Iran Focus:
London, 4 May – Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps have combined ideology and practicality in an effective way, producing results in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, says Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) expert Afshon Ostavar, who added that Iran’s clandestine regional interference is a much bigger issue than the nuclear file.
Iran Focus:
London, 4 May – Iranian news agencies reported Thursday, that a coal mine explosion in northern Iran killed at least 35 people, and rescuers are working a second day to reach those trapped by the blast.
Similar reports were carried by Fars, Mehr and Tasnim news agencies Thursday morning. The explosion occurred on Wednesday at the Golestan province mine but was not immediately reported. Sadegh Ali Moghadam, the provincial director general of disaster management, in a live broadcast by state television, said 22 dead bodies had been recovered.
Iran Focus:
London, 3 May – It is reported that President Trump will travel to Riyadh later this month and will meet with the six leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. There are widely disparate views on the Iranian threat to stability in the Middle East and how to resolve the conflict in Yemen.It is difficult to coordinate on a policy regarding Iran without opening up conflict, because of these divergent views, analysts suggest. Efforts thus far focus on improving regional defense capabilities and US-GCC security cooperation. The Trump administration has indicated it will provide advanced munitions as well as logistics and intelligence support to assist the Saudi-led coalition fight the pro-Iranian Houthi insurgency in Yemen.
Iran Focus
London, 4 May – Squaring off with Iran, Syria and North Korea, the Trump administration has indicated that the years of appeasement with dictators have ended, according to a new op-ed carried by the Washington Examiner.
Tehran is beginning to understand these policy changes from the United States, and it follows that Trump should also target Iran’s human rights violations.
Iran Focus
London, 4 May – London, 3 May – An explosion in a coal mine in northern Iran on Wednesday killed at least 21 workers and injured scores, according to state media.
The blast occurred at 12:45 p.m. local time (0745 GMT) in the Zemestanyurt mine when workers tried to jump-start a locomotive.
Iran Focus
London, 2 May – Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has accused the Iran Regime of seeking to control the Muslim world through its expansionist policies which are currently most visible in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
These comments appeared to rule out any notion of reconciliation with the Islamic Republic.
Iran Focus
London, 2 May – While US-backed forces are driving the so-called Islamic State out of Mosul, the Iranian Regime is using the fight against ISIS to attack Sunni Muslims who are unrelated to the terror group. The idea being that they stop civilian cars at checkpoints in order to search for ISIS fighters and then harass the Sunnis inside.
Iran Focus
London, 2 May – US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has revealed that the Trump administration is reviewing the best option for confronting the Iranian Regime and the problems that it presents to not just the middle east but the whole world.
Ehud Yaari wrote on Foreign Affairs that the most important issue would be curbing the Regime’s expansionist dreams, which have most recently been seen in their plans to build a corridor to the Mediterranean by keeping its control on the countries in between Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria.
Iran Focus
London, 2 May – Hoshyar Zebari, the former Iraqi finance and foreign minister, recently said that the 2015 abduction of Qataris by Iranian Regime militias defeated Iraq’s sovereignty.
Abdulrahman al-Rashed, the former General Manager of Al Arabiya News Channel, wrote and op-ed for Al-Arabiya in which he noted that this is hardly the first time that the Iranian Regime has done such a thing.
He cites that Turkish construction company workers were kidnapped in al-Sadr, Baghdad only shortly before the Qatari abduction.
Iran Focus
London, 1 May – Despite the regime’s anti-labor measures, the workers were able in 2016 to have 2171 collective protests in different cities of Iran. The most important feature of rallies and protests by workers over the past year was the political slogans. The scope of the protests was so high that Guard Ashtari in reference to them told the state run ISNA news agency on February 26, 2017: “Now because of the closure of some factories and credit institutions, rallies are held that occasionally reach to 20-30 per day, and these rallies must be well managed. Because occurring of an accident in a city can have national and international repercussions. “
