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US Envoy Plans to Meet Iran's Foreign Minister on Sunday, US Official Says

This combo shows Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, pictured in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025 and Steve Witkoff, right, White House special envoy, pictured in Washington, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photos Stringer, Mark Schiefelbein)
This combo shows Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, pictured in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025 and Steve Witkoff, right, White House special envoy, pictured in Washington, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photos Stringer, Mark Schiefelbein)
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US Envoy Plans to Meet Iran's Foreign Minister on Sunday, US Official Says

This combo shows Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, pictured in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025 and Steve Witkoff, right, White House special envoy, pictured in Washington, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photos Stringer, Mark Schiefelbein)
This combo shows Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, pictured in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025 and Steve Witkoff, right, White House special envoy, pictured in Washington, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photos Stringer, Mark Schiefelbein)

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff plans to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Oman on Sunday and discuss Iran's response to a recent American proposal for a nuclear deal, a US official said late on Wednesday.

Iran said on Monday it will soon hand a counter-proposal for a nuclear deal to the United States in response to a US offer that Tehran deems "unacceptable," while US President Donald Trump said talks would continue.

Trump told a podcast on Monday he was less confident that Iran will agree to stop uranium enrichment in a nuclear deal with Washington, Reuters said.

Trump has been seeking a new nuclear deal to place limits on Iran's disputed uranium enrichment activities and has threatened it with bombing if no agreement is reached.

Iran has long said it has no plans to develop nuclear weapons and is only interested in atomic power generation and other peaceful projects.

During his first White House term, Trump withdrew the US from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that placed limits on Tehran's uranium enrichment drive in exchange for relief from international sanctions.

Uneasy relations between Iran and the US go back decades. Tehran says Washington has interfered in its affairs, citing events ranging from a 1953 coup against a prime minister to the 2020 killing of its military commander in a US drone strike.

Washington cites Iran's backing of militant groups in the Middle East including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen to say that Iran poses a threat to US ally Israel and Washington's interests in the region.

The militant groups describe themselves as the "Axis of Resistance" to Israeli and US influence in the Middle East.

Trump said on Wednesday US personnel were being moved out of the Middle East because "it could be a dangerous place."

The decision by the US to evacuate some personnel comes at a volatile moment in the region. Trump's efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran appear to be deadlocked and US intelligence indicates that Israel has been making preparations for a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.

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World

Sweden Summons Iran Envoy after Reports of Citizen's Death Sentence

A Pakistani woman holds a national flag of Iran during a rally in solidarity with the Iranian people, in Karachi, Pakistan, 22 June 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER
A Pakistani woman holds a national flag of Iran during a rally in solidarity with the Iranian people, in Karachi, Pakistan, 22 June 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER
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Sweden Summons Iran Envoy after Reports of Citizen's Death Sentence

A Pakistani woman holds a national flag of Iran during a rally in solidarity with the Iranian people, in Karachi, Pakistan, 22 June 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER
A Pakistani woman holds a national flag of Iran during a rally in solidarity with the Iranian people, in Karachi, Pakistan, 22 June 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER

Sweden summoned the Iranian ambassador this week following reports that a Swedish citizen had been sentenced to death in Iran, the country's foreign minister said on Friday.

"Sweden and the EU's position on the death penalty is very clear. We always oppose it. Everywhere and regardless of circumstances, this is well known. On Wednesday, the foreign ministry therefore summoned Iran's ambassador to convey our protests against the sentence," Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told a press conference, while noting that the reports were still unconfirmed.

World

Putin Tells His Annual News Conference that the Kremlin's Military Goals Will Be Achieved in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2025. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2025. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)
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Putin Tells His Annual News Conference that the Kremlin's Military Goals Will Be Achieved in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2025. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2025. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow’s troops were advancing across the battlefield in Ukraine, voicing confidence that the Kremlin's military goals would be achieved.

Speaking at his highly orchestrated year-end news conference, Putin declared that Russian forces have “fully seized strategic initiative” and would make more gains by the year's end, The Associated Press said.

Russia's larger, better-equipped army has made slow but steady progress in Ukraine in recent months.

The annual live news conference is combined with a nationwide call-in show that offers Russians across the country the opportunity to ask questions of Putin, who has led the country for 25 years. Putin has used it to cement his power and air his views on domestic and global affairs.

This year, observers are watching for Putin’s remarks on Ukraine and the US-backed peace plan there.

US President Donald Trump has unleashed an extensive diplomatic push to end nearly four years of fighting after Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, but Washington’s efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.

Putin reaffirmed that Moscow was ready for a peaceful settlement that would address the “root causes” of the conflict, a reference to the Kremlin’s tough conditions for a deal.

Earlier this week, Putin warned this week that Moscow would seek to extend its gains in Ukraine if Kyiv and its Western allies reject the Kremlin’s demands.

The Russian leader wants all the areas in four key regions captured by his forces, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed in 2014, to be recognized as Russian territory. He also has insisted that Ukraine withdraw from some areas in eastern Ukraine that Moscow’s forces haven’t captured yet — demands Kyiv has rejected.

World

Hundreds of Migrants Land in Greece after Search Operation at Sea

FILE - In this Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020 file photo, a Turkish coast guard vessel approaches a life raft with migrants in the Aegean Sea, between Türkiye and Greece. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)
FILE - In this Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020 file photo, a Turkish coast guard vessel approaches a life raft with migrants in the Aegean Sea, between Türkiye and Greece. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)
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Hundreds of Migrants Land in Greece after Search Operation at Sea

FILE - In this Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020 file photo, a Turkish coast guard vessel approaches a life raft with migrants in the Aegean Sea, between Türkiye and Greece. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)
FILE - In this Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020 file photo, a Turkish coast guard vessel approaches a life raft with migrants in the Aegean Sea, between Türkiye and Greece. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)

Greece's Coast Guard rescued about 545 migrants from a fishing boat off Europe's southernmost island of Gavdos on Friday, one of the biggest groups to reach the country in recent months.

The migrants were found during a Greek search operation some 16 nautical miles (29.6 km) off Gavdos, Reuters quoted a Coast Guard statement as saying. ‌They are all ‌well and are ‌being ⁠taken to ‌the port of Agia Galini on the nearby island of Crete, it added.

Greece was on the front line of a 2015-16 migration crisis when more than a million people from the ⁠Middle East and Africa landed on its shores ‌before moving on to ‍other European countries, mainly ‍Germany.

Flows have ebbed since then, ‍but both Crete and Gavdos - the two Mediterranean islands nearest to the African coast - have seen a steep rise in migrant boats, mainly from Libya, reaching their shores over the past year and ⁠deadly accidents remain common along that route.

Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Italy will be eligible for help in dealing with migratory pressures under a new EU mechanism when the bloc's pact on migration and asylum enters into force in mid-2026.

The center-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said deportation of rejected ‌asylum seekers