Iran Appears Ready to Swap Prisoners with US as Talks Approach 'Finish Line'

Talks on restoring a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program and ease sanctions are near conclusion, a Russian envoy said on Tuesday, and sources close to the negotiations said a prisoner swap between Iran and the United States is expected soon.

“Apparently the negotiations on restoration of #JCPOA are about to cross the finish line,” Mikhail Ulyanov said on Twitter, using the 2015 agreement’s full name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Read full story.

Reuters reported last week that a U.S.-Iranian deal was taking shape in Vienna after months of talks between Tehran and major powers to revive the nuclear deal pact, abandoned in 2018 by then-U.S. President Donald Trump, who also reimposed extensive sanctions on Iran. Read full story.

A draft text of the agreement alluded only vaguely to other issues, diplomats said, adding that what was meant by that was unfreezing billions of dollars in Iranian funds in South Korean banks, and the release of Western prisoners held in Iran.

On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said the Islamic Republic was ready for an immediate prisoner exchange with the United States.

“Iran has always and repeatedly expressed its readiness to exchange prisoners. Months ago we were ready to do it but the Americans ruined the deal,” a senior Iranian official in Tehran told Reuters, without elaborating.

“Now I believe some of them will be released, maybe five or six of them. But those talks about prisoners are not linked to the nuclear agreement, rather associated with it. This is a humanitarian measure by Iran.”

U.S. negotiator Robert Malley has suggested that securing the nuclear pact is unlikely unless Tehran frees four U.S. citizens, including Iranian-American father and son Baquer and Siamak Namazi, that Washington says Tehran is holding hostage.

“Six years ago the Iranian government arrested Baquer Namazi and they still refuse to let him leave the country,” Malley tweeted on Tuesday. “The Iranian government can and must release the Namazis, Emad Shargi, Morad Tahbaz, and other unjustly held U.S. and foreign nationals.”

Iran, which does not recognize dual nationality, denies taking prisoners to gain diplomatic leverage. However, in recent years, the elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on espionage and security-related charges.

Britain has been seeking the release of British-Iranians Anousheh Ashouri, jailed on espionage charges, and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation who was convicted of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. L8N2UW3FH

Tehran has sought the release of over a dozen Iranians in the United States, including seven Iranian-American dual nationals, two Iranians with permanent U.S. residency and four Iranian citizens with no legal status in the United States.

Most were jailed for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran.

In the latest comments on the final phase of 10 months of nuclear negotiations, the talks’ coordinator, Enrique Mora, tweeted that “key issues need to be fixed” but the end was near.

Several Iranian officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said some minor technical issues were being discussed in Vienna and that a deal was expected before the end of the week, though adding that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”

Separately, hardline Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi told gas exporter countries on Tuesday to avoid any “cruel” sanctions imposed by the United States on Tehran.

“The members of this forum should not recognize those sanctions…(because) in today’s world we see that the sanctions are not going to be effective,” Raisi told a gas exporters conference in Doha.

The 2015 deal between Iran and world powers limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium to make it harder for it to develop material for nuclear weapons, if it chose to, in return for a lifting of international sanctions against Tehran.

Since 2019, following the U.S. withdrawal from the deal, Tehran has gone well beyond its limits, rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, refining it to higher fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up output.

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US, European Allies Ready Additional Sanctions After Putin Recognizes Breakaway Ukraine Regions

The United States and Britain are set to announce additional sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, with European Union allies preparing their own measures, following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s move to recognize the Russian-occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine as independent states.

A senior U.S. official, while declining to give specifics in a phone briefing with reporters late Monday, said the further U.S. measures would “hold Russia accountable for this clear violation of international law and Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as of Russia’s own international commitments.”

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss used similar language in previewing action by her government, while French and German representatives spoke about firm measures being prepared as they addressed a late Monday meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

For weeks, the U.S. and European allies warned of severe consequences for Russia if it launched a fresh invasion of Ukraine, a possibility viewed with growing fear as Russia deployed 150,000 troops along with military equipment along its border with Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden issued an initial set of sanctions Monday in response to Putin’s recognition of the breakaway regions and his order to deploy what he called Russian peacekeeping forces.

A senior Biden administration official told reporters that the first round of sanctions was specifically tied to those actions and did not represent the “swift and severe economic measures we have been preparing in coordination with allies and partners should Russia further invade Ukraine.”

Biden’s order prohibits new investment, trade and financing by Americans in those areas. “This wasn’t a speech just about Russia’s security,” a senior administration official said. “It was an attack on the very idea of a sovereign and independent Ukraine. He (Putin) made clear that he views Ukraine historically as part of Russia. And he made a number of false claims about Ukraine contention that seemed designed to excuse possible military action. This was a speech to the Russian people to justify war.”

Displaced civilians from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions rest in a sport hall in Taganrog, Russia, Feb. 21, 2022.

The official would not say whether plans were still on for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, later this week. That meeting was intended to set the scene for a possible summit between Putin and Biden, with the United States saying both were predicated on Russia not invading Ukraine.

“We’ll continue to pursue diplomacy until the tanks roll,” the official said. “We are under no illusions about what is likely to come next. And we’re prepared to respond decisively when it does.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Tuesday the Russian side was still “ready for negotiations.”

Blinken is scheduled to host Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba for a meeting in Washington on Tuesday after speaking with him by phone Monday to “reaffirm unwavering U.S. support for Ukraine,” the State Department said in a statement.

Analyst and author Angela Stent of the Brookings Institution said Monday that a summit between Biden and Putin is an especially fraught proposition now.

“At this point, I think, to have another in-person meeting between President Biden and President Putin without some conditions being laid for the Russians, without them showing some goodwill or sincere interest in discussions by reversing some of the things that they’re doing, I think it makes no sense to do that,” she said to reporters and analysts. “Because, you know, otherwise we’re just playing into the Kremlin’s hands, and it looks as if they’re going to go ahead and do whatever they want to do irrespective of these negotiations.”

Author and analyst Steven Pifer agreed.

“I don’t want to downplay diplomacy,” he said. “But at this point in time, I would think that there would have to be some indication to the White House that a meeting with Putin would actually have a chance of yielding something. And right now, again, based on the experience that (French President Emmanuel) Macron had, that (German Chancellor Olaf) Scholz had, it doesn’t seem like these meetings – I think they are ego boosters for the Russian president, but they don’t seem to be doing anything to turn him from a course which has been one of continual escalation of the crisis.”

Biden spoke to both the German and French leaders Monday, and, separately, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In both calls, the White House said, “The leaders strongly condemned President Putin’s decision to recognize the so-called DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine as ‘independent.’”

A map showing the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Washington was immediately joined by the European Union in announcing sanctions, with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel calling Putin’s recognition of these separatist areas “a blatant violation of international law.”

The Kremlin said Putin informed the leaders of France and Germany Monday of his decision and then signed documents declaring the regions as no longer part of Ukraine.

Putin, from a desk at the Kremlin, delivered a lengthy televised address to the Russian people, outlining his version of the history of national boundaries in Europe and the 1990s breakup of the Soviet Union.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, chairs a Security Council meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 21, 2022.

He contended that Ukraine was “never” a true nation but rather historically a part of Russia.

About 14,000 people have been killed in the flashpoint Donbas territory since 2014 in fighting between pro-Moscow separatists and Kyiv’s forces, trench warfare battles that started after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

The U.S. and its NATO allies have contended that Russia is staging false-flag operations in Donetsk and Luhansk to make it appear Ukrainian forces are an increasing threat. Kyiv says it does not intend to launch a full-scale attack on the region in eastern Ukraine, and the West says Russia is attempting to justify grounds for an invasion to protect Russian sympathizers.

The separatists want Russia to sign friendship treaties and give them military aid to protect them from what they contend is an ongoing Ukrainian military offensive.

The Russian parliament last week called on Putin to formally recognize the DNR and LNR, both of which declared independence from Ukraine in 2014.

Putin said there was “no prospect” for peace to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine, but Moscow has contended it has no plans to invade Ukraine.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. VOA’s Chris Hannas contributed to the report.

Cartagenero ready to climb Mount Everest - Other Cities - Colombia

Eduardo Monga He was born in the warm and chaotic city of Cartagena de Indias. As a child he ran after a ball on the beaches of Marbella.

Now an adult, he dreams of reaching the highest and iciest mountain on the planet: Mount Everest.

Monga is a sports coach. He is 31 years old and makes a living with his personal and fitness company.

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His dream: the highest peaks on the planet

With the help of God and the talent of children, we can go far, and that the athlete of the coast has a high place in this type of discipline

“It’s called seven summits because to the extent that we climb and add experiences, we’re going to reach our goals,” he says.

He wants to bring his experience to children and young people from Cartagena so that they expand their dreams and desires and as a message to society that changes are possible through sports.

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“With the help of God and the talent of children, we can go far, and that the athlete of the coast has a high place in this type of discipline,” he says.
And the project has already started.

Last year, in Colombia, he climbed the Nevado del Ruiz to 5,300 meters above sea level.

On March 10, he will be in Mexico, climbing Mount Citlaltépetl or Pico de Orizaba, at 5,700 meters above sea level. The third highest mountain in Latin America.

The calendar of this Caribbean mountaineer continues next September in El Aconcagua, the largest mountain in America, located in Argentina.

(You may be interested: This is how they face bacteria that attack fruits in Cesar)

“Everest is a medium-term project, projected for the month of May 2023 and we will be able to get there thanks to sponsors such as the Sports Institute of Bolívar, Iderbol, who is supporting this feat,” says Monga.

The preparation and training has not been easy, in the heat wave of the Colombian Caribbean, for this mountaineer: “cardiovascular resistance, breathing and muscle strengthening, is the most important thing. Facing heights is a lottery, there are many people, very strong, who can’t stand it and must turn back”, concludes this dreamer.

Cartagena

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Rams, Bengals Ready for Super Bowl Blockbuster

Los Angeles — 

A star-studded Los Angeles Rams team will seek to deny the giant-killing Cincinnati Bengals a Hollywood ending in the Super Bowl on Sunday as an NFL season full of plot twists reaches its climax.

The first NFL championship game of the post-Tom Brady era sees the Rams play host at their gleaming $5.5 billion SoFi Stadium against a Bengals side chasing a first Super Bowl crown.

Around 100 million Americans are expected to tune in for the biggest annual event on the U.S. sporting calendar, which kicks off at 3:30 p.m. local time (2330 GMT).

“It’s game day!” the National Football League proclaimed on Twitter. “It all comes down to this moment.”

The perfectly scripted season finale will see a duel between two talented quarterbacks playing in the Super Bowl for the first time, with Rams veteran Matthew Stafford pitted against the rising Bengals star Joe Burrow.

A Bengals victory would complete one of the most striking turnarounds in NFL history.

Last season, the team finished with four wins and 11 defeats, only slightly better than their 2019 campaign, which ended in a dismal 2-14 record.

But under head coach Zac Taylor, and buoyed by the arrival of No.1 draft pick Burrow in 2020, the Bengals are a team transformed.

A dogged, never-say-die approach characterized their post-season campaign, which saw them shock AFC top seeds Tennessee before another upset on the road over mighty Kansas City sealed their Super Bowl berth.

Whether Burrow is afforded the time and space to craft one more Bengals upset is another question altogether, however.

A porous offensive line allowed him to be sacked a whopping nine times during the playoff win over Tennessee.

That is a stat that the formidable Rams defense, led by the human wrecking ball Aaron Donald, the best defensive player in the NFL, and veteran pass rusher Von Miller, will have taken note of.

On the offensive side, meanwhile, the Rams have more than enough weapons to puncture the Bengals defense.

The 34-year-old Stafford, playing in his first Super Bowl, has an array of targets to aim for, including Cooper Kupp, the best wide receiver in the NFL this season, and Odell Beckham, Jr., the charismatic former New York Giants and Cleveland Browns receiver who has flourished since joining the Rams in mid-season.

As well as enjoying home advantage in what is the first Los Angeles-area Super Bowl since 1993, the Rams also have the benefit of having recent experience of the NFL Championship game.

Many members of Sunday’s line-up were on the losing side when the Rams were beaten 13-3 by the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl in 2019.

Rams head coach Sean McVay — who at 36 years and 20 days old would become the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl with victory on Sunday — was upbeat after overseeing a final team walkthrough Saturday.

“We’re very confident,” McVay said. “We’re ready to go. There’s a good look in their eyes.

“I think there’s a good urgency, but also I just have a good feel about this team. I feel excited to watch them go and do their thing.”

The Rams will be playing in front of a packed crowd of 70,000, while the traditional half-time music concert will feature the likes of Eminem, Mary J. Blige and hip-hop icons Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar.

The capacity crowd also contrasts with last season’s Super Bowl in Tampa, where attendance was limited to around 25,000 fans due to COVID-19.

While the omicron variant surge is in retreat in Los Angeles, authorities are requiring all attendees Sunday to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test, with masking mandatory.

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Americans are getting ready for the Super Bowl on Sunday. It’s the final matchup of the National Football League season and a national celebration. Mike O’Sullivan reports from Los Angeles, where the Los Angeles Rams will face the Cincinnati Bengals.

Russia Says It's Ready for More Talks on Ukraine

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the U.S. has failed to address Moscow’s main security concerns over Ukraine in the written document delivered Wednesday, but he left the door open for more talks to ease simmering tensions. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports. 
Produced by: Bakhtiyar Zamano