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

justthenews – China shocked the world this week with the surprise announcement that it had brokered a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia to resume normal diplomatic relations, dealing a significant blow to U.S. interests in the region. The arrangement marked the latest is a string of ever-bolder moves by Beijing to further its aim of global hegemony at the …

RFL/RE – Iran’s hard-line judiciary says its Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence against a Swedish-Iranian dissident who went missing from a Turkish airport two years ago before turning up in Iranian custody accused of terrorism. The defendant, Habib Chaab, a founder and former leader of a separatist group called the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz …

RFL/RE – Iran’s oil exports have reached their highest level in the past four years amid U.S. sanctions, the country’s Oil Minister Javad Owji said on March 12, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency. He said the increase was 190 million barrels above the previous year. In November, President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran’s oil exports had reached levels not …

VOA – Iran is striving to expand its influence in fellow U.S. adversary Venezuela, which is hosting an Iranian cultural fair this week and seeking Iranian assistance to revive the ailing Venezuelan energy industry. The International Fair of Venezuelan-Iranian Culture and Friendship opened March 4 in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, and runs through Sunday. It is organized by a Caracas-based …

AL-Arabia – Iran has finalized a deal to buy Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets from Russia, state media reported, as defense cooperation between the two countries deepens. The air force of sanctions-hit Iran has an ageing fleet of aircraft and has struggled to acquire spare parts to keep its warplanes in the air. In a statement to the United Nations, Tehran …