By Mehdi
The re-opening of an air link between Iran and Venezuela this month is yet more evidence of Iran’s growing role in helping Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stays in power, according to analysts.
Last week, Iranian civil aviation officials announced that supposedly private airline Mahan Air had made its first flight to Caracas on April 8, which was the launch of a new air route.
By Jubin Katiraie
For a long time, Muhammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, has been considered the go-between between the United States and Iran.
He has taken on a role that bridges the massive gap between the liberal West and the antiquated Iran of the mullahs. He is the perfect person to do so because he is very familiar with the United States after spending decades of his life there. He has naturally become fluent in English and understand subtilities that make his arguments more sophisticated. He can make Iran’s views sound less harsh with the right choice of vocabulary.
By Pooya Stone
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif has threatened Europe on Sunday that Iran will not wait “forever” for the special financial mechanism that is designed to help Iran evade US sanctions.
He told reporters in Tehran: “I wonder how much time do the Europeans need [to set up] a preliminary mechanism?”
Iran Focus
London, 14 April – According to reports coming out of Iran, residents of the flood stricken areas in the southwestern city of Ahvaz have come out in protest over what they call the Iranian authorities’ incompetence in dealing with the floods.
In videos published on social media, locals in the Eyn-e Do region in western Ahvaz — an oil rich province of Khuzestan — marched through the streets chanting, “they wanted to dishonor us, but we will not be dishonored.”
By Pooya Stone
The World Bank (WB) and the (IMF) released new reports, saying Iran’s GDP growth is worse than what they had predicted in their last forecasts.
In their new reports, the World Bank forecasts that Iran’s GDP growth is worse than what they had predicted in their last forecasts. They believe that GDP will shrink 3.8% in 2019, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has an even a worse forecast — 6% contraction.
Iran Focus
London, 11 April – The Iraqi city of Basra is dealing with a major drug crisis that came over from Iran, but depleted police resources and overcrowded detention centres mean that the system is struggling to cope, which has led plenty of locals to protest poor services over the last year.
By Mehdi
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his deputies have visited the commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in the wake of the US designation of the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
During the meeting with Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari the top commander of IRGC, Gen Qassem Soleimani the commander of the extraterritorial Qods force and others, Zarif predictably described the US decision as “stupid”, claimed it had created “unity and sympathy in the country”, and called it a sign of “desperate” US policies in the region.
By Pooya Stone
Officials from the US State Department have said that the decision to place the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTOs) will reduce the risk of American soldiers or citizens dying as a result of IRGC General Qasem Soleimani.
