Category Archives: Iran

Tehran museum unveils western art masterpieces hidden for decades

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‘Deviant’ works by artists including Picasso and Warhol return to display at exhibition in Iranian capital

Some of the world’s most prized works of contemporary western art have been unveiled for the first time in decades in Tehran.

The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric, rails against the influence of the west. Authorities have condemned “deviant” artists for “attacking Iran’s revolutionary culture”. And the Islamic Republic has plunged further into confrontation with the US and Europe as it rapidly accelerates its nuclear programme and diplomatic efforts stall.

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US charges Iranian man over alleged plot to kill ex-Trump aide John Bolton

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Shahram Poursafi, who US says belongs to Revolutionary Guards, offered money to hitman to avenge Suleimani death, DoJ alleges

The US has charged an Iranian man it says is a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with attempting to hire a hitman for $300,000 to kill John Bolton, the former national security adviser in the Trump administration.

The Department of Justice said Shahram Poursafi, also known as Mehdi Rezayi, offered the money in November 2021 to an unidentified person in the US to “eliminate” Bolton, apparently to avenge the drone killing of the IRGC commander Qassem Suleimani, in January 2020.

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Iranian satellite launched by Russia could be used for Ukraine surveillance

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Tehran denies Khayyam satellite will be under Russian control, despite reported admission by Moscow

Russia has launched an Iranian satellite from Kazakhstan amid concerns it could be used for battlefield surveillance in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Iran has denied that the Khayyam satellite, which was delivered into orbit onboard a Soyuz rocket launched from Baikonur cosmodrome, would ever be under Russian control.

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EU team submit ‘final text’ at talks to salvage 2015 Iran nuclear deal

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Revival of agreement awaits ‘political decisions’ in Tehran and Washington after negotiators in Vienna agree text

The European Union has submitted a “final text” at talks to salvage the 2015 deal aimed at reining in Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The revival of the agreement now awaits “political decisions” in Tehran and Washington after negotiators in Vienna agreed the text thrashed out between Iranian and European representatives over the past five days was the final text and could not be amended further.

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Iran may eventually get its way in protracted power struggle in Iraq

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Analysis: Kurdish officials are considering allying with Iranian interests to finally form a government in Baghdad

A parliament besieged by protesters, a country adrift nine months after an election, a feud between domestic blocs and Iranian proxies: for many Iraqis, the latest political crisis is nothing new.

But to many observers this standoff appears more complex and protracted than most over the more than two decades of efforts to root a democratic state in Iraq. From the Kurdish region in the north to Anbar province in the west and the Shia communities in the south, there appears to be little hope that a government pursuing a collective national interest can emerge from the power struggle.

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Morad Tahbaz has been freed from jail in Iran on electronic tag, UK says

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Foreign Office confirms British-Iranian man is at home in Tehran and officials are working to free him permanently

Morad Tahbaz, the British-Iranian man held in a Tehran prison, has been released on an electronic tag, the UK Foreign Office has confirmed.

He had been due to be released on a tag at the same time as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were allowed to return to the UK in March, but he was only allowed to return to his mother’s home in Tehran for a few days before he was sent back to Evin prison.

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Flooding in southern Iran kills at least 22 people

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Vehicles carried away by rising waters after heavy rainfall in the largely arid country

Flooding in southern Iran has killed at least 22 people and left one person missing after heavy rainfall in the largely arid country, a local official has said.

Videos posted on local and social media on Saturday showed vehicles being carried away by the rising waters of the Roodball river in the southern province of Fars. One video showed adults pulling a child from a car as it began to shift downstream.

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MPs claim Foreign Office ‘inaction’ on sanctioning Iranians for hostage-taking

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Officials involved in arrest and intimidation of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe named in Commons

The Foreign Office has failed to sanction key Iranians responsible for the arrest and intimidation of the British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe despite being passed their names in September, MPs have claimed.

Chris Bryant, a Labour member of the foreign affairs select committee, named Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour, a state TV journalist, and Hossein Taeb, the former head of intelligence in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as part of a group of 10 Iranians who he said needed to be sanctioned for state hostage-taking. It is the first time the two names have been released.

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Erdoğan asks Russia and Iran to back Turkey’s incursion into Syria

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Turkish president cites Kurdish forces in north-west Syria as justification for extending zone of control

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has used trilateral talks with his Iranian and Russian counterparts in Tehran to make the case for a further Turkish incursion into north-western Syria.

Erdoğan cited Kurdish forces in Tel Rifaat and Manbij, two towns in north-west Syria where Russian and Iranian forces are present, as justification for Turkey extending its zone of control in the country. “What we expect from Iran and Russia is to support Turkey in its fight against terrorist organisations,” he told a press conference following the meeting.

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Putin endorsed by Iran for invasion of Ukraine but clashes with Turkey at summit

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Tehran meeting saw discord over Erdoğan’s plan to intervene in Syria but ‘progress’ on shipping Ukrainian grain

Vladimir Putin ended his first major summit outside Russia since the invasion of Ukraine with an endorsement from Iran for its response to Nato, a clash with Turkey over Syria and signs of progress over the lifting of the Russian blockade of Ukrainian grain.

The White House said the Tehran summit held between Putin, the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, and the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, showed how isolated the Russian leader had become – which was not an observation shared by Moscow, who claimed it showed Russia remained respected in the Middle East.

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Question of what now for Syria remains as vexed as ever

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Analysis: while diplomatic efforts continue over Ukraine, Syria risks becoming entrenched as the conflict that was

Before Ukraine there was Syria, a war so vicious and consuming that it was once considered to be the most consequential conflict of the last 50 years.

With more than half a million killed when the counting stopped seven years ago, nearly two-thirds of the country’s prewar population displaced or in exile, and its economy and social fabric in ruins, Syria is a shattered husk, its spoils eagerly eyed by the three leaders who gathered in Tehran on Tuesday.

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Putin claims progress made in talks over lifting Ukrainian wheat blockade

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Russian president makes comments in Tehran, where he had a meeting with leaders from Turkey and Iran

Vladimir Putin has claimed on a trip to Tehran that progress has been made that may allow Russia to lift the blockade on Ukrainian wheat, an issue that is threatening famine across Africa.

“I want to thank you for your mediation efforts,” the Russian president told Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his Turkish counterpart, in comments released by the Kremlin.

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Jafar Panahi sentenced to six years in jail

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The Iranian director was arrested last week for criticising the government after enquiring about the earlier arrest of fellow film-maker Mohammad Rasoulof

The director Jafar Panahi has been sentenced to six years’ imprisonment by the Iranian judiciary, who are seeking to enforce a previously handed-down sentence.

Panahi, who has won the top prizes at the Venice and Berlin film festivals, and is the director of films including The Circle, The White Balloon, Crimson Gold, Taxi and This Is Not a Film, is one of three film-makers arrested in Tehran in less than a week.

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Joe Biden defends human rights record ahead of Saudi visit

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President says he will not avoid rights issues but skirts commitment to discuss Khashoggi murder

Joe Biden has defended his imminent trip to Saudi Arabia, saying he will not avoid human rights issues on the final leg of his Middle East tour, despite refusing to commit to mentioning the murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi when he meets the kingdom’s crown prince.

Speaking during a news conference with the interim Israeli prime minister, Yair Lapid, in Jerusalem on Thursday, the US leader said his stance on Khashoggi’s killing was “absolutely” clear.

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Joe Biden arrives in Middle East at time of rapid change

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Analysis: Israel has transformed itself from regional pariah to ally to many Arab states

Joe Biden has made clear that the Middle East is not a priority for his administration: Ukraine, China and the US midterm elections are all more pressing issues. Still, when Air Force One touches down in Tel Aviv for his first visit to the region as president on Wednesday afternoon, Biden will be faced with a rapidly changing – and still unstable – part of the world.

Biden’s main goal is to convince Saudi Arabia of the need to increase global oil supplies to ease the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the fact that he flies directly to Jeddah after two days in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories speaks to a significant shift: Israel’s transformation from regional pariah to ally for many Arab states.

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Iran to supply Russia with hundreds of combat drones, US says

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White House says it shows how Russia’s weaponry has been depleted by its relentless bombardment of eastern Ukraine

Iran is planning to supply Russia with hundreds of weapons-capable drones for use in Ukraine, according to a top US official.

Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said the information received by the US supported views that Russia’s heavy bombardments in Ukraine, which have led it to consolidate gains in the country’s east in recent weeks, were “coming at a cost to the sustainment of its own weapons”.

Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press contributed to this report

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Jafar Panahi is third film-maker in a week to be arrested in Iran

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Berlin winner in 2015 detained while querying arrest of another director after protests over building collapse

The award-winning director Jafar Panahi has become the third Iranian film-maker to be arrested in less than a week, the Mehr news agency has said, as he visited prosecutors over the detentions last week of Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad.

Panahi, 62, has won a slew of awards at international festivals for films that have critiqued modern Iran, including the top prize in Berlin for Taxi in 2015, and best screenplay at Cannes for 3 Faces in 2018.

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Critics told ‘lives at stake’ over Belgium-Iran prisoner swap treaty

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Belgian justice minister tells MPs if bill not approved threat to Belgian interests will increase

Belgian politicians who support a treaty that would permit the swap of an Iranian diplomat jailed in Belgium for Belgians held prisoner in Tehran have told the treaty’s opponents that “lives are at stake”.

MPs were told during a debate on Tuesday that there were serious risks to Belgians being kept in Iran if they voted against ratifying the treaty, which is set to be a first of its kind among European countries.

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Iran earthquakes: at least five killed and village flattened, state media says

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Rescue work carried out after 12 also injured in magnitude-6.1 quake followed by two others and more than dozen aftershocks

At least five people were killed by a magnitude-6.1 earthquake in southern Iran early on Saturday, state media reported, with the area also hit by two later strong quakes of up to 6.3 magnitude.

“Five people have died in the earthquake … and so far 12 are hospitalised,” Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, the head of emergency management in Hormozgan province on Iran’s Gulf coast, told state TV.

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Iran accused of making ‘maximalist demands’ in nuclear deal talks

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Talks to save 2015 agreement on brink of collapse as Tehran is also accused of testing missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons

Iran has been accused of making “maximalist demands” in the latest unsuccessful round of talks on reviving the nuclear non-proliferation deal at a grave session of the UN security council in which it was widely acknowledged that the talks – and the whole 2015 deal – were on the brink of collapse.

Iranian and US officials, with the EU acting as mediators, held two days of talks in Doha in a bid to break a months-long impasse, but no progress was made on Iran’s central demand that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps be removed from US sanctions and its list of foreign terrorist organisations.

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