Iran Focus
London, 10 Mar – The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, decided to share his views on women’s rights on International Women’s Day and it didn’t go down well among Iranian women or their supporters.
Khamenei used Twitter– a site banned for the Iranian people- to praise his bastardised version of Islam for keeping women “modest” and in their “defined roles”, by which he means as wives and mothers, while lashing out at the West for corrupting women into leading a “deviant lifestyle”.
Iran Focus
London, 09 Mar – The interior minister of Bahrain has said that Iran is now a safe haven for wanted criminals and a beacon for terrorist cells.
On Wednesday, Shaikh Rashid Bin Abdullah Al Khalifa said: “Iran has transgressed international conventions and norms and has no commitment to the Interpol or its Red Notices. It has set itself above the law and offers its land and camps to train terrorists and export weapons and explosives.”
Iran Focus
London, 09 Mar – Iran is currently building up its ballistic missile programme and raising concern about the possibility of a “second Holocaust”, whilst the Donald Trump administration is undertaking sensitive international negotiations, according to sources familiar with the ongoing diplomatic talks.
The US and Europe are currently discussing potential fixes to the flaws of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, but sources report that the Trump administration may be about to agree to fewer restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile programme than they wanted to, in order to preserve the deal and appease Europe who still wants to trade with Iran.
Iran’s environment is subject to destruction, in such a way that it’s deadly, irreparable consequences for future generations could be predicted right now, emerging in the form of dried up lakes, rivers, wetlands and groundwater resources.
The latest instance of such environmental crises is the one related to Qom’s wetlands.
In a report titled “Qom’s drying wetlands, an alarm bell for the capital”, state-run ISNA news agency on February 28, 2018, acknowledges severe shortage of financial as well as human assets to protect natural resources and quotes the province’s director of Natural Resources Conservation Department as saying “with Qom’s wetlands drying up, the amount of dust in the country’s central parts will sharply increase, which rings a real alarm bell for the capital and other provinces alike.”
Iran Focus
London, 08 Mar – New evidence suggests that the Iran deliberately throttled or slowed connection speeds to the Telegram messaging app during the Iran protests, just days after lifting their temporary ban on the app, which just goes further to prove that Iran is attempting to control and censor the internet.
Telegram, along with photo-sharing app Instagram, was banned in Iran from December 30 to January 13 and this had big implications for the Iranian people of whom 45 million are on Telegram. Not only did it affect the protesters, but also small businesses and families.
Iran Focus
London, 08 Mar – The UK and Saudi Arabia have agreed that they must work together to counter Iran’s destabilizing actions in the Middle East, according to the office of British Prime Minister Theresa May.
This came after May and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met in Downing Street on Wednesday.
They also agreed that the only way to end the crisis in Yemen, which is being exacerbated by the Iranian Regime’s support for the Houthi terrorist cell, is through a political solution that tackles both the conflict and the humanitarian suffering.
Iran Focus
London, 08 Mar – An Iranian woman who publically removed her headscarf in Tehran has been sentenced to two years in prison, according to Iran’s state-run news agencies.
Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said that the woman, who he did not identify, was attempting to “encourage corruption through the removal of the hijab in public.”
The Mizan Online news agency, which is affiliated with the Iranian judiciary, also didn’t name the woman in its reports, but indicated that she would appeal.
Iran Focus
London, 07 Mar – French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian’s visit to Iran on Monday garnered a wide range of responses, especially within Iran, because this trip was seen as highly important to the future of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.
There are just over two months until we reach Donald Trump’s final deadline for Congress and Europe to fix the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and everyone knows that, if given the ultimatum, Europe will side with the US over Iran.
This notion scares Iran, which is why the state-run media focused on the visit so closely.
Iran Focus
London, 07 Mar – The strategic dialogue between Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has stalled and will not resume until the Iranian Regime changes its attitude, according to the deputy foreign minister of Kuwait.
Khalid Al Jarallah told reporters on Monday: “Kuwait has told the Iranians the resumption of the dialogue depends on Iran’s initiatives and commitment to natural relations with its neighbours. As long as these requirements are not satisfactorily fulfilled, the dialogue is postponed.”
Iran Focus
London, 07 Mar – On Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson demanded an end to missile attacks on Saudi Arabia by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, stating that the use of Iranian missiles in an attack on a British ally was “unacceptable”.
Johnson said, ahead of a visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Deputy Prime Minister, and the Minister of Defence, that the UK shares Saudi Arabia’s concerns over growing Iranian influence in the Middle East and insisted that Iran’s role in Yemen needs to be reined in.
