ALMATY: Kazakhstan authorities have detained the former head of the country’s national security committee on suspicion of treason, they said on Saturday as the former Soviet republic is roiled by its worst unrest in 30 years.
Karim Massimov, who was fired from the powerful intelligence body this week as protests raged across the nation, was detained along with several other officials, according to the committee, which did not name them or provide further details.
Reuters was unable to immediately contact Massimov, a two-time ex-prime minister who worked closely with former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country’s ruler for three decades until he turned over the presidency to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in 2019.
Dozens of people have died and public buildings across Kazakhstan have been ransacked and torched over the past week in the worst violence https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/stability-turmoil-whats-going... experienced in the Central Asian nation, a major oil and uranium producer, since it became independent in the early 1990s as the Soviet Union collapsed.
The demonstrations began as a response to a fuel price hike but swelled into a broad movement against Tokayev’s Russian-backed government and 81-year-old Nazarbayev, whose family is widely believed to have retained influence in Nur-Sultan, the purpose-built capital that bears his name.
After several days of violence, security forces appeared to have reclaimed control of the streets of Kazakhstan’s main city Almaty on Friday. Tokayev said he had ordered his troops to shoot to kill https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/kazakh-president-says-constit... to put down a countrywide uprising.
![]()
Kazakhstan detains former national security chief on suspicion of treason
Short Url
https://arab.news/ys7w2
Kazakhstan detains former national security chief on suspicion of treason
US envoy says Trump questioning why Iran has not ‘capitulated’
- US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Saturday that President Donald Trump is questioning why Iran has not “capitulated” in the face of Washington’s military build-up
WASHINGTON: US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Saturday that President Donald Trump is questioning why Iran has not “capitulated” in the face of Washington’s military build-up aimed at pressuring them into a nuclear deal.
The United States and Iran this week resumed Oman-mediated talks in Geneva aimed at averting the possibility of military action, after Washington dispatched two aircraft carriers, jets and weaponry to the region to back its warnings.
In a Fox News interview with Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara, Witkoff said the president was “curious” about Iran’s position after he had warned them of severe consequences in the event they failed to strike a deal.
“I don’t want to use the word ‘frustrated,’ because he understands he has plenty of alternatives, but he’s curious as to why they haven’t... I don’t want to use the word ‘capitulated,’ but why they haven’t capitulated,” he said.
“Why, under this pressure, with the amount of seapower and naval power over there, why haven’t they come to us and said, ‘We profess we don’t want a weapon, so here’s what we’re prepared to do’? And yet it’s sort of hard to get them to that place.”
The US envoy also confirmed in the interview that he had met with Reza Pahlavi, who has not returned to Iran since before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the monarchy.
“I met him at the direction of the president,” he said, without providing further details.
US-based Pahlavi last week told a crowd in Munich that he was ready to lead the country to a “secular democratic future” after Trump said regime change would be best for the country.
Witkoff’s comments come after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a draft proposal for an agreement with Washington would be ready in a matter of days.
Trump said on Thursday that Iran had at most 15 days to make a deal on concerns starting with its nuclear program.
As talks between the two nations continued in Geneva, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday said that Trump would not succeed in destroying the Islamic republic.
Western countries accuse the Islamic Republic of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies, though it insists on its right to enrichment for civilian purposes.
Iran, for its part, is seeking to negotiate an end to sanctions that have proven to be a massive drag on its economy, which played a role in sparking anti-government protests in December.
The United States and Iran this week resumed Oman-mediated talks in Geneva aimed at averting the possibility of military action, after Washington dispatched two aircraft carriers, jets and weaponry to the region to back its warnings.
In a Fox News interview with Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara, Witkoff said the president was “curious” about Iran’s position after he had warned them of severe consequences in the event they failed to strike a deal.
“I don’t want to use the word ‘frustrated,’ because he understands he has plenty of alternatives, but he’s curious as to why they haven’t... I don’t want to use the word ‘capitulated,’ but why they haven’t capitulated,” he said.
“Why, under this pressure, with the amount of seapower and naval power over there, why haven’t they come to us and said, ‘We profess we don’t want a weapon, so here’s what we’re prepared to do’? And yet it’s sort of hard to get them to that place.”
The US envoy also confirmed in the interview that he had met with Reza Pahlavi, who has not returned to Iran since before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the monarchy.
“I met him at the direction of the president,” he said, without providing further details.
US-based Pahlavi last week told a crowd in Munich that he was ready to lead the country to a “secular democratic future” after Trump said regime change would be best for the country.
Witkoff’s comments come after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a draft proposal for an agreement with Washington would be ready in a matter of days.
Trump said on Thursday that Iran had at most 15 days to make a deal on concerns starting with its nuclear program.
As talks between the two nations continued in Geneva, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday said that Trump would not succeed in destroying the Islamic republic.
Western countries accuse the Islamic Republic of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies, though it insists on its right to enrichment for civilian purposes.
Iran, for its part, is seeking to negotiate an end to sanctions that have proven to be a massive drag on its economy, which played a role in sparking anti-government protests in December.
Latest updates
© 2026 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.