TEHRAN, Aug. 18 — Iran has repatriated nearly 1.2 million undocumented Afghans since March 21, Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said on Monday.

Momeni told reporters in the northeastern city of Mashhad that more than 70 percent of the repatriations during that period were voluntary, the official news agency IRNA reported.

He noted that the highest number of returns took place through the border between Iran’s Khorasan Razavi province and Afghanistan’s Herat province.

The minister estimated that over 6 million Afghans are living in Iran and said an additional 800,000 undocumented Afghans would be repatriated by the end of the current Iranian year on March 20, 2026.

Momeni emphasized the importance of following legal procedures and preserving the dignity of migrants during the deportation process.

Iranian authorities have recently intensified efforts to encourage undocumented foreigners to return home. (Xinhua)

ANCHORAGE,United States, Aug. 16– U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday wrapped up a high-stakes meeting in Anchorage, the U.S. state of Alaska, with progress made but no deal reached.

The meeting, held at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in the city, marked the first visit to the United States by a Russian head of state in nearly a decade and the first face-to-face meeting between the two countries’ presidents since 2021.

Initially expected to be a one-on-one meeting, it was opened with a three-on-three format. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff joined Trump, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and presidential aide Yuri Ushakov accompanied Putin.

At a joint press conference afterward, Trump said “many points” had been agreed upon, noting “great progress” had been made, though no formal deal was reached.

Putin said he agreed Ukraine’s security should be ensured, adding that the understanding reached could help pave the way toward peace.

Standing together for about 12 minutes before reporters, the two leaders underscored progress but offered no concrete details.

“Everything that’s happening is a tragedy for us and a terrible wound,” and Russia is sincerely interested in ending it, Putin said, stressing the need to address the “primary causes” of the conflict and warning Ukraine and European countries not to “throw a wrench in the works.”

Putin expressed hope the meeting would serve as “a starting point” not only for resolving the Ukraine issue but also for restoring “business-like” and “pragmatic” relations between Russia and the United States.

He highlighted potential for Russia-U.S. cooperation in trade, high technology, space exploration and the Arctic. Trump said he would soon call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders.

The press conference ended without taking questions from reporters. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained that both leaders had delivered “exhaustive statements” summarizing the outcome of the talks, which rendered a subsequent media Q&A unnecessary.

“This is the very conversation that allows us to confidently move forward together along the path of finding settlement options,” Peskov said.

In an interview with Fox News after the meeting, Trump said it is up to Zelensky to strike a ceasefire deal, while indicating that issues such as land swaps and security guarantees had been raised during his summit with Putin.

Trump said there would soon be a meeting set up involving Zelensky, Putin and himself. After their talks, which lasted about three hours, Trump and Putin departed Alaska.

Before boarding his plane, Putin visited the Fort Richardson National Cemetery in Anchorage, where he laid flowers on the graves of Soviet soldiers.

Kirill Dmitriev, Russia’s top economic envoy, said the United States received Russia “very well” in Alaska and that the two countries would continue building relations despite “resistance.” (Xinhua)

by Xinhua writers Tan Jingjing, Gao Shan, Xiong Maoling

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 16  — A total of 225 people were killed in separate rain-related accidents in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province during the past 48 hours, raising the death toll to 541 since the onset of the monsoon season on June 26, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said Saturday.

According to rescue organizations, the torrential rains, flash floods, and lightning strikes have wreaked havoc in parts of the province, leaving many missing and widespread destruction in their wake.

“Entire families have been swept away as floods inundated villages, while landslides triggered by the relentless downpours have blocked key roads and cut off access to remote areas,” Muhammad Khalid, a volunteer working with Alkhidmat Foundation, a non-governmental organization, told Xinhua.

According to the NDMA, the province was the worst-hit in the monsoon, where flash floods triggered by cloudbursts swept away several localities over the past two days, leaving 285 dead since late June, the authority added.

The NDMA said that 164 people were killed in eastern Punjab province, 28 in southern Sindh, and 24 in northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, while the remaining 40 deaths occurred in other provinces and Islamabad.

Citizens have been urged to stay alert, exercise caution during downpours and flooding, and avoid unnecessary travel to vulnerable areas.

Tourists, in particular, have been advised to refrain from visiting northern regions over the next five to six days to ensure their safety. (Xinhua)

MOSCOW, Aug. 16  — A fire at an industrial facility in western Russia’s Ryazan region killed 11 people and injured 130 others, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said on Saturday.

“The bodies of two more people were found during rubble clearing. In total, unfortunately, 11 people died and 130 people were injured,” the ministry reported on its Telegram channel.

Earlier, a person, whose location was detected by one of the canine units deployed as part of the air-mobile group, was rescued from the debris, the ministry said.

More than 360 specialists and 90 units of equipment have been deployed to the scene, while search and rescue operations continue at the incident site, it added.

The fire broke out at around 10:30 a.m. local time (0730 GMT) in a production workshop of a factory in Lesnoy, Shilovsky District.

Local investigative authorities had opened a case over violations of industrial safety requirements at hazardous production facilities in connection with the incident. (Xinhua)

KIEV, Aug. 16– Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that he will meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday.

“On Monday, I will meet with President Trump in Washington, D.C., to discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war,” Zelensky said in a post on X.

“We had a long and substantive conversation,” he said, referring to an earlier phone call with Trump, which also involved some European leaders and lasted for more than an hour and a half.

Zelensky further said that about an hour of the call was dedicated to his one-on-one conversation with Trump.

“Ukraine reaffirms its readiness to work with maximum effort to achieve peace,” Zelensky said, voicing support for Trump’s proposal to hold a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, the United States and Russia.

“Ukraine emphasizes that key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this,” he said.

Zelensky underscored the importance of ensuring that European countries are involved in the peace process in order to provide Ukraine with reliable security guarantees together with the United States.

According to Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne, the talks also involved European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Mark Rutte, as well as leaders of Italy, Germany, Finland, France, Poland and Britain.

Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met on Friday in the U.S. state of Alaska. At a joint press conference afterward, the two leaders underscored progress had been made, though no formal deal was reached on the Ukraine crisis. (Xinhua)