International
Widespread regret and condolences for the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisí
The death in a helicopter accident of the president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisí and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hosein Amir Abdolahian, has generated great regret in Arab countries and widespread condolences in the West.
The helicopter in which Raisí and other authorities were traveling disappeared for unexplained reasons this Sunday when it was returning from the city of Tabriz and the aircraft was found today in a mountainous area of the Varzeqan region, in Eastern Azerbaijan.
Among the Arab countries, the Lebanese government decreed on Monday three days of official mourning for the death of President Raisí.
Lebanon maintains good relations with Iran, one of the foreign powers that are considered most influential in the nation, due in large part to the close collaboration between Tehran and the Lebanese Shiite group Hizbulá.
The president of Syria, Bashar al-Asad, expressed his condolences and thanked Ebrahim Raisí for his work to strengthen the ties between the two countries, important allies at various levels.
The president of Iran had made a historic visit to Damascus a year ago, the first of an Iranian leader of his level since 2010, a year before the outst of the war in Syria.
Iran is a key route for supplying oil derivatives and other goods to Syria, subject to a series of international sanctions that limit its trade activities, and also maintains a strong armed presence in Syrian territory, where Iranian advisers and pro-Iranian militias are present.
For his part, the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmud Abbas, on Monday offered his condolences to the Islamic Republic of Iran after the fatal accident and that of Tunisia, Kais Said, also expressed “great sadness and pain.”
Meanwhile, the president of Turkey, the Islamist Recep Tayyip Erdogan, expressed his condolences for his “esteemed counterpart and brother” Raisí and highlighted the efforts of the deceased “for the peace of the Iranian people and our region during his term.”
One of the most heartfelt reactions was that of the Lebanese Shiite group Hizbulá, a close ally of Tehran.
“For us he was an older brother, a strong supporter and a firm defender of our cause, and of the cause of the nation, especially Jerusalem and Palestine. And a protector of the Resistance movements and its mujahideen in all the positions of responsibility he held,” Hizbulah said in a statement.
The Lebanese group is part of an informal anti-Israeli alliance led by Tehran known as the “Axis of Resistance”, several of whose members hold fronts of support for the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the framework of the war that began seven months ago in Gaza.
Hizbulah, who leads one of those fronts against Israel from southern Lebanon, allegedly receives strong arms and logistical support from his Iranian allies.
And the de facto government of the Taliban in Afghanistan also expressed its condolences on the death of Ebrahim Raisí, who was part of a Cabinet determined to build good relations with the fundamentalists despite occasional incidents.
Under the command of Raisi, who came to power in 2021 and was one of the favorites to succeed the supreme Iranian leader, Ali Khamenei, Tehran became one of the few countries interested in improving bilateral relations with the Taliban when they took power in Afghanistan that same year.
The Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, and the Shiite Houthi rebels of Yemen expressed their “sincere condolences” to Iran on Monday in two messages.
Qatar is one of the closest Arab countries to Iran and has mediated on several occasions between the Government of Tehran and other countries, in particular the United States, to bring views on issues such as the nuclear program or that of Iranian ballistic missiles.
The Houthis of Yemen are an Iran-backed Shiite political and religious movement that took up arms in 2014 against the internationally recognized Yemeni government, and since then they control large areas of the north and center of that country in the south of the Arabian Peninsula.
In recent months, Houthis have managed to attract international attention for their attacks with ballistic missiles and drones, allegedly Iranian, against Israeli merchant ships or ships linked to Israel in the Red Sea, in retaliation for that country’s war in Gaza.
Russian President Vladimir Putin today expressed his condolences for the “enormous tragedy” of Raisi’s death, whom he described as a “friend.”
“As a true friend of Russia, he made a valuable personal contribution to the development of good-neighbourly relations between our countries and made great efforts to bring them to the level of strategic partnership,” the Russian president added.
Russia and Iran have strengthened their relations in recent years, especially since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, since Tehran supplies Moscow with the Shahed drones with which it bombs the territory of the neighboring country.
For his part, Chinese President Xi Jinping assured that his people “have lost a good friend.”
Xi highlighted the “important contributions of the Iranian president to the security and stability” of his country, as well as to “its development and prosperity,” according to a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. In this line, the Chinese leader recognized Raisí’s efforts to “strengthen and develop the integral strategic relationship” between China and Iran, ties that he believes will “continue to be strengthened.”
In 2021, China and Iran sealed a 25-year economic cooperation agreement that broadly provides for Chinese investments in the Iranian energy and infrastructure sectors.
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, expressed condolences for the death of Raisí, Minister Abdolahian and his entourage. “Our thoughts are with the families,” he wrote in a message on his social network account X.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, joined with a statement in which he also conveyed his condolences to the rest of the deceased authorities, their relatives and “the affected Iranian citizens.”
Meanwhile, the NATO spokeswoman, in a message on social network X wrote: “Our condolences to the people of Iran for the death of President Raisí, Foreign Minister Amir Abdolahian and other people who died in the helicopter accident.”
Japan also sent its condolences to Iran. “There is nothing sadder than the news of a sudden death like this. We convey our condolences to the Government of Iran and its people, as well as to the families of the victims,” said Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi.
International
The Court of the IADH rules out measures in favor of Gustavo Petro amid investigations into his campaign
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IDHR) considered it “inappropriate” to grant provisional measures in favor of the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, which his representatives requested in the midst of investigations for apparent irregular financing of his political campaign.
The IADH Court explained that Petro’s legal team requested the measures as part of the process of supervising the sentence issued in 2020, in which the court condemned Colombia for the dismissal of Petro from his position as mayor of Bogotá in 2013.
The resolution, published on the website of the IADH Court, determined that the case resolved in 2020 is not related to the provisional measures and therefore rejected them.
“The Court considers that the aforementioned request is not related to the subject of the case (resolved in 2020) or to the implementation of any of the three guarantees of non-repetition of regulatory adequacy ordered in the judgment, which makes it inappropriate,” the resolution indicates.
A “factual” and “legal” situation different from that of 2020
The text adds that the request of Petro’s representatives “is based on a factual and legal situation different from that known to this Court in the Petro Urrego case judgment issued in 2020.”
“On that occasion, the Court considered it unconventional for an administrative authority to order the cessation and eventual disqualification of popularly elected officials. From the information provided in this request for provisional measures, it does not appear that the administrative body in question has the power to disqualify or restrict the political rights of a popularly elected official,” the Court of Human Rights determined.
Last October, the National Electoral Council (CNE) filed charges for alleged irregularities to the campaign that led Petro to the Presidency of Colombia in 2022.
The investigation found an alleged violation of spending caps of 5.3 billion pesos (about 1.19 million dollars).
In the request for provisional measures before the Inter-American Court, Petro’s representatives affirmed that there is an “irregular attribution of powers to the CNE to investigate President Gustavo Petro Urrego, which contravenes the conventional and constitutional guarantees of the integral jurisdiction enjoyed by the dignity of the office of President of the Republic.”
They added that the responsibility for investigating belongs to the Legal Committee of Investigation and Prosecutions of the Senate House of Representatives.
International
The Constitutional Court of Peru annuls the sentence against the leader of Dina Boluarte’s former party
The Peruvian Constitutional Court (TC) annulled this Thursday the sentence for corruption against the politician Vladimir Cerrón, leader of the Marxist party Free Peru in which President Dina Boluarte campaigned until 2022, after remaining on the run for more than a year, a time in which time the president began to be investigated for her alleged cover-up.
The TC declared the appeal of habeas corpus presented by Cerrón’s defense against the sentence, issued last year, which sentenced him to 3 and a half years in prison for the crime of collusion, for the concession of the Wanka Aerodrome when he was a regional authority of Junín, according to the judicial decision published by local media.
Boluarte was linked to Cerrón’s escape, after his official car was discovered by the press in a spa south of Lima, where the police searched days before for the leader of his former political party.
The Court claimed that the Junín Appeals Chamber violated the right to due motivation of judicial decisions by not specifying whether the crime of simple collusion was an instant, continuous and permanent crime.
The nullity of the sentence
The magistrates pointed out that this information is important to define the prescription of the crime, as Cerrón’sdefense maintains.
In that sense, the TC has ordered the Junín Appeals Chamber to issue a new pronouncement, in which it responds on the limitation periods of the crime to determine whether the criminal proceedings are still in force or are being filed.
Once the resolution was released in the media, Cerrón himself celebrated the news on the social network X and said that the TC is, in recent times, “the moral reserve” of Peruvian justice.
He added that the Constitutional Court declared the sentence against him null and void for being “arbitrary”, by declaring his appeal of habeas corpus in the Wanka Aerodrome case well-founded.
Cerrón is currently being prosecuted for other cases of alleged corruption when he was a regional authority and for the last electoral campaign in which his party presented the formula headed by Pedro Castillo, the dismissed former president for his failed coup d’état in 2022, and Boluarte as vice president.
International
Guterres calls for “avoiding at all costs” the integration of AI into nuclear weapons
UN Secretary-General António Guterres advocated on Thursday in the UN Security Council to “avoid at all costs” the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in nuclear weapons, something that could have “potentially disastrous consequences”.
“AI without human supervision would leave the world blind, and would put world peace and security in a dangerous and reckless place,” Guterres told the Security Council, where a ministerial session is being held today, chaired by US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, on the progress of this tool and its implications in global security.
The Secretary General stressed that, while AI is making “a positive difference” in countries suffering from conflicts, food insecurity or the effects of climate change, it has also entered “the battlefield in a more problematic way.”
In this sense, he indicated that recent conflicts have become a testing ground for military applications of AI, which “creates a fertile ground for misunderstandings, miscalculations and mistakes.”
Humans and the algorithm
Thus, he recalled that this tool has already been used to select targets and make “life or death” decisions, and pointed out that cyberattacks made possible by AI “could paralyze the critical infrastructures of a country and its essential services.”
“Let’s be clear: the fate of humanity should never be left in the hands of the ‘black box’ of an algorithm. Humans must always have control in decision-making guided by international law, including international humanitarian and human rights laws and ethical principles,” he added.
In addition to its effects on international security, Guterres focused on the danger posed by the AI creating “very realistic content” that is then spread on the Internet and “manipulates public opinion, threatens the integrity of information and makes the truth indistinguishable from lies.”
The Portuguese politician brought up the UN Global Digital Compact, which was approved last September and addresses the rapid advance of AI, and shared his intention to finance innovative opportunities for this tool “where it is most needed.”
“A world of rich and poor in AI would be a world of perpetual instability. We must never allow (this technology) to lead to an advance of inequality,” he stressed, and said that technology must be “at the service of all humanity.”
The Court of the IADH rules out measures in favor of Gustavo Petro amid investigations into his campaign
The Constitutional Court of Peru annuls the sentence against the leader of Dina Boluarte’s former party
Guterres calls for “avoiding at all costs” the integration of AI into nuclear weapons
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