By Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller
Washington - The White House said Thursday (click here) that Iranian troops are “directly engaged on the ground” in Crimea supporting Russian drone attacks on Ukraine’s power stations and other key infrastructure, troubling evidence of Tehran’s deepening role assisting Russia as it exacts suffering on Ukrainian civilians just as the cold weather sets in.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Iran has sent a “relatively small number” of personnel to Crimea, a part of Ukraine unilaterally annexed by Russia in contravention of international law in 2014, to assist Russian troops in launching Iranian-made drones against Ukraine. Members of a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were dispatched to assist Russian forces in using the drones, according to the British government.
The revelation of the U.S. intelligence finding comes as the Biden administration seeks to mount international pressure on Tehran to pull back from helping Russia as it bombards soft Ukrainian civilian targets with the help of Iranian-made drones....
By Patrick Wintour
Russia has threatened (click here) that it will reassess cooperation with the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, if he sends United Nations experts to Ukraine to inspect drones that western powers say were made in Iran and used by Moscow in violation of a UN resolution....
The United Nations suspended Russia (click here) from its seat on the Human Rights Council on Thursday as the world calls out atrocities committed in Ukraine.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield introduced the proposal earlier in the week following accusations that Russian troops tortured and killed Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, a suburb near Kyiv.
The bodies were discovered after Moscow withdrew its troops from Bucha. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the aftermath, which he saw firsthand on Monday, as a “genocide” and accused Russia of war crimes. The Kremlin has previously described its military actions in Ukraine as a “special operation” and has denied targeting civilians....
Russia is a rouge nation. It can probably ranked as a terrorist country along side Iran's Revolutionary Guard. It is called Revolutionary because of the origins of the current country of Iran and it's removal of the Old Guard from power, hence, a revolution. The name came from the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It has capacity, at least 250,000 military personnel including ground, aerospace and naval forces.
October 20, 2022By Jonathan Tirone
Russia lost its place (click here) on stage at a key international nuclear summit in Washington next week, as US authorities seek ways to limit the influence of Kremlin-controlled atomic fuel and technology suppliers on the global market.
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Thursday that executives from Rosatom Corp. and Russia’s industry regulator were dropped from the agenda of next week’s meetings in the US capital. White House officials have been considering for months ways to reduce the Kremlin’s influence on global nuclear markets, where state-owned Rosatom continues to be the biggest exporter of nuclear fuel and reactors....
