Turkish PM Urges Resolution to Visa Dispute with US

Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim speaks to the media during a press conference in Ankara. (AP)
Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim speaks to the media during a press conference in Ankara. (AP)
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Turkish PM Urges Resolution to Visa Dispute with US

Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim speaks to the media during a press conference in Ankara. (AP)
Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim speaks to the media during a press conference in Ankara. (AP)

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim urged on Tuesday an end to the dispute with the United States over the recent suspension of visa services between the two countries.

The US suspension of visa services in Turkey punishes ordinary citizens and the problem must be resolved immediately, he demanded.

"Turkey is not a tribal state, we will retaliate against what has been done in kind," Yildirim told ruling AK Party parliamentarians.

"We call on the United States to be more reasonable. The issue must of course be resolved as soon as possible," he said, describing US behavior as "unbecoming" of an ally.

"Who are you punishing? You are making your citizens and ours pay the price, this is not being serious. You can't run a country with emotional decisions," the PM added.

The US embassy in Ankara said on Sunday night it was suspending non-immigrant visa services after the arrest of a locally employed US consulate employee in Istanbul last week.

The employee was detained on charges of espionage and alleged ties to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen's movement. Turkey retaliated by halting visas services in the US.

Yildirim also slammed Washington for the arrest of a Turkish banker for his alleged role in helping Iran escape US sanctions, and for its failure to extradite Gulen, who Turkey says was behind last year's failed coup. Gulen has denied involvement.

Yildirim said his country does not need Washington's permission to prosecute its citizens.

"Turkey is a state of law. ... Were we to seek the permission of the (US) gentlemen?"

On Tuesday, Turkish police launched an operation to arrest 70 soldiers accused of links to Gulen, the private Dogan news agency reported.

Operations targeting Gulen supporters are continuing on a daily basis some 15 months after the failed putsch. In the last week alone, around 800 people were held over alleged ties to him.

Among those targeted in the police raids, focused in the central Turkish city of Konya but launched simultaneously across seven provinces, were two colonels, seven captains and 36 lieutenants, Dogan said.

Sixty-two of the suspects were in the air force, some of them pilots, it added. Police were conducting searches of their homes and places of work.

More than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial over links to Gulen, while 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from jobs in the public and private sectors since the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, in which 250 people were killed.

Some of Turkey’s Western allies and rights groups have voiced concern that the government is using the coup investigations as a pretext to crack down on dissent.

Ankara argues that only such a purge could neutralize the threat represented by Gulen’s network, which it says infiltrated institutions such as the military, judiciary and schools.



Russia: Man Suspected of Shooting Top General Detained in Dubai

An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
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Russia: Man Suspected of Shooting Top General Detained in Dubai

An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Sunday that the man suspected of shooting top Russian military intelligence officer Vladimir Alexeyev in Moscow has been detained in Dubai and handed over to Russia.

Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, deputy head of the GRU, ⁠Russia's military intelligence arm, was shot several times in an apartment block in Moscow on Friday, investigators said. He underwent surgery after the shooting, Russian media ⁠said.

The FSB said a Russian citizen named Lyubomir Korba was detained in Dubai on suspicion of carrying out the shooting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the assassination attempt, which he said was designed to sabotage peace talks. ⁠Ukraine said it had nothing to do with the shooting.

Alexeyev's boss, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, the head of the GRU, has been leading Russia's delegation in negotiations with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on security-related aspects of a potential peace deal.


Factory Explosion Kills 8 in Northern China

Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
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Factory Explosion Kills 8 in Northern China

Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo

An explosion at a biotech factory in northern China has killed eight people, Chinese state media reported Sunday, increasing the total number of fatalities by one.

State news agency Xinhua had previously reported that seven people died and one person was missing after the Saturday morning explosion at the Jiapeng biotech company in Shanxi province, citing local authorities.

Later, Xinhua said eight were dead, adding that the firm's legal representative had been taken into custody.

The company is located in Shanyin County, about 400 kilometers west of Beijing, AFP reported.

Xinhua said clean-up operations were ongoing, noting that reporters observed dark yellow smoke emanating from the site of the explosion.

Authorities have established a team to investigate the cause of the blast, the report added.

Industrial accidents are common in China due to lax safety standards.
In late January, an explosion at a steel factory in the neighboring province of Inner Mongolia left at least nine people dead.


Iran Warns Will Not Give Up Enrichment Despite US War Threat

Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iran Warns Will Not Give Up Enrichment Despite US War Threat

Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran will never surrender the right to enrich uranium, even if war "is imposed on us,” its foreign minister said Sunday, defying pressure from Washington.

"Iran has paid a very heavy price for its peaceful nuclear program and for uranium enrichment," Abbas Araghchi told a forum in Tehran.

"Why do we insist so much on enrichment and refuse to give it up even if a war is imposed on us? Because no one has the right to dictate our behavior," he said, two days after he met US envoy Steve Witkoff in Oman.

The foreign minister also declared that his country was not intimidated by the US naval deployment in the Gulf.

"Their military deployment in the region does not scare us," Araghchi said.