Iran Focus
London, 4 Jan – According to DEBKAfile, an Israeli military intelligence website based in Jerusalem that provides commentary and analyses on terrorism, intelligence, national security, military, and international relations, with a particular focus on the Middle East, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad delegation that is visiting Tehran has been empowered by Iran to attach Iraqi Shiite militias under Al Qods. Hizbollah will command the common operations on the Gaza Strip.
Iran Focus
London, 4 Jan – A senior influential ayatollah and top Shiite cleric in Iran claimed on January 3 that Iran has seen 400 years’ worth of progress in the 40 years since the 1979 revolution.
Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, 87, told Iran’s conservative Student News Agency (ISNA): “In these 40 years 400 years’ worth of service has been rendered to this country and we have had 400 years’ worth of growth and progress; technology, gadgets, various equipment, population and lifestyle, and now it is totally different from the past”.
Iran Focus
London, 4 Jan – Iranian oil exports have fallen sharply and exports of other items from Iran have dropped by more than half because of US sanctions, according to economic data released this week by Iranian officials.
Between November 21 and December 22, Iran’s export of non-oil goods only amounted to a total of $1.867 billion, less than half the monthly average during the current fiscal year, which began on March 21. The biggest reason for this is the complete halt in exports of ultra-light oil (gas condensate) sales, which Iran lists under non-oil exports. This export averaged about $330 million (or one-seventh of the total drop).
Iran Focus
London, 3 Jan – One of Iran’s top Shiite clerics has said that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is aware that Iranians are turning to secularism and evading religious teachings.
Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, widely considered the spiritual father of Iran’s hardliner conservatives, seemed pessimistic about the future of the Iranian Rulers in an interview with the hard-line weekly “9 Day”, in late December. His comments contradicted Khamenei’s insistence that Iranians, especially the young people, have been embracing Islamic teachings more in recent times.
By Jubin Katiraie
“In next year’s budget, the government intends to increase the wages of employees in tandem with increasing the employment rate for the youth, all the while keeping the prices for gas at the 10,000-rial [10 cents] level and make sure that supervision is made in a way that goods reach people with cheap prices,” reads a report released on December 28th, by an Iranian national broadcaster, that presents the government budget for the next Persian year (March 2019 — March 2020). The problems of the poor will be resolved, minimum wages will rise, the unemployed youth will have jobs, and goods will be less expensive, the report claims.
Iran Focus
London, 2 Jan – A senior Iranian official said on December 30 that Iran is ready to help with the reconstruction of Syria, according to the state-run Fars news agency.
The head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce Gholamhossein Shafeie told the Chamber of Commerce that public officials in Iran and Syria are cooperating comprehensively over Syria’s future development, with Iran’s private sector ready to supply basic goods to the Syrian people.
Iran Focus
London, 2 Jan- A senior Iranian official has accused street peddlers in Tehran of being associated with the mafia and threatened to use force against them during a December 30 interview with the state-run ILNA news agency.
Hamid Reza Tahsili, the executive director for Organizing Jobs in Tehran, said: “I believe some of the street peddlers are mafias that should not exist. Some of them have been hired by some people and have taken over our streets and unfortunately, they have rented out all the streets. We will definitely deal with force with these people because we have identified them.”
Iran Focus
London, 31 Dec – In Tehran on Saturday hundreds of university students joined together in outrage about a bus crash that killed and injured dozens of their peers on December 25th.
IRNA, the official news agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran says that “hundreds of students” are protesting and their numbers are growing. Family members of the students who were killed in the crash are also on campus this weekend. Photos and videos show a large crowd.
Iran Focus
London, 28 Dec – Children’s rights continue to suffer in Iran. Forced by the country’s increasing poverty, they must abandon school and enter the labor market to help feed their families. The numbers of those deprived of their basic rights escalate, and the children are used as pawns for the political interests of Iran’s factions.
Unofficial statistics place the number of child laborers in Iran at around 7 million. They toil under dire working conditions in small workshops that have no surveillance, as they were exempted from Iran’s Labor Laws in the 90’s.
Iran Focus
London, 27 Dec – The Shia denomination of Islam is Iran’s official religion. According to the 2018 United States International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Report, freedom for other religions in that country, such as Judaism, Bahai, Zoroastrian or different Muslim branches is increasingly restricted.
Religious freedom has continued to deteriorate during the past year in Iran, with the government targeting Baha’is and Christian converts in particular.
