Washington asked for permission to land warplanes on the island March 4 and 8, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has told parliament Sri Lanka refused to provide ground access to two US fighter jets earlier this month, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has told parliament. Washington asked for permission to land the warplanes on the island on March 4 and 8, Dissanayake said on Friday. “They wanted to bring in two warplanes armed with eight anti-ship missiles from a base in Djibouti to the Mattala International Airport and we said no,” the Sri Lankan president told parliament. “We want to maintain our neutrality despite many pressures. We won’t give in. The Middle East war poses challenges but we will do everything possible to remain neutral.” Sri Lanka also refused a request by three Iranian ships to go to the country on a goodwill visit, he said. I met with US Special Representative for South & Central Asia, Amb. @SergioGor , today (19). We discussed strengthening US-Sri...
Posts
Hungary continues to block the €90 billion loan as Italy’s Giorgia Meloni reportedly expressed support for Budapest’s stance The EU will provide a controversial loan to Ukraine “one way or another,” despite it remaining blocked by Hungary, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday. Budapest vetoed the EU’s €90 billion ($105 billion) emergency loan for Ukraine after Kiev halted Russian oil flows through the Druzhba pipeline – a key supply route to Hungary and Slovakia. “We will deliver on the loan one way or the other,” von der Leyen told reporters after a summit in Brussels on Thursday, where EU leaders failed to persuade Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to lift his veto. Orban, who faces an election next month, has repeatedly accused Kiev of deliberately halting supplies for political reasons and said this week he would block the loan until the oil supplies resume. “If there is no oil, there is no money,” he said. EU officials, who have so far avoi...
The US president referenced the WWII attack to defend the decision not to notify allies of the strikes against Iran US President Donald Trump joked about the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor in front of a visibly uncomfortable Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, as he defended his decision not to warn allies before striking Iran. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump was pressed on the lack of advance notice to Washington’s partners before the US and Israel launched massive strikes on Iran last month, a decision that upended energy markets and led to a major Middle East escalation. ”We didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise,” the president explained, before turning to Takaichi and saying: “Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?” Takaichi maintained her composure and did not comment, but was apparently taken aback by the remarks. Read more Trump compares Iran strikes to Hiroshima Trump was ...
The names of the candidates for mayor of Arcis-sur-Aube have drawn global attention An upcoming mayoral runoff in the small French town of Arcis-sur-Aube has drawn global attention due to the unusual surnames of two candidates, which resemble those of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky. Mayor Charles Hittler is seeking reelection in a three-way second round on Sunday against Annie Soucat and Antoine Renault-Zielinski, after leading the first round of voting last weekend. Hittler, who has governed the small community of less than 3,000 in the Grand Est region since 2020, is in the lead following the first round, in which he received 37.81% of the vote. He was followed by Soucat with 32.20% and Renault-Zielinski with 29.99%, Le Figaro reported. What stopped Hittler from changing his name? Online jokes about the election have gone too far, the mayor told the BBC. “I’ve seen online articles saying ‘37% of the people of Arcis are Hitlerites!’ My wife is in tears.”...
The US president has warned of an attack on the South Pars area if Iran targets Qatar in response to Israeli strikes The US will “massively blow up” the South Pars gas field – the world’s largest – if Iran continues to strike Qatari energy facilities, President Donald Trump has warned. Israel launched strikes on Wednesday on Iran’s facilities in the South Pars gas field in the Gulf, which it shares with Qatar. The South Pars spans almost 10,000 sq km and hosts an estimated 1,800 trillion cubic feet of gas. In response, Iran attacked a Qatari LNG facility and has threatened counterstrikes on key energy infrastructure across the Gulf region. Multiple media outlets reported that the Israeli attack on South Pars had been coordinated with American officials, with a source to the Jerusalem Post suggesting the US was more accepting of strikes on gas infrastructure rather than on oil facilities. Read more Trump issues threat over major Iranian gas field, Moscow warns of ‘tipping point’ ...
Islamabad’s evolving program could put American cities within range, the intel chief has said Pakistan’s evolving missile program poses a potential threat to the US, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has said. She named the South Asian country along with Russia and others in the 2026 Annual Threat Assessment Report. “Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan have been researching and developing an array of novel, advanced, or traditional missile delivery systems with nuclear and conventional payloads, that put our homeland within range,” Gabbard told the US Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday. “Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missile development potentially could include ICBMs with the range capable of striking the homeland.” Gabbard told the committee that she expects threats to the US to expand collectively from more than 3,000 missiles to more than 16,000 missiles by 2035. Washington-based scholar Shuja Nawaz told Dawn News that this “continues the an...