LONDON, 25 December 2021, (TON): In UK, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has condemned Iran’s use of ballistic missiles in a test launch conducted.

“We condemn Iran’s use of ballistic missiles in a test launch confirmed to have been conducted.”

The launch is a clear breach of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which requires that Iran not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology.

These actions are a threat to regional and international security and we call on Iran to immediately cease its activities.

WASHINGTON, 25 December 2021, (TON): The US Navy said “it seized a large cache of assault rifles and ammunition being smuggled by a fishing ship from Iran likely bound for war-ravaged Yemen.”

US Navy patrol ships discovered the weapons aboard what the Navy described as a stateless fishing vessel in an operation that began in the northern reaches of the Arabian Sea off Oman and Pakistan. Sailors boarded the vessel and found 1,400 Kalashnikov-style rifles and 226,600 rounds of ammunition, as well as five Yemeni crew members.

It’s just the latest interdiction amid the grinding war in Yemen that pits Iran-backed Houthi rebels against a Saudi-led military coalition.

Western nations and UN experts repeatedly have accused Iran of smuggling illicit weapons and technology into Yemen over the years, fueling the civil war and enabling the Houthis to fire missiles and drones into Saudi Arabia.

Iran denies arming the Houthis despite evidence to the contrary.

In an unusually pointed move, the statement late on Wednesday from the US Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet blamed Iran for sending the weapons, alleging the boat was sailing along a route used to traffic weapons unlawfully to the Houthis in Yemen.

MOSCOW, 25 December 2021, (TON): Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that disrespecting Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) did not count as the “expression of artistic freedom”.

He said while addressing his annual news conference “Blasphemy of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is a violation of religious freedom and the violation of the sacred feelings of people who profess Islam.”

Putin said “these acts give rise to extremist reprisals, citing as an example the attack on the editorial office of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris after it published blasphemous sketches of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).”

Putin also criticised posting photos of Nazis on websites such as the one titled the Immortal Regiment and dedicated to Russians who died in World War II.

While praising artistic freedom in general, Putin said it has its limits and it shouldn’t infringe on other freedoms.

Russia has evolved as a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state, so Russians, he said, are used to respecting each other’s traditions.

TEHRAN, 25 December 2021, (TON): At the final stage of the Great Prophet 17 joint drills of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Iranian forces successfully fired some 16 ballistic missiles.

According to sepahnews.com, Iranian forces fired simultaneously the ballistic missiles in different classes, which destroyed set targets.

The 16 ballistic missiles comprising long-range, medium-range and short-range missiles were fired by IRGC Aerospace Force.

Missiles codenamed Emad, Qadr, Sejil, Zelzal, Dezful and Zolfaqar were fired to attack assimilated positions of mock enemies, which destroyed the targets with 100 percent precision.

Concurrent with the firing of the ballistic missiles, 10 drones of the IRGC Aerospace Force targeted set goals.

Major General Hossein Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, said the planned drill was an answer to Israel’s recent “massive but pointless threats” against Iran.

OTTAWA, 25 December 2021, (TON): Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said “Canada met its target of granting 401,000 foreigners permanent residency in 2021 by focusing its efforts on temporary residents already in the country.”

Canada, which depends on immigration to drive its economy and support an ageing population, saw new permanent residents falling over 45% to 185,000 in 2020.

According to a statement from the immigration minister “the majority of the new 401,000 permanent residents - a figure reached for the first time in more than a century - were already in Canada on temporary status.”

Fraser said "last year, we set an ambitious goal. Today, we achieved it.”

Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government has relied on immigration to boost the Canadian economy since coming to power in 2015, setting an annual target of about 1% of the country's population of nearly 38 million.

TEHRAN, 25 December 2021, (TON): Officials said “three Iranian diplomats have received visas from rival Saudi Arabia allowing them to take up posts at the headquarters of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah.”

Iran and Saudi Arabia, both members of the pan-Islamic body, have held several rounds of talks since April aimed at improving relations.

In 2016, the kingdom's execution of revered Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr saw protesters attack Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.

Riyadh responded at the time by cutting ties with Tehran, while OIC foreign ministers condemned the violence.

Riyadh and Tehran support opposite sides in several conflict zones across the region, but Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and officials in Saudi Arabia confirmed visas had been approved for the diplomats.

A Saudi foreign ministry official said "Saudi Arabia has agreed to grant visas to three Iranian diplomats as part of a routine procedure for representatives of a member state of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).”

KABUL, 25 December 2021, (TON): The Islamic Emirate warned that it would punish individuals who illegally extract resources from mines for sale in foreign countries.

Acting Minister of Mines and Petroleum Shahabuddin Delawar said “there are reports about the illegal extraction from mines in several parts of the country.”

“If they (who are smuggling the mines) are captured, their machines will be seized, they will be sent to Bagram or Pole Charkhi prisons and they will be strongly punished,” Delawar told the business owners who gathered to bid on a contract to mine in the eastern province of Nangarhar. At least 15 companies attended to compete for the contract of the nephrite mine.

Delawar said that the government would cancel the contract of the company tried to extract more nephrite than is determined in the contract.

He said “don’t try to steal even 1kg, otherwise the work will be stopped, and you will be punished. The extraction of the mines will be evaluated. Our intelligence will be watching you.”

The Goshta Nephrite Company was announced the winner of the contract.

“A bank statement of six million Afs is needed. Many companies don’t have it,” said Fazal Bari Baloch, an official of the Mines and Petroleum Ministry.

NEW DELHI, 25 December 2021, (TON): Indian police said they have launched an investigation into an event where Hindu hardliners called for mass killings of minority Muslims.

According to a video verified as genuine by media “a speaker at the gathering earlier this month told the crowd that people should not worry about going to jail for killing Muslims.”

The woman said "even if just a hundred of us become soldiers and kill two million of them, we will be victorious... If you stand with this attitude only then will you able to protect sanatana dharma (an absolute form of Hinduism).”

The meeting in the northern holy city of Haridwar was attended by at least one member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The party stands accused of, but denies, encouraging the persecution of Muslims and other minorities by hardline Hindu nationalists since coming to power in 2014.

Prominent Muslim MP Asaduddin Owaisi tweeted that the comments in the video were a "clear case of incitement to genocide".

Modi's government has not commented on the event.

NEW DELHI, 25 December 2021, (TON): A MIG-21 Bison fighter jet of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed in Jaisalmar, Rajasthan late on Friday evening. The pilot Wing Commander Harshit Sinha was killed in the accident.

The IAF said on social media “this evening, around 8:30 pm, a MiG-21 aircraft of IAF met with a flying accident in the western sector during a training sortie.”

It stated “with deep sorrow, IAF conveys the sad demise of Wg Cdr Harshit Sinha in the flying accident this evening and stands firmly with the family of the braveheart.”

The IAF added “an inquiry is being ordered.”

DHAKA, 25 December 2021, (TON): The envoy said “one needs to go beyond “symbolic gestures” in international relations and the two countries really need to base relations on mutual interests.

Turkish Ambassador to Bangladesh Mustafa Osman Turan has said Bangladesh and Turkey are looking to a “brighter future” with vast areas of cooperation and there is a room for the two countries to make their own influence for the betterment of international relations.

While delivering his keynote speech at Cosmos Dialogue held virtually, the Turkish envoy said they are actually collaborating with all the great powers that are pursuing certain policies but they have no attachment to any of the sides.

Ambassador Turan said “so, I think that provides us with a neutral position and a reliable partnership possibility with Bangladesh. And I’m particularly pleased to see the benefits of this position in our defence cooperation.”