Iran

TEHRAN, May 8: At least one person is dead and 11 more have been injured following an earthquake in the approximate vicinity of the Iranian capital of Tehran, Pirhossein Kolivand, the head of Iran’s emergency medical services, stated.

"Eleven people sustained injuries as they fled their houses," Kolivand was quoted as saying by Iranian news agency Mehr. "A 60-year-old Iranian national was reported to be killed in the natural disaster."

TEHRAN, May 5 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran’s President, Hassan Rouhani, said Monday, that, a recent U.S. move, to cut funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO), hampers global fight against COVID-19.

“At a time when the virus has turned into a threat against global security and public health … the impair of WHO’s role, amounts to weakening joint global fight against the virus,” Rouhani said, addressing a virtual meeting of the leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Contact Group.

TEHRAN, May 3 (NNN-TASNIM) – The Iranian government, on Saturday, threatened that, in case the arms embargo against Iran is extended, it will trigger a “harsh” response from the country.

Ali Rabiee, spokesman for Iranian administration, decried U.S. push for extending the UN Security Council’s arms embargo against Iran, saying, the White House must realise that “international treaties are not toys.”

3 May 2020; MEMO: On Thursday the Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned Germany’s blacklisting of the Lebanese Hezbollah, claiming the move is in line with aspirations of the Zionist regime of Israel and the US, Iranian media reported.

1 May 2020; MEMO: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has tasked the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) to make Gulf islands disputed with neighbouring UAE “habitable”, Iranian Fars news agency reported.

Speaking on the national Persian Gulf Day, Commander of the Navy Commodore Alireza Tangsiri, said: “We intend to build infrastructure in these islands to make them habitable to resettle residents there in implementation of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces’ orders.”

30 April 2020; MEMO: A member of the city council in the Iranian capital Tehran has claimed that at least 13,000 people have died there between February and March.

“In the past two months, 13,000 people have been buried in Tehran,” Mohammad Javad Haghshenas told the daily reformist newspaper Aftab-e Yazd yesterday.

However, Haghshenas stopped short of disclosing how many of these deaths were related to COVID-19 in the worst-affected country in the region.

28 April 2020; MEMO: Iran has welcomed the Saudi-led coalition’s decision to extend the ceasefire in Yemen during the month of Ramadan, calling for comprehensive planning for peace and security in the war- torn country, Iranian IRNA news agency reported.

TEHRAN, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday that the U.S. sanctions against the country violate the fundamentals of human rights amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The "illegal" U.S. restrictions against Iran are even more dangerous at a time when all the countries are grappling with the novel coronavirus issue, Rouhani was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency.

Rouhani made the remarks in a phone conversation with his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo.

TEHRAN, April 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Iran plans to reopen mosques in parts of the country that have been consistently free of the coronavirus outbreak as restrictions on Iranians gradually ease, President Hassan Rouhani said.

Iran, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, will be divided up into white, yellow and red regions based on the number of infections and deaths, Rouhani said, according to the presidency’s website.

TEHRAN, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Friday hailed the recent launch of a military satellite by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) into orbit.

"It was a right move in the right direction," Rouhani was quoted as saying by Press TV.

"The successful launch of the home-made Noor 1 (Light 1) satellite was a proof that Iran has pursued a sound policy to develop its space sector," Rouhani said in a telephone call with Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami.