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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David Byrd reporting. Major Western powers say they are united in their approach to talks on Iran's nuclear program and [will not when] will reject any agreement that does not meet their demands.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in a joint statement after meeting with his counterparts from France, Germany and the United States that substantial progress had been made in talks with Tehran. However, he said there are still key areas where the agreement has not been reached. "We are determined to go forward in a spirit of unity of purpose over the next few days to work with the Russians and the Chinese and the Iranians to try to achieve an agreement which establishes the exclusively peaceful use of nuclear power in Iran and allows the world to be reassured of Iran's intentions." The six world powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- are trying to reach a deal with Iran over its nuclear program by the end of the month. Western powers want to prevent Tehran from building a nuclear weapon. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only and wants crippling sanctions removed. Yemeni officials said Saturday that the United States was pulling its remaining forces out of Yemen one day after suicide bombers killed at least 137 people at two mosques in the rebel-controlled capital. The U.S. military has not confirmed that announcement. Meanwhile, Yemen's President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has called on Shiite Houthi rebels to leave the government ministries they have occupied and return to national dialogue talks. This is VOA news. Imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan has called for an end to decades of fighting by his Kurdish rebel group, the PKK. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, the call was made in a letter to Kurds celebrating the new year in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds gathered in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast, to celebrate Nowruz and hear from the imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan. In a letter read by parliamentary deputy Sirri Sureyya Onder of the pro-Kurdish HDP, Ocalan called for an end to the armed struggle by his PKK rebel group. "We find it necessary for the PKK to convene a congress to end the 40-year-long armed struggle against the Turkish Republic and adapt itself to the spirit of a new era," he said. Dorian Jones of VOA news, Istanbul. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden telephoned Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani on Saturday to express condolences for the beheadings of three Kurdish fighters by Islamic State last week. The White House says that both agreed that such unconscionable acts of brutality reflect ISIL's true nature and reinforce their collective resolve to defeat the group. Barzani promised to avenge the deaths. He wrote in an online statement that those who martyr the peshmerga in this way before, now, and in the future will see how the hand of the heroic peshmerga will reach them. Islamic State posted an Internet video Friday showing people it says were wounded by Kurdish rocket fire. It then showed three Kurdish fighters being beheaded at one time. The number of asylum applicants to European Union member states increased by 44 percent in 2014, reaching 626,000 in total. Syrian refugees topped the chart, rising to 122,800 from 50,000 in 2013. Afghani immigrants were the second largest group. Kosovo came in third. The data on asylum-seekers published in a report issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, showed that 191,000 more people applied for [European] asylum in European countries in 2014 than in the previous year. And U.S. President Barack Obama used his weekly media address to call on congressional Republicans to confirm Loretta Lynch, his nominee for attorney general. For more, log on to our website. I'm David Byrd in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |