US Business

The US pointman on Iran warned Wednesday it was more likely than not that talks would fail to revive a nuclear deal as he vowed no let-up in pressure if Tehran clings to its demands.

Rob Malley, who has led more than a year of indirect talks with Iran in Vienna, nonetheless told lawmakers that President Joe Biden’s administration still supported the 2015 nuclear accord and was ready to lift sanctions if it secures an agreement.

“As of today the odds of a successful negotiation are lower than the odds of failure and that is because of excessive Iranian demands to which we will not succumb,” Malley told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He said the United States would reject “demands that go beyond the scope of the JCPOA,” using the official name for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

“We are fully prepared to live with and confront that reality if that is Iran’s choice,” Malley said.

He was likely referring to the clerical state’s demands to remove a terrorism blacklisting of the elite Revolutionary Guards, a step rejected by Biden and bitterly opposed by many in Congress.

But Malley made clear that Biden did not support military action — an option loudly mulled by Israel, which is suspected in a shadowy campaign of assassination against Iranian nuclear scientists.

“All options are on the table,” Malley said, while adding that military action would only “set back” Iran’s nuclear program.

Referring to the US history of war in the Middle East, Malley said, “We know that it costs.”

“But let’s leave it at this — the only solution here is a diplomatic one.”

– More economic pressure –

Malley, however, warned of greater economic pressure if talks fail — and said the United States would have the support of the Europeans, unlike under former president Donald Trump.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday it was imposing sanctions on a network backed by Revolutionary Guard and Russian officials that has shipped hundreds of millions of dollars of oil in defiance of unilateral US sanctions.

The JCPOA — brokered under then president Barack Obama with the blessing of European powers, Russia and China — promised economic relief for Iran which, inspectors said, had been complying with the accord’s severe curbs on its nuclear program.

Trump withdrew in 2018 and imposed sweeping unilateral sanctions including on Iran’s oil, vowing to bring Tehran to its knees.

Malley said that Trump’s approach had demonstrably failed, with Iran stepping up nuclear work since the US pullout.

Senators including some from Biden’s Democratic Party voiced exasperation, noting that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had warned in January that only “a few weeks” were left before Iran had advanced to the point that the JCPOA was no longer beneficial.

“We continue to wait and hope. But hope is not a national security strategy,” said Senator Bob Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the committee.

Menendez said Iran had convinced the world “that the United States wants the JCPOA more than the Iranian regime does.”

Malley replied that technical assessments remain “that the nonproliferation benefits of the deal are worth the sanctions relief that we would provide.”

He also offered strong criticism of Iran’s crackdown on recent protests against austerity measures.

“I don’t think this is a strong regime that is basking in being able to circumvent sanctions,” Malley said.

“It is a regime under duress and that’s because of its own mismanagement and our sanctions.”

A mass shooting that left 19 schoolchildren and two teachers dead in the deeply pro-gun state of Texas on Tuesday increased pressure on US politicians to take action over the ubiquity of firearms — but also brought the grim expectation of little or no change.

It was the eighth mass shooting this year, according to the Everytown gun control group, and came 10 days after another 18-year-old murdered 10 African Americans at a supermarket in New York.

But nearly 10 years after a man slaughtered 20 children and six others in an attack on the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, and four years after 17 were killed at a Florida high school, restrictions on gun purchases and ownership have not significantly changed.

“I had hoped, when I became president, I would not have to do this, again,” a distraught President Joe Biden said as he led national mourning, vowing to overcome the US gun lobby and find a way to tighten gun ownership laws.

“Another massacre… an elementary school. Beautiful, innocent, second, third, fourth graders,” he said. “I am sick and tired of it. We have to act. And don’t tell me we can’t have an impact on this carnage.”

But guns of all kinds, especially high-powered assault rifles and semi-automatic pistols are cheaper and more widely available than ever across the United States.

And the all-too-familiar arguments over guns, public safety and rights re-opened immediately on the news of Tuesday’s mass shooting.

– Gun massacres ‘politicized’? –

The debate is set to intensify going into the weekend when Houston, Texas hosts the annual convention of the country’s leading pro-gun lobby, the National Rifle Association.

Scheduled to speak at the convention is former president Donald Trump, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and other prominent Republicans.

Senator Chris Murphy, who represents Connecticut, made an emotional call on the Senate floor on Tuesday for lawmakers to take action.

“Nowhere else does that happen except here in the United States of America and it is a choice. It is our choice to let it continue,” he said.

But Cruz quickly pushed back, saying people will use the shooting to attack the right of people under the US Constitution’s 2nd Amendment to own guns.

“When there’s a crime of this kind, it almost immediately gets politicized,” Cruz said.

Attacking constitutional gun rights “is not effective in stopping these sort of crimes,” he added.

– More guns, more shootings –

Yet data shows the grim national cost of gun crime.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the number of gun deaths in the United States underwent a “historic” increase in 2020.

And the US racked up 19,350 firearm homicides in 2020, up nearly 35 percent over 2019, and 24,245 gun suicides, up 1.5 percent.

At 6.1 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020, the firearm homicide rate was the highest in a quarter century. 

Mass shootings have also risen, according to Everytown.

“Since 2009, there have been 274 mass shootings in the United States, resulting in 1,536 people shot and killed and 983 people shot and wounded,” the group says.

The country is swamped with guns. US firearms makers produced more than 139 million guns for the commercial market over the two decades from 2000, and the country imported another 71 million.

That includes high-powered assault rifles, which can be found for $500, and 9 millimeter pistols that combine ease of use, high accuracy and semi-automatic triggers with prices as low as $200.

– Gun laws eased in Texas –

But at every incident, proposals by state and federal lawmakers to tighten laws are rebuffed by conservative colleagues, who count on voter support from a sizeable portion of the public opposed to gun control.

Last year, a Pew poll said just 53 percent of Americans want stricter gun laws, and only 49 percent think tougher laws would decrease mass shootings.

Politicians like Abbott have instead moved to ease controls. Last year, the Texas governor signed a law allowing anyone in the state over 21 to openly carry a handgun without a license or training, and, with certain qualifications, people over 18 can also do so.

Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand, an activist arm of Everytown, pointed out that Texas is one of the country’s largest gun markets and has a high firearms death rate.

“If more guns and fewer laws made Texas safer, it would be the safest state with declining rates of gun violence,” Watts wrote on Twitter.

“But it has high rates of gun suicide and homicide, and is home to four of the 10 deadliest mass shootings.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blasted the West for lacking unity on Wednesday, as the Russian invasion entered its fourth month and Moscow’s troops advanced in eastern Ukraine.

Fighting reached the edge of the industrial city of Severodonetsk, which is under fierce bombardment by Russian forces who are trying to encircle it in one of their key goals in Ukraine’s Donbas region.

An unrepentant Moscow told the West to lift sanctions to stave off a global food crisis sparked by the war between two countries that together produce nearly a third of the world’s wheat. 

Zelensky renewed calls for heavy weapons from foreign partners, saying the billions of dollars’ worth already put up were not enough to help Ukraine’s outgunned forces.

“Unity is about weapons. My question is, is there this unity in practice? I can’t see it. Our huge advantage over Russia would be when we are truly united,” Zelensky said via videolink to an event on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Zelensky said Ukraine was grateful for US support, but urged Europe to step up, specifically naming neighbouring Hungary which is blocking an EU-wide embargo on Russian oil.

The Ukrainian president said hours earlier in his daily address to the nation that Russian forces “want to destroy everything” in eastern Ukraine.

Western funds and weapons have helped Ukraine hold off its neighbour’s advances in many areas, including the capital Kyiv.

Russia is now focused on expanding its gains in eastern Donbas, home to pro-Russian separatists, as well as the southern coast.

– ‘Completely destroy’ –

The governor of the eastern region of Lugansk, Sergiy Gaiday, said fighting had reached the “outskirts” of Severodonetsk, which was being hammered by air strikes, rockets, artillery and mortars.

“Russian troops have advanced far enough that they can already fire mortars,” Gaiday said in a statement on social media, adding that, “yesterday there was already fighting on the outskirts of the city.” 

“The Russian army has decided to completely destroy Severodonetsk. They are simply erasing Severodonetsk from the face of the earth,” the governor said in a separate video on Telegram. 

“I think that the next week will be decisive.”

In the town of Soledar, Ukraine’s salt manufacturing hub, the ground shook moments after Natalia Timofeyenko climbed out of her bunker to reassure herself that she was not alone.

“I go outside just to see people. I know that there is shelling out there but I go,” the 47-year-old said after a thundering blast smashed apart a chunk of a mammoth salt mine where she worked with most of her friends and neighbours.

Ghostly frontline towns like Soledar are being hammered by Russian artillery as they sit along the crucial road that leads out of besieged Severodonetsk and its sister city Lysychansk.

Twelve people were killed by “extremely heavy shelling and attacks” in the neighbouring region of Donetsk, which also forms part of Donbas, the Ukrainian presidency said.

In a sign that the rest of the country remains at risk, Russian cruise missiles struck the major southern rail hub of Zaporizhzhia, killing one person and damaging dozens of houses, the presidency added.

– ‘Solving the food problem’ –

In Moscow, authorities made it clear Russia was settling in for a long conflict, with parliament scrapping the upper age limit for soldiers.

“We will continue the special military operation until all the objectives have been achieved,” Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said, using President Vladimir Putin’s name for the war.

Tough sanctions imposed after Russia’s February 24 invasion of its pro-Western neighbour are causing food shortages around the world, Moscow added.

“Solving the food problem requires a comprehensive approach, including the removal of sanctions that have been imposed on Russian exports and financial transactions,” said Russian deputy foreign minister, Andrey Rudenko.

He also demanded that Ukraine de-mine its ports.

The West argues it is Russia’s offensive in Ukraine and blockade of Ukraine’s ports that has pushed global food prices to an all-time high — sparking fears of worsening hunger, particularly in Africa.

With its unity questioned by Zelensky, EU chief Charles Michel said he was “confident” of an oil deal embargo before a Brussels summit on Monday despite Hungary’s resistance.

NATO’s unity has also been called into question with Turkey threatening to block Sweden and Finland from joining in the wake of the Ukraine invasion. 

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said her country was “not sending money to terrorist organisations”, rejecting Turkish claims over alleged support for Kurdish militant groups.

– ‘It is just war’ –

A swathe of southern Ukraine meanwhile is living under Russian occupation.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a decree simplifying a procedure to obtain a Russian passport for residents of the southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson, under the full control of Russian troops, and partly-occupied Zaporizhzhia.

Residents expressed concerns about the future in Kherson. Moscow-backed officials are pushing for formal annexation by Russia.

“People are very apprehensive,” trolleybus driver Alexander Loginov, 47, told AFP from the cabin of his vehicle, during a press trip organised by the Russian defence ministry. 

Day-to-day life remains marked by uncertainty, especially over payment of salaries as “Ukrainian banks are closing”.

“To be honest, it is just war,” Loginov added.

And 200 bodies were found in the basement of a destroyed building of the port city of Mariupol, which fell to Moscow recently after a devastating siege, Ukrainian authorities said.

As the locals refused to collect and pack the heavily decomposed bodies, the Russian emergency workers just left the scene, Ukrainian ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova said on Telegram Wednesday.

“It is impossible to be within the area due to the corpse smell,” she wrote. “The occupiers turned the entire Mariupol into a cemetery.”

burs-dk/spm

Cannes is set to be shaken, rattled and rolled on Wednesday as the world premiere of “Elvis” rocks the film festival on the French Riviera, in what is proving a vintage year for music-lovers.

The highly anticipated new film is the latest from Australia’s Baz Luhrmann, the technicolour genius behind “Romeo and Juliet” and “Moulin Rouge!”. 

Rising star Austin Butler, 30, steps into the blue suede shoes of Elvis Presley, and whispers around the Cannes Film Festival suggest it will rocket him into the A-list. 

The film also features Tom Hanks as The King’s infamous manager, Colonel Tom Parker.

It has been warmly welcomed by the family of Presley, who died in 1977 at the age of 42 after a descent into drug addiction.  

His granddaughter Riley Keough, who happened to be at Cannes with her directorial debut “War Pony” last week, said she had watched the film with her mother, Lisa Marie Presley, and grandmother, Priscilla Presley. 

“There’s a lot of family trauma and generational trauma that started around there. It was a very intense experience,” she told reporters.

Luhrmann has become a favourite at Cannes, having wowed critics with his debut “Strictly Ballroom” in 1992, and opening the festival twice, with “Moulin Rouge!” and “Gatsby”.

– Kaleidoscopic –

Celebrating its 75th edition, the festival has been a feast for music lovers this year. 

There were rave reviews for a new documentary about David Bowie, “Moonage Daydream” — part of a recent wave of innovative films about music legends. 

“It’s not a biography,” its director, Brett Morgen, told AFP. “The film is meant to be sublime, and kaleidoscopic, and kind of wash over you.”

Ethan Coen, one half of the beloved Coen brothers film-making duo, was also in Cannes to present a documentary about another rock’n’roll pioneer, Jerry Lee Lewis. 

Both docs eschew expert talking heads in favour of a more immersive experience. 

“I don’t care what experts say,” Coen told AFP at the festival. “Jerry Lee is a performer so I want to see the performance — not what some expert thinks about it.”

– Divided contest –

As arguably the world’s leading film festival, Cannes seeks a line-up that balances hard-hitting dramas, arthouse experimentation and blockbuster spectacles. 

This year has seen plenty of Hollywood glamour, with “Elvis” preceded by last week’s launch of “Top Gun: Maverick”, which brought Tom Cruise and a French Air Force display team to the red carpet. 

While they are playing out of the competition, the race for the top prize Palme d’Or has been a very mixed affair so far. 

No clear frontrunner has emerged from the 21 films in competition, with critics deeply divided over almost every entry. 

Perhaps the best reception up to now has been for “Decision to Leave” by Korean director Park Chan-wook, known for his 2003 thriller “Oldboy”. 

But the awards, to be presented on Saturday, are decided by a jury of film professionals — this year including Indian superstar Deepika Padukone, Iran’s two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi and led by French actor Vincent Lindon.