عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

South Korean PM Arrives in Iran to Discuss Nuclear Deal

FILE PHOTO: South Korea's Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, January 28, 2021. REUTERS/Heo Ran
FILE PHOTO: South Korea's Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, January 28, 2021. REUTERS/Heo Ran
TT
TT

South Korean PM Arrives in Iran to Discuss Nuclear Deal

FILE PHOTO: South Korea's Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, January 28, 2021. REUTERS/Heo Ran
FILE PHOTO: South Korea's Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, January 28, 2021. REUTERS/Heo Ran

South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun arrived in Iran on Sunday to hold talks over the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, Seoul officials said.

Chung is the first South Korean prime minister to visit Iran in 44 years amid icy relations between the two countries due to Iran's military cooperation with North Korea.

Tension rose after Iran seized a South Korean ship and its sailors in the Strait of Hormuz in January, accusing them of polluting the waters, and demanded South Korea release $7 billion in assets frozen in South Korean banks under US sanctions.

Chung's trip comes days after Iran released the tanker and its captain, the last member of its 20-strong crew, with South Korea vowing to help secure the release of the funds.

Iran and world powers held talks last week aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal that former US President Donald Trump abandoned three years ago.

After talks on Sunday with Iranian First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, Chung displayed his willingness to support efforts to revive the deal, aimed at preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, formally named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), according to Iranian and South Korean media reports, Reuters reported.

A return to the JCPOA would help improve relations between Seoul and Tehran, Chung said, pledging to step up cooperation with Washington and other countries over the Iranian funds.

The Biden administration is trying to find a way to rejoin the accord and lift the sanctions at talks in Vienna with Iran, mediated by European signatories.

Seoul officials have said they only can release the Iranian billions with a nod from Washington.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Pakistan Says Pausing Military Operations against Afghanistan Temporarily

Taliban security personnel inspect the site after Pakistani airstrikes hit the Secondary Rehabilitation Services Center in Kabul on March 17, 2026. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
Taliban security personnel inspect the site after Pakistani airstrikes hit the Secondary Rehabilitation Services Center in Kabul on March 17, 2026. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
TT
TT

Pakistan Says Pausing Military Operations against Afghanistan Temporarily

Taliban security personnel inspect the site after Pakistani airstrikes hit the Secondary Rehabilitation Services Center in Kabul on March 17, 2026. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
Taliban security personnel inspect the site after Pakistani airstrikes hit the Secondary Rehabilitation Services Center in Kabul on March 17, 2026. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)

Pakistan is pausing its military operations against Afghanistan temporarily, Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a post on X on Wednesday.

Earlier, Afghanistan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani on Wednesday promised retribution for this week's Pakistani airstrike that killed hundreds at a Kabul drugs rehabilitation center.
"We will take revenge," the Taliban government minister said at the mass burial of some of the victims in the capital, calling those behind Monday night's bombing "criminals".
"We are not weak and helpless. You will see the consequences of your crimes," he added.
The Taliban authorities have said that about 400 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in the strike, which was the deadliest attack yet in the recent upsurge in violence between the two neighbors.
Not all victims are being buried in Kabul, as some bodies have been sent for burial in their home provinces, interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told AFP earlier.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said on Wednesday that "hundreds" were killed and wounded, in the first independent confirmation of the heavy death toll.
Pakistan has denied Taliban government claims that the center was deliberately targeted and said it had carried out precision strikes on "military installations and terrorist support infrastructure".
The strike has renewed calls for an end to the conflict, which has seen strikes on both sides of the shared border. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harbouring extremists behind attacks on its territory. Kabul denies doing so.

World

Russia Condemns Killing of Iranian Security Chief Larijani

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Iran's then parliament Speaker Ali Larijani as they meet after a session of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi, Russia, October 22, 2015. (Reuters)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Iran's then parliament Speaker Ali Larijani as they meet after a session of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi, Russia, October 22, 2015. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Russia Condemns Killing of Iranian Security Chief Larijani

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Iran's then parliament Speaker Ali Larijani as they meet after a session of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi, Russia, October 22, 2015. (Reuters)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Iran's then parliament Speaker Ali Larijani as they meet after a session of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi, Russia, October 22, 2015. (Reuters)

Russia on Wednesday condemned the killing of Iranian security chief Ali Larijani, after ally Tehran vowed retaliation for his death in an Israeli airstrike.

Larijani had met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin in January, at a time when US navy ships were heading towards Iran ahead of the US-Israeli air campaign launched at the end of February, according to AFP.

"We firmly condemn actions aimed at harming the health and, even more, the killing of the leadership of sovereign and independent Iran. We condemn such actions," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a daily briefing.

Moscow is a close ally of Iran and has condemned the US and Israeli attacks, which Tehran has responded to with a barrage of missile and drone strikes on US allies across the Gulf.

Last year, the two countries, both heavily sanctioned by the West, signed a broad cooperation agreement, but it stopped short of a mutual defense pact.

The version of the document made public only vaguely mentioned that Moscow and Tehran agreed to help each other counter common "security threats" and would not provide "assistance to the aggressor" if one side was attacked.

Since the outbreak of the war, Russia has sent humanitarian aid, but otherwise declined to comment publicly on what support it has offered Iran, if any.

The Kremlin last week denied a Washington Post report that Russia had passed sensitive intelligence to Iran, including the locations of US warships and aircraft in the region.

Iran emerged as one of Russia's main allies during the war in Ukraine, supplying it at the start of the conflict with drones for Moscow to fire on Ukrainian cities.

World

Iran Executed Swedish Citizen, Says Sweden FM

File photo of the Iranian flag (Reuters)
File photo of the Iranian flag (Reuters)
TT
TT

Iran Executed Swedish Citizen, Says Sweden FM

File photo of the Iranian flag (Reuters)
File photo of the Iranian flag (Reuters)

Sweden's foreign minister on Wednesday confirmed that Iran had executed a Swedish citizen, after Iranian authorities announced the first execution of a man convicted of spying since the start of its war against Israel and the United States.

"It is with dismay that I have received information that a Swedish citizen was executed in Iran earlier today," Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said in a statement, AFP reported.

Since the man's arrest during Iran's 12-day war with Israel in June, Sweden has "repeatedly raised the case at various levels with Iranian representatives," she added.