Iran

TEHRAN, July 11 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian lawmaker said on Monday that the Western sanctions on Iran and Russia have brought the two sides closer to each other in trade and economy, official news agency IRNA reported.

Iran and Russia are providing one another with the products they fail to have access to because of sanctions, said Ebrahim Rezaei, a member of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee.

10 July 2022; MEMO: Iran on Saturday decried a plan by the US and Israel to form a security alliance with Arab states to counter Tehran as "provocative," saying it would fuel regional tensions, Anadolu reports.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani, reacting to reports about the proposed plan, said Iran looks at it as "a threat to national and regional security."

TEHRAN, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The United States seeks to erode the negotiations that aim to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), by imposing new sanctions against Iran, an Iranian senior lawmaker said on Sunday.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran announced Sunday that it has begun enriching uranium up to 20% using sophisticated centrifuges at its underground Fordo nuclear plant, state TV reported, an escalation that comes amid a standoff with the West over its tattered atomic deal.

That Tehran is enriching uranium up to 20% purity — a technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90% — with a new set of its most advanced centrifuges at a facility deep inside a mountain deals yet another blow to the already slim chances of reviving the accord.

TEHRAN, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that passengers can only gain entry to Iran upon submission of negative COVID-19 test results and full compliance with Iranian health protocols, citing the recent increase in infections.

In his address to a meeting of the national anti-coronavirus task force, Raisi called for stricter compliance with the health regulations and instructions at all land, air and sea entries to Iran, according to the Iranian presidency's website.

07 July 2022; MEMO: Iran's Revolutionary Guards have detained several foreigners, including Britain's second most senior envoy in Tehran, for alleged acts of spying such as taking soil samples in restricted areas, state television reported yesterday.

Reuters reports that it did not say whether those detained were still under arrest. The UK Foreign Office said claims that its Deputy Ambassador Giles Whitaker had been detained were "completely false".

TEHRAN, July 6 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Wednesday asked the United States to choose between clinching an agreement in the ongoing nuclear talks or insisting on its unilateral demands.

"Agreement is possible only based on mutual understanding and interests," Amir-Abdollahian tweeted after a phone conversation with EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell on Tuesday night.

06 July 2022; MEMO: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi denounced as "irresponsible" the US and European efforts to propose a resolution against his country at the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors while negotiations are still ongoing over Iran's nuclear energy file, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.

Raisi's statements came in a meeting with the new Swiss Ambassador to Tehran, Nadin Olivier Rey, who was presenting her credentials to him.

TEHRAN, Jul 3 (NNN-IRNA) – The Iranian Foreign Ministry, yesterday, condemned the U. S. for its “constant hostility” against Iran, saying, 34 years ago, it was manifested by the downing of a passenger plane, and today, through the continuation of maximum pressure policy.

The ministry made the remarks in a tweet, to commemorate the 34th anniversary of the downing of an Iranian passenger aircraft, by a U.S. Navy guided-missile cruiser in 1988, over the Gulf, which killed 290 people on board.

02 July 2022; Tehran (ISNA) - Iranian President said that preventing the presence of outsiders in the Caspian Sea is agreed by all its coastal countries and stressed, "Cooperation between countries in the fields of transport and transit, trade, management of marine resources and environment will be reviewed in the Sixth Summit of the Caspian Littoral States".