The tripartite talks on Syria are over

Explosions are still taking place at the arsenal near the town of Arys in Kazakhstan. The fire fighting is currently suspended — said the head of the Ministry of the Internal Affairs of the country — Yerlan Turgumbayev. The number of victims increased to 2 people. One civilian and one soldier were killed by the event — said the head of the country’s government, Askar Mamin. 89 people were hospitalized. 15 are in intensive care, RIA NEWS report. As we reported earlier — series of explosions took place in the city of Arys. Eyewitnesses claim that some shells fell as far as 20 kilometers away from the town with population of 45,000 of people.

Donald Trump questioned the preservation of the Treaty on Mutual Cooperation between the United States and Japan, TASS reports while citing Bloomberg. According to the sources of Bloomberg, Donald Trump said that under the treaty, the United States had promised to protect Japan. Japan, in turn, isn’t obliged to stand up for the United States. In addition, he doesn’t like the transfer of the US military base in Okinawa. Donald Trump regards this transfer as a land grab. Bloomberg believes that the withdrawal from the treaty by the United States would pose a threat to the security in the Asia-Pacific region. Tokyo will have to look for new ways of ensuring of security, which could provoke an arms race. Back in February of this year, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the Americans «burden of Okinawa.» According to the Kyodo agency — the US military committed more than 5,500 crimes on the islands of this prefecture.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry announced that the new US sanctions against the supreme leader of the republic Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif are useless, and «forever close the path to diplomacy» — the Iranian foreign minister Abbas Musavi twitted. According to him, «the desperate government of Donald Trump destroys all the international mechanisms, designed to maintain the peace and stability on the planet.» Earlier, Donald Trump announced that he signed a decree that imposes sanctions on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin mentioned that «during this week» it is planned to add the Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to the list of sanctions.

The Trilateral talks on Syria with the participation of the Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, the Assistant to the President of the United States for the National Security John Bolton, and the head of the Israeli National Security Council Meir Ben-Shabbat ended in Jerusalem — RIA News reports. The talks of the high-ranking representatives from the three countries lasted for almost two and a half hours. Earlier, Nikolai Patrushev elaborated on the main topics of the upcoming talks: the elimination of the remaining terrorists in Syria, the start of the internal political settlement processes, and the country’s socio-economic reconstruction, as well as humanitarian assistance projects.

The Candidate for the post of British Prime Minister Jeremy Hunt promised that if he gets elected — he’ll increase the annual defense spending by 25% by the year of 2024, which will make £54 billions of pounds, TASS reports. Jeremy Hunt, the current foreign minister of the current cabinet, is going to increase the defense spending up to 2.5% of the GDP. According to him, «it would show the whole world a self-confident country, ready to defend its interests and values after leaving the EU.» According to Jeremy Hunt, the additional funds will be partially aimed at the enhancement of the UK presence in the North Atlantic where, as he claims, the activity of Russian submarines has increased. The funds are also needed to increase the presence of the Royal Navy in the Pacific. And also to repel the cyber threats.

The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov announced that a group of Russian specialists had arrived in Venezuela to continue the maintenance of the local military equipment. “This is a continuation of the maintenance on the equipment that was previously shipped to Venezuela under contracts of military-technical cooperation” — Sergei Ryabkov replied to the question about the arrival of a Russian military aircraft to Venezuela — TASS reports. “This cooperation is clear and transparent from all points of view. It does not carry any elements of destabilization of the regional, or any other situation” — he added. He also clarified that “any attempts to actively speculate on this topic are dishonest”.

Constantine Reztsov, specially for ANNA NEWS.