International

US, Russia hold ‘productive’ arms control talks in Geneva

AFP

Russian and US diplomats held talks behind closed doors in Geneva on Thursday which both sides described as constructive, in the latest round of discussions aimed at ironing out the many tensions between the world’s top two nuclear powers.

US State Department number two Wendy Sherman and Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov met for most of the day, with both sides saying they would continue discussions on arms control.

In a joint statement after the talks, the State Department and the Russian foreign ministry said the two delegations had agreed to form two working groups, one of which will look at future arms control measures.

“The delegations additionally agreed that the two working groups would commence their meetings, to be followed by a third plenary meeting,” the statement said.

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Ryabkov said that the sides had discussed the “entire range of issues” related to strategic stability and arms control.

“Despite existing differences — and there are a lot — there is a desire and readiness to move the process further,” he was cited by Russian news agencies as saying.

“This is slow progress. But this in itself is also good.”

A senior State Department official said that the meeting was “very interactive and broad-based” and went in-depth into multiple issues, although she declined to give details.

“We think this was a very productive meeting,” she told reporters on condition of anonymity.

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– ‘Sort of pact’ –

While the United States and Russia are set to negotiate a successor to the New START nuclear treaty, the official said that the talks also discussed broader confidence-building measures and conventional weapons.

“The simple act of dialogue is sort of part of arms control,” she said.

“There are non-nuclear tools that can have strategic implications and that’s really sort of a conversation that we’d like to expand — both Washington and Moscow — and sort of understanding threat perceptions and where we think we need to go in that space.”

In June, US President Joe Biden and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met in a high-profile summit at which they agreed it was vital to keep talking despite the differences that divide them.

From cyber attacks on US entities and meddling in the last two US presidential elections to human rights violations and aggression against Ukraine and other European countries, the US list of allegations against the Kremlin runs long.

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Putin though insists he is just challenging US hegemony, and has denied any connection to what the US says are Russia-based hacking and ransomware gangs, or having any hand in the deaths of many opponents during two decades in power.

Thursday’s talks were held at Russia’s UN mission, after the last round in late July was hosted by the Americans a few hundred metres (yards) away.

Arms control was at the top of the agenda at that exchange.

International

Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.

“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”