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Qatar participated in the high-level plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on the sidelines of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly in New York. The State of Qatar was represented at the meeting by HE Director of International Organisations Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sheikha Hanouf bint Abdulrahman al-Thani.

Iran president speaking at UN General AssemblyGaps remain between Iran and E3 as deadline loomsEuropean powers offering delay if Iran makes concessionsIran has no intention to build nuclear weapons, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, just days before international sanctions could be reimposed on his country over Tehran's nuclear ambitions."I hereby declare once more before this assembly that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb. We do not seek nuclear weapons," Pezeshkian said.On August 28, Britain, France and Germany launched a 30-day process to reimpose UN sanctions that ends on September 27, accusing Tehran of failing to abide by a 2015 deal with world powers aimed at preventing it from developing a nuclear weapon.The European powers have offered to delay reinstating sanctions for up to six months to allow space for talks on a long-term deal if Iran restores access for UN nuclear inspectors, addresses concerns about its stock of enriched uranium, and engages in talks with the United States.Pezeshkian criticised the move by European powers as "illegal", saying it was made at "the behest of the United States of America".The United States, its European allies and Israel accuse Tehran of using its nuclear programme as a veil for efforts to try to develop the capability to produce weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only."In doing so, they (the E3) set aside good faith. They circumvented legal obligations. They sought to portray Iran's lawful remedial measures ... as a gross violation," Pezeshkian said.But amid the looming threat of sanctions and last-ditch talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, gaps remain between Tehran and European powers over a deal to avert the snapback of sanctions.Still, both sides have left the door open to further negotiations. While the E3 says Iran's clerical rulers have so far failed to meet the conditions it set, Tehran says it will not offer concessions.Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on key state matters such as foreign policy and Iran's nuclear programme, has ruled out negotiations with the United States under threat.If Tehran and the E3 fail to reach a deal on an extension by the end of September 27, then all UN sanctions will be reimposed on Iran, where the economy already struggles with crippling sanctions reimposed since 2018 after President Donald Trump ditched the pact during his first term.The so-called "snapback" process would reimpose an arms embargo, a ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing, a ban on activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, a global asset freeze and travel bans on Iranian individuals and entities.Soon after the US and Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear sites in June, Iran's parliament passed a law suspending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.However, the IAEA and Tehran reached a deal on September 9 to resume inspections at nuclear sites and UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday a team of inspectors was on its way to Iran should Tehran and the E3 strike a deal this week to avert revival of sanctions.

Russia and Belarus are rehearsing the launch of Russian tactical nuclear weapons as part of joint war games, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday.State media quoted the Belarusian chief of staff as saying that the exercises also featured Russia's Oreshnik hypersonic missile, which it test-fired last year in the war with Ukraine.Russia and Belarus are ending five days of war games codenamed Zapad (West) in a show of force they say is to test combat readiness but which has unnerved some surrounding countries.Dressed in military attire, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with top military officials Tuesday in Russia's Nizhny Novogorod region, where some of the drills took place.Some 100,000 military personnel participated in the exercises, which involved roughly 10,000 pieces of military equipment, the Kremlin chief said in comments broadcast on state television.The drills were to ensure the "unconditional protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Union State," Putin said, referring to the alliance of Russia and Belarus.The war games, which Western military analysts say are designed to intimidate Europe, come just days after Polish and Nato forces say they shot down Russian drones that entered Polish airspace.Belarus, a close Russian ally which borders Ukraine and Russia, as well as Nato members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, hosts Russian tactical nuclear weapons which Moscow retains command and control of.Lukashenko was cited by the Belarusian state news agency Belta as saying that it was only natural that the Russian tactical nuclear weapons were part of the Zapad drills."We are practising everything there. They (the West) know this too, we are not hiding it. From firing conventional small arms to nuclear warheads. Again, we must be able to do all this. Otherwise, why would they be on Belarusian territory?" he was quoted as saying."But we are absolutely not planning to threaten anyone with this."The Belarusian Defence Ministry confirmed in a statement that the use of tactical nuclear weapons had been rehearsed along with the deployment of Russia's intermediate-range Oreshnik ballistic missile that Moscow fired at Ukraine for the first time on November 21 last year.Putin said late last year that Russia could deploy Oreshniks, which he has claimed are impossible to intercept, on the territory of Belarus in the second half of 2025.Lukashenko, who holds regular talks with Putin, allowed Moscow to use his territory to enter Ukraine in February 2022, but has not committed his own troops to the fighting.US President Donald Trump has begun cultivating closer ties with Lukashenko, long treated as a pariah by the West, and relaxed some sanctions on Belarus last week in return for the release of 52 prisoners including political opponents.US military officers observed part of the Zapad exercise in Belarus on Monday.Russia's Defence Ministry said Tuesday that nuclear-capable Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers had rehearsed launching cruise missiles over the Barents Sea north of the Nordic countries.The bombers had flown over the Barents Sea's neutral waters for about four hours, escorted by MiG-31 fighter jets, it said.Separately, it said Marines belonging to Russia's Northern Fleet practised repelling an amphibious landing by an enemy force on a peninsula in Russia's Murmansk region.Video showed troops — backed by attack helicopters and fighter jets — using armoured personnel carriers, drones, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and automatic weapons — seeing off an imaginary enemy.Ships from Russia's Baltic Fleet — backed by fighter jets — test-fired cruise missiles at notional enemy ships, as did the fleet's land-based mobile missile launchers.In Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, troops practised using a Torn-MDM radio reconnaissance complex to detect the location of enemy forces so that their coordinates could be passed on to drone and artillery units.