By Jubin Katiraie
While the Iranian government tries to exude power and show that it has the advantage in its ongoing confrontation with the U.S., Washington is mounting the pressure on Tehran. Following a statement by the U.S. State Department on August 28, which slapped fresh sanctions against several Iranian institutions and individuals, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted the following:
By Pooya Stone
A secret cyber attack targeting a critical database used by the Iranian government to plan attacks against oil tankers limited Tehran’s ability to target shipping traffic in the Persian Gulf over the summer, according to senior US officials who spoke to the New York Times.
By Jubin Katiraie
After a year and a half of US sanctions on the Iranian government, there is an argument that Iranian leaders, due to the economic pressure, are ready to talk and step back from their nuclear and missile program. As Brian Hook, U.S. special representative for Iran, said on 22 August: “We are trying to put pressure on Iran that will probably bring Iran back to the negotiating table.” Are we reaching the point where Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader is ready to give Iranian’s president Rouhani a green light to meet Trump?
By Pooya Stone
The Iranian government is under maximum international pressure and is grappling with incessant tensions. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and Iran’s President, Hassan Rouhani, are trying to find a breakthrough; therefore, they sent Foreign Minister Zarif to Europe in order to beg Europeans to start the INSTEX, the European financial mechanism for bypassing the U.S. sanctions. Yet Iran’s state-run press agencies compared this to UN “Food for Oil” plan for Iraq.
By Jubin Katiraie
As we approach the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances (August 30), Amnesty International said that the Iranian authorities’ continued failure to disclose the fate of thousands of political dissidents, forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed in the secret 1988 prison massacres, is a crisis that has been ignored by the international community for decades.
By Pooya Stone
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it is alarmed by a wave of arrests and interrogations of female journalists in Iran since the beginning of August, which makes Iran the world’s biggest jailer of female journalists, with ten currently being held.
Reza Moini, the head of RSF’s Iran/Afghanistan desk, said: “Already one of the world’s five biggest jailers of journalists, Iran is now holding more women in connection with their journalistic activities than any other country in the world. We call on Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, to intervene with the utmost urgency to obtain their release and to address the disastrous press freedom situation in this country.”
By Jubin Katiraie
The United States would only lift its sanctions on Iran after reaching a comprehensive deal on its nuclear program, according to US National Security Advisor John Bolton in an interview with Radio Free Europe on Tuesday.
These comments came just one day after US President Donald Trump said that he would be prepared to talk with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, something that has not happened since the 1979 revolution. Rouhani responded that a face-to-face meeting between him and his US counterpart could only happen after US sanctions were lifted; a notion that Bolton firmly rejected.
By Pooya Stone
An Iranian journalist covering the Nordic trip of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif fled the delegation and applied for asylum in Sweden, according to Swedish officials on Tuesday.
The Swedish Migration Agency reported that Amir-Tohid Fazel, an editor at Iran’s ultra-conservative news agency Moj, “applied for a residence permit in Sweden on 21 August 2019”, but didn’t provide any more details.
By Jubin Katiraie
Associated Press and Reuters
TEHRAN — Iran’s president reiterated Tuesday that talks with the U.S. would only be possible if Washington first lifts sanctions imposed on Tehran, a day after President Donald Trump said he was open to talks with Tehran “if the circumstances were correct.”
Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that otherwise, a meeting between the two would simply be a photo op and “that is not possible.”
By Pooya Stone
Governmental embezzlement has been going on in Iran for years, but now, because of domestic problems, international pressures and economic problems in Iran, large-scale specimens have come to light.
For example, a senior central bank official, Salar Agakhani, comrades of Ahmad Aragchi, nephew of Aragchi (Deputy of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif). in 12 August 2018, according to the state-run Tasnim News Agency, Agakhani was among the market disturbers. he committed an embezzlement of 200 million dollars. He is being identified and arrested by the police on 11 March 2019.
