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Venezuela opens US-backed talks without its most popular opposition leader

Venezuela opposition talks

Venezuela’s interim administration and a segment of the opposition will meet for U.S.-backed talks on Saturday without the country’s most popular opposition member.

The negotiations are an attempt to change the Venezuelan political system before elections are held. They also illustrate how involved Washington has become in Venezuelan politics since the Trump administration ousted Nicolas Maduro in a raid in January and installed acting President Delcy Rodriguez.

Delcy’s brother Jorge Rodriguez, who also heads the National Assembly, will lead the government’s delegation. He has already negotiated with the U.S. and the opposition. Dinorah Figuera will lead the opposition side, a delegation backed by Washington in its campaign to reform the electoral council and top court so that future elections may be deemed free and fair. Three sources familiar with the case said the U.S. asked Figuera to take on the post as she heads an opposition-controlled national assembly group elected in 2015, which Washington still regards as the country’s last legitimately elected legislature.

A deliberate absence

Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela’s most popular opposition member, will not be participating in the discussions, a move that has not gone over well with some watchers of the country’s politics.

Machado fled Venezuela late last year to collect her Nobel Prize, after months primarily spent in exile following a controversial 2024 presidential election. She has claimed she wants to go back to Venezuela to help the country recover following twin earthquakes in June, a proposal that U.S. officials think is ill-timed. Trump has refuted media claims that his administration told her not to return. Washington has frequently sidelined her since Maduro’s ouster, with U.S. officials saying she lacks sufficient backing to run the country.

Three individuals said Machado didn’t even know the conversations were being arranged until Figuera came to Caracas in mid-June. Machado was only told about the negotiations later and was never invited to join the opposition group, another source added, as she is not part of the 2015 assembly that Figuera represents.

“Machado is right to distance herself from this process,” said someone familiar with the negotiations. “If the negotiations go well and end up with free elections, she will be Venezuela’s first woman president. If the negotiations go badly, she will have made her point: that negotiations need people with legitimacy, accepted and seen in a positive light by the public.

That dynamic puts negotiators on the back foot from the start. They need results fast enough to generate public confidence and counter the fact that Venezuela’s most trusted opposition member is sitting this round out, the insider said.

Last week Machado said she would not be in the negotiations, but also said she would not block “real progress”, explaining her absence. She said she will measure the negotiations by concrete outcomes – restoration of democratic institutions, freeing of political prisoners and scheduling of elections. Machado and Figuera could not be reached for comment.

The government wants

The interim government hopes to utilize the talks to lobby for the lifting of the remaining U.S. sanctions. Washington has in the past relaxed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil, gas and gold sectors, usually linked to pacts struck between the government and opposition on free and fair elections.

This is no unfamiliar ground for the opposition in Venezuela. It bargained for years with the Maduro government, which stuffed the top courts and election authorities with loyalists. A 2024 accord had promised a fair contest and broad opposition participation, but Maduro’s regime blocked Machado from running. She won about two-thirds of the vote, according to U.S. and international election observers. Electoral and judicial institutions nevertheless certified Maduro the winner, and he stayed in office until the raid in January.

Ricardo Rios, chairman of the political risk consultancy Poder y Estrategia, stated that excluding Machado’s camp from the current discussions is excluding a considerable part of the population. But he added that Venezuela’s opposition has long been splintered so her absence is unlikely to cause new divides.

Washington’s stance

The United States has said that Venezuela needs to stabilize and recover economically before elections can be held. Since the transition, Trump has lifted some restrictions and has lauded Rodriguez’s efforts on multiple occasions.

This month Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a strong friend of Machado, informed journalists that she is free to participate in the negotiations if the Venezuelans wish for her attendance. “The U.S. role is not to lead the process, but to support it,” he said.

“Venezuela needs to have every element of Venezuelan society represented so that Venezuela can get the reconciliation it needs to move forward on all these other projects,” Rubio said. “And obviously, Maria Corina is an important element of that.”

U.S. engagement provides a degree of security to opposition figures who have been jailed and prosecuted on what they say are politically motivated charges, one opposition source said. Another source close to Figuera’s group said the U.S. was a “central player” in the discussions and would not stand on the sidelines.

A rehearsal before the real thing

Saturday’s meetings were the clearest indication so far of how much Washington controls the pace and shape of Venezuela’s democratic transition. The government seeks relief from sanctions. The opposition group is looking for assurances that the next election would be counted fairly, something the 2024 vote was not. And the country’s most famous opposition leader, watching from outside the chamber, is betting her absence will either smooth the path for a genuine decision or expose the process as flawed.

The question is whether Machado’s calculus will be vindicated by Figuera’s delegation being able to extract meaningful pledges on judicial and electoral change, not promises that evaporate like earlier agreements did. Her decision to remain out is proof of her contention that any process without her has less validity with voters, if the talks break down or lead simply to cosmetic modifications. If they win, she has the political opening without having used her own political capital to negotiate it.

In either case the outcome depends on actors that respond to Washington, differently. Rodriguez wants sanctions relief to stabilize the economy handled currently by his brother’s government. Figuera needs the support of the United States to offer legitimacy to her delegation with a Venezuelan population that has seen prior negotiations collapse. Absent by choice, Machado wants either a straightforward failure or a convincing success from the negotiations, because no one, least of all her, would gain from a convoluted outcome.

Picture of George Mensah

George Mensah

George Mensah is a Senior Political & Conflict Correspondent at ClicxPost, covering global politics, international conflict, and economic developments. With five years of experience in breaking news and geopolitical reporting, he delivers fast, accurate analysis on major world events.

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July 29, 2026 No Comments

What weeks of military confrontation could not accomplish seemed briefly possible on June 17 when the United States and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding. It lengthened the truce, opened a path back to negotiations and raised hopes of restoring stability to one of the world’s most strategically important regions. At first things looked good. Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which carries about a fifth of the world’s oil trade, began to recover. Oil flows rose and Iranian exports more than doubled from wartime lows under a temporary sanctions waiver. The week of June 22-28 was the busiest since hostilities began on Feb. 28, with about 340 commercial vessels passing through the Strait. For a moment it appeared that diplomacy was working. Within weeks ships were disappearing again from the strait. Military exchanges resumed and soon mediators were calling for another temporary truce just to save the original deal. What seemed like a breakthrough had become another fragile ceasefire. Its collapse revealed a flaw in the mediation: the parties had agreed on a political text, but not on the mechanisms to make it work, and the states that brokered the deal lacked the leverage to make them do so. Not implementation, signatures Part of the problem was that the signing of the agreement became the end rather than the beginning. The U.S. and mediators worked on drafting a political text both sides could live with. They measured success by signatures and public declarations, not paying enough attention to what actually happens when governments, militaries, regulators, banks, insurers, shipping companies and regional allies try to implement an agreement. Questions about interpretation, sequencing, verification, dispute resolution and confidence-building were deferred rather than resolved. The June MoU, like many cease-fire arrangements, was based on constructive ambiguity. Then it all made sense. Both Washington and Tehran needed sufficient political wiggle room to sell the deal to domestic audiences as a win while leaving hard issues unresolved. Ambiguity can move diplomacy forward when a complete agreement isn’t possible. Ambiguity only works if there are clear mechanisms to deal with the ambiguity. Without it, divergences simply move from the negotiating table to the implementation stage, where trust is less and the political cost of failure is greater. The MoU was about keeping a nuclear “status quo,” not defining what activities were or were not permitted. It offered to ease sanctions but did not say which restrictions would be lifted, by what legal authority or on what timeline. It pointed to frozen Iranian assets but gave no details on how the funds would be released, controlled or monitored. Roughly $12 billion was reportedly on the table, yet disputes quickly surfaced over whether that money would sit in supervised escrow accounts or move under unrestricted Iranian control. A Strait Without Rulebook The maritime provisions were equally defective. The deal required Iran to “make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels” and to discuss with Oman the future administration and maritime services of the Strait of Hormuz “in accordance with applicable international law and the sovereign rights of the coastal states.But it did not create a common framework for navigation, maritime security, inspection procedures, routing, or dispute resolution. The wording left room for Tehran to interpret the accord as recognizing a future Iranian role in the management of the strait. There was an initial recovery in commercial traffic as markets reacted to news of the ceasefire. But confidence remained fragile, because the institutional arrangements needed to sustain normal shipping had never been agreed. Washington said it would temporarily waive sanctions for 60 days for limited sales of oil, banking, insurance and shipping. But many insurers, refiners and shipping firms remained cautious anyway. The two-month legal window was not enough to justify the resumption of billions of dollars in commercial relations. The respite, while it lasted, was a boon to Iran. The waiver period is estimated to have exported some 70 million barrels of oil, worth roughly $5 billion to $6 billion. But oil shipped to tankers does not turn immediately into unrestricted cash in Tehran’s hands. Sanctions, escrow arrangements and banking procedures were not clear, and commercial recovery did not bring the economic relief the agreement was meant to provide. The ceasefire also gave both sides time to prepare for the possibility of diplomacy failing. The U.S. increased its military stockpiles and moved assets around the region. Iran used the pause to engineer a political transition and project continuity through the funeral of the supreme leader. Mediators had hoped that time would bring political progress. Instead, both governments used it to strengthen their own position in case negotiations failed. That is the key lesson: implementation is not an administrative afterthought to successful diplomacy. It’s diplomacy, but done differently. If an agreement is to stick, continued mediation is needed for every disagreement about sequencing, sanctions, verification, compliance or interpretation. More mediators, same leverage problem The shortcomings of the MoU’s implementation were not simply a matter of poor drafting. This was symptomatic of a broader problem with the mediation process itself: the states that brokered the agreement had enough trust to bring the parties together, but not enough leverage to compel them to resolve disputes or follow through on commitments once implementation began. One good thing is that the mediatory effort has expanded. What began as a predominantly Pakistani endeavor has evolved into a wider diplomatic coalition with Qatar, Egypt and other regional partners now backing efforts to restore the ceasefire and get talks back on track. The expansion spreads the political, financial and logistical burden of mediation, gives access to more regional stakeholders, including Israel and Hezbollah, and makes the process more resilient if any one channel gets blocked. But growth alone will not solve the underlying problem. New mediators are trusted interlocutors, with close regional ties like the original mediators, but limited leverage over the strategic calculations of Washington and Tehran. They can help encourage dialogue, diffuse misunderstandings and keep negotiations on track. They aren’t able to implement it themselves. The latest proposals highlight the point. Mediators are discussing opening a southern route backed by the U.S. that was hit by Iranian attacks, and a “Iran-approved” northern shipping route that is now affected by the U.S. naval blockade. “They are also looking at options for transit fees, such as a jointly run fund or a system that would allow Iran to collect fees related to maritime security and environmental services.” Such ideas might help revive the MoU but are unlikely by themselves to secure a durable ceasefire, restore confidence in commercial shipping or sustain meaningful sanctions relief. What would a durable implementation require Sustainable implementation requires a different kind of international support. “Stronger external guarantors will become more important as the negotiations move from agreeing principles to enforcing obligations. Major powers with genuine economic, political and strategic weight can provide inducements, reassurance and, when appropriate, pressure that smaller mediating states cannot generate on their own. They will not be replacing the current mediators, who are vital for their credibility and relationships in the region. It would be a complement to that work in providing the leverage that is necessary to sustain implementation and assure both sides that commitments will in fact be honored. The next phase of diplomacy isn’t just about enlarging the circle of mediators. It’s about diversifying who is in that circle. Washington and Tehran could be brought together by trusted regional mediators. But without guarantors able to ensure implementation and impose real costs for non-compliance, any new agreement is in danger of meeting the same fate as the June MoU: signed with optimism, briefly observed and quickly undone.

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Pavel Durov terrorism charges

Russia charges telegram founder Durov with facilitating terrorism, claims app aided Ukrainian sabotage recruits

July 29, 2026 No Comments

Russia on Wednesday accused Telegram founder Pavel Durov of assisting terrorism, saying Ukrainian intelligence used his messaging app to plot attacks inside Russia. Within hours, the official Telegram account on X replied with a picture of the Russian-born billionaire giving the obscene middle finger gesture. The charges, which Russia’s Federal Security Service announced, stem from a long-running investigation into Dubai-based Durov and the platform he created. Moscow has already throttled access to Telegram in Russia in a wider crackdown on foreign tech platforms, forcing Russian users to rely on VPNs to access the app while state institutions including the Kremlin and the defence ministry continue to post to it on a daily basis. A dating chatbot was implicated in the case The FSB and Russia’s Investigative Committee said in statements that a Telegram chatbot called “Daivinchik/Leo” had been used by Ukrainian special services to recruit young Russians into sabotage and terrorist operations. The chatbot is a popular dating tool in Russia after Tinder was banned. The statement said Ukrainian operatives posed as young women on the chatbot to contact Russians, building relationships before coercing them into committing crimes. Over the past year, 46 Russians aged 12 to 22 have been detained after being recruited in this way, who, according to the FSB, allegedly carried out attacks on law enforcement officers or set fire to transport, energy, communications and financial infrastructure. Ukraine did not immediately respond to the accusations. telegram as a weapon of war by either one Telegram has been dubbed a “virtual battlefield” in the war between Russia and Ukraine, with government officials, soldiers and influential military bloggers on both sides using the platform to share information, coordinate and shape public narratives around the conflict. The dual use by both governments, even as Russia moves against its founder, underscores the platform’s unusual position as a tool Moscow relies on for its own messaging, while also accusing it of being a platform for attacks against the state. an international wanted list, but not a clear process The FSB said Durov was being placed on an international wanted list, but did not say how Russia intends to pursue that designation. The global police organization Interpol did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A source familiar with the situation said it is unlikely that process will move quickly if Moscow seeks a Red Notice through Interpol. Durov lives in Dubai, an emirate with friendly relations with Moscow and growing links in energy, business and finance. But handing Durov to Russian authorities could hurt Dubai’s reputation as a center for global enterprise and technology, an image the emirate has carefully constructed by luring entrepreneurs and tech executives from across the globe. Durov said last week he was in Georgia, but his current whereabouts is unknown. a founder with a history of friction with the russian government Born in Russia, Durov founded VKontakte, often called Russia’s answer to Facebook, before selling his remaining stake in the company in 2014 under pressure from Russian authorities. He currently holds citizenships of the United Arab Emirates and France. His problems with law enforcement are not limited to Russia. In 2024, Durov was arrested by French authorities on charges that Telegram did not do enough to police criminal activity on its platform and failed to cooperate with law enforcement requests. He was soon allowed to leave France as the investigation continues. The case is still open. Durov has denied any wrongdoing, saying Telegram has gone above and beyond its legal obligations in moderating content and cooperating with authorities to fight crime on the platform. months of red flags from Moscow The charges on Wednesday were not unexpected. In February, a Russian government newspaper reported that Durov was under investigation in a terrorism-related case. In April, Durov wrote on Telegram that a summons addressed to “Suspect P.V. Durov” had been delivered to an apartment in Russia where he lived two decades ago. He met that summons with defiance rather than concern. “They must be suspecting me of defending articles 29 and 23 of the Russian Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of speech and the right to private correspondence. “Guilty and proud of it!” At the time, Durov wrote that the investigation was not a legitimate criminal matter but “retaliation for my refusal to give in on user privacy protections.” Durov, for now, remains outside of Russian jurisdiction, and the path to arresting him is murky, given his current location and the diplomatic headache any extradition request would cause with Dubai or Georgia. The designation as an international wanted person gives Russian authorities a formal basis to seek him, but without cooperation from the country where he is, the charges may serve more as a political statement than an immediate legal threat. Durov is now being investigated in another jurisdiction for how Telegram is used and moderated, adding to a growing list of countries where he is under scrutiny following his unresolved legal exposure in France. Durov’s exposure to actual practical risk, apart from the reputational and diplomatic pressure the charges have already generated, will likely depend on whether Russia’s terrorism charges find traction internationally, or whether Interpol refuses to act on a Red Notice request due to the political nature of the case. Telegram itself has not shown any intention to change its ways in response to the allegations. The platform’s blunt public response on X – a photo of Durov’s obscene gesture rather than any sort of official statement – suggests the company will dismiss Moscow’s accusations as illegitimate rather than address them on their merits.

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Ethiopian Airlines Bishoftu airport

U.S. seeks role in Ethiopia’s $12.5 billion airport project as rivalry with China deepens

July 29, 2026 No Comments

The United States is seeking to secure a role for American firms in Ethiopian Airlines’ $12.5 billion Bishoftu airport project, a senior U.S. Commerce Department official said on Wednesday, as Washington competes with China and other powers for influence over infrastructure and investment across Africa. Construction began in January on the four-runway airport, some 45 kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa. Ethiopian officials have said they hope to make the site the “Dubai of Africa” when it opens in 2030. “Washington is very actively engaged in trying to get U.S. participation,” said Mark Mitchell, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of commerce for the Middle East and Africa. He made the comments at a virtual press briefing from the Africa Logistics and Communications Symposium in Addis Ababa where he said he met with officials from Ethiopian Airlines. Mitchell did not specify what form U.S. involvement might take but said “more Boeing aircraft powered by GE Aerospace engines” could be one result of greater American engagement with the airline. Boeing’s swelling order book Ethiopian Airlines has already been growing its relationship with Boeing. In April, the carrier agreed to purchase six additional 787-9 Dreamliners atop 20 jets it already ordered. The carrier has built its long-haul fleet strategy heavily around Boeing widebody jets, and more orders tied to the airport expansion could deepen that commitment. Ethiopian Airlines CEO Mesfin Tasew said in April that U.S. financial institutions had “expressed interest” in participating in the Bishoftu project, but he did not name any specific banks or describe what that participation might entail. Financing still in the works The African Development Bank has committed $500 million for the airport and is spearheading the larger push to raise $8.7 billion needed to finish construction. That still leaves a sizable funding gap to be filled, and the airport’s backers have been courting a mix of multilateral lenders, private investors and foreign governments to fill it. One reason the project has become a point of competition between global powers is the scale of the financing need. Over the past ten years, Chinese banks have lent money to African governments and airlines for infrastructure, and Chinese companies have signed contracts for construction projects. Ethiopian Airlines has worked with Chinese companies on projects in the past. Washington’s drive for a stake in Bishoftu is part of a wider trend of U.S. officials trying to counter Chinese influence on the continent, with American financing, equipment and expertise on offer. AI cooperation also on agenda Mitchell said the Commerce Department also was looking to deepen ties with Ethiopia’s Artificial Intelligence Institute, beyond the airport. He said the outreach was part of a wider U.S. effort to promote exports of American AI technology to African markets, where Washington has been trying to stake an early foothold as governments across the continent begin to develop digital infrastructure and regulatory frameworks for AI adoption. The AI outreach and the airport push are part of a pattern the Commerce Department has followed in several African countries this year: combining traditional infrastructure and aviation deals with efforts to introduce American technology companies into markets where Chinese firms have often gone first and fast. Significance of Bishoftu The airport itself is meant to address a capacity problem Ethiopian Airlines has suffered from for years. Addis Ababa’s current Bole International Airport has had trouble coping with the airline’s growth, and Ethiopian Airlines has established itself as the dominant carrier connecting Africa to the rest of the world, especially through its hub-and-spoke model, routing passengers from smaller African cities through Addis Ababa to international destinations. A four-runway facility able to accommodate the traffic volumes officials are seeking would provide the airline room to keep growing that model for decades. Officials have described it as the “Dubai of Africa”. But the comparison refers to ambitions which go way beyond aviation. There are reportedly plans for retail, logistics and hospitality development around the airport site to generate revenues beyond ticket sales and cargo fees. The project’s appeal for U.S. companies goes well beyond aircraft sales. A big airport like that will likely need contracts for everything from air traffic control systems to ground equipment to construction materials, and U.S. firms compete in many of those areas with European, Chinese and Gulf-based rivals. A Test for U.S.-Africa Strategy The Bishoftu project has become something of a bellwether for how aggressively Washington is willing to compete for African infrastructure business under this administration. But Commerce Department officials have been increasingly emphasizing the strategic importance of African markets, both for their economic potential over the long run and as a way to counter Chinese and Gulf state influence in a region where those powers have often outpaced American investment. Ethiopian Airlines has largely avoided exclusive alignment with any single foreign power, working with Chinese, European and American partners on different projects depending on financing terms and equipment needs. That strategy has given the airline leverage in negotiations, as it can play potential partners off against each other, rather than committing itself to the technology and financing ecosystem of one bloc. Whether Mitchell’s meetings in Addis Ababa will translate into concrete contracts, remains to be seen. The African Development Bank is still trying to raise the $8.7 billion it wants and neither side has publicly detailed what role U.S. companies would have, as suppliers of equipment, financiers or construction partners. For now, the airport is a work in progress with a target completion date of 2030 and both the financing picture and the mix of international partners involved are likely to keep changing as the project progresses. Mitchell’s comments Wednesday suggest that Washington is not backing off from wanting a larger role, but the size of that role will depend on decisions still being negotiated among Ethiopian Airlines, its lenders and governments that want to be part of one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the continent in recent years.

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Iran China missile deal

iran to receive up to 400 chinese missile launchers within weeks, sources say

July 29, 2026 No Comments

The first batch of as many as 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers is expected to reach Iran within weeks, three sources familiar with the deal told Reuters. The purchase is one of the biggest known attempts by Tehran to rebuild its short-range air defences since war broke out with the United States and Israel earlier this year. The deal, valued at $60 to $70 million, covers 300 to 400 man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) including Chinese-made QW-12 and FN-16 missiles, the sources said. The deal was signed with Hong Kong-based Zhongqing Baoshang International Investment, which sources described as an intermediary between the Iranian side and the Chinese supplier. The sources were not identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. Iran’s foreign ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment. The Chinese Foreign Ministry challenged the reports. There is no basis whatsoever for the relevant reports. “China has always played a role in promoting peace and resolving the conflict,” the ministry said in a statement. Zhong Qing Bao Shang Group, based in Beijing and the parent of Zhongqing Baoshang International Investment, did not respond to an email request for comment on Tuesday. After months of strike, rebuilding Months of fighting in which the United States and Israel have hit facilities linked to its missile, drone and air-defense programs mean Iran needs to rearm. Tehran retaliated with a barrage of its own ballistic missiles and drones. The war demonstrated the difficulty for Iran to defend fixed military and strategic locations against advanced aircraft and guided weapons. Washington abruptly suspended two weeks of bombardment on Saturday, but President Donald Trump said strikes would resume if talks failed to end the five-month conflict that has been technically under a ceasefire since April. One shipment containing hundreds of MANPADS would significantly boost Iran’s stockpile of short-range air-defense weapons and signal closer military cooperation between Tehran and Beijing. The sources cautioned that even though the deal is signed, delivery schedules, quantities, and other details could change before shipments begin. Under the current plan, the deliveries will initially travel by air from Urumqi in western China, then transit through Pakistan into Iran, the sources said. They did not mention whether the journey onwards from Pakistan would be by air or by road. The ISPR, the military’s public relations wing, denied any involvement. “The speculations about Pakistan’s involvement in the supply of Air Defence weapons to Iran from China are absolutely concocted and false,” the agency said in a statement. A spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. China, Iran discuss land routes Iran has developed its missile, drone and radar capabilities over the past two decades, but military experts say portable air-defense systems serve a different purpose. They can be moved frequently and deployed rapidly by small units, making them harder targets than fixed air-defence batteries. “His country’s authorities were monitoring a number of contracts being negotiated for the sale of QW-series MANPADS to Iran, including the QW-12, QW-18 and QW-19 systems,” said a European security source. Iran was actively looking for QW-12 and QW-18 missiles, but there was no sign that a deal had been concluded, said a second security source based in the Middle East. The QW-12 and FN-16 are portable, infrared-guided, surface-to-air missiles designed to target low-flying aircraft, helicopters and drones. They are mobile, meaning they can be quickly deployed around military installations, energy infrastructure and other sensitive sites. “Defense analysts say the QW-12 is viewed as less capable than newer QW variants, like the QW-18 and QW-19, but it can still offer a useful layer of short-range protection against drones and low-flying threats. Tehran had also looked at overland routes for transporting Chinese military supplies and dual-use components, to reduce the chance of interception and make the shipments less visible, two Western intelligence sources and an Iranian official said. Foreign procurements in spite of sanctions The deal shows Iran remains reliant on a mixture of domestic weapons production and foreign suppliers, even after years of sanctions and limits on defense-related imports. Separately, Reuters reported that Iran was close to a separate deal with China, this time for anti-ship cruise missiles, according to people familiar with the talks. That agreement was not clearly concluded. The MANPADS purchase comes as Iran works to patch holes in its air-defense network revealed during the war. The fighting demonstrated Iran’s air defense infrastructure is vulnerable during a sustained air campaign and the strikes by Israel and the U.S. directly targeted sites connected to Iran’s missile and drone programs. Shoulder-fired systems can’t replace the fixed batteries Iran lost or had degraded during the conflict, but they give ground forces a way to protect specific sites without relying entirely on radar-guided systems that can be jammed or targeted first. The intermediary role of Zhongqing Baoshang fits a familiar pattern in Iranian arms procurement where trading companies in Hong Kong or mainland China act as intermediaries rather than Chinese state-run defense firms selling directly to Tehran. That, in turn, provides Beijing some insulation from transactions that could otherwise bring international attention or sanctions exposure while its Foreign Ministry denies involvement in providing weapons to either side of the conflict. Pakistan’s denial of any role in the transit route adds to the complexity. If deliveries do go through Pakistani territory as the sources described, Islamabad would be in an awkward position given its own relations with Washington and Gulf states that have taken a harder line against Tehran during the conflict. The shipment is still in its early stages for now with the sources warning details could still change before any missiles reach Iranian territory. But the order’s size, possibly hundreds of launchers, indicates Tehran is treating air defense holes as an urgent priority and not a problem it can solve in bits and pieces. How quickly Iran can rebuild the kind of layered air-defense posture it had before the war began is likely to be shaped by whether the deal goes through as planned and whether additional shipments follow the anti-ship missile talks Reuters previously reported.

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Aeon mall explosion Japan

Mall explosion kills 3 after Quake shakes Southern Japan, dozens still trapped

July 29, 2026 No Comments

A magnitude-7.1 earthquake rocked southern Japan Tuesday, sending shoppers sprawling and filling a crowded shopping mall with dust. That was just the beginning. Just over an hour later an explosion rocked the same building killing at least three people and leaving rescue crews working through the night to reach others trapped in the rubble. The blast blew holes in the mall’s steel frame, debris scattering across the parking lot as hundreds of shoppers and employees, already evacuated once for the earthquake, looked on from a distance. First responders were hesitant at first, afraid to enter a building that could still collapse. By early Wednesday morning, eight people had been retrieved from the wreckage. There were three deaths. The condition of three store workers unknown. Mall operator Aeon (8267.T) said it was looking into the possibility of a gas leak. “It’s a race against time to save those still trapped in the mall and elsewhere in the earthquake-devastated region,” Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said of the rescue effort. Around 170 soldiers took part in Wednesday’s search.**A blast like a bomb 41-year-old Takateru Sonoda runs a hair salon and cafe near the mall. “I thought a bomb had gone off,” Sonoda told the Jiji Press news agency. “It felt like an attack.” “People were telling others to get out, and the sirens were going off. “It was a panic situation, roads around were gridlocked. Some 300 meters from the mall, Kazuya Tsurunaga was washing broken dishes and glasses in a pub when the blast occurred. He was already cleaning up after the earthquake. ‘A huge cloud of smoke was billowing up and because the wind happened to be blowing, and the wind direction was toward the shop, it was like volcanic ash was falling around us,’ he told broadcaster TBS. Even before the explosion, the scene inside the mall was chaotic. The Yomiuri newspaper quoted one worker in one of the 200 stores at the mall as saying the earthquake shook the building for 10 seconds and knocked him to his knees. The quake struck about 4:30 p.m. (0830 GMT), raising a cloud of dust and adding to the panic among shoppers trying to escape, said a 22-year-old employee at the mall cinema.Thousands evacuated, but some didn’t make it out Aeon President Akio Yoshida told reporters Wednesday employees were able to evacuate 3,000 shoppers within 30 minutes after the earthquake. Some employees had gone back inside when the explosion occurred about 50 minutes later. “We confirmed all the customers had been evacuated. We thought that employees had also evacuated, but it later turned out that some people had stayed inside or returned for some reason,” Yoshida said. One survivor was found injured in a bathroom, he said. A video shot by a police officer inside the mall early Wednesday shows large portions of the ceiling had collapsed, storefronts were blown open and furniture was strewn across the floor. One small bit of good news: All 25 cats left behind in a cat cafe during the evacuation were rescued Wednesday. “Thank you to the rescue workers,” the store owner wrote in a post on social media. Police and firefighters stayed away from the rubble for hours after the explosion because of the risk of further collapse. Aftershocks continued to come. More than 100 had been registered in Kumamoto prefecture by Tuesday evening, a police official said. A mall rebuilt after the last catastrophe The mall, the largest in Kumamoto prefecture, had just reopened last month after a renovation to mark its recovery from a previous earthquake. The 7.3 magnitude Kumamoto earthquake badly damaged the building in April 2016. When it reopened, Aeon cited safety upgrades, including seismically reinforced ceilings, in its redevelopment. Those upgrades didn’t stop Tuesday’s quake from causing damage, or, investigators say, from setting off a chain of events that led to an explosion. Gas in investigators’ sights Some rescuers at the scene reported smelling gas, Japan’s government spokesperson Minoru Kihara told reporters Wednesday. A TV reporter at the scene reported that an emergency vehicle was repeatedly telling people to stay away from the mall because of a possible leak. The mall was running on LPG, or liquefied petroleum gas, which was pumped in from an outdoor storage tank, not piped gas from the network, officials at the mall told the Associated Press. Video of the scene showed the tank appeared intact after the explosion. The LPG system had passed a safety check as recently as last month, officials said. In Japan, if seismic activity exceeds a threshold or a line breaks, the piping system is automatically shut off. LPG systems have similar safeguards, an official with Japan LPG sales association said. Microcomputer controlled meters will automatically shut off supply when leaks or abnormal pressure changes are detected. Meters are designed to shut down during major earthquakes. In an emergency, gas suppliers and safety service providers can also shut off the supply remotely by radio, the official said. A gas-related cause for the explosion was “very high” in likelihood but a full investigation was needed to determine what went wrong, Yoshida said Wednesday, stopping short of confirming it. “We did not expect an explosion of this nature to happen,” Yoshida said. “We have not had an accident like this in the years that we have operated Aeon mall.” What’s next Engineers assessed how stable the rest of the structure was, while rescue teams continued their search through the wreckage Wednesday for the three missing store workers. The cause of the gas system failure is still unknown despite safeguards, but aftershocks continue to rock the area and investigators have a limited time to figure out what triggered the blast before evidence becomes more difficult to access in the collapsed areas. The explosion poses tough questions for Aeon about a building the company had just spent months rebuilding and promoting as safer than before. For the people of Kumamoto, it’s the second disaster involving the same mall in 10 years, a disaster that began with the ground shaking and ended with a fireball that few who lived through it will ever forget.

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