Bid to raise Brexit divorce bill

Iran official acknowledges talks over frozen funds in UK

LONDON, Nov 16, (Agencies): British Prime Minister Theresa May is preparing to offer up to 20 billion pounds ($26 billion) more to the European Union as part of a Brexit divorce bill, the Sun newspaper reported on Thursday.

Unless there is movement in the negotiations to unravel more than 40 years of union, Britain may miss a December deadline to move the talks to a discussion of future trade ties, which businesses say is vital for them to make investment decisions.

EU negotiator Michel Barnier has called on Britain to spell out how far it would “honour its obligations” to break the deadlock.

Brexit minister David Davis said on Sunday that Britain will not offer a figure or a formula for how much it believes it owes the European Union.

Russia has launched cyber attacks on the UK media, telecoms and energy sectors in the past year, Britain’s cyber security chief said Wednesday, amid reports of Russian interference in the Brexit referendum.

“Russia is seeking to undermine the international system. That much is clear,” Ciaran Martin, head of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), said at a technology conference in London, according to his office.

Attacks

“Russian interference, seen by the NCSC over the past year, has included attacks on the UK media, telecommunications and energy sectors,” Martin said.

The centre has coordinated the government’s response to 590 significant incidents since it was created in 2016, though it has not detailed which were linked to Russia.

Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday accused Moscow of “seeking to weaponise information” in order to “sow discord in the West and undermine our institutions”.

Russia’s cyber activities include “deploying its state-run media organisations to plant fake stories and photoshopped images”, she said in a speech.

The scathing criticism was rejected by Russia’s foreign ministry, which accused May of trying to distract the British public from problems at home.

Moscow’s alleged attempts to influence last year’s referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union are part of investigations underway in London.

On Wednesday, May told lawmakers that parliament’s intelligence and security committee would be looking into Russian interference.

Meanwhile parliament’s digital, culture, media and sport committee has requested data from Twitter and Facebook on Russia-linked accounts, and aims to interview social media executives at the British embassy in Washington early next year.

Damian Collins, the committee chairman, said it was “beyond doubt” that Russia had interfered in UK politics.

He said there was a pattern of behaviour of Russian organisations seeking out opportunities to create division, unrest and instability in the West.

“Foreign organisations have the ability to manipulate social media platforms to target voters abroad,” Collins told AFP.

Iran and Britain are discussing the possible release of some 400 million pounds held by London since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, an Iranian official acknowledged Thursday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi denied any link between possible money transfer and the detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian who is serving a fiveyear prison sentence for allegedly planning the “soft toppling” of Iran’s government while traveling with her young daughter.

British Foreign Minister faces tremendous criticism at home over his handling of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case. Iranian media have speculated that Johnson may visit Iran soon.

Ghasemi was quoted by the semiofficial ISNA news agency as saying that the 400 million pounds held by London is a payment Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi made for Chieftain tanks that were never delivered. The shah abandoned the throne in 1979 and the Islamic Revolution soon installed the clerically overseen system that endures today.

Sanctions

Sanctions between the countries have stopped the money being returned.

Ghasemi said Tehran has pursued the refund of the money through long and broad talks with Britain for some time. He denied any connection between the payment and Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case.

“The case of Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and paying debt are two separate issues and there is no link between them,” Ghasemi said.

He added that she received prison sentence following the “necessary legal procedure.”

The Daily Telegraph newspaper of London reported earlier Thursday that the money might be part of a bargain to free Zaghari-Ratcliffe. It described the payment as a “goodwill” gesture between Britain and Iran and said authorities in London continued to consult with experts over whether the payment could be made under current US and UN sanctions.

The Foreign Office said in a statement that it was “wrong to link a completely separate debt issue with any other aspect of our bilateral relationship with Iran.”

Johnson later apologized for his comment, but Iran’s state broadcaster said it was an implicit admission of her guilt.

Her husband recently warned that Zaghari-Ratcliffe faces new charges that could add 16 years to her sentence.

Analysts and family members of dual nationals and others detained in Iran have suggested that hard-liners in the Islamic Republic’s security agencies use the prisoners as bargaining chips for money or influence.

A UN panel in September described “an emerging pattern involving the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of dual nationals” in Iran, which Tehran denies.

Italy’s PD drops fast in polls:

Italy’s ruling Democratic Party (PD) has lost support following its flop in a regional election in Sicily, while Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (Go Italy!) has gained ground, according to a poll released on Thursday.

National elections must be held by next May, with all recent opinion polls suggesting that it will end in a hung parliament.

IXE pollsters said backing for the centreleft PD, which is led by former prime minister Matteo Renzi, dropped to 23.8 percent, down 3.6 percentage points from its last survey in mid-October.

The PD slump enabled the maverick 5-Star Movement to establish itself firmly as Italy’s most popular party, climbing to 27.9 percent from a previous 27.2 percent. (RTRS)

Greek police block march:

Police blocked some 200 migrants and asylumseekers Wednesday from leaving a city in northern Greece for the Macedonian border in hopes of traveling on to other European Union countries.

Dozens of officers in riot gear used shields to push back the migrants near the center of Thessaloniki and blocked the road with police buses. The marchers, who included families with young children, refused to leave and sat down in the street. No one was hurt in the brief confrontation. (AP)