Al-Monitor – Iran will host the foreign ministers from Afghanistan’s neighboring countries for a summit on Oct. 27, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Monday. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters that the one-day meeting next week will bring together diplomats from Russia, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan — the six members of the so-called Moscow format talks on …
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Being tougher on Iran is Biden’s key to Saudi Arabia-Israel normalization: Pompeo
Al-Arabia – US President Joe Biden must adopt a much tougher stance against Iran to convince Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israel, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. “I’m convinced there will be many more countries joining the Abraham Accords and one day the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will as well,” Pompeo said in an interview with the …
Read More »EU’s Top Diplomat Hopes For New Iran Talks Soon
RFL/RE – The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, says he hopes the bloc’s diplomats will meet their Iranian counterparts in the coming days as part of continued efforts to revive the faltering 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. “You never know, I am more optimistic today than yesterday,” Borrell said on October 18, a day after …
Read More »Iranian Study Casts More Doubt on Sinopharm Vaccine
Iranwire – Officials of the Islamic Republic are now claiming that around 75 percent of Iranians have been vaccinated against Covid-19. Of course, what’s not being mentioned is that this figure also encompasses those who’ve only received one of the required two doses, and under 25 percent of Iranians are considered fully protected. That aside, most of the doses administered …
Read More »Poverty runs rampant in Iran due to state mismanagement and corruption
Iran-HRM – The people of Iran have become much poorer in the past years. The middle class has all but diminished and more than 80 percent of the Iranian people live under the poverty line. The thought and sight of people sleeping in empty graves and ditches, on roofs, or in abandoned refrigerators batter the conscience of every human being. …
Read More »The General’s Second Death in Baghdad
gatestoneinstitute.org – First, last week’s election, the fifth in Iraq’s history since liberation in 2003, shows that despite many ups and downs caused by historic and cultural bumps on the road, the process of democratization is still well on its course. The use of biometric cards also helped with ensuring the process against organized fraud. We have not completed a …
Read More »Iran Sentences Ex-Central Bank Chief to 10 Years in Prison
VOA – A court sentenced the former governor of Iran’s central bank to 10 years in prison for violating the country’s currency system, a judiciary spokesperson said Saturday. Besides violating the currency system, Valliollah Seif also had a role in smuggling foreign currency, judiciary spokesman Zabihollah Khodaeian told state TV. Ahmad Araghchi, a then-deputy to Seif, was sentenced to eight …
Read More »Court Upholds New One-Year Sentence for Iranian-British Woman
VOA – An Iranian appeals court has upheld a verdict sentencing an Iranian-British woman long held in Tehran to another year in prison, her lawyer said Saturday. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has already served a five-year prison sentence in the Islamic Republic. Her lawyer, Hojjat Kermani, told the Associated Press that the appeals court upheld a verdict issued earlier this year sentencing …
Read More »Iran’s Mullahs and China Empowered Under Biden Administration
gatestoneinstitute.org – In another blow to the US, after many years of Iran trying to be a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), SCO members finally agreed in September to elevate Iran’s status from “observer” to “full member,” even though the global financial watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force, had placed the Islamic Republic on its terrorism financing …
Read More »Region is entering a dangerous phase due to Iran’s activities: Saudi FM
Al-Arabia – Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat said Friday that Iran’s nuclear activities put the region in a dangerous place. Iran’s accelerating nuclear activities were very concerning, Prince Faisal bin Farhan told reporters during a briefing in Washington. “We think we’re entering a dangerous phase,” he said, a day after meeting with his US counterpart Antony Blinken on Thursday. As for talks between …
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