US President Donald Trump appears to be leaning toward strikes on Iran, but his administration is sending contradictory signals, alternating between threats and a willingness to talk -- and muddying its justification for intervention.
Opposition Democrats are meanwhile questioning the Republican president's objectives, demanding that Congress be consulted before Trump takes the country to war.
KYIV, Feb 26 (Reuters) - The next round of U.S.-brokered trilateral peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will likely take place in Abu Dhabi in early March, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday.
He made the remark in an evening address after talks in Geneva between U.S. and Ukrainian officials on post-war reconstruction.
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Chris Reese)
Feb 26 (Reuters) - White House envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were disappointed by what they heard from Iranians in morning negotiations Thursday in Geneva, Axios reported.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Writing by Christian Martinez; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
By Feras Dalatey
DAMASCUS, Feb 26 (Reuters) - The United States has warned Syria against relying on Chinese technology in its telecommunications sector, arguing it conflicts with U.S. interests and threatens U.S. national security, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
The message was conveyed during an unreported meeting between a U.S. State Department team and Syrian Communications Minister Abdulsalam Haykal in San Francisco on Tuesday.
By Andrew Chung
Feb 26 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to intervene in its effort to strip deportation protections from about 6,000 Syrians living in the United States.
The Justice Department in an emergency request asked the Supreme Court to lift a judge's November decision that blocked the administration's move to end Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for Syrians while litigation challenging the move continues.
By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, Feb 26 (Reuters) - The U.N. expert on the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, denounced on Thursday what she described as "toxic" attacks impacting her personal life and work, after a number of European states called for her resignation.
In recent weeks Germany, France, Italy and others have called for Albanese to step down over her criticism of Israel. Albanese, an Italian lawyer, said the remarks were taken out of context and misconstrued.
PARIS, Feb 26 (Reuters) - A French court on Thursday convicted an Iranian national of glorifying terrorism in social media posts.
* The court sentenced Mahdieh Esfandiari, a student living in the city of Lyon, to four years in prison. Three years of the sentence were suspended.
* Esfandiari was ordered to leave France. Her lawyer described the ruling as "severe" and said she would appeal.
* Esfandiari arrested last year for social media posts that praised Palestinian Islamist group Hamas' October 2023 attack on Israel.
There were scenes of "utter chaos" when thousands of women and children related to suspected Islamic State jihadists escaped a camp in Syria last month following the sudden withdrawal of Kurdish forces, witnesses have told AFP.
An AFP journalist who entered the huge Al-Hol camp on Wednesday found it virtually deserted after the Syrian government decided to evacuate the site.
Until recently, it housed 23,500 people and was the largest camp for relatives of suspected IS jihadists in northeastern Syria.
WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday proposed a rule that, if finalized, would sever MBaer Merchant Bank AG's access to the U.S. financial system on the grounds the Swiss bank had supported illicit actors linked to Iran and Russia.
The Treasury alleged MBaer and its employees had facilitated corruption linked to Russian money laundering as well as money laundering and terrorist financing on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Quds Force, which are sanctioned by the U.S.
By Emma Farge
GENEVA, Feb 26 (Reuters) - A new decree from Afghanistan's Taliban government is set to further crush rights and freedoms in the war-torn nation, especially for women, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Thursday.
The Taliban has restricted women's movements and barred girls from education beyond primary school since coming to power in 2021, via a series of morality laws that also limit expression and employment.
