Romanian diplomat Cornel Feruta will head the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) until member states agree on who will permanently succeed deceased Director General Yukiya Amano.

The IAEA announced on Monday that chief Yukiya Amano had died, leaving the agency with a leadership vacuum at a time of tensions between Iran and the West following Washington’s decision last year to quit a 2015 international deal that curbed Tehran’s nuclear program in return for an easing of economic sanctions.

“The Board of Governors has decided to designate Mr. Cornel Feruta as acting Director General, until a Director General assumes office,” the United Nations nuclear agency said on Thursday.

Last week, the agency said that Amano’s health problems had forced him to plan an early end to his term, which was originally set to expire in December 2021.

The Japanese diplomat held the position of IAEA director general since 2009 when he took over from Mohamed ElBaradei and began steering the international body through a period of intense diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program.

Amano, on several occasions, reaffirmed Iran’s compliance with its nuclear-related commitments under the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). US President Donald Trump, however, pulled his country out of the JCPOA in May 2018 and re-imposed harsh sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticisms.

Sources: (news agencies)

Tunisia’s 92-year-old president, Beji Caid Essebsi, who helped guide the North African country’s transition to democracy after a 2011 revolution, has died.

A leading figure in the country’s fortunes since 2011, Essebsi was hospitalized late last month and spent a week in hospital after suffering what authorities described as a severe health crisis.

“On Thursday morning, the President of the Republic died at the military hospital in Tunis … The burial ceremony will be announced later,” the presidency said in a statement.

According to the constitution, the speaker of parliament will temporarily serve as president.

Essebsi has been a prominent politician in Tunisia since the overthrow of former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, which was followed by uprisings against Arab monarchies across the Middle East, including in nearby Libya and Egypt.

Drafted in as prime minister in 2011 after Ben Ali was toppled, Essebsi was elected president three years later, becoming the country’s first directly elected head of state after its uprising.

Parliamentary elections are expected to be held on October 6 with a presidential vote following on November 17. They will be the third set of polls in which Tunisians have been able to vote freely following the 2011 revolution.

The presidency further called on Tunisians to unite and safeguard their country’s present and future.

“After the revolution, the president led the people to avoid confrontation and led the democratic transition and was keen to build and complete the constitutional institutions,” said the presidency.

The North African country has been hailed for its relatively smooth democratic transition with a new constitution, free elections and a coalition government, but it is still experiencing economic and political turbulence.

Source: (Reuters)

Former U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller testifies to Congress Wednesday at a pair of televised hearings that carry high stakes for President Donald Trump and Democrats who are split between impeaching him or concentrating on the 2020 election.

Mueller, whose inquiry detailed extensive contacts between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia at a time when Moscow was interfering in the 2016 election with hacking and propaganda, is set to appear beginning at 8:30 a.m. (1230 GMT) in separate hearings before the House of Representatives Judiciary and Intelligence committees.

Democrats, who control the House, hope his testimony will rally public support behind their own ongoing investigations of the Republican president and his administration, even as they struggle with whether to launch the impeachment process set out in the U.S. Constitution for removing a president from office for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Mueller is not expected to deliver any new bombshells, according to Democratic aides, but rather stick to the contents of his 448-page investigation report about the 22-month-long probe of Russian election meddling. Mueller plans to deliver an opening statement before taking questions.

Democrats hope the 74-year-old former FBI director will give the American public a compelling account of Russia’s sweeping interference, the Trump campaign’s readiness to accept help from Moscow and Trump’s efforts to impede the Russia probe that Mueller investigated as potential obstruction of justice.

Trump, running for re-election in 2020, is hoping to move past the entire Russia issue.

“Seeing is believing in America. That report was voluminous. But most Americans didn’t read it. So they’ll see Mueller lay out the case,” said Representative Eric Swalwell, who sits on both the Judiciary and Intelligence panels.

Mueller’s appearance could also be a turning point for Democrats on the question of impeachment.

Many liberal Democrats are pushing for an impeachment inquiry against Trump, whose recent incendiary rhetoric about four congresswomen from racial minorities also has ignited a political firestorm. Eighty-nine House Democrats, about 38 percent of them, now want an impeachment inquiry against Trump, according to a Reuters survey.

That is well short of the 218 votes needed to adopt articles of impeachment in the House, which would trigger a trial in the Senate on whether to remove Trump. But the number backing impeachment could swell if Mueller’s testimony proves to be compelling.

“We hope Mueller’s testimony will be a watershed,” said Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Judiciary panel member.

The impeachment question has divided Democrats, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposing such a move as politically risky for moderate Democrats on whose future the House Democratic majority depends. Some Democrats prefer to remove Trump from office the ordinary way: defeating him in next year’s election.

Mueller, who had expressed reluctance to testify, agreed only after being subpoenaed. Mueller, a former federal prosecutor and U.S. Marine Corps officer, is also known for favoring one-word answers at hearings and could prove too taciturn to satisfy Democrats’ hopes of a forceful narrative.

“Let us listen, let us see where the facts will take us,” Pelosi said of the hearings. “We’ll see what happens after that.”

‘Going to be disappointed’

Republicans in Congress are predicting chagrin for the Democrats.

“I think they’re going to be disappointed, just as they were when the Mueller report came out,” said Republican Representative Tom Cole.

Mueller’s report said the investigation found insufficient evidence to prove that Trump and his campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia. The report also did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump committed the crime of obstruction of justice but pointedly did not exonerate him. Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, subsequently cleared the president of obstruction of justice.

“It is so important for him to say that the investigation did not exonerate the president,” said Representative Val Demings, another Democrat who sits on both panels.

Republicans are expected to raise questions with Mueller about the integrity of the origins of the Russia probe in the FBI during Democrat Barack Obama’s administration and the political leanings of the special counsel’s staff members. Trump has sought to portray the probe as an attempted coup.

The Justice Department on Monday sent a letter telling Mueller to limit his testimony to merely discussing the public report, a directive that the Judiciary Committee chairman rejected as out of line.

But even if Mueller’s testimony proves disappointing enough to deflate impeachment chances, Democrats expect their continuing investigations to produce revelations that could damage Trump’s re-election prospects.

The heart of the Democratic strategy is to focus Mueller’s testimony on several examples of potential obstruction by Trump, including his repeated efforts to get former White House Counsel Don McGahn to remove Mueller and then deny that he had been directed to do so.

Lawmakers will also emphasize attempts by Trump to his fired former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to redirect the Russia probe away from his 2016 campaign, and possible witness tampering in public statements seen to discourage his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen from cooperating with federal investigations.

Democrats have said the report includes shocking evidence of misconduct that would result in criminal charges against any other American. The Justice Department has a longstanding policy against bringing criminal charges against a sitting president.

(REUTERS)

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the United States has failed on every path it has taken against Iran.

President Rouhani told a large crowd of people in the northeastern city of Shirvan, in North Khorasan Province, on Sunday that whatever Washington had tried against Iran, including “the harshest of sanctions” — had wound up in failure.

“It’s been 14 months that the world’s largest economic and military power has been imposing the harshest of sanctions against the Iranian nation, sanctions that would have taken any other nation down,” the Iranian president said. “But the heroic, vigilant, and resistant nation of Islamic Iran has firmly withstood those sanctions over this period.”

“Whatever path the Americans took — be it social, political, and legal — led to failure,” President Rouhani said.

He cited recent meetings of the United Nations (UN) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), where the US failed to advance its agenda against Iran.

Last year, US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled his country out of a 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran and imposed what he called the “toughest ever” sanctions against Tehran, notably targeting its energy sector.

Those sanctions have hurt the Iranian economy, but all of the other parties to the Iran deal, which have stayed in the agreement, have been holding meetings with Tehran to discuss how they can make the pact properly work for the Iranian side as well.

Tehran has said it would potentially scrap the deal if its partners failed to do enough for Iran to achieve the economic benefits that it is promised under the agreement.

Source: Presstv

A South African man who won the chance to be the first black African in space has died in a motorbike crash before turning his dream into reality, his family announced Sunday.

Mandla Maseko, a part-time DJ and candidate officer with the South African Air Force, was nicknamed “Afronaut” after landing a coveted seat to fly 103-kilometers into space in 2013 in a competition organized by a US-based space academy.

He died in a motorcycle accident on Saturday, according to a family statement cited by local media.

The 30-year-old had beaten a million other entrants from 75 countries to be selected as one of 23 people who would travel on an hour-long sub-orbital trip on the Lynx Mark II spaceship.

Born to a school cleaner and auto tool maker in Soshanguve township near Pretoria, his win was a source of national pride and had neighbors high-fiving him for putting South Africa’s townships on the “galactic map”.

He spent a week at the Kennedy Space Academy in Florida where he skydived and undertook air combat and G-force training.

While there he met and posed for pictures with US astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who was the second man ever to set foot on the moon after Neil Armstrong as part of the 1969 Apollo 11 space mission.

He had been originally scheduled to fly in 2015 but no firm plans for his trip had been made public at the time of his death.

(Source: AFP)

A charity rescue vessel on Saturday brought 41 shipwrecked migrants into port in Lampedusa, the second boat to defy far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s bid to close Italian ports to them.

Mediterranea’s Italian-flagged Alex was met by a strong police presence on the quayside but people were not allowed to disembark after spending two days with the rescued migrants and asylum seekers on the sailboat.

“I do not authorize any landing for those who couldn’t care less about Italian laws and help the people smugglers,” populist Deputy Prime Minister Salvini tweeted as night fell.

Salvini last month issued a decree that would bring fines of up to 50,000 euros ($57,000) for the captain, owner and operator of a vessel “entering Italian territorial waters without authorization.”

After the Alex reached port, he said that he would raise the maximum fine to one million euros.

Mediterranea tweeted back a request to disembark those rescued, saying it had sailed to “the only possible safe port for landing”, citing “intolerable hygiene conditions aboard”.

“Shipwrecks and crew are exhausted… people rescued need to be cared for… this is a surreal situation and it is an unnecessary cruelty to prolong the wait.”

Authorities on Lampedusa last week seized another rescue ship belonging to German aid group Sea-Watch after it forced its way into port with dozens of rescued migrants on board and arrested its captain, Carola Rackete.

An Italian judge this week ordered her freed as she had been acting to save lives, a decision which sparked Salvini’s ire but may have encouraged the Alex crew.

Two other investigations, on charges of helping people smugglers and resisting the authorities are still underway after Rackete forced her way past Italian customs vessels.

A third rescue ship, German charity Sea-Eye’s vessel Alan Kurdi, carrying 65 shipwrecked migrants rescued off Libya had also arrived in international waters off Lampedusa.

The group said late Saturday that it was heading for Malta.

(Source: AFP)

Swiss Judge

Geneva’s public prosecutor, Olivier Jornot slammed three and four month suspended sentences on five of Biya’s bodyguards on Wednesday for aggravated assault on Adrien Krause, a reporter for Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS). Swiss media reported that after reviewing security cameras, the judicial police in Geneva arrested six members of Biya’s entourage on Tuesday morning; but one woman carrying a diplomatic passport was later released. The other five who appeared before Olivier Jornot, had faced up to five years in prison if found guilty. The men were however handed suspended sentences.

Neither the Swiss foreign ministry nor Geneva police or the public prosecutor’s office would confirm the identity of the security guards arrested but Swiss foreign ministry spokesman, Georg Farago rejected reports that Biya’s security guards might enjoy diplomatic immunity. “The people accompanying the president do not have any particular status and must respect Swiss law,” he said. “Switzerland recalls that it is very attached to freedom of expression and of the press, and to the respect of the rules in public spaces,” Farago told the French news agency, AFP.

RTS reported that in the complaint filed with the Geneva judicial police, Krause detailed how he was brutalized and assaulted by Biya’s security guards while he was filming a protest by the anti-sardine brigade in front of the Hotel Intercontinental, where the 86-year-old Biya has spent over four years at the cost of $40,000 (FCFA 20 million) a day, since he inherited power in 1982; even as a majority of Cameroonians back home are scavenging for survival, RTS reported. Krause said he was immobilized, “roughed up” and the bag containing his professional equipment, as well as his wallet and mobile phone were seized. The items were only returned following intervention by the Swiss federal foreign ministry; and after Geneva’s diplomatic police got involved and Krause filed a complaint over the assault.

Following the assault, Switzerland summoned Cameroon’s ambassador in Bern, Léonard Henri Bindzi, and told him in very strong terms that the attack on the journalist was unacceptable. “Diplomatic procedures have been launched… Cameroon’s ambassador was summoned in Bern and the foreign ministry informed him that such incidents are unacceptable,” foreign ministry spokesman, Farago told AFP, adding: “Freedom of the press is protected and must be respected.”

Journalist Krause

In another reaction, the global media freedom watchdog group, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the attack and called on the Swiss and Cameroonian authorities to ensure it does not go unpunished. RSF’s Swiss section in a statement, urged the Swiss authorities to “take all necessary action despite the legal and diplomatic difficulties that might arise.”

“If presidential staff can attack journalists with complete impunity, including abroad, this would send a terrible message to those who try to report the news in both Switzerland and Cameroon,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk. “The diplomatic immunity enjoyed by the president does not apply to his bodyguards. Those responsible for this attack must be brought before the competent judicial authorities and must be punished appropriately.” Journalists are often subjected to attacks and arbitrary detention in Cameroon, which is ranked 131st out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index. Switzerland is ranked 6th.

Meanwhile, the two officers of the Geneva diplomatic police who witnessed as the journalist, Krause was being attacked by Biya’s security guards, reportedly told investigators that they were afraid to intervene because while they carried batons, Biya’s security guards were armed with automatic pistols and confronting them might have escalated the situation; and provide an excuse for the bodyguards to fire their weapon and then claim it was “accidental discharge.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says Tehran is not after war with Washington, but will give the United States a “decisive” response if it once again violates Iran’s territorial space.

Rouhani made the remarks in a telephone conversation with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, on Tuesday, stressing that Iran did not want war with the United States but would confront any aggression.

“If the Americans want to violate the waters or airspace of Iran again, Iran’s armed forces have a duty to confront them and they will give a decisive response,” Rouhani said.

The Iranian president also emphasized that Tehran has been always committed to providing the region with security and stability.

Macron, for his part, said that tensions in the region will not be useful for any country and called for avoiding a “dangerous escalation” in the region.

Tensions have been running high between the two countries since Washington’s decision in May last year to abandon the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on Tehran as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at forcing it to renegotiate a new deal that addresses its ballistic missile program and regional influence as well.

The US has also sent warships, bombers and additional troops to the region in the wake of suspicious tanker attacks in the Sea of Oman, which it has blamed on Iran without providing evidence.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran hit a new high after Iran shot down a US surveillance drone on Thursday following its violation of Iranian airspace. However Washington insists that the aircraft was flying above international waters.

Iran not to ‘renegotiate’ nuclear deal

Elsewhere in his remarks, Rouhani pointed to Trump’s abrupt decision last year to withdraw the US from a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and said Tehran will not “renegotiate” the landmark accord.

“Under no circumstances are we going to renegotiate a deal that was struck after two years of marathon negotiations,” Iran’s president said. “In violation of international principles, the Americans proved through the imposition and intensification of sanctions against the Iranian nation that they are no way after the settlement of disputes.”

During the phone call, Macron denounced as “remorseful” the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the imposition of sanctions against Tehran, saying France has made every effort to maintain the landmark accord and convince the parties involved in the nuclear talks, the US in particular.

Last year, US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled his country out of a 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and unleashed the “toughest ever” sanctions against Tehran, notably targeting its energy sector.

Since its withdrawal from the JCPOA, Washington has been trying to coerce other countries into joining its anti-Iran pressure campaign.

In April, the White House terminated sanctions waivers for major buyers of crude from the Islamic Republic in an attempt to bring Iran’s oil exports to “zero.”

Bowing to Washington’s pressure, Europe has been throwing only verbal support behind the agreement, refusing to guarantee the Islamic Republic’s business interests in the face of American bans despite being contractually obliged to do so.

Source: Presstv

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has shot down an intruding American spy drone in the country’s southern coastal province of Hormozgan.

In a statement issued early Thursday, the IRGC said the US-made Global Hawk surveillance drone was brought down by its Air Force near the Kouh-e Mobarak region — which sits in the central district of Jask County — after the aircraft violated Iranian airspace.

The statement added that further details will be released about the operation later.

Reacting to the news, the US military claimed it did not fly over Iranian airspace on Wednesday.

“No US aircraft were operating in Iranian airspace today,” said Navy Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for the American military’s Central Command.

However, a US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, confirmed on Thursday that an American military drone had been shot down in “international airspace” over the Strait of Hormuz by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.

He identified the drone as a US Navy MQ-4C Triton, which builds on elements of the RQ-4 Global Hawk with minor changes.

The RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system (UAS) can fly at high altitudes for more than 30 hours, gathering near-real-time, high-resolution imagery of large areas of land in all types of weather, maker Northrop Grumman says on its website.

The Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton is a maritime derivative of the RQ-4B Global Hawk and the airborne element of the US Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System (BAMS UAS).

Iran has said that the country’s aerial, maritime and land borders constitute a red line.

Speaking on the sidelines of a security forum in Russia on Tuesday, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani stressed that the country would exercise all its efforts to defend its territorial waters and airspace.

Tensions have been running between Iran and the US in recent weeks, with Washington stepping up its provocative military moves in the Middle East.

Last month, Washington dispatched an aircraft carrier strike group, a bomber task force, and an amphibious assault ship to the Persian Gulf, citing an alleged Iranian threat.

On Monday, the Pentagon announced that the US will send 1,000 additional US forces and more military resources to the Middle East.

Tehran believes the US has a hand in a set of suspicious regional incidents in recent weeks, such as the June 13 attacks against oil tankers in the Sea of Oman, in a bid to pin the blame on Iran and put more pressure on the country.

Last week, UN sources revealed that the United States was planning to carry out a “tactical assault” on an Iranian nuclear facility in response to the alleged Iranian role in the tanker attacks.

Source: Presstv