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Iran to Host 6-nation Meeting on Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Process

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev delivers a speech in Nagorno-Karabakh region's capital city, known as Khankendi by Azerbaijan and as Stepanakert by Armenians, following Azerbaijan's military operation and a further mass exodus of ethnic Armenians from the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan October 15, 2023. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan/Handout via REUTERS
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev delivers a speech in Nagorno-Karabakh region's capital city, known as Khankendi by Azerbaijan and as Stepanakert by Armenians, following Azerbaijan's military operation and a further mass exodus of ethnic Armenians from the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan October 15, 2023. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan/Handout via REUTERS
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Iran to Host 6-nation Meeting on Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Process

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev delivers a speech in Nagorno-Karabakh region's capital city, known as Khankendi by Azerbaijan and as Stepanakert by Armenians, following Azerbaijan's military operation and a further mass exodus of ethnic Armenians from the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan October 15, 2023. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan/Handout via REUTERS
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev delivers a speech in Nagorno-Karabakh region's capital city, known as Khankendi by Azerbaijan and as Stepanakert by Armenians, following Azerbaijan's military operation and a further mass exodus of ethnic Armenians from the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan October 15, 2023. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan/Handout via REUTERS

Foreign ministers from Iran, Türkiye, Russia and Georgia will meet their counterparts from Azerbaijan and Armenia in Tehran on Monday and discuss progress towards a peace agreement between the two South Caucasus neighbors, Iranian state media said.

IRNA news agency quoted the foreign ministry as saying the six countries wanted to talk about regional issues "without the interference of non-regional and Western countries".

That was an implicit reference to the United States and the European Union, whose involvement in the search for a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan has particularly annoyed Moscow.

According to Reuters, Russia's Interfax news agency said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would travel to Tehran for the meeting. Russia regards itself as the security guarantor between Azerbaijan and Armenia but the demands and distractions of its war in Ukraine have led to a weakening of its influence.

Azerbaijan last month staged a lightning offensive to regain control of the region of Nagorno-Karabakh where ethnic Armenians had enjoyed de facto independence since breaking away in the 1990s.

More than 100,000 Karabakh Armenians have since fled, and Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of carrying out ethnic cleansing. Baku denies that, saying people were free to stay and be integrated into Azerbaijan.

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German Police Say 4 Women and a Boy Were Killed in the Christmas Market Attack

Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
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German Police Say 4 Women and a Boy Were Killed in the Christmas Market Attack

Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)

More details emerged Sunday about those killed when a man drove a car at speed through a Christmas market in Germany, while mourners continued to place flowers and other tributes at the site of the attack.

Police in Magdeburg, the central city where the attack took place on Friday evening, said that the victims were four women ranging in age from 45 to 75, as well as a 9-year-old boy they had spoken of a day earlier.

Authorities said 200 people were injured, including 41 in serious condition. They were being treated in multiple hospitals in Magdeburg, which is about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Berlin, and beyond.

Authorities have identified the suspect in the Magdeburg attack as a Saudi doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had received permanent residency.

The suspect was on Saturday evening brought before a judge, who behind closed doors ordered that he be kept in custody pending a possible indictment.

Police haven’t publicly named the suspect, but several German news outlets identified him as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect appears to have been an active user of the social media platform X, accusing German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he referred to as the “Islamification of Europe.”

The horror triggered by yet another act of mass violence in Germany make it likely that migration will remain a key issue as German heads toward an early election on Feb. 23.

The far-right Alternative for Germany party had already been polling strongly amid a societal backlash against the large numbers of refugees and migrants who have arrived in Germany over the past decade.

Right-wing figures from across Europe have criticized German authorities for having allowed high levels of migration in the past and for what they see as security failures now.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is known for a strong anti-migration position going back years, used the attack in Germany to lash out at the European Union’s migration policies.

At an annual press conference in Budapest on Saturday, Orban insisted that “there is no doubt that there is a link between the changed world in Western Europe, the migration that flows there, especially illegal migration and terrorist acts.”

Orban vowed to “fight back” against the EU migration policies “because Brussels wants Magdeburg to happen to Hungary, too.”