Messi suspended from Argentina for 3 months for comments
Asuncion: Soccer body CONMEBOL suspended Lionel Messi from international matches for three months because of accusations of corruption he made at the latest Copa America.
The South American body also said Friday that it fined the superstar in USD 50,000 for his comments after Argentina's 2-1 win against Chile in the third-place playoff of the tournament in July.
Messi and Argentina can still appeal the decision, which stops the striker from playing in four friendlies this year.
The 32-year-old will not play for Argentina matches in September against Chile and Mexico, plus another two in October versus Germany and another adversary to be picked.
Neither Messi nor Argentina's soccer association have made comments about CONMEBOL's decision.
Messi is already suspended from the first match of the South American World Cup qualifiers next March because of the apparently undeserved red card he received against Chile.
The Argentine was sent off for only the second time in his career after a shoving match with Chile midfielder Gary Medel, who also was ejected.
Messi avoided the medal ceremony in protest and later said Argentina "shouldn't take part in this corruption." The Argentinian also said the tournament was set for hosts Brazil to win.
Messi had already complained against Copa Am rica refereeing after Argentina's 2-0 loss to Brazil in the semifinals.
When asked if he feared being suspended for his comments, he said "the truth needed to be told." Messi later sent an apology to CONMEBOL for his remarks.
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Iran suggests it's open to US talks, White House official says, Trump is 'eventually' willing
Washington (AP): A senior White House official said Sunday that Iran's “new potential leadership” has suggested it is open to talks with the United States after American and Israeli forces launched a major attack against Tehran, killing the country's supreme leader and other high-ranking officials.
The White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations, said President Donald Trump says he is “eventually” willing to talk, but for now the military operation “continues unabated.” The official did not say who the potential new Iranian leaders are or how they made their alleged willingness to talk known.
Trump told The Atlantic, in an interview Sunday, that he planned to speak with Iran's new leadership.
“They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them,” he said, declining comment on the timing.
The potential future diplomatic opening comes as new details are emerging about the detailed planning that went into the US-Israeli strikes and some of the targets that were hit in Iran.
US Central Command said that B-2 stealth bombers struck Iran's ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs. That mirrors the approach that the military took in June, when Trump agreed to deploy B-2 bombers to attack three key Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump claimed in his State of the Union speech last week that Iran had been building ballistic missiles that could reach the US homeland — a justification he repeated again Saturday as he announced that the bombardment of Iran was underway.
Iran has not acknowledged that it is building or seeking to build intercontinental ballistic missiles. The US Defence Intelligence Agency, however, said in an unclassified report last year that Iran could develop a militarily viable intercontinental ballistic missile by 2035 “should Tehran decide to pursue the capability.”
Before the attacks, the CIA had for months tracked the movements of senior Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to a person familiar with the operation.
The intelligence was shared with Israeli officials, and the timing of the strikes was adjusted in part because of that information about the Iranian leaders' location, according to the person, who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The intelligence sharing between US and Israel reflects the preparation that went into the strikes, which continued for a second day Sunday after Khamenei's killing threw the future of the Islamic Republic into uncertainty and raised the risk of escalating regional conflict.
The New York Times earlier reported about the CIA's efforts before the Israeli-US strikes.
Sen. Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, declined to discuss details Sunday when asked on CBS' “Face the Nation” about intelligence sharing with Israel. But he said tracking the movements of the supreme leader and the heads of other adversarial nations “is obviously one of the highest priorities of our intelligence community.”
“Clearly, this operation is driven by intelligence collected by Israel and the United States that has once again proven that our nations have capabilities that no other nation on Earth has,” said Cotton, R-Ark.
The US regularly shares intelligence with allies including Israel. Those partnerships, and the accuracy of the intelligence they yield, is often critical not only to the success of a military operation but also to the public's support for it.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the senior Democrat on the committee, told The Associated Press that historically, “our working relationship with the Mossad and Israel is really strong.” Mossad is the Israeli spy agency.
Warner said he has serious concerns about the justification for the strikes, Trump's long-term plans for the conflict and the risks that US service members will face. The military announced Sunday that three American troops had been killed and five were seriously wounded in the Iran operation.
“No tears will be shed over their leadership being eliminated but always the question is: OK, what next?” Warner said.
