South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Iran: Restoring nuke deal amid continued US sanctions possible
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s top diplomat said Saturday that the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard accepted the idea of continuing to be sanctioned by the U.S. if it meant the restoration of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian’s remark in a state television interview may signal a possible opening over the stalemated Vienna talks. It also appeared timed for a visit Sunday by a European Union diplomat involved in the negotiations.
Sanctions on the Guard have been one of the remaining sticking points over restoring the tattered nuclear deal, outside of Russia’s late demand of guarantees over its trade relationship with Iran amid Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
The Guard represents one of the major power bases in the Shiite theocracy and is answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In the interview, Amirabdollahian acknowledged that the Guard sanctions were a topic discussed.
“High-rank Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials in the country always remind us at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of a point, and they say that you should do whatever is necessary for the interests of the country,” he said. “If you reach a point where the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issue was raised, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issue should not be an obstacle for you.”
Though later saying that he wouldn’t negotiate on the Guard sanctions, the remark Saturday represents the first time he or any other Iranian official suggested it could be traded away as part of the negotiations.
It came as Spanish diplomat Enrique Mora, who has been the EU’s lead negotiator in the talks, was traveling to Iran for meetings Sunday.
Earlier Saturday in Qatar, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said all sides were “very close to an agreement” for a roadmap restoring the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw Iran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. The deal collapsed in 2018 when then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord.
China plane crash: Chinese authorities officially confirmed Saturday that there were no survivors in last week’s crash of a China Eastern flight with 132 people on board.
The announcement by an official of the Civil Aviation Administration of China at a late-night news conference was followed by a brief moment of silence. Investigators have identified
120 of the victims through DNA analysis, state media reported.
The flight from the city of Kunming in southwestern China was flying at 29,000 feet on Monday when it suddenly nosedived into a mountainous area, shortly before it would have started its descent to the airport in Guangzhou on China’s southeastern coast.
Construction excavators continued to dig into the crash site in the search for wreckage, remains and the second black box. Searchers found the cockpit voice recorder Wednesday but have yet to find the flight data recorder.
China Eastern, one of China’s four major airlines, and its subsidiaries have grounded all of their Boeing
737-800 aircraft, a total of
223 planes, as a precaution.
Taliban rulers block women: Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers refused to allow dozens of women to board several flights, including some overseas, because they were traveling without a male guardian, two Afghan airline officials said Saturday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said dozens of women who arrived at Kabul’s international airport Friday to board domestic and international flights were told they couldn’t do so.
Some women were dual nationals returning to their homes overseas, including some from Canada, according to one of the officials. Women were denied boarding on flights to Islamabad, Dubai and Turkey.
The order came from the Taliban leadership, said one official.
It was still unclear whether the Taliban would exempt air travel from an order issued months ago.
That order called for women traveling more than 45 miles to be accompanied
by a male relative.
Congressman resigns: Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska on Saturday resigned from office after a California jury convicted him of lying to federal authorities about an illegal campaign donation from a foreign national.
In a letter to the House, Fortenberry said he was resigning from Congress, effective Thursday.
Fortenberry’s announcement followed concerted pressure from political leaders in Nebraska and Washington for him to step down. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Friday urged Fortenberry to resign. Nebraska Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts said Fortenberry should “do the right thing for his constituents” and leave the office he has held since 2005.
Fortenberry will be sentenced June 28.
Ex-candidate released: A former gubernatorial candidate
in Maine was bailed out of jail on Saturday after his arrest on charges of possession of child pornography.
Officials with the Hancock County Jail said Eliot Cutler made bail in the afternoon after a day in custody. He had been held on $50,000 bail.
The Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit arrested Cutler Friday at a home he and his wife share in Brooklin, about 130 miles from Portland. Cutler, 75, twice ran for governor as an independent, using his personal wealth to pay for the unsuccessful campaigns.
Warrants were executed on two of Cutler’s homes last week. The counts correspond with crimes authorities said Cutler committed from December through March. Hancock County District Attorney Matthew Foster has said it “wouldn’t surprise me if more charges were on the way.”
Cutler now faces four counts of possession of sexually explicit material of a child under 12, prosecutors
have said. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
A Saudiled coalition fighting Iranbacked Houthi rebels in Yemen unleashed a barrage of airstrikes on the capital and a strategic Red Sea city, officials said Saturday. At least eight people were killed.
The overnight airstrikes on Sanaa and Hodeida — both held by the Houthis — came a day after the rebels attacked an oil depot in the Saudi city of Jiddah, their highest-profile assault yet on the kingdom.
Brig. Gen. Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for the Saudiled coalition, said the strikes targeted “sources of threat” to Saudi Arabia, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.
He said the coalition intercepted and destroyed two explosives-laden drones early Saturday. He said the drones were launched from Houthi-held civilian oil facilities in Hodeida.
Yemen attacked: