ELECTION After talks with the country’s president, Romanian Prime
\nMinister Ludovic Orban has announced their decision to kick off procedures for
\nstaging snap elections. According to Orban, a working group has been set up for
\ntalks with the other parties in order to muster support for this initiative.
\nThe Prime Minister said that the Social Democratic Party, PSD, which has a
\nrelative majority, is acting like a stopper in Parliament and the only solution
\nto this situation is to stage early election as close to the local election as
\npossible. Romania is going to see local election in May this year. In another
\ndevelopment, the Social Democrats are taking into consideration a no-confidence
\nvote, but criticized the idea of snap election saying that such a move would
\nthrow Romania into a superficial political crisis. <\/p>\n
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MINISTER Romania is in favour of an increased NATO role in the Middle East
\nand in fighting terrorism, the country’s Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said
\non Friday. The Romanian minister said that the speech of the US president
\nDonald Trump on Wednesday proved that de-escalation is possible. According to
\nthe Romanian official, it is extremely important that the members of both NATO
\nand the EU be united and act in solidarity. Aurescu made his statements in
\nBrussels, before the special proceedings of the Foreign Affairs Council
\nsummoned against the latest developments in the Middle East. The event is also
\nbeing attended by NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg. <\/p>\n
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DIPLOMACY Iran’s ambassador in Bucharest Morteza Aboutalebi on Friday said
\nthat Romania, as an ally of the USA, is not targeted by any of Iran’s aggressive
\nactions. The Iranian diplomat added that neither is the NATO anti-missile
\nshield in Deveselu, southern Romania. According to Aboutalebi, an increased
\nNATO presence in the Middle East is not perceived by the regime in Tehran as in
\nany way related to Iran and that Tehran has always been ready for talks with
\nthe international community, including the United States. <\/p>\n
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AIR CRASH The USA, Canada and Britain said that information from multiple
\nsources indicates that the Ukrainian aircraft that crashed on Wednesday near
\nTehran has been taken down by Iranian armed forced. 176 people died. Iran may
\nhave accidentally shot down the plane in which 63 Canadian citizens were
\ntraveling, among other nationals, Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau said. The US
\npresident Donald Trump and British PM Boris Johnson confirmed the hypothesis.
\nAll parties now ask Iran to initiate a detailed and thorough investigation. The
\nIranian authorities dismissed the latest intelligence as ridiculous
\nand part of an American psychological maneuver. The Ukraine International Airlines flight to Kiev crashed shortly after
\ntaking off from the Tehran airport, just hours after Iran had launched
\nballistic missiles against 2 US military bases in Iraq, with the Iranians
\nsubsequently on alert for prospective American retaliation. According to
\nAmerican intelligence, the infrared signature from two suspected missile
\nlaunches was identified, followed shortly afterwards by the infrared blip from
\nthe burning Boeing 737-800. On
\nThursday Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation said the 3-year old plane faced
\ntechnical problems shortly after take-off.<\/p>\n
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(translated by bill)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":75903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[13794,29386,32649,31167],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-104079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-nato","tag-psd","tag-stoltenberg","tag-trump"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n