Iran

30 Mar 2021; MEMO: Iran has rejected an American offer to lift some sanctions in return for halting enriching uranium and freezing work on advanced centrifuges, Press TV reported.

"A senior Iranian official tells Press TV that Tehran will stop its 20 percent uranium enrichment only if the US lifts ALL its sanctions on Iran first," the station reported.

31 Mar 2021; MEMO: An Iranian government spokesman defended on Tuesday the signing of a 25-year cooperation agreement between Iran and China, saying the agreement is not directed against any third country.

30 Mar 2021; MEMO: Former Chief of Israeli Army's Military Intelligence, Amos Yadlin, yesterday voiced his concerns about possible intelligence sharing between China and Iran as a result of the latest strategic deal signed between the two countries, Israeli media reported.

28 Mar 2021; MEMO: China and Iran, both subject to US sanctions, signed a 25-year cooperation agreement on Saturday to strengthen their long-standing economic and political alliance, Reuters reported.

"Relations between the two countries have now reached the level of strategic partnership and China seeks to comprehensively improve relations with Iran," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was quoted by Iran's state media as telling his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.

(AP) --- Iran has made threats against Fort McNair, an Army post in the U.S. capital, and against the Army’s vice chief of staff, two senior U.S. intelligence officials said.

They said communications intercepted by the National Security Agency in January showed that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard discussed mounting “USS Cole-style attacks” against the Army post, referring to the October 2000 suicide attack in which a small boat pulled up alongside the Navy destroyer in the Yemeni port of Aden and exploded, killing 17 sailors.

(Reuters) - Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei named the Iranian new year that of “production, support and removal of barriers” in a live televised speech broadcast on Saturday.

“There is good ground for a production leap,” Khamenei said, adding that the government needed to get rid of any legal obstacles to production and growth.

The Iranian army fired gun salutes at Tehran’s Azadi Square to usher in Nowruz - or “New Day” in Persian - at 13.07 local time.

TEHRAN, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Iran is determined to strengthen its deterrent power and continue with its missile program, Defense Minister Amir Hatami said Thursday.

Despite all restrictions and problems, significant progress has been made in Iran's defense industry in the current Iranian calendar year ending March 20, said Hatami in a gathering of the Defense Ministry's high-ranking officials in the capital Tehran, Tasnim news agency reported.

"In the fields of defense and missile power ... we will continue moving toward great objectives with all our power," he added.

Iran's foreign minister on Tuesday derided British Prime Minister Boris Johnson over a plan to increase his country's nuclear warhead stockpile while expressing concern over Tehran's alleged attempt to seek atomic weapons, Reuters reported.

"In utter hypocrisy, @BorisJohnson is 'concerned about Iran developing a viable nuclear weapon'. On the very same day he announces his country will increase its stockpile of nukes," Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter.

15 Mar 2021; MEMO: Iranian authorities have charged French tourist Benjamin Briere, arrested 10 months ago, with espionage and "propaganda against the system", one of his lawyers told Reuters on Monday.

The news comes as the United States and European parties to Iran's 2015 nuclear deal, including France, are trying to restore the pact that was abandoned in 2018 by then-U.S. president Donald Trump.

TEHRAN, March 14 (Xinhua) -- All the flights from Iraq to Iran were suspended for one week as of Sunday, the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization announced in a statement.

This decision was made as a preemptive measure to protect the health of the Iranian citizens amidst the spread of a mutated type of COVID-19, said the statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.

All the airlines are required to inform their passengers about the new measure in a timely manner, it added.