radiofarda – Japan has dispatched a warship to help safeguard the country’s oil supplies through the tense-but-vital waterways in the Middle East. The helicopter destroyer Takanami on February 2 left its port near Tokyo on an assignment to protect merchant ships and oil tankers passing through the Gulf of Oman, through which flows some 90 percent of Japan’s oil. The …

rferl.org – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in televised remarks that Iran offered $80,000 per victim after it shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet on January 8, but that Ukraine did not accept the offer because “it was too little.” Zelenskiy added in comments made on Ukrainian 1+1 television that “of course, human life is not measured by money, …

rferl.org – The European Union’s top diplomat is expected to visit Tehran on February 3, Iran’s Foreign Ministry has said. EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell will meet Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and other Iranian officials, the ministry said. Borrell’s trip is seen as the latest attempt by the EU to save the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world …

voanews – Iran has banned air travelers from China in an effort to keep out the coronavirus, crippling an already-faltering Iranian program to boost Chinese tourism as a way of stimulating an economy crushed by U.S. sanctions. In a tweet Friday, Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki said an emergency meeting of government officials had approved his request to ban all …

alarabiya – Iraq’s President Barham Saleh on Saturday assigned Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi with forming a new government, according to the state-run Television. Allawi who is a former communications minister was named prime minister designate by rival Iraqi factions on Saturday after weeks of political deadlock, AFP cited three Iraqi officials as saying. Allawi, 66, would run the country until early …

radiofarda – Parvaneh Salahshouri, a reformist lawmaker, who on Saturday was summoned to court and charged with “spreading lies to affect public opinion and propaganda against the system”, said she was freed after taking a pledge to return if a subpoena is issued. While Salahshouri was still held by the court, the Revolutionary Guard-affiliated Fars News Agency in a tweet …

radiofarda – Yemen’s Huthi rebels are in possession of new weapons similar to those produced in Iran, according to a UN report obtained by AFP on Friday, in potential violation of a UN arms embargo. The crisis in Yemen pits the Iranian-backed Huthi rebels against government forces supported by a Saudi-led military coalition. Some of the new weapons, which the …