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UK’s Nigel Farage Says the West Provoked Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine

Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage delivers a speech at a hotel in Blackpool, northwestern England, on June 20, 2024, in the build-up to the UK general election on July 4. (AFP)
Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage delivers a speech at a hotel in Blackpool, northwestern England, on June 20, 2024, in the build-up to the UK general election on July 4. (AFP)
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UK’s Nigel Farage Says the West Provoked Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine

Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage delivers a speech at a hotel in Blackpool, northwestern England, on June 20, 2024, in the build-up to the UK general election on July 4. (AFP)
Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage delivers a speech at a hotel in Blackpool, northwestern England, on June 20, 2024, in the build-up to the UK general election on July 4. (AFP)

Nigel Farage, the leader of Britain's right-wing Reform UK party, said the eastward of expansion of the European Union and NATO had provoked Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

The remarks, made in an interview with the BBC aired late on Friday, drew strong criticism across the British political spectrum ahead of a July 4 election in which Farage's party is predicted to win millions of votes.

Farage said he stood by comments made shortly after Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, when he posted on social media that the move was a "consequence of EU and NATO expansion". He said he had been predicting a war in Ukraine as early as 2014.

"It was obvious to me that the ever-eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union was giving this man a reason to his Russian people to say, 'They're coming for us again' and to go to war," Farage said in Friday's BBC interview.

"We provoked this war ... of course it's his (Putin's) fault - he's used what we've done as an excuse."

Russia casts its special military operation in Ukraine as part of a broader struggle with the West, which it says wants to bring Russia to its knees. Kyiv and the West reject this and accuse Russia of waging an illegal war of conquest.

Farage's decades of campaigning against Britain's membership of the EU and mass immigration has made him one of the country's most recognizable and divisive politicians.

His surprise entry into the election race has further hit Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's hopes of closing the center-left Labour Party's opinion poll lead.

Even though Reform is unlikely to win many seats in parliament, it could split the right-of-center vote across the country. The party held only one seat in the last parliament, which it gained when a Conservative lawmaker defected.

Farage's remarks on Ukraine drew immediate condemnation.

Sunak said Farage was "completely wrong", accusing him of appeasement that put Britain and its allies' security at risk. Labour's defense spokesman John Healey called Farage's comments disgraceful and labelled him a "Putin apologist".

Farage later posted on X: "Putin was wrong to invade a sovereign nation, and the EU was wrong to expand eastward. The sooner we realize this, the closer we will be to ending the war and delivering peace."

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World

Human Remains Found on Thai Ship Attacked in Hormuz Strait

A cargo ship in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)
A cargo ship in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)
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Human Remains Found on Thai Ship Attacked in Hormuz Strait

A cargo ship in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)
A cargo ship in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)

Human remains have been found aboard a cargo ship struck by Iran while transiting the Strait of Hormuz last month, the vessel's owner said Friday, after three crew members were reported missing following the attack.

US-Israeli strikes on Iran late February prompted Tehran to respond by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial artery for global oil supplies.

The Thai-flagged Mayuree Naree was struck in March while travelling through the strait after departing Khalifa port in the United Arab Emirates.

"Certain human remains were found within the affected area of the vessel," a statement from transport company Precious Shipping said Friday, adding it could not yet confirm the identities or the number of individuals.

Twenty Thai crew members returned home in mid-March, while three of their colleagues were missing and presumed trapped in the damaged engine compartment.

A search was carried out under "challenging conditions" as the vessel's engine room had been flooded and damaged by fire, the company said.

Thailand's foreign ministry said it was "saddened" by the development and that families of the missing crew had been informed.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in March they had struck the Mayuree Naree, as well as a Liberia-flagged vessel, in the strait because the ships had ignored "warnings".

World

Iran’s Former Top Diplomat Urges Deal with US to End War

A newly constructed bridge struck by US airstrikes Thursday is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP)
A newly constructed bridge struck by US airstrikes Thursday is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP)
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Iran’s Former Top Diplomat Urges Deal with US to End War

A newly constructed bridge struck by US airstrikes Thursday is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP)
A newly constructed bridge struck by US airstrikes Thursday is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP)

Iran should make a deal with the United States to end the war by offering to curb its nuclear program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief, a former Iranian foreign minister said.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, who served as foreign minister from 2013-2021, claimed in an op-ed for American journal Foreign Affairs that Tehran had the "upper hand" in the conflict against the US and Israel, but argued Iran needed to stop the war to prevent the loss of more civilian lives and damage to infrastructure.

"Iran should use its upper hand not to keep fighting but to declare victory and make a deal that both ends this conflict and prevents the next one," Zarif said in the piece published late Thursday.

"It should offer to place limits on its nuclear program and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to all sanctions -- a deal Washington wouldn't take before but might accept now," he added.

Iran should also be prepared to accept a mutual "nonaggression pact" with the United States, as well as economic relations, he said. Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic ties since shortly after the 1979 revolution.

Zarif, one of the architects of the now moribund 2015 deal over the Iranian nuclear program, is seen as a relative moderate within the regime’s elite, but has no official post in the current government.

However, this is one of the first times during this conflict that a high-profile figure in Iran has called for a deal and an end to the war, with top military and political officials urging daily for fighting to continue until the US is defeated.

US President Donald Trump has evoked ongoing talks with Tehran without giving details but also threatened to send the country "back to the stone ages" if it fails to agree terms.

"As an Iranian, outraged by Donald Trump's reckless aggression and crude insults, yet proud of our armed forces and resilient people, I am torn about publishing this peace-plan in Foreign Affairs," Zarif wrote in English on X Friday.

"Yet I'm convinced that war must end on terms consistent with Iran's national interests," he added.

Zarif in the Foreign Affairs piece warned that "although continuing to fight the United States and Israel might be psychologically satisfying, it will lead only to the further destruction of civilian lives and infrastructure".

World

China Says Peace Talks Advance Between Afghanistan, Pakistan

Local residents look at a damaged area of a police station after an overnight deadly bombing in the Bannu district of northwestern Pakistan, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP)
Local residents look at a damaged area of a police station after an overnight deadly bombing in the Bannu district of northwestern Pakistan, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP)
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China Says Peace Talks Advance Between Afghanistan, Pakistan

Local residents look at a damaged area of a police station after an overnight deadly bombing in the Bannu district of northwestern Pakistan, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP)
Local residents look at a damaged area of a police station after an overnight deadly bombing in the Bannu district of northwestern Pakistan, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP)

Negotiations ‌between Afghanistan and Pakistan are advancing steadily, China said on Friday following reports that the South Asian neighbors were meeting there to try to end their worst conflict since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

China, which shares a western border with both nations, has been trying to mediate between the allies ‌turned foes, ‌holding telephone calls with their ‌foreign ⁠ministers and sending ⁠a special envoy on visits in March.

"Both Pakistan and Afghanistan attach importance to, and welcome, China's mediation, and are willing to sit down for talks again, which is a positive development," ⁠foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told ‌a daily press ‌conference.

Mao did not say where the ‌talks were being held, though the neighbors ‌have previously said they were in the northwestern city of Urumqi.

China has been mediating and promoting talks, in close communication with both ‌sides to build suitable conditions and provide a platform, Mao ⁠said, ⁠adding that the three countries would issue further information in due course.

The fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan that started in October has killed scores of people on both sides, with Afghans taking the brunt.

Islamabad accuses the Afghan Taliban of harboring militants who launch attacks in Pakistan, although Kabul denies this calling the militancy its neighbor's domestic problem.