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Marathon talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal have hit a new roadblock, with Iran accusing the US of refusing to make the necessary political decisions to entrench the agreement in international law or to broaden the scope of economic sanctions that would be lifted.

The issue has dogged the talks in Vienna between the west, Russia, Iran and China which have been under way since February from the outset. There is no sign that the eighth round of negotiations, once intended to be the final round, has reached the breakthrough some had been expecting.

Ali Shamkhani, the hardline secretary of Irans national security council, in a tweet issued in multiple languages, declared after speaking to his governments negotiators that progress was becoming more and more difficult.

Expressing his frustration at the delays, he said: The Vienna negotiations had reached a point where the outcome could be described definitively without the need for guesswork.

A US political decision to accept the deal or refrain from accepting the requirements of a credible and lasting agreement based on the principles accepted in the nuclear agreement can replace speculation.

The US, he said, kept proposing new initiatives essentially designed to evade their commitments.

The foreign ministry spokesperson, Saeed Khatibzadeh, at his weekly press conference tried to calm the atmosphere by saying he had spoken to Irans chief negotiator in Vienna, Ali Bagheri, and that he had been assured the position was neither one of flowers and nightingales, nor one of rocks and thorns. But, he added, the onus lay on the US to accept Irans terms.

Asked what guarantees Iran was seeking, Khatibzadeh said: The United States is not trustworthy and therefore objective guarantees must be obtained so that international law and relations are not again mocked by the US government.

He added that all sanctions should be lifted at the UN security council. It does not matter what the title of the sanctions is since they were applied with a false label, Khatibzadeh said.

He stressed that any agreement on the release of political prisoners, including US dual-nationals held in Iranian jails, was discussed only in parallel with the nuclear talks.

Prof Mohammad Marandi, an Iranian analyst in Vienna thought to be close to the government, also claimed the tensions centred on the range of sanctions that would be lifted as part of the deal. Iran is pushing for all sanctions to be lifted, but the US says some sanctions are linked to human rights and terrorists abuses, and are not linked to the nuclear deal.

Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russian ambassador at the talks, adopted a less pessimistic tone. He said the discussions were at a final stage and that significant progress had been made. But he has tended to adopt a more positive outlook, adopting a near role of mediator between the US and Iran, one he has maintained despite tensions over Ukraine. Wang Qun, Chinas ambassador to the UN in Vienna, also broke silence at the weekend to say the talks were at a concluding stage.

The 20-page draft agreement with annexes is largely written, but the outstanding issues show an absolute determination by the Iranian regime to ensure that it appears to emerge from the talks victoriously, having withstood the might of US sanctions.

Joe Biden, distracted by the Ukraine crisis, is already facing mounting political resistance from US Republican senators who insist that the president cannot evade Congress by refusing to put any new agreement to a vote. Democrats have said that if the deal was put to the Senate for approval, they did not think the necessary 60 senators would vote to reject it. The Senate is split 50:50, with vice-president Kamala Harris having the casting vote.

But the Iranian armys recent display of new long-range solid-fuel missiles with a range of 900 miles (1,450km) will hardly make it easier for the US administration to sell the deal.

Iran has also claimed that the US negotiating team with which it does not meet directly is divided on how far to compromise.

The agreement is designed to bring the US, and subsequently Iran, back into the original nuclear deal signed in 2015 from which the US withdrew in 2018.

The talks have been held against a backdrop of repeated warnings from the west stretching back months that the talks can continue only for a few more weeks because Iran is coming ever closer to obtaining irreversibly the material and knowledge required to make a nuclear weapon.

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Iran nuclear deal talks stall as Tehran urges US to accept terms - The Guardian

Liz Truss has said she hopes Britain will soon be in a position to pay the 400m debt overdue to Iran, according to an Iranian account of the phone call between the foreign secretary and her Tehran counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

UK government officials have been exploring legal ways to pay Britains historical debt, although international economic sanctions on Iran have made it difficult.

The UK Foreign Office did not proactively brief reporters on the call, but when contacted for comment it confirmed that the conversation had happened on Monday, saying: We continue to explore options as a matter of urgency to resolve this case. It said the UK had always been committed to paying the debt.

With talks on the Iran nuclear deal reaching their decisive stage in Vienna, it is possible Truss wanted to stress the upside of both sides reaching a deal. The two countries insist that the 400m debt dating back to the sale of tanks to the shah of Iran in the mid-1970s has always been treated as independent of the Vienna talks and the fate of three British dual nationals held in Evin prison or, in the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, denied the right to leave Iran.

The tone of the call, according to the Iranian account, appeared to have been warmer than for some time, with Iran eager to see the UK do more to help with the Afghan refugee crisis on its borders. According to Iran, Truss praised Tehran for housing as many as 2 million refugees. The foreign ministry said: Amir-Abdollahian positively assessed the relations between the two countries.

It may have been significant that the Irish foreign minister, Simon Coveney, was in Tehran on Monday. He has acted as a conciliator on political prisoner issues in the past.

In the UK parliament last month, Boris Johnson again blamed the threat of sanctions for the block on the payment.

The Vienna talks will mean many of sanctions could be lifted, but it has been argued that the UK has been responsible for its own sanctions laws since Brexit and so could pay the debt now if it is not tied up in a wider negotiation.

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Truss tells Iran she hopes UK will soon be able to repay 400m debt - The Guardian

Monday, 14 February 2022 In a recent two-day visit to Zahedan University of Medical Sciences (UMS) in the southern and border province of Sistan and Baluchestan, Islamic Republic of Iran, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative and Head of Mission Dr Syed Jaffar Hussain met with local health authorities to review the efforts made in scaling up health services in the province and to explore avenues of collaboration in promoting national plans in the area of health and health promotion in the area.

The visit on February 12 mainly aimed to look at the collective progress made over the past years by universities of medical sciences and relevant agencies in the province with regards to health care services, including those concerning Afghan refugees and other foreign nationals in the area.

The visit encompassed a meeting headed by Iranian parliaments Health Commission Head, Dr Hossein Shahriyari, with Dr Hussain, which reviewed the health priorities of Sistan and Baluchestan and discussed ways that WHO can support ongoing or planned efforts in the field. The high-level session was attended by Dr Hashemi Shahri, Chancellor of Zahedan UMS and his deputy for Public Health Affairs Dr Seyed Mehdi Tabatabaei, as well as Dr Kamran Kordi, Chancellor of Iranshahr UMS, Dr Mahdi Afshari, Deputy Chancellor of Zabol UMS, Dr Mansour Saeedi, Director General of the provincial Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs, and Dr Mansour Ranjbar, Lead for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health at the WHO country office.

There has been remarkable advancement in improvement of health indicators in the province over the past few decades, but the continuation of this positive trend so that it meets the national average requires further scaled up support and effort, said Dr Hussain during the meeting.

Dr Shahriyari took note of milestones achieved in Sistsan and Baluchestan, including elimination of local transmission of polio, measles and rubella, and acknowledged WHOs continued support over the years.

It is natural that decades of war and insecurity in the neighbouring country of Afghanistan have also affected health issues, and now one of our health systems serious concerns, especially in the border regions, is tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, he added.

While thanking the Islamic Republic of Iran and the national health system, Dr Hussain expressed WHOs readiness to provide continued international support from available resources to the provincial health sector. Afghan immigrants have been benefiting from various free public health services in the country, including Sistan and Baluchestan, for many years.

Providing assistance to Sistan and Baluchestan in strengthening the response to COVID-19, furthering cooperation with the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan in tackling health issues, and supporting health and medical infrastructure in the province in cooperation with Health Ministry and other UN Agencies were among other topics discussed during the visit.

As the leading agency within the UN-led working group on health in the country, WHO will use all potential opportunities to support the province in partnership with its UN partners, including the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), World Food Programme (WFP) and other collaborators, Dr Jaffar underlined.

The meeting also discussed the possibility of Zahedan UMS establishing a rapid response emergency stock warehouse in the province in cooperation with WHO.

Such a centre will be able to provide pharmaceuticals, equipment, diagnostic kits and the like and keep them in proper storage conditions in order to be quickly distributed in the area when needed, said Dr Hussain during the meeting. A similar centre is currently operating in Dubai with the support of WHO and had demonstrated success in the rapid distribution of international donations to approximately 100 countries worldwide, he added.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is also ramping up national efforts to structure and reinforce surveillance of vector-borne diseases by setting up an insectarium at Zahedan UMS in the province. The insectarium, which was visited by the WHO delegation, is being constructed with the aim to establish a surveillance system with an emphasis on Anopheles (bearing malaria) and Aedes (dengue carriers) mosquitoes as two potentially key disease carriers given the tropical climate of the region. Once completed, it will become the national and regional hub for entomological studies, local authorities predict.

The WHO teams excursion concluded by visiting the proposed premises for the rapid response emergency stock warehouse, dialysis and intensive care units of Khatam Al Anbia Hospital, Zahedan Alghadir Refugee Camp, Ammar Yaser Health Centre and Delivery Facility (in Shirabad neighbourhood) and Seraj Community-Based Mental Health Clinic.

Excerpt from:
Islamic Republic of Iran firms up efforts for prevention and control of tropical diseases surveillance and health care services availability for...

This month marks the 43rdanniversary of the advent of Irans Islamic regime. It took power in the wake of the revolution of 197879 that toppled the Shahs pro-Western monarchy, transforming the mainly Shia Iran into an Islamic republic, with an anti-US posture. It challenged the US-dominated regional order and the international system.

At the time, many critics regarded the regime as an oddity in world politics and seriously doubted its longevity. Yet, the regime has defied all predictions and grown to become an important player in the region and on the international stage. What has made it so durable?

The regime has managed to weather many serious domestic and foreign policy problems, causing it periodic regional and global isolation at a high cost for Iranian society. The challenges have included internal power struggles, a devasting war with Iraq in the 1980s, continued hostility with the US and its regional allies and Israel in particular, and US-led sanctions over Irans nuclear program and alleged support for international terrorism. There was also the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq (both Irans neighbours) and the rise of the anti-Shia Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Several factors account for the regimes resilience, but three stand out. The first is the politically pluralist theocratic nature of the regime, as defined by the founder and first supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (19791989). The system of velayat-e faqhi (the guardianship of the Islamic jurist) that Khomeini established spawned an interplay primarily between two clerical factions.

One is jihadi, or conservative and hardline, denoting an adherence to a traditionalist view of Islam and advocating a combative, revolutionary and largely inward-looking approach to Islamic governance and Irans transformation. The other is ijtihadi, or reformist and internationalist, relying on a creative interpretation and application of Islam according to changing times and conditions, based on independent human reasoning.

The jihadi faction, who identify themselves as the core followers of Khomeini, dominated the levers of power from the early days of the Islamic regime. The ijtihadi faction began to take shape from 1988 in support of Khomeini but advocating a moderate, pluralistic Islamic system of governance with a humane face.

Although initially the two factions, as multi-faceted as they have been, cooperated in the conduct of Irans domestic and foreign policy, over time they differed on what constituted a good and workable Islamic system of governance. The result has been an Iranian Islamic state that has become less ideological and more pragmatic in the management of the countrys affairs. It has assumed a degree of internal elasticity and external flexibility, irrespective of which faction has been in power. Hence, for example, the anti-extremist President Hassan Rouhanis signing of the 2015 nuclear agreement (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA) with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany.

The impulsive Republican US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in May 2018 and imposed harsh sanctions to pressure Tehran for a better deal in accord with American interests and those of Irans two regional rivals, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Tehran retaliated by expanding its centrifuges and uranium enrichment to the alarm of Trumps Democratic successor, Joe Biden.

Biden has sought to revive the JCPOA, and Rouhanis successor from the hardline faction, Ebrahim Raisia close ally of the powerful supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneihas shown amiability. Raisi is keen to reach an agreement in return for the lifting of Americas crippling sanctions and a guarantee that future US administrations wont repeat Trumps actions. Biden wants to secure a deal to prevent Iran from acquiring a military nuclear capability and to enable the US to focus more on its global adversaries, Russia and China.

The second factor is that, despite all the economic and financial difficulties caused partly by US sanctions and partly by mismanagement and malpractice, the regime has managed to strengthen its hard- and soft-power capabilities. It has done so with a clear objective to make any attack on Iran very costly for its perpetrator through a strategy of asymmetrical warfare. It has concurrently taken advantage of Americas policy failures in the region to forge close organic and strategic relations with several national or subnational actors, especially in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, to build a regional security architecture and deterrence system. In the event of a war with the US or Israel or both, the regime has secured the necessary means to turn an assault on Iran into a regional infernoan issue that must make its adversaries ponder on the cost of a confrontation with Iran.

The third factor is that, while the regime has lost much of its gloss with the Iranian publicmost of whom belong to the post-197879 revolution generation and want political and social rights and freedoms and economic prosperityit still commands sufficient state instrumentalities of power to deal with any nationwide uprisings. It has forged a mixture of heavenly and earthly measures of legitimacy, based on a blend of Islam with Iranians historical sense of fierce nationalism to support an electoral polyarchy.

While Iran and, for that matter, the Middle East have often defied predictions, Irans Islamic regime is well saddled to ensure its survival against all internal and external odds. It has achieved a position of regional solidity and influence that could not have been anticipated at any time. It has rejoiced in the US defeat in Afghanistan and forged close ties with Russia and China to counter US pressure. How long will this situation last? Only time will tell.

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The Iranian regime's tumultuous journey to 43 | The Strategist - The Strategist

Germany must act immediately to prevent the hanging of a national detained in Iran who risks the death penalty on charges vehemently denied by his supporters, his family and activists said on Monday.

Anti-regime activist Jamshid Sharmahd, 66, appeared in court in Tehran earlier this month charged with "spreading corruption on earth" over accusations of involvement in a bombing at a mosque in 2008.

If convicted on this charge, which campaigners say is often used against opponents of the government, he could face execution.

"It is of the utmost importance that the German federal government act immediately to prevent the planned state assassination of Mr Sharmahd," his daughter Gazelle and more than two dozen other activists said in an open letter to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

"We urge you to take immediate, serious and sustained action to save the life of the 66-year-old German citizen and his family from this horrific act," said the signatories, who included former detainees in Iran and family members of those still held.

Sharmahd's family say that he was abducted by the Iranian security services in 2020 while in transit in Dubai and then brought under duress to Iran.

He is affiliated with an anti-regime group known as Kingdom Assembly of Iran and had been based in the United States.

The family fears he risks a similar fate to France-based Ruhollah Zam, who was executed in December 2020 after leaving Paris in October 2020 for Iraq, where supporters say he was detained by Iran.

The letter said the family was "very concerned" for the health of Sharmahd, who was now "severely emaciated".

It noted that his trial is presided over by Abolqasem Salavati, the same judge who had sentenced Zam to death.

"We urge that the matter be given top priority, that a crisis management team be set up, and that the German government exhaust all political and diplomatic avenues to put pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran," said the letter.

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"A general condemnation of the death penalty and a call to respect human rights are not enough."

Sharmahd is one of over a dozen Western nationals -- including American, Austrian, British, French and German citizens -- still held in Iran as talks to revive the 2015 deal over Tehran's nuclear drive reach an acute phase.

Iran accuses Sharmahd of being involved in the April 12, 2008, bombing of a mosque in Shiraz in southern Iran, which killed 14 people.

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Germany urged to save citizen risking execution in Iran - Yahoo News