Iran

21 March 2022; MEMO: Iranians on Monday marked the beginning of the new Persian year, Nowruz, with festive fervour, after two years of COVID-19 restrictions, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Nowruz, which means 'new day' in Persian, coincides with the spring equinox, which falls on 21 March every year.

This year's celebrations are relatively grand as coronavirus restrictions have been gradually eased in recent months in the wake of a drop in infections and deaths from the pandemic.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader on Monday signaled support for Tehran’s nuclear negotiations to secure sanctions relief, a rare reference to the still-halted talks as world powers near a diplomatic turning point.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stressed the importance of Iranian economic self-sufficiency during a lengthy televised speech on the occasion of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. But he quickly added:

“I do not say that you should not seek to lift the sanctions. Those who are trying and working in that field, there is no problem.”

TEHRAN, March 19 (Xinhua) -- The navy commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Saturday warned foreign forces off the regional waters, noting regional countries are responsible for security in the Gulf, Press TV reported.

The IRGC Navy has boosted control over the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and north of the Indian Ocean by equipping its units with advanced homegrown defense hardware, said Alireza Tangsiri at a meeting with officials and commanders of the IRGC Navy's bases.

20 March 2022; MEMO: Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji said in televised remarks on Saturday that he will try to raise Iran's oil and condensates exports to 1.4 million barrels per day as set out in an annual state budget, Reuters reported.

"In parliament, lawmakers decided to raise the ceiling of exports of oil and condensates from 1.2 million barrels (per day) to 1.4 million barrels. The Oil Ministry will do everything in its power to realise the level set in the budget," Owji told state television.

18 March 2022; MEMO: Iran possesses 3,000 ballistic missiles, some of which can reach Israel, the chief of the US Central Command, Kenneth McKenzie, warned yesterday.

McKenzie told US Senators that none of the Iranian missiles could "reach Europe yet," adding that over the "last five to seven years they [Iran] have invested heavily in their ballistic missile programme."

17 March 2022; MEMO: A Commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Mohammad Tehrani Moghaddam has warned Gulf Arab rulers not to allow Israel to use their countries as launch pads for attacks on Iran, the Quds Force channel reported on Telegram.

"If Israel intends to harm Iran through the countries bordering the Gulf, we warn the rulers of the Arab countries that we will certainly target them with the Revolutionary Guards' invisible arrows, that is, with untraceable missiles," Tehrani said.

17 March 2022; MEMO: Israel hit an Iranian drone factory last month from a base in Iraq, Al-Mayadeen TV channel reported this week. Adding that this was the reason why Tehran launched a strike on a site in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil last weekend.

15 March 2022; MEMO: Iran has blamed Israel's Mossad spy agency for the thwarted sabotage attack against its underground Fordow nuclear facility, state television reported on Monday. According to the report, Mossad officers recruited an employee working in the IR6 centrifuge department at the nuclear plant.

14 March 2022; MEMO: Iranian state television said on Monday its security forces had thwarted a planned sabotage at the country's major Fordow nuclear site by a network it accused Israel of recruiting. It said the forces made arrests, Reuters reports.

The Israeli Prime Minister's office had no immediate comment on the report.

13 March 2022; MEMO: Iran on Sunday claimed an overnight attack on what it said were Israeli facilities in the region of Erbil in northern Iraq with precision-guided missiles, Anadolu reports.

In a statement on Sunday, the public relations wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for Saturday's strike in the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), saying it came in response to last week's Israeli attack in Syria that killed two IRGC members.