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Russia Calls for International Monitoring Mission in Gaza

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov waits before a meeting of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan October 12, 2023. (Sputnik/Pavel Bednyakov/Kremlin via Reuters)
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov waits before a meeting of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan October 12, 2023. (Sputnik/Pavel Bednyakov/Kremlin via Reuters)
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Russia Calls for International Monitoring Mission in Gaza

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov waits before a meeting of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan October 12, 2023. (Sputnik/Pavel Bednyakov/Kremlin via Reuters)
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov waits before a meeting of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan October 12, 2023. (Sputnik/Pavel Bednyakov/Kremlin via Reuters)

Russia on Sunday called for an international monitoring mission to go to Gaza to assess the humanitarian situation, and said it was unacceptable for Israel to use Hamas' Oct. 7 attack as justification for punishing the Palestinian people.

Israel invaded Gaza in retaliation for Hamas attack that Israel says killed 1,200 people. Israel's assault on Gaza has killed at least 17,000 people, Gaza health authorities say.

The United States on Friday vetoed a proposed UN Security Council demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.

"We strongly condemned the terrorist attack against Israel on Oct. 7," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Al Jazeera in an interview aired on Sunday at the Doha Forum conference.

"At the same time, we do not believe it is acceptable to use this event for the collective punishment of the millions of Palestinian people with indiscriminate shelling."

Lavrov said that for there to be "humanitarian pauses" in Gaza "some kind of monitoring on the ground" was needed.

"We addressed the Secretary General [Antonio Guterres] suggesting that he use his authority to consider some kind of monitoring - but so far to no avail," Lavrov said.

President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly accused the United States and the West of ignoring the need for an independent Palestinian state within 1967 borders. Putin on Sunday spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Gaza.

"This happened not in a vacuum," Lavrov said, pointing to decades of blockade and unfulfilled promises about a Palestinian state.

The UN's Guterres has previously said that the Hamas attack did not happen in a vacuum. Israel said Guterres had justified the Hamas attacks with such words. Guterres rejected the Israeli accusations.

Ukraine

Asked in the Al Jazeera interview if Russia was being hypocritical with its criticism about that fate of the Palestinians while Russia fights a war in Ukraine, Lavrov said neither he nor Russia were hypocritical.

Lavrov said that the West was trying to exhaust Russia in Ukraine by supplying weapons and that if peace talks were to take place then Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy would have to annul his own presidential decree.

"It is up to the Ukrainians to recognize how deep they are in the hole where the Americans put them," Lavrov said when asked if the war was at a stalemate.

When asked by Al Jazeera what the chances were of diplomacy to bring about a ceasefire or peace in Ukraine, he said: "You'll have to call Mr. Zelenskiy because a year and half ago he signed a decree prohibiting any negotiations with Putin."

Lavrov said that a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia was almost reached in Istanbul in March and April 2022 based on the idea of Ukrainian neutrality.

"This deal was aborted - it was cancelled because the Americans and the Brits decided that if Putin is ready to sign it then let's exhaust him more. That's what they are doing now. Stalemate or no stalemate - that is the fact," Lavrov said.

Asked in the interview about the August plane crash which killed Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, Lavrov said investigators had probed the crash.

"As regards the soldiers from Wagner group... quite a number of them went to Belarus and started to serve there," Lavrov said "Others joined the regular structures of the Russian army - and they continue to serve." 

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World

WHO Says Six Hospitals Evacuated in Iran, System Holding Up

Emergency personnel work at the site of a strike on a residential building, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 16, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
Emergency personnel work at the site of a strike on a residential building, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 16, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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WHO Says Six Hospitals Evacuated in Iran, System Holding Up

Emergency personnel work at the site of a strike on a residential building, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 16, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
Emergency personnel work at the site of a strike on a residential building, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 16, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

A World Health Organization official said on Monday that the US-Israeli war on Iran had led to the evacuation of six hospitals but that so far the system appeared to be holding up and authorities had not sought emergency relief from the WHO.

"The primary healthcare and the health infrastructure of Iran is quite good and ‌robust, and ‌they're able to accommodate the casualties ‌as ⁠of now," WHO ⁠regional director Hanan Balkhy told Reuters.

Iran's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, said on Monday that more than 1,300 people had been killed in Iran since the conflict began on February 28, ⁠and more than 7,000 had been injured.

The ‌WHO, which has ‌an office in Tehran and regularly helps Iranian ‌authorities with disease management, has verified 18 attacks ‌on healthcare facilities and the killing of eight medics.

Balkhy said the WHO had contingency plans to move in emergency supplies should the situation ‌deteriorate further. One potential risk is that "black rain" caused by toxic compounds carried ⁠in ⁠smoke from oil facilities that have been set on fire puts an extra burden on the healthcare system through respiratory infections, she added.

The conflict had forced the WHO to suspend flights carrying emergency medical supplies from its humanitarian hub in Dubai, but Balkhy said these had now resumed.

Requests from 25 member countries are being processed, but a WHO spokesperson said polio treatments were among those still waiting.

World

China Warns Trump's Latest Tariff Moves Could Damage Trade Ties

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping react as they hold a bilateral meeting at Gimhae International Airport, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Busan, South Korea, October 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping react as they hold a bilateral meeting at Gimhae International Airport, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Busan, South Korea, October 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
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China Warns Trump's Latest Tariff Moves Could Damage Trade Ties

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping react as they hold a bilateral meeting at Gimhae International Airport, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Busan, South Korea, October 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping react as they hold a bilateral meeting at Gimhae International Airport, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Busan, South Korea, October 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

China warned Monday that US President Donald Trump's latest tariff moves could harm the countries' trade relationship, at the end of high-level talks in Paris.

Li Chenggang, China’s international trade representative, said the Chinese side had expressed serious concern about trade investigations into manufacturing in foreign countries that the Trump administration launched after the US Supreme Court struck down its earlier tariffs, The AP news reported.

“We are concerned that the possible results of such investigations may interfere with or damage the hard-won and stable China-US economic and trade relations,” Li told journalists. He said they discussed the possible extension of tariffs and non-tariff measures on both sides, and that China expressed concern over likely uncertainty as the US adjusts its measures. He said both sides agreed to make efforts to keep the tariffs stable.

The meeting was meant to prepare for Trump's planned trip to China in about two weeks, though the president has warned that it could be delayed. Li did not address that, and did not take questions.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who led the US delegation in Paris, said the talks “were constructive and they show the stability in the relationship," and noted: “The purpose of these meetings is to prevent any retaliation.”

Trump’s visit to China would be the first for a US president since he went in his first term in 2017. It would come five months after he met President Xi Jinping in the South Korean city of Busan.

The Iran war has emerged as a potential stumbling block as the US and China were patching up relations following a tariff war in which import taxes soared to triple digits. The two sides later agreed to a one-year truce.

Trump has suggested he may delay the much-anticipated China visit as he seeks Beijing's help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and calm oil prices that have soared during the Iran war.

But Bessent said any postponement wouldn't be to pressure China on that issue.

“If the president’s visit is postponed, it would have nothing to do with the Chinese making a commitment to the Straits of Hormuz," he told journalists.

“It would obviously be in their interest to do so, but a postponement would not be as a result of any asks from the president not being met,” Bessent added. "The postponement, if it happens, would be because the commander in chief of the United States military believes that he should stay in the United States while this war is being prosecuted.”

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, accompanying Bessent, said the talks sketched out “the general terms of a work plan” for a Trump-Xi meeting so that it could produce “potential deliverables.”

He said they also covered the trade investigations that concern China.

“We started these talks, really, by giving them a preview of what we’re doing on US trade policy as we adjust to the Supreme Court,” Greer said. “Remember: The president’s trade policy hasn’t changed. Our tools may change, and we’re conducting these investigations. We don’t want to prejudge them, and we had a good conversation with our counterparts about that process.”

World

Appeal Trial Opens for France’s Sarkozy Over Alleged Libyan Funding

FILED - 17 June 2011, Berlin: Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks at a press conference in the Chancellery in Berlin. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
FILED - 17 June 2011, Berlin: Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks at a press conference in the Chancellery in Berlin. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
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Appeal Trial Opens for France’s Sarkozy Over Alleged Libyan Funding

FILED - 17 June 2011, Berlin: Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks at a press conference in the Chancellery in Berlin. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
FILED - 17 June 2011, Berlin: Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks at a press conference in the Chancellery in Berlin. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was back in court Monday for a retrial on charges he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election, in a case that last year saw him become France's first modern-day head of state to go to prison.

A lower court in September found the right-wing politician -- who was president from 2007 to 2012 -- guilty of seeking to acquire funding from Muammar Gaddafi's Libya for the campaign that saw him elected.

Sarkozy -- who has denied any wrongdoing -- in October entered a Paris prison, serving 20 days before he was released pending the appeal, AFP reported.

The 71-year-old entered the Paris Appeal Court ahead of Monday's hearing, shaking hands with police and lawyers before taking his seat in the front row of the dock.

In the retrial, set to run until June 3, the former head of state is once again presumed innocent.

Sarkozy has faced a series of legal issues since leaving office and has already received two definitive convictions in other cases.

In one, he wore an electronic ankle tag for several months, until it was removed in May last year, after being convicted for trying to extract favours from a judge.

And in the other, he will have to serve more time over illegal financing of his failed 2012 re-election bid.

In the so-called "Libyan case", he has appealed a five-year prison sentence.

A lower court in September convicted Sarkozy of criminal conspiracy over what it said was a scheme to acquire Libyan funding for his 2007 presidential run.

But it did not conclude that Sarkozy received or used the funds for the campaign.

His legal team immediately appealed, but the lower court ordered him to be sent behind bars, citing the "exceptional gravity" of the conviction.

On October 21, he became the first former head of a European Union state to be incarcerated.

- Prison diaries -

In the initial trial, prosecutors had argued Sarkozy's aides, acting in his name, struck a deal with Gaddafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid two years later.

Investigators believe that in return, Gaddafi was promised help to restore his international image after Tripoli was blamed for the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and another over Niger in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers.

Members of Sarkozy's circle did not wish to comment before the retrial.

Sarkozy published a hastily written book about his time in prison titled "Diary of a Prisoner", with supporters lining up around a city block in Paris to buy a copy when it came out in December.

In the 216-page book, he recounts his mundane struggles with noise and low-quality food.

But he also hints at a possible alliance between the traditional right-wing Republicans party he once headed and the country's main far-right party to "rebuild the right".

He and his wife, singer and model Carla Bruni, face another possible trial over allegations that they tried to bribe a key prosecution witness in the Libya campaign financing case with the help of a paparazzi boss. They deny wrongdoing.