Iran Focus

London, 2 May – In less than two weeks, President Trump will announce whether he is going to re-certify the 2015 Iran nuclear deal or not. It is uncertain whether he will once again waiver the sanctions but there has been a lot of speculation.

Trump announced that he wanted to ensure that the deal is strengthened and the loopholes that Iran is taking advantage of are removed. He wants the sunset provisions to be cancelled and he told the other signatories of the deal that Iran’s belligerence across the Middle East and its ballistic missile program must be addressed.

Iran Focus

London, 2 May – As North Korea and South Korea appear to be heading towards peace, it is clear that the political landscape is changing for the better. While most of the world is celebrating this historic breakthrough, Iran would do well to learn from the Korean peace talks, according to political scientist Dr. Majid Rafizadeh.

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh writes in his latest column for Arab News that Iran should learn four key lessons from these talks, if the republic wants peace as much as it says it does. Let’s look at those lessons in detail.

Iran Focus

London, 2 May – The Supreme Leader of Iran has refused point blank to negotiate Iran’s malign role in the Middle East or its ballistic missile programme, something that Donald Trump wanted to fix under the nuclear deal.

Ali Khamenei instead accused the US Treasury Department of waging an economic war against Iran for the sanctions that have been imposed by the US over the past year, which relate to Iran’s human rights abuses and sponsorship of terrorism among other things.

Iran Focus

London, 2 May – At the beginning of the week, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu was in Tel Aviv to deliver a speech about Iran’s former nuclear weapons program.

He presented evidence to show that before the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was negotiated, Iran has been working on nuclear weapons – not pursuing the civilian nuclear power that it declared.

Although the Israeli Prime Minister was not accusing Iran of still working on the program, he said that it shows the nuclear deal is based on lies and that Iran cannot be trusted.

Iran Focus

London, 27 Apr – The deteriorating economic situation in Iran is a factor that potentially gives the United States leverage in the negotiations over the Iran nuclear deal.

In the past several weeks, the rial, Iran’s currency, has lost 25 per cent of its value against the dollar. Tehran set an official exchange rate of 42,000 rials to the dollar —a move that is not likely to succeed, as market prices of the rial are 60,000 to the dollar.