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Iranian President Raisi Begins Africa Trip with Visit to Kenya

05 July 2023, Iran, Tehran: President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a cabinet meeting. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)
05 July 2023, Iran, Tehran: President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a cabinet meeting. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)
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Iranian President Raisi Begins Africa Trip with Visit to Kenya

05 July 2023, Iran, Tehran: President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a cabinet meeting. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)
05 July 2023, Iran, Tehran: President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a cabinet meeting. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi received a red carpet welcome from Kenyan counterpart William Ruto on Wednesday as he began a three-country tour of Africa that Tehran has touted as a "new beginning" in relations with the continent.
Raisi's trip to Africa, which will also take him to Uganda and Zimbabwe, is the first by an Iranian president in more than a decade, and represents a bid to diversify economic ties in the face of crippling US sanctions, Reuters said.
Iran stepped up its diplomatic outreach to developing world countries after then-US President Donald Trump ditched a nuclear pact in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.
In June, Raisi visited three Latin American countries to shore up support with allies also saddled with US sanctions.
Iran's trade with African countries will increase to more than $2 billion this year, its foreign ministry said on Saturday, without providing a comparative figure for 2022.
Raisi was welcomed by an honor guard at Kenya's presidential palace before joining Ruto for a meeting, video posted on social media by Kenya's presidency showed.
His trip to Kenya, East Africa's economic powerhouse, will provide the two countries an "opportunity to review and re-energise their bilateral relations for the mutual benefit of the people of the two countries," Kenya's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Raisi is expected to next fly to Uganda to discuss trade and bilateral relations with President Yoweri Museveni, and then to Zimbabwe.
The last Iranian leader to visit Africa was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2013.

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World

Trump Says Sending Hospital Boat to Greenland

US President Donald Trump (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump (Reuters)
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Trump Says Sending Hospital Boat to Greenland

US President Donald Trump (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump said Saturday he was sending a hospital boat to Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory that he has long coveted and threatened to seize by force.

Trump's rhetoric has ratcheted up tensions between the United States and Denmark, while putting the global spotlight on the Arctic as he insists mineral-rich Greenland is vital for US and NATO security against Russia and China.

He said the boat would treat many "sick" people in Greenland, without providing any details on who he was referring to or the number of people the vessel would help.

"We are going to send a great hospital boat to Greenland to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there," Trump wrote in a social media post.

"It's on the way!!!," he added, according to AFP.

The post on his Truth Social platform carried an apparent AI image that depicted the USNS Mercy -- an 894-foot (272-meter) vessel that is typically stationed in southern California -- sailing toward snowcapped mountains on the horizon.

It was unclear if that was the actual vessel being sent to Greenland.

Trump said in the post that the ship would be sent in coordination with Gov. Jeff Landry (R-LA), who was named as Trump's envoy to the Arctic island in December.

During Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans this month, Landry posted an image of himself and two men at one of the city's famous balls, holding a flag of Greenland together.

"Great to host some of the wonderful people of Greenland," he wrote.

Earlier this week Denmark's King Frederik X visited Greenland, where he has long enjoyed popularity, as anxieties mount over Trump's interest.

Trump backed off repeated threats to seize the territory last month, after striking a "framework" deal with NATO chief Mark Rutte to ensure greater US influence.

World

Ukraine Strikes Ballistic Missile Producer Deep Inside Russia, Kyiv Says

Ukrainian firefighters work at the scene of a recent multiple Russian drone strike on a gas station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, 09 February 2026. (EPA)
Ukrainian firefighters work at the scene of a recent multiple Russian drone strike on a gas station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, 09 February 2026. (EPA)
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Ukraine Strikes Ballistic Missile Producer Deep Inside Russia, Kyiv Says

Ukrainian firefighters work at the scene of a recent multiple Russian drone strike on a gas station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, 09 February 2026. (EPA)
Ukrainian firefighters work at the scene of a recent multiple Russian drone strike on a gas station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, 09 February 2026. (EPA)

Ukraine hit a Russian plant manufacturing ballistic missiles in a missile strike in the remote Udmurtia region, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Saturday.

Ukraine said its forces attacked the plant manufacturing Russian missiles, including the short-range Iskander and intercontinental Topol-M, in Votkinsk, east of Moscow and about 1,400 km (800 miles) from Ukraine.

It said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that the Ukrainian forces used ‌domestically produced ground-launched ‌Flamingo cruise missiles. The attack caused ‌a fire ⁠on the site, ⁠the Ukrainian military said.

Alexander Brechalov, the governor of the Udmurtia region in Russia, had earlier said a site there had been attacked overnight with drones.

"There has been damage and injuries as a result," Brechalov said in a video posted on the Telegram ⁠app. He provided no other details.

The airport ‌in Udmurtia's main city, ‌Izhevsk, and those in cities in nearby regions suspended ‌operations, the civil aviation authority Rosaviatsiya said.

The unofficial Russian ‌Telegram channel SHOT, which often quotes contacts in the security services, said residents in Votkinsk reported hearing at least three explosions and the humming of drones.

Russia uses its ballistic ‌missiles to reinforce its drone attacks on the Ukrainian energy infrastructure, knocking out electricity ⁠and heating ⁠supplies for millions across Ukraine during the cold winter months.

Ukraine is increasingly targeting military and energy infrastructure deep inside Russia. Kyiv says that hitting the weapons producers and the energy system that fuels Russia's military is the best way to gain leverage over its bigger enemy as the war enters its fifth year next week.

The Ukrainian military said it also hit a gas processing plant in the Russian Samara region. Russian officials in the Samara region issued no report of such an attack.

World

Iranian Students Chant Anti-Government Slogans, as US Threats Loom

This video grab taken from UGC images posted on social media and verified by AFPTV teams in Paris on February 21, 2026, shows Iranians clashing near the Department of Aerospace Engineering of Sharif University in Tehran. (UGC / AFP)
This video grab taken from UGC images posted on social media and verified by AFPTV teams in Paris on February 21, 2026, shows Iranians clashing near the Department of Aerospace Engineering of Sharif University in Tehran. (UGC / AFP)
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Iranian Students Chant Anti-Government Slogans, as US Threats Loom

This video grab taken from UGC images posted on social media and verified by AFPTV teams in Paris on February 21, 2026, shows Iranians clashing near the Department of Aerospace Engineering of Sharif University in Tehran. (UGC / AFP)
This video grab taken from UGC images posted on social media and verified by AFPTV teams in Paris on February 21, 2026, shows Iranians clashing near the Department of Aerospace Engineering of Sharif University in Tehran. (UGC / AFP)

Iranian students chanted anti-government slogans and scuffled with counter-protesters on Saturday in the latest display of anger at the country's clerical leaders, who also face a US military build-up aimed at pressuring them into a nuclear deal.

The gatherings at universities, which were reported by both local and diaspora media outlets, followed a mass protest movement that was met with a government crackdown last month that left thousands dead.

The crackdown had prompted US President Donald Trump to threaten to intervene militarily, though the focus of his threats eventually shifted to Iran's nuclear program, which Western governments fear is aimed at producing a bomb.

The US and Iran recently resumed Oman-mediated talks aimed at securing a deal, but Washington has simultaneously increased its military presence in the region, dispatching two aircraft carriers, jets and weaponry to back its warnings.

Videos geolocated by AFP to Tehran's top engineering university showed fights breaking out in a crowd on Saturday as people shouted "bi sharaf", or "disgraceful" in Farsi.

Footage posted by the Persian-language TV channel Iran International, which is based outside the country, also showed a large crowd chanting anti-government slogans at Sharif University of Technology.

Iranians had reprised their protest slogans earlier this week to mark the 40th day since thousands of people were killed as a wave of demonstrations was peaking on January 8 and 9.

They gathered again at several universities in the capital on Saturday, local media reported.

The unrest first broke out in December over prolonged financial strain, but exploded into mass anti-government demonstrations that were suppressed in a violent crackdown by security forces.

The clerical authorities acknowledge more than 3,000 deaths, but say the violence was caused by "terrorist acts" fueled by Iran's enemies.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), however, has recorded more than 7,000 killings in the crackdown, the vast majority protesters, though the toll may be far higher.

Iranian authorities had initially acknowledged the legitimacy of the protesters' economic demands, but as the movement took on an overtly anti-government tone, they accused archenemies the United States and Israel of whipping up "riots".

Local news outlet Fars said that what was supposed to be a "silent and peaceful sit-in" on Saturday of students commemorating those killed was disrupted by people chanting slogans including "death to the dictator" -- a reference to Iran's supreme leader.

A video posted by Fars showed a group chanting and waving Iranian flags facing off with a crowd wearing masks and being held back by men in suits.

Both groups were holding what appeared to be memorial photographs.

- Talks and threats -

Ever since the initial wave of protests, the United States and Iran have been trading threats of military action.

Trump sent the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to the region, accompanied by a flotilla of 12 support ships, while a second carrier group attached to the USS Gerald R Ford is en route to the area via the Mediterranean.

The US has also redeployed dozens of other warplanes to the Middle East -- where it maintains several bases -- while boosting its land-based air defenses.

The build-up is aimed at pressuring Iran's authorities to cut a deal on the country's nuclear program, even as the two sides have pursued talks on the subject.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told US media this week that following the latest round of negotiations in Geneva, Iran would be submitting a draft proposal for an agreement, saying "in the next two, three days, that would be ready".

Araghchi also said the "US side has not asked for zero enrichment" of uranium, contradicting statements from American officials.

Trump had suggested on Thursday that "bad things" would happen if Tehran did not strike a deal within 10 days, a period which he subsequently extended to 15.

Iran denies it is trying to produce nuclear weapons and says its program is peaceful, but insists on its right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.

The US media outlet Axios reported this week, citing an unnamed senior US official, that the US was prepared to consider a proposed deal that only permitted "small, token enrichment".

A previous round of nuclear diplomacy between the US and Iran last year was interrupted by Israel's surprise bombing campaign against country.

The United States ultimately joined its ally, striking key nuclear facilities before declaring a ceasefire.