Archive for the ‘Iran’ Category

Trump Sends Warning to Russia, China and Iran, Says They ‘WILL’ Respect Us – Newsweek

Donald Trump has issued a warning for some of the U.S.'s biggest adversaries while accusing them of "dividing up the World."

In a post on Truth Social, the Republican, who is running for president again in 2024, wrote that China, Russia, Iran and North Korea will "respect" the U.S.

Trump earlier posted that a recent clip of China's President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussing a once-in-a-century geopolitical power shift during talks at the Kremlin was a "low point" for the U.S.

In a social-media post on Sunday, Trump wrote: "China, Russia, and Iran, not to mention North Korea and other countries, have placed the U.S. in a very bad and dangerous position. They are dividing up the World as we sit around and let them do it. They no longer respect the U.S., BUT THEY WILL!!!"

On March 21, Presidents Xi and Putin were seen shaking hands while discussing the strength of their alliance. The U.S. has frequently accused China of siding with Russia amid the Ukraine invasion.

"Right now, there are changes, the likes of which we haven't seen for 100 years. And we are the ones driving these changes together," Xi told Putin via an interpreter. Putin responded: "I agree."

Trump reacted negatively to the exchange in a Truth Social post. "President Xi's statement to President Putin, caught on hot mic, was maybe a low point, in history, for the USA," the former president wrote.

Trump has frequently said that countries do not "respect" the U.S. now he is no longer in the White House. He flipped between praising and threatening authoritarian rulers while president.

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Trump said Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if he were still president, while citing his positive relationship with Putin. Trump was widely criticized for describing the Russian leader's military tactics before the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 as "savvy" and "genius."

Trump has also praised North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. The Republican said at a September 2018 rally in West Virginia that the pair "fell in love" while exchanging letters.

This positive relationship also saw Trump become the first sitting president to step foot in North Korea to meet its leader in June 2019. However, Trump had threatened to annihilate the country in January 2018.

"North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the 'Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times,'" Trump tweeted. "Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"

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Trump Sends Warning to Russia, China and Iran, Says They 'WILL' Respect Us - Newsweek

Once banned, now back: Iran sees timid return of neckties – Japan Today

Mohammad Javad enters a fashionable shop in well-to-do north Tehran with his mother. For the first time ever he wants a necktie, long banned in Iran as a symbol of Western decadence.

The 27-year-old dentist said he opted for this clothing accessory in hopes of looking his best during the first meeting with his future in-laws.

"In our society, wearing a tie is like wearing a mask before COVID-19 hit," he said as the salesman adjusted his suit. "People would look at you differently because the negative view still remains.

"I think a man looks chic with one. Unfortunately, we Iranians have imposed strange and unnecessary restrictions on ourselves. It'll take time for that to change, but hopefully it will."

Dress rules have stoked strong passions in Iran, especially restrictions on women who have long been required to wear modest clothing and headscarves.

Iran was gripped by unrest, labeled "riots" by the authorities, after the September 16 death in custody of Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, 22, following her arrest for an alleged violation of the country's strict dress code for women.

Iran banned the tie for men after the 1979 overthrow of the US-backed monarch as a symbol of Western culture. Although it has made a slow comeback since, government officials and most Iranian men continue to shun the cravat.

The upmarket Zagros shop on the capital's Nelson Mandela Boulevard however displays rows of ties in different colors and in wool, cotton or silk.

"We sell around 100 a month," said deputy store manager Mohammad Arjmand, 35. "We import them mostly from Turkey, but some are also made in Iran. "Customers buy them for ceremonies or for work. In this neighborhood, you will find that two out of 10 people wear one. These days more people are wearing ties compared with previous decades."

The recent unrest "had no effect on our sales", said branch manager Ali Fattahi, 38. "Our customers who were wearing ties before still do so and come to us regularly to buy new ones."

Iran's Shiite clerics who came to power in 1979 banned the tie because, in their eyes, it was un-Islamic, a sign of decadence, a symbol of the cross and the quintessence of Western dress imposed by the shah, said one trader who asked not to be identified.

After vanishing for decades, ties reappeared in some shop windows during the era of reformist president Mohammad Khatami from 1997 to 2005.

Today, government ministers, senior civil servants and heads of state-owned companies don't wear ties with their suits and opt for shirts with buttoned, open or Mao collars.

Lawyer Masoud Molapanah said "wearing a tie is certainly not a crime" under the constitution or Islamic sharia law. "But there are dress restrictions in certain places such as on television."

Javad, while choosing his tie, was accompanied by his chador-clad mother, who not only encourages him to wear one but also asked the salesmen to teach her how to tie it properly for her son.

"At one time, some sought to remove it," said the 50-year-old state employee, with a smile. "The reason given was the rejection of any sign of Westernization.

"But then it would have been necessary to also remove the suit and return to the traditional dress worn at the time of the Qajar dynasty" of 1794-1925, she said, adding this "was obviously impossible".

The head of a nearby Pierre Cardin store, Mehran Sharifi, 35, said many young people now are enthusiastic about the necktie.

"Ties give prestige to people -- a lot of people buy them," said this son and grandson of a tailor, pointing to a century-old photograph on the wall of his grandfather wearing a tie. "Customers come to buy suits and we match ties to their choice of clothing. Others buy them as a gift."

In some classy cafes, the black tie or bowtie are part of the uniform of waiters, and doctors in several Tehran districts have also sported ties.

The fashion accessory is almost compulsory for Iranians working at embassies and in some foreign companies, although most remove it when they go out on the street.

Sadeq, 39, employed at the Japanese embassy, said he puts on his tie when he gets to work "because wearing a tie in public is not very common in Iran".

"If you dress up like that and walk in the street, you'll definitely turn a few heads. People will think you're either a foreigner or someone headed to a very formal meeting with foreigners."

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Once banned, now back: Iran sees timid return of neckties - Japan Today

Former Iran Hostages Are Divided on Jimmy Carter and a Sabotage Claim – The New York Times

They are the last survivors of an international crisis that hobbled Jimmy Carters presidency and may have cost him re-election. Many are now in their 80s.

With the former president gravely ill in hospice care, some of the 52 Americans who were held hostage in Iran for 444 days are looking back on Mr. Carters legacy with a mix of frustration, sadness and gratitude.

Many feel neglected by the government, which has paid them only about a quarter of the $4.4 million that they were each promised by Congress in 2015, after decades of lobbying for compensation, said their lawyer, V. Thomas Lankford. Some endured physical and mental abuse, including mock executions, during the hostage crisis. About half have died.

Last week, their ordeal was thrust back into the news with the account of a covert effort to delay their release until after the 1980 presidential election in a bid to help the campaign of Mr. Carters Republican challenger, Ronald Reagan.

A former Texas politician, Ben Barnes, told The New York Times that he had toured the Middle East that summer with John B. Connally Jr., the former Texas governor, who told regional leaders that Mr. Reagan would win and give the Iranians a better deal. Mr. Connally, a former Democrat turned Republican, was angling for a cabinet position.

Mr. Barnes, 84, said that he was speaking out now because history needs to know that this happened.

He told The Times that he did not know if the message that Mr. Connally gave to Middle Eastern leaders ever reached the Iranians, or whether it influenced them. Mr. Connally died in 1993. Nor was it clear if Mr. Reagan knew about the trip. Mr. Barnes said Mr. Connally had briefed William J. Casey, the chairman of Mr. Reagans campaign and later the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, in an airport lounge after the trip.

The account stirred anger among some of the former hostages, while others dismissed his story of election sabotage as not credible. They are a diverse group that includes former diplomats, retired military officers and academics, and members of both major political parties.

Its nice that Mr. Barnes is trying to soothe his soul during the last years of his life, said Barry Rosen, 79, who was press attach at the embassy in Tehran when it was overrun on Nov. 4, 1979. But for the hostages who went through hell, he has not helped us at all. He has made it just as bad or worse.

Mr. Rosen, who lives in New York, said that Mr. Barnes should have come forward 43 years ago, given the decades of speculation about political interference.

Its the definition of treason, he said, knowing that there was a possibility that the Carter administration might have been able to negotiate us out of Iran earlier.

Kathryn Koob, 84, of Waterloo, Iowa, who was the director of an Iranian-American cultural program when she was taken hostage, said, If somebody wanted to be so cruel as to use us for political gain, thats on their conscience, and they have to deal with it.

That Mr. Connally could have been engaged in political skulduggery was hardly shocking after Watergate, said John W. Limbert, 80, who was a political officer at the embassy when he was taken hostage.

Its basically just confirmation of what we strongly suspected all along, Mr. Limbert said. We should not be surprised about this in American politics people willing to stoop to anything.

He credited Mr. Carter with showing patience during the crisis, even if voters blamed him for mishandling the showdown with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian leader whose followers stormed the embassy after the Carter administration admitted Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the deposed shah of Iran, to the United States for medical treatment.

He basically sacrificed his presidency to get us out alive, Mr. Limbert said.

But Kevin Hermening, a certified financial planner in Mosinee, Wis., who was a Marine Corps sergeant guarding the embassy, said that he did not believe Mr. Barness account and that, even if it were true, the effort would not have influenced his captors.

The Iranians were very clear that they were not going to release us while President Carter was in office, said Mr. Hermening, 63. He was despised by the mullahs and those people who followed the Ayatollah.

And Don Cooke, 68, of Gaithersburg, Md., a retired Foreign Service officer who was vice consul at the embassy, called Mr. Barness account mildly amusing.

It suggested, he said, that there were these other dark forces that were sabotaging our efforts to get these hostages free, and I just dont buy that.

Mr. Cooke still blames Mr. Carter for the crisis. He said the president should have cleared the embassy of its personnel before he admitted the shah or have refused to allow the shah to enter the country.

When Mr. Carter flew to Rhein-Main Air Base in Germany to greet the freed hostages, Mr. Cooke said he snubbed the former president, staying on the phone with his parents as Mr. Carter put a hand on his back. He handed the phone to Mr. Carter, who spoke to his mother.

The reason we were released was because Ronald Reagan was elected president, Mr. Cooke said. The Iranians were clearly afraid of Reagan. No question about that. And they had every right to be.

The hostages were released on Jan. 20, 1981, minutes after Mr. Reagan took office.

It was the end of an anguished chapter. Network news anchors had kept nightly counts of how long the hostages had been in captivity, accompanied by martial music and America Held Hostage graphics. People across the country tied yellow ribbons around trees in a show of support for the hostages.

After months of fruitless negotiations, Mr. Carter had authorized a rescue mission in April 1980 that ended in disaster when a helicopter crashed into a plane in the Iranian desert. Eight service members were killed, and their charred bodies were displayed by Iranian officials.

In the end, Mr. Carter did not pull off the pre-election October surprise that some in Mr. Reagans orbit feared. It was only after Mr. Carters defeat that his outgoing administration struck a deal that released billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets.

Those assets were the weapon that kept us alive, said Mr. Rosen, the former press attach. Referring to Mr. Carter, he added, I think the thing he did and did absolutely right was to free the American hostages without us getting murdered.

The Barnes account cast a new light on these long-ago events, troubling David M. Roeder, a retired colonel who was the deputy Air Force attach at the embassy. Mr. Roeder said that he had repeatedly told his captors that if Mr. Reagan won, they would be dealing with a much tougher person.

I have come to the conclusion perhaps because I want to that hopefully President Reagan was unaware that this was going on, said Mr. Roeder, 83, of Pinehurst, N.C.

But, he added, I gained a great deal more respect for President Carter because Ive seen what he went through with us in captivity.

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Former Iran Hostages Are Divided on Jimmy Carter and a Sabotage Claim - The New York Times

Delegation from Bahrain reportedly to visit Iran – Mehr News Agency – English Version

Several Bahraini sources also announced that recently a delegation from Iran traveled to Bahrain and visited the Iranian embassy in Manama.

Recently,Bahraini sources with knowledge of the attempts to restore diplomatic ties between Manama and Tehran told Sputnik thata delegation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran visited the Iranian Embassy along with an Iranian parliamentary delegation that participated in the 146th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Manama on March 12.

According to those Bahraini sources, after the visit of Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi to Saudi Arabia, meetings and exchanges of visits between Iran and Bahrain are scheduled to begin.

Earlier, some informed sources had told Sputnik that important talks between Bahrain and Iran are underway on the restoration of their bilateral relations.

After the recent agreement between Tehran and Riyadh to restore relations and reopen their embassies, Saudi King Salman invited the Iranian president to visit Saudi Arabia.

On March 19 Mohammad Jamshidi, the political deputy of the Iranian President's Office, posted on Twitter that the Saudi King had officially invited the Iranian President to visit Riyadh, and Ebrahim Raeisi had accepted his invitation.

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Delegation from Bahrain reportedly to visit Iran - Mehr News Agency - English Version

Saudi Arabias ambassador attends Nowruz celebration at Iran embassy in Tajikistan – Al Arabiya English

During the event, Waleed Alreshiadan, the Saudi envoy to Dushanbe, met with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad-Taqi Saberi. (FarsNews_Agency/Twitter)

Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English

Published: 23 March ,2023: 10:59 PM GST Updated: 23 March ,2023: 11:52 PM GST

Saudi Arabias ambassador to Tajikistan has attended a celebration at Irans embassy in the Tajik capital to mark Nowruz the Persian New Year just weeks after the countries agreed to restore diplomatic ties, the official IRNA news agency reported on Thursday.

During the event, Waleed Alreshiadan, the Saudi envoy to Dushanbe, met with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad-Taqi Saberi. Pictures posted on IRNAs Telegram channel showed the two envoys shaking hands and embracing each other.

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The relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, as two influential and important countries of the Islamic world in the West Asian region, can be the basis for creating a new trend and an increasing role in serving the interests of the countries and nations of the region, IRNA quoted Saberi as saying.

Pictures posted on the Telegram channel of Irans IRNA news agency showed the two envoys shaking hands and embracing each other. (IRNA on Telegram)

The agency did not specify the date of the meeting. However, Irans embassy in Dushanbe said on Tuesday that it had held a celebration at the mission to mark Nowruz, attended by foreign diplomats among others.

This meeting follows an announcement earlier this month by Saudi Arabia and Iran that they had reached an agreement, brokered by China, to reestablish diplomatic relations.

Under the deal, Saudi Arabia and Iran are expected to reopen their embassies and missions within two months, as well as implement security and economic cooperation agreements that were signed over 20 years ago.

Saudi Arabia cut ties with the Islamic Republic in 2016 following an attack by supporters of the Iranian regime on its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad.

Earlier on Thursday, the Saudi foreign ministry said that Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan had a phone call with his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, during which they exchanged congratulations for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began on Thursday in both countries.

The two ministers agreed to hold a bilateral meeting soon to facilitate the reopening of embassies and consulates between the two countries, the ministry said.

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Saudi FM agrees with Iranian counterpart to hold a bilateral meeting soon

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Saudi Arabias ambassador attends Nowruz celebration at Iran embassy in Tajikistan - Al Arabiya English