Explosive matter was found near a mine in Donetsk

1 Iran

The Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced a further reduction of the nuclear deal obligations carried out by Tehran. «On Friday, Iran will begin the third phase of the reduction of the nuclear deal obligations» — TASS quoted Rouhani. He added that Tehran is ready to provide the participants of the Joint Comprehensive Nuclear Program Action Plan with two more months to reach an agreement on the terms of the deal. Earlier, the Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif stated that Tehran intends to announce a new reduction of the obligations. Iran set a condition for Europe to return to the nuclear deal — either they buy oil from Tehran, or give a loan of $15 billions of dollars. In May of 2018, the US announced their withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan. The US reintroduced their economic sanctions against Iran, which was followed by Iranian refusal to carry out a number of obligations of the nuclear deal.

2 China — the USA

On Thursday, the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Liu He had a telephone conversation with the US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin and the Sales Representative Robert Lighthizer. They agreed to hold a new round of trade and economic negotiations in Washington in early October — RIA NEWS reports while citing the Chinese Commerce Ministry. Earlier it was reported that the negotiations could take place in September. The last round of negotiations took place on 31st of July in Shanghai. The parties failed to make any progress, and the trade confrontation only got worse. On 1st of September the parties introduced new trade duties. In preparation for the high-level talks, a meeting of the parties at the working level will be held in mid-September, the ministry specified.

3 Belarus

Minsk intends to develop their contant with the NATO — the State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus, Stanislav Zas, announced. “We believe that it is in our interests to develop the cooperation with this military-political bloc” — Zas said on-air to the Belarusian television. He added that Belarus is aiming “at least” at the level of cooperation with the NATO, which Russia currently has. At the same time, he noted that Belarus won’t stop their military cooperation with Russia. He reminded that soon the two countries will hold the joint strategic exercises “Union Shield — 2019”. Recently the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that NATO is interested in a cooperation with Belarus. NATO considers it necessary to conduct a dialogue on the arms control issues.

4 Italy

The new Italian government, led by Giuseppe Conte, was sworn in on Thursday, in the presence of the Italian President Sergio Mattarella. The current coalition cabinet, based on the new parliamentary majority of the »5 Star Movement» and the Democratic Party, consists of 21 Ministers. 11 represent the »5 Star Movement», 9 others represent the Democratic Party. Now the government must win the confidence of the parliament. The voting in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate will take place, presumably, on Monday and Tuesday.