Myanmar’s ruling military on Wednesday stood by its decision to deny a Southeast Asian envoy access to detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, resisting growing international pressure to comply with a regional peace plan agreed in April.
Vice-Senior General Soe Win, the second in command of the junta that seized power from Suu Kyi’s elected government in February, said allowing a foreigner access to someone charged with crimes was against domestic law.
“I believe no country will allow anyone to do beyond the existing law like this,” he said in a speech published in state media.
His remarks follow last week’s virtual Asian leader summits hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which Myanmar did not attend, in protest at junta leader Min Aung Hlaing’s exclusion for not honoring the peace deal.
It called that a breach of ASEAN’s code of consensus and non-interference and refused to send junior representation.
Soe Win rejected the allegation of non-compliance and said the April agreement with ASEAN had been contingent on it considering Myanmar’s “current internal affairs,” with the envoy’s access to the country “based on internal stability.”
Soe Win’s rebuttal was delivered at a virtual meeting on Tuesday of ASEAN auditors.
He said demands on Myanmar made at last week’s Asian summits were “found to be suspicious of violating the images of ASEAN’s solidarity.”
Myanmar has been paralyzed by protests, strikes and violence since the coup, with the junta struggling to govern and facing armed resistance from militias and ethnic minority rebels allied with a shadow government that it calls “terrorists”.
More than 1,200 civilians have been killed by security forces, according to a local monitoring group cited by the United Nations, which the junta has accused of bias.
Myanmar defies international pressure, denies ASEAN access to Aung San Suu Kyi
https://arab.news/7m6zf
Myanmar defies international pressure, denies ASEAN access to Aung San Suu Kyi
- Myanmar top official saw allowing a foreigner access to someone charged with crimes is against domestic law
’Nobody knows’: Trump won’t say whether he will move forward with US strikes on Iran
- Trump said: “I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do”
- Trump added that it’s not “too late” for Iran to give up its nuclear program
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump would not say Wednesday whether he has decided to order a US strike on Iran, a move that Tehran warned anew would be greeted with stiff retaliation if it happens.
“I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters at the White House . “I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”
Trump added that it’s not “too late” for Iran to give up its nuclear program as he continues to weigh direct US involvement in Israel’s military operations aimed at crushing Tehran’s nuclear program.
“Nothing’s too late,” Trump said. “I can tell you this. Iran’s got a lot of trouble.”
“Nothing is finished until it is finished,” Trump added. But “the next week is going to be very big— maybe less than a week.”
Trump also offered a terse response to Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s refusal to heed to his call for Iran to submit to an unconditional surrender.
“I say good luck,” Trump said.
Khamenei earlier Wednesday warned that any United States strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will “result in irreparable damage for them” and that his country would not bow to Trump’s call for surrender.
Trump said Tuesday the US knows where Iran’s Khamenei is hiding as the the Israel-Iran conflict escalates but doesn’t want him killed — “for now.”
“He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump said.
Trump’s increasingly muscular comments toward the Iranian government come after he urged Tehran’s 9.5 million residents to flee for their lives as he cut short his participation in an international summit earlier this week to return to Washington for urgent talks with his national security team.
Trump said that the Iranian officials continue to reach out to the White House as they’re “getting the hell beaten out of them” by Israel. But he added there’s a “big difference between now and a week ago” in Tehran’s negotiating position.
“They’ve suggested that they come to the White House— that’s, you know, courageous,” Trump said.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations refuted Trump’s claim in a statement on social media. “No Iranian official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of the White House. The only thing more despicable than his lies is his cowardly threat to ‘take out’ Iran’s Supreme Leader. ”
The US president said earlier this week Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to serve a mediator with. But Trump said he told Putin to keep focused on finding an endgame to his own conflict with Ukraine.
“I said, ‘Do me a favor, mediate your own,’” Trump said he told Putin. “I said, ‘Vladimir, let’s mediate Russia first. You can worry about this later.’”
The Russia-Iran relationship has deepened since Putin launched a war on Ukraine in February 2022, with Tehran providing Moscow with drones, ballistic missiles, and other support, according to US intelligence findings.
German minister to Iran: never too late to negotiate
- “It is never too late to come to the negotiating table if one comes with sincere intentions,” Johann Wadephul said
- Wadephul said Israel’s fear that Iran would develop nuclear weapons was justified
BERLIN: Germany’s foreign minister appealed to Iran’s leaders to make credible assurances that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon and to show it is willing to find a negotiated solution as fears mount of further military escalation between Iran and Israel.
“We are still ready to negotiate a solution. However, Iran must act urgently ... it is never too late to come to the negotiating table if one comes with sincere intentions,” Johann Wadephul said at a news conference with his Jordanian counterpart on Wednesday.
Wadephul said Israel’s fear that Iran would develop nuclear weapons was justified and it had a right to self-defense.
“The Israeli decision to do something against this threat is comprehensible,” he said, adding civilian deaths on both sides were regrettable after air attacks between Iran and Israel.
His ministry was arranging special flights later on Wednesday and on Thursday to each repatriate about 180 German citizens via Amman, he said.
Wadephul also said Germany had agreed to create an economic council with Syria to improve cooperation and boost prosperity and stability there.
Hegseth says the Pentagon has given Trump possible options for Israel-Iran conflict
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said ‘maximum force protection’ was being provided for US troops in the Middle East
- He said that it is Trump’s decision whether to provide Israel a ‘bunker buster’ bomb to strike at the core of Iran’s nuclear program
WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers Wednesday that the Pentagon was providing possible options to President Donald Trump as he decides next steps on Iran but would not say whether the military was planning to assist with Israeli strikes, an action that could risk dragging America into a wider war in the Middle East.
Hegseth was on Capitol Hill for the last of his series of often combative hearings before lawmakers, who have pressed him on everything from a ban on transgender troops to his use of a Signal chat to share sensitive military plans earlier this year.
In questioning before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Hegseth said “maximum force protection” was being provided for US troops in the Middle East and that it is Trump’s decision whether to provide Israel a ”bunker buster” bomb to strike at the core of Iran’s nuclear program, which would require US pilots flying a B-2 stealth bomber. He would not indicate what the US may do next.
“My job — our job, the chairman and I — at all times is to make sure the president has options and is informed of what those options might be and what the ramifications of those options might be,” Hegseth said, referring to Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who was testifying alongside him.
The US has shifted significant numbers of refueling tanker and fighter aircraft to position them to be able to respond to the escalating conflict, such as supporting possible evacuations, or airstrikes. Hegseth said this week that was done to protect US personnel and air bases.
Hegseth, who is appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, has spent vast amounts of time during his first months in office promoting the social changes he’s making at the Pentagon. He’s been far less visible in the administration’s more critical international security crises and negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and Iran.
Philippines struggles to evacuate nationals from Iran amid Israeli bombardment
- Some 700 Filipinos live in Iran, most married to Iranian nationals
- Marcos says the government is looking for a route to ‘get them out’
MANILA: The Philippines is struggling to evacuate its nationals from Iran as exit routes are difficult to secure, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Wednesday, as an increasing number of them are seeking to leave amid growing destruction from Israeli bombardment.
The Philippine embassy in Tehran estimating that some 700 Filipinos live in Iran. Most are married to Iranian nationals and initially were not willing to leave when the attacks started last week.
“But now, some are saying they’re scared, so they’re asking for help to get out. The problem we’re facing in evacuating them is that — because of the war — many airports are closed,” Marcos told reporters in Quezon City.
“We’re looking for a route through which we can get them out.”
Following Israeli attacks, Iran has suspended flights at major airports. Neighboring countries such as Iraq and Jordan have also closed their airspace, making air evacuations nearly impossible
Some countries are evacuating citizens by land via Azerbaijan and Turkiye, but these journeys are long due to distance, heavy traffic, fuel shortages and potential Israeli strikes.
The Philippine government is also planning to pull non-essential personnel out of the embassy in Tehran and raise the alert level for nationals in Iran to “voluntary repatriation phase,” Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo Jose De Vega told the Philippine News Agency.
“We cannot raise it to mandatory because most of the Filipinos there won’t go home anyway, they have Iranian families there,” he said.
Israeli attacks on Iran began on Friday, when Tel Aviv hit more than a dozen Iranian sites — including key nuclear facilities and the residences of military leaders and scientists — claiming it was aiming to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Daily attacks have been ongoing for the past six days after Iran retaliated with ballistic missile strikes against Israel.
The Israeli military has intensified its bombing of civilian targets, hitting Iran’s state broadcaster in Tehran and a hospital in Kermanshah. On Wednesday alone, it said it had hit 40 sites across the country.
According to the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, at least 224 people have been killed and 1,481 wounded in the attacks since Friday; however, various media outlets report casualty numbers could be at least twice that many.
Mediterranean rescuers say saved 175,000 people since 2015
- The majority had died in the central Mediterranean, waters between between Libya, Tunisia, Italy and Malta
- In that area, the equivalent of five adults and one child lost their lives every day over the past decade
BERLIN: Maritime rescue organizations said Wednesday they had pulled more than 175,000 people from the Mediterranean over the past 10 years, as waves of migrants sought to use the dangerous sea route to reach Europe.
The group of 21 NGOS active in the region estimated that at least 28,932 people had died while trying to cross the sea since 2015.
The majority had died in the central Mediterranean – waters between Libya, Tunisia, Italy and Malta – Mirka Schaefer of German NGO SOS Humanity told a Berlin press conference.
In that area, the equivalent of five adults and one child lost their lives every day over the past decade, she said.
The number of unrecorded cases was likely to be “significantly higher,” she added.
Of the 21 organizations currently engaged in maritime rescue in the region, 10 of them are based in Germany. Between them the groups operate 15 boats, four sail ships and four planes.
The organizations have frequently clashed with authorities over their rescue operations, which were launched as Europe’s migration crisis broke out in 2015, when hundreds of thousands headed to the continent, mostly from the Middle East.
In Italy the current government has vowed to end crossings and attacked NGOs for creating a “pull factor” that encourages departures, something migration observers say is unproven.
Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right government has passed laws requiring rescue ships to return to a designated port, a measure NGOs say is contrary to maritime law.
“The pressure on us is growing,” Schaefer said, criticizing a lack of support from the German government.
The rescue organizations were calling on Berlin to support “an effective, coordinated sea rescue program, fully funded by the EU,” Sea Watch spokeswoman Giulia Messmer said at the press conference.
The proposal, which had been sent to the German government and to the European Commission, called for the EU to spend between €108 million-€240 million ($124 million-$276 million) a year on rescue patrols and arrival centers.
