Russia Says After Raisi Crash That US Undermined Aviation Safety with Sanctions 

20 February 2024, Venezuela, Caracas: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov holds a joint press conference at the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry. (dpa)
20 February 2024, Venezuela, Caracas: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov holds a joint press conference at the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry. (dpa)
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Russia Says After Raisi Crash That US Undermined Aviation Safety with Sanctions 

20 February 2024, Venezuela, Caracas: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov holds a joint press conference at the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry. (dpa)
20 February 2024, Venezuela, Caracas: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov holds a joint press conference at the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry. (dpa)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, commenting on the helicopter crash that killed Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, said on Tuesday that US sanctions had worsened aviation safety.  

Lavrov’s statement came following talks with Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari, on the sidelines of a regular meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) foreign ministers in the Kazakh capital, Astana.  

He said there is no reason for speculations regarding any potential changes in Iran’s foreign policy course after the death of Raisi.  

“I honestly see no reason to speculate on the topic of changes in the foreign policy course of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he noted.  

About the crash that killed his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Lavrov said: “The Americans disown this, but the truth is that other countries against which the United States announced sanctions do not receive spare parts for American equipment, including aviation.”  

He added: “We are talking about deliberately causing damage to ordinary citizens who use these vehicles, and when spare parts are not supplied, this is directly related to a decrease in the level of safety.”  

Abdollahian was scheduled to attend the SCO meeting, after his country gained membership in the Council.  

Iranian media had reported that images from the site showed the US-made Bell 212 helicopter on which Raisi was travelling slammed into a mountain peak, although there was no official word on the cause of the crash.  

Iran was a major buyer of Bell helicopters under the Shah before the 1979 revolution, though the exact origin of the aircraft that crashed was not clear. Decades of sanctions have made it hard for Iran to obtain parts or upgrade its aircraft.  

Meanwhile, Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali said his country must complete the investigation into the crash of the helicopter carrying the country’s president and FM in order to draw any conclusions about its causes, the Russian Tass news agency reported.  

“Right now we must be patient,” Jalali stressed.  

“Naturally, we will see the matter and the investigation through to the end. Needless to say, the Islamic Republic of Iran and relevant ministries and agencies have already begun the investigation. And, of course, they will have a clear report and this report will be submitted to the supreme leader as well as to the people of Iran,” he added.  

The Iranian ambassador also said there will be no changes in Iranian foreign policy after Raisi's death.  

On Monday, Matthew Miller, US State Department spokesperson, said in a statement that the US had been unable, due largely to logistical reasons, to accept an Iranian request for assistance following the helicopter crash. 



Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing this month's street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure.

All three were patients at a hospital in the capital Dhaka, and at least two of them said their injuries were caused by torture in earlier police custody.

"They took them from us," Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky told AFP. "The men were from the Detective Branch."

She added that she had not wanted to discharge the student leaders but police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

Islam's elder sister Fatema Tasnim told AFP from the hospital that six plainclothes detectives had taken all three men.

The trio's student group had suspended fresh protests at the start of this week, saying they had wanted the reform of government job quotas but not "at the expense of so much blood".

The pause was due to expire earlier on Friday but the group had given no indication of its future course of action.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location.

Islam added that he had come to his senses the following morning on a roadside in Dhaka.

Mahmud earlier told AFP that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Three senior police officers in Dhaka all denied that the trio had been taken from the hospital and into custody on Friday.

- Garment tycoon arrested -

Police told AFP on Thursday that they had arrested at least 4,000 people since the unrest began last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

On Friday police said they had arrested David Hasanat, the founder and chief executive of one of Bangladesh's biggest garment factory enterprises.

His Viyellatex Group employs more than 15,000 people according to its website, and its annual turnover was estimated at $400 million by the Daily Star newspaper last year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police inspector Abu Sayed Miah said Hasanat and several others were suspected of financing the "anarchy, arson and vandalism" of last week.

Bangladesh makes around $50 billion in annual export earnings from the textile trade, which services leading global brands including H&M, Gap and others.

Student protests began this month after the reintroduction in June of a scheme reserving more than half of government jobs for certain candidates.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina's Awami League.

- 'Call to the nation' -

The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs on Sunday but fell short of protesters' demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Hasina continued a tour of government buildings that had been ransacked by protesters, on Friday visiting state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which was partly set ablaze last week.

"Find those who were involved in this," she said, according to state news agency BSS.

"Cooperate with us to ensure their punishment. I am making this call to the nation."