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Tag: Iran

  • Trump’s travel ban will breed more terrorism, says Iran

    Trump’s travel ban will breed more terrorism, says Iran

    Iran on Tuesday accused U.S. President Donald Trump of fanning the flames of terrorism with his travel ban on the citizens of six predominately Muslim countries, one of which is Iran.

    The ban is “the biggest gift for extremist groups,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in Berlin after meeting his German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel.

    These groups could exploit the discriminatory ban as an argument for recruiting new members, he said.

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed authorities to partially enforce Trump’s ban on travellers from seven Muslim countries.

    They include Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen who have no connection to the United States until it reviews the executive order in the autumn.

    Meanwhile, Zarif praised Germany for its handling of the conflict between Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

    Gabriel called on the countries opposed to Qatar to join the reconciliation talks brokered by Kuwait to end the conflict.

    “The longer the crisis in Qatar continues, the deeper the lines of conflict become,” Gabriel said.

    Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates accused Qatar of supporting terrorist groups leading them to cut diplomatic relations with the Gulf state at the beginning of June and suspend air transport links.

    The countries have also called on Qatar to shut down its broadcaster Al Jazeera.

    Iran and Turkey have offered their support to Qatar.

    During Zarif’s visit, some 100 demonstrators gather outside the Foreign Ministry in Berlin and chanted, “The mullah regime is fascist.”

     

     

    (dpa/NAN)

  • Hassan Rouhani re-elected President of Iran

    Hassan Rouhani re-elected President of Iran

    Iranians have re-elected President Hassan Rouhani.

    He led with 58.6 percent of the vote, compared with 39.8 percent for his main challenger, hardline judge Ebrahim Raisi, according to near-complete results broadcast on Saturday.

    Although the powers of the elected president are limited by those of unelected Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who outranks him, the scale of Rouhani’s victory gives the pro-reform camp a strong mandate.

    Rouhani’s opponent Raisi was a protege of Khamenei, tipped in Iranian media as a potential successor for the 77-year-old supreme leader who has been in power since 1989.

    “I am very happy for Rouhani’s win. We won. We did not yield to pressure. We showed them that we still exist,” Mahnaz, a 37-year-old Mahnaz reformist voter told Reuters on Saturday.

    “I want Rouhani to carry out his promises.”

    Rouhani, known for decades as a mild-mannered member of the establishment, campaigned as an ardent reformist to stir up the passions of young, urban voters yearning for change.

    During one rally he referred to hardliners as “those who cut out tongues and sewed mouths shut”.

    In a debate last week he accused Raisi of seeking to “abuse religion for power.”

    The rhetoric at the debate earned a rare public rebuke from Khamenei, who called it “unworthy”.

    The big turnout appeared to have favoured Rouhani, whose backers’ main concern had been apathy among reformist-leaning voters disappointed with the slow pace of change.

     

  • Iran holds military exercise after new U.S. sanctions

    Iran holds military exercise after new U.S. sanctions

    Iran on Saturday held a military exercise and testing rockets, a day after the United States imposed fresh sanctions on Tehran in response to a ballistic missile test last weekend.

    Iran’s Revolutionary Guard emphasised that the military exercise was a response to “threats and sanctions” by Washington.

    On Friday, the U.S. Treasury Department added 13 individuals and 12 companies to its sanctions list for their role in Iran’s ballistic missile programme as well as for providing support to the Corps-Qods Force of the Revolutionary Guard.

    Iran criticised the move, saying it would not allow its domestic security to become the focus of international debate.

    “The amateur and irrational policies of the new U.S. administration will change nothing about the principles of Iranian politics,’’ the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

    Earlier in the week, U.S. National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, said the missile test was a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

    Flynn prohibited Iran from participating in any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.

    However, Iran maintained that the missile cannot carry a nuclear warhead and the test was not in violation of the UN resolution.

    U.S. Defence Secretary James Mattis called Iran the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world.

    “I don’t see any need to increase the number of forces we have in the region at this time,’’ Mattis said at a joint press conference with Japanese Defence Minister, Tomomi Inada, in Tokyo.

     

  • Iran denies American wrestlers visas for World Cup event

    Iran denies American wrestlers visas for World Cup event

    Iran has banned American wrestlers from competing in a World Cup competition by denying them visas in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order from last week on immigration, the IRNA news agency reported on Friday.

    The report quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghasemi as saying the case was looked into by a special committee but that “unfortunately we were forced to take this step, based on the latest developments’’.

    Under Trump’s executive order citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Iran, are banned from entering the U.S.

    Iran said it would retaliate and the American wrestlers were now banned although several Iran media had called for their planned presence at the freestyle World Cup meet Feb. 16 and 17 in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah.

    Wrestling is very popular in both countries. American wrestlers have regularly competed in Iran, and Iranian wrestlers in the U.S., over the past two decades.

     

    NAN

  • Oil rises up to $57.01 on threat of U.S. issuing new Iran sanctions

    Oil rises up to $57.01 on threat of U.S. issuing new Iran sanctions

    Oil prices was up on Friday on news that U.S. President Donald Trump could be set to impose new sanctions on multiple Iranian entities, raising geopolitical tensions between the two nations.

    Comments by Russian energy minister Alexander Novak that oil producers had cut their output in accordance with a pact agreed in December also helped support prices, analysts said.

    Media reported on Thursday that Trump’s administration is prepared to roll out new measures against more than two dozen Iranian targets following Tehran’s ballistic missile test, according to sources familiar with the matter.

    Brent crude futures had risen 45 cents, or 0.8 per cent to 57.01 dollars a barrel by 0750 GMT, after settling down 24 cents at 56.56 dollars in the previous session.

    Brent is set to gain 2.6 per cent for the week.

    Front month U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures climbed 48 cents or 0.9 per cent to 54.02 dollars a barrel, after ending Thursday down 34 cents.

    For the week, the contract is up a little over one per cent.

    Move by the U.S. to impose new sanctions on Iran is “something at the back of short-term traders’ minds,” said Ric Spooner, Chief Market Analyst at Sydney’s CMC Markets.

     

    Reuters/NAN

  • Iran rules out review of nuclear deal despite U.S. concerns

    Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said Iran will not accept a review of its international nuclear deal, local media reported on Wednesday.

    The international nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), resolved Tehran’s decade-long controversial nuclear issue.

    “Renegotiation of the deal is totally meaningless, and a return to the past is impossible,’’ Rouhani said in response to recent remarks by Rex Tillerson, Donald Trump’s choice as secretary of state.

    Tillerson said in his Senate confirmation hearing that he recommends a “full review” of the nuclear deal with Iran.

    “Mr Donald Trump as President-elect of the U.S. has so far made some unsettling remarks about the JCPOA,’’ Rouhani said on Tuesday.

    “However, negotiations have already been conducted, completed, and approved by the UN Security Council,’’ Rouhani stressed.

    Earlier, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for the U.S. and European Affairs Majid Takht Ravanchi also said that Iran has reiterated several times that the nuclear dossier will not be opened again under any circumstances.

    “Iran will not allow a renegotiation of the agreement.

    “This stance is shared by the six world powers, including Russia, China, the U.S., Britain, France, and Germany, who participated in diplomatic efforts with Iran on its nuclear program,’’ Ravanchi said.

    Iran has repeatedly accused the U.S. of violating the JCPOA since its implementation in January 2016.

    Iran and the six world powers reached an agreement on Iran’s nuclear issue in July 2015 which lifted the sanctions imposed upon Iran yet limited its nuclear program.

    The deal limits Iran’s nuclear activities as it would take Tehran no less than a year to produce enough fissile materials to produce a nuclear weapon.

    According to the agreed-upon deal, Iran will allow regular inspections of its facilities.

    In return, the U.S. and the European Union suspended nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran and lifted past UN Security Council sanction resolutions.

    Several U.S. legislators expressed concern over the deal, warning that Tehran could evade inspections and use the funds from sanction relief to destabilize the region.

     

  • Former Iranian president Rafsanjani dies aged 82

     

    Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died Sunday in Tehran at the age of 82, Iranian state media reports said.

    Rafsanjani had been admitted to hospital in the Iranian capital during the morning with cardiac arrhythmia.

    The cleric was one of the architects of the Islamic Revolution that deposed the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in 1979 and established a religious state.

    Considered a moderate and mentor of current President Hassan Rowhani, Rafsanjani served as president between 1989 and 1997. He was also one of the richest men in the country.

    Born in 1934 in Bahreman in the south-east of the country, the cleric worked his way up the political ladder to become chairman of the parliament, before achieving the presidency.

    When he left the presidency he successfully campaigned for reformist Mohammad Khatami to replace him, setting him on a collision course with the hardline elements in government.

    In 2005, he stood again for the presidency, but was defeated by the relatively unknown Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

    Following Ahmadinejad’s victory, he isolated himself increasingly from the arch-conservative clergy, actively campaigning against the hardliners, who branded him a dissident and banned him from leading Friday prayers in Tehran.

    Rafsanjani did not retire and returned to the political stage in 2013 when his protege Rowhani won the presidential election and went on to seal a nuclear deal with the international community, leading to the lifting of sanctions, which had been so punishing for Iran.

     

    NAN