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

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for the prosecution of Egyptian government officials who “murdered” the country’s first democratically-elected president Mohamed Morsi.

Erdogan told an election rally on Wednesday that Morsi “did not die, he was murdered,” days after the former Egyptian president suffered a fatal heart attack in a Cairo court.

Erdogan said he will push to ensure the Egyptian government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is held into account by international courts for Morsi’s death.

He also called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take action. The Turkish head of state said he would raise the issue at the G-20 summit in Japan which is set to kick off later this month.

Shortly after his death on Monday, Morsi was buried at dawn in the presence of some of his family members in a burial that analysts believe fuels suspicions surrounding his death.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Tuesday called for an “independent and thorough” investigation into the issue.

The call angered Egypt, with the North African country’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez condemning it “in the strongest terms” on Wednesday.

Hafez described the call as a “deliberate attempt to politicize a case of natural death.”

Rupert Colville, spokesman for the OHCHR, had said “Any sudden death in custody must be followed by a prompt, impartial, thorough and transparent investigation carried out by an independent body to clarify the cause of death.”

“Concerns have been raised regarding the conditions of Mr. Morsi’s detention, including access to adequate medical care, as well as sufficient access to his lawyers and family,” Colville added.

Erdogan: Morsi’s death not ‘normal’

Erdogan, a key supporter of Morsi, has dismissed Cairo’s account that he died of natural causes.

During a prayer service in Istanbul on Tuesday, he said that the former Egyptian president’s death was not “normal.”

“I don’t believe that this was a normal death,” Erdogan said.

He also lashed out at Egyptian officials for inviting only a small number of Morsi’s family members to his secret funeral.

“They are so cowardly that they could not even deliver his body to his family,” Erdogan said.

Morsi, a senior figure in Egypt’s now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization, was elected as Egypt’s president after the 2011 revolution, which ousted former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

However, Morsi was deposed through a bloody military coup led by his then-army chief and now President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in July 2013. 

Morsi, 67, had been serving prison terms on several charges, including passing intelligence to Qatar.

He suffered from medical neglect during his imprisonment as well as poor conditions in prison.

Source: Presstv

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has called Donald Trump a “poster boy for racists,” after the US president renewed his attacks on the Muslim mayor, blaming him for a spate of attacks in the British capital.

Trump called Khan a “disaster” who should be thrown out of office, while re-posting a Twitter message written by right-wing British columnist Katie Hopkins on a series of shootings and stabbings that killed four people in London over three days.

“LONDON needs a new mayor ASAP,” Trump wrote. “Khan is a disaster – will only get worse!”

The mayor responded to Trump on Monday, saying it was “remarkable that you’ve got the president of the USA amplifying the tweets of a far-right activist, amplifying a racist tweet.”

Eugene Gu, MD✔@eugenegu

Trump’s emotional maturity halted at age 13 when his father sent him to military school. That’s why he had the USS John McCain moved from sight and why he called London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan a stone cold loser. He’s an insecure snowflake who’s still a dumb little brat. #TrumpUKVisit7,1676:01 PM – Jun 3, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy1,155 people are talking about this

“He’s now a poster boy for the far-right movement and that should cause us huge concern,” he added.

“It’s for Donald Trump to answer the question why he’s obsessed with me; it’s for Donald Trump to answer the question why he amplifies the tweets of far-right activists, why he amplifies racist tweets,” he said.

Responding to Trump, UK home secretary, Sajid Javid, said the US president should “stick to domestic politics.”

Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump · Jun 3, 2019

.@SadiqKhan, who by all accounts has done a terrible job as Mayor of London, has been foolishly “nasty” to the visiting President of the United States, by far the most important ally of the United Kingdom. He is a stone cold loser who should focus on crime in London, not me……

Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump

….Kahn reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job – only half his height. In any event, I look forward to being a great friend to the United Kingdom, and am looking very much forward to my visit. Landing now!151K8:51 AM – Jun 3, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy56.1K people are talking about this

Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, has been attacked by Trump since some three years ago, when Khan criticized then-candidate Trump for his proposed plan to ban foreign Muslims from entering the US.

Earlier this month, Trump reignited feud with Khan immediately after landing in London for an official visit. He called Khan in a Twitter message, “a stone cold loser” who has “done a terrible job.”

Mexican officials detained nearly 800 undocumented migrants on Saturday, the government said, in one of the biggest swoops against illegal immigration in recent months, as members of the National Guard began patrolling the southern border.

Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) said in a statement late on Saturday that 791 foreign nationals were found in four trucks stopped in the eastern state of Veracruz, confirming earlier reports about a mass detention.

The apprehension came as Mexico steps up efforts to reduce a surge of migrants toward the US border under pressure from US President Donald Trump, who vowed to hit Mexican goods with tariffs if Mexico does not do more to stem illegal immigration.

As part of those efforts, Mexico has pledged to deploy 6,000 National Guard members along its border with Guatemala.

Although there have been few signs of that deployment so far, a Reuters reporter near the border in Tapachula this weekend saw a handful of security officials wearing National Guard insignia and spoke to others in military outfits who said they were part of the guard.

Mexico made a deal on June 7 with the United States to avert the tariffs, setting the clock ticking on a 45-day period for the Mexican government to make palpable progress in reducing the numbers of people trying to cross the US border illegally.

There has been a jump in apprehensions at the US-Mexico border this year, angering Trump, who has made reducing illegal immigration one of his signature policy pledges.

Most of those caught attempting to enter the United States are people fleeing poverty and violence in three troubled Central American nations, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Mexico’s decision to tighten its border and respond to Trump’s threats has caused tensions within the government, and on Friday, the head of the INM, Tonatiuh Guillen, resigned.

He was replaced by Francisco Garduno, who had previously served as the head of Mexico’s prison system.

(Source: Reuters)