North Korea's state security minister to attend high-level meeting in Russia, KCNA says
North Korea's minister of state security, Ri Chang Dae, left Pyongyang on Monday to attend a meeting of senior security officials in Russia, the North's KCNA state news agency reported on Tuesday.
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Arab News
11 hours ago
- Arab News
Pakistan won't turn blind eye to allies' wrongdoing, says deputy PM on US strikes in Iran
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday his country did not turn a blind eye to US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities earlier this month, adding that close relations with a country do not justify silence in the face of wrongdoing. The statement came during a news briefing in the federal capital, where Dar spoke to the media about Pakistan's recent diplomatic engagements, including his participation in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Istanbul and the Pakistan-United Arab Emirates Joint Ministerial Commission. Despite a recent revival in bilateral ties with Washington, Pakistan formally condemned the US strikes in a statement, calling them a violation of international law and affirming Iran's right to self-defense under the UN Charter. 'Just because relations are good with a country doesn't mean you should consider something wrong to be right,' he told the media. 'As you witnessed, we didn't hesitate or delay,' he continued. 'I spoke with the foreign secretary, gave a task to the spokesperson and we exchanged draft statements. It's now a part of the historic record: we criticized the attack, and we did it on record.' Dar's remarks came in the wake of a 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel that erupted after Israeli strikes targeted Iranian nuclear and military sites, prompting retaliation from Tehran. The war began while the administration in Tehran was holding nuclear negotiations with the US that later joined the fray, launching its own strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities. While Washington said the attacks had set back Iran's nuclear program by years, there was international concern over a wider regional war. Dar said he had been personally involved in formulating the country's response as Islamabad prepared its official statement. Pakistan, currently a member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), also raised the issue at the world body in New York.
Arab News
14 hours ago
- Arab News
Kremlin says Estonia's readiness to host nuclear-capable NATO jets threatens Russia
Pevkur said Estonia was ready to host nuclear-capable jets if necessaryPeskov said such a move would be an obvious threat to RussiaMOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Friday that Estonia's stated readiness to host NATO allies' U.S.-made F-35A stealth jets, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, posed a direct threat to Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur told the Postimees news outlet on Thursday that Estonia - which borders Russia and is a rotating base for NATO jets tasked with protecting Baltic airspace - was ready to host nuclear-capable jets if necessary."If some of them, regardless of their country of origin, have a dual-use capability to carry nuclear weapons it doesn't affect our position on hosting F-35s in any way," the outlet cited him as saying."Of course we are ready to host our allies."Pevkur was speaking after Britain, a NATO member, announced it would buy at least 12 F-35A jets capable of carrying nuclear warheads and that they would join NATO's airborne nuclear about Pevkur's comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such a move would be an obvious threat to Russia."Of course it would be an immediate danger," Peskov told a journalist from Russia's Life news outlet. He said the statement was one of many "absurd thoughts" voiced by politicians in the Baltic region, which comprises Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania."We have practically no relations with the Baltic republics because it is very difficult to make them worse," he said.
Al Arabiya
15 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Russia's drone production jumps in May after Putin request: Think tank
Russia's drone production jumped by 16.9 percent in May compared to the previous month, data from a think tank close to the government showed on Friday, after President Vladimir Putin called for output to be stepped up. Putin in April said that more than 1.5 million drones of various types had been produced last year, including about 4,000 first-person view (FPV) drones - lightweight models designed for precision targeting - but said that troops fighting on the front line in Ukraine needed more. Both sides have deployed drones on a huge scale, using them to spot and hit targets not only on the battlefield but way beyond the front lines. Drone production growth of 16.9 percent in May was significantly higher than previous months, according to the Centre for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting, an economic think tank close to the government. The average monthly increase in the previous five months was 3.7 percent, the report said, and the level in May was 1.6 times higher than average monthly output in 2024. Moscow has been developing a new laser-based system to defend against drones, especially important as Ukrainian drones frequently strike sites deep inside Russia such as oil depots, refineries and airfields.
