Thousands of Ukrainian nationalists have marched through the capital, Kyiv, to mark the 75th anniversary of the creation of the controversial Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).

March organizers said as many as 20,000 people participated in the October 14 march, which was supported by the right-wing Freedom, Right Sector, and National Corp political parties.

Some 5,000 police were on hand to keep order. Journalists reported seeing some marchers giving Nazi salutes.

Since 2015, the October 14 anniversary has been marked as the Defender of Ukraine Day public holiday.

The UPA was founded in western Ukraine during the Nazi occupation of the country in World War II and fought against both the Nazis and the Soviet Red Army. Tens of thousands of ethnic Poles were killed in what some historians say was ethnic cleansing by the UPA.

When the war ended, many UPA fighters continued to fight a guerrilla campaign against the Soviet authorities into the early 1950s.

Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has said Moscow will not consider itself bound by the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg if Russia is not allowed to participate in the selection of judges.

Volodin made the comments in St. Petersburg on October 14 at the opening of a session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

ECHR judges are selected by deputies of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

However, Russia's PACE delegation was stripped of its voting rights in April 2014 because of Moscow's illegal annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea. Russia, in response, withdrew from all PACE activities. In June, Russia suspended its financial contributions to the Council of Europe.

On October 13, Russian Federation Council Chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko made a similar statement about the ECHR, saying that anyone chosen without Russia's participation "will not be fully legitimate."

With reporting by RBK

Dozens of people have been detained in the Russia-occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea for demonstrating in defense of Crimean Tatars.

Lawyer Emil Kurbedinov said on October 14 that more than 100 people had staged one-person protests across Crimea earlier in the day and that at least 34 had been detained, even though one-person protests do not require advance permission from officials.

The Russian authorities in Crimea reported that 49 people had been detained, according to the Russian website Meduza. The Russian police statement said all the detainees had been released after "precautionary conversations."

The protesters held signs with slogans including "Stop the arrests, searches, and robbery of Muslims" and "Muslims are not terrorists."

"The detentions violated the right of peaceful assembly and the right to freedom of speech and the free expression of opinion," Olha Skripnik, head of the Crimean Human Rights Group, told RFE/RL. "This was a peaceful action that did not present any danger.... One-person pickets -- which these people have been forced to adopt -- are not restricted even by the Russian laws that are de facto operating in Crimea."

On October 11, six Crimean Tatars were arrested in the city of Bakhchisarai and accused of membership in Hizb ut-Tahir, an Islamic organization that is legal in Ukraine, but banned by Russian authorities.

The Crimean Solidarity rights group said that several other Crimean Tatars were detained while protesting against those arrests.

Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they call a persistent campaign of oppression targeting members of the indigenous, Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar minority and other citizens who opposed Moscow's annexation.

The majority of Crimean Tatars opposed Russia's 2014 annexation of their historic homeland.

Ukraine has banned a new Russian banknote that includes images from the annexed Ukrainian region of Crimea.

The National Bank of Ukraine announced on October 13 that the new Russian 200 ruble ($3.50) bill showing a memorial in Sevastopol, a ruin in Chersonesus, and a map of Crimea would be illegal in Ukraine beginning on October 17. Banks and exchanges will not accept them.

The bank's statement said the ban covers any Russian currencies depicting "maps, symbols, buildings, monuments" or other objects "based in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia."

Russia presented the new banknote on October 12.

Ukraine and Russia have been locked in a standoff since Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and began offering military, economic, and political support to separatists in parts of eastern Ukraine.

Although Russia denies military involvement in the conflict, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November 2016 determined the conflict to be "an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation."

More than 10,000 people have been killed, at least 23,900 have been injured, and some 1.6 million people have been displaced by the conflict in eastern Ukraine since the spring of 2014.

With reporting by AFP

Four Moldovans were killed and two others were injured when a propeller-engine cargo plane crashed into the sea near the international airport in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan on October 14, the Ivorian security minister said.

The crash occurred during a storm with heavy rain and lightning and rescuers were hampered by rough seas.

Four French citizens also survived the crash but were injured, Sidiki Diakite told reporters at the scene of the accident. Several Ivorian security sources said they were French soldiers.

The sources said the the plane was a Russian-made Antonov and had been chartered by the French army as part of the antimilitant Operation Barkhane, under which France maintains a 4,000-man mission in the region.

The operation aims to shore up fragile sub-Saharan countries against Islamist militants who have carried out a wave of bombings, shootings, and kidnappings.

The French military base in Abidjan provides logistical support for the operation, which is headquartered in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP

An unmanned Progress space freighter carrying supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) was launched by Russia from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on October 14.

The Soyuz 2.1a rocket carrying the ship successfully reached orbit eight minutes after taking off at 11:47 am Moscow time (10:47 Prague time), a Russian space agency commentator said in the live feed from mission control.

The launch was pushed back by two days from October 12 after an automatic shutoff one minute before liftoff. An investigating commission is still looking into the reasons for the delay.

The Progress MS-07 is carrying over two tons of various supplies including fuel and personal items for the international crew of six currently on board the ISS.

The cargo ship is expected to reach the space station on October 16 and will be automatically docked.

Cargo ships are later filled with trash before being undocked and burn up in the atmosphere as they orbit back to Earth.

Based on reporting by AFP and TASS

A spokesman for the U.S.-backed forces fighting Islamic State militants in Syria says the "final" battle to uproot the extremists from the northern city of Raqqa is under way, as dozens of IS fighters surrender.

Mustafa Bali, the spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said on October 14 that the battle could take hours or days.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is an alliance of Arab and Kurdish militias dominated by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.

Also on October 14, the U.S.-led coalition said local officials in Raqqa had struck a deal with IS militants to allow a convoy to evacuate the city later in the day. Under the deal, SDF forces will have the right to inspect the vehicles as they are leaving the area.

The coalition statement said it believes the deal "will save lives" and enable the coalition and the SDF to focus on the fight against IS.

The loss of Raqqa, once the de facto capital of its self-proclaimed caliphate, would deal a huge blow to the militant group.

Bali says IS militants are putting up a desperate resistance in a number of neighborhoods in the city.

However, the coalition said in an e-mailed statement that dozens of IS fighters have surrendered over the past day.

"Within the past 24 hours, approximately 100 ISIS terrorists have surrendered in Raqqa, and were removed from the city," the statement said.

The battle for Raqqa began in June, with heavy street-by-street fighting amid intense U.S.-led coalition air strikes and shelling. The battle has dragged on in the face of stiff resistance from the militants and civilians trapped in the city.

However, the coalition says it controls about 90 percent of the city.

An activist group that reports on Raqqa, Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, said on its Facebook page on October 14 that dozens of buses had entered Raqqa city overnight, having traveled from the northern Raqqa countryside.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian Islamic State fighters and their families had already left the city, and buses had arrived to evacuate remaining foreign fighters and their families. It did not say where they would be taken to.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP

A European Union delegation has found persisting "shortcomings" in the human rights situation in Tajikistan, although it has noted "good progress" in some areas, the EU said in an October 13 statement.

The statement was immediately criticized by Human Rights Watch as "very weak."

The EU delegation, led by the head of its Central Asia division, Toivo Klaar, met with Abdujabbor Sattorzoda, chief of President Emomali Rahmon's human rights department, in Tajikistan's capital, Dushanbe, the statement said.

It concluded that the activity of civil society groups in the Central Asian country has become more restricted and urged the Tajik government to better involve NGOs in the legislative process.

The meeting agreed that Tajikistan has made "good progress" regarding women’s rights and the prevention of domestic violence, and that "significant efforts have been made by the Tajik government to prevent torture and ill treatment," the statement said.

The EU delegation also urged the Tajik government to take concrete measures to lift restrictions on the media and independent journalists as well as on freedom of belief, the statement said.

The EU delegation noted that "shortcomings" still remain, and raised specific torture instances including in the military, pretrial detention, and semiclosed and closed state institutions.

"The Tajik government must review the case of imprisoned defense lawyer Mr. Buzurgmehr Yorov.... The European Union expects the Tajik authorities to ensure that no pressure is exerted on family members of the political opposition, including those living abroad," said the statement.

Yorov was a lawyer for 13 jailed members and leaders of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, which President Rahmon's government labeled a terrorist organization and outlawed in 2015.

In October last year, Yorov was sentenced to 23 years in prison after a court convicted him of calling for the government's overthrow and inciting social unrest.

In mid-March, Tajikistan's Supreme Court found Yorov guilty of contempt of court and insulting a government official and extended his prison term by two years.

Yorov is among at least five human rights attorneys whom rights groups say have been targeted by authorities in Tajikistan in connection with their work.

The EU statement was more mildly worded than other criticism of Tajikistan's treatment of human rights lawyers.

In May, Amnesty International issued a scathing report, which accused Tajik authorities of having launched an “unrelenting assault” against lawyers, particularly those who took up the defense of government critics.

Human Rights Watch Central Asia researcher Steve Swerdlow on October 13 criticized the EU statement, tweeting, "Very weak statement by @eu_eeas on its dialogue held yesterday on #Tajikistan's #humanrights record (thoughts contd)"

U.S. President Donald Trump's call for legislation aimed at toughening the Iran nuclear deal faces an uncertain future in Congress even as leading Republican senators stepped forward to champion the cause.

"I am directing my administration to work closely with Congress and our allies to address the deal's many serious flaws so that the Iranian regime can never threaten the world with nuclear weapons," Trump said as he announced steps to try to rein in what he described as Iran's "rogue" activities in the Middle East.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker and fellow Republican Tom Cotton shortly after Trump's speech offered an outline of legislation they said would "address flaws" in the 2015 accord identified by the president.

According to a summary, the legislation would reimpose nuclear-related sanctions on Iran if it restarts enrichment of uranium after 2025, when the deal's restrictions on enrichment are due to expire under a "sunset" clause singled out as offensive by the administration.

"I think that we have provided a route to overcome deficiencies and to keep the administration in the deal, and actually make it the kind of deal it should have been in the first place," Corker said on a call with journalists on October 13.

House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce and other House Republican leaders also expressed support for Trump's goals and said that the House will vote in coming weeks to boost non-nuclear sanctions against Iran.

“The President’s announcement today rightly focuses on the full range of deadly threats from the Iranian regime. Our relationship with Iran should not be defined by one flawed nuclear deal. From Yemen to Lebanon, Iran...supports terrorist groups like Hizballah, bolsters the ruthless [dictatorship of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad], promotes instability through sectarianism in Iraq, and abuses the human rights of the Iranian people," Royce said in a statement joined by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other House Republicans.

“We are committed to work with the president to address [the nuclear deal's] flaws, hold Iran strictly accountable to its commitments, and support efforts to counter all the Iranian threats," they said.

Republicans control Congress, but not by overwhelming majorities. Their four-seat edge in the Senate, in particular, means that for any legislation to pass, it would need Democratic support as well as the backing of nearly every Republican.

Mustering that level of support in the Senate has proved difficult for Trump thus far on other critical legislative matters.

Trump faces opposition from within his own Republican party. Senator Marco Rubio said he has "serious doubts" about Trump's Iran strategy and would have preferred that the president just abandon the nuclear deal.

"Ultimately, leaving the nuclear deal, reimposing suspended sanctions, and having the president impose additional sanctions would serve our national interest better than a decertified deal that leaves sanctions suspended or a new law that leaves major flaws in that agreement in place," Rubio said in a statement.

Most Democrats in Congress also appeared to oppose Trump's plan.

Senator Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused Trump of "manufacturing a new crisis that will isolate us from our allies."

"We will not buy into the false premise that it is Congress’ role to legislate solutions to problems of his own making," Cardin said. "It is now up to Congress to show the world that there is bipartisan support for the United States to uphold its commitment" to the nuclear deal.

Cardin told Reuters that he would only support legislation that has the backing of the European allies who signed the nuclear pact -- Britain, France, and Germany.

Corker acknowledged a tough fight ahead to gain backing for his legislation, but said he hoped to win over Democrats. He also pledged to seek the support of European allies.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

A U.S.-Canadian couple freed in Pakistan this week after almost five years in captivity in Afghanistan has returned to Canada where the husband said one of his children had been murdered and his wife had been raped.

American Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, were kidnapped while backpacking in Afghanistan in 2012 by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network. They arrived in Canada with three of their children.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said the Pakistani special forces that rescued the family on October 11 acted on a tip from U.S. intelligence, showing that Islamabad will act against a "common enemy" when Washington shares information.

U.S. officials have long accused Pakistan of ignoring the presence of the Haqqani network and other extremist groups within its borders.

Reading from a statement upon arrival in Toronto late on October 13, Boyle said, "The stupidity and the evil of the Haqqani network in the kidnapping of a pilgrim...was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil of authorizing the murder of my infant daughter."

Boyle said his wife was raped by a guard who was assisted by his superiors. He asked for the Afghan government to bring them to justice.

"God willing, this litany of stupidity will be the epitaph of the Haqqani network," he said.

Boyle did not elaborate on what he meant by "pilgrim," or on the murder or rape. His wife was not at the news conference.

On October 12, President Donald Trump, who previously warned Pakistan to stop harboring militants, praised Islamabad for acting on the U.S. intelligence tip and showing its willingness to "do more to provide security in the region."

The United States has designated the Haqqani network a terrorist organization and has targeted it with drone strikes.

The Haqqani group had previously demanded the release of Anas Haqqani, a son of the founder of the group, in exchange for turning over the American-Canadian family.

U.S. officials say several other Americans are being held by militant groups in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

They include Kevin King, 60, a teacher at the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul who was abducted in August 2016, and Paul Overby, an author in his 70s who disappeared in eastern Afghanistan in mid-2014.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters

Russian officials on October 13 questioned the United Nations inquiry into who is to blame for a toxic gas attack in Syria and threatened it might not support extending the investigating team's mandate if it is not satisfied with the resulting report.

The probe was carried out by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM).

The JIM was authorized by the Security Council in 2015 and had its mandate renewed for another year in 2016. The mandate will expire in the middle of November unless further renewed.

The dispute centers on who is to blame for an April 4 attack on the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed dozens.

The United States, France, and Britain have accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces of carrying out the air assault on Khan Sheikhoun, a conclusion supported by an OPCW fact-finding mission.

The United States subsequently launched a missile attack on Syria’s Shayrat airfield after concluding that government aircraft had departed from the airfield loaded with sarin gas for the attack on Khan Sheikhun.

However, Russia and Syria have blamed the attack on Syrian antigovernment rebels.

Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russia Foreign Ministry's head of nonproliferation, told a briefing at the UN that the sarin attack was most likely caused by a bomb set off on the ground in the village itself and not by an air strike.

Ulyanov complained that investigators failed to search for traces of the banned nerve gas on their visit to the airfield this week, which he said was a “scandalous” situation and an indication of the JIM team’s unwillingness to carry out a “qualitative investigation.”

"A reliable investigation is simply impossible without sampling," Ulyanov said.

A spokesman for the UN investigative team declined to comment.

Ulyanov said Moscow will await the team's report on October 26 and then decide whether to block renewal of the investigative team's authority when it comes up next month.

The JIM has already determined that Syrian government forces were responsible for three chlorine gas attacks in 2014 and 2015 and that Islamic State (IS) militants used mustard gas in attacks.

The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons during the country’s more than 6-year-old civil war.

Assad’s government agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013 as part of an agreement brokered by Russia and the United States.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and TASS

A prominent investigative journalist in Kosovo has been attacked and beaten in the capital, Pristina.

Journalist Vehbi Kajtazi, who runs the website Insajderi, was attacked in a cafe on October 13. Local media posted photographs of Kajtazi with bruises and cuts on his face.

Kosovar Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj condemned the attack, saying violence against journalists was unacceptable.

The Association of Kosovo Journalists called on police to investigate the case thoroughly, noting that Kajtazi had been attacked and threatened in the past but "unfortunately some of these cases have not yet been resolved."

Insajderi reported that a suspect named Faton Ramadani had been detained by police and said the attack was retaliation for the website's reporting on lawmaker Milaim Zeka.

Two months ago, Insajderi editor Parim Olluri was attacked outside his Pristina home.

U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo Greg Delawie posted on Twitter that "it is really unfortunate that journalists in Kosovo are still being physically attacked."

Based on reporting by Balkan Insider and Reuters

U.S. allies and other countries have weighed in on U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to abandon a nuclear deal between global powers and Iran, saying they will continue to back the agreement.

Trump, in a long-awaited Iran-policy speech on October 13, vowed to step up pressure on Iran, assailing Tehran as a "rogue regime" and threatening to walk away from the deal if what he called "serious flaws" are not fixed.

The American president slammed Tehran for what he said are violations of the “spirit” of the agreement, in part for its continued testing of ballistic missiles and its support for extremists in the Middle East.

“While the United States adheres to our commitment under the deal,” he said, “the Iranian regime continues to fuel conflict, terror, and turmoil throughout the Middle East and beyond.”

In the 2015 deal, signed during the U.S. presidency of Barack Obama, Tehran agreed to curtail its nuclear activities in exchange for relief from international sanctions. Other signatories to the accord are Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany.

Trump stopped short of renouncing the accord, but refused to certify Iran's compliance and said he would ask Congress to strengthen a U.S. law to put additional pressure on Tehran and deny it a "path" to develop nuclear weapons.

In reaction to Trump's speech, U.S. allies Britain, France, and Germany reinforced their stance in favor of maintaining the hard-won deal, which they said was "in our shared national security interest."

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called the nuclear deal a “robust agreement” that is working and cannot be terminated by any one leader.

"The president of the United States has many powers. Not this one," she added.

“We encourage the U.S. administration and Congress to consider the implications to the security of the U.S. and its allies before taking any steps that might undermine the [accord], such as reimposing sanctions on Iran lifted under the agreement," the leaders of France, Britain, and Germany warned in a joint statement.

The statement was signed by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and British Prime Minister Theresa May.

In a separate statement, Macron said he reassured Iranian President Hassan Rohani that France remained committed to the nuclear deal.

Macron also said he is considering visiting Iran after speaking by phone with Rohani, the Elysee presidential office said October 13.

"A trip to Iran by the president, at the invitation of President Rohani, has been considered," the Elysee said. The Iranian presidential website said the visit would happen next year.

In response to Trump's speech, Rohani said in a televised address that the United States is “standing against an international treaty” and that it would lead to Washington's isolation.

"Today, the United States is more than ever opposed to the nuclear deal and more than ever against the Iranian people," Rohani said.

The Iranian leader added that as long as Iran’s interests are preserved, Tehran will remain with the deal, and he rejected the inclusion of any new clauses to the agreement.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who led the Iranian negotiations with the world powers which resulted in the 2015 agreement, blasted Trump's use of the phrase "Arabian Gulf" rather than "Persian Gulf" during the speech.

"Everyone knew Trump's friendship was for sale to the highest bidder. We now know that his geography is too," Zarif wrote on Twitter, referring to the U.S. alliance with Iran's regional rival, Saudi Arabia.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said it was "extremely troubling" that Trump was raising questions that had been settled when an international deal on Iran's nuclear program was signed, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.

Ryabkov also played down the suggestion that changes could be made to the accord, saying, "I have big doubts regarding these proposals," Interfax reported.

"Adding something to this document now, changing something in it, in my view, would be extremely problematic, to put it mildly," he added.

China has not reacted since Trump's speech but previously called on Washington to preserve the agreement.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he "strongly hopes" the deal will remain in place, while the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which recently won the Nobel Peace Prize, said Trump's decision undermines a nuclear agreement that is working and makes nuclear proliferation more likely.

John Kerry, the former U.S. secretary of state who negotiated the deal, accused Trump of "creating an international crisis" and said it is now up to the other parties to the deal as well as the U.S. Congress to be "the adults in the room" and keep the deal from falling apart.

Saudi Arabia, a major Middle East rival of the Iranian government, said it supports Trump’s "firm strategy" and “aggressive policy” toward Tehran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also praised the U.S. president’s decision, calling it a “courageous” and “bold” move.

Trump also announced “tough sanctions” on Iran’s hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) for what he called its support for war and terror abroad, a move Tehran warned would bring a "proportionate response" from its side. The president did not, however, designate the IRGC a foreign terrorist organization.

During his campaign and into his presidency, Trump has consistently blasted the nuclear deal, calling it the worst-ever accord negotiated by the United States and an "embarrassment."

Although he did not pull out of the accord, the president did threaten to walk away from it later if his administration -- working with Congress and U.S. allies -- cannot eliminate the deal’s “many serious flaws.”

Among the flaws, Trump cited the so-called sunset clauses in the nuclear accord that set expiration dates for some nuclear restrictions against Tehran and said he would work to remove them from the agreement.

“In just a few years, as key restrictions disappear, Iran can sprint toward a rapid nuclear weapons breakout,” Trump said. “We got weak inspections in exchange for no more than a purely short-term and temporary delay in Iran’s path to nuclear weapons."

“In the event that we cannot reach a solution working with Congress and our allies, then the agreement will be terminated.... Our participation can be canceled by me, as president, at any time,” he asserted.

Under U.S. law, the president is required every 90 days to certify whether Iran is complying with the terms of the nuclear deal.

Trump said that, “based on the factual record, I am announcing today that we cannot and will not make this certification. We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror, and a very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout.”

To help counter Iran's actions, Trump said he will call on Congress to strengthen a U.S. law -- known as the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA) -- which runs alongside the nuclear deal and was passed by Congress in response to the international nuclear agreement.

U.S. officials said Trump would ask lawmakers to set "firm trigger points" related to Iran's nuclear- and ballistic-missile programs, the crossing of which would immediately and automatically reimpose sanctions against Iran.

The Republican-controlled Congress will have 60 days to consider any amendments to INARA.

Along with amending it. Trump announced further nonspecific goals as part of his “new strategy to address the full range of Iran’s destructive actions.”

He said the United States will work with allies to counter Iran’s “destabilizing activity” and support for “terrorist proxies,” place additional sanctions on Tehran to block its financing of terror, and address the “regime’s proliferation of missiles and weapons that threaten its neighbors.”

U.S. officials said any sanctions reimposed under INARA would not necessarily remove the United States from the multilateral nuclear accord.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is responsible for certifying the multilateral nuclear deal, disputed Trump's claim that inspection processes are weak, saying that "at present, Iran is subject to the world's most robust nuclear verification regime." IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano insisted that Iran has been implementing its commitments under the agreement.

Senator Bob Corker (Republican-Tennessee), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Trump’s proposed changes would not remove the United States from the nuclear accord and that he expects to introduce the INARA amendments within two weeks.

He added that he expects one of the amendments to change the certification requirement from every 90 days to every 180 days.

Representative Eliot Engel (Democrat-New York), who voted against the nuclear deal in 2015, said Trump’s plan “doesn't make sense.”

“Negotiating additional terms to the nuclear deal requires a coalition of international partners, not unilateral congressional action,” said the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“Iran must never have a nuclear weapon. To ensure that, we must strictly enforce the nuclear deal, work to lengthen its sunset provisions, and hold Iran's feet to the fire on the regime's other bad behavior,” he added.

But House Speaker Paul Ryan (Republican-Wisconsin), said the nuclear deal negotiated during the Obama administration was "fatally flawed" and that he supported Trump’s decision to reexamine the accord.

Influential Senator John McCain (Republican-Arizona), often a Trump critic, said in a statement that "the goals President Trump presented in his speech today are a welcomed, long overdue change."

"For years, the Iranian regime has literally been getting away with murder. Meanwhile, the United States has lacked a comprehensive strategy to meet the multifaceted threat Iran poses," McCain said.

Mara Karlin, a former senior U.S. Defense Department official involved in policy, strategy, and planning for Middle East affairs under both Democratic and Republican administrations, said Trump’s actions represented “a lot of bluster with not a lot of change.”

“It seems as though we went through this giant hullabaloo, where the president was threatening to tear up this deal, per his political promises throughout the election and afterward,” she told RFE/RL. “And instead, what he’s choosing to do is really defer his power to Congress.”

“So the Washington story is this is a diminution of executive power. The Europe story is the European allies have been really put through the ringer for not terribly much,” she added.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Mark Najarian and Mike Eckel, AP, Reuters, and AFP

The United States has formally added Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to its antiterrorism sanctions list.

According to an October 13 statement on the U.S. Treasury Department website, the government will put into effect Section 105 of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which was passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump in August.

The statement said the IRGC had been designated "for providing support to a number of terrorist groups, including Hizballah and Hamas, as well as to the Taliban."

The Treasury Department statement emphasized that the development did not mean that the United States has designated the IRGS as a foreign terrorist organization.

During a speech on U.S. policy toward Iran on October 13, Trump said his administration would place "tough sanctions" on the IRGC.

The same Treasury Department statement also designated three Iran-based organizations that provide technical and financial support to the IRGC.

BATKEN, Kyrgyzstan -- Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev has called a leading contender in the race to succeed him a "flunky" of a foreign country, lashing out amid tension ahead of an October 15 vote in the Central Asian country.

Atamabev did not name the candidate or the country in his remarks on October 13, but they were aimed at Kazakhstan, which he has accused of meddling in the election and backing businessman Omurbek Babanov over the ruling party favorite.

"Now, a foreign country's moneybags and power holders are imposing their flunky on us," Atambaev said during a visit to the southern Batken region.

"Failing to buy us with their money, they are trying to frighten us," he said, referring to what Kyrgyz officials say are stepped up border checks that have caused hours-long delays for people and vehicles trying to cross into Kazakhstan.

"The Kyrgyz people, with at least a 3,000-year history, will never be frightened of a three-day blockade and will never vote for someone's flunky," Atambaev said.

Atambaev is constitutionally barred from seeking a second presidential term in the country of 6 million and has made clear he wants his former prime minister, ruling Social Democratic Party candidate Sooronbai Jeenbekov, to win the election.

Babanov's campaign on October 13 objected to Atambaev's "offensive assessment of the candidate" and called on the president to keep his "promise" to hold an "honest election" and refrain from openly supporting any of the candidates, Russian news agency Interfax reported.

"Your words, as recent years have shown, have a direct impact on the decisions made by law-enforcement authorities and the judiciary. We also believe that this is unfair and violates the principles of a lawful, open, and competitive election," the campaign was quoted by Interfax as saying in a statement issued in Bishkek.

Atambaev's latest comments echoed a public statement on October 7 in which he accused the Kazakh authorities of "meddling in Kyrgyzstan's internal affairs" and of openly supporting Babanov.

In those remarks, Atambaev also criticized Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, who has been in power since the Soviet era, over his long rule.

The accusations came after Nazarbaev met on September 19 with Babanov, who is seen as a front-runner along with Jeenbekov -- an unusual step by the president of a neighboring country during an election campaign.

Adding to the pressure on Babanov, the Prosecutor-General's Office said on October 13 that recent remarks he made to ethnic Uzbek voters in southern Kyrgyzstan "contained elements of incitement of ethnic hatred." It did not say whether there would be a formal investigation or what the consequences might be.

The statement came after the Central Election Commission (BSK) issued a warning to Babanov on October 10 about the same remarks, saying they risked inciting ethnic discord.

It was the third warning of an alleged campaign infraction that Babanov has received, after one involving campaign posters and another what the election officials said was the participation of Islamic clergy in his campaign.

The warning led to concerns that the commission could seek to bar Babanov from the vote -- something his backers say would be illegal this close to election day. While three warnings can lead to the disqualification of a candidate, disqualification later than five days before the election is unlawful.

Atambaev's remarks about a "blockade" referred to the chaotic situation along the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border, where long lines formed after Kazakh authorities appeared to slow passage across the border following his initial public criticism of Kazakhstan.

Kazakh officials have rejected the claims of interference in the Kyrgyz election and said the slowdown at the frontier was the result of a "scheduled border operation."

On October 13, the Kazakh Central Election Commission (OSK) said that commission member Marat Sarsenbaev had rejected a Kyrgyz invitation to observe the election "to avoid speculation that our country is in any way interfering in the voting in Kyrgyzstan."

The commission supported the move. Deputy Chairman Konstantin Petrov announced that the OSK would not observe the election following "unprecedented statements by the president of Kyrgyzstan about Kazakhstan."

The OSK said, however, that 46 Kazakh officials will take part in observing the election as part of missions from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking Countries.

The presidential campaign in Kyrgyzstan officially ends at midnight on October 13, with campaigning prohibited on the day before the vote.

The border bottleneck and the dispute with Kazakhstan have added to tension ahead of the election in the former Soviet republic, where presidents were driven from power by protesters in 2005 and 2010.

Atambaev was elected in 2011 after an interim president, who was selected following the ouster of Kurmanbek Bakiev in 2010, stepped down as promised.

A peaceful succession would mark the first time a popularly elected president takes over from another popularly elected president in Kyrgyzstan, which gained independence in the 1991 Soviet collapse.