starving Cuba of oil would cause the economy to quickly collapse, the US said it would allow shipments of Venezuelan oil for “commercial and humanitarian use.”

World

US Arrests Ex-Air Force Pilot for Training Chinese Military

Former Air Force pilot Gerald Brown (photo circulated on social media)
Former Air Force pilot Gerald Brown (photo circulated on social media)
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US Arrests Ex-Air Force Pilot for Training Chinese Military

Former Air Force pilot Gerald Brown (photo circulated on social media)
Former Air Force pilot Gerald Brown (photo circulated on social media)

The US Justice Department announced the arrest on Wednesday of a former Air Force fighter pilot who allegedly trained Chinese military personnel without authorization.

Gerald Brown, 65, was arrested in Indiana after having recently returned to the United States from China, where he had been since December 2023, a Justice Department statement said.

He is accused of having "conspired with foreign nationals to provide combat aircraft training to pilots in the Chinese Air Force" without a required license from the US State Department, AFP quoted the statement as saying.

FBI director Kash Patel posted on X: "Major story... the FBI and our partners have arrested a former US Air Force Pilot who was allegedly training pilots in the Chinese military."

Brown had a 24-year career in the US Air Force during which he "commanded sensitive units with responsibility for nuclear weapons delivery systems, led combat missions, and served as a fighter pilot instructor and simulator instructor on a variety of fighter and attack aircraft."

He had retired from the military in 1996 and worked as a cargo pilot, the statement said, but he later began a role as a US defense contractor training pilots to fly the A-10 and state-of-the-art F-35 fighter jets.

He allegedly began negotiating a contract in August 2023 with Stephen Su Bin -- a Chinese national who was imprisoned in the United States for four years beginning in 2016 over another espionage scheme -- and traveled in December 2023 to China to begin his training job.

"The Chinese government continues to exploit the expertise of current and former members of the US armed forces to modernize China's military capabilities," said Roman Rozhavsky, an official with the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division.

"This arrest serves as a warning that the FBI and our partners will stop at nothing to hold accountable anyone who collaborates with our adversaries to harm our service members and jeopardize our national security," he added.

World

Trump Says Lawmakers Omar, Tlaib Should be Removed from US

(L/R) US Representatives Ilhan Omar, Democrat from Minnesota, and Rashida Tlaib, Democrat from Michigan, look on as President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 24, 2026. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)
(L/R) US Representatives Ilhan Omar, Democrat from Minnesota, and Rashida Tlaib, Democrat from Michigan, look on as President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 24, 2026. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)
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Trump Says Lawmakers Omar, Tlaib Should be Removed from US

(L/R) US Representatives Ilhan Omar, Democrat from Minnesota, and Rashida Tlaib, Democrat from Michigan, look on as President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 24, 2026. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)
(L/R) US Representatives Ilhan Omar, Democrat from Minnesota, and Rashida Tlaib, Democrat from Michigan, look on as President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 24, 2026. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that two Muslim Democratic US Representatives, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, should be "institutionalized" and sent back to "where they came from," a day after they had a heated exchange with him during his State of the Union address.

During Trump's speech on Tuesday, Tlaib, a Palestinian American, and Omar, a Somali American, criticized Trump as he touted his administration's hard-line immigration crackdown and its immigration enforcement actions.

Both Omar and Tlaib shouted "you're killing Americans" at Trump during his speech, with Omar also calling him ‌a "liar."

In a Truth ‌Social post on Wednesday, Trump said the two lawmakers "had ‌the ⁠bulging, bloodshot eyes ⁠of crazy people, LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick who, frankly, look like they should be institutionalized."

"We should send them back from where they came — as fast as possible," Trump added. Both Omar and Tlaib are US citizens.

House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries cast Trump's rhetoric against Tlaib and Omar as "xenophobic" and "disgraceful." According to Reuters, Tlaib said on X that Trump's comments showed "he is crashing out."

Muslim advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations also ⁠said Trump's comments were racist.

"It's racist and bigoted to say ‌two Muslim US lawmakers should be sent to ‌the country they were born in or where their ancestors came from based on ‌their criticism of the gunning down of Americans by ICE," CAIR National Deputy ‌Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that members of the media have "smeared" the president as a racist.