Iran lawmaker points to threat of regional insecurity if UN sanctions are reimposed
– Iran could withhold security commitments if European states invoke a UN mechanism to reimpose international sanctions on the Islamic republic, a member of Iran's parliamentary national security commission said on July 21, according to Borna news.
'We have many tools... We can withhold our commitment to security in the region, Persian Gulf and Hormuz Strait, as well as other maritime areas,' Mr Abbas Moqtadaei said in reference to Tehran's potential countermeasures to the reimposition of international sanctions.
He was speaking ahead of a meeting on July 25 between Iranian deputy foreign ministers and British, French and German diplomats in Istanbul.
The three European states, known as E3, have said they would restore international sanctions on Iran by the end of August if it did not enter productive talks on its nuclear programme with Western powers, notably the US.
E3 countries and Iran have in recent months held inconclusive talks on Tehran's nuclear programme, in parallel with indirect nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
Israel's attack on Iran in June led to the suspension of such talks.
'Europe is not in a position to endanger itself in the... Hormuz Strait when it is itself in political, economic and cultural conflicts with Russia, China and even the United States,' Mr Moqtadaei said in an interview with Iran's semi-official Borna news agency.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore SMRT to pay lower fine of $2.4m for EWL disruption; must invest at least $600k to boost reliability
Singapore MRT service changes needed to modify 3 East-West Line stations on Changi Airport stretch: LTA
Singapore S'pore could have nuclear energy 'within a few years', if it decides on it: UN nuclear watchdog chief
Life 'Do you kill children?': Even before independence, S'pore has always loved its over-the-top campaigns
Singapore Lung damage, poor brain development, addiction: What vaping does to the body
Singapore Tipsy Collective sues former directors, HR head; alleges $14m lost from misconduct, poor decisions
Singapore Fine for couple whose catering companies owed $432,000 in salaries to 103 employees
Singapore Kopi, care and conversation: How this 20-year-old helps improve the well-being of the elderly
Last week, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tehran would react if the three European states
invoked the UN snapback mechanism, which expires on Oct 18.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on July 20 that the E3 lack the legal standing to invoke the mechanism, arguing that their stance on Israeli and US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities in June made them no longer participants in a 2015 nuclear deal to which the snapback mechanism is linked.
The three European countries, along with China and Russia, are the remaining parties to the nuclear pact – from which the US withdrew in 2018 – that lifted sanctions on Iran in return for restrictions on its nuclear programme.
In the past, Iran has used the threat of disrupting maritime transit in the Strait of Hormuz or no longer stopping Europe-bound drug trafficking as a means to push back against Western pressures on its nuclear programme. REUTERS
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
8 hours ago
- Straits Times
Gaza civil defence says Israeli forces kill 11 people
Find out what's new on ST website and app. A civil defence spokesman said the toll included four Palestinians killed in an air strike on the Al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City. GAZA CITY - Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli operations killed 11 people on July 26 in the Palestinian territory devastated by over 21 months of war. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP the toll included four Palestinians killed in an air strike on the Al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City in the territory's north. One other person was killed 'after Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting for humanitarian aid' northwest of Gaza City, the agency said. Eyewitnesses told AFP that several thousand people had gathered in the area to wait for aid. One of them, Mr Abu Samir Hamoudeh, 42, said the Israeli military opened fire 'while the people were waiting to approach the distribution point', located near an Israeli military post in the Zikim area, northwest of Sudaniyah. Another man was killed by a drone strike near the southern city of Khan Yunis, while one was killed by artillery fire in the Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza, the civil defence said. Questioned by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into the matter. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Students hide vapes in underwear, toilet roll holders: S'pore schools grapple with vaping scourge Singapore 'I've tried everything': Mum helpless as son's Kpod addiction spirals out of control Singapore Almost half of planned 30,000 HDB flats in Tengah to be completed by end-2025: Chee Hong Tat Singapore From libraries to living rooms, how reading habits take root in underserved S'pore kids Asia Death toll climbs as Thai-Cambodia clashes continue despite calls for ceasefire Singapore As Asean looks to nuclear energy, public education efforts are needed: UN nuclear watchdog chief Asia Thousands rally in downtown Kuala Lumpur for resignation of PM Anwar Asia Shunsaku Tamiya, who brought perfection to plastic race car models, dies at 90 In a separate statement, the military said it was continuing its operations in Gaza, adding that it killed members of a 'terrorist cell' which it accused of planting an explosive device targeting soldiers. It added that over the past day the air force had 'struck over 100 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip'. Mr Bassal also told AFP that civil defence teams on July 26 recovered the bodies of 12 people in the area of the Morag Corridor north of Rafah following Israeli bombardment the previous night. The recovery operation was conducted in coordination with the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), he said, adding that the bodies were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties. Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after a deadly attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Oct 7, 2023. The Israeli campaign has killed 59,676 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. AFP
Straits Times
8 hours ago
- Straits Times
This family self-deported to Mexico, and lost everything
Sonia Coria and her husband Carlos Leon, Mexican migrants who fled cartel violence in their hometown with their family and sought refuge in Arizona, U.S., before voluntarily returning to Mexico, look on outside their home in Uruapan, Michoacan state, Mexico, July 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ivan Arias URUAPAN, Mexico - As broadcasters declared Donald Trump the next President of the United States, Sonia Coria turned to her husband and asked if they should go home. For seven months they had been living in Glendale, Arizona, sharing a two-bedroom apartment with Coria's aunt and slowly building a life far from the threats and cartel violence that made them flee Mexico. Coria, 25, took odd jobs as a cleaner and her husband, Carlos Leon, also 25, worked as a gardener. Their eldest child Naomi, eight, was going to a local charter school, making friends and picking up English. In the small kidney-shaped pool of the condominium building where they lived, she had learned to swim. Little Carlos, five, was learning to ride a bike. Their neighborhood in western Glendale - a city of some 250,000 people just outside Phoenix - was home to lots of Mexican migrants. Opposite their apartment block was a small butcher, Carnicería Uruapan, named after the town they had fled in the dangerous Mexican state of Michoacan. They had bought their first car on installments - a tan-colored 2008 Ford F-150 pickup truck that cost them $4,000. They were still poor, sometimes going to soup kitchens for a meal or picking up appliances and toys that neighbors had thrown out, but it was a life they could only have dreamed of back home in Mexico. Trump's campaign, and his victory, changed how they felt about living in the United States. They had followed the law, entering the United States at a border crossing and applying for asylum. The application was in process. But they now worried they could lose everything. "We run the risk of them taking away the little we've managed to scrape together," Coria remembers telling her husband that night as election coverage played on the television. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Students hide vapes in underwear, toilet roll holders: S'pore schools grapple with vaping scourge Singapore 'I've tried everything': Mum helpless as son's Kpod addiction spirals out of control Singapore Almost half of planned 30,000 HDB flats in Tengah to be completed by end-2025: Chee Hong Tat Singapore Black belt in taekwondo, Grade 8 in piano: S'pore teen excels despite condition that limits movements Singapore As Asean looks to nuclear energy, public education efforts are needed: UN nuclear watchdog chief Asia Thousands rally in downtown Kuala Lumpur for resignation of PM Anwar Asia Death toll climbs as Thai-Cambodia clashes continue despite calls for ceasefire Asia Shunsaku Tamiya, who brought perfection to plastic race car models, dies at 90 Leon nodded and hugged his wife. They began to cry quietly, afraid Carlos and Naomi would hear them as they played on the floor in the bedroom they all shared. The kids had been allowed to stay up late, so that Coria and Leon could watch the results come in. The family's account is based on interviews with Leon, Coria and NGOs that helped them on their return to Mexico. Reuters was not able to verify all details of their journey, but core facts were supported by photos, videos, messages, and customs documents the family shared. As the Trump administration vows to enact the "largest deportation operation in American history," authorities have raided workplaces, sent alleged Venezuelan gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador, and deployed National Guard and active-duty Marines to contain anti-government protests in Los Angeles. Beyond the 239,000 people the administration has deported so far, some cuffed and led on to planes, the very public expulsion of migrants has had another effect: triggering tough and complicated decisions in immigrant households across the U.S. on whether to stay or leave. As they discussed returning to Mexico, Leon set one condition: That they wait until after Trump took office on January 20, to save up some more money and to see if he proved as hardline on migration as he'd promised. In the end, fear led them to leave before Trump had even been sworn in. 'PROJECT HOMECOMING' Despite high-profile deportations to Guantanamo or El Salvador, the total number of deportations under Trump trails former President Joe Biden's last year in office. Increasingly, persuading migrants to leave of their own accord has become a core strategy. "Self-deportation is safe," reads a DHS flyer on display at immigration courts in the U.S. "Leave on your own terms by picking your departure flight." The Trump administration in March launched an app called CBP Home designed to help people relocate and in May, Trump unveiled "Project Homecoming," a sweeping initiative that offers "illegal aliens" $1,000 and a free flight to leave. Since then, "tens of thousands of illegal aliens" self-deported through CBP Home app, a Department of Homeland Security official told Reuters, without giving further details. More than 56,000 Mexicans have voluntarily returned from the U.S. since Trump returned to the White House, according to Mexican government figures. Figures from last year were unavailable. Self-deportation is not a new idea. During the Great Depression and again in 1954's Operation Wetback, U.S. deportation campaigns pressured over a million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans to leave - far more than through formal deportations. "Self-deportation is not an accident, but a deliberate strategy," said Maria Jose Espinosa, executive director at CEDA, a non-profit organization in Washington that works to improve relations between the U.S. and Latin American countries. 'LEFT WITH NOTHING' On January 19, Coria, Leon, and the two kids packed what they could fit into their F-150 and drove toward the Mexican border. It was just a three-hour drive. A few weeks before, they had witnessed immigration enforcement detaining the father of a Mexican family living two doors down from them. That, Coria said, had made up their minds. A lawyer they saw at the Mexican consulate in Phoenix reinforced their view, telling them that their asylum application was weak and they would likely be deported. The consulate told Reuters the lawyer, Hugo Larios, did on occasion offer free consultations, but they did not have access to details of what was discussed or a record of the Coria-Leon family visiting in January, only in April 2024. Larios did not respond to requests for comment. It was a hard decision to leave. They had fled their hometown in February last year after armed men claiming to be members of the notorious Jalisco New Generation Cartel began showing up at the avocado farm where Leon was working as a guard, demanding protection money. Leon didn't have the money to pay, and the owner was away. Now, they were going back. Uruapan is one of the most violent cities in the world, with an official murder rate of nearly 60 per 100,000 inhabitants. In recent years organized crime has taken over the area, running or extorting farms and businesses and killing those who refuse to pay. But the family hoped their savings would make a difference. They had managed to scrape together $5,000 and the plan was to buy land and open an auto repair shop using their pickup truck to help with the business. At 5 p.m., on January 19, they drew up to the Dennis DeConcini border crossing at Nogales. As they passed Mexican customs, the Mexican National Guard stopped their vehicle and asked for papers, the family said. Leon didn't have the car title, just a temporary permit issued that day, so officials confiscated the truck and threatened to arrest him for vehicle smuggling. The officials also took $5,000, the family's entire savings, for what they called a fine before Leon could go free. With no car and no money, Coria, Leon, Naomi and Carlos sat on the ground outside customs, surrounded by their remaining possessions - 100 kilos of clothing, tools, kitchen utensils, a television, refrigerator, and children's toys. "We lost everything," Coria recalled, in tears. "We left with nothing and came back worse off." A spokesperson from Mexico's National Customs Agency declined to comment on the specifics of the Coria case. She said in an email to Reuters that its office "acts in strict adherence to the legal framework governing the entry and exit of merchandise, as well as the customs control applicable to persons and vehicles crossing points of entry into the national territory." Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum told journalists this month that her government is strengthening its "Mexico Embraces You" program to receive Mexican migrants voluntarily returning from the U.S. to ensure "they are not subject to any act of corruption by customs or immigration when they enter our country." The program offers a $100 cash grant, job placement, free transportation to their places of origin, and facilities for importing goods, but the family returned before it went into action. As the sun began to set, the dry desert air turned cold. The family worried about where to spend the night and how they would reach Michoacan, some 2,000 kilometers away. They were spotted by Francisco Olachea, a nurse with Voices from the Border, a humanitarian organization that works on both sides of the border. Olachea remembers approaching the crying family outside customs and offering them a hand. They loaded the Corias' belongings onto the NGO's ambulance and a rented pickup truck paid for by Olachea and another NGO, Salvavision. That night, Olachea took them to NANA Ministries, a Christian organization in the border town of Nogales. They were offered water, fruit, coffee, and pozole, a traditional Mexican broth made from corn kernels with meat and vegetables. The four spent the night in a small room. Together, Voices from the Border and Salvavision raised just over $1,000 to buy the family bus tickets to Michoacan and send some belongings to Sonia Coria's mother's house in black garbage bags. What they couldn't send was donated to the church where they had spent the night. On January 20, the family returned to Uruapan. The four of them shared a small room with no door in the tin-roofed home belonging to Coria's mother. The couple slept on the floor, and the kids shared a bed with no mattress. They later moved into an even smaller room at an aunt's house. Leon eventually found work in a car repair workshop. Coria got a job in a Chinese restaurant. The children complain about leaving the United States. Carlos asks for his bike; Naomi is forgetting her English. In June, a 62-page letter from customs seen by Reuters informed them that their truck had been seized and had become property of the federal treasury. Also, that they owe the equivalent of $18,000 in customs duties for bringing in the F-150 to Mexico. REUTERS
AsiaOne
9 hours ago
- AsiaOne
Singapore has laid the groundwork, no problems in having nuclear energy : IAEA chief, Singapore News
Singapore faces no 'insurmountable challenges' should it decide to adopt nuclear energy as a source of power, said the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi on Saturday (July 26). The UN nuclear watchdog chief made the remarks during a sit-down interview with local media at the sidelines of his one-day visit to Singapore, which is part of the S R Nathan Fellowship, a high-level programme for foreign leaders and prominent individuals to visit the country. The 64-year-old said that unlike some countries which would have to start from scratch, Singapore has already laid the 'groundwork' if it chooses to embark on a nuclear energy programme. The Argentinian pointed to Singapore as a 'fine technological base' with 'mature' regulatory framework, and 'very good safety and research capabilities'. 'I don't see any obstacles (for Singapore),' he added. 'For some countries, it could be financing, or the lack of human capacity — the workforce. 'You don't have these problems… There are many boxes that have been checked already.' Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who is also finance minister, said in his Budget speech in February that Singapore would study the potential deployment of nuclear power here. On Friday morning, Grossi met with PM Wong, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Manpower and Minister-in-charge of Energy and Science and Technology Tan See Leng, as well as Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu. Grossi said that these leaders have reiterated to him the Government's position that it has yet to make a decision on whether to deploy nuclear energy. 'They are very interested in looking into this. So at some point, they will make an evaluation and decide whether it is time to go in that direction, or not at all,' he added. Singapore previously announced its decarbonisation plans, with a target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. But Grossi noted that the Republic has limitations when it comes to renewable energy. 'It's clear that you don't have the space to deploy wind parks. There's no hydropower here in the amount that is needed,' he said. 'Nuclear energy appears (a) logical option looking forward.' Besides Singapore, several countries in South-East Asia are also weighing up whether to turn to nuclear power, or have already made plans to build nuclear plants. These include Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. On concerns about safety, Grossi said that the perception that introducing nuclear power generates 'immediate risk' is not 'sustained by reality'. 'The thing is, like in private life, to manage risks and reduce them to the bare minimum,' he added. Grossi pointed to IAEA's work with countries on safety and nuclear security, including knowing what to do in case of an accident. He said: 'Already today, without having any nuclear power plant, Singapore has an amazing network of radiation monitoring capabilities, which allows a country to capture any level of radiation. 'At the same time, informs.. the environmental authorities and the nuclear regulator to see whether, in that eventual case, there has to be an evacuation of people.' Separately, Singapore on Friday renewed an agreement with the IAEA to develop training programmes in nuclear science and technology for developing IAEA member states. Under the renewed Third Country Training Programme, it will include fellowships, scientific visits and training courses, covering topics such as human health, industrial radiography, and environmental radioactivity monitoring and analysis. During his visit on Friday, Grossi also delivered a lecture hosted by the Singapore Nuclear Research and Safety Institute at the National University of Singapore and visited the National Environment Agency and toured the institute's facilities. [[nid:675560]] Chingshijie@
