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world news Diasabra 8 Januari 2022

NATO rules out any halt to expansion, rejects Russian demand

(AP) — NATO Secretary Putin might order an inva- risk for a new armed conflict
General Jens Stoltenberg sion of Ukraine. in Europe,” Stoltenberg said.
on Friday ruled out any
halt to the continued ex- NATO would have to agree Russia annexed Ukraine’s
pansion of the military to halt all membership plans, Crimean Peninsula in 2014
organization to address not just with Ukraine, and to and later backed a separat-
Russian security concerns, end military exercises close ist rebellion in the country’s
rejecting a key part of to Russia’s borders. In ex- east. Over more than seven
President Vladimir Pu- change, Russia would respect years, the fighting has killed
tin’s demands for easing the international commit- over 14,000 people and dev-
tensions with Ukraine. ments it’s signed up to on astated Ukraine’s industrial
limiting wargames, as well as heartland, known as Donbas.
“We will not compromise end aircraft buzzing incidents
on core principles, including and other low-level hostili- Russia denies that it has fresh
the right for every nation to ties. plans to attack its neigh-
decide its own path, includ- bor, but Putin wants legal
ing what kind of security ar- Endorsing such an agreement guarantees that would rule
rangements it wants to be would require NATO to re- out NATO expansion and fense clause because Ukraine over the next week.
a part of,” Stoltenberg told ject a key part of its founding weapons deployments. Mos- is not a NATO member.”
reporters in Brussels after treaty. Under Article 10 of cow says it expects answers Stoltenberg did say that French President Emmanuel
an extraordinary meeting of the 1949 Washington Treaty, to its security proposals this NATO is willing to discuss Macron said Friday that it’s
NATO foreign ministers. the organization can invite in month. arms control with Moscow, important to speak with Rus-
any willing European coun- but that Putin cannot be per- sia about its concerns, and
U.S. Secretary of State Anto- try that can contribute to se- Despite the rhetoric, Ukraine mitted to impose restrictions that he will talk again with
ny Blinken and his counter- curity in the North Atlantic simply cannot join NATO on how the organization pro- Putin “in the coming days.”
parts held online talks to pre- area, as well as fulfill the obli- with Crimea occupied and tects member countries close
pare for the first meeting of gations of membership. fighting in the Donbas be- to Russia’s borders like Es- “Dialogue does not mean
the NATO-Russia Council cause the alliance’s collective tonia, Latvia, Lithuania and giving in,” Macron told re-
in more than two years. The Stoltenberg said the Russian security guarantee — that an Poland. porters in Paris at an event
meeting, set for Wednesday military buildup that sparked attack on one ally is consid- to mark the start of France’s
in Brussels, will give NATO the invasion worries has con- ered to be an attack on them six-month term at the helm
ambassadors the chance to tinued. all — would draw it into “We cannot end up in a situa- of the European Union.
discuss Putin’s security pro- war if the country became a tion where we have a kind of
posals with Russia’s envoy “We see armored units, we member. second-class NATO mem- The NATO-Russia Council
face to face. see artillery, we see combat- bers; where NATO as an alli- was set up two decades ago.
ready troops, we see elec- Indeed, NATO’s help in the ance is not allowed to protect But NATO ended practi-
Much contained in the docu- tronic warfare equipment event of an invasion is un- them in the same way as we cal cooperation with Russia
ments that Moscow has made and we see a lot of different likely to involve major mili- protect other allies,” he said. through the NRC in 2014
public — a draft agreement military capabilities,” he said. tary muscle. after it annexed Crimea.
with NATO countries and Friday’s meeting was the first Wednesday’s meeting will
the offer of a treaty between This buildup, combined “Ukraine is a very close part- in a flurry of high-level talks be the first since July 2019.
Russia and the United States with Russia’s security de- ner,” Stoltenberg said. “We involving NATO, senior U.S. NATO officials say Russia
— appears to be a non-starter mands, and its track record in provide support to Ukraine. and Russian officials and the has refused to take part in
at the 30-country military or- Ukraine and Georgia, “sends But Ukraine is not covered Organization for Security meetings as long as Ukraine
ganization, despite fears that a message that there is a real by NATO’s collective de- and Cooperation in Europe was on the agenda.

Iran holds mass funeral for ’80s war dead amid nuclear talks

(AP) — Thousands of widespread scale and en- battlefields snaked through land territory that witnessed tensions have ratcheted up
mourners poured into the during legacy 35 years the capital, Tehran, while major combat in the 1980s, across the region — hostil-
streets of Iranian cities on later. other remains were returned Thursday marked the larg- ity with roots in U.S. support
Thursday for the mass fu- to another two dozen prov- est such ceremony in recent for Iraq in the eight-year war.
neral of 250 victims of the A funeral procession carrying inces. Although Iran and Iraq years.
Iran-Iraq war, a testament the remains of soldiers re- sporadically exchange war The funeral also comes just
to the brutal conflict’s cently recovered from former dead excavated from border- While serving as remem- days before Iran marks the
brance for a country rou- two-year anniversary of the
tinely consumed in mourn- Iranian military’s downing of
ing over the grisly war that a Ukrainian passenger plane
killed a million people on with two surface-to-air mis-
both sides, the patriotic ex- siles, killing all 176 people
travaganza also demonstrat- on board — a tragedy that
ed the power of the Iranian ignited an outburst of unrest
hard-liners who organized across Iran and further dam-
it, as the country’s diplomats aged its relations with the
met in Vienna for talks over West.
Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal
with world powers. From outside of Tehran Uni-
versity, trucks piled high with
With conservatives under flag-draped coffins made
President Ebrahim Raisi in their way through the streets.
control of all branches of Men and women in black
government, Iran has pre- thronged the coffins, many
sented maximalist demands weeping for those lost in the
at the negotiating table, ex- bloody, stalemated war start-
asperating Western delegates ed by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein
as the country presses its nu- and his Baath Party in 1980.
clear advances. Meanwhile,