BERLIN – The leader of Germany's center-left Social Democrats, a junior party in Chancellor Angela Merkel's governing coalition, is resigning after an election debacle in the European Parliament vote.
Andrea Nahles said in a statement Sunday that she wanted "clarity" after questions were raised in recent weeks about her ability to lead the party, showing she lacked members' support.
Nahles said she will be stepping down from her post as chairwoman of the Social Democrats and leader of its parliamentary faction, to ensure that her successors are found "in an orderly fashion."
The Social Democrats fell to third place behind Merkel's center-right Union bloc and the Greens in last month's European Parliament election in Germany.
China has defended the crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in a rare public acknowledgement of events.
Defence Minister Wei Fenghe told a regional forum that stopping the "turbulence" was the "correct" policy.
In spring 1989, students and workers occupied Beijing's Tiananmen Square in a massive pro-democracy protest. Many were killed in a brutal clampdown by the communist authorities.
Reporting on the events is heavily censored in China.
Tuesday marks 30 years since six weeks of demonstrations ended with the Beijing massacre of 3-4 June.
"That incident was a political turbulence and the central government took measures to stop the turbulence which is a correct policy," General Wei Fenghe told a security forum in Singapore, responding to a question from the audience.
"The 30 years have proven that China has undergone major changes," he said, adding that because of the government's action at that time "China has enjoyed stability and development".
The Chinese government has never said how many protesters were killed, although estimates range from the hundreds to thousands.
'Acts of forgettance'
There are no official acts of remembrance for the events of 1989 in Beijing. But that statement, although factually correct, is far too neutral.
In truth, what happened in Tiananmen Square is marked faithfully each year by a massive, national act of what might more properly be called "forgettance".
In the weeks leading up to 4 June, the world's biggest censorship machine goes into overdrive as a huge dragnet of automated algorithms and tens of thousands of human expurgators cleanse the internet of any reference, however oblique.
Those deemed to have been too provocative in their attempts to evade the controls can be jailed - with sentences of up to three and a half years recently handed down to a group of men who had tried to commemorate the anniversary with a product label.
FILE PHOTO: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 29, 2019. Official President website/Handout via REUTERS
DUBAI (Reuters) - President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday suggested Iran may be willing to hold talks if the United States showed it respect, but said Tehran would not be pressured into negotiations, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
Iran and the United States have been drawn into starker confrontation in the past month, a year after Washington pulled out of a deal between Iran and global powers to curb Tehran’s nuclear program in return for lifting international sanctions.
Washington re-imposed sanctions last year and ratchetted them up in May, ordering all countries to halt imports of Iranian oil. In recent weeks it has also hinted at military confrontation, saying it was sending extra forces to the Middle East to respond to an Iranian threat.
U.S. President Donald Trump says the 2015 nuclear deal was not strong enough and he wants to force Iran to negotiate a new agreement. Some U.S. officials have spoken of the possibility of new talks.
Trump said on Monday: “It (Iran) has a chance to be a great country with the same leadership... We aren’t looking for regime change - I just want to make that clear.”
Fars news agency quoted Rouhani as saying: “We are for logic and talks if (the other side) sits respectfully at the negotiating table and follows international regulations, not if it issues an order to negotiate.”
Iran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday Iran would not negotiate with Washington. Rouhani had previously signaled talks might be possible if sanctions were lifted.
In Saturday’s speech to a group of Iranian athletes, Rouhani noted Trump’s recent remarks and suggested they were a climb-down from statements last year that encouraged regime change in Iran.
“The same enemy which declared its aim last year to destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran today explicitly states that it does not want to do anything to (our) system,” Rouhani said. “If we remain hopeful in the war with America, we will win.”
Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Toby Chopra and Peter Graff
