By Pooya Stone
One state-run newspaper in Iran is reporting that 30% of Iranians live in “squalid” rented homes, while 2.5 million homes are left empty.
Vatan-e Emrooz wrote that 26.6 million Iranians live in these awful conditions, but the situation will not improve because there is no competition in the market as the owner of the uninhabited houses either refuse to rent their homes or will only rent them at an outrageous price that almost no one can afford.
London, 27 June – Iran is planning to strike Western targets via terror cells that it is setting up in Africa, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reports. The network of cells has been ordered by the head of the extra territorial Quds Force, a branch of the notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The head, Qassem Suleimani, is responsible for a number of unconventional warfare activities that are carried out outside Iran. He also oversees a number of intelligence activities across the world.
By Jubin Katiraie
The Trump administration is working to persuade allies that the ongoing tensions in the Middle East are a global challenge that requires global diplomacy, according to the new acting US defence chief Mark Esper on Tuesday, and “not [just] Iran versus the United States”.
Esper, who is meeting with NATO defence ministers in Brussels, told reporters that he wants to help create a broader coalition to deter Iran’s malign behaviour and compel Iranian officials to come back to the negotiating table for a new nuclear deal.
By Pooya Stone
A representative for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said on Wednesday that Tehran would speed up its enrichment of uranium on Thursday after a deadline they gave to European countries to protect them from US sanctions is due to expire, according to the IRIB news agency.
By Jubin Katiraie
The Iranian Judiciary has sentence Tehran University student Laila Hassanzadeh to 30 months in prison. During the January 2018 major anti-government protests, security forces arrested Hassanzadeh for participating in protests on the Tehran University campus. She was temporarily released on bail after a few weeks.
By Pooya Stone
The latest monthly report by the European Commission indicates a significant decline in bilateral trade between the EU’s 28 Member States and Iran in the first four months of the current year.
The report comes while on May 8, 2019, Tehran gave a 60-day window to the signatories of the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions (JCPOA), to provision the economic interests of Iran according to the deal. Specifically, Iran had demanded the EU establish the financial and trade instrument with Iran, known as INSTEX.
By Jubin Katiraie
United States Senator Ted Cruz (Republican) proposed a bill on Monday to seize the hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen Iranian bank accounts and use the money to pay for the American military drone that was shot down by Iran on Thursday.
The Texas Senator’s legislation would first require the Donald Trump administration to assess the cost of the drone, which is thought to be between $120 million and $220 million.
By Pooya Stone
The world’s anti-money laundering and terror-financing body reimposed a restriction on Iran on Friday for failing to comply with financial transparency efforts, despite being given multiple opportunities.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) called on all members and their jurisdictions to require increased “supervisory examination” of Iran-based branches and subsidiaries of their banks. This restriction had been suspended for three years.
FATF was responding to what US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told their meeting in Orlando, Florida, was Iran’s “willful failure to address its systemic money laundering and terrorist financing deficiencies”.
By Pooya Stone
The US issued sanctions against Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian officials on Monday, increasing pressure on Iran after the country shot down a US drone last week.
Donald Trump signed an executive order to impose the sanctions, which US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said will freeze billions of dollars more in Iranian assets.
Trump said this was in response to the drone attack, but would have happened anyway due to the “hostile conduct of the regime” in the Middle East.
By Pooya Stone
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met separately with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman on Monday at a time of growing tensions with Iran in the region.
However, the dining arrangements and the fact that MBS reportedly made Pompeo wait are leading some to believe that Saudi Arabia must be displeased that the US called off a military strike on Iran last week, in retaliation for the Iranian downing of a US drone in the Gulf of Hormuz.
