"It happened," Poroshenko told a crowd awaiting the council's decision in central Kyiv on December 15. "This day will go down in history as the sacred day of the creation of the autocephalous local Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The day we finally receive our independence from Russia."
That's rich, coming from someone as unspiritual as Poroshenko.
Metropolitan Epifaniy was elected by the council to head the new church.
The meeting in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was a crucial step in years of efforts to create a church in Ukraine that is independent of Moscow.
Several thousand people rallied outside the ancient St. Sophia's Cathedral in Kyiv where the meeting had taken place behind closed doors.
For or against?
Poroshenko has made an independent church a campaign pledge as part of his campaign for reelection in 2019.
Which he has no chance of winning legitimately.
"Let's stand and pray for a Ukrainian church to be created today," Poroshenko said as he greeted several of the rally's participants before going into the cathedral.
"The creation of our Church is another declaration of Ukraine's independence and you are the main participants of this historic event," he added.
Meanwhile, Poroshenko's press secretary, Svyatoslav Tsegolko, posted on Facebook a photo from inside the cathedral where the priests are meeting.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate said on December 13 that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the "first among equals" in the global Eastern Orthodox faith, will hand over a "tomos" -- a decree granting autocephaly, or independence -- to the future head of the local Orthodox Church in Ukraine on January 6.
"We've never provided weapons to Houthis. The Houthis use the weapons provided to them by Saudi Arabia... with Saudi money buying weapons from Russia, buying weapons from China, and buying weapons from North Korea... You are looking at the wrong address if you ask Iran", Zarif said at the Doha Forum in Qatar.The fact is, Iran has never been caught actually sending weapons to the Houthis. Yemen is under a full blockade. All we have are accusations from Iran's enemies - not exactly a reliable source in a time of war.
At the same time, Zarif stressed that the Saudi-led coalition's bombing of Yemeni people was an obvious fact that needed no extra evidence.
"I don't need to show any evidence about the jets that are flying in Yemen, bombing the Yemenis. Those are American-made jets, and those are Saudi fighters, I assume... There are facts about US weapons, there are facts about Saudi bombing", he said.
Saudi Arabia is interested in increasing tensions in the region, and the examples of a blockade of Qatar and the military operation in Yemen prove that the minister stressed.
"Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia does not want to reduce tensions. Actually, Saudi Arabia believes that it is in its interest to increase tensions. Look at what they did with Qatar. Look at how they imprisoned the prime minister of another country. Look at what they are doing in Yemen", Zarif said.
...
Zarif also addressed the humanitarian aspect of the situation in Iran, stressing that Tehran decisively opposes human rights abuses.
"Obviously, everybody's record of human right can be improved... Of course, our human rights record can be improved, of course we have excesses, obviously, every country has excesses", the diplomat said.
The Iranian foreign minister stressed that Iranian citizens were on whom the state relied for the country's defence, prosperity, economic development and scientific achievements.
"We build our own weapons, these are the people who are building those weapons... So if it is a moral obligation for someone to observe human rights, for us it is a matter of national security. We make mistakes, people commit excesses, but that does not mean that others are in position to give us lectures about human rights," Zarif stressed.
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