Our Special Correspondent

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — March 24 — Iran’s ambassador to Sri Lanka said Monday that Sri Lankan naval authorities had invited Iranian vessels — including the ill-fated IRIS Dena — to visit the island, reinforcing an account first reported by Jaffna Monitor earlier this month. Speaking at a media briefing in Colombo on March 23, the ambassador, Dr. Alireza Delkhosh, said the invitation was extended during MILAN 2026, a multinational naval exercise held in Visakhapatnam, India. “During the exercise i

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s long-delayed provincial council elections appear set for further postponement, with a parliamentary panel now expected to submit only an initial report within three months. The select committee, chaired by Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, had originally been tasked with producing a report within that timeframe. But at its first meeting last week, Mr. Vijitha Herath indicated that only a preliminary report would be delivered, suggesting that further stages of rev

After Jaffna Monitor published its editorial on Sunday questioning Batticaloa District MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam’s decision to invoke Sri Lanka’s Online Safety Act against dozens of Tamil critics, media figures, and political actors, the lawmaker telephoned this office to present his version of events. Speaking at length, Mr. Shanakiyan defended his decision to seek relief through the courts and described what he said was a prolonged, coordinated campaign of personal defamation directed not on