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Khamenei Cites Need to Further Develop Iran's Military after Trump Threats

A handout photo made available by Iranian supreme leader's office shows Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei visiting an exhibition of Iran's defense industry in Tehran, Iran, 12 February 2025. EPA/IRANIAN LEADER OFFICE HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by Iranian supreme leader's office shows Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei visiting an exhibition of Iran's defense industry in Tehran, Iran, 12 February 2025. EPA/IRANIAN LEADER OFFICE HANDOUT
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Khamenei Cites Need to Further Develop Iran's Military after Trump Threats

A handout photo made available by Iranian supreme leader's office shows Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei visiting an exhibition of Iran's defense industry in Tehran, Iran, 12 February 2025. EPA/IRANIAN LEADER OFFICE HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by Iranian supreme leader's office shows Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei visiting an exhibition of Iran's defense industry in Tehran, Iran, 12 February 2025. EPA/IRANIAN LEADER OFFICE HANDOUT

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday Iran should further develop its military, including its missiles, after US President Donald Trump made threats of force against Tehran if it refused to negotiate over its nuclear program.

Khamenei spoke a day after Iran's UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani, condemned what he called "reckless and inflammatory statements" by Trump in interviews with the New York Post and Fox News in which he said he preferred doing a deal to prevent Tehran developing a nuclear weapon to bombing the country.

"Progress should not be stopped, we cannot be satisfied (with our current level). Say that we previously set a limit for the accuracy of our missiles, but we now feel this limit is no longer enough. We have to go forward," Khamenei said, citing a need to focus on innovation in the Iranian military.

"Today, our defensive power is well-known, our enemies are afraid of this. This is very important for our country," he added after visiting a Tehran exhibition showcasing the latest developments in Iran's defense sector.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency said that during the exhibition a jet-powered "suicide drone" - loitering munitions that hover over targets - was unveiled with imagery of a submarine-launched kamikaze drone displayed for the first time.

Khamenei, who said on Friday that talks with the United States were "not smart, wise or honorable", made no mention of Trump in his remarks on Wednesday.

Trump last week restored his "maximum pressure" policy towards Iran that includes efforts to drive its oil exports down to zero to push Tehran into a deal that would severely constrain its disputed nuclear program.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday questioned US sincerity in seeking talks with Tehran while imposing tougher sanctions echoing those Trump implemented during his first, 2017-21 term in office.
Iravani, Tehran's United Nations ambassador, wrote in a letter to the UN Security Council that the Trump administration's policy "reinforces unlawful, unilateral coercive measures and escalates hostility against Iran."
Though Iran has long denied nuclear weapon ambitions, it is "dramatically" accelerating its enrichment of uranium to 60% fissile purity, close to the roughly 90% weapons-grade level, the UN nuclear watchdog chief told Reuters in December.
Tehran has in recent months announced new additions to its conventional weaponry, such as its first drone carrier and an underground naval base amid rising tensions with the US and its regional arch-enemy Israel.

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World

Italian PM Calls Threatened US Tariffs Over Greenland a ‘Mistake’

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks during a press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on January 16, 2026. (AFP)
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks during a press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on January 16, 2026. (AFP)
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Italian PM Calls Threatened US Tariffs Over Greenland a ‘Mistake’

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks during a press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on January 16, 2026. (AFP)
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks during a press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on January 16, 2026. (AFP)

Italy's prime minister called US President Donald Trump's threat to slap tariffs on opponents of his plan to seize Greenland a "mistake" on Sunday, adding she had told him her views.

"I believe that imposing new sanctions today would be a mistake," Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told journalists during a trip to Seoul.

"I spoke to Donald Trump a few hours ago and told him what I think, and I spoke to the NATO secretary general, who confirmed that NATO is beginning to work on this issue."

However, the far-right prime minister -- a Trump ally in Europe -- sought to downplay the conflict, telling journalists "there has been a problem of understanding and communication" between Europe and the United States related to the Arctic island, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of up to 25 percent on all goods sent to the United States from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland over their objections to his moves.

Meloni said it was up to NATO to take an active role in the growing crisis.

"NATO is the place where we must try to organize together deterrents against interference that may be hostile in a territory that is clearly strategic, and I believe that the fact that NATO has begun to work on this is a good initiative," she told reporters.

Meloni said that "from the American point of view, the message that had come from this side of the Atlantic was not clear".

"It seems to me that the risk is that the initiatives of some European countries were interpreted as anti-American, which was clearly not the intention."

Meloni did not specify to what exactly she was referring.

Trump claims the United States needs Greenland for its national security.

World

Drone Strike Cuts Power Supply in Russia-Held Parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Region

This photo, provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, shows a regional border stele decorated with national flags and military unit emblems in Orikhiv district in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
This photo, provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, shows a regional border stele decorated with national flags and military unit emblems in Orikhiv district in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
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Drone Strike Cuts Power Supply in Russia-Held Parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Region

This photo, provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, shows a regional border stele decorated with national flags and military unit emblems in Orikhiv district in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
This photo, provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, shows a regional border stele decorated with national flags and military unit emblems in Orikhiv district in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

More than 200,000 consumers in the Russian-held part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region were left without electricity on Sunday, the ‌Moscow-installed regional governor ‌said, after a ‌Ukrainian ⁠drone strike ‌on Saturday.

In a statement posted on Telegram, Yevgeny Balitsky said that work was ongoing to restore the power supply, but that almost 400 settlements remain without electricity.

Temperatures are well below freezing ⁠throughout the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, around 75% of ‌which is controlled by Russia.

Russia ‍has frequently bombarded ‍Ukraine's power infrastructure throughout its nearly ‍four-year war, causing rolling daily blackouts, and has also targeted heating systems this winter.

Separately, the governor of the Russian border region of Belgorod, which has come under regular Ukrainian attack since 2022, ⁠said that one person had been killed and another wounded by a drone strike on the border village of Nechaevka.

Further south, in the Caucasus mountains region of North Ossetia, two children and one adult were injured when a Ukrainian drone struck a residential building in the town ‌of Beslan, the region's governor said.

World

Danish Foreign Minister to Visit NATO Allies Over Greenland

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)
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Danish Foreign Minister to Visit NATO Allies Over Greenland

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)

Denmark's foreign minister is to visit fellow NATO members Norway, the UK and Sweden to discuss the alliance's Arctic security strategy, his ministry announced Sunday.

Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen will visit Oslo on Sunday, travel to London on Monday and then to Stockholm on Thursday.

The diplomatic tour follows US President Donald Trump's threat to punish eight countries -- including the three Rasmussen is visiting -- with tariffs over their opposition to his plan to seize control of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.

Trump has accused Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland of playing a "very dangerous game" after they sent a few dozen troops to the island as part of a military drill.

"In an unstable and unpredictable world, Denmark needs close friends and allies," Rasmussen stated in a press release.

"Our countries share the view that we all agree on the need to strengthen NATO's role in the Arctic, and I look forward to discussing how to achieve this," he said.

An extraordinary meeting of EU ambassadors has been called in Brussels for Sunday afternoon.

Denmark, "in cooperation with several European allies", recently joined a declaration on Greenland stating that the mineral-rich island is part of NATO and that its security is a "shared responsibility" of alliance members, the ministry statement added.

Since his return to the White House for a second term, Trump has made no secret of his desire to annex Greenland, defending the strategy as necessary for national security and to ward off supposed Russian and Chinese advances in the Arctic.