Iran to Answer UN Nuclear Questions as Deal Talks Near End

VIENNA — 

Iran has agreed to supply answers long sought by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, Tehran and the U.N. agency said Saturday, as talks in Vienna over its tattered atomic deal with world powers appear to be coming to an end.

A joint statement by Mohammad Eslami, the head of the civilian Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy, came hours after the two met in Tehran.

It envisions the issue of the discovery of uranium particles at former undeclared sites in the country being wrapped up by June — a move that is separate from the talks over the nuclear deal but could help push them to a conclusion.

But meanwhile, Russia’s foreign minister for the first time linked American sanctions on Moscow over its war on Ukraine to the ongoing Iran nuclear deal talks — adding a new wrinkle to the delicate diplomacy.

Grossi said in Tehran that “it would be difficult to believe or to imagine that such an important return to such a comprehensive agreement like the (nuclear deal) would be possible if the agency and Iran would not be seeing eye to eye on how to resolve these important safeguards issues.” Safeguards in the IAEA’s parlance refer to the agency’s inspections and monitoring of a country’s nuclear program.

Grossi for years has sought for Iran to answer questions about human-made uranium particles found at former undeclared nuclear sites in the country. U.S. intelligence agencies, Western nations and the IAEA have said Iran ran an organized nuclear weapons program until 2003. Iran long has denied ever seeking nuclear weapons.

Eslami said the men had reached an “agreement” that would see Iran “presenting documents that would remove the ambiguities about our country.” He did not elaborate on what the documents would discuss.

The later joint statement said that Eslami’s agency will by March 20 give the U.N. nuclear watchdog “written explanations including related supporting documents to the questions raised by the IAEA which have not been addressed by Iran on the issues related to three locations.”

Within two weeks, it said, the IAEA will review that information and submit any questions, and within a week of that the two agencies will meet in Tehran to address the questions.

Grossi will then aim to report his conclusions by the time the IAEA board of governors meets in June.

The nuclear deal saw Iran agree to drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of crushing economic sanctions. But a 2018 decision by then-President Donald Trump to unilaterally withdraw America from the agreement sparked years of tensions and attacks across the wider Middle East.

International Atomic Energy Organization, IAEA, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, left, and Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian shake hands prior to their meeting in Tehran, March 5, 2022.

Today, Tehran enriches uranium up to 60% purity — its highest level ever and a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90% and far greater than the nuclear deal’s 3.67% cap. Its stockpile of enriched uranium also continues to grow, worrying nuclear nonproliferation experts that Iran could be closer to the threshold of having enough material for an atomic weapon if it chose to pursue one.

Undeclared sites played into the initial 2015 deal as well. That year the IAEA’s then-director-general also came to Tehran and visited a suspected weapons-program site at Parchin. Inspectors also took samples there for analysis.

Grossi’s inspectors also face challenges in monitoring Iran’s current advances in its civilian program. Iran has held IAEA surveillance camera recordings since February 2021, not letting inspectors view them amid the nuclear negotiations.

In Vienna, negotiators appear to be signaling a deal is near — even as Russia’s war on Ukraine rages on. Russia’s ambassador there, Mikhail Ulyanov, has been a key mediator in the talks and tweeted Thursday that negotiations were “almost over.” That was something also acknowledged by French negotiator Philippe Errera.

“We hope to come back quickly to conclude because we are very, very close to an agreement,” Errera wrote Friday on Twitter. “But nothing is agreed until EVERYTHING is agreed!”

British negotiator Stephanie Al-Qaq simply wrote: “We are close.”

But comments Saturday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for the first time offered the suggestion that the Ukraine war — and the stinging sanctions that Americans and others have put on Moscow — could interfere.

“We need guarantees these sanctions will in no way affect the trading, economic and investment relations contained in the (deal) for the Iranian nuclear program,” Lavrov said, according to the Tass news agency.

Lavrov said he wanted “guarantees at least at the level of the secretary of state” that the U.S. sanctions would not affect Moscow’s relationship with Tehran. There was no immediate American response to Lavrov’s comments.

Meanwhile on Saturday, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard unveiled what it described as two new underground missile and drone bases in the country. State TV said the bases contained surface-to-surface missiles and armed drones capable of “hiding themselves from enemy radar.”

Russia's Demand for US Guarantees May Harm Nuclear Talks

Tehran — 

Russia’s demand for written U.S. guarantees that sanctions on Moscow would not damage Russian cooperation with Iran is “not constructive” for talks between Tehran and global powers to revive a 2015 nuclear deal, a senior Iranian official told Reuters Saturday.

The announcement by Russia, which could torpedo months of intensive indirect talks between Tehran and Washington in Vienna, came shortly after Tehran said it had agreed a roadmap with the U.N. nuclear watchdog to resolve outstanding issues which could help secure the nuclear pact.

“Russians had put this demand on the table [at the Vienna talks] since two days ago. There is an understanding that by changing its position in Vienna talks Russia wants to secure its interests in other places. This move is not constructive for Vienna nuclear talks,” said the Iranian official in Tehran.

Demanding written U.S. guarantees that Western sanctions imposed on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine would not damage its cooperation with Iran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the limitations had become a stumbling block for the Iran nuclear deal, warning the West that Russian national interests would have to be taken into account.

Lavrov said the sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine had created a “problem” from Moscow’s perspective. When asked whether Russia’s demand would harm 11 months of talks between Tehran and world powers, including Russia, Iran Project Director at International Crisis Group, Ali Vaez said: “Not yet. But it’s impossible to segregate the two crises for much longer.”

“The U.S. can issue waivers for the work related to the transfer of excess fissile material to Russia. But it’s a sign that the commingling of the two issues has started,” Vaez said.

All parties involved in Vienna talks said Friday they were close to reaching an agreement. “We have agreed to provide the IAEA by the end of [the Iranian month of] Khordad [June 21] with documents related to outstanding questions between Tehran and the agency,” Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami told a joint news conference with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi.

Grossi arrived in Tehran late Friday to discuss one of the last thorny issues blocking revival of the pact, which in return for a lifting of economic sanctions limited Iran’s enrichment of uranium, making it harder for Tehran to develop material for nuclear weapons.

“It is important to have this understanding … to work together, to work very intensively,” Grossi told the televised news conference. “Without resolving these [outstanding] issues, efforts to revive the JCPOA may not be possible.”

A major sticking point in the talks is that Tehran wants the question of uranium traces found at several old but undeclared sites in Iran to be closed. Western powers say that is a separate matter to the deal, which the IAEA is not a party to, several officials have told Reuters.

Grossi, who also held talks with Iran’s foreign minister before returning to Vienna on Saturday, said that “there are still matters that need to be addressed by Iran.”

The IAEA has been seeking answers from Iran on how the uranium traces got there – a topic often referred to as “outstanding safeguards issues.”

Grossi’s trip has raised hopes that an agreement with the IAEA will potentially clear the way for revival of the nuclear pact that was abandoned in 2018 by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who also reimposed far-reaching sanctions on Iran.

Since 2019, Tehran has breached the deal’s nuclear limits and gone well beyond, rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, refining it to higher fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up output. Iran denies it has ever sought to acquire nuclear weapons.

Huawei in Talks With South Africa on Labor Lawsuit

Johannesburg — 

South Africa’s labor ministry says Chinese tech firm Huawei is non-compliant with the country’s employment policies.

Huawei is in talks with the ministry over infringements of the country’s employment policies that require 60% of staff to be local hires. It’s still unclear what a settlement could mean for Huawei and other foreign businesses operating in the country.

The ministry’s employment equity act sets requirements for the number of local hires, including those of disadvantaged backgrounds, at various levels within a corporate structure. And it does regular checks across industries for compliance.

“There is room to employ foreign nationals, especially on companies or employers that come to the country to invest… and also to transfer skills to South Africans. We do allow them to bring 40% of their employees…. We realized that 90% of its workforce, that Huawai is foreign nationals, which is against our employment policies,” says Fikiswa Mncanca-Bede, a lawyer for South Africa’s Department of Employment and Labor.

The labor department launched legal proceedings against Huawei earlier this month.

On Friday, the ministry confirmed it was in settlement negotiations with the tech firm on how to correct the discrepancies.

Huawei did not respond to requests for comment.

Mncanca-Bede says the government’s action should send a signal to all companies that non-compliance will not be tolerated.

“We’re not targeting Huawei, but we’re also coming for the big companies in South Africa, … because we want to ensure that transformation does not just become a talk, but it must be seen as a reality…. Transformation means even if you employ South Africans, who are the South Africans that were employing? Are they addressing the imbalances of the past?” Mncanca-Bede asked.

The employment equity act aims to correct historic inequalities in the country, including racial preferences from the apartheid era that benefited white workers.

But those regulations are still not playing out as planned in the workforce.

“There’s rampant violation of regulations by big companies and small company, and South African companies, not just, you know, these international companies. I would definitely say in relation to all of our labor laws, there’s enforcement problems. I think that the Department of Labor is under resourced,” said Kgomotso Musanabi, a law lecturer at the University of Johannesburg.

In addition to inequities, South Africa is experiencing rampant unemployment, with upwards of 35% of people being jobless.

Musanabi says it’s even worse among the country’s youth.

“I think that government is trying to make an attempt to ensure that all South Africans are employed. But not only that South Africans are employed, but that they acquire sort of globally relevant skills that they need to compete in international markets, particularly tech skills,” Musanabi said.

Companies that are non-compliant face fines.

But labor lawyer Johanette Rheeder says for companies as big as Huawei, those fines are a drop in the bucket and unlikely to have a broader chilling effect.

“In South Africa there’s in many businesses also an attitude of we’ll fix it when we’re caught out. Bigger businesses that’s got a better a better social conscience, if I can call it that, do comply…. The middle size and the smaller businesses who just can’t afford to comply with all of these legislations, so they basically fix it when they offered when they caught out,” Rheeder said.

Instead, she says bridging education and skills gaps in the country — rather than going after foreign workers — is the best way to address unemployment and inequity.

“The biggest, biggest thing that we can do in my view in this country is to upskill people… there are some strategies that [are] in place, but it’s always the struggle between upskilling our local people and not giving jobs to foreigners,” Rheeder said.

The labor department said talks with Huawei are expected to conclude Friday.

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.

Biden Agrees to Talks with Putin, If Russia Does Not Invade Ukraine

U.S. President Joe Biden has accepted a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, “in principle,” and only if Russia “does not proceed with military action,” the White House announced late Sunday.

A statement from press secretary Jen Psaki said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would first hold talks this week in Europe.

The diplomatic engagements come as the United States warns of the potential for a Russian invasion of Ukraine, with officials making clear that the U.S. and its Western allies are prepared to impose punishing sanctions while still prioritizing a peaceful resolution to the crisis that has built for months.

“We are always ready for diplomacy,” Psaki said. “We are also ready to impose swift and severe consequences should Russia instead choose war. And currently, Russia appears to be continuing preparations for a full-scale assault on Ukraine very soon.”

Biden discussed the situation in a phone call Sunday with French President Emmanuel Macron, and during a meeting of his National Security Council.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he also spoke with Macron about the situation in eastern Ukraine where in recent days there has been sustained shelling between Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces. Zelenskyy tweeted a call for a “regime of silence” and said he supports convening talks with the Trilateral Contact Group that includes Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

FILE – In this handout photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, speaks at a press conference in Kherson, Ukraine, Feb. 12, 2022.

Despite Russian leaders denying any plans to invade Ukraine, fears that Putin in set to order such a move have increased in recent weeks as Russia massed more troops and equipment along the border with Ukraine, and the announcement that military drills in Belarus, Ukraine’s northern neighbor, would not end Sunday as planned.

In all, Russia has an estimated 150,000 troops in the region.

Blinken told CNN’s “State of the Union” show Sunday that the Russian deployments, cyber attacks on the Ukrainian defense ministry and major banks last week and the new outbreak of fighting in eastern Ukraine signal that Russia is “following its playbook” ahead of large-scale warfare.

“Everything leading up to the invasion is already taking place,” Blinken said.

The separatists in eastern Ukraine have claimed that Kyiv’s forces are planning an attack there, which Ukraine denies.

At the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, Zelenskyy questioned why the United States and its Western allies, who have vowed to impose swift and tough economic sanctions on Russia if it invades Ukraine, are not already doing so.

Blinken said, “As soon as you impose them, you lose the deterrence” to try to prevent an invasion, and if the West were to announce specific sanctions it would impose, Russia “could plan against them.”

The top U.S. diplomat said, however, “Until the tanks are moving” and missiles launched, Western leaders will “try to do everything to reverse” Putin’s mind, “to get him off the course he’s decided.”

Reuters reported late Sunday that an initial package of sanctions could include measures to bar U.S. financial institutions from processing transactions for major Russian banks, and placing certain Russians and companies on the Specially Designated Nationals list that would prevent them from using the U.S. banking system, ban them from trade with Americans and freeze their U.S. assets.

On CBS News’ “Face the Nation” show Sunday, Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, said, “There [are] no such plans” for an invasion.

He said Russia has “our legitimate right to have our troops where we want on Russian territory.”

Antonov said Russia has withdrawn some troops from near Ukraine “and nobody even said to us, ‘thank you.’” The West says its monitoring of the terrain near Ukraine shows that Russia has not begun to send its troops back to their bases.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday the United Kingdom will use the “toughest possible” economic sanctions against Russia if it invades Ukraine.

Johnson told the BBC the sanctions would not only target Putin and his associates, “but also all companies and organizations with strategic importance to Russia.”

The British leader said, “We are going to stop Russian companies raising money on U.K. markets, and we are even with our American friends going to stop them trading in pounds and dollars.”

French President Emmanuel Macron had a telephone conversation with Putin Sunday, with Macron’s office saying afterward that the two leaders agreed on the need to find a diplomatic solution.

Western allies say they are willing to discuss their missile positioning and military exercises in Europe but have balked at Putin’s demand to rule out possible NATO membership for Ukraine and other former Soviet states.

Also Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow released a statement, urging Americans in Russia to have an evacuation plan.

“There have been threats of attacks against shopping centers, railway and metro stations, and other public gathering places in major urban areas, including Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as in areas of heightened tension along the Russian border with Ukraine,” the embassy said. “Have evacuation plans that do not rely on U.S. government assistance.”

Some information for this report came from Reuters.

Iran Supreme Leader Urges Nuclear Energy Progress Amid Talks

TEHRAN, Iran — 

Iran’s supreme leader vowed Thursday that his country would ramp up development of its civilian nuclear program, as major world powers continued delicate talks in Vienna to revive Tehran’s landmark nuclear deal.

In a televised speech, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the importance of nuclear energy for Iran, while again asserting that it had no interest in nuclear weapons.

Khamenei’s remarks seemed clearly aimed at the countries involved in the Vienna talks.

“Enemies are making cruel moves against our nuclear energy issue, [putting] sanctions on nuclear energy that they know is peaceful,” he said. “They do not want Iran to achieve this great and significant progress.”

The accord, which former President Donald Trump abandoned nearly four years ago, granted Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, tweeted late Wednesday that the parties were “closer than ever” to an agreement.

But talks have repeatedly stalled in recent months as Iranian negotiators press hard-line demands, exasperating Western diplomats.

Khamenei, who so far has largely stayed silent on the negotiations, called claims that Iran was pursuing a bomb “nonsense,” saying they were meant to deprive Iran of its legitimate right to nuclear power.

“If we do not pursue [peaceful nuclear energy] today, tomorrow will be late,” he said.

Iran long has insisted its nuclear program is peaceful. But the country’s steps away from its obligations under the 2015 accord have alarmed its archenemy Israel and world powers.

Tehran has since started enriching uranium up to 60% purity — a short technical step from the 90% needed to make a bomb — and spinning far more advanced centrifuges than those permitted under the deal.

Unión Magdalena: Carlos Silva talks about a fight between players and fans - Other Cities - Colombia

The technician of the Magdalena Union, Carlos Silva Socarrassaid that nothing justifies the aggressive behavior that some fans and club players had on Tuesday night at the Sierra Nevada stadium, which forced the game against Bucaramanga to be suspended.

(Also read: Vives victim’s family rejected agreed money and asks to go to jail)

The DT, in an interview with EL TIEMPO, quoted a phrase by Viktor Frankl that indicates that “in an abnormal situation, an abnormal reaction constitutes normal behavior.”

The above to refer to violent behavior of their leaders and a group of fans from the South Stand.

I told him to wait for the night to pass and talk calmly the next day

And it is that the brawl in the lower part of the stage broke out after some fans claimed his poor performance to the player Ronaldo Lora and he responded in a bad way.

“It is difficult to start pointing fingers,” said Silva, responding to what was said by the commander of the Metropolitan Police, Jesús de los Reyes, who in his statements blamed Lora directly for provoking the fight.

Silva said that Ronaldo Lora himself approached him in the concentration to apologizeunderstanding the damage that everything that happened could cause.

However, the coach assured that he preferred not to talk about it at that time. “I told him to wait for the night to pass and talk calmly the next day, because nothing was clear, and in the heat he would not give a correct explanation,” he detailed.

(You may be interested: Families will receive millionaire compensation and withdraw charges against Vives)

short-term measures

We belong to a company that has internal regulations to which we all adhere

In any case, Carlos Silva is aware that the behavior of Lora and several of his directed will bring disciplinary repercussions inside the club.

“We belong to a company that has internal regulations that we all adhere to; I am the head of a dependency, but the company’s regulations take precedence over everything. We’ll see what happens,” said the coach.

He also knows that there will be measures by the national soccer entities and the disciplinary commission. To which he agrees, because “the most important thing is that an embarrassing act of this nature does not happen again.”

On the possibility that this friction between players and fans affects the union performance In the following games, Magdalena specified that “the team has a clear goal, which is to stay in the category this season and we have to focus on that.”

He also stressed that “at the end of the day, football is evaluated by what happens on the pitch and there you always have to give maximum performance.”

Roger Urieles
For THE WEATHER Santa Marta
@rogeruv

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US Defense Secretary in Brussels for High Stakes NATO Talks

With Russia poised to invade Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is in Belgium for two days of talks with NATO leadership and allied defense ministers. Tens of thousands of Russian troops surrounded Ukraine from the north, south and east. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has more from Brussels.

US Defense Chief Austin in Brussels for High Stakes NATO Talks

Brussels, Belgium — 

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has arrived in Brussels for talks with NATO leadership and allied defense ministers, as tens of thousands of Russian troops have surrounded Ukraine from the north, south and east.

During the gathering on Wednesday and Thursday, Austin and his counterparts will discuss how to deter Russia from invading Ukraine while shoring up defenses on the alliance’s eastern flank.

“This really is a decisive moment for NATO, the likes of which we have not really seen potentially since NATO was established in 1949,” said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “This is where American leadership in NATO matters,” he told VOA.

The “underlying message” from NATO and the United States will be to protect the international rules-based order by calling out “egregious attempts to undermine the rule of law” and “upholding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states,” according to a senior defense official.

“We cannot allow an adversary to try to redraw borders by force without facing significant consequences,” the official added.

Austin will then travel to NATO members Poland and Lithuania, Russian neighbors that have watched the developments surrounding Ukraine with increasing concern.

While in Poland on Friday, Austin will meet with President Andrzej Duda before visiting U.S. troops. The United States will soon have about 9,000 troops in Poland after President Joe Biden earlier this month ordered nearly 5,000 additional troops to deploy there, citing security concerns due to Russia’s recent moves.

U.S. troops of the 82nd Airborne Division recently deployed to Poland because of the Russia-Ukraine tensions are setting up camp at a military airport in Mielec, southeastern Poland, Feb. 12, 2022.

In Lithuania, Austin will meet with President Gitanas Nauseda and host a meeting with that country’s defense minister along with those from Estonia and Latvia.

President Joe Biden said Tuesday Russia has 150,000 troops surrounding Ukraine, including in Belarus to the north, the illegally annexed Crimea region to the south, and along the Russian border with Ukraine to the east. Russian ships are also exercising nearby in the Black Sea, which prompted a formal protest from Ukraine’s foreign ministry.

“I think of a boa constrictor that is squeezing Ukraine to force the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky to blink, to make some giant concession,” retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, who once commanded U.S. Army forces in Europe, told VOA.

Russia’s defense ministry announced Tuesday that some military units would pull back to their bases, a claim that Biden said the U.S. had not yet verified.

Russian tanks of the Western Military District units return to their permanent deployment sites, in an unknown location in Russia, in this still image taken from a handout video released Feb. 15, 2022.

Meanwhile, Russian legislators passed proposals Tuesday calling on President Vladimir Putin to formally recognize the separatist-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine as independent states, in a move that could justify an incursion in an area it no longer recognizes as Ukraine’s territory.

The United States has pushed for a diplomatic solution to the tensions and has said it will not fight Russian forces in Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO.

The U.S. has shipped planeloads of lethal military aid to Ukraine in recent weeks, including Javelin anti-tank weapons and ammunition. A small number of U.S. troops had also trained Ukrainian soldiers through a program that started following Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, but those troops were ordered by Austin to leave Ukraine a few days ago, citing concerns that a potential Russian invasion could come at any moment.

Workers unload a shipment of military aid delivered as part of the United States of America’s security assistance to Ukraine, at the Boryspil airport, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Jan. 25, 2022.

NATO allies have made multiple attempts to get Putin to pull his troops away from Ukraine’s border and have threatened severe economic sanctions should Russian troops invade.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Moscow on Tuesday for talks with Putin. Biden called Putin on Saturday. French President Emanuel Macron spoke face to face with Putin last week.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, on the other hand, expressed his support for Putin during the heightened tensions over Moscow’s forces surrounding Ukraine.

U.S. officials and former officials have warned that an invasion of Ukraine could embolden other adversaries.

“If the United States with all of our allies, all of our partners and the combined diplomatic and economic power, cannot deter the Kremlin from … another attack on Ukraine, then I think the Chinese Communist Party leadership is not going to be terribly impressed by anything that we say about Taiwan or the South China Sea,” Hodges said.

Blinken in Australia for Security Talks

Melbourne — 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken Wednesday stressed the importance of alliances for tackling global and regional issues ahead of security talks in Australia and reinforced the Biden administration’s commitment to the region.

“What we know is that the issues that are really having an impact on folks back home, people here in Australia, and around the world – whether it’s climate, whether it’s COVID, whether it’s the impact of emerging technologies – not a single one of these issues can be effectively dealt with by any one of us acting alone,” Blinken told U.S. Mission Australia staff Thursday in Melbourne. “More than ever before, we need partnerships, we need alliances, we need coalitions of countries willing to put their efforts, their resources, their minds into tackling these problems.”

Blinken earlier participated in a town hall discussion of biomedical issues at the University of Melbourne’s law school. Officials with Moderna and Bristol-Myers Squibb, global pharmaceutical companies, also took part in the roundtable.

Blinken discussed global vaccination targets and the need for a “stronger global health security system” so the world is better prepared the “next time around.”

Earlier this week, Australia said it was reopening its borders to vaccinated international travelers on February 21. The move comes almost two years after borders were closed as part of efforts to control the spread of COVID-19.

Australia’s pandemic border closures were among the strictest in the world.

Blinken said Australia and the United States have been “leaders together” in fighting COVID-19.

He later tweeted that the University of Melbourne “held deep meaning to my late stepfather, Samuel Pisar, who was a proud alumnus.”

On Friday, Blinken will meet with leaders of the Quad countries, the United States, Australia, Japan and India.

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne, who will host the meeting, said Wednesday the gathering sends a message to China that security in the region remains a priority for the United States.

Payne said the Quad ministers were “voting with their feet in terms of the priority that they accord to issues” important to the Indo-Pacific. Payne said the ministers would also focus on regional coronavirus vaccine distribution, cyber and other technology issues, and addressing disinformation, counterterrorism and climate change.

Blinken’s visit to Australia is his first trip there after an enhanced trilateral security partnership known as AUKUS — Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States — was announced in September. The agreement includes a deal to build nuclear-propelled submarines for Australia as part of enhanced deterrence against China’s military expansion across the Indo-Pacific region.

Part of the discussions during the fourth Quad foreign ministers’ meetings in Melbourne “will relate to the challenges that China poses,” Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told VOA during a Friday phone briefing.

“The Quad is not a military alliance, but it is not lost on China that you have four democracies, all with a strong maritime presence and advanced military capabilities, concerned by the increasingly aggressive approach China takes with its neighbors,” said Charles Edel, the Australia chair of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Blinken is also expected to discuss threats presented by a growing partnership between China and Russia that was on display during Sunday’s meeting in Beijing between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the beginning of the Winter Olympics. The meeting occurred amid Russia’s military buildup along neighboring Ukraine’s borders and China’s increasingly assertive efforts to reunite Taiwan with the mainland.

In Beijing, Chinese officials have expressed wariness over the Quad and AUKUS.

In response Wednesday to a reporter’s question about the Quad members’ meeting, Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Zhao Lijian attacked American democracy while portraying Beijing as a peace seeker.

“With its so-called democracy having collapsed long ago, the U.S. is forcing other countries to accept the standards of the American democracy, drawing lines with democratic values and piecing together cliques. That is a complete betrayal of democracy,” Zhao said.

Zhao added that China “seeks peace and development, promotes cooperation, promotes the construction of an equal, open and inclusive security system in the Asia-Pacific region that does not target third countries.”

“We oppose forming exclusive cliques and setting up groups within groups, as well as creating confrontation between camps,” he said.

The top U.S. diplomat’s weeklong trip includes Fiji as well as Honolulu, Hawaii.

US Says Iran Talks Are at Urgent Point, Few Weeks Left to Complete Deal

WASHINGTON — 

The White House publicly pressured Iran on Wednesday to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement quickly, saying it will be impossible to return to the accord if a deal is not struck within weeks.

“Our talks with Iran have reached an urgent point,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, noting that the U.S. special envoy for Iran, Rob Malley, has returned to Vienna for indirect talks with Iran on both sides resuming compliance with the pact.

“A deal that addresses the core concerns of all sides is in sight, but if it’s not reached in the coming weeks Iran’s ongoing nuclear advances will make it impossible for us to return to the JCPOA,” she said, referring to the deal by the acronym for its official name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Psaki’s comments echoed those of a senior U.S. State Department official who told reporters on January 31 that “we only have a handful of weeks left” to revive the agreement.

Under the accord, Iran restricted its nuclear program to make it harder to obtain the fissile material to make a bomb, an ambition that Tehran denies. In return, the United States and other nations eased sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the deal in 2018, arguing that it had failed to stop Iran’s support for regional proxies and gave Tehran too much sanctions relief for the nuclear restrictions. He then restored U.S. sanctions, prompting Iran to begin violating the deal’s nuclear limits a year later.

Iran Nuclear Talks Set to Resume with Deal 'In Sight'

Talks to revive a deal with Iran on its contested nuclear program were set to resume on Tuesday in Vienna after both Washington and Tehran signaled their willingness to clinch an agreement as soon as possible.

The negotiations — attended by Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia and indirectly the United States — were halted at the end of last month.

The resumption of talks comes after parties in recent weeks cited progress in seeking to revive the 2015 accord that was supposed to prevent Iran from acquiring an atomic bomb, a goal it has always denied pursuing.

“A deal that addresses all sides’ core concerns is in sight, but if it is not reached in the coming weeks, Iran’s ongoing nuclear advances will make it impossible for us to return to the JCPOA,” a US State Department spokesperson said on Monday, referring to the 2015 framework agreement.

Parties have been negotiating in Vienna, with indirect US participation, since last year.

A source close to the discussions told AFP that the delegations had arrived in the Austrian capital and that the discussions were set to resume in the afternoon at the upmarket Coburg Palace hotel.

The United States, under former president Donald Trump, unilaterally withdrew from the pact in 2018 and reimposed tough economic sanctions on Iran, prompting the Islamic republic to begin pulling back from its commitments under the deal and step up its nuclear activities.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday that answers that “the United States brings… to Vienna will determine when we can reach an agreement.”

“We have made significant progress in various areas of the Vienna negotiations” including on guarantees sought by Iran that the United States would not breach the deal once again, Khatibzadeh told reporters.

‘Decisive moment’

Experts say the Iranians have deviated so much from the restrictions of the 2015 deal that they are only weeks away from having enough fissile material to make an atomic weapon.

Washington has sought direct negotiations in this home stretch, but said talks remain indirect at Iran’s request.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called it “the decisive moment” in an interview with the Washington Post published on Monday.

“We gave them a clear message that now this is the time for decisions and for progress, and not for prolonging the process,” he said. “We hope that they will use the chance.”

“We are five minutes away from the finish line,” Russian negotiator Mikhail Ulyanov said in an interview to the Russian daily Kommersant.

“A draft of the final document has been crafted. There are several points there that need more work, but that document is already on the table,” he continued.

On Friday, Washington made a gesture by announcing it was waiving sanctions on Iran’s civil nuclear program, a technical step necessary to return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.

The waiver allows other countries and companies to participate in Iran’s civil nuclear program without triggering US sanctions, in the name of promoting safety and non-proliferation.

The move “should facilitate technical discussions necessary to support talks on JCPOA return in Vienna,” negotiators of Britain, France and Germany said in a joint statement Saturday.

For Iran, though, the move fell short.

“Continuing maximum pressure against #Iran, current US administration has so far tried to meet the goals that Trump failed to achieve through bullying, by making unsupported promises.

“With this Washington’s illusions, the path to negotiations will not be smooth” Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said in a tweet written in English on Tuesday.

Macron Visits Kyiv, Says Putin Talks Prevented Escalation of Crisis

Washington — 

Fresh off a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron traveled to Kyiv for talks Tuesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as leaders and diplomats work to deescalate tensions along the Ukraine-Russia border.

Macron told reporters Tuesday that in his discussion with Putin, he met his objective of preventing escalation of the crisis.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted Monday that his country seeks “diplomatic solutions, but won’t cross Ukraine’s red lines.”

He said Ukraine will not make any concessions on its sovereignty or territorial integrity, will not hold direct negotiations with “Russian occupation administrations” in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, and that only the people of Ukraine have the right to choose the country’s foreign policy course.

French President Emmanuel Macron (R) meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) in Moscow on Feb. 7, 2022, for talks in an effort to find common ground on Ukraine and NATO.

After the Monday meeting with Macron, Putin said Russia would do its best “to find compromises” in the crisis with the West over Ukraine and said, “As far as we are concerned, we will do everything to find compromises that suit everyone.”

He said there would be “no winners” if war broke out on the European continent.

Russia has deployed more than 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia and in its ally, Belarus, with the West fearing that Putin could at any time order an invasion.

France, the United States and their NATO allies have rejected Moscow’s demand that they rule out possible Ukraine membership in the Western military alliance formed after World War II.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday a crucial European gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2, will not go forward if Russia invades Ukraine, as he hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the White House.

Biden told reporters “the notion that Nord Stream 2 would go forward” in the event of an invasion by Russian tanks or troops is “just not going to happen.”

Scholz did not directly say whether Germany would cancel the pipeline project but said, “We will take all the necessary steps, and all will be done together” with the United States and other allies.

He said, “We have prepared a reaction that will help us to react swiftly if needed” in the event of a Russian invasion. He said Germany would not “spell out everything in public.”

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, running under the Baltic Sea, is designed to bring Russian natural gas to Germany. The pipeline was recently completed but is not yet operational.

The United States, among others, has viewed putting the brakes on the pipeline as part of the deterrence of a Russian attack on Ukraine, eliminating potential Russian revenue from the pipeline.

Addressing reporters Monday, Biden also urged Americans in Ukraine to leave the country, saying, “It would be wise” for them to do so.

The U.S. State Department has already said nonessential employees in Ukraine could leave the country along with family members.

At the outset of their discussions, Scholz and Biden emphasized the close relationship between their two countries. But they have taken different approaches in assisting Ukraine, with the United States sending weapons to the Kyiv government, and Germany sending 5,000 military helmets Ukraine requested, while adhering to its long-held position of not shipping arms into a conflict zone.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Monday Putin continued to add to his troop numbers along the borders with Ukraine over the weekend.

“Sizable forces continue to be added to the forces Mr. Putin has arrayed,” Kirby told reporters. “With each passing day, he gives himself a lot more options from a military perspective.”

Carla Babb contributed to this report. Some information also came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Reuters.

Israeli Leader Talks to Biden About Islamic State, Iran

Jerusalem — 

Israel’s prime minister on Sunday congratulated President Joe Biden for last week’s deadly raid in Syria that killed the leader of the Islamic State group, the Israeli premier’s office announced.

In a phone call with the president, Naftali Bennett told Biden that “the world is now a safer place thanks to the courageous operation of the U.S. forces,” his office said.

Bennett and Biden also discussed Iranian military activity across the Middle East and efforts to block Iran’s nuclear program, it said.

Israel and Iran are arch-enemies, and Israel has raised vocal concerns about U.S.-led efforts to revive the 2015 international nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

The deal unraveled after President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018. Israel objected to the initial deal and believes any attempts to restore it will not include sufficient safeguards to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability. Israel also says any deal should address Iranian military activity across the region as well as its development of long-range missiles capable of striking Israel.

Earlier Sunday, Bennett said Israel is closely watching world powers’ negotiations with Iran in Vienna, but reiterated his position that Israel is not bound by any agreement reached by them. Israel has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if it believes it is necessary to halt the country’s nuclear program. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

“Anyone who thinks such an agreement will increase stability is wrong,” Bennett told his Cabinet early Sunday. “Israel reserves its right to act in any case, with or without an agreement.

US Grants Sanctions Relief to Iran; Nuke Talks in Balance

washington — 

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.

US Talks Tough as Russian Troops Mass Near Ukraine

Will Russia invade Ukraine? While the world waits, the war of words is picking up steam, with top diplomats from the U.S. and Russia going head-to-head at the United Nations and President Joe Biden vowing that the U.S. is ready “no matter what happens.” VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington.

Time for Political Decisions as Iran Talks Enter 'Final Stretch' — US Official

WASHINGTON — 

Indirect talks between the United States and Iran on returning to the 2015 nuclear agreement are entering the “final stretch,” with all sides having to make tough political decisions, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Monday.

The latest talks in Vienna were “among the most intensive that we had to date” on returning to the deal formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which former President Donald Trump pulled out of in 2018, the official said.

“We made progress narrowing down the list of differences to just the key priorities on all sides. And that’s why now is the time for political decisions,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to brief reporters on the talks.

U.S. President Joe Biden came into office a year ago promising to re-enter the deal, but Iran has continued work on its nuclear program and a deal has remained elusive.

The official said Washington has already laid out what it was prepared to do in terms of lifting sanctions that are inconsistent with the nuclear deal and that the ball was more in Tehran’s court.

“Now is the time… for Iran to decide, whether it is prepared to make those decisions necessary for a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA.”

“We are in the final stretch,” the official added. “Given the pace of Iran’s advances, its nuclear advances, we only have a handful of weeks left to get a deal.”

In the event of no deal with Iran, the official said Washington would have to step up pressure — “economic, diplomatic and otherwise” — in the face of Tehran’s unconstrained nuclear program.

The official repeated Washington’s willingness to engage with Iran through direct talks, saying it would be very much in the interest of the process given the limited time frame but added that there was no sign that they were close to doing that.

“We have not met directly yet. We have no indication that’s going to be the case when we reconvene,” the official said.

Macron Tells Iran's Raisi Nuclear Talks Need to Speed Up

PARIS — 

French President Emmanuel Macron has told his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi that a deal lifting sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear activities is still possible but talks need to accelerate, Macron’s office said on Sunday.

France, Germany and Britain, known as the E3, and the United States are trying to save the 2015 Vienna agreement with Iran, but Western diplomats have said negotiations, which have been in their eighth round since Dec. 27, were moving too slowly.

Iran has rejected any deadline imposed by Western powers.

“The President of the Republic reiterated his conviction that a diplomatic solution is possible and imperative, and stressed that any agreement will require clear and sufficient commitments from all the parties,” the Elysee palace said in a statement after a telephone call with Raisi on Saturday.

“Several months after the resumption of negotiations in Vienna, he insisted on the need to accelerate in order to quickly achieve tangible progress in this framework,” it added.

“He underlined the need for Iran to demonstrate a constructive approach and return to the full implementation of its obligations,” it said.

Macron also asked for the immediate release of Franco-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, re-imprisoned in January, and French tourist Benjamin Briere, who was sentenced on Tuesday to eight years in prison on spying charges.

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

The psychologist Silvia Álava talks about happiness and emotional well-being

The psychologist Silvia Álava demystifies the idyllic idea of ​​happiness and instead defends emotional well-being, a more realistic and accessible concept for people

The psychologist Silvia Álava in the newsroom of the Agencia EFE/Emilio Naranjo

This is how he exposes it in his latest book “Why am I not happy?” (Ed. HarperCollins), in which he reviews what the enemies of happiness are and presents a method to increase emotional well-being.

“If we understand happiness as being happy, happy, doing satisfying things 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, we are already on the wrong path because it is completely impossible”, Silvia Álava values.

In his opinion, “the definition of happiness must be adjusted very well. Happiness is feeling calm, peace, being comfortable with ourselves, and being careful with the myths and misconceptions that have been sold to us. More than happiness, it is about achieving well-being and emotional balance”.

Can you be happy in a pandemic? We asked this expert.

“Let’s be honest and realistic: it’s harder to be happy in the middle of a pandemic. The pandemic has taken a huge toll on us emotionally and mentally, all of us, we see it from young children, adolescents, very affected, and adults.

The psychologist lists different enemies of happiness, an issue that she analyzes in a large block of chapters in the book.

Rumination, which is getting hooked going round and round on something, putting the brain in centrifuge mode; irrational ideas and automatic thoughts; social comparison; envy and jealousy; the films that we make like a film director, or the mobile phone as an emotional anesthetic.

“We have to learn to live more closely to the ground, see things from reality, there is no such thing as the country of the lollipop,” Silvia Álava points out.

Genetics, exposes the expert, has in happiness “much more weight than can be believed, for better or for worse, up to 50 percent”.

Circumstances only influence 10 percent, and there is a 40% improvement that “depends on us,” he adds.

This is where the method that the psychologist proposes to increase emotional well-being comes in. In it, tools such as flexibility, fostering resilience, making our actions and tasks flow, developing gratitude and kindness, or internalizing a sense of humor are very useful allies.

And the social networks?, we asked Silvia Álava.

“Social networks can contribute a lot for good, but also for bad. Where is the difference? In the type of use that each person makes. If you use the networks as a showcase for social comparison, it is a problem, but if it is to inform or entertain you, no problem”, he maintains.

Álava states that in order to advance emotional well-being and improve mental health, in addition to giving the population tools to know how to manage their emotions, it is necessary to “increase the ratio of psychologists in the National Health System; the ideal is that in each Primary Care center there is a psychologist who can intervene to care for the population”.

Regarding emotional well-being and happiness in the coming years, the psychologist is optimistic and hopes that, with what has been learned in the pandemic and the development of extended emotional skills in society, the 1920s will be happier than the earlier this century.