1. In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani forcefully asserted that Iran would not destroy its nuclear centrifuges “under any circumstances”.
Rouhani’s comments come just days after the U.S. and Iran began to implement a deal which the White House claims will scale back Iran’s nuclear program. The Obama administration claims the goal of the deal is to prevent a nuclear Iran, yet Rouhani’s comments show Iran views the deal much differently.
Reacting to Rouhani’s position, Zakaria told CNN that the Iranian President’s comments struck him as a “train wreck”.
“This strikes me as a train wreck. This strikes me as a huge obstacle because the Iranian conception of what the deal is going to look like and the American conception now look like they are miles apart,” Zakaria said.
The leaders of three opposition factions met with President Viktor Yanukovych and a government working group Wednesday to try to resolve the crisis, the President’s official website said.
They are Vitali Klitschko, leader of the UDAR party; Arseniy Yatsenyuk, of the Fatherland party; and Oleh Tiahnybok, of the Freedom party, or Svoboda.
A statement on Yanukovych’s website said the first stage of negotiations — a meeting of more than three hours — had ended.
Klitschko accused Yanukovych’s government of having the blood of protesters on its hands.
3. There is now speculation that the Ukraine could split up into smaller countries.
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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