VIENNA: The UN nuclear watchdog’s Board of Governors backed a resolution on Thursday that “deplores” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and urges it to let Ukraine control all its nuclear facilities, diplomats said.
Russia, which with China voted against the resolution, said it was based on “politically motivated lies and mistakes.”
The resolution was passed at an emergency meeting of the 35-nation Board called by Canada and Poland on Ukraine’s behalf. Its language echoed a resolution backed by the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
It urges Moscow to “immediately cease all actions against, and at, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and any other nuclear facility in Ukraine, in order for the competent Ukrainian authorities to preserve or promptly regain full control.”
Russia has seized the spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste facilities next to the now defunct power plant at Chernobyl, site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
Russian troops have also seized the area around the biggest of Ukraine’s four power plants at Zaporizhzhya, north of the Crimean peninsula.
It is the first time war has broken out in a country with such a large and established nuclear program, the IAEA says.
Twenty-six countries backed the resolution, diplomats said. Five nations — Pakistan, India, South Africa, Senegal and Vietnam — abstained. Mexico and Burundi were absent.
“The #IAEA BoG resolution on nuclear security in #Ukraine contains intentional politically motivated lies and mistakes,” Russia’s envoy to the IAEA, Mikhail Ulyanov, said on Twitter.
“Russia is requested ‘to cease all actions against nuclear facilities’. We asked 3 times to provide concrete facts in this regard. Total silence in response,” he said.
The vote comes amid negotiations on reviving Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, in which Russia is an important player.
Pakistan abstains from vote as IAEA board ‘deplores’ Russian invasion of Ukraine
https://arab.news/nsc5q
Pakistan abstains from vote as IAEA board ‘deplores’ Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russia, which with China voted against IAEA resolution, said it was based on “politically motivated lies and mistakes”
- Twenty-six countries backed the resolution while Pakistan, India, South Africa, Senegal and Vietnam abstained
Challenges for millions pushed back to Afghanistan from Iran, Pakistan
- Over five million Afghans returned home since September 2023 as Iran, Pakistan ramp up deportations
- Those who returned face challenges in form of unemployment, lack of housing, shortage of electricity and water
KABUL: After decades hosting Afghans fleeing crises at home, Pakistan and Iran have ramped up deportations and forced millions back across the border to a country struggling to provide for them.
Whether arriving at the frontier surrounded by family or alone, Afghan returnees must establish a new life in a nation beset by poverty and environmental woes.
AFP takes a look at the people arriving in Afghanistan and the challenges they face.
FIVE MILLION
More than five million Afghans have returned home from Iran and Pakistan since September 2023, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The figure equates to 10 percent of the country’s population, according to the agency’s deputy head in Afghanistan, Mutya Izora Maskun.
Three million returnees crossed the borders just last year, some of whom have spent decades living abroad.
Such a huge influx of people would be hard for any country to manage, Maskun said.
INADEQUATE HOUSING
Months after arriving in Afghanistan, 80 percent of people had no permanent home, according to an IOM survey of 1,339 migrants who returned between September 2023 and December 2024.
Instead, they had to live in temporary housing made from materials such as stone or mud.
More recently, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spoke to Afghans who arrived back between January and August last year about their living arrangements.
Three-quarters of tenants said they could not afford their rent, while the majority of families were sharing rooms with up to four people, according to the survey of 1,658 returnees.
DESPERATE SEARCH FOR WORK
Just 11 percent of adults pushed back from Pakistan and Iran were fully employed, the IOM survey found.
For those who returned in the first few months of last year, the average monthly income was between $22 and $147, according to the UNHCR.
WATER, ELECTRICITY SHORTAGES
More than half the returnee households lack a stable electricity supply, according to the IOM.
The agency said that households headed by women faced “significantly higher vulnerabilities,” with around half of them struggling to access safe drinking water.
SPEEDING UP LAND DISTRIBUTION
More than 3,000 plots of land have been distributed to returnees nationwide, Hamdullah Fitrat, the Afghan government’s deputy spokesman, said in mid-January.
The process “was accelerated,” he said while recounting a special meeting with supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
On their arrival in Afghanistan, returnees usually receive help with transport, a SIM card and a small amount of money.
