White House senior adviser Jared Kushner will travel to Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week amid rising tensions following the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist near Tehran by unknown attackers.

A White House official said on November 29 that Kushner is to meet separately with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Saudi city of Neom and with the emir of Qatar in that small Persian Gulf nation.

The statement said Kushner -- who is also President Donald Trump’s son-in-law -- will be accompanied by Middle East envoys Avi Berkowitz and Brian Hook. Adam Boehler, chief of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, will join them.

Kushner and his team have been instrumental in negotiating normalization deals between Israel and Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), and Sudan since the start of the summer.

U.S. administration officials said the team is attempting to reach further such deals before Trump’s term is set to end on January 20, 2021.

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia is a bitter rival of Shi’ite-led Iran as two nations battle for influence in the Middle East.

Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in an ambush near Tehran on November 27, in a brazen attack that threatens to escalate tensions between Iran and the United States and its close ally Israel.

Iranian President Hassan Rohani on November 28 accused Israel of acting as a “mercenary” for the United States in connection with the assassination. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which many saw as an attempt to slow Iran's progress toward developing nuclear weapons.

With reporting by Reuters and Axios

The head of one of Hungary's premier cultural institutions, the Petofi Literary Museum in Budapest, has retracted an article in which he likened U.S. billionaire philanthropist George Soros to Adolf Hitler’s genocidal Nazi regime.

Szilard Demeter, who is also a Hungarian culture commissioner, said in a statement on November 29 that he had withdrawn the article and deleted his Facebook page.

"My critics are right in that...the Nazi parallel can unintentionally offend victims' memories," he said.

Demeter's article, an opinion piece for the Internet portal Origo.hu, a Hungarian pro-government outlet, was widely criticized by Jewish and Holocaust memorial groups.

The criticism continued on November 29 as leading opposition politicians, including former Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai and Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony, called on Prime Minister Viktor Orban to fire Demeter immediately.

"His man, his cultural politician, wanted to establish his Europe politics, his shame," Karacsony said on Facebook. "Szilárd Demeter can no longer wear any public office from 8 am. The Prime Minister has a few hours left."

Demeter's article referred to Soros as the "liberal Führer," saying he is turning Europe into a "gas chamber."

The American Jewish Committee in Central Europe condemned the comments about Soros, who was born in Hungary and is a Holocaust survivor, describing them as "horrendous."

"Such ignorance of history and minimizing the Holocaust have to be called out," the organization said on Twitter.

In the article, which addressed a dispute with Brussels over the EU budget, Demeter described Hungary and Poland as "the new Jews."

"Poisonous gas flows from the capsule of a multicultural open society, which is deadly to the European way of life, and we, the nations of Europe, are doomed to try to fight for the last sip of air by climbing on each other," he wrote.

Orban has repeatedly taken aim at Soros for his foundation's funding of liberal causes. He accuses Soros, a bête noire of the European right, of wanting to flood the continent with Muslim migrants and undermine national identity.

Hungary and Poland are holding up negotiations over the EU’s multiyear budget due to a new rule-of-law mechanism.

Both countries are under EU investigation for undermining the independence of the judiciary, media, and nongovernmental organizations, and they risk losing access to EU funding over the new mechanism.

Demeter’s statement was also condemned by the International Auschwitz Committee.

"Not only in Hungary are Holocaust survivors disgusted and appalled by this bizarre and hateful agitation," said Executive Vice President Christoph Heubner.

He said the vitriol signified a new low in a wave of anti-Semitic and anti-European campaigns in Hungary.

The Israeli Embassy in Hungary said in a statement that it rejected the "use and abuse" of the memory of the Holocaust for any purpose.

"There is no place for connecting the worst crime in human history, or its perpetrators, to any contemporary debate, no matter how essential," it said.

With reporting by dpa, Reuters, and AP

Serbia has revoked its decision to expel Montenegro's ambassador a day after declaring the envoy persona non grata in a tit-for-tat move.

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic announced the decision on November 29 after a meeting with President Aleksandar Vucic and after consulting Montenegrin Serbs, according to RFE/RL’s Balkan Service.

"We decided that Serbia already tonight unilaterally revokes the decision on expelling Montenegro's ambassador," Brnabic told reporters. “Good relations with Montenegro are above all important to us.”

She expressed hope that the move would be interpreted in Podgorica as an act of goodwill and that Serbia would continue to build relations with Montenegro.

“We are once again extending a hand of cooperation and friendship,” Brnabic said.

Serbia declared Montenegro's ambassador persona non grata and ordered him expelled from the country on November 28 after Montenegro declared Serbia's envoy persona non grata and expelled him.

Vucic said Serbia "made a good move," adding that it is up to Serbia to show that it "wants the best and brotherly relations" with Montenegro.

Montenegrin Prime Minister-designate Zdravko Krivokapic earlier on November 29 criticized the outgoing government's decision to expel the Serbian ambassador just days before the planned inauguration of a new, pro-Serb cabinet.

Krivokapic said on November 29 on Twitter that he regretted the expulsion, announced on November 28, of Serbian Ambassador to Montenegro Vladimir Bozovic.

“Such acts are not in the spirit of the European path and good regional cooperation of friendly countries,” Zdravko Krivokapic tweeted. He lamented that the outgoing regime, even in its last days, did not "shy away from the polarization of society and the deepening of divisions."

The Montenegrin Foreign Ministry cited "long and continuous meddling in the internal affairs of Montenegro" as the reason for declaring Bozovic persona non grata and expelling him.

SEE ALSO:

Montenegro. Serbia Expel Each Other's Ambassadors

Montenegro remains deeply divided among people seeking closer ties with traditional allies Serbia and Russia, and those who view Montenegro as an independent state allied with the West.

Montenegro and Serbia were part of a joint country before an independence referendum in 2006 led to Montenegro splitting off.

The country is now set to be led by a pro-Serb coalition that is to be voted into office during a parliament session next week following the defeat of the long-ruling pro-Western Democratic Party of Socialists in August.

The coalition’s most powerful party is the Democratic Front (DF), which seeks closer ties with Serbia and Russia and is backed by the Serbian Orthodox Church. Its partners, however, insist that Montenegro remain on its pro-Western course.

Krivokapic said the new government would work to improve Montenegro’s relations with Serbia.

"We will promote a truly good neighborly policy with Belgrade, as well as with everyone in the region, on the principle of sovereignty, independence and noninterference in the internal affairs of other countries," Krivokapic tweeted.

With reporting by AP and AFP

MINSK -- Authorities in Belarus have detained more than 300 protesters amid ongoing demonstrations aimed at ousting strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka from the presidency.

Most of the people reported detained were taken into custody in Minsk, but there also were detentions in Brest, Hrodno, Barauliany, and other cities, according to the Vyasna human rights group.

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This is the second week in which the Belarus demonstrations have been held under the rubric March of Neighbors. The opposition has adopted the strategy as a way of decentralizing the protests and making it more difficult for police to round up activists.

"Neighbor for neighbor against dictatorship," read one protest banner in Minsk. Others expressed negative sentiments toward Lukashenka, who has ruled the country since 1994.

SEE ALSO:

Hundreds Detained Despite New Tack By Anti-Government Protesters In Belarus

RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported that law enforcement used tear gas and stun grenades against some demonstrators. Mobile Internet services were not available in Minsk and the central metro stations were closed.

Demonstrations were reported in almost all districts of the capital.

One video posted on social media appeared to show police in Minsk dragging away an unconscious person near the Pushkin metro station.

It was unclear how many people participated in the demonstrations.

Belarus has seen nearly continuous protests since a disputed presidential election on August 9 gave Lukashenka a sixth presidential term. The United States and the European Union have not recognized Lukashenka’s reelection.

The opposition, which believes candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya was the real winner of the election, has been calling for Lukashenka’s resignation, the release of all political prisoners, and a new presidential vote.

Tsikhanouskaya, who left the country soon after the August election under pressure from the authorities and is currently in exile in Lithuania, extended her support to the protesters.

"Every week the regime claims that the protests are subsiding," she said on November 29 on Twitter. "Every week the regime sends its forces with tear gas, stun grenades to beat & scare the Belarusian people. Yet they gather every week to protest peacefully against Lukashenka's regime."

The tweet included a video of people streaming through a park.

During a visit to a Minsk hospital on November 27, Lukashenka implied that he would resign if a new constitution was adopted.

“I will not work as president with you under the new constitution,” state media quoted him as saying.

Lukashenka has called several times for a new constitution, but the opposition has dismissed the statements as a bid to buy time and stay in power.

A former collective farm manager, Lukashenka, 66, has ruled Belarus since 1994.

A former associate of President Donald Trump's election campaign who was the target of a secret surveillance warrant during the FBI's Russia investigation has filed a lawsuit saying he was the victim of illegal spying.

The suit filed by Carter Page alleges that FBI and Justice Department officials made a series of errors and omissions in their applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA), which granted requests to eavesdrop on Page on suspicion that he was an agent of Russia.

“Since not a single proven fact ever established complicity with Russia involving Dr. Page, there never was probable cause to seek or obtain the FISA Warrants targeting him on this basis,” the lawsuit says.

FBI and Justice Department officials who were involved in signing off on the surveillance have since testified they wouldn't have done so had they known the extent of the alleged errors and omissions.

In the lawsuit, filed on November 27 in Washington, Page accuses the FBI of relying excessively on Christopher Steele, a former British spy whose so-called dossier alleged that Page and other Trump allies colluded with Russia.

The research, which became public during the 2016 presidential campaign, looked into Trump's ties to Russia and was funded by Democrats.

Page’s lawsuit says the FBI failed to tell the surveillance court that Steele's primary source had contradicted information attributed to Page.

It says the FBI also failed to tell the court that Page had denied to an FBI informant having "any involvement with Russia on behalf of the Trump campaign."

A lawsuit Page filed earlier against the Democratic National Committee over the dossier was dismissed in August by a federal judge in Chicago on technical grounds.

Based on reporting by AP

An unnamed Uzbek government source has said that Uzbekistan plans to repatriate another group of its citizens from a camp for families of Islamic State fighters in Syria, Reuters reported on November 29.

An Uzbek delegation has visited two camps in the Kurdish-controlled part of Syria and spoken with about 100 Uzbek citizens – mostly women and children – about returning to Uzbekistan.

The source told Reuters that the Uzbeks are living "in deplorable conditions and have difficulties with access to drinking water, food, and medical care."

The United Nations estimates there are about 65,000 people at the Al-Hol camp, including 28,000 Syrians, 30,000 Iraqis, and about 10,000 foreigners of other nationalities.

Uzbekistan repatriated about 220 women and children from Syria last year as part of a rehabilitation program.

Based on reporting by Reuters

Russian police have fined more than 1 million people for violating COVID-19 restrictions since the beginning of the pandemic, the Interior Ministry said.

"Law enforcement officers filed over 1.1 million administrative offense protocols over noncompliance with regimes of heightened readiness, quarantine, or self-isolation," the Interior Ministry told the TASS news agency on November 28.

Most infractions -- more than 976,000 people -- were for violating health protocols during an emergency. Under this article, the minimum fine is 1,000 rubles ($13).

Russia has the world’s fourth highest number of confirmed infections at more than 2.2 million, as well as 39,000 deaths linked to the virus. Real metrics are believed to be higher.

Despite spiking caseloads straining hospitals in recent weeks, authorities have refrained from reintroducing lockdown measures or closing businesses as elsewhere in Europe. Instead, Russian regions have decided on their own coronavirus-related restrictions.

In October, the government issued a nationwide mask mandate in crowded public areas.

With reporting by TASS

Construction on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany will resume in early December after a one-year pause due to U.S. sanctions.

The company Nord Stream 2 AG said on November 28 that undersea pipe-laying work will resume on a 2.6-kilometer section of each of the gas pipeline's branches within Germany’s exclusive economic zone.

German broadcaster NDR 1 Radio MV reported that construction will resume on December 5, citing an announcement by the Baltic Sea Waterways and Shipping Office in Stralsund.

In December 2019, construction on Nord Stream 2 was suspended following U.S. sanctions on the project, which will double Russian natural gas deliveries to Germany.

The sanctions targeted any vessel building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, forcing Switzerland-based pipe-laying company Allseas to suspend operations shortly before its completion.

The U.S. Congress is considering another bill that would widen the scope of sanctions to include any individual or entity providing insurance, technical certification, or welding services for the project.

It is unclear what pipe-laying ship will be involved in finishing Nord Stream 2, which still has 16 kilometers left in German waters and another 60 kilometers in the Danish section to be completed.

The pipe-laying vessel Akademik Cherskiy was expected to finish the gas pipeline, but according to Marine Traffic tracking services the Russian-flagged ship left the German project hub of Mukran and is off the coast of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

According to NDR 1 Radio MV, it is unclear if the vessel has received the required certification from the Danish government. The Norwegian certifier already announced a partial withdrawal from the project related to any ships, but not the pipeline itself.

Meanwhile, the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where the pipeline ends, reportedly decided this week to create a public trust under the control of the state premier's office to protect companies working on Nord Stream 2 from U.S. sanctions.

Citing insiders, NDR 1 Radio MV said top officials consider the special vehicle a “clever legal gimmick” to skirt around U.S. sanctions.

Sanctions against Nord Stream 2 have been a source of friction in U.S.-German relations, with Berlin accusing Washington of applying extraterritorial restrictions on a sovereign project.

The U.S. government wants to prevent the pipeline from being completed, saying it will strengthen Russia’s energy hold on Europe and undercut Ukraine’s role as a transit country for Russian gas.

Nord Stream 2 is a $10 billion project led by Russian gas giant Gazprom, with half of the funding provided by Germany’s Uniper and BASF’s Wintershall, Anglo-Dutch oil major Shell, Austria’s OMV and Engie.

Russia initially expected to complete the pipeline in early 2020. After the sanctions on vessels were passed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hoped the pipeline would be completed by early 2021.

With reporting by dpa and NDR 1 Radio MV

Montenegro's outgoing government has declared the ambassador of neighboring Serbia persona non grata and asked him to leave the country, the Foreign Ministry said on November 28.

Serbia responded a few hours later by declaring Montenegro's ambassador persona non grata and expelling him from the country.

The Montenegrin Foreign Ministry cited "long and continuous meddling in the internal affairs of Montenegro" as the reason.

The Foreign Ministry's statement said Serbian Ambassador Vladimir Bozovic “directly disrespected” Montenegro by describing a 1918 decision to join a Serbia-dominated kingdom as an act “liberation” and “free will” by the Montenegrin people.

Montenegro's parliament declared the century-old decision void in 2018, saying it had stripped Montenegro of its sovereignty.

The statement said Bozovic’s comments on November 27 were “incompatible with the usual acceptable standards of diplomatic office.”

Serbia’s Foreign Ministry announced its tit-for-tat response in a statement.

"On the occasion of declaring the Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia to Montenegro, Vladimir Bozovic, a persona non grata, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia acted in a reciprocal manner," the ministry statement said.

State-run media reported that Montenegrin Ambassador Tarzan Milosevic was asked to leave Serbia within 72 hours.

Montenegro remains deeply divided among those seeking closer ties with traditional allies Serbia and Russia, and those who view Montenegro as an independent state allied with the West.

Montenegro and Serbia were part of a joint country before an independence referendum in 2006 led to Montenegro splitting off.

The pro-Western Democratic Party of Socialists was defeated in August after three decades in power by a pro-Serb coalition. The new government is set to be voted into office during a parliament session next week.

With reporting by AP

Iran has said it will not recognize any verdict in a trial in Belgium against an Iranian diplomat who is charged with plotting to bomb an exiled opposition group's rally two years ago.

The diplomat, Assadolah Assadi, and three other Iranians went on trial in Antwerp on November 27 accused of planning to bomb the rally in France in 2018.

"We have announced many times and from the beginning that this court is not qualified, and that the judicial process is not legitimate due to (Assadi's) diplomatic immunity and fundamental issues," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying.

"He is innocent and it is clear he has been conspired against," Khatibzadeh said on November 27, emphasizing that Iran "will not recognize" a verdict.

Assadi, formerly based in Vienna, faces 20 years in prison if convicted. His trial is the first by an EU country against an Iranian official for terrorism.

Belgian prosecutors accuse Assadi and the others of plotting an attack on a rally of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

The trial has the potential to embarrass Iran and strain ties with European countries, which have blamed Iranian intelligence for being behind the foiled bombing, a charge the Islamic republic has furiously denied.

Assadi, who was arrested while on holiday in Germany and handed over to Belgium, is refusing to appear in court and did not attend the first day of the trial. He has not commented on the charges.

His lawyer, Dimitri de Beco, told reporters that while he has "the fullest respect" for the judges, he considers himself immune from prosecution.

Iran has repeatedly dismissed the charges, saying the allegations by the NCRI, which Tehran considers a terrorist group, are false.

The NCRI is the political wing of the exiled Iranian opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an exiled opposition group that is seeking to overthrow the Islamic republic.

The 2018 rally's keynote address was given by Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City who now serves as U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer.

The United States considered the MEK a terrorist group until 2012. Its designation was removed following a lobbying campaign and pledges to end its violent militancy. Giuliani is among those who lobbied on its behalf.

The attack on the rally was thwarted by a coordinated operation between French, German, and Belgian security services, authorities in the three countries have said.

French officials have said Assadi was in charge of intelligence in southern Europe and was acting on orders from Tehran.

Two of Assadi's suspected accomplices were arrested in Belgium in possession of explosives and a detonator. Their lawyers said on November 27 that neither had any intention to kill.

Lawyers representing participants in the 2018 rally, who are a civil party to the Belgian prosecution, have argued that diplomatic immunity cannot be used as a cover to carry out a terrorist attack, which carries a maximum 20-year prison term.

European countries have blamed Iran for other suspected moves against dissidents, including two killings in the Netherlands in 2015 and 2017 and a foiled assassination in Denmark. Tehran has denied involvement.

With reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, and Reuters

Four Azerbaijani civilians were killed on November 28 when their car triggered an anti-tank mine in a region that was taken by Azerbaijan during recent fighting with Armenian forces.

The Azerbaijani Prosecutor-General’s Office said the blast took place a village in the Fizuli region, one of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlements that Azerbaijan said earlier it had taken control of.

A statement issued by the Prosecutor-General’s Office said an investigation has been launched.

Neither Armenian nor Nagorno-Karabakh officials have commented.

Azerbaijan recaptured Fizuli in renewed clashes over Nagorno-Karabakh that started in late September and continued for six weeks.

A Moscow-brokered truce signed earlier this month ended weeks of heavy fighting. Under the agreement, Armenia is ceding control of parts of the enclave's territory as well as seven surrounding districts of Azerbaijan it held since the 1990s.

The Armenian separatists are retaining control over most of Nagorno-Karabakh's territory, and some 2,000 Russian peacekeepers have been deployed along frontline areas and to protect a land link connecting Karabakh with Armenia.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Azerbaijani and Armenian services, AFP, and AP

In Russia, one of the developers of the Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine has announced that the Indian-based pharmaceutical company Hetero would produce over 100 million doses of the jab. India is one of the world's largest vaccine manufacturers.

Russia was the first country to approve a coronavirus vaccine in August, long before the candidate had undergone large-scale clinical trials.

Moscow said this week that interim results showed Sputnik-V was 95 percent effective, although Phase III trials are still underway.

The Russian military said President Vladimir Putin has ordered the mass inoculation of 400,000 servicemen.

Besides Sputnik-V, nearly a dozen vaccines worldwide are currently undergoing late-stage trials to determine their safety and effectiveness, according to the World Health Organization.

Critics have argued that the development of Russia’s vaccine -- which received approval before undergoing Phase III trials -- was expedited for political reasons to assure the country’s victory in the global race.

In particular, Russia has been criticized by some Western scientists who have accused it of cutting corners in an effort to try to rush out the vaccine and complained about the amount of data available to allow others to interpret its research.

It's also a race Russia wants to win at home. The country has the world's fifth-highest number of recorded COVID-19 cases at 2.14 million, including 24,326 new infections on November 23 alone.

With reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, and Reuters

Iran’s supreme leader has called for retaliation for the assassination of the country’s top nuclear scientist, raising concerns about a new confrontation between Iran and Israel or the United States.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for “following up on this crime and certainly punishing those responsible,” in a post on his official website on November 28.

Khamenei also pledged that the work of the scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, would continue.

The same day, Iranian President Hassan Rohani accused Israel of acting as a “mercenary” for the United States in connection with the killing of Iran’s leading nuclear expert.

"Once again, the wicked hands of the global arrogance, with the usurper Zionist regime as the mercenary, were stained with the blood of a son of this nation," Rohani wrote on his official website on November 28.

"The global arrogance" is a term often used by Iranian officials to refer to the United States, while "the usurper Zionist regime" is a reference to Israel.

Rohani also promised a response "in due time."

Turkey condemned the killing of Fakhrizadeh as a "heinous assassination" and called for the perpetrators of the attack to be held accountable. The Turkish Foreign Ministry also urged "all sides to act with common sense and restraint."

The United Nations also urged restraint amid the rising tensions. A UN spokesman said there was a need for the parties "to avoid any actions that could lead to an escalation of tensions in the region." The spokesman added that the UN condemns "any assassination or extrajudicial killing."

Israel’s N12 news agency quoted Israeli cabinet minister Tzachi Hanegbi as saying he did not know who carried out the killing.

N12 also reported that the government had placed all its embassies around the world on high security alert in the wake of Iran’s statement. Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in an ambush near Tehran in a brazen attack that threatens to escalate tensions between Iran and the United States and its close ally Israel.

SEE ALSO:

Killing Of Iranian Nuclear Scientist Risks Conflict, Complicates Diplomacy For Biden

The head of Iran’s nuclear agency, Ali-Akbar Salehi, vowed on November 28 that Fakhrizadeh’s killing would not impair Iran’s nuclear program.

"Fakhrizadeh’s path is now being continued even more intensively," Salehi was quoted by Iranian media as saying.

The New York Times, citing one U.S. official and two other intelligence officials, said Israel was behind the attack on the scientist, although it wasn’t clear what, if any, knowledge the United States may have had about the operation.

The Pentagon, White House, State Department, and CIA have declined to comment.

The United States deployed the U.S. aircraft carrier Nimitz with accompanying ships to the Gulf on November 25, but a U.S. Navy spokeswoman said the deployment was not related to any threats.

"There were no specific threats that triggered the return of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group," naval commander Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the U.S. 5th Fleet said in a statement quoted by AFP.

Israel has long been suspected of carrying out a series of targeted killings of Iranian nuclear scientists and other sabotage operations against Iran using operatives of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an exiled opposition group.

The killing of Fakhrizadeh, who Western intelligence services regarded as the shadowy mastermind behind Iran's past covert nuclear weapons program, may undermine U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s goal of reviving diplomacy with Iran when he enters the White House in January.

Biden has said he will try to rejoin the Iran nuclear accord that Trump quit in 2018 and work with allies to strengthen its terms, if Tehran first resumes compliance.

Fakhrizadeh led Iran's so-called Amad program that Israel and the West say was a military operation assessing the feasibility of building a nuclear weapon. Tehran long has maintained its nuclear program is peaceful.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says that Amad program ended in 2003. IAEA inspectors currently monitor Iranian nuclear sites as part of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which Iran has gradually breached following the U.S. withdrawal.

With reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, and Reuters.

Iran's top nuclear scientist was assassinated in an ambush near Tehran on November 27, in a brazen attack that threatens to escalate tensions between Iran and the United States and its close ally Israel.

The killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who Western intelligence services regarded as the shadowy mastermind behind Iran's past covert nuclear weapons program, may also undermine U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s goal of reviving diplomacy with Iran when he enters the White House in January.

Iran immediately blamed Israel for the assassination, while suggesting the United States also had an indirect or direct role.

The assassination occurred when a truck with explosives hidden under a load of wood blew up near a car carrying Fakhrizadeh in the town of Absard, near Tehran, Iranian state media reported. As Fakhrizadeh's sedan stopped, at least five gunmen raked the car with rapid fire and engaged in a gunfight with the scientist’s bodyguards.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif claimed there were "serious indications of (an) Israeli role" in the assassination.

"Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice -- with serious indications of Israeli role -- shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators," Zarif wrote on Twitter.

He also called on the European Union to "end their shameful double standards and condemn this act of state terror."

Israel declined to immediately comment on the killing of Fakhrizadeh. The Pentagon, White House, State Department, and CIA also declined to comment.

The New York Times, citing one U.S. official and two other intelligence officials, said Israel was behind the attack on the scientist, although it wasn’t clear what, if any, knowledge the United States may have had about the operation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named Fakhrizadeh in a 2018 presentation revealing a trove of stolen documents about Iran’s alleged covert nuclear activities, saying: “Remember that name.”

Israel has long been suspected of carrying out a series of targeted killings of Iranian nuclear scientists and other sabotage operations against Iran using operatives of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an exiled opposition group.

Iranian officials said the country would retaliate for the attack on the nuclear scientist.

The military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to "strike as thunder at the killers of this oppressed martyr."

"In the last days of the political life of their...ally (Trump), the Zionists seek to intensify pressure on Iran and create a full-blown war," Hossein Dehghan tweeted.

Michael Mulroy, a senior Pentagon official earlier in President Donald Trump's administration, said Fakhrizadeh's killing would set back Iran's nuclear program and that alert levels should be raised immediately in countries where Iran could retaliate.

The killing is likely to complicate the Iran file for the incoming Biden administration.

Biden has said he will try to rejoin the Iran nuclear accord that Trump quit in 2018 and work with allies to strengthen its terms, if Tehran first resumes compliance.

In January, Trump ordered a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad that killed Major General Qasem Soleimani, Iran's most powerful military commander. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at an Iraqi base housing U.S. troops, bringing the two countries to the brink of war.

With less than two months left in office, the Trump administration is expected to intensify its "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran in what critics say is a policy designed to undermine the options of the incoming Democratic administration.

Analysts said the killing of Fakhrizadeh, who headed the Defense Ministry's Research and Innovation Organization, was unlikely to halt Iran’s nuclear program, nor was that the point of the assassination.

“Fakhrizadeh was to Iran’s nuclear program what Soleimani was to its proxy network. He was instrumental to its development and the creation of an infrastructure to support it, ensuring that his death won’t fundamentally alter the course of Iran’s nuclear program,” Ariane Tabatabai, an expert on Iran at the Washington-based German Marshall Fund, wrote on Twitter.

The objective behind the assassination “wasn’t to hinder nuclear program but to undermine diplomacy,” Ellie Geranmayeh of the European Council on International Relations said on Twitter.

She noted that recent high-level visits by U.S. officials to Israel and the Gulf states "raised flags something being cooked up" to "provoke Iran and complicate Biden's diplomatic push."

John Brennan, a former director of the CIA when Biden was vice president in the Barack Obama presidency, described the killing as a “criminal act and highly reckless.”

“Iranian leaders would be wise to wait for the return of the responsible American leadership on the global stage to resist the urge to respond against perceived culprits,” he wrote on Twitter.

Fakhrizadeh led Iran's so-called Amad program that Israel and the West say was a military operation assessing the feasibility of building a nuclear weapon. Tehran long has maintained its nuclear program is peaceful.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says that the Amad program ended in 2003. IAEA inspectors currently monitor Iranian nuclear sites as part of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which Iran has gradually breached following the U.S. withdrawal.

With reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, and Reuters

Iran's most senior nuclear scientist has been assassinated near Tehran by "armed terrorists" in an attack that Iran said bore the hallmarks of an Israeli operation.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who headed the Defense Ministry's Research and Innovation Organization, was "seriously wounded" when assailants targeted his vehicle before being engaged in a gunfight with his security team, the ministry said in a statement.

"Unfortunately, the medical team did not succeed in reviving him, and a few minutes ago, this manager and scientist achieved the high status of martyrdom after years of effort and struggle," the statement read.

Western intelligence services regarded Fakhrizadeh as the mastermind behind Iran's covert nuclear weapons program.

The killing showed "the depth of enemies' hatred" toward the Islamic republic, Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami tweeted.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter there were "serious indications of [an] Israeli role" in the assassination.

He also called on the international community to "end their shameful double standards and condemn this act of state terror."

A military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also accused Israel of killing the scientist to try to provoke a war.

"In the last days of the political life of their...ally [U.S. President Donald Trump], the Zionists seek to intensify pressure on Iran and create a full-blown war," commander Hossein Dehghan tweeted.

Dehghan, who is a former defense minister, also threatened to "come upon the killers of this innocent martyr like thunder and make them regret what they did.”

Israel declined to immediately comment on the killing of Fakhrizadeh, who Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once called out in a news conference saying: “Remember that name.”

Israel has long been suspected of carrying out a series of targeted killings of Iranian nuclear scientists nearly a decade ago.

The Pentagon also declined to comment on Fakhrizadeh's killing when asked by Reuters.

Fakhrizadeh led Iran's so-called Amad (Hope) program. Israel and the West say the program was a military operation assessing the feasibility of building a nuclear weapon in Iran. Tehran has long maintained its nuclear program is peaceful.

Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency said the attack occurred in Absard, a small city just east of the capital, Tehran.

Iranian state television said an old truck with explosives hidden under a load of wood blew up near a car carrying Fakhrizadeh.

As Fakhrizadeh's sedan stopped, at least five gunmen emerged and raked the car with rapid fire, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says that the Amad program ended in the early 2000s. IAEA inspectors currently monitor Iranian nuclear sites as part of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

Embattled strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has ruled Belarus for 26 years, has said he would leave his post after a new constitution had been adopted, Belarus's Belta news agency quoted him as saying.

"I will not work as president with you under the new constitution," Lukashenka said during a visit to a Minsk hospital on November 27.

He stressed the need for amendments to the constitution and adjustments to presidential powers but did not give a timeline for when a new constitution might be adopted.

He didn’t specify when that day would come, but stressed the need for amendments to the constitution and adjustments to presidential powers.

Lukashenka has mentioned the possibility of changes to the constitution several times in the past, but the opposition has dismissed his comments as an attempt to buy time and stay in power while cracking down on anti-government protesters.

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COVID-19 In Belarus: Lukashenka Visits Ward, Shakes Hands Without Mask Or Gloves

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WATCH: Lukashenka Visits Hospital, Shakes Hands Without Gloves, Mask

The Belarusian authorities have called for a national assembly of thousands of people late next month or in January 2021 to discuss proposed constitutional changes.

Belarus has been rocked by protests since an August 9 presidential election handed Lukashenka a sixth term amid allegations of widespread fraud. Protesters say opposition candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya was the real winner of the vote.

Ahead of the August election, Tsikhanouskaya had said that if she’s elected president, she’d organize a referendum to bring back the 1994 constitution that limited presidential powers.

Lukashenka has repeatedly said he has no plan to step down. Earlier this month, Lukashenka reiterated that he had no intention of handing over power to anyone, and accused protesters of planning a “color revolution” -- a term often used to describe pro-Western political upheavals.

Crisis In Belarus

Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.

"No power transfer! No successors! Whoever is elected by the people must stay [in power],” he said on November 13.

Russia has close ties with Belarus and Moscow has offered Lukashenka security assistance if he requests it.

Lukashenka on November 26 met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who expressed support for a new Belarusian constitution.

The United States and the European Union have refused to recognize the 66-year-old Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of Belarus.

With reporting by belta.by and Reuters

Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has called on the European Union to target the "bunch of criminals" surrounding President Vladimir Putin with sanctions.

Speaking on November 27 at a video conference with MEPs, the Kremlin critic said Russia's oligarchs had "temporarily seized power” and the 27-nation bloc must develop a new strategy for its relations with Moscow.

Specifically, Navalny called on the EU to scrutinize the European income sources and assets of Russian billionaires such as Roman Abramovich, Alisher Usmanov, and Arkady Rotenberg, all of whom have close links to the Kremlin.

Last month, the EU and Britain imposed asset freezes and travel bans against six senior Russian officials and one entity for the "attempted assassination" of the 44-year-old Navalny with a Soviet-style chemical agent in August.

Violently Ill

Navalny, a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin and prominent anti-corruption campaigner, has blamed the poisoning on the Russian president. He was released from a Berlin hospital on September 22 after spending 32 days in the clinic following his medical evacuation from Siberia, where he fell violently ill.

SEE ALSO:

Navalny's Poisoning Spooked Russia. The Politicians He Nurtured Say 'It Motivated Us.'

Navalny said that he does not see "much sense" in placing under sanctions Russian officials or “generals” who have no assets in Europe.

"Why do people kill, poison, and fabricate elections? The main answer is money. The sanctions of the European Union should be aimed at them," Navalny said during the discussion with members of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

"As long as Usmanov's yachts are in Barcelona and Monaco, no one in the Kremlin will take sanctions seriously," Navalny said.

He also urged the EU not to recognize the results of the 2021 general elections in Russia if political opponents are barred from running.

"Falsifications and manipulations are inevitable" elements of elections in Russia, he said.

The EU Official Journal on October 15 published the names of the targeted individuals believed to be responsible for the poisoning that nearly took Navalny’s life, as well as the entity involved in the program that has produced a group of military-grade nerve agents known as Novichok.

The targeted organization is the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology, which was responsible for developing the Novichok nerve agents during the Soviet era.

Germany and France have accused Russia of failing to fully investigate the circumstances of Navalny’s poisoning and holding anyone to account.

Russian authorities have firmly denied allegations of involvement, resisted international pressure to launch a criminal investigation, and accused Western leaders of launching a disinformation campaign over Navalny's illness.

Russian opposition politicians Vladimir Milov, Vladimir Kara-Murza, and Ilya Yashin are also taking part in the discussion.

An Iranian diplomat and three other Iranians went on trial in the Belgian city of Antwerp on November 27 accused of planning to bomb a meeting of an exiled opposition group in France in 2018, the first time an EU country has put an Iranian official on trial for terrorism.

The trial has the potential to embarrass Iran and strain ties with European countries, which have blamed Iranian intelligence of being behind the foiled bombing, a charge the Islamic republic has furiously denied.

Belgian prosecutors charged Vienna-based diplomat Assadollah Assadi and the three others with plotting an attack on a rally of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The rally's keynote address was given by U.S. President Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

Assadi, who was arrested while in Germany and handed over to Belgium, is refusing to appear in court and did not attend the first day of the trial. He has not commented on the charges.

"My client asked me to represent him today. He let me know he has the fullest respect for these judges but as he considers that he should benefit from immunity, they are not allowed to judge him," his lawyer, Dimitri de Beco, told the media.

French officials have said Assadi, who was the third counsellor at the Iranian Embassy in Vienna, was in charge of intelligence in southern Europe and was acting on orders from Tehran.

Iran has repeatedly dismissed the charges, saying the allegations by the NCRI, which Tehran considers a terrorist group, are false.

Exiled Iranian Opposition Group

The NCRI is the political wing of the exiled Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK), which is seeking to overthrow the Islamic republic and is designated a terrorist group by Iran.

The United States considered the MEK a terrorist group up until 2012, when it was removed following a lobbying campaign and pledges to end its violent militancy. Giuliani is among those paid by the group to lobby on its behalf.

The trial is expected to continue next week, with a possible verdict later this month or in early January, according to lawyers.

The attack was thwarted by a coordinated operation between French, German, and Belgian security services, authorities in the three countries have said.

Two of Assadi's suspected accomplices were arrested in Belgium in possession of explosives and a detonator. Their lawyers said on November 27 that neither had any intention to kill.

Lawyers representing participants in the 2018 rally, who are a civil party to the Belgian prosecution, have argued that diplomatic immunity cannot be used as a cover to carry out a terrorist attack, which carries a maximum 20-year prison term.

France has said Iran's Intelligence Ministry was behind the 2018 plot and it expelled an Iranian diplomat.

European countries have blamed Iran for other suspected moves against dissidents, including two killings in the Netherlands in 2015 and 2017 and a foiled assassination in Denmark. Tehran has denied involvement.

With reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, and Reuters

The All-National Social Democratic Party of Kazakhstan (OSDP), which bills itself as an opposition group, has announced that it will boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The party leader Askhat Rakhimzhanov said that the OSDP will not take part in the January 10, 2021 elections, saying that the Central Asian nation’s political scene continues to be dominated by the “same” political elite.

"The same rules, the same political parties,” Rakhimzhanov said without elaborating.

The decision not to take part in the polls was made during the party conference on November 27, when the majority of the participants voted for boycotting the elections.

The Kazakh government has said six registered political parties will take part in the elections. The parties include the ruling Nur Otan, four pro-government parties -- Aq Zhol, Auyl, Birlik, and the Communist People's Party -- and the OSDP.

The polls will be the first parliamentary elections since President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev succeeded Nursultan Nazarbaev, who resigned in March last year after nearly three decades in power.

Nazarbaev still maintains key positions of power, including head of the country’s powerful Security Council and the ruling Nur Otan party. He also enjoys almost limitless powers and immunity as elbasy -- leader of the nation.

The 107-seat Majlis is currently dominated by Nazarbaev’s Nur Otan, which has 84 deputies.

The Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan and the Aq Zhol party each have seven seats.

The remaining nine seats are appointed by the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan, an advisory body controlled by Nazarbaev.

The last parliamentary elections were held in March 2016.

The EU's disease-control agency and the World Health Organization (WHO) are calling for more HIV testing as many infected people are diagnosed too late, especially in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Late diagnosis of the virus that causes AIDS contributes to ongoing HIV transmission, often for several years, and prevents infected people from receiving life-saving treatment.

A report published on November 26 by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and WHO showed that in 2019 more than 136,000 people were newly diagnosed in the WHO European region, which comprises 53 countries.

Some 80 percent of the new diagnoses were in WHO’s eastern region, which includes Eastern Europe, Russia, and several countries in Central Asia.

In a worrying trend, about half of diagnoses happened late in the infection when the immune system has already started to fail.

“This is a sign that testing strategies in the region are not working properly to diagnose HIV early,” the health agencies said in a joint statement.

In the region covered by the ECDC -- which includes the EU plus Iceland, Lichtenstein, and Norway -- the number of cases has declined by 9 percent in the past decade and the number of undiagnosed cases has been falling.

But newly diagnosed cases across the whole region, including Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia, have increased by 19 percent over the last decade, the report said, and the number of people living in the region with undiagnosed HIV is increasing.

While it is not known how COVID-19 is impacting HIV testing, WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge warned that the pandemic must not “rob us of an AIDS-free future that is within our grasp.”

“I remember when a diagnosis of HIV seemed like a death sentence. Now, with proper treatment, people with HIV can live without fear of AIDS,” he said.

ECDC Director Andrea Ammon said COVID-19 should not lead countries to ignore other health issues like HIV/AIDS.

“Earlier diagnosis of HIV is an urgent priority,” she said.

According to UNAIDS, 38 million people around the world were living with HIV in 2019, and 26 million of them were receiving life-saving antiretroviral therapy.

The Hungarian and Polish prime ministers have signed a joint declaration pledging to support each other in blocking the European Union’s next budget and its massive pandemic relief fund because of a proposed mechanism that ties it to compliance with the rule of law.

Viktor Orban and Mateusz Morawiecki said after their meeting in Budapest on November 26 that the mechanism risks derailing the bloc.

In the declaration, the two prime ministers claimed that the mechanism "applies vague definitions and ambiguous terms without clear criteria on which sanctions can be based."

Both Hungary and Poland are under EU investigation for undermining the independence of the judiciary, media, and nongovernmental organizations, and they risk losing access to tens of billions of euros.

"Neither Poland nor Hungary will accept any proposal that is deemed unacceptable to the other," the joint declaration reads.

Last week, the two countries withheld support for a key decision on how to fund the shared 2021-2027 EU spending plan.

Their veto is likely to significantly delay the adoption of the EU's 1.8 trillion euro ($2.1 trillion) plan.

The standoff with the two countries has angered other EU member states who are keenly awaiting payouts from the 27-member bloc's stimulus package to help economies seriously hit by the pandemic.

Settling the dispute is also in the interest of Poland and Hungary, which would receive some of the highest amounts per capita from Brussels.

Both are in great need of financial aid to help their economies overcome the effects of the pandemic.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa, and mti.hu

Azerbaijani lawmakers on November 26 called for France to be expelled from the Minsk Group mediating in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute after the French Senate backed the breakaway region's independence claim.

The French upper house on November 25 adopted a nonbinding resolution calling on France to recognize the separatist region as an independent state.

The move came after Armenia agreed to a Moscow-brokered peace deal earlier this month that ended weeks of fresh fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh.

France, together with Russia and the United States, cochairs the Minsk Group, which has led talks seeking a solution to the conflict for decades but has failed to achieve a lasting agreement.

The French senators' nonbinding resolution called on the French government to recognize the "Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh" as an independent state. The resolution suggested that recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as a state could be used as “an instrument of negotiations for the purpose of establishing a lasting peace.”

Nagorno-Karabakh's declaration of independence from Azerbaijan has not been recognized by any country.

The French resolution also stated that "the security and freedom of the Armenian populations in Nagorno-Karabakh are not guaranteed by the Republic of Azerbaijan.”

In response, Azerbaijani lawmakers adopted a resolution on November 26 urging the government to appeal to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which oversees the Minsk Group, to expel France from its presidency.

They also urged Baku to revise its "political...and economic relations" with France.

Parliament speaker Sahiba Gafarova said a "dirty political campaign against Azerbaijan" had been orchestrated in the French Senate and that Azerbaijani lawmakers had to respond.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has praised the French resolution as "historic."

Under the Moscow-brokered peace agreement, Armenia is ceding control of parts of the enclave's territory as well as seven surrounding districts of Azerbaijan it held since the 1990s.

The Armenian separatists are retaining control over most of Nagorno-Karabakh's territory and some 2,000 Russian peacekeepers have been deployed along frontline areas and to protect a land link connecting Karabakh with Armenia.

Pashinian suggested on November 25 that Russian peacekeeping forces will likely remain in Nagorno-Karabakh for more than the five years envisaged by the agreement that stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war on November 10.

Russia has extensive relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan but provides security guarantees to the former.

On November 25, Azerbaijani troops moved into the Kalbacar district after it was handed over by Armenia as part of the truce deal.

No incidents were reported during the initial stage of the handover and a spokesman for Russia’s Defense Ministry said his country’s peacekeeping mission remains in close contact with local administrations to try to prevent any possible incidents.

Kalbachar, wedged between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, was initially scheduled for handover on November 15 but the deadline was postponed by Azerbaijan for humanitarian reasons.

Azerbaijan lost control of Kalbacar during the war with Armenia in the early 1990s as they transitioned into independent countries amid the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Kalbacar -- which the Armenians call Karvachar -- was a strategic link between Armenia's internationally recognized border and Armenian-held areas in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Armenia agreed to hand over three districts ringing Nagorno-Karabakh -- Agdam, Kalbachar, and Lachin -- after nearly three decades under Armenian control as part of the Russian-brokered agreement, following the worst fighting in the region since the 1990s.

Lachin is scheduled for handover by December 1.

With reporting by AFP, TASS, and Interfax

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused the West of interfering in Belarus as he met Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has faced months of protests over his disputed reelection.

Lavrov held talks on November 26 with Lukashenka and other top officials in the capital, Minsk, in the latest display of Moscow's support for Lukashenka's regime.

Thousands of protesters demanding Lukashenka's resignation have taken to the streets of Minsk every weekend since an August 9 election that saw the 66-year-old strongman, who has been in power since 1994, claim a sixth term in office.

Protesters believe that 38-year-old opposition candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who took her jailed husband's place in the presidential race, was the true winner.

Crisis In Belarus

Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.

Moscow has continued to back Lukashenka since the protests erupted, with several meetings between senior officials from both sides in recent months.

Speaking at a press conference with his Belarusian counterpart Uladzimer Makey, Lavrov accused the United States and several European countries of "gross interference" in the domestic affairs of Belarus.

"The wise Belarusian people are able to sort themselves out without any outside prompting and intrusive offers of unsolicited mediation," Lavrov said.

Lukashenka has claimed that Western countries are orchestrating the demonstrations and conspiring to have him removed.

Lavrov said the West is "using dirty methods of so-called color revolutions, including manipulating public opinion, supporting forces that are openly anti-government and promoting their radicalization."

Western leaders have refused to recognize the results of the election and threw their support behind Tsikhanouskaya, who left Belarus for neighboring Lithuania due to security concerns for her and her family.

The European Union has imposed sanctions on Lukashenka and a number of his allies citing election rigging and a violent police crackdown on demonstrators.

Belarusian security forces detained thousands of protesters in the first days of the demonstrations.

They have continued to regularly arrest protesters and members of the opposition.

There have also been credible reports of torture during a widening security crackdown.

Most of the country's opposition leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country.

With reporting by AFP and Interfax

Uzbekistan has signed a deal with a Maltese company, Melabis, to grow and produce medical cannabis in the Central Asian country.

Melabis will grow the plants on 3,000 hectares of farmland in the Sardoba district of Sirdaryo Province, local media reported on November 26, citing the regional government.

It marks the first such deal for Uzbekistan, where the drug is prohibited, despite regular calls for its legalization.

According to the UzA publication, the refined product will have THC content of 0.1-0.2 percent, making it suitable only for medical use. "The final product will be mostly exported," UzA said.

With an initial investment of about $33 million, the project includes building a high-tech plant and laboratories in Sirdaryo that would create some 100 new jobs, UzA reported.

Based on reporting by uza.uz and Reuters