Iran Focus

London, 22 Nov – Iran is trying to violate the terms of the ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in order to reignite a war in the Gaza strip, according to Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

Speaking on Wednesday at the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference in Jerusalem, he said: “There are forces out there that want to push us all into the abyss of a confrontation.”

Iran Focus

London, 22 Nov – Two Christian converts in Iran, who were planning to meet in a northern city of the Shiite-run country, were detained on Friday, November 16, in what some human rights activists are calling a rash of arrests in the area.

Behnam Ersali and Davood Rasooli, both converts from Islam who live in Karaj, had arranged to meet in Mashhad, according to advocacy organization Middle East Concern (MEC), but their calls are believed to have been intercepted by the Iranian intelligence.

Iran Focus

London, 21 Nov – According to Reuters, on Monday European diplomats agreed to consider targeted sanctions on Iranians after representatives from France and Denmark traveled to Brussels this week to brief foreign ministers on foiled attacks by the hardline regime in France and Denmark. This meeting could set the course for a more unified West-ern policy toward Tehran’s non-nuclear threats, according to a regional expert.

Iran Focus

London, 21 Nov – The US has placed sanctions on six people and three entities involved in smuggling Iranian oil shipments to Syria to evade US sanctions, according to the Treasury Department on Tuesday.

The individuals listed include two Iranian nationals, a Russian, a Syrian, an Iraqi and a Lebanese person, while two of the entities are based in Russia and one in Iran.

US officials reported that Iranian officials had been working with Russian companies to ship “millions of barrels of oil to Syria”, something that violates recently imposed US sanctions on Iran and benefits the Bashar al-Assad Government in Syria.

Iran Focus

London, 21 Nov – A senior US official has said that US sanctions on Iran, reimposed on November 5, have been effective and have received “almost entire compliance” from the world at large.

During an interview with VOA’s Arabic-language sister network Alhurra in Dubai on Monday, Brian Hook, the US Special Representative for Iran, said: “We have seen almost entire compliance with our sanctions regime. And we don’t anticipate having to sanction any major companies, because we haven’t seen any evidence that these companies want to choose the Iranian market over the United States market.”

Iran Focus

London, 20 Nov – Hospitals in Iran are currently dealing with a shortage of nearly 100,000 nurses, according to Parliament’s Health Commission Speaker Heidarali Abedi, which is having disastrous impacts on patient health.

On Sunday, Abedi told the commission that healthcare management experts recommend a nurse-to-bed ration of 2.5, but Iran’s current ratio is closer to 1.7.