Tag Archives: Tehran

Iran’s foreign minister said on Saturday that US officials tried to discuss restarting nuclear talks last month, but he insisted Washington must first release $10 billion of Tehran’s frozen funds as a sign of good will. Iran has rejected direct talks with the United States, and indirect talks on reviving …

Iran wants a resumption of nuclear talks with world powers to lead to the removal of U.S. sanctions, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi told the annual U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday in a pre-recorded address. “The Islamic Republic considers the useful talks whose ultimate outcome is the lifting of all oppressive …

Israel’s defense minister warned on Thursday that his country is prepared to strike Iran, issuing the threat after a fatal drone strike on an oil tanker at sea that his nation blamed on Tehran. The comments by Benny Gantz come as Israel lobbies countries for action at the UN over …

British foreign minister Dominic Raab said the United Nations Security Council must respond following a deadly tanker attack last week off the coast of Oman, accusing Iran of destabilising behaviour. “The Council must respond to Iran’s destabilising actions & lack of respect for international law,” Raab said on Twitter, referencing …

Jordan’s King Abdullah II said on Sunday that his country had previously been attacked by Iranian-made drones, adding that there are many concerns related to Iran’s activities in the region. Speaking during an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, the king said: “Jordan always supports dialogue…(but) there are legitimate concerns in …

Iran insisted on Sunday that a prisoner swap deal has been agreed with the United States, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said, a day after Washington denied such an agreement had been reached.FILE PHOTO: The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, amid the …

Iran claimed on Wednesday that it had the ability to enrich fissile uranium to 90 percent purity  — the level required to build the core of a nuclear weapon. “Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization can enrich uranium by 20 percent and 60 percent and if … our reactors need it, it …

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed to US President Joe Biden’s administration to lift or waive all sanctions on Iran as agreed under a 2015 deal aimed at stopping Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. In a report to the UN Security Council, Guterres also urged the United States to …

The speaker of Iran’s parliament said on Sunday Tehran will never hand over images from inside of some Iranian nuclear sites to the UN nuclear watchdog as a monitoring agreement with the agency had expired, Iranian state media reported. “The agreement has expired any of the information recorded will never …

In his first news conference since he was elected on Friday, the hardline cleric said his foreign policy priority would be improving ties with Iran’s Gulf Arab neighbours, while calling on Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia to immediately halt its intervention in Yemen. Raisi, 60, a strident critic of the …

The outgoing chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service has offered the closest acknowledgment yet his country was behind recent attacks targeting Iran’s nuclear program and a military scientist. The comments by Yossi Cohen, speaking to Israel’s Channel 12 investigative program “Uvda” in a segment aired Thursday night, offered an extraordinary …

The drone threat posed to US and coalition personnel by Iran-backed militias is growing, and defenses against such threats remain limited — particularly in the face of Tehran’s growing capabilities. That was the clear message delivered by the US military commander in the Middle East during his most recent visit …

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince has taken a more conciliatory public stance towards Iran, trying to balance long-held animosity with economic considerations and bridge differences with Washington over how to tackle Tehran’s regional behaviour. Tensions between Riyadh and Tehran have festered over the Yemen war, where an Iran-aligned group has increased …

Iran said on Tuesday it will start enriching uranium to 60% purity, a move bringing the fissile material closer to levels suitable for a bomb, after accusing Israel of sabotaging a key nuclear installation. The disclosure came soon before the resumption of talks in Vienna aimed at reviving Iran’s 2015 …

Senior U.S. and Israel officials focused on concerns about Iran during the first virtual meeting of a bilateral strategic group on Thursday, the White House said, an issue on which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has differences with the new Biden administration. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, …

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday blacklisted two Iranian government interrogators, accusing them of torture and other human rights violations, in what appeared to be the first such action against Tehran under the Biden administration. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement accused the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) …

Iran on Sunday ruled out holding an informal meeting with the United States and other major powers to discuss ways to salvage the unravelling 2015 nuclear deal, insisting Washington must first lift all its unilateral sanctions. “Considering the recent actions and statements by the United States and three European powers, …

Iran has told the U.N. nuclear watchdog it will dramatically scale back cooperation with it in a week, a report by the agency to its member states showed on Tuesday, ratcheting up protests against U.S. sanctions still choking its economy. Iran has accelerated its breaches of its 2015 nuclear deal …

Iran said on Monday it will block snap inspections by the U.N. nuclear watchdog from next week if other parties to the 2015 nuclear deal do not fulfil their obligations, a challenge to U.S. President Joe Biden’s hope of reviving the accord. “If others do not fulfil their obligations by …

Human rights groups and media watchdogs have condemned the separate arrests of two journalists in Iran on vague charges. The journalists are Reza Taleshian Jelodarzadeh, editor in chief of Tehran-based magazine Nour-e Azadi, and Mahmoud Mahmoudi, editor of the Kurdish Aigrin Roj Weekly. Jelodarzadeh used Instagram to post a photo …

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed Iran and other issues on Friday in a virtual meeting with his British, French and German counterparts as the group weighs how to revive the Iran nuclear deal. The U.S. State Department said beside Iran, other issues including the coronavirus pandemic, Myanmar, Russia, …

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday welcomed the renewed U.S. willingness to engage with Iran, offered himself as an honest broker and said Saudi Arabia and Israel must ultimately be involved somehow. “We do need to finalize, indeed, a new negotiation with Iran,” Macron told the Washington-based Atlantic Council think …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to use newly declassified U.S. intelligence on Tuesday to publicly accuse Iran of ties to al Qaeda, two people familiar with the matter said, as part of his last-minute offensive against Tehran before handing over to the incoming Biden administration. With just eight …

The Trump administration plans to tighten sanctions on Tehran during its final months in power, the top U.S. envoy on Iran said on Wednesday, as he urged President-elect Joe Biden to use the leverage to press for a deal that reduces the regional and nuclear threats posed by the Islamic …

Kuwait’s new Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah met on Sunday with senior U.S. and Iranian officials who separately paid respects over the death of the Gulf Arab state’s former ruler. Sheikh Nawaf assumed power after the death last Tuesday of his brother Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad. The late emir balanced his …

The United Arab Emirates’ agreement to normalise ties with Israel was a “sovereign decision” that was not directed at Iran, UAE minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash said on Monday. The UAE on Sunday said it had summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in Abu Dhabi and given him a …

The United Nations Security Council will vote next week on a U.S. bid to extend an international arms embargo on Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday, despite the warnings of some diplomats that the measure lacks support. The arms embargo on Iran is currently set to end …

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ruled out negotiations with the United States over Tehran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programmes on Friday and urged Iranians to resist U.S. pressure. “America’s brutal sanctions on Iran are aimed at collapsing our economy … Their aim is to limit our influence in the …

A Lebanese man accused of financing Hezbollah was freed from jail in the United States last month as a result of indirect contacts between Tehran and Washington that are expected to yield more releases, three senior Middle East officials said. Kassim Tajideen was released on June 11, according to the …

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday that Israel is now concentrating its attacks in Syria on missile-manufacturing sites. Israel has conducted many raids inside Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011. It sees the presence of Hezbollah and its ally Iran there as a strategic …

The United States urged Tehran on Monday to send a charter plane to take home 11 Iranian nationals whom Washington wants to deport, and accused the Islamic Republic of stalling the repatriation process. “We have 11 of your citizens who are illegal aliens who we have been trying to return …

Iran dismissed as “illegitimate” efforts by the United States to extend the U.N. Security Council arms embargo on Tehran, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday. “Iran is not seeking to exit the 2015 nuclear deal with six powers … America’s move is illegitimate and our reaction will be …

U.S. President Donald Trump says the U.S. Navy should fire on Iranian boats if they continue to harass U.S. warships in the Gulf, a move that raises the prospect of open hostilities between the two rivals. The president’s tweet came shortly after Iran announced it had successfully launched a military …

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards force said on Wednesday it had launched the country’s first military satellite which had gone into orbit. It said a “Messenger” satellite carrier was used to launch the Noor (light) satellite, without going into further detail on the technology used. The launch took place at a time …

A division of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says it has arrested a Takfiri terrorist linked to a Daesh-affiliated ring, which planned to carry out hundreds of terror attacks in the capital, Tehran. The Daesh element was apprehended in the Andisheh town in Shahriar County, Tehran Province, Colonel Amin …

Israel says it has finalized a deal to buy another batch of F-35 warplanes from the US, and is to become only the second military in the world to have an operational squadron of the warplanes aside from the US itself. Israel’s ministry for military affairs announced the conclusion of the …

THE LEVANT NEWS — TEHRAN: Iran will maintain its backing for the Syrian government, a senior Iranian official said, after the U.N. Security Council unanimously endorsed a plan to end the war. “We will continue to give our support to Syria,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian. Iran will …

The Levant News — The Iranian foreign ministry rejected Manama’s allegations against Tehran’s meddling in the country’s affairs as baseless, and ordered Bahrain’s second highest-ranking diplomat in Tehran to leave the country in 72 hours. In a retaliatory move against Manama officials’ decision that on Thursday ordered Iran’s charge d’affaires in …

By Barbara Slavin for Aljazeera Aemrica – @BarbaraSlavin1 – Before meeting this week in Geneva with Secretary of State John Kerry, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said he hoped to accelerate the drawn-out negotiations over a comprehensive nuclear deal. While Zarif did not specify the reason for expediting talks, pressures …

THE LEVANT – Iran is ready to work with the United States and its allies to stop Islamic State militants, but would like to see more flexibility on Iran’s uranium enrichment program, senior Iranian officials told Reuters. The comments from the officials, who asked not to be named, highlight how …

THE LEVANT –  An Iranian general said Wednesday that a purported Israeli drone shot down near a nuclear facility in the Islamic Republic flew in from a northern country that once was part of the Soviet Union. The semi-official Fars news agency, close to the Revolutionary Guard, quoted Gen. Masoud …