Iran

12 Mar 2023; MEMO: Iran has reached a deal to buy advanced Su-35 fighter planes from Russia, Iranian state media said on Saturday, expanding a relationship that has seen Iranian-built drones used in Russia's war on Ukraine, Reuters reports.

"The Sukhoi-35 fighter planes are technically acceptable to Iran and Iran has finalised a contract for their purchase," the broadcaster IRIB quoted Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York as saying.

TEHRAN, Mar 11 (NNN-IRNA) – Iranian officials yesterday hailed the deal, to resume diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and reopen embassies and missions within two months.

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Ali Shamkhani, said, the resumption of Tehran-Riyadh relations will “lead to the development of regional stability and security.”

8 Mar 2023; MEMO: The Iranian Ministry of Interior yesterday announced the first arrests linked to a series of mysterious poisonings of schoolgirls across the country.

"A number of people have been arrested in five provinces and the relevant agencies are conducting a full investigation," the Tasnim news agency quoted Deputy Interior Minister, Majid Mirahmadi, as saying.

TEHRAN, Mar 8 (NNN-IRNA) – The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, yesterday, strongly condemned an Israeli attack on Syria’s Aleppo International Airport, as a “crime against humanity.”

Nasser Kanaani made the remarks in a statement, published on the ministry’s website, reacting to an air raid by Israel on the civil airport yesterday morning.

Israel targeted the city’s airport, the main route for the delivery of international humanitarian aid to the Syrian city, when the quake-stricken people in Aleppo are still under tough circumstances, he said.

7 Mar 2023; MEMO: Iran's supreme leader yesterday said that the poisoning of schoolgirls is an "unforgivable" crime that should be punished by death if deliberate, amid public anger over a wave of suspected attacks in schools, Reuters reported citing state TV.

TEHRAN, Mar 5 (NNN-TASNIM) – Iranian envoy to the United Nations, vowed that, any “wrongful action or threat” by Israel against the country, would get a decisive response.

Amir Saied Iravani, Iran’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations, made the remarks in a letter to rotating President of the UN Security Council, Pedro Comissario Afonso, and UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.

TEHRAN, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that he hopes the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) can adopt a "professional" approach to the Iranian nuclear issue and prevent certain countries from affecting the nuclear watchdog's decisions.

Raisi made the remarks in a meeting with visiting Director General of the IAEA Rafael Grossi in the capital Tehran, according to a report on the website of the president's office.

3 Mar 2023; MEMO: Iran rejected as "fake news" on Friday a report by Britain's Royal Navy which said it had seized Iranian weapons, including anti-tank guided missiles, from a smugglers' vessel in the Gulf of Oman last month, Iranian state media said, Reuters reports.

1 Mar 2023; MEMO: Iran's Armed Forces have launched a large-scale military exercise covering two-thirds of Iranian airspace with the aim of testing capabilities in the event of an attack on sensitive facilities.

Iranian state TV said the manoeuvres are taking place with the participation of the air defence divisions of the army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

1 Mar 2023; MEMO: Iran's President, Ebrahim Raisi, on Wednesday ordered a time-bound investigation into the poisoning of schoolgirls in different Iranian cities, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Chairing a cabinet meeting in the capital, Tehran, Raisi instructed Interior Minister, Ahmad Vahidi, to find the cause of the mysterious poisoning, which has sent hundreds of schoolgirls to hospitals in recent weeks, "as quickly as possible".