KYIV: Ukraine and Azerbaijan signed six cooperation agreements on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as he pushes to share Kyiv&#39;s drone expertise amid the Middle East war. &quot;We have signed six documents today,&quot; said Zelensky in the Azerbaijan capital Baku, without specifying which fields. &quot;Today, the number one area is security. This concerns the defense-industrial complex,&quot; he said. &quot;We have shared our experience in countering the aggressor today&quot;. Speaking alongside Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, Zelensky said Ukrainian drone experts were already working in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic on the Caspian Sea that borders southern Russia. The Ukrainian president also said he was ready to hold trilateral talks on ending the war with Russia in Azerbaijan, if Moscow showed a willingness to do so. &quot;We shared with the president of Azerbaijan that we are ready for trilateral talks,&quot; said Zelensky. Azerbaijan repeatedly expressed support for Ukraine&#39;s territorial integrity and sent humanitarian aid after the Russian invasion in 2022. Ties between Moscow and Baku have cooled over the past year, after an Azerbaijani passenger plane was mistakenly hit by a Russian anti-aircraft missile in 2024, causing a crash that killed 38.

Asia

Ukraine and Azerbaijan signed six agreements, mainly on security and drones. The Ukrainian president says he is ready to hold trilateral talks with Russia in Azerbaijan if Moscow is willing, while tensions in the region continue.

Ukraine signs pacts with Azerbaijan in drone push

GENEVA: The deadly bombing of an Iranian school on the first day of the Middle East war was a &quot;calculated&quot; assault by the United States, Iran&#39;s foreign minister said Friday.&nbsp;In a video address to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Abbas Araghchi slammed the &quot;calculated, phased assault&quot; on an elementary school &quot;in the city of Minab, south of Iran, where more than 175 students and teachers were slaughtered in cold blood&quot;.&nbsp;The attack happened on February 28, the day the United States and Israel launched the war with attacks across Iran, with Tehran in turn striking targets in Israel and Gulf nations.&nbsp;A US Tomahawk cruise missile hit the school due to a targeting mistake, according to the preliminary findings of a US military investigation reported by The New York Times.&nbsp;Speaking during an urgent council debate focused on the February 28 strike, Araghchi stressed that &quot;at a time when the American-Israeli aggressors, in their own assertions, possess the most advanced technologies, and the highest-precision military and data systems, no one can believe that the attack on the school was anything other than deliberate and intentional&quot;.&nbsp;The strike, he said, &quot;was a war crime and a crime against humanity, one that demands unequivocal condemnation by all and unambiguous accountability for the culprits&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;This atrocity cannot be justified, cannot be concealed, and must not be met with silence and indifference,&quot; the minister said.&nbsp;The attack, he insisted, &quot;was not a mere &#39;incident&#39; nor a &#39;miscalculation&#39;.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;The United States&#39; contradictory remarks aimed at justifying their crime could not, in any manner, elude their responsibility,&quot; he said.

Middle East

Iran’s foreign minister told the UN that the US deliberately bombed a school in Minab on February 28, killing over 175 people, rejecting Washington’s claim of a targeting mistake and calling it a war crime.

School strike 'calculated' assault by US: Iran foreign minister

Web Desk

GENEVA: An extra 45 million people could face acute hunger if the Mideast war carried on through June, swelling the number worldwide to a &quot;terrible&quot; high, the United Nations warned Tuesday.&nbsp;The war, now in its third week, has killed hundreds and seen Iran launch retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf nations, as well as a front opening in Lebanon with Israel battling Hezbollah.&nbsp;&quot;If the Middle East conflict continues through June, an additional 45 million people could be pushed into acute hunger by price rises,&quot; Carl Skau, the deputy executive director of the UN&#39;s World Food Programme, told a press conference in Geneva.&nbsp;&quot;This would take global hunger levels to an all-time record, and it&#39;s a terrible, terrible prospect,&quot; he said, with 319 million people, already at a historic high, currently acutely food insecure.&nbsp;&quot;Really, it is again taking this to a whole other level.&quot;&nbsp;Skau said the WFP was already facing a &quot;perfect storm&quot; before the war erupted on February 28.&nbsp;&quot;Hunger has never been as severe as now,&quot; he said, driven by extreme weather events, conflict, and pockets of famine being declared.&nbsp;&quot;At the same time, the resources fell sharply from 2023 and 2024 levels.&quot;&nbsp;Having had to cut staff and streamline operations, &quot;we are basically stretched to the limit,&quot; said Skau.&nbsp;He said the Middle East war was making WFP&#39;s operations &quot;much, much more expensive.&quot;&nbsp;Skau said the agency was trying to deal with supply chain disruptions, but its operating costs had shot up, notably through soaring fuel prices and longer routes.

The UN warns the ongoing Middle East war could push 45 million more into acute hunger by June, raising the total to record levels, amid rising prices, supply disruptions, funding cuts, and already severe global food insecurity.

Articles tagged with "middle east war"

Ukraine signs pacts with Azerbaijan in drone push

School strike 'calculated' assault by US: Iran foreign minister

Tens of millions more in acute hunger if Mideast war drags on: UN