Iran Focus

London, 05 Mar – The French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, has arrived in Iran to talk with the country’s president Hassan Rouhani, Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and the Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, according to Iranian state TV.

Talks are expected to focus on Iran’s involvement in the Syrian Civil war and Iran’s ballistic missile program, which both Le Drian and French President Emmanuel Macron have criticized Iran’s missile program in recent weeks, with Le Drian stating that Iran’s ballistic missile capacity worried France “enormously”.

Iran Focus

London, 03 Mar – In a shocking speech at the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee’s February 22nd meeting in Brussels, Portuguese Socialist MEP Ana Gomes criticized the Iranian opposition.

“I met with relatives of the victims of a terrorist organization called MEK,” she said in the meeting. She added, “We cannot continue to allow some members of this parliament, possibly out of naiveté, to continue to abet some of the members of this organization.”

Iran Focus

London, 02 Mar – The Free Trade Union of Workers of Iran announced the arrest of more than 10 workers from the National Iranian Steel Industrial Group in Ahvaz.

According to the workers’ organization, these workers were arrested on Thursday night March 1 after the security forces attacked their homes. The arrest order was issued by the regime’s Attorney General’s Office in Ahvaz.

Those arrested include Farhad Akbarian, Morteza Akbarian, Meysam Ali Ghanavati, Amin Momenpour, Hossein Nisi, Baqer Delphi, Taghi Hassanzadeh, Hadi Afravi and Mehdi Adelzadeh, according to the report.

Iran Focus

London, 02 Mar – An Iranian MP on the Parliamentary Committee for National Security and Foreign Policy is drafting a bill to separate the powers of the Intelligence Ministry and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Intelligence Organization.

On February 26, Mostafa Kavakebian told the semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA): “In my opinion, under the law, the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization is considered an agency that enforces judicial orders. At the same time, we have always believed that the legal authority in charge of espionage operations is the Intelligence Ministry and its decisions are also carried out by the Judiciary. So, naturally, there has to be a separation of responsibilities between these two security organizations.”