Category Archives: Iran

Iran’s foreign minister heckled and called a liar in parliament

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Display of anger likely to encourage US to believe sanctions are creating tensions

Hardline Iranian MPs heckled the country’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, and denounced him as a liar in parliament on Sunday, in a display of division and anger that is likely to encourage Washington to believe that its tough sanctions policy is creating deep tensions.

Zarif was speaking to the newly elected and conservative-dominated parliament for the first time and had to wait for the speaker to restore order as he was accused of selling the country out by negotiating with the US administration over the nuclear deal in 2015. The row, which lasted several minutes, shows how conservatives will use the failure of the nuclear deal to boost the Iranian economy to isolate any reformist candidate in next year’s presidential election.

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Fire breaks out at power station in Iran

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Fire follows several other incidents at facilities across the country, including some at sensitive sites

A fire broke out at a power station in south-western Iran on Saturday, Iranian media reported, the latest in a string of fires and explosions, some of which have hit sensitive sites.

The blaze, which affected a transformer in the power station in the city of Ahvaz, was put out by firefighters and electricity was restored after partial outages, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, a spokesman for state-run power company Tavanir, told the semi-official news agency Tasnim.

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US urges allies to maintain UN embargo on arms sales to Iran

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Mike Pompeo opposes lifting embargo, which is due to end in October, citing risk to stability

A US attempt to destroy the Iran nuclear deal, reimpose sanctions and extend a UN embargo on arms sales to Iran risks a “generational setback for the cause of multilateralism and international law”, Iran’s foreign minister has told the UN security council.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN also said the latest US moves to isolate Tehran was like “putting its knee to the neck of the Iranian people”. Vassily Nebenzia described the policy as “a maximum suffocation policy” and said the US’s goal was to make Iran the scapegoat for an uncontrollable escalation in the Middle East.

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Iranian authorities move to block release of female rights activists

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New charges brought to circumvent Covid-19 prison release scheme, say human rights groups

Female human rights activists imprisoned in Iran are facing a slew of new charges to prevent them from being temporarily released because of the Covid-19 epidemic, rights groups say.

Since Covid-19 spread rapidly through the country in early March, Iranian authorities have been under pressure to release all prisoners who pose no risk to society. Around 85,000 prisoners were temporarily released under a furlough scheme earlier this year in response to the coronavirus outbreak, half of whom were believed to be political detainees.

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Iran issues arrest warrant for Donald Trump over Qassem Suleimani killing

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The leader of the Quds Force was killed in a drone strike in Iraq on 3 January

Iran has issued an arrest warrant for Donald Trump and 35 others over the killing of top general Qassem Suleimani and has asked Interpol for help, Tehran prosecutor Ali Alqasimehr said on Monday.

The US killed Suleimani with a drone strike in Iraq on 3 January, accusing him of masterminding attacks by Iranian-aligned militias on US forces across the middle east. The move caused unease in Europe, but the US claims that Suleimani’s death has weakened Iran’s grip on Iraq.

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Iran: large explosion near military base outside Tehran – video

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Iranian authorities are investigating a large explosion east of the capital, Tehran, near a military base which is thought to have played a role in past nuclear testing activities. 

Footage circulating on social media appeared to show a bright light illuminating the sky over the city early on Friday, followed by a large plume of smoke

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Iran explosion: large blast seen near military base outside Tehran

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Footage emerges of huge bright light illuminating sky over the capital, near a military site

Iranian authorities are investigating a large explosion just east of the capital, Tehran, near a military base thought to have played a role in the country’s past nuclear testing activities.

Videos and pictures posted on social media that were picked up by local news outlets showed a bright light flaring out across the sky over the city early on Friday, followed by a large plume of smoke. Witnesses said the blast came from the direction of Parchin, a major military site.

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Iran says Tehran blast was industrial gas tank explosion

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News agency says site of incident not related to military and investigations under way

An industrial gas tank exploded overnight in Tehran, Iran’s defence ministry has said, after images of the blast were widely shared on social media.

“A gas tank exploded in the Parchin public area. Thank God there were no casualties,” said a ministry spokesman, Brig Gen Davoud Abdi.

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Rise of Iran hardliners threatens nuclear diplomacy, Europe warned

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Improved economic deal could strengthen hand of Tehran’s reformists, says report

European diplomats are being urged to restart shuttle diplomacy with Iran after the US presidential election in November or risk Tehran hardliners gaining still wider control of Iran’s many layers of government and its economy.

The European 3 (E3) – Germany, France and the UK - managed to maintain their unity at a meeting on Friday at which they agreed to keep the nuclear deal alive, oppose a US plan for the snapback of sanctions and possibly limit the lifting of the UN conventional arms embargo on Iran due to take place in the autumn.

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US ‘Caesar Act’ sanctions and could devastate Syria’s flatlining economy

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Critics say legislation is being used for US strategy and could cause further problems for country and wider region

Its currency has plunged by 70% since April, more than half its people face food scarcity, and hopes of rebuilding a country shattered by war continue to ebb.

Syria seems barely able to absorb new shocks, but new US sanctions that take effect next week, could devastate what is left of its flatlining economy and amplify the gravest regional decline in decades.

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Global report: EU nations continue steady exits from lockdown

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Infections keep falling in EU but reports suggest Russian death toll much higher than official figures

France is to lift its state of emergency on 10 July, Denmark said opening its bars, restaurants and malls had not led to a rise in infections, and Austria will reopen its border with Italy next week as EU nations pursue their steady exits from lockdown.

However, Germany extended its coronavirus travel warnings for more than 160 countries outside Europe until the end of August and reports suggested that Moscow’s death toll may be twice as high as Russia’s official figures.

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Global report: China hails coronavirus response as world death toll tops 400,000

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Beijing denies cover-up or delay, while countries easing lockdowns face spike in cases

The number of confirmed deaths from coronavirus globally has topped 400,000, as the Chinese government released a report lauding its own response to the pandemic that emerged in the city of Wuhan six months ago.

As more countries prepared to continue easing their lockdowns from Monday, Singapore’s prime minister warned the city-state’s citizens that they were entering a tougher world of slowing demand and travel restrictions for the foreseeable future.

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Black boxes of downed Ukrainian plane of ‘no help’, Iran claims

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Tehran says it will transfer boxes of Flight 752 abroad but insists investigation is nearly complete

The black boxes of a Ukrainian plane that was mistakenly downed near Tehran airport will be of “no help” in any investigation, but Iran is ready to transfer them abroad, state media said Saturday.

Flight 752, an Ukraine International Airlines jetliner, was struck by a missile and crashed shortly after taking off from the Tehran airport on 8 January.

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Zaghari-Ratcliffe endures further wait for Iranian decision on release

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Campaigners contrast British-Iranian’s plight with return of prisoner Michael White to US

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian dual national detained by Iran since 2016, has been told her furlough from prison will be extended beyond the previous cut-off date of early June, according to her lawyer. But she has not been informed she will be granted a full clemency, which would allow her to return to the UK.

Her family said they were investigating the reports. They previously said they expected to hear on Saturday whether she was to be given clemency. Her lawyer, Mahmoud Behzadi-Rad, was reported by Iran International TV on Friday as saying only her furlough had been extended.

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Iran releases US navy veteran detained for nearly two years

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Michael White was detained in 2018 and sentenced 10 years on charges of insulting the supreme leader and posting a private photo

A US navy veteran detained in Iran for nearly two years flew out on Thursday, a day after an Iranian scientist held by US authorities returned home.

“I am blessed to announce that the nightmare is over, and my son is safely on his way home,” Michael White’s mother, Joanne White, said in a statement.

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Iran cases hit record high in second wave of coronavirus

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Government faces political as well as health crisis as easing of restrictions continues

Iran is reluctantly confronting the possibility of a renewed political crisis as well as a health one after the latest figures showed the number of new coronavirus infections at a record high.

The government appeared to have brought the virus under control a month ago, but a second wave of the virus has steadily been gathering pace. According to data released by the health ministry on Thursday there were 3,574 confirmed new infections in 24 hours – an increase of 440 on the previous day.

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First Iranian fuel tanker reaches Venezuelan waters without US interference

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Iran’s president had earlier warned the US not to try to stop the flotilla of five tankers sent to ease Venezuela’s fuel shortage

The first of five tankers loaded with gasoline sent from Iran has reached Venezuelan waters, expected to temporarily ease the South American nation’s fuel crunch while defying Trump administration sanctions targeting the two US foes.

The oil tanker Fortune encountered no signs of US interference as it eased through Caribbean waters toward the Venezuelan coast late on Saturday. Venezuelan officials celebrated the arrival.

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Kylie Moore-Gilbert: Australian’s family deny she attempted suicide in Iran jail

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Family’s first statement on Moore-Gilbert, who has been held in Tehran since September 2018, says she is in good health ‘considering her situation’

The family of detained Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert have denied reports she has attempted suicide in an Iranian prison, or that she has been tortured by the country’s Revolutionary Guards.

Moore-Gilbert’s family have not spoken publicly since the Cambridge-educated Melbourne University lecturer was summarily arrested at Tehran airport in September 2018.

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Iran sentences French-Iranian academic to six years in prison – lawyer

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Fariba Adelkhah to appeal against sentence on national security charges

Iran has sentenced the French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah to six years in prison on national security charges, her lawyer said.

“The court has sentenced her to six years. We have appealed and if accepted, the sentence will drop to five years,” Adelkhah’s lawyer, Saeid Dehghan, told Reuters on Saturday.

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