Iran

17 January 2020; AFP: Iran's supreme leader called the accidential downing of a Ukrainian airliner a "bitter" tragedy Friday but said it should not overshadow the "sacrifice" of a top commander killed in a US drone strike.

TEHRAN, Jan 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he wants to avoid war after Tehran and Washington appeared on the brink of direct military confrontation in early January for the second time in less than a year.

Ahead of parliamentary elections on Feb 21 — predicted to be a challenge for Rouhani’s camp — and amid high tensions between Tehran and the West over Iran’s nuclear programme, the president said on Thursday dialogue with the world was still “possible”.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader will deliver a Friday sermon in Tehran for the first time since 2012, as the Islamic Republic grapples with the fallout from the targeted killing of its top general in a U.S. airstrike and popular anger at its accidental shootdown of a passenger plane.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has held the country’s top office since 1989 and has the final say on all major decisions. The 80-year-old leader openly wept at the funeral of Gen. Qassem Soleimani and vowed “harsh retaliation” against the United States.

TEHRAN, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said here Thursday that the U.S. sanctions against Iran have made the Iranian nation even "stronger," according to official IRNA news agency.

Despite "U.S. plots and pressures," it was the Iranian nation "who dared to shower missiles on one of the U.S. important military bases in the region," Rouhani said in reference to Iran's missile strike on the U.S. base in Iraq in retaliation for its senior military general assassination by the United States earlier this month.

TEHRAN, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday criticized the Europeans "failure" to live up to their commitments under the Iranian 2015 landmark nuclear deal, also known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

"Britain, France and Germany, three parties to the Iranian deal, claim that Europe has kept its obligations under JCPOA, however, in reality, they have not imported Iran's oil and have not facilitated Iran's international banking actions," Zarif tweeted.

15 January 2020; AFP: President Hassan Rouhani appealed Wednesday for "unity" and flagged the need for radical changes to the way Iran is run, after a wave of angry protests over the accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner.

The Kiev-bound Boeing 737 was shot down last week in a catastrophic error shortly after takeoff from Tehran, killing all 176 passengers and crew on board.

TEHRAN, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the move by Britain, France and Germany (E3) to trigger dispute resolution mechanism in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran is "legally baseless," Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.

Zarif criticized what he called the Europeans' failure to honor their commitments to pertaining to the Iranian nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

TEHRAN, January 13. /TASS/: Iran’s authorities learned that the Ukrainian passenger jet had been shot down by mistake by the country’s own missile defense systems only on January 10, in other words, the day before it was officially admitted, Iranian government spokesperson Ali Rabei said on Monday.

TEHRAN, January 13. /TASS/: Iran’s revenge to the United States for the killing of the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Qasem Soleimani, is not over yet, the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to the Quds Force, Ali Shirazi, said on Monday.

"We have not completed our revenge to the enemies for the killing of Soleimani and his associates," the news agency Fars quotes Shirazi as saying. "Retaliatory action will not be necessarily taken by Iran alone. The front of resistance will take active revenge."

13 January 2020; AFP: Iran has signalled it favours a de-escalation after 10 days of heightened tensions with the United States during which both sides fired missiles and Tehran accidentally shot down a passenger aircraft.

Security was stepped up in Iran's capital Sunday after a vigil the previous night for those killed in the air disaster turned into an angry protest and police temporarily arrested the British ambassador for being there.