PayvandNews – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Iran, Russia and Turkey have started the process of finding a political solution to the Syria crisis. There is no military solution to the Syria conflict and the country’s crisis can only be solved through political approaches, Zarif said in Moscow on Tuesday. The Iranian foreign minister was speaking at a …

PayvandNews – These animal figurines mounted on little carriages are part of a valuable deposit that is on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The relics were unearthed in Susa, southwestern Iran, in the early 20th. They are part of a valuable deposit found at Susa, near the temple of Inshushinak. The collection of objects consists in a wide …

PayvandNews – Iran currently has 28.95 million barrels of oil and condensate in floating storage, a rise of 2.1 percent over the past week, the Fars news agency says. Citing shipping data and sources which track tanker movements, the news agency said on Wednesday that 38 tankers with stored oil were parked in sea lanes close to terminals in four …

RFL/RE – A top Iranian security official has revealed that Iran and Russia are sharing a military base in Syria where they are coordinating their support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was quoted by Iranian news agencies on December 20 as saying there is “a shared base in Syria where …

RFL/RE – Iran expects to receive its first jet next month under a multibillion-dollar deal with Airbus for 100 planes, a senior Iranian official said. Deputy Iranian Roads and Urban Development Minister Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan told Reuters in an interview that the negotiations with Airbus have been finalized and that the deal is expected the be signed on December 20 …

RFL/RE – Iranian President Hassan Rohani has launched a Citizens’ Rights Charter that represents one of his administration’s most conspicuous efforts so far to fulfill campaign pledges he made in winning the presidency three years ago. Although it is not a legally binding document, the text contains 120 articles pertaining to freedoms that critics say are routinely violated in the Islamic republic, …

Al-Arabia – The US State Department said on Monday that top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani’s visit to Syria’s besieged city of Aleppo this week violated UN Security Council resolutions regarding the nuclear deal, but said the US would not lay out steps to address the behavior. “We do intend to consult with our partners on the security council about how …

Al-Arabia – Iran closed all of its consulates across Turkey on Tuesday, the Iranian embassy in Ankara said, following the killing of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov by a gunman at an art gallery exhibition opening in Ankara. “All consular services in Iranian consulates in Istanbul, Trabzon and Erzurum will be closed on Tuesday, December 20. We urge all …

Al-Arabia – An IRGC officer was killed and another wounded in car bomb following clashes with Baloch insurgents near the border with Pakistan, the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps announced (IRGC). In a statement, IRGC stated that the car bomb was detonated remotely whilst the soldiers were returning from pursuing Balochi armed insurgents in the Saravan region, East Baluchistan. The militants …

HRANA News Agency – Eight political prisoners in Evin prison of Tehran, Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj and central prison of Tabriz have gone on hunger strike. Their condition is reported critical. Vahid Sayadi Nasir, Arash Sadeghi, Ali Shariati and Amir (Ali) Amirgholi all in Evin Prison and Morteza Moradpour in Central Prison of Tabriz. And also Foad Rezazadeh has gone …