‘No Sense of Fatigue’ When It Comes to Support for Ukraine, Blinken Says 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a press conference following the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting on Ukraine at its Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium November 29, 2023. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a press conference following the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting on Ukraine at its Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium November 29, 2023. (Reuters)
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‘No Sense of Fatigue’ When It Comes to Support for Ukraine, Blinken Says 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a press conference following the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting on Ukraine at its Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium November 29, 2023. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a press conference following the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting on Ukraine at its Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium November 29, 2023. (Reuters)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that there was "no sense of fatigue" among NATO allies when it came to helping Ukraine. 

"We must and we will continue to support Ukraine," he said after a NATO-Ukraine meeting in Brussels, adding that NATO allies were unanimous on this position and that he was also hearing continued support for Ukraine in both chambers of the US Congress. 

Kyiv has been concerned that the Israel-Hamas war could divert international attention away from its efforts to defeat Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022. 

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the West earlier on Wednesday to ramp up arms production. 

The European Union has delivered about 300,000 of its promised 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine so far, he said. 

"We need to create a Euro-Atlantic common area of defense industries," Kuleba said before meeting the NATO foreign ministers, adding this would ensure both Ukraine's security and that of NATO countries themselves. 

Kyiv has recently engaged in a concerted drive to entice leading global arms manufacturers to set up operations in Ukraine, part of a bid to diversify its reliance on weapons and ammunition given by its allies. 

"It is important that our solidarity with Ukraine is not only demonstrated in words but also in deeds," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, urging allies to do more. "These are concrete actions, we need more of them and we need sustained and stepped up support." 

Russia has amassed a large missile stockpile ahead of winter, Stoltenberg warned. 

Russia "is now weaker militarily, politically and economically," he said. "At the same time we must not underestimate Russia," he added, stressing that Russia had been making new attempts to strike Ukraine's power grid and energy infrastructure, "trying to leave Ukraine in the dark and cold." 



Iran Police Commander Dismissed After Death in Custody

A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
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Iran Police Commander Dismissed After Death in Custody

A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)

Iran's police force has dismissed the commander of a city in the northern province of Gilan after the death in custody of a detainee, state media said on Saturday.

Mohammad Mir Mousavi, 36, was arrested on July 22 after being involved in a fight in Lahijan, police said in a statement carried by the official news agency IRNA.

"The police commander... was dismissed due to insufficient oversight of the conduct and behaviour of staff," the police said, AFP reported.

"Due to the complexity of the matter, the final conclusion on the cause of Mohammad Mir Mousavi's death depends on the medical examiner's final report.

The police said the station commander and several officers involved in the incident had been suspended.

"The behaviour of some law enforcement officers was against the professional policy of the police and that is not acceptable in any way, so they were referred to the judicial authority," the statement added.

The Norway-based Kurdish human rights organization, Hengaw, on Wednesday said Mir Mousavi "was killed under torture in the detention center".

On Thursday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered an investigation into the case.

Dismissals of members of the security forces are rare in Iran.

In 2022, the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who had been arrested in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country's strict dress code for women, sparked months of deadly nationwide protests.