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RFL/RE – President Hassan Rohani says Iran is now enriching more uranium than the country did before it agreed to a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, as Tehran gradually scales back its commitments under the agreement.“Pressure has increased on Iran, but we continue to progress,” Rohani said in a televised speech on January 16, insisting that Tehran is …

RFL/RE – U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed Iran, Syria, and Libya during a phone call, both administrations said in separate statements.Neither administration provided specifics of the January 15 call.Tensions are rising between the West and Tehran following Iran’s admission that its forces “unintentionally” shot down a Ukrainian airliner on January 8, angering many around …

RFL/RE – It was in the late 1980s when Ismail Qaani — then a local commander in Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) — first became active in Afghanistan.It was to be the start of Qaani’s decades-long involvement in Iran’s eastern neighbor, where Tehran has carved up influence by arming and offering political and economic backing mostly to the …

RFL/RE – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have discussed the situation in Ukraine’s east, where Russia-backed separatists continue to control some part of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.Ukraine’s presidential website said on January 15 that Zelenskiy thanked Merkel for Germany’s participation in the Normandy peace format summit in Paris on December 9.Zelenskiy expressed concern about the failure to …

RFL/RE 0 Albania has ordered the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats for activities “not in line with their status.”Foreign Minister Gent Cakaj said on Facebook on January 15 that the two diplomats, Mohammad Ali Arz Peimanemati and Seyed Ahmad Hosseini Alast, were declared persona non grata and asked to “immediately” leave Albania.No further information was immediately available.Albania in December 2018 expelled two …