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UKRAINE

Spain’s FM quits Iran trip over Ukraine crisis

Spain's foreign minister will cut short his visit to Iran on Sunday in order to attend EU talks on the crisis in Ukraine, the Spanish embassy in Tehran, news agency AFP has reported.

Spain's FM quits Iran trip over Ukraine crisis
Unidentified armed and uniformed men guard the Crimean Cabinet of Ministers building in Simferopol on Sunday. Photo: Genya Savilov/AFP

"He will leave this afternoon for Brussels," a diplomatic source said.

Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, who arrived in Tehran on Saturday for a planned four-day visit, is to attend an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday.

"We are concerned about the territorial integrity of Ukraine," Garcia-Margallo said in a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif

Zarif said Iran too was "concerned about the developments in Ukraine."

"We hope there will be a peaceful settlement to the crisis," he added.   

The EU session was called after the Russian parliament approved President Vladimir Putin's request for sending troops into neighbouring Ukraine's Crimea region, triggering an international outcry.

US President Barack Obama warned Moscow on Friday that there would be "costs" if Russia intervenes militarily while German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she is 'worried' about events in the Crimea.

Under the threat of a Russian intervention, the Western-backed interim government in Kiev has put the military on full combat alert.

It also asked the US-led NATO alliance to help defend its "territorial integrity and sovereignty."

In Tehran, the foreign policy adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared to blame NATO for the crisis.

"NATO is greedily eyeing Ukraine under the pretext of it joining the military alliance," Ali Akbar Velayati told the Mehr news agency.

"We hope their interference is terminated."   

NATO has called for emergency talks Sunday in Brussels on the "grave situation" in Ukraine.

NATO set up a joint commission with Ukraine in 1997 to oversee relations, and in 2008 agreed that Kiev could eventually be considered for membership of the Cold War-era alliance.

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UKRAINE

Germany to support defence of Polish airspace

Germany on Monday said it had reached an agreement to help Poland protect its skies following a deadly rocket strike close to the border with Ukraine.

Germany to support defence of Polish airspace

Berlin would “send Patriot anti-aircraft systems to Poland and support the securing of Polish airspace with Eurofighter (jets)”, Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said in a statement.

READ ALSO: Germany to buy F-35 fighter jets in military shopping spree

Two people were killed last week when a missile landed in the Polish village of Przewodow, six kilometres (four miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Warsaw and NATO have said the explosion was likely caused by a Ukrainian air-defence missile launched to intercept a Russian barrage, but that Moscow was ultimately to blame because it started the conflict.

Before the deal was agreed, Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said he “welcomed the German proposal with satisfaction”.

Blaszczak said on Twitter he would propose for the systems to be “stationed close to the border with Ukraine”.

Germany has already sent Patriot anti-aircraft units to Slovakia, where Berlin hopes to keep them deployed for longer than currently planned.

The air-defence systems should remain in Slovakia “until the end of 2023 and potentially even beyond”, Lambrecht told the Rheinische Post daily.

“It is our utmost responsibility that NATO does not become a participant in this conflict,” while strengthening its air defences, she said.

READ ALSO: Germany and Spain to train Ukraine troops under EU programme

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