Since 1979, Iraqis have known only war and conflict, both from outside and within. With Islamist radicals advancing toward Baghdad, the future looks as grim as ever.
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Iraq’s Thirty Years War, And Counting
Tag: iran
TEHRAN — When Iran’s population doubled to some 60 million between the 1970s and 1980s, it was seen as a problem for a resource-poor country in the throes of a war with Iraq and social revolution at home. Leaders moved to curb this baby boom in the late 1980s by promoting contraception and sterilization. But […]
Helped by access to social media, environmental activists are calling for efficient measures against the scourge of pollution and degradation. A whiff of Western-style protest in the air.
Another twist on the geopolitical and economic chessboard. As relations sour with Russia over Ukraine, Europe looks at an increasingly accessible Iran. But it’s not so simple.
The stunning assault this week in Iraq by the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is bad news for Iran, which has been a staunch ally of Iraqi Prime Minister (and fellow Shia Muslim) Nouri al-Maliki. But beyond condemning the Sunni foes from ISIS, some in Tehran are pointing the finger at Washington. […]
TEHRAN — A member of the Iranian Parliament’s cultural affairs committee says he and his colleagues are “firmly opposed” to any Iranian legislator attending the World Cup in Brazil “for any reason” — primarily because the country should save money. In response to chatter about sending certain members to the global soccer event, Hojjatoleslam Seyyed […]
There is a more than three-decade-long clash of cultures between Egypt’s secular establishment and Iran’s post-revolution clerical regime. The brief interlude following the election of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi was, alas, too brief to notice any significant change. But all eyes in Tehran were back on Egypt this past weekend for the inauguration of […]
TEHRAN — A trip down the 19 kilometers of Valiasr Street, the avenue that splits Tehran in two, is like walking through a metaphor for Iranian society. At one end, by the railway station on Rahahan Square, the houses are narrow and tatty; but continue towards Tajrish Square, and glass skyscrapers and shining buildings rise […]
-OpEd- PARIS — How often are war crimes being committed in Syria? Is it every time a helicopter from President Bashar al-Assad’s regime drops a barrel bomb on a school, a hospital, an apartment block? Every time a fighter-bomber launches a strike in the middle of a town? Or every time a group of Islamist […]
Iran’s Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli is blaming drug addiction for just over half of all divorces in Iran, warning that “youth addiction to drugs” is growing, the official IRNA agency reports. “The judiciary has declared that the reason for 55% of divorces is one partner being addicted to drugs,” the minister told a Tehran conference […]
In Tehran — Photo: Kamyar Adl As Iran approaches another long, scorching summer with possible water shortages, the Energy Ministry is telling millions of Iranians to make cautious use of their air-conditioning systems because each could use up to 200 liters of water a day, the newspaper Jaam-e Jam reported. The Ministry characterized it as […]
Iran is facing the risk of “critical” water shortages if the country does not dramatically cut water use, Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian declared in a speech to the Iranian parliament. Citing several years of drought, climate change and increased population, Chitchian told legislators on Sunday that usage needed to drop by by 40%. Average annual […]
In another context, it might simply seem like diplomatic business-as-usual. But in Tehran, with potential game-changing nuclear talks in the balance, visits by the Austrian Foreign Minister and a key official of the British Foreign Office are being viewed as further proof that Iran want to move toward rapprochement with the West. In particular, the […]
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Bank Robber’s Deadly Jam
KERMANSHAH — It looks like a bank heist that took a very bad turn. Police of the Kermanshah province in western Iran suspect that a unidentified man’s body found in a bank ventilation shaft belonged to a would-be thief who suffocated there overnight. Employees of a branch of the Bank Saderat (the Exports Bank) called […]
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Tehran Sewage Kills Two Million Fish
Some “two million fish” were found dead and floating in a water reserve outside Tehran, possibly poisoned by untreated sewage that had been seeping in for months, the semi-official ISNA agency reported Wednesday. Mohsen Showkati, head of the environmental office of the district of Reyy where the Fashafuyeh dam was located, blamed waste waters from […]
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Pardoned Just As He Was Hanged
BANDAR ABBAS — A “few seconds” after an Iranian man’s hanging began, his victim’s relatives called prison officials to grant a pardon, as Iranian laws allow. According to prison authorities in the south of the country on April 20, the man survived the hanging — which was on an unspecified recent date — and is […]
The Iranian capital of Tehran sits on a notorious seismic zone, and for years now, its residents are intermittently reminded of the potentially calamitous consequences of a large earthquake. Nobody knows for sure how resistant its building are or whether or not developpers have respected the country’s building norms during the construction frenzy of the […]
As Iranian envoys and representatives of world powers ended their last round of talks intended to define the scope of Iran’s contested nuclear program, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a gathering in Tehran Wednesday that Iran’s negotiators should not “give in to unjust demands.” Talks are set to resume during the first half […]
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Is Europe’s Criticism Of Iran Toothless?
What does Iran see when it looks at Europe? Not necessarily a Union at all. It was reported this week by the Iranian press that the Netherlands ambassador in Tehran told Iranian authorities not to worry about the European Parliament’s recent vote condemning Iran’s handling of human rights. The official IRNA news agency cited ambassador […]
Shiran Ebadi, 2003 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, says Iran’s supposed reformist leader Hassan Rouhani has done little to improve human rights. Anyway, he doesn’t have final say.
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Death Sentence For Fake Doctor
A 64-year-old man was sentenced to be hanged in Tehran after a court found him guilty of sexually abusing female applicants for the post of lab assistant in what turned out to be a fake medical practice, Jomhuri-e Eslami daily, reported Tuesday. Iran’s Mehr news agency reported that at least four female witnesses accused the […]
Given Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, Western diplomats and hedge fund managers alike are well aware of the risks of punishing Moscow with sanctions after its strong-arm tactics in Crimea. Tehran, meanwhile, may be calculating the stakes in a somewhat different way. The daily Aftab-e Yazd asked Thursday how could European states and the United […]
TEHRAN – A senior general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards issued a blunt warning Tuesday to Israel, saying Iranian forces and weaponry “can destroy all points controlled by” Israel, with “any volume of firepower.” General Hassan Salami made the declaration during a conference on the role of the Islamic religion on global power relations, the official […]
In Tehran, concern is growing that tensions between Western capitals and Moscow over the showdown in Ukraine could undermine progress on resolving Iran’s own standoff with the West over its nuclear program. Several political observers worried about the possible weakening of Russian influence should it face sanctions or diplomatic isolation concerning in response to its […]
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Sharp Rise In HIV Infections In Iran
The number of HIV infections in Iran has increased nine-fold over the past 12 years, and in stark contrast with previous decades, most infections were now through sexual intercourse not use of infected needles, the country’s official IRNA news agency reported on Feb. 26. A lecturer at Tehran’s Medical Science University, Mohammad Hossein Ayati, told […]
One of Iran’s senior clerics today chided people he said were “surreptitiously” trying to build ties with the United States, warning they would get “nowhere” without broad Iranian support. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, secretary of the Guardian Council that vets and approves all elections, candidates and parliamentary bills in the country, said during Tehran’s nationally broadcast […]
BEIRUT — Iran’s ambassador in Lebanon said he was confident the Islamic Republic would soon improve ties with longtime regional rival Saudi Arabia. Speaking at a Beirut conference to mark the 35th anniversary of Iran’s 1979 revolution, Ambassador Ghazanfar Roknabadi acknowledged that Iran’s calls for better ties had yet to receive “echoes” from Riyadh, but […]
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Iran’s Mistrust Of West Still Runs Very Deep
Iran’s top atomic official says the country would not “retreat” over its nuclear technology and could reverse its commitments to suspend high-level uranium enrichment “within hours” if the West violated its own pledges, the official IRNA agency reported. Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, was speaking Monday to a gathering of Iranian […]
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Snow Reaches Desert’s Edge In Iran
While northern Iran has been hit by record snowfall in recent days, snow has also covered for the first time in living memory, the district of Shahdad in southeastern Iran, which typically has desert conditions and scorching temperatures. The head of the Shahdad district, Mohammad Mo’meni, told Iran’s Mehr news agency snow began to fall […]
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Rouhani Slams ‘Semiliterate’ Critics
With his rapprochement policy and chummy tweets in English, Iran’s Hassan Rouhani has carved out a rather pleasant public image since being elected president last year. But don’t tell that to his conservative critics in the Iranian parliament. Rouhani lashed out this week at critics of the Geneva accords as being “semiliterate,” the Farsi-language Prague-based […]
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Key Opposition Leader Allowed Home
The former presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi, detained since backing anti-regime protests in 2009, has reportedly been released from detention and given house arrest, following months of speculation over whether or not Iran would free certain dissidents or political prisoners. The politician’s son Hossein Karrubi told the semi-official ISNA agency that “in security terms conditions have […]
A few months back, it would have made front-page headlines around the world. Now, the encounter between Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of this weekend’s Munich Security Conference, is largely being presented as “routine” diplomacy in Persian newspapers. Monday’s edition of reformist Aftab-e Yazd […]
There seemed to be confusion among Iranian politicians about the Supreme Leader’s “real” position on Iran’s negotiations with the West on its nuclear program, the Persian language edition of Radio France Internationale is reporting, citing several Iranian press reports. The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on Iran’s key domestic and […]
It was just one snippet on the sidelines of the Davos summit, but President Hassan Rouhani’s comments to CNN last week are making news back home. Several Iranian news outlets have reported on Rouhani’s statement that “nobody remains in jail forever,” responding to a question about when several dissidents and political prisoners jailed in recent […]
Like others around the world, Iranians have watched the evening news’ bloody scenes of civilians targeted by terrorists in places like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. But now, the BBC’s Persian-language channel is reporting on growing concerns among Iranian officials about the threat of Al-Qaeda-type terrorism on their own territory. Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani recently […]
Fate Of Dissidents In Rouhani EraIranian President Hassan Rouhani has yet to release two leading dissidents, Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karrubi, from house arrest, which broadcaster Deutsche Welle“s Persian-language outlet characterized as “disappointing.” Both detainees were reformist candidates during the 2009 presidential elections and backed massive protests after incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected amid what […]
A Rafsanjani return?The former diplomat and Tehran-based commentator Sabah Zanganeh wrote in an item published Dec. 22 in the reformist daily Aftab-e Yazd that the former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, considered Iran’s great “pragmatist” politician, could help engineer a rapprochement with regional rival Saudi Arabia, for the “trust” he inspired among Iranian and Saudi officialdom. Zanganeh […]
Listen closelyAn Iranian parliamentarian reminded his colleagues — if they needed reminding — that all their mobile telephones were very likely bugged, Radio Free Europe’s Radio Farda website reported, citing several Iranian newspapers. Tehran Member of Parliament Ali Mottahari told a Dec. 9 student gathering in Tehran that his own office was bugged, with listening […]
TEHRAN — The charm and media savvy of Iran Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif have made him Tehran’s new wonder weapon. And over the last few days, he has put his arsenal to use in visits to four of the six Gulf States on a trust-building tour designed to cement links between the countries. […]
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After Geneva: Iran’s Glasnost Moment
Iranians hope a deal on the country’s nuclear program and a softening of sanctions mark a turning point. But what will Iran’s hardliners say?