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.

Iran Focus

London, 19 Nov – Protests at the Haft Tappeh (Tapeh) sugar mill, once a source of national pride that has been struggling financially since it was privatized in 2015, continued as workers stayed with their strike on Saturday, according to reports by labor rights groups in Iran. Periodic strikes and workers’ demonstrations have become a fixture of life at the mill. Workers say they are often not paid their salaries for months at a time and their wages and benefits have been cut since privatization.

Families accompanied the workers as they marched in Shush, southwestern Iran, to draw attention to their demands, ending the march near the governor’s office.

Iran Focus

London, 18 Nov – As protests and demonstrations rage across Iran, involving people from all walks of life, according to a statement by Coordinating Council of Teachers Syndicates in Iran (CCTSI) on November 15th, teachers in the country have been arrested or summoned to courts. “At least thirty teachers’ rights activists have been summoned and interrogated and more than fifty others have received threatening text messages, so far,” CCTSI disclosed.

Iran Focus

London, 16 Nov – On November 6, the US government reimposed sanctions against Iran, but bizarrely excluded Iran’s Chabahar port, something that Iran has seized on as a victory.

Iran claims that the US was forced to exempt Chabahar port from the sanctions, after issuing waivers to several countries, because it is helping the economy of Afghanistan, but what are the real reasons?