Iran
Archive
Open letter to European leaders on Iranian elections
Dear Josep Borrell, Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel:On Friday, June 18th, the Islamic Republic of Iran held its thirteenth presidential election since the...
Analysis
Iran’s election is about succession
Change will not come after Iran’s next presidential election on June 18. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will remain the supreme decision-maker both before...
Analysis
Europe must double down on fighting antisemitism
Whenever Israel exercises its right to defend itself against terror, count on a wave of violent antisemitism to sweep across the West. Last month,...
Archive
The last party in the oil market
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other major crude producers led by Russia, a group so-called OPEC+, agreed on June 1...
Archive
No discounts on the EU’s fundamental values
Alexander Schallenberg has been Austria's Federal Minister for European and International Affairs in the second Sebastian Kurz government since January 2020. He previously served...
Afghanistan
Turkey: A state sponsor of terrorism?
Turkey functions like a state-sponsor of terrorism (SST), fueling Islamist extremism domestically and deploying jihadist mercenaries to Syria, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh. Listing Turkey as...
Analysis
Gaza media rules
No sooner had Palestinian “worshipers” on the Temple Mount chanted “Bomb, bomb Tel Aviv,” than Hamas gladly obliged and fired hundreds of rockets at...
Archive
US wants Iran nuke deal reinstated, but tied to safeguards
US President Joe Biden says that restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as 'the Iran nuclear deal', must be followed...
Archive
EU frets, Iran plans 60% uranium enrichment after nuke site attack
The European Union said Brussels is extremely worried by Iran’s deputy foreign minister announcement that the regime in Tehran will start enriching uranium at...
Analysis
Blinken reaffirms America’s focus on rebuilding partnerships
During his March 22-25 trip to Brussels, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized repeatedly that the Biden administration will work to rebuild America’s...
Analysis
Biden’s narrow timeline to get tough on Putin
On March 2, President Joe Biden’s administration, together with the United Kingdom and the European Union, announced new sanctions against Russia over last summer's...
Archive
Iran, IAEA agree to nuclear inspection deal with less access
The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, Rafael Mariano Grossi said it reached an agreement with Iran to continue the "necessary monitoring" of the...
Analysis
Is Turkey Biden’s “ally from hell”?
Ten years ago, The Atlantic ran as its cover story a piece titled “The Ally From Hell”. The article followed the raid that killed al-Qaeda...
Archive
Iran threatens to block snap nuclear inspections
Iran threatened on Monday to block snap inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog from next week if other parties to the 2015 nuclear deal...
Iran
Iran’s November atrocity – justice still sought after fifteen months of silence
On November 15, 2019, Iran was on the brink of what felt like a peaceful revolution. In the early hours of the morning, against...
Archive
In time of pandemic, OPEC+ stands pat, sees oil rebound this year
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies led by Russia, a group known as OPEC+, reportedly maintained its oil output policy at...
Archive
Iran allocates $150,000 for families of victims of Ukraine plane crash
Iran on Wednesday allocated $150,000 for the families of each of the 176 victims of a Ukrainian plane shot down last year in Iranian...
Archive
South Korea to send delegation to Tehran after Iran seizes tanker
South Korea is sending a delegation to Iran after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps seized a South Korean-flagged tanker in Gulf waters and detained its...
Archive
Iran vows 20% uranium enrichment ‘as soon as possible’
Iran said on Saturday that it plans to enrich uranium up to 20% purity at its underground Fordow nuclear facility "as soon as possible",...
Archive
Crude oil price rally may face supply side pressure in early 2021
Oil traders are optimistic the start of the deployment of vaccines means that an end to the worst economic ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic...
Archive
US sanctions companies selling, purchasing, and enabling Iran’s oil industry
Less than a week before the November 3 election, the US Administration announced on October 29 sanctions on companies selling, purchasing, and enabling Iranian...
Afghanistan
Final Trump UN General Assembly address hits multilateralism
In the final address to the UN General Assembly of his current term in office, US President Donald J Trump sent a short video...
Archive
US walks alone in Iran sanctions, EU goes other way
The European Union remains committed to implementing the Iran nuclear deal as a matter of respecting international agreements and of the bloc’s shared international...
Archive
US deploys Patriot missiles to Iraq, angering Iran
Iran warned the United States it is leading the Middle East to disaster amid the coronavirus pandemic, after reports that Patriot air defence missiles...
Asia & Pacific
Could bad data be to blame for high coronavirus death toll
European countries saw some of the highest death told for coronavirus over the last month. Deaths in Italy have surpassed those in China many...
Archive
Iran claims 'terrorist' attack inside Turkey halts natural gas flow
Iran's natural gas exports to Turkey have stopped after a "terrorist" attack on a pipeline inside Turkey, an Iranian official said.
"This morning, terrorists attacked...
Archive
Iran defends coronavirus response as deaths rise
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has hit back at criticism over the country's response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying he had to weigh protecting the...
Asia & Pacific
Locked down, without answers
Most European governments are turning to increasingly harsh lockdowns to confront the coronavirus pandemic. They did so in the wake of watching Italy’s attempt...
Archive
Iran rejects foreign help as coronavirus death toll nears 2,000
Iran on Tuesday rejected "foreign" help on the ground to deal with the coronavirus pandemic after an offer from a France-based medical charity.
On Sunday,...
Afghanistan
Coronavirus to adversely affect the Caspian region oil market
NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan – Coronavirus pandemic and drop in oil prices adversely affected the oil industry in the Caspian region, a Russian expert on oil...
Archive
Iran's supreme leader refuses US help citing widely panned conspiracy theory
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday refused American assistance to fight the new coronavirus, citing a conspiracy theory claiming it could be...
Archive
Iran digging mass graves for coronavirus victims
New satellite images show Iranian authorities digging large numbers of graves in the city of Qom area, which media say is due to the...
Archive
US places ISIS head al-Mawli on terror list
The United States on Tuesday put the new leader of the Islamic State group, Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawli, on its terror list.
The United...
Archive
Iranian extradited to US for alleged illegal military surplus exports
The US Department of Justice said that an Iranian national was extradited to the United States for allegedly exporting sensitive military equipment from the...
Archive
Coronavirus kills top Iranian cleric
A member of the clerical body that appoints the Iranian supreme leader has died of the new coronavirus, according to state media.
78-year-old Ayatollah Hashem...
Archive
Iran seeks IMF loan after Khamenei aide becomes infected with coronavirus
Iran has announced the infection of a top adviser to the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei amid a major spike in deaths from...
Archive
US launches airstrikes against Iran-backed militias after deadly attacks
The United States launched a series of air strikes on Thursday against an Iran-backed Shia militia in Iraq that it blamed for a major...
Archive
US Congress passes resolution to restrain Trump on Iran
Both chambers of the US Congress gave a final approval on Wednesday to a resolution to restrain president Donald Trump from attacking Iran.
The vote...
Archive
Iran agrees to give PS752 black boxes to Ukraine more than two months after shoot down
The civil aviation organisation for the Islamic Republic of Iran has agreed to send the black boxes from Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752, which was...
Archive
Iran releases 70,000 prisoners amid coronavirus fears
Iran’s judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi announced a temporary release of prisoners as the authorities seek to counter the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
Javaid Rehman,...
Archive
US tells Iran it must let inspectors into its nuclear sites
The US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook demanded that the Islamic Republic, Washington's arch-enemy in the Middle East, immediately ensure that UN inspectors...
Archive
Iran refuses to let UN nuclear watchdog into sites
Iran has said it has "no obligation" to grant the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency access to certain sites in the country. It also...
Archive
UN warns of sharp increase in Iran’s uranium stockpile
Iran has nearly tripled its stockpile of enriched uranium since November in violation of its 2015 deal with world powers, the UN’s International Atomic...
Azerbaijan
Kazakh seaports temporarily suspend servicing ships from Azerbaijan and Iran
NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan – As of 5 March, Kazakhstan is temporarily suspending services at the ports of Aktau and Kuryk in the Caspian Sea for...
Iran
Syrian peace talks in Kazakhstan may be postponed due to coronavirus
NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan – It’s not known whether the next round of Syrian talks scheduled for March in Kazakhstan’s capital Nur-Sultan will be postponed, First...
Archive
Iranian Vice President infected with Coronavirus
Iran's Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, Masoumeh Ebtekar is the latest Iranian official infected with Coronavirus, according to the state-run IRNA.
Ebtekar, also...
Archive
Lawmaker from Iranian city of Qom alleges coronavirus coverup
Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani, a lawmaker from Iran's city of Qom, has accused the government of covering up the full extent of the coronavirus outbreak...
Archive
Iran's Deputy Health Minister tested positive for Coronavirus
Iran's Deputy Health Minister, Iraj Harirchi was tested positive for Coronavirus and is kept under quarantine, a Health Ministry spokesperson has confirmed.
The test results...
Archive
Iran announces record low turnout in parliamentary election
Iran's interior minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has announced that the voter turnout in the recent parliamentary elections was about 42%, the lowest since the...
Archive
Iran announces 50 dead from coronavirus in city of Qom
50 people have died in the Iranian city of Qom from the new coronavirus this month, local media reported on Monday.
Just a few hours...
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