Iran

13 June 2021; MEMO: The former speaker of the Iranian parliament Ali Larijani demanded on Saturday an explanation from an election watchdog on why he was barred from running in next week's presidential vote, reports Reuters.

Last month, the hardline Guardian Council approved just seven hopefuls to stand in Friday's poll and disqualified several prominent candidates, including Larijani and former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

TEHRAN, Jun 12 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran reported yesterday, 9,966 new COVID-19 cases, taking the country’s total infections to 3,013,078.

The pandemic has so far claimed 81,796 lives in Iran, up by 124 in the past 24 hours, the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education said, in a briefing.

A total of 2,624,802 people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country, while 3,494 remain in intensive care units, the ministry said.

The report added that, 21,313,589 tests have so far been carried out across the country.

(Reuters) --- The former speaker of the Iranian parliament Ali Larijani demanded on Saturday an explanation from an election watchdog on why he was barred from running in next week’s presidential vote.

Last month, the hardline Guardian Council approved just seven hopefuls to stand in Friday’s poll and disqualified several prominent candidates, including Larijani and former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 

Tehran, June 12, IRNA – Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in a message termed US economic terrorism amid COVID-19 pandemic as "a crime against humanity".

"Trump is gone, but his unlawful & murderous sanctions are still there. No need for crocodile tears when US efforts to immiserate 82 million Iranians are ongoing," Araghchi wrote in his Twitter account on Saturday.

"Economic terrorism amid a PANDEMIC, is a crime against humanity," he added.

Tehran, June 12, IRNA – Iran began importing electricity from Azerbaijan Republic on Thursday to alleviate electricity supply limitations, the spokesman for Iran's Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company (Tavanir) said.

Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi said on Saturday that the electricity grid of Mughan in northwest Iran has been synchronized with that of Azerbaijan Republic so that 73 megawatts of electricity is injected to Iran’s power grid.

The imported electricity has the capacity to increase to 130 megawatts in the peak, he added.

11 June 2021; MEMO: A further 1.4 million barrels of Iranian crude oil is expected to arrive in Syria's Baniyas port in 24 hours, according to naval tracking firm Tanker Trackers on Thursday, Anadolu Agency reports.

"In roughly 24 hours from now, the first two out of three tankers shall arrive in Baniyas, Syria with around 1.4 million barrels of Iranian crude oil," Tanker Trackers said.

Approximately 300,000 further barrels are in the Suez, the naval tracking firm said.

10 June 2021; MEMO: Negotiations between Iran and the world powers on how to revive the 2015 nuclear accord will resume this weekend, Reuters reported US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman as saying on Wednesday, adding that Iran's June 18 presidential election was a complicating factor.

"I know that the negotiation will start again over this coming weekend," Sherman said during a virtual event organized by the German Marshall Fund think tank.

TEHRAN, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The past five rounds of the Vienna talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal led to an agreement over the removal of some 1,000 U.S. sanctions on Iran, but about 500 others are still in dispute, parliamentary sources were quoted as saying by semi-official Tasnim News Agency on Wednesday.

The figure was offered by the head of the Iranian negotiating team, Abbas Araqchi, in a meeting in the afternoon with the Iranian parliament's Foreign Policy Committee, said Ebrahim Azizi, a member of the committee.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Almost six years ago, Iranians poured into the streets to celebrate Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. They saw it as a chance for the Islamic Republic to re-enter the world economy and create opportunities like purchasing airplanes and selling its oil on the international market.

Today, that dream has faded into a daily grinding nightmare of high inflation, an ever-weakening national currency and high unemployment worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian presidential candidate said Wednesday he’d be willing to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden if he wins his country’s election next week, though “America needs to send better and stronger signals” to the Islamic Republic.

Speaking to The Associated Press, former Iranian Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati stressed that an American return to Iran’s tattered nuclear deal was key to any possible relationship amid the wider tensions in the Mideast.