Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.

Radiofarda – The representative of a travel trade association in Iran says that because of the fall in the value of the Iranian currency, travel abroad declined 45 percent during Nowruz holidays last month. The official government IRNA news agency quoted Hormatollah Rafiei as saying that both ground and air travel declined as the U.S. dollar rose against the Iranian …

Al-Arabia – US State Department officials said that the recent designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was designed to reduce the risk to lives of American soldiers or citizens by Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani in the future. “General Soleimani has the blood of Americans on his hands, as does the force that he leads, and this designation that …

Al-Arabia – French leader Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani to avoid an escalation of tensions after Washington blacklisted Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. In a telephone conversation, Macron urged Rouhani to “avoid any escalation or destabilization of the region,” the French presidency said in a statement. President Donald Trump called the unit — …

RFL/RE – U.S. President Donald Trump has spoken with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a telephone call that the White House says focused on Riyadh’s role in Middle East stability, maintaining pressure on Iran, and the importance of human rights issues. The White House said Trump and the crown prince discussed ways of “maintaining maximum pressure against …

RFL/RE – The number of known judicial executions around the world declined by nearly one-third in 2018 compared to 2017, reaching the lowest level in at least a decade, Amnesty International says in its annual report on death sentences and executions.Belarus was among a handful of countries that defied the trend, the human rights group said in the report released …