Iran

TEHRAN, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Iranian top security official said on Tuesday that the United States has failed to gather support to renew a UN Security Council's arms embargo against Iran.

"Fruitless efforts of the U.S. to continue the Iran weapon sanction have provoked a strong reaction from Russia ... and the confusion of U.S.'s allies," Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani tweeted.

"The world is not tolerating bullying ... The end of this path is collapse of unilateralism," said Shamkhani.

19 May 2020; MEMO: A major cyberattack on a key Iranian port earlier this month has been claimed to have been conducted by Israel, a new report by the US-based newspaper the Washington Post has revealed.

TEHRAN, May 19. /TASS/: The Russian and Iranian sides stopped personal contacts at the highest level amid the coronavirus spread but stepped up telephone diplomacy, Russia’s Ambassador to Tehran Levan Dzhagaryan told TASS on Tuesday.

"Personal contacts stopped and telephone diplomacy intensified," he said in an interview timed for the centenary of the Russian-Iranian relations.

TEHRAN, May 18 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Sunday that, the United States will no longer remain in Syria and Iraq, according to the leader’s official website.

“For sure, Americans will not remain in Iraq and Syria, and they will be expelled” from those countries, as the Americans “have supported terrorism” and “are abhorred” by the regional nations, he said.

Khamenei made the remarks in a video-conference meeting, with Iranian students on Sunday.

TEHERAN, May 17. /TASS/: Russian Ambassador to Iran Levan Dzhagaryan has refuted allegations that the Russian side is dissatisfied with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"You know, there are some speculations as if Russia isn’t happy with President Assad. There are some rumors. Maybe, some people who have no political position have declared such views. But such views are their personal views which don’t reflect any official positions as a Russian government," he said in an interview with Mehr News Agency.

TEHRAN, May 17 (NNN-IRNA) – The United States would be practically unable to block shipments of fuel from Iran to Venezuela, at a time when the two countries need to cooperate, to mitigate the impacts of American sanctions on their energy sectors, Hamid Hosseini, spokesman for the Iranian Association of Exports of Crude Products, said on Saturday.

Washington is extremely angry about Iran’s delivery of fuel to a location near its borders, despite various sanctions it has imposed on Tehran’s shipping and energy sectors, Hosseini was quoted as saying.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Even as U.S. sanctions, unemployment, inflation and low oil prices batter the Iranian economy, there seems to be at least one refuge for investors.

The Tehran Stock Exchange has seen gains of 225% in the last year, with sharp increases even as the country struggled with one of the first serious coronavirus outbreaks outside of China.

Encouraged by a government eager to privatize state-owned firms, average people now have access to the market and can trade shares, earning returns they’d never see in a savings account or a certificate of deposit.

14 May 2020; MEMO: A fuel tanker loaded at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas is making its way to Venezuela, according to vessel tracking data issued by Refinitiv Icon, in defiance of the US-imposed sanctions on both countries, including on their respective oil industries. Venezuela, which is already in a crisis, is currently suffering from a shortage of gasoline.

The Iranian-flagged tanker “Clafel” reportedly crossed the Suez Canal yesterday, having been loaded with fuel in Iran at the end of March.

TEHRAN, May 14 (NNN-IRNA) – Foreign investors would soon be able to apply for a five-year residency in Iran, based on regulations approved by the government last summer, Press TV reported, quoting the Iranian deputy interior minister as saying on Wednesday.

Application forms would be available in three languages through platforms run by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, the Interior Ministry, Iran’s department on foreign investment, and the Central Bank of Iran.

13 May 2020; MEMO: The Iranian Shura Council yesterday approved an “urgent bill” aimed at confronting Israeli practices and preserving Palestinians rights, IRNA news agency reported.

According to the agency, the council unanimously voted in favour of the bill which includes 14 articles.

The head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Mojtaba Zonnour, said labelling the bill as “very urgent” allows the Shura Council to vote on it as early as next week.