Social and Political

Reuters – German exports to Iran, mostly machines and equipment, jumped in the first half of the year following the removal of international sanctions against the Islamic Republic, official trade data showed on Monday. Exports to Iran surged by 15 percent year-on-year in the first six months of 2016 to 1.13 billion euros ($1.3 billion), the Federal Statistics Office said. …

mehrnews – The Iranian sports caravan managed to collect eight medals in 2016 Rio Olympic Games in order to finish 25th in the final standings table. Having attracted more than 10 thousand athletes, the 31st edition of Summer Olympics was convened from August 05-21 in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro while the closing ceremony was held on Monday morning …

HRANA News Agency – Forests of Marivan, close to De-Reh-Veh-Ran and He-Najiran villages are in fire since last Monday. The association of Sabz-Chiya has requested help to control the fire. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), around one thousand hectares of one the most un-touched areas of De-Reh-Veh-Ran and He-Najiran villages has turned to ashes …

PayvandNews – According to the Central Bank of Iran, the financial sector has about $260 billion of liquidity. cartoon by Keyvan Zargari, Iranian daily Shahrvand The government of President Hassan Rouhani started his tenure in office with a promise to put Iran’s economic boat back on an even keel, but many analysts are of the opinion that the administration now …

RFL/RE – Iran has released images of its first domestically built long-range missile defense system, the Bavar-373. The photos carried by several Iranian news agencies on August 21 showed President Hassan Rohani and Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan standing in front of the defense system. Rohani toured the facility where the new air defense system was developed, state media reported. Dehghan has said …

VOA – Russia has stopped using an Iranian air base for launching airstrikes on Syria for the time being, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said Monday, just hours after the Iranian defense minister criticized Moscow for having “kind of show-off and ungentlemanly” attitude by publicizing their actions. There was no immediate response from Moscow, which had used the Shahid Nojeh Air …

Sputnik — According to Dehghan, the use of Hamadan air base is the result of mutual cooperation at Syria’s government request. “Reception of Russian aircraft at the airbase in Hamadan is carried out in the framework of mutual cooperation and the fight against terrorism at the request of the Syrian government,” Hossein Dehghan said as quoted by the Tasnim news …

RFL/RE – Iranian wrestler Hassan Yazdanicharati won gold in the men’s 74-kilogram freestyle competition at the Rio Olympics after the defeat of heavily favored competitors from Russia and the United States. Prior to the final match on August 19, American Jordan Burroughs, who won gold in London four years ago and is ranked first in the world, was stopped in …

VOA – Turkey’s foreign minister says he has made a surprise visit to Iran just days after the two countries agreed to greater cooperation on Syria despite their differences. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Turkish state media on Friday that he stopped in Tehran on his way to India on Thursday. The Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers met in Ankara …

dailycaller – Afghanistan’s Hazara minority is often forced to flee to Iran to escape persecution, but instead of welcoming their fellow Shia Muslims, the Islamic Republic is sending them to their death in Syria. Iran sends Afghan immigrants to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad at a substantially higher rate than its own Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and thousands of …