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Lukashenko Says Issue of Relocating Wagner Forces Not Yet Resolved

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during his meeting with foreign correspondents, in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during his meeting with foreign correspondents, in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
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Lukashenko Says Issue of Relocating Wagner Forces Not Yet Resolved

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during his meeting with foreign correspondents, in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during his meeting with foreign correspondents, in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday said the issue of relocating forces from Russia's Wagner mercenary group had not yet been resolved, Russia's TASS news agency reported.

Lukashenko, who last month brokered a deal to end an armed mutiny in Russia by the Wagner force, said Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was now no longer in Belarus but back in St. Petersburg in Russia.

Lukashenko said his offer to accommodate some of Wagner's fighters in Belarus still stood. Russia has said they can go to Belarus, sign up with its regular armed forces or demobilize.

Prigozhin took control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on June 24, seized the command center there where Russia coordinates its war in Ukraine, and sent a column of fighters towards Moscow before standing down after striking a deal with the Kremlin.

Russian state TV on Wednesday launched a fierce attack on Prigozhin and said an investigation into what had happened was still being vigorously pursued.

In a program called "60 Minutes" broadcast on Wednesday evening on the state Rossiya-1 TV channel, what was billed as exclusive footage shot during law enforcement raids of Prigozhin's office in St. Petersburg and one of his estates there was shown.

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Trump Threatens Bombing if Iran Does Not Make Nuclear Deal

An Iranian painter repaints one of the famous anti-US murals in Tehran, Iran, 29 March 2025. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
An Iranian painter repaints one of the famous anti-US murals in Tehran, Iran, 29 March 2025. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
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Trump Threatens Bombing if Iran Does Not Make Nuclear Deal

An Iranian painter repaints one of the famous anti-US murals in Tehran, Iran, 29 March 2025. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
An Iranian painter repaints one of the famous anti-US murals in Tehran, Iran, 29 March 2025. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

US President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program.
In Trump's first remarks since Iran rejected direct negotiations with Washington last week, he told NBC News that US and Iranian officials were talking, but did not elaborate.
"If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing," Trump said in a telephone interview, according to Reuters. "It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before."
"There's a chance that if they don't make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago," he added.
Iran sent a response through Oman to a letter from Trump urging Tehran to reach a new nuclear deal, saying its policy was to not engage in direct negotiations with the United States while under its maximum pressure campaign and military threats, Tehran's foreign minister was quoted as saying on Thursday.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated the policy on Sunday. "Direct negotiations (with the US) have been rejected, but Iran has always been involved in indirect negotiations, and now too, the Supreme Leader has emphasized that indirect negotiations can still continue," he said, referring to Ali Khamenei.
In the NBC interview, Trump also threatened so-called secondary tariffs, which affect buyers of a country's goods, on both Russia and Iran. He signed an executive order last week authorizing such tariffs on buyers of Venezuelan oil.
Trump did not elaborate on those potential tariffs.
In his first 2017-21 term, Trump withdrew the US from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that placed strict limits on Tehran's disputed nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
Trump also reimposed sweeping US sanctions. Since then, Tehran has far surpassed the agreed limits in its escalating program of uranium enrichment.
Tehran has so far rebuffed Trump's warning to make a deal or face military consequences.