Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Photo: Alexander Kazakov/Kremlin pool via AP/TT
The US government has given the green light for an Iranian delegation to enter the country and attend the UN General Assembly in New York next week.
The US State Department has confirmed this. Entry permits have been granted to delegation members and necessary support staff. The delegation includes President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, sources tell the AP.
The delegation, which will be smaller than last year's, is subject to travel restrictions, among other measures.
Trump to personally welcome Xi at Andrews Air Force Base
Chinese leader Xi Jinping was welcomed by US President Donald Trump—alongside children holding flowers—outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo: Maxim Shemetov/Pool via AP/TT
US President Donald Trump has announced that he will personally welcome Chinese leader Xi Jinping upon his arrival in Washington, D.C.
The stakes are high, yet expectations are modest ahead of the anticipated summit between Trump and Xi next week.
The two met in Beijing in May, at which time Xi was invited to pay a return visit to the White House. The date has been set for September 24.
The White House announced on Thursday that Trump will welcome Xi at Andrews Air Force Base, and that a US military honor guard will subsequently await them at the White House's new helipad.
Trump was welcomed by China's vice president during his visit to the country last spring, an occasion marked by elaborate pomp and ceremony.
Ahead of the meeting, the US State Department announced that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio regarding, among other topics, the situation in the Middle East.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Photo: Pascal Bastien/AP/TT
Europe and Canada are strong on their own—but even stronger together, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney emphasizes before the European Parliament.
And the goal is not to dominate anyone else, Carney says in Strasbourg.
"Canada welcomes this ambition," Carney says regarding the proposal put forward on Wednesday by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to make Canada an "associate member."
However, he chooses not to go into detail about how such a membership would work or whether it is even feasible. Instead, he outlines, point by point, what Canada can contribute to expanded cooperation—ranging from critical raw materials and liquefied natural gas to student exchanges and financial services.
**Quoting Goethe**
He begins by quoting the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe—"freedom must be earned daily"—to emphasize that cooperation is about much more than just economics.
"Our commitment to the principles of the rule of law and our steadfast defense of democracy share the same roots. This is about sovereignty—our ability to live as we choose. It is that freedom we must fight for every day," Carney says.
He also makes it clear that the intention behind cooperating with the EU is not directed against anyone, nor is it aimed at creating a "third bloc."
"We do not seek power to dominate others. This is an alliance defined not by what we are against, but by what we stand for: freedom, solidarity, prosperity, and sustainability.
" London-based Bank Chief
Carney, 61, became Prime Minister last March, having previously been best known as the head of the UK’s central bank from 2013 to 2020—the first non-British citizen to hold that post.
His oratorical skills attracted significant attention as early as last winter, when—at the World Economic Forum in Davos—he declared the US-dominated world order that had prevailed for most of the post-World War II era to be dead.
Images of children killed in the attack on a school in Minab, Iran, on February 28 have been displayed at the site. Photo: Vahid Salemi/AP/TT
There are reasonable grounds to believe that the US has committed war crimes in Iran, a UN-backed panel of experts has concluded.
The panel's report states that the US was likely responsible for the deaths of at least 178 civilians in attacks on a school and a sports facility in Iran.
On the first day of the Iran war, February 28, at least one US missile struck an elementary school in Minab, southern Iran. According to Iranian state-run media, 168 people were killed in the attack, the vast majority of them children.
The experts further conclude that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity through their brutal crackdowns on anti-regime protests in the country earlier this year.
