Kazakhstan holds parliamentary election expected to cement president’s grip

Hardliner Mohsen Rezaei also threatens American economic interests in first interview since appointment to supreme national security council The new leader of Iran’s top security body has warned its neighbours against joining new US efforts to squeeze Tehran’s economy, and threatened US commercial interests in the region, as Donald Trump doubled down on his fanciful view that the strait of Hormuz was a new US territory. Mohsen Rezaei, the hardline new leader of Iran’s supreme national security council, told state television that Iran would target oil-shipping routes out the Gulf – alternatives to the strait of Hormuz – if its neighbours joined what he called the “economic war” waged by the US. Those neighbours would be “considered an enemy” and “we will target their interests”, he said...

The sacked former defence minister has also called for elections to be held in Ukraine.

Roadmap follows a week of talks in Switzerland aimed at making progress on a framework agreement they signed last year.