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Iran Summons Pakistan's Envoy Over Zahedan's Suicide Bomb Attack

Funeral of the dead Revolutionary Guards soldiers in the city of Isfahan on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (AFP)
Funeral of the dead Revolutionary Guards soldiers in the city of Isfahan on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (AFP)
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Iran Summons Pakistan's Envoy Over Zahedan's Suicide Bomb Attack

Funeral of the dead Revolutionary Guards soldiers in the city of Isfahan on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (AFP)
Funeral of the dead Revolutionary Guards soldiers in the city of Isfahan on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (AFP)

Iran took advantage of the bombing, which targeted Zahedan last Wednesday and killed 27 Revolutionary Guards soldiers, to accuse Pakistan of being involved in the attack.

To protest the bombing, Tehran summoned the Pakistani ambassador on Sunday.

"Jaish al Adl" which says it seeks greater rights and better living conditions for the ethnic minority Baluchis, claimed responsibility for the attack earlier.

Iran says militant groups operate from safe havens in Pakistan.

“The government of Pakistan must pay the price of harboring these terrorist groups and this price will undoubtedly be very high,” Iranian state television quoted Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari as saying.

Jafari blamed Pakistan’s army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency, saying that “sheltering and silence” amounts to supporting the perpetrators.

Jafari also accused Saudi Arabia and UAE of supporting opposition groups that attack Iranian forces, threatening to retaliate against them over the attack.

Saudi Political Analyst Dr. Khaled al-Habbas told Asharq Al-Awsat that Iran is trying to adopt a counter-strategy due to international and regional pressures, which left it in a state of frustration.

“The recently held Warsaw meeting had one main objective, which is facing Iranian regional threats,” Habbas stressed, noting that it added pressures on Tehran.

“Saudi Arabia and the UAE are among the countries seeking to highlight the destructive Iranian role in the region, so it is easy for Iran to indict Riyadh and Abu Dhabi only to try to adopt a counter-policy," he said.

Dr. Habbas did not rule out that the regime’s accusations against Pakistan aim to disrupt the upcoming Saudi Crown Prince’s visit to the country.

Researcher on terror affairs Dr. Yousef al-Rumaih, for his part, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Iranian regime always tries to influence the public opinion by raising baseless accusations against foreign parties, in hope to overcome its internal issues.

He said that everyone knows the size of internal and foreign opposition against the Iranian regime, in addition to its many economic and social problems, so it accuses other parties to find a way out of the crisis.

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World

US Envoy Sees 'Movement' Toward More Talks with Russia, Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff walk before the start of talks in Kyiv on Sunday (AP).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff walk before the start of talks in Kyiv on Sunday (AP).
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US Envoy Sees 'Movement' Toward More Talks with Russia, Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff walk before the start of talks in Kyiv on Sunday (AP).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff walk before the start of talks in Kyiv on Sunday (AP).

A key US negotiator on Monday hailed weekend discussions in Moscow and Kiev, suggesting they could see a scheduling of fresh three-way peace talks aimed at ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.

"Substantive progress was made, including movement on scheduling additional trilateral talks," US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff wrote on X.

Witkoff, a business ally of President Donald Trump, traveled to Russia and Ukraine over the weekend alongside negotiating partner Jared Kushner, who is Trump's son-in-law.

Sunday's appearance in Kyiv was their first to the Ukrainian capital.

A senior Ukrainian official told AFP on Sunday that the two envoys had brought new and "more effective" proposals on ending the war, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that fighting appeared likely to continue into the winter.

On Monday, the Kremlin did not rule out three-way talks with the United States and Ukraine aimed at ending the conflict.

Negotiators from Moscow and Kyiv last met for US-organized talks in Geneva in February, but did not reach an agreement on territorial issues.

Diplomatic efforts led by Washington have slowed in recent months as the Trump administration shifted focus toward the war with Iran.

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, has resulted in the deaths of at least 15,000 civilians, according to the United Nations, although it says the actual number is likely considerably higher.

World

Russia Announces the Closure of the German Consulate in St. Petersburg

A person walks past the German Consulate General in Saint Petersburg, Russia September 2, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Dmitry Vasilyev
A person walks past the German Consulate General in Saint Petersburg, Russia September 2, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Dmitry Vasilyev
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Russia Announces the Closure of the German Consulate in St. Petersburg

A person walks past the German Consulate General in Saint Petersburg, Russia September 2, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Dmitry Vasilyev
A person walks past the German Consulate General in Saint Petersburg, Russia September 2, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Dmitry Vasilyev

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that the German consulate in St. Petersburg will have to close, a tit-for-tat move that reflected the simmering tensions between the two countries.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the German consulate must stop operations by Sept. 18, following an earlier move by Moscow to close German cultural centers on its territory.

The ministry said the closure was in retaliation for Germany’s decision Wednesday to close both the Russian consulate in Bonn and the Russian House cultural center in the German capital, Berlin.

Germany blamed Russia for an attempted drone attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport on Aug. 4, when an explosives-laden drone was found near a Ukrainian plane.

The airport is a major international freight hub used for providing support to Ukraine. The drone was later defused.

Moscow has denied involvement.

 

 

 

World

North Korea, Russia Open their First Road Bridge, a Symbol of Expanding Ties 

The first road bridge between Russia and North Korea across the Tumen River, locally known as Tumannaya, on the border with North Korea in the Primorsky region, Russia, in this still image from a video released September 7, 2026. Russian Government/Handout via REUTERS
The first road bridge between Russia and North Korea across the Tumen River, locally known as Tumannaya, on the border with North Korea in the Primorsky region, Russia, in this still image from a video released September 7, 2026. Russian Government/Handout via REUTERS
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North Korea, Russia Open their First Road Bridge, a Symbol of Expanding Ties 

The first road bridge between Russia and North Korea across the Tumen River, locally known as Tumannaya, on the border with North Korea in the Primorsky region, Russia, in this still image from a video released September 7, 2026. Russian Government/Handout via REUTERS
The first road bridge between Russia and North Korea across the Tumen River, locally known as Tumannaya, on the border with North Korea in the Primorsky region, Russia, in this still image from a video released September 7, 2026. Russian Government/Handout via REUTERS

North Korea and Russia opened their first road bridge on Monday in a carefully choreographed display of friendship, a structure which spans the Tumen river and which both sides cast as an important milestone in their deepening strategic partnership.

The first flag-adorned trucks trundled across the 1 km (0.6 mile) long two-lane bridge as Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and North Korea's Premier Pak Thae Song tuned in by video link to address workers and government officials from both countries.

Construction of the new bridge, which had been under discussion for years, began in April last year after the project was agreed during a visit by President Vladimir Putin to North Korea in 2024. There are already direct air and rail links between Moscow and Pyongyang, but until Monday there had not been a proper road link. Instead, since 1959 and by special arrangement, planks had been placed on the nearby rail bridge - for decades the sole border crossing point - in order to move vehicles across the border between the two countries.

"I am convinced that the expansion of cross-border transport infrastructure will provide a powerful impetus for the further development of trade, economic, scientific, technological and cultural cooperation," said Mishustin, who said ties between Moscow and Pyongyang were "at an unprecedented high level" and called the opening of the bridge "a genuinely historic event."

The construction of the bridge was not merely an engineering project, he said, but "a new symbol of friendship".

Mishustin said up to 300 vehicles would be able to cross every day and that the bridge would be linked to Russia's federal road network and have easy access to the transport corridor which runs from the far eastern city of Vladivostok to St Petersburg. Trucks would begin to use the bridge immediately to transport cargo, the Russian government said. At the end of this year, the bridge would be fully operational and could be used for passenger traffic too.

The bridge was built near an existing "Friendship Bridge", a rail bridge which was commissioned in 1959 after the Korean war. Symbolically, the new bridge is named after Yakov Novichenko, a Red Army soldier who Pyongyang credits with protecting the life of North Korea's first leader Kim Il Sung in 1946 by intercepting a grenade thrown at him and others.

Ties between the two countries have grown stronger since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, with Pyongyang sending thousands of troops to Russia's Kursk region to help repel a 2024 Ukrainian incursion there.

Mishustin made a reference to that in his speech on Monday, referring to "the Korean heroes who, only recently, fought shoulder to shoulder with our soldiers and defended Russian soil".