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Paris Slams Iran Foreign Ministry’s Summoning of Its Ambassador to Tehran

People hold up signs during a rally in support of the demonstrations in Iran at the Place de la République in Paris in October 2022. (AFP)
People hold up signs during a rally in support of the demonstrations in Iran at the Place de la République in Paris in October 2022. (AFP)
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Paris Slams Iran Foreign Ministry’s Summoning of Its Ambassador to Tehran

People hold up signs during a rally in support of the demonstrations in Iran at the Place de la République in Paris in October 2022. (AFP)
People hold up signs during a rally in support of the demonstrations in Iran at the Place de la République in Paris in October 2022. (AFP)

France slammed on Thursday Iran’s summoning of the French ambassador to Tehran, Nicolas Roche, to its foreign ministry.

“The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs deplores the Iranian authorities’ summoning of France’s ambassador to Tehran on Nov. 30, in response to the National Assembly’s adoption of a resolution on Nov.28 expressing its support for freedom in Iran,” the statement read.

“Once again, France condemns the current crackdown and the multiple attacks on basic freedoms in Iran in the strongest possible terms.”

It reiterated that the protestors’ desire for greater freedom and the respect of their rights are legitimate and must be heard.

Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Roche on Wednesday following a unanimous vote by lawmakers in Paris earlier this week condemning infringement of liberties and women's rights, state media said.

The ambassador heard Iran’s “strong protest against the baseless accusations” and “unacceptable interventions” in Iran’s internal affairs, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Legislators in France’s National Assembly unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution supporting the protesters.

The measure strongly condemns what French lawmakers call “the brutal and generalized repression by the security forces ... toward non-violent demonstrators, which constitutes a blatant and unacceptable violation of the right to demonstrate and freedom of expression.”

It also denounces laws and rules restricting the rights of women and minorities in Iran. It calls for the release of seven French citizens detained in Iran, too.

During the debate on the resolution in the French parliament on Monday, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna condemned “the Iranian regime's massive use of arbitrary detention, censorship, and violence.”

She said Iran was responding with “repression” to the “legitimate aspirations of Iranian women and men.”

On the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Indonesia in November, French President Emmanuel Macron denounced Tehran's “increasing aggressiveness” towards France through “unacceptable” hostage-taking and called on Tehran to return to calm and the spirit of cooperation.

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Russia Says Last Ukrainian Troops Expelled from Kursk Region, Kyiv Denies Assertion

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
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Russia Says Last Ukrainian Troops Expelled from Kursk Region, Kyiv Denies Assertion

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed on Saturday what he said was the complete failure of an offensive by Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region after Moscow said they had been expelled from the last village they had been holding.

Russia also confirmed for the first time that North Korean soldiers have been fighting alongside Russian troops in Kursk, with the chief of the military General Staff praising their "heroism" in helping to drive out the Ukrainians.

However, Kyiv denied that its forces had been expelled from Kursk and said they were also still operating in Belgorod, another Russian region bordering Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces seized a swathe of territory in Kursk region last August in a surprise incursion that embarrassed Putin. Russian forces, later reinforced by North Korean troops, have been trying ever since to drive them out.

Putin, speaking amid intensified diplomatic efforts by the Trump administration to end the Ukraine conflict, said the expulsion of Ukrainian forces from Russian soil opened the way for further Russian successes inside Ukraine.

"The Kyiv regime's adventure has completely failed," Putin said in video footage released by the Kremlin that showed him receiving a report from the head of Russia's general staff, Valery Gerasimov.

"The full defeat of the enemy in the Kursk border region creates conditions for further successful actions by our forces on other important parts of the front," Putin added.

Gerasimov told Putin that the last occupied settlement in the Kursk region, the village of Gornal, had been "liberated from Ukrainian units" on Saturday.

"Thus, the defeat of the armed formations of the Ukrainian armed forces that had invaded the Kursk region has been completed," Gerasimov said.

The Ukrainian military, in a statement later posted on social media platform Telegram, said its forces were continuing their operations in some districts of Kursk region.

Ukraine also denied Gerasimov's assertion that all Ukrainian "sabotage groups" had been "liquidated" in Belgorod region, where Kyiv's forces launched an incursion last month.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield assertions of either side.

Russia's Defense Ministry said the armed forces were now helping authorities in the Kursk region to restore "peaceful life" and to remove mines planted there.

NORTH KOREANS

Gerasimov praised the North Korean officers and soldiers' contribution in Kursk, saying they had shown "high professionalism, fortitude, courage and heroism", fulfilling combat tasks "shoulder to shoulder" with Russian servicemen.

North Korea sent an estimated total of 14,000 troops, including 3,000 reinforcements to replace its losses, Ukrainian officials said. Lacking armored vehicles and drone warfare experience, they took heavy casualties but adapted quickly.

Russia had previously neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean troops in Kursk.

Russia's military cooperation with North Korea has grown rapidly since Moscow became internationally isolated after invading Ukraine in February 2022.

Kyiv says North Korea has supplied Russia with vast amounts of artillery shells as well as rocket systems, thousands of troops and ballistic missiles, which Moscow began using for strikes against Ukraine at the end of 2023.

Russia and North Korea have denied weapons transfers, which would violate UN embargoes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had hoped his forces' seizure of Russian territory would give him a bargaining chip in any future talks to end the war in his country.

Zelenskiy held what the White House described as a "very productive" meeting with US President Donald Trump on Saturday in Rome, where both leaders were attending the funeral of Pope Francis.

Trump is pressuring Zelenskiy to agree to give up some Ukrainian territory to help end the three-year war that has caused large-scale casualties and devastation in cities, towns and villages across Ukraine.