Storage dwindles in Mashhad, home to 4 million people, as country struggles with drought
Water levels at the dam reservoirs supplying Iran’s north-eastern city of Mashhad have plunged below 3%, according to reports, as the country suffers from severe water shortages.
“The water storage in Mashhad’s dams has now fallen to less than 3%,” Hossein Esmaeilian, the chief executive of the water company in Iran’s second largest city by population, told the ISNA news agency.
Continue reading...Iran’s police say Omid Sarlak, 22, shot himself, but fellow activists suspect he may have been killed for his views
The death of a young Iranian man who had filmed himself burning a photograph of the country’s supreme leader has sparked a war of words between state media and activists over how he died.
Government-sanctioned news websites reported that Omid Sarlak, who was in his 20s, had been found in his car on Saturday in western Iran with a gunshot wound to his head and traces of gunpowder on his hands. Iranian police said Sarlak had “died by suicide”.
Continue reading...Trump’s 20-point plan is forcing regional rivals to set aside differences and collaborate after years of competition
If the war in Gaza had dramatic consequences across the Middle East, overturning long-held assumptions, resetting the geopolitical map and provoking massive shifts in public opinion, any durable peace is likely to have equally momentous effects.
Some counsel caution.
Continue reading...Five Yemenis and 15 foreign workers held as Iran-backed group steps up its campaign against international agencies
Houthi rebels have detained 20 employees at a UN facility in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen.
They are holding five Yemenis and 15 international workers but released another 11 after questioning them on Sunday. It was the second raid on a UN building in Sana’a in 24 hours.
Continue reading...Tehran terminates 2015 deal under which sanctions were lifted in return for curbs on country’s nuclear programme
An international deal with Iran designed to keep the world safe from the spread of atomic weapons has officially ended, with Tehran announcing the termination of the decade-old agreement.
Iran said on Saturday that it was no longer bound by the 2015 agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), under which international sanctions were lifted in exchange for limitations on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Continue reading...Tehran considers move as part of multi-pronged offensive after bombing of nuclear sites and restoration of sanctions
Iran is considering releasing hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees across its western borders with Iraq and Turkey. It would be part of what officials describe as a necessarily more offensive and unpredictable strategy in the wake of the bombing of its nuclear sites and the European reimposition of UN sanctions.
The multi-pronged offensive includes expansion of its missile programme, strengthening air defences, suspending cooperation with the UN weapons inspectorate and on 18 October blocking the establishment of a UN committee to oversee the administration of the reimposed sanctions. Officials remain opposed to reopening talks with the US, believing the talks would fail.
Continue reading...Masoud Pezeshkian says subsidence is also ‘a disaster’ in city of 10 million, which consumes quarter of Iran’s water
Iran’s president has claimed Iran has no choice but to move its capital from Tehran to the south of the country due to the city’s over-expansion, the lack of adequate water supplies and the growing threat of subsidence.
Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday that he had raised the proposal with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, last year. He admitted it had received a lot of criticism, but argued that the accumulating resource crises were so deep that Iran now had an obligation to shift the capital, and no choice but to do so.
Continue reading...Foreign ministry attacks ‘unjustifiable’ return of measures expected to have wide effects on troubled economy
Widespread UN sanctions against Iran have come back into force for the first time in a decade, prompting anger from Tehran, after last-ditch nuclear talks with western powers failed to produce a breakthrough.
The sanctions, which came into effect late on Saturday and three months after Israel and the US bombed Iran, bar dealings related to Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programme and are also expected to have wider effects on the country’s troubled economy.
Continue reading...Son of Lindsay Foreman expresses ‘real concerns’ after mother put on drip and stepfather, Craig, ‘constantly ill’
The family of Lindsay and Craig Foreman, a British couple detained in Iran on espionage charges, have said their health is deteriorating in prison.
The pair, both 52 and who previously split their time between Spain and England, were seized in Kerman, central Iran, and taken into custody in January while on an around-the-world motorcycle tour.
Continue reading...Russian efforts to delay the return of sanctions is expected to fail during vote on Friday
A final Russian attempt to defer the snapback of large-scale UN sanctions on Iran is expected to fail at the UN security council on Friday after European countries rejected last-minute Iranian offers to give UN weapons inspectors limited access to its bombed nuclear sites.
Russia will call for the reimposition of the sanctions to be deferred for six months to give more time for diplomacy, but European diplomats are confident that Russia will not get the nine votes it needs on the security council for the snapback to be deferred. The last time Russia put the same issue to a vote it received only four votes.
Continue reading...Aidarous al-Zubaidi says Houthis will not be dislodged by bombing and path to political settlement is blocked
Yemen needs its own two-state solution, the president of its Southern Transitional Council (STC) has said, warning that there is currently no prospect of dislodging the Iran-backed Houthis from power in the north.
Speaking on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, Aidarous al-Zubaidi told the Guardian: “The best solution for Yemen and the best path to stability is the two-state solution, whether by referendum or agreement. The reality on the ground is that there are two states militarily and economically.”
Continue reading...Abbas Araghchi will likely also meet with European officials, as window for reaching an agreement narrows
Iran’s foreign minister has met the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog at the start of a frantic round of diplomatic meetings in New York in a bid to avert the reimposition of a wave of UN sanctions on Iran starting on Sunday.
The crisis could rapidly spiral into fresh Israeli calls to attack Iran for failing to cooperate over its nuclear programme. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warned on Monday: “We must destroy the axis of evil Iran and we have the power to do so. This is what lies ahead of us in the coming year, a year that could be a historic one for Israel’s security.”
Continue reading...Iranian foreign ministry urges further diplomacy and says return to pre-2015 measures are unlawful and unfounded
The UN security council failed to pass a resolution on Friday that would have prevented the reimposition of UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme before the deadline for the “snapping back” of punitive measures.
UN sanctions on Iran will be re-established at the end of the month unless the nine-member security council agrees to further extend sanctions relief. Friday’s resolution, put forth by South Korea, received support from only four countries – China, Russia, Pakistan and Algeria.
Continue reading...Arab states say US should use its leverage and influence as they promise to ‘activate joint defence mechanisms’
Gulf leaders meeting at an emergency summit in Qatar have called on the Trump administration to use its leverage to rein in Israel following the unprecedented Israeli attempt last Tuesday to assassinate Hamas negotiators in Doha.
Speaking after the meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the group’s secretary general, Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, said: “We … expect our strategic partners in the United States to use their influence on Israel in order for it to stop this behaviour … they have leverage and influence on Israel, and it’s about time that this leverage and influence be used.”
Continue reading...Rafael Grossi, IAEA director general, says agreement with Tehran is ‘important step in the right direction’
Tehran and the UN nuclear inspectorate have reached an agreement that will allow UN inspectors to return to inspect all of Iran’s nuclear sites, including those bombed by Israel and the US in June.
The breakthrough, confirmed by Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, came during a three-hour meeting on Monday between Grossi and the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, in Cairo.
Continue reading...General assembly session about two-state solution for Palestine and Israel due to start in New York on Tuesday
The US’s refusal to grant visas to the Palestinian delegation to the UN general assembly has led to calls for a one-day conference on a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel to be moved from the UN’s headquarters in New York to its other main site in Geneva.
Donald Trump’s White House has already refused to grant a visa to the Palestinian Authority (PA) president, Mahmoud Abbas, and 80 other Palestinian officials for the general assembly session, which begins on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Seyyed Abbas Araghchi says European nations should engage constructively and not facilitate ‘America’s excesses’
Iran is ready to form a real and lasting agreement that includes strict monitoring and limits on its domestic uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, its foreign minister, Seyyed Abbas Araghchi, has said.
But, writing for the Guardian, he urges the European nations to change course and abandon their plan to snapback a wide array of UN sanctions at the end of the month.
Continue reading...Foreign ministry official says US will be dictating what happens once UN-wide sanctions are reimposed
Europe is on the verge of abandoning its role as a mediator between the US and Iran and instead handing the Iran nuclear file over to Donald Trump’s veto, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson has said in an interview with the Guardian in Tehran.
Esmail Baghaei said that as soon as UN-wide sanctions were reimposed at Europe’s demand in less than 30 days’ time, the US would regain its security council veto over what happens next, including the continuance of sanctions.
Continue reading...Move by trio of European powers gives Tehran 30 days to improve access for inspection of its nuclear sites
The UK, France and Germany have formally notified the UN that they have triggered the restoration of sweeping UN sanctions against Iran, giving Tehran 30 days to make concessions on access to its nuclear sites or face deeper worldwide economic isolation.
UK officials said the decision had not been taken lightly and there had been intensive diplomacy to try to avert this step. The officials emphasised there was still room for last-ditch diplomacy before the sanctions “snapback” comes into force in 30 days’ time. The annual high-level UN general assembly in September is likely to involve more intensive diplomacy over the situation with Iran.
Continue reading...Ahmad Sadeghi faced media questioning at the airport before boarding a flight out of Australia
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Iran’s former ambassador to Australia – now persona non grata – has denied allegations his government was behind two antisemitic arson attacks in Australia, describing the accusations as “baseless” as he left the country.
Ahmad Sadeghi faced media questioning at Sydney airport before boarding a flight out of Australia.
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