Austrian Foreign Minister @a_schallenberg just gave a live interview on Austrian public TV taking questions on Ukraine. He was asked by anchor @ArminWolf why #Austria has not expelled any Russian diplomats after learning horrendous details about atrocities in #Bucha. 1/
Schallenberg: "I explicitly reserve the right to take this step and expel Russian diplomats if it is proven that there is a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations." (Here is the convention: legal.un.org/ilc/texts/inst…) 2/
Schallenberg on ORF TV also "regrets" that the expulsions of Russian diplomats have not been taken "in concert" with all 27 EU member states. Says he would have preferred it that way. 3/
Schallenberg also explains that any expulsion of Russian diplomats from Austria would lead to "counter-expulsions" of Austrian diplomats from Russia. He wants to avoid this scenario, saying Austria "needs eyes and ears in Moscow". 4/
Personal comment: In my view there is no more justification for this hesitation on the part of Austria. Bucha atrocities more than sufficient reason to expel. Russian representations in Austria spreading disinformation. Like @ArminWolf questioned: "What else needs to come?" 5/
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Carpenter @USAmbOSCE quotes American writer John Steinbeck: "A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil?” 2/
Carpenter also says that as the terrible news from Bucha emerged with "photos of bloodied civilian corpses with hands tied behind their backs", Russian MFA Spox Maria Zakharova "tweeted about the injustice of being turned away from a Chanel store". He calls this "callous". 3/
BREAKING: 45 (out of 57) OSCE participating states just invoked the so-called @OSCE Moscow Mechanism to set up a mission of independent experts to investigate the following in relation with the war in #Ukraine: 1/
- Establish the facts and circumstances surrounding possible contraventions of OSCE commitments and violations and abuses of international human rights law and international humanitarian law; 2/
- Establish the facts and circumstances of possible cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including due to deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure; 3/
Asked about the possibility to drop the outstanding IAEA safeguards probe in #Iran as part of a return to the 2015 #JCPOA, @iaeaorg DG @rafaelmgrossi gave a clear answer at today's presser in Vienna: 1/
"The IAEA will never abandon a process that it launched because of the necessity of clarification of certain situations in Iran because of a political reason. This is not how the IAEA works. I as DG would never do that." 2/
"What we need to do with Iran is to sit around the table and try to clarify these issues. The only way that these issues will go away is if they are clarified to the full satisfaction of the IAEA." 3/
BREAKING NEWS: ⚛️ ‼️
The IAEA Director General @iaeaorg@rafaelmgrossi and the Vice-President and the Head of Atomic Energy Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran just issued this joint statement after today's meeting in Tehran.
THREAD 👇
1/ "In this meeting the parties recalled and reaffirmed the spirit of cooperation and mutual trust and its continuation and emphasized on the necessity of addressing the relevant issues in a constructive atmosphere and exclusively in a technical manner...
2/ ..In the framework of the existing cooperation, the two sides decided to maintain their mutual interactions and meetings at relevant levels. To this end, the Vice-President and the Head of AEOI will meet the IAEA Director General at the sidelines..
⚠️UPDATE from IAEA Spokesperson on the temporary inspections agreement between the IAEA and Iran. (Thread)
"Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi today informed the IAEA Board of Governors about recent developments related to the Agency’s verification and monitoring in Iran." 1/
"In a 17 June letter to the Vice-President of Iran and Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, Director General Grossi indicated that the 24 May agreement with Iran would expire on 24 June and said it was essential for the Agency .. 2/
.. to understand Iran’s position regarding the possible continued collection, recording and retention of data by Agency monitoring and surveillance equipment after that date." 3/