DUBAI, Oct 19 (Reuters) – Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi, who caused controversy by competing in an international contest without a headscarf, has returned to Iran to cheering supporters, reiterating in comments to state media she had climbed without a hijab unintentionally.
Footage had shown Rekabi, 33, scaling a wall without her head covered while representing Iran at a competition in South Korea, at a time of unprecedented protests in Iran over the death in custody of a young woman detained by morality police for “inappropriate attire.”
In comments to state TV upon her arrival in Tehran, Rekabi said she had returned in “full health” and apologised to “the people of Iran for the turbulence and worry that I created”, her head covered by a baseball cap and a hood as she spoke.
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“The struggle that I had with wearing my shoes and preparing my gear made me forget about the proper hijab that I should have had, and I went to the wall and ascended,” she added.
A crowd of well-wishers cheered, clapped and recorded the scene on mobile phones as she was driven away from the airport, according to footage posted on Twitter.
In a statement published on her Instagram account on Tuesday, Rekabi cited poor scheduling as the reason she had competed without a headscarf, saying she had been called to climb unexpectedly.
Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, October 19, 2022. WANA via REUTERS TV
In her televised comments Rekabi, who came fourth in the competition, denied she had been unreachable for 48 hours, and said the team had returned to Iran as planned. She said she had no plan to quit the national team.
BBC Persian had reported on Tuesday that friends had been unable to contact her, and there were fears for her safety. Iran’s embassy in South Korea, on Twitter, denied reports about her going missing after the competition.
The International Olympic Committee said it had talked to the athlete and had received assurances from the Iran’s national Olympic committee (NOC) she would not face consequences.
“A joint meeting took place today between the IOC, the (international climbing federation) IFSC and the Iranian NOC, during which the IOC and the IFSC received clear assurances that Ms Rekabi will not suffer any consequences and will continue to train and compete,” an IOC spokesperson said.
Another joint meeting was then held between the groups and Rekabi, the spokesperson said, adding that the IOC would monitor the situation closely in the days and weeks to come.
The death last month of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the Islamic Republic’s morality police, who detained her for “inappropriate attire”, prompted nationwide protests during which women have removed and burned headscarves.
The protests ignited by Amini’s death have grown into one of the boldest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution, though the unrest does not appear close to toppling the system.
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Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Additional reporting by Karolos Grohmann, Editing by William Maclean and Frank Jack Daniel
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Pragmatism seen trumping ideology as Hezbollah approves deal
U.S. clinched landmark compromise between Israel, Lebanon
Offshore gas would provide Lebanon with badly needed FX
BEIRUT, Oct 18 (Reuters) – (This Oct. 18 story has been corrected to clarify that Atallah is the founding director of The Policy Initiative think tank, not executive director of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies in paragraph 14)
Before Lebanon’s government approved a U.S.-brokered deal settling a decades-long maritime boundary dispute with Israel, the powerful Hezbollah had scrutinized the final draft line by line and given a crucial nod of acceptance.
Branded a terrorist group by Washington and a sworn enemy of Israel, the Iran-backed Hezbollah was certainly nowhere near the negotiating room during U.S. shuttle diplomacy which clinched the landmark deal last week.
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But behind the scenes, the heavily armed group was being briefed on the details and expressing its views even as it threatened military action were Lebanon’s interests not secured, according to sources familiar with Hezbollah’s thinking, a Lebanese official and a Western source familiar with the process.
An unprecedented compromise between the enemy states, the deal opens the way for offshore energy exploration and defuses one source of potential conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Observers say the deal was all the more significant for the pragmatism shown by Hezbollah, pointing to the shifting priorities of a group set up four decades ago by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to fight Israel.
“The Hezbollah leadership scrutinized the understanding line by line before agreeing to it,” said one of the sources familiar with the group’s thinking.
After spending much of the last decade deploying fighters and military expertise across the Middle East to help Iran’s allies, notably President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Hezbollah’s focus is today squarely on Lebanon – a country in deep crisis.
More involved than ever in state affairs, Hezbollah has said offshore oil and gas are the only way for Lebanon to emerge from a devastating financial meltdown that has hit all Lebanese hard, including its large Shi’ite constituency.
Though Hezbollah says it does not fear war with Israel, the group has also said it does not seek one with a formidable foe which staged major invasions of Lebanon in 1978 and 1982.
Lebanon took years to rebuild from the last war in 2006 – much of the bill paid by Gulf Arabs who have since shunned Beirut because of Hezbollah’s sway. And while Tehran’s support remains strong, Western sanctions have squeezed the amount of cash Iran can send the group.
‘HAVOC’ OR PRAGMATISM
An offshore energy discovery – while not enough on its own to resolve Lebanon’s deep economic problems – would be a major boon, providing badly needed hard currency and possibly one day easing crippling blackouts.
Two Hezbollah lawmakers told Reuters the group was open to the idea of a deal as a pathway to alleviate some of Lebanon’s economic woes.
“They had to deal with it pragmatically instead of ideologically,” said Sami Atallah, founding director of The Policy Initiative think tank, describing Hezbollah’s role as critical. “They knew they had the power to cause havoc if they wanted to – but it would have come at such a high cost.”
U.S. proposals were communicated to Hezbollah’s leadership by senior Lebanese security official Abbas Ibrahim, who also met U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, according to the Lebanese official and the Western source familiar with the process.
At one point, Hezbollah conveyed its frustration at the slow pace of the talks to Hochstein via Ibrahim, the Western source said.
Asked about Hezbollah’s role, the head of its media office Mohamed Afif said the state had carried out the negotiations and “we stood behind it”. “Our concern was for Lebanon to secure its rights to its resources,” he said.
Reuters could not immediately reach Ibrahim’s office for comment. The U.S. State Department did not respond to emailed questions on the account of Hochstein’s contacts with Ibrahim.
A senior U.S. administration official has said the negotiations were carried out with the sovereign leadership of Lebanon and did not include discussions with Hezbollah.
The urgency of Hochstein’s mission increased in June when an Israeli gas rig arrived offshore to explore in the Karish field – waters claimed by Lebanon but which Israel said were in its exclusive economic zone.
On July 2, Hezbollah sent three unarmed drones flying over the Karish field. They were intercepted by the Israeli military.
Hezbollah claimed it as a show of force and its allies in Lebanon credited the group’s military posturing with wringing concessions from Israel – a claim completely denied by Israel.
A U.S. official told Reuters Hezbollah had nearly “killed the deal with their provocative rhetoric and actions threatening war”. “No one party can – or should – claim victory.”
PEACE STILL FAR OFF
Hezbollah gave the greenlight to controversial details.
These included a tacit nod to arrangements that will lead to Israel getting a slice of revenues from the Qana prospect – which Lebanon deemed to be entirely in its waters, but which Israel said was partly in its.
The diplomatic workaround requires France’s TotalEnergies – set to carry out exploration on behalf of Lebanon – to make a separate deal with Israel by which it gets a portion of royalties, bypassing any Lebanese involvement, politician Gebran Bassil, who closely followed the talks, told Reuters.
A spokesperson from TotalEnergies said they had no comment.
French officials met Hezbollah representatives about the overall agreement, three French diplomatic sources said.
The French foreign ministry said France actively contributed to the agreement, “in particular by passing messages between the different parties, in conjunction with the American mediator”.
While the stars may have aligned to bring about this deal, peace remains a distant prospect between states at odds over numerous issues, and with Hezbollah’s influence deeply entrenched in Beirut.
But more than 16 years since the last war, the benefits brought from any gas production could help stave off another one. “Once the pipes are in the water, war becomes a long way away,” said a source familiar with Hezbollah’s thinking.
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Additional reporting by John Irish and Benjamin Mallet in Paris; and Editing by Tom Perry, Editing by William Maclean
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Ukraine facing ‘critical’ power situation, says official
Three dead in new strikes in Kyiv
Zelenskiy accuses Russia of targeting civilians
Moscow says it is hitting infrastructure
New Russian commander acknowledges difficulties
KYIV/MYKOLAIV, Ukraine, Oct 18 (Reuters) – Russia has destroyed almost a third of Ukraine’s power stations in the past week, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday, as Moscow rained more missiles down on infrastructure in what Kyiv and the West call a campaign to intimidate civilians.
Missiles struck power stations in the capital Kyiv where they killed three people, and in Kharkiv in the east, Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih in the south, and Zhytomyr in the west, causing blackouts and knocking out water supplies. One man was killed in his flat that was destroyed in Mykolaiv in the south.
“The situation is critical now across the country … The whole country needs to prepare for electricity, water and heating outages,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, told Ukrainian television.
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Russia has openly acknowledged targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with waves of missile and drone strikes since the start of last week, in what President Vladimir Putin said was legitimate retaliation for a blast on a bridge.
Kyiv and the West say intentionally attacking civilian infrastructure is a war crime, and the attacks, aimed at leaving Ukrainians with no heat and power as winter arrives, are Putin’s latest tactic to escalate a war his forces are losing.
In a rare acknowledgement of the difficulties Russian forces are facing, their new commander Sergei Surovikin on Tuesday described the military situation in Ukraine as “tense”, especially around the occupied southern city of Kherson.
“The enemy continually attempts to attack the positions of Russian troops,” he told state-owned Rossiya 24 television news channel.
The Russian-installed chief of the Kherson region said some civilians from four towns would be evacuated, citing what he said was the risk of an attack by Kyiv’s forces.
In Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, Reuters heard three explosions in the early hours of Tuesday. A missile completely destroyed one wing of a building in the downtown area, leaving a massive crater. A fire crew was seen pulling the dead body of a man from the rubble.
The Russians “probably get pleasure from this,” said Oleksandr, the owner of a nearby flower shop.
Zelenskiy said Russia was continuing to try to terrorise and kill Ukrainian civilians.
“Since Oct. 10, 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country,” he wrote on Twitter.
NO NEGOTIATIONS
Zelenskiy reiterated his refusal to negotiate with Putin who he says heads a “terrorist state”.
Zelenskiy ruled out negotiations with Putin last month after the Russian leader announced the annexation of four Ukrainian provinces. Putin has also called up hundreds of thousands of reservists and threatened to use nuclear weapons since mid-September, after his forces faced humiliating battlefield losses.
A Ukrainian national flag rises over a local council’s headquarter building, heavily damaged during Russia’s attack in the village of Lymany near a frontline in Mykolaiv region, Ukraine October 18, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
There was no immediate word on how many people were killed in Tuesday’s strikes overall. A day earlier, Russia sent swarms of drones to attack infrastructure in Kyiv and other cities, killing at least five people.
Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians, though it has pummelled Ukrainian villages, towns and cities in what it initially called a “special military operation” to disarm its neighbour.
The Russian defence ministry repeated earlier statements that it was carrying out attacks using high precision weapons on what it described as military targets and energy infrastructure across Ukraine.
Ukraine accuses Russia of using Iran-made Shahed-136 ‘kamikaze drones’, which fly to their target and detonate. Iran denies supplying them and on Tuesday the Kremlin also denied using them.
However, two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters that Tehran had promised to provide Russia with more drones as well as surface-to-surface missiles, a move sure to infuriate the United States and its allies.
The U.S. State Department said Washington would continue to take “practical, aggressive” steps to make the sale of drones and similar weapons harder, and also expressed concern about what it called the deepening alliance between Russia and Iran.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he would ask Zelenskiy to formally cut diplomatic ties with Iran in protest over the drones.
NATO will deliver air defence systems to Ukraine “in the coming days” to help the country defend itself against drones, the alliance’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said.
‘GENERAL ARMAGEDDON’
General Surovikin, Moscow’s new overall commander in Ukraine, has been nicknamed “General Armageddon” in Russian media after serving in Syria and Chechnya, where his forces pounded cities to rubble in a brutal but effective scorched earth policy against its foes.
His appointment was quickly followed on Oct. 10 by the biggest wave of missile strikes against Ukraine since the start of the war.
Putin cast those strikes as revenge for an explosion that damaged Russia’s bridge to Crimea – the peninsula Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for that attack but celebrated the destruction of what it considers a military target used to transport arms and troops.
British Armed Forces minister James Heappey told BBC Radio that Surovikin was pursuing a cruel and pointless strategy that he said would fail in its aim of trying to “break the will of the Ukrainian people”.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the four Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed were under the protection of its nuclear arsenal.
The statement comes as both NATO and Russia prepare to hold annual military exercises to test the readiness of their nuclear weapons forces. Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday two of its nuclear-capable Tu-95MS strategic bombers had conducted a flight of more than 12 hours over the Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk.
Putin has previously said he is prepared to use nuclear weapons if necessary to defend Russia’s “territorial integrity”.
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Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Andrew Osborn and Gareth Jones; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Peter Graff and Rosalba O’Brien
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WASHINGTON, Oct 18 (Reuters) – The United States will continue to take “practical, aggressive” steps to make it harder for Iran to sell drones and missiles to Russia, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Tuesday, adding that Washington had a number of tools to hold both Moscow and Tehran accountable.
Patel, speaking at a daily press briefing, said such measures could include sanctions and export controls.
“We will continue to take practical, aggressive steps to make these weapons sales harder, including sanctions, export control actions against any entities involved,” Patel said.
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“Russia deepening an alliance with Iran is something the entire world – especially those in the region – should view as a profound threat.”
A drone is launched during a military exercise in an undisclosed location in Iran, in this handout image obtained on August 25, 2022. Iranian Army/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Ukraine has accused Russia of using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones in attacks in recent weeks. Iran denies supplying them and on Tuesday the Kremlin also denied using them.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that Iran has promised Russia it would supply them with surface to surface missiles, in addition to more drones. read more
The U.S. State Department assessed that Iranian drones were used on Monday in a morning rush hour attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, a U.S. official said. White House spokesperson Karinne Jean-Pierre also accused Tehran of lying when it said Iranian drones were not being used by Russia in Ukraine.
The United States in September imposed sanctions on an Iranian company it accused of coordinating military flights to transport Iranian drones to Russia and three other companies it said were involved in the production of Iranian drones. read more
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Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Humeyra Pamuk and Doina Chiacu, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien
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NEW YORK, Oct 18 (Reuters) – French cement maker Lafarge pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a U.S. charge that it made payments to groups designated as terrorists by the United States, including Islamic State.
The admission in Brooklyn federal court marked the first time a company has pleaded guilty in the United States to charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization. Lafarge, which became part of Swiss-listed Holcim (HOLN.S) in 2015, agreed to pay $778 million in forfeiture and fines as part of the plea agreement.
U.S. prosecutors said that Lafarge paid Islamic State and al Nusra Front, through intermediaries, the equivalent of approximately $5.92 million.
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Lafarge is also facing charges of complicity in crimes against humanity in Paris for keeping a factory running in Syria after a conflict broke out in 2011.
Lafarge eventually evacuated the cement plant in September 2014, U.S. prosecutors said. At that point, Islamic State took possession of the remaining cement and sold it for the equivalent of $3.21 million, prosecutors said.
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said on Tuesday during a news conference that the company’s actions “reflect corporate crime that has reached a new low and a very dark place.”
“Business with terrorists cannot be business as usual,” Monaco added.
The cement maker previously admitted after an internal investigation that its Syrian subsidiary paid armed groups to help protect staff at the plant. But it had denied charges that it was complicit in crimes against humanity.
Lafarge Chair Magali Anderson said in court on Tuesday that from August 2013 until November 2014 former executives of the company “knowingly and willfully agreed to participate in a conspiracy to make and authorize payments intended for the benefit of various armed groups in Syria.”
“The individuals responsible for this conduct have been separated from the company since at least 2017,” she said.
Monaco said that French authorities have arrested some of the executives involved but did not provide names. Court records refer to six unnamed Lafarge executives.
In a statement, Holcim noted that none of the conduct involved Holcim, “which has never operated in Syria, or any Lafarge operations or employees in the United States, and it is in stark contrast with everything that Holcim stands for.”
Holcim said that former Lafarge executives involved in the conduct concealed it from Holcim, as well as from external auditors.
The SIX Swiss Exchange suspended trading in Holcim shares before the news.
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Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York and Karen Freifeld;
Editing by Noeleen Walder and Lisa Shumaker
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Luc Cohen
Thomson Reuters
Reports on the New York federal courts. Previously worked as a correspondent in Venezuela and Argentina.
Oct 18 (Reuters) – BYD Co (002594.SZ), China’s biggest electric car maker, said third-quarter net profit likely more than quadrupled due to robust sales and a better product mix, sending its shares surging.
It estimated that net profit for the July-September quarter came in between 5.5 billion yuan to 5.9 billion yuan ($765 million-$820 million), or an increase of 333% to 365.1% from the same period a year earlier.
BYD’s Hong Kong shares gained 4% on Tuesday morning while its shares in Shenzhen climbed 5%.
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The company, which is 19% owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), said in a filing late on Monday that improved cost controls had also contributed to the jump in earnings.
Government incentives have helped sales of electric vehicles surge in the world’s biggest auto market.
BYD’s combined sales of pure electric and hybrid plug-in vehicles increased 250% in the first nine months, easily outpacing a 110% rise for the overall EV segment.
($1 = 7.1993 Chinese yuan)
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Reporting by Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Edwina Gibbs
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Real Madrid’s Frenchman Benzema voted best men’s player
Barca’s Spain midfielder Putellas picks up women’s award
pep Guardiola’s Manchester City chosen as Best Club
PARIS, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Real Madrid’s France forward Karim Benzema won the 2022 Ballon d’Or award for the best men’s player in the world on Monday, while Barcelona’s Spain midfielder Alexia Putellas won the women’s award for a second time.
Benzema, who played a pivotal role in Real’s run to the Champions League title last season, is the first French player to win the trophy since Zinedine Zidane in 1998 and the fifth after Raymond Kopa, Michel Platini and Jean-Pierre Papin.
“This prize in front of me makes me really proud. When I was small, it was a childhood dream, I never gave up… Anything is possible,” Benzema said on stage at the ceremony.
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“There was a difficult period when I wasn’t in the French team but I never gave up. I’m really proud of my journey here. It wasn’t easy, it was a difficult time for my family as well.”
Benzema beat Poland’s Robert Lewandowski, Sadio Mane of Senegal and Belgium’s Kevin De Bruyne after Argentina’s Lionel Messi won the award for a record seventh time last year.
Benzema had a stellar season with Real, scoring 44 goals in 46 games in all competitions as he helped guide them to a LaLiga and Champions League double. His 15 goals in the Champions League guided Real to a record-extending 14th title.
Real made remarkable comebacks from losing positions in the last-16, quarter-finals and semi-finals against Paris St Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City respectively — with Benzema scoring in each of the second legs.
The highlight of their European campaign was the 3-1 win in the second leg against PSG when the Spanish club were 2-0 down on aggregate, with Benzema grabbing a 17-minute hat-trick in the second half to stun the Ligue 1 side.
PUTELLAS WINS AGAIN
Spanish international Putellas won the women’s Ballon d’Or for a second straight year, beating England’s European Championship winner Beth Mead and Australia’s Sam Kerr.
Putellas, who was also named FIFA Best Women’s Player earlier this year, was top scorer in the Champions League last season with 11 goals and scored 18 in the Primera Division.
The 28-year-old missed the Euros for Spain, however, after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury on the eve of the tournament in England.
Real’s Thibaut Courtois won the Lev Yashin award for the best goalkeeper last season, with the towering shot stopper making nine saves in the final to keep a clean sheet against Liverpool in a 1-0 victory in Paris.
However, the teams in the Champions League final lost out on the Best Club award, which went to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City who won a fourth Premier League title in five years.
Barca’s 18-year-old midfielder Gavi picked up the Kopa Trophy for the best under-21 player, while Bayern Munich forward Sadio Mane won the inaugural Socrates award, with the Senegal international recognised for his humanitarian efforts.
Lewandowski did not go home empty handed either as he picked up the Gerd Muller Trophy for the best striker after scoring 50 goals in all competitions for Bayern last season.
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Reporting by Julien Pretot and Rohith Nair; Editing by Ken Ferris
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This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine
YEYSK, Russia, Oct 17 (Reuters) – A Russian fighter plane crashed into a residential building in the southern city of Yeysk on Monday, engulfing apartments in a fireball and killing four people, officials said.
A further six people were missing.
Military news channel Zvezda published video appearing to show explosions aboard the Sukhoi Su-34 supersonic medium-range fighter-bomber as it plunged towards the apartments. Russian agencies said the pilots had ejected.
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RIA news agency cited local emergency services as saying four people had died and six were missing. Tass news agency cited the headquarters for the rescue effort as saying 25 had been injured.
Anna Minkova, deputy governor of Krasnodar region, earlier wrote on Telegram that three people had died and another 10 had been taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.
Authorities have reserved 600 beds in hotels and guest houses to house those who had to leave the building, RIA said.
Footage from the site showed large parts of the building on fire after the crash. Local authorities later said the blaze had been put out.
State-owned RIA said the crash took place during a training flight from a military airfield. It quoted the defence ministry as saying the pilots had reported that an engine had caught fire on takeoff, and the plane’s fuel had then ignited when it struck the building.
Russia’s state Investigative Committee, which deals with serious crimes, said it had opened a criminal case and sent investigators to the scene.
The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had ordered all necessary help to be provided to victims. He ordered the health and emergencies ministers to fly to the region.
Krasnodar regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said the fire had broken out in a nine-storey building.
“The fire engulfed several floors at once. Seventeen apartments were preliminarily damaged,” he said on Telegram.
The incident comes nearly eight months after Russia sent its troops into Ukraine. Yeysk is separated from occupied Russian territory in southern Ukraine by a narrow stretch of the Sea of Azov.
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Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Sandra Maler, David Ljunggren and Angus MacSwan
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Ukraine says Iran supplying drones for Russia’s war
Crackdown on protests brings EU punitive action
EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg
Oct 17 (Reuters) – Several European Union foreign ministers on Monday called for sanctions against Iran over the transfer of Iranian drones to Russia, as the bloc agreed a separate set of asset freezes and travel bans over Tehran’s crackdown on protests.
Kyiv has reported a spate of Russian attacks with Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones in recent weeks, saying on Monday that Tehran was responsible for the “murders of Ukrainians”.
Iran denies supplying drones to Russia since its invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin has not commented.
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“I think it (new sanctions) should be worked out immediately,” Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told Reuters as the bloc’s foreign ministers were due to discuss the transfer of Iranian drones to Russia.
Reinsalu said Kyiv’s reports on the Iranian origin of the drones should be taken seriously, with sanctions acting as a deterrent to show “this has consequences.”
France and Germany, both parties to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, have also made it clear they believed new sanctions in connection to the drones were necessary and that the drone transfers should be seen as a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution. read more
‘THIS IS AN ATROCITY’
The EU could move towards imposing new sanctions against Iran over the matter, according to two diplomats involved in preparing talks among the ministers, though no detailed decisions were expected on Monday. read more
“Iranian drones are used apparently to attack in the middle of Kyiv, this is an atrocity,” Denmark’s Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said as he arrived at the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, urging a response. read more
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc would look for hard evidence about Iran’s role.
Meanwhile, the EU foreign ministers added 11 Iranians and four institutions, including Iran’s morality police chief, to a travel ban and asset freeze list for their role in the crackdown on protests after the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
“Unanimous decision today to take action against those in #Iran responsible for the death of #MahsaAmini and violent repression of peaceful protests,” Borrell tweeted.
Tehran says it is keeping order against foreign-instigated troublemakers.
Additional EU sanctions on Iran will not be limited to blacklisting some individuals should Tehran’s involvement in Russia’s war on Ukraine be proven, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said.
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Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Marine Strauss, Gabriela Baczynska, Writing by Ingrid Melander, Editing by William Maclean and Andrew Cawthorne
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SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Oct 17 (Reuters) – China’s state banks stepped up their intervention to defend a weakening yuan on Monday, with banking sources telling Reuters these banks sold a high volume of U.S. dollars and used a combination of swaps and spot trades.
Six banking sources told Reuters the country’s major state-owned banks were spotted swapping yuan for U.S. dollars in the forwards market and selling those dollars in the spot market, a playbook move used by China in 2018 and 2019 as well.
The selling seemed to be aimed at stabilising the yuan , with the swaps helping procure dollars as well as anchoring the price of yuan in forwards, said the sources, who have direct knowledge of market trades.
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The yuan is down 11.6% versus the dollar this year. It was trading around 7.1980 per dollar on Monday.
One-year dollar/yuan forwards fell rapidly following the state bank actions, pushing the yuan to 6.95 per dollar. One of the sources noted the size of the dollar selling operation was “rather huge”.
“The big banks want to acquire dollar positions from the swap market to stabilise the spot market,” said another source.
State banks usually trade on behalf of the central bank in China’s FX market, but they can also trade for their own purposes or execute orders for their corporate clients.
A third source noted that the state banks’ trades appeared to be managed so that the country’s closely-watched $3 trillion foreign exchange reserves will not be tapped for intervention.
At the same time, the move helps state banks to procure dollars at a time when rising U.S. yields have made dollars scarce and expensive.
China burned through $1 trillion of reserves supporting the yuan during the economic downturn in 2015, and the sharp reduction in the official reserves attracted much criticism.
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Reporting by Shanghai and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Ana Nicolaci da Costa
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