The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden will grant temporary deportation relief and work permits to tens of thousands of Ukrainians who are already in the United States and unable to return to Ukraine because of the military conflict with Russia, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The move will allow Ukrainians in the United States as of March 1 to remain and work legally for a period of 18 months, DHS said, after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in the biggest attack on a European state since World War II.
President Joe Biden is expected to issue an executive order on Friday to move some $7 billion of the Afghan central bank’s assets frozen in the U.S. banking system to fund humanitarian relief in Afghanistan and compensate victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a U.S. official familiar with the decision.
The order will require U.S. financial institutions to facilitate access to $3.5 billion of assets for the Afghan relief and basic needs. The other $3.5 billion would remain in the United States and be used to fund ongoing litigation by U.S. victims of terrorism, the official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision had not been formally announced.
International funding to Afghanistan was suspended and billions of dollars of the country’s assets abroad, mostly in the United States, were frozen after the Taliban took control of the country in mid-August.
The country’s long-troubled economy has been in a tailspin since the Taliban takeover. Nearly 80% of Afghanistan’s previous government’s budget came from the international community. That money, now cut off, financed hospitals, schools, factories and government ministries. Desperation for such basic necessities has been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as health care shortages, drought and malnutrition.
The official noted that U.S. courts where 9/11 victims have filed claims against the Taliban will also have to take action for the victims to be compensated.
The executive order is expected to be signed by Biden later on Friday.
The Taliban have called on the international community to release funds and help stave off a humanitarian disaster.
Afghanistan has more than $9 billion in reserves, including just over $7 billion in reserves held in the United States. The rest is largely in Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland and Qatar.
The Taliban are certain to oppose the split.
As of January the Taliban had managed to pay salaries of its ministries but was struggling to keep employees at work. They have promised to open schools for girls after the Afghan new year at the end of March, but humanitarian organizations are saying money is needed to pay teachers. Universities for women have reopened in several provinces with the Taliban saying the staggered opening will be completed by the end of February when all universities for women and men will open, a major concession to international demands.
The New York Times first reported on Biden’s coming order.
Several days of anguish passed after the number of covid cases began to increase in the capital of Valle de Cauca. However, thanks to the number of vaccinated, Cali can officially say that passed the fourth peak of the pandemic.
The announcement comes after several meetings between advisers from the Cali Health Secretariat and the district agency’s team of epidemiologists.
(We recommend you read: Alarm from the Governor of the Valley due to EPS intervention)
“At this time the positivity of the cases is at 15 percent and the speed of transmission shows a number of infected for each infected of 0.5 percent, “said Miyerlandi Torres Agredo, secretary of health.
Thus, the official explained that these percentages mean that the peak of infections has already been overcome, so it is now a duty to reduce the occupation of Intensive Care Units.
He clarified that 85 percent of the ICU beds that are currently occupied, and 36 percent are people infected with the virus.
“Let us remember that two weeks ago it was 45 percent with covid load. Now we are at 36 percent, which has also been decreasing mortality, “added Torres Agredo.
(Also: What happened to a young man, after a chase, hitting a pole and shooting?)
According to the health entity, 20 daily deaths are averaged, when at the height of the peak they exceeded 40. “67 percent of the deaths correspond to people over 60 years of age who had not been vaccinated or who did not have the reinforcement dose ”, sustained the secretary of health.
According to the data collected by the epidemiological team, the fourth peak, led by the Omicron variant, left a total of 83,420 confirmed infections and 769 deaths. Compared to the second peak, the last one that occurred without vaccination in the population, and there were 40,320 more cases, but 300 fewer deaths.
In other words, while the lethality of the second peak was 0.02 percent, that of the fourth reached 0.009 percent. This allows us to calculate that during this last peak Nearly 1,300 deaths were averted.
“67 percent of deaths correspond to people over 60 years of age who had not been vaccinated or who did not have the booster dose”
(You may be interested in: Debate over the power cut from Emcali to Claro due to a millionaire debt)
Advance Factors
According to the analysis of health experts, they attribute the progress thanks to different factors that imply the decrease in figures.
One of those reasons is the progress of the vaccination planadjusted to the goals proposed by the Ministry of Health.
On the other hand, according to studies it was possible to determine that the nature of the Omicron variant is less lethal; and another of the factors to overcome the fourth peak was the existence of antibodiesgenerated naturally in citizens who were previously infected.
(Also: Video: A driver runs over an alleged robber on the Cali road)
Torres considered the news as a relief for the people of Cali, and likewise invited citizens to continue with biosafety protocols, mainly the use of face masks.
“Although the immunization process is going well, it is not yet time to stop using the mask, since the levels of vaccination do not allow us to be safe without its use,” he specified.
CALI
More news from Colombia
-Did the peak of covid-19 end in Medellín? This is what the Mayor says
-El Rodadero affected by informality and lack of control
The Biden administration on Friday restored some sanctions relief to Iran’s civil nuclear program as talks aimed at salvaging the languishing 2015 nuclear deal enter a critical phase.
As U.S. negotiators head back to Vienna for what could be a make-or-break session, Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed several sanctions waivers related to Iran’s civilian nuclear activities. The move reverses the Trump administration’s decision to rescind them.
The waivers are intended to entice Iran to return to compliance with the 2015 deal that it has been violating since former President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed U.S. sanctions. Iran says it is not respecting the terms of the deal because the U.S. pulled out of it first. Iran has demanded the restoration of all sanctions relief it was promised under the deal to return to compliance.
Friday’s move lifts the sanctions threat against foreign countries and companies from Russia, China and Europe that had been cooperating with nonmilitary parts of Iran’s nuclear program under the terms of the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
The Trump administration had ended the “civ-nuke” waivers in May 2020 as part of its “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran that began when Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal, complaining that it was the worst diplomatic agreement ever negotiated and gave Iran a pathway to developing a bomb.
Little progress
As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden made a U.S. return to the nuclear deal a priority and his administration has pursued that goal, but there has been little progress toward that end since he took office a year ago. Administration officials said the waivers were being restored to help push the Vienna negotiations forward.
“The waiver with respect to these activities is designed to facilitate discussions that would help to close a deal on a mutual return to full implementation of the JCPOA and lay the groundwork for Iran’s return to performance of its JCPOA commitments,” the State Department said in a notice to Congress that announced the move.
“It is also designed to serve U.S. nonproliferation and nuclear safety interests and constrain Iran’s nuclear activities,” the department said. “It is being issued as a matter of policy discretion with these objectives in mind, and not pursuant to a commitment or as part of a quid pro quo. We are focused on working with partners and allies to counter the full range of threats that Iran poses.”
A copy of the State Department notice and the actual waivers signed by Blinken were obtained by The Associated Press.
FILE – The nuclear water reactor of Arak, south of Tehran, Iran, is seen in a handout picture released by Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.
The waivers permit foreign countries and companies to work on civilian projects at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power station, its Arak heavy water plant and the Tehran Research Reactor. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had revoked the waivers in May 2020, accusing Iran of “nuclear extortion” for continuing and expanding work at the sites.
Not a ‘concession’
Critics of the nuclear deal who lobbied Trump to withdraw from it protested, arguing that even if the Biden administration wants to return to the 2015 deal it should at least demand some concessions from Iran before up front granting it sanctions relief.
“From a negotiating perspective, they look desperate: we’ll waive sanctions before we even have a deal, just say yes to anything!” said Rich Goldberg, a vocal deal opponent who is a senior adviser to the hawkish Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
One senior State Department official familiar with the waivers maintained that the move is not a “concession” to Iran and was being taken “in our vital national interest as well as the interest of the region and the world.” The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Iran and the United States are displaying little flexibility on core issues in indirect nuclear talks, raising questions about whether a compromise can be found soon to renew a 2015 deal that could dispel fears of a wider Middle East war, diplomats say.
After eight rounds of talks, the thorniest points remain the speed and scope of lifting sanctions on Tehran — including Iran’s demand for a U.S. guarantee of no further punitive steps — and how and when to restore curbs on Iran’s atomic work.
The nuclear deal limited Iran’s uranium enrichment activity to make it harder for it to develop nuclear arms — an ambition Tehran denies — in return for lifting international sanctions.
But former U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the pact in 2018, saying it did not do enough to curb Iran’s nuclear activities, ballistic missile program and regional influence, and reimposed sanctions that badly damaged Iran’s economy.
FILE – This file photo released Nov. 5, 2019, by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, shows centrifuge machines in the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran.
After waiting for a year, Iran responded to Trump’s pressure by gradually breaching the accord, including rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, refining it to higher fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up output.
Following months of stop-start talks that began after Joe Biden replaced Trump in the White House, Western officials now say time is running out to resurrect the pact. But Iranian officials deny they are under time pressure, arguing the economy can survive thanks to oil sales to China.
‘We need guarantees’
A former Iranian official said Iran’s rulers “are certain that their uncompromising, maximalist approach will give results.”
France said on Tuesday that despite some progress at the end of December, Iran and world powers were still far away from reviving the deal.
The U.S. State Department said on January 4 the issues “at the heart of the negotiations” were sanctions relief and the nuclear steps that Iran would take to return the accord.
Iran insists on immediate removal of all Trump-era sanctions in a verifiable process. Washington has said it would remove curbs inconsistent with the 2015 pact if Iran resumed compliance with the deal, implying it would leave in place others such as those imposed under terrorism or human rights measures.
“Americans should give assurances that no new sanctions under any label would be imposed on Iran in future. We need guarantees that America will not abandon the deal again,” said a senior Iranian official.
Iran’s Nournews, a media outlet affiliated to the Supreme National Security Council, reported on Wednesday that Iran’s key conditions at the talks “are assurances and verifications.”
U.S. officials were not immediately available to comment on the question of guarantees. However, U.S. officials have said Biden cannot promise the U.S. government will not renege on the agreement because the nuclear deal is a non-binding political understanding, not a legally-binding treaty.
FILE – People walk past Palais Coburg, where closed-door nuclear talks take place in Vienna, Austria, Dec. 17, 2021.
Asked to comment on that U.S. constitutional reality, an Iranian official said: “It’s their internal problem.”
On the issue of obtaining verification that sanctions have been removed — at which point Iran would have to revive curbs on its nuclear program — the senior Iranian official said Iran and Washington differed over the timetable.
“Iran needs a couple of weeks to verify sanctions removal (before it reverses its nuclear steps). But the other party says a few days would be enough to load oil on a ship, export it and transfer its money through banking system,” the official said.
Threats
Shadowing the background of the talks have been threats by Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear weaponry but which sees Iran as a existential threat, to attack Iranian nuclear installations if it deems diplomacy ultimately futile in containing Tehran’s atomic abilities and potential.
Iran says it would hit back hard if it were attacked.
A Western diplomat said “early-February is a realistic end-date for Vienna talks” as the longer Iran remains outside the deal, the more nuclear expertise it will gain, shortening the time it might need to race to build a bomb if it chose to.
“Still we are not sure whether Iran really wants a deal,” said another Western diplomat.
Iran has ruled out adhering to any “artificial” deadline.
“Several times, they asked Iran to slow down its nuclear work during the talks, and even Americans conveyed messages about an interim deal through other parties,” said a second Iranian official, close to Iran’s negotiating team.
“It was rejected by Iran.”
Asked for comment, a State Department spokesperson who declined to be identified told Reuters: “Of course we — and the whole international community — want Iran to slow down their nuclear program and have communicated that very clearly.”
“Beyond that, we don’t negotiate the details in public, but these reports are far off.”
Other points of contention include Iran’s advanced nuclear centrifuges — machines that purify uranium for use as fuel in atomic power plants or, if purified to a high level, weapons.
“Discussions continue on Iran’s demand to store and seal its advanced centrifuges. … They wanted those centrifuges to be dismantled and shipped abroad,” the first official said.
Asked to comment on this question, a Western diplomat said: “We are looking for ways to overcome our differences with Iran about verification process.”
