Iran

21 Oct 2021; MEMO: Iranian Interior Minister, Ahmad Vahidi, hosted his Turkish counterpart, Suleyman Soylu, in the capital Tehran on Wednesday, Anadolu News Agency reporting.

In a statement following the bilateral meeting, Soylu wished Vahidi all the best in his new office.

"To date, we have had very successful cooperation on various issues," he said, adding many problems were solved.

19 Oct 2021; MEMO: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is focusing on achieving tangible results in domestic issues rather than following the footsteps of his predecessor, Hassan Rouhani, who was more focused on the nuclear file, which may take a long time to be resolved, experts say.

Iranian affairs specialist Bernard Hourcade believes that Raisi "travels across the provinces because he wants to give the image of a pragmatic senior official looking for solutions on the ground."

18 Oct 2021; MEMO: Iran backs talks with six major powers that are result-oriented, Iranian hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi said on Monday, as Tehran and six powers struggled to overcome snags in the resumption of negotiations to revive a 2015 nuclear deal, Reuters reports.

"We are serious about result-oriented negotiations  …  the unjust US sanctions imposed on Iran must be lifted," Raisi told state TV.

17 Oct 2021; MEMO: An Iranian appeals court has upheld a one-year prison term for British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on security offences, her lawyer was quoted by an Iranian news website as saying on Saturday, Reuters reports.

"The appeals court has approved the lower court's verdict without holding a hearing," attorney Hojjat Kermani told the Emtedad website.

TEHRAN, Oct 17 (NNN-IRNA) – Iranian commandos, repelled a pirate attack on an Iranian trade convoy, in the Gulf of Aden, the commander of the Iranian Navy said, yesterday.

Shahram Irani told reporters that, commandos of the fleet, consisting of the Alborz destroyer, took timely action, when two Iranian tankers were attacked by five pirate boats yesterday morning.

The operation forced the attacking boats to leave the scene, and their attack was aborted, he said.

16 Oct 2021; MEMO: As it condemned the killing of Shia protesters in Beirut, Iran declared that the shootings are seditions backed by the "Zionist entity", Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported on Friday.

"Iran believes that the people, the government, the army and the resistance in Lebanon will successfully overcome seditions backed by the Zionist entity," IRNA reported Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh asserting.

16 Oct 2021; MEMO: Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the Iran nuclear deal alongside bilateral relations and regional and international developments, according to the country's foreign ministry on Saturday, Anadolu reports.

The two top diplomats discussed over the phone "the latest status of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)," the ministry said in a statement. JCPOA is the formal name of the nuclear agreement.

16 Oct 2021; MEMO: Iran has strongly criticised the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s position on Friday, which it accused of "dualism" in its dealings with Iran on the one hand, and Israel on the other.

15 Oct 2021; MEMO: Iranian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Majid Takht Ravanchi warned of Israel's growing threats against his country's nuclear programme, reiterating that the threats should be condemned as a violation of international laws.

14 Oct 2021; MEMO: The assistant for operations affairs in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Abbas Neil Foroshan, said that the Saudis have no choice but to negotiate an end to the Yemeni war, noting that "the wisest way is to reach a peaceful agreement."

In an interview with the Iranian Tasnim Agency published on Tuesday, Foroshan said that the "Yemeni resistance" has developed militarily enough, with reference to the Houthis that Tehran supports in Yemen.

"The enemy cannot defeat the Yemeni resistance front," he added.