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Since its inception in 2009, Bitcoin, as well as the succeeding cryptocurrencies, have generated controversy.

Throughout the world, the majority of nations are attempting to establish rules and regulations governing cryptocurrencies.

In Iran, while the governmentpermits regulated cryptocurrency mining, authoritiescracked down on unauthorized mining last year in order to alleviate strain on the countrys energy supply.

The Iranian government intends to implement a new set of legislation that will enhance the penalty for illegal bitcoin mining.

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The Islamic republicsnew legislation, according to a senior official with the countrys Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company (Tavanir), will involve jailing violators and revoking business licenses.

According to the Tehran Times, citing the state-run news agency IRNA, Mohammad Khodadadi Bohlouli said the increased penalties include increasing fines by a minimum of three and a maximum of five times, imprisoning the offender, and revoking their business license in the case of repeated violations.

The official said that abusing subsidized electricity to mine cryptocurrencies degrades the quality of the national grids electricity supply and destroys peoples electrical appliances such as televisions, refrigerators, and air conditioners.

It is unlawful to mine cryptocurrency using subsidized electricity intended for homes, industrial, agricultural, and commercial subscribers, Khodadadi stated.

Iran outlawed cryptocurrency mining in late May last year for nearly four months as part of measures to reduce the frequency of power shortages, which officials blame on soaring electrical demand during the hot and dry summer.

TheIRNA disclosed that Tehran police commander Gen.Hossein Rahimi stated the 7,000 computer miners were apprehended in an abandoned facility west of the capital.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are generated by a process called mining, in which powerful arrays ofcomputers compete to solve complicated mathematical puzzles.

The process is extremely energy intensive, frequently requiring electricity generated from fossil fuels, which are plentiful in Iran.

Irans government approved bitcoin mining in 2019, but only for industrial purposes.

This ruling sparked a mining boom across the country. Later in 2020, the authorities issuedmore than1,000 cryptocurrency mining equipment.

In its study, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic saidIran accounts for approximately 4.5 percent of all bitcoin mining, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency revenue that can be utilized to mitigate the impact of US sanctions.

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Iran's Illegal Crypto Miners To Be Slapped With Bigger Fines And Imprisonment | Bitcoinist.com - Bitcoinist

TEHRAN President of Senegalese football federation Augustin Senghor has revealed that the Iranian team have shown interest in playing a friendly match with the Lions of Teranga.

Iran technical director Hamid Estili has previously said Iran will play four friendly matches in their training camp in Doha, Qatar in June.

Iran have been drawn in Group B along with England, the U.S. and the winners of the European play-offs between Scotland, Ukraine and Wales in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The football federation secretary general Hassan Kamranifar has said that Iran will play New Zealand behind closed doors.

Argentina and Brazil will play a friendly in Doha and they will most likely play Iran. We are also going to arrange a friendly match with Canada, he said.

Now, a Senegalese site has reported that Iran has shown interest in playing a friendly match with the African powerhouse.

At least 10 teams have approached Senegalese football federation so far and have expressed their desire to play friendly matches with the Lions, Senghor told wiwsport.com.

According to him, Iran and Uruguay are among the teams who are interested in playing friendlies with Senegal.

Senegal, headed by Aliou Ciss, are pitted against Qatar, Ecuador, and the Netherlands in Group A of the 2022 World Cup.

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Iran interested in playing friendly with Senegal - Tehran Times

ANKARA: An article by Turkeys Ambassador to Washington for Tel Aviv Universitys Dayan Center for Strategic Studies journal Turkeyscope, has raised questions about the state of Turkeys relations with Iran.

Apart from seeking cooperation between Turkey and Israel in fields of security and energy, Hasan Murat Mercan noted that the two states are under threat from similar regional malign actors, without mentioning Iran.

The article didnt go unnoticed by the Iranian media. The London-based TV station Iran International commenting on the article: Ankaras envoy to Washington has called for Israeli-Turkish cooperation in countering regional threats, in a possible hint at Iran, amid improving bilateral ties.

The ambassador also underlined the need for cooperation against terrorism.

Turkish-Israeli interaction offers more than a conventional regional partnership in the face of malign actors and trends. Conventional partnerships are for a particular issue, be it against a threat or for an objective. Conventional partnerships have expiration dates. Turkey and Israel, on the other hand, share a common neighborhood, heritage, and not least, a common future, he said in his article, which was entitled Turkey and Israel: Optimism must prevail.

The ambassador continued: Dealing with malign actors and their activities throughout our region is a particular area for enhanced coordination. The Turkish-Israeli partnership would be effective to further curb destabilizing moves in the broader Middle East and North Africa.

Israel and Turkey have always shared concerns over Iranian influence in Syria, with Irans proxies, including Hezbollah and Shiite militias, threatening Turkish interests.

Ambassador Mercan, a figure close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a founding member of the ruling Justice and Development Party, called for re-designing Turkish-Israeli relations toward mutual trust.

Turkish and Israeli geostrategic interests dictate a close and multi-layered partnership. There is no room for complacency for both countries when it comes to: (i) managing regional dynamics that contain, inter alia, (a)symmetrical security threats and challenges, (ii) the need to further secure and diversify energy supply routes, and (iii) promoting inter-cultural synergy as a bulwark against Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism and all sorts of hate crimes.

It is not the first time that Mercan has underlined Turkeys concerns about the Iranian threat to the regions security.

In a speech to Haaretz in 2008 as president of the Turkish parliaments Foreign Affairs Committee, Mercan said a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a threat to Turkey.

As part of bilateral moves to mend ties, Israeli President Isaac Herzog met Erdogan last month in Ankara. Erdogan recently said that Turkey and Israel can cooperate to carry Israeli natural gas to Europe.

While there are fluctuations in Turkey-Iran relations, these countries know how to keep the relationship in certain contours, Gallia Lindenstrauss, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, told Arab News.

There is, however, Turkish frustration from the growing competition between the two in northern Iraq, as well as the continuing competition in Syria, she added.

Several acts of espionage by Iranian agents against Israelis and Iranian dissidents on Turkish soil were recently revealed and thwarted by Turkish intelligence agencies.

Since last year, Turkish security forces increased their operations against the Iranian espionage network in the country.

After detaining Iranian spies over a plot to kidnap a former Iranian soldier last October, other spies were also arrested in February before they carried out a plan to kill Turkish-Israeli businessman Yair Galler.

On the energy front, Iran also halted gas flow to Turkey for 10 days in January.

Lindenstrauss said that cases such as the revelation of Iranian spies and the temporary halt of gas supply in the winter also increase tensions.

Also, one cannot overlook the fact that Turkey is getting closer to the Arab Gulf states mostly out of economic necessity which also makes it less tolerant of Iranian attempts to increase its regional influence, she said.

Despite being part of the Syria-focused Astana peace talks with Iran and Russia, Ankara mostly shares a common perception with Gulf countries of Iran as a threat.

However, Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish program at the Washington Institute, said that Turkey has always separated its relations with Iran from its rapprochement process with Israel.

Turkey has had competitive relations with Iran in the region. They see each other as two large former imperial but currently hegemonic powers that have the right to shape regional developments, he told Arab News.

Throughout history, both countries avoided direct clashes despite coming very close to conflict in Syria with Turkish troops on one hand and Hezbollah and Iranian proxies on the other coming at close fire range.

According to Cagaptay, the normalization of ties between Turkey and Israel will first include energy cooperation.

The US government has repeatedly suggested the establishment of alternative pipelines from Israel to Greece passing through Turkey amid sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine that threaten severe shortages across Europe.

At this stage, Turkey and Israel have similar objectives in Syria. They both have right of passage agreements, which allow Israel to strike Hezbollah and Turkey to strike the Kurdistan Workers Party, he said.

In the meantime, Turkish state-run media channel TRT World recently published an article about whether the Ukraine fallout may lead to Iran gaining the upper hand over Russia in Syria.

Tehran is trying to take advantage of the Ukraine crisis and strengthen its own position in the Syrian arena. Soon after Russia attacked Ukraine in late February, Iran and the Syrian regime increased their strategic engagement by increasing military diplomacy, the article said. At the same time, pro-Iranian fighters are working on relocating to different parts of Syria.

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Turkish envoy attracts attention with veiled criticism of Iran in article for Israeli think tank - Arab News

TEHRAN The 2021 Global Health Security Index, which measures the capacities of 195 countries to prepare for epidemics and pandemics, has ranked Iran 90th in the world.

The GHS Index is the first comprehensive assessment and benchmarking of health security and related capabilities across the 195 countries across six categories and 37 indicators.

The Index is a project of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and was developed with Economist Impact, which aims to spur measurable changes in national health security and improve the international capability to address one of the worlds most omnipresent risks: infectious disease outbreaks that can lead to international epidemics and pandemic

Although many countries were able to quickly develop capacities to address COVID-19, all countries remain dangerously unprepared for meeting future epidemic and pandemic threats, potentially more devastating than COVID-19.

The results of the 2021 Index show that even as many countries proved they could ramp up new capacities during the emergencyincluding setting up labs and creating cohorts of contact tracers to follow the spread of COVID-19some responses were crippled by long-unaddressed weaknesses, such as lack of healthcare surge capacity and critical medical supplies.

Iran ranks 90th out of 195 countries with a score of 36.5 out of 100.

In this report, there are data and research-based on 6 categories of prevention, diagnosis, and reporting rapid response, health systems, commitments to improve financial capacity and global norms, and high-risk and risky environment.

In the Prevention index, Iran ranks 46th with a score of 28.4 out of 100 on the global average.

In the Health Systems index, the country gained a score of 39.4 and is ranked 70th among countries in the world with a score of 31.5.

In the Commitments to Improve Financial Capacity and Global Norms index, Iran is ranked 185 with a global average score of 47.8 and an overall score of 27.1.

In general, the first country in this index is the United States and the last is Somalia.

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GHS Index: Iran ranks 90th in dealing with pandemics - Tehran Times

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FIRSTON FOX: In an open letter to President Biden Wednesday, 46 retired U.S. generals and admirals voiced their opposition to the ongoing negotiations with Iran on striking a nuclear deal.

"In Ukraine, we are bearing witness to the horrors of a country ruthlessly attacking its neighbor and, by brandishing its nuclear weapons, forcing the rest of the world largely to stand on the sidelines," the letter, penned in coordination with the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), said. "The new Iran deal currently being negotiated, which Russia has played a central role in crafting, will enable the worlds leading state sponsor of terrorism to cast its own nuclear shadow over the Middle East."

Top military officials expressed concern that the Biden administrations determination to re-enter a nuclear deal with Tehran could weaken the U.S.s position to hold Iran accountable.

A demonstrator carries a banner with a caricature of the President Joe Biden in Tehran, Iran, on Thursday. (AP/Vahid Salemi)

BIDEN WARNED BY IRANIAN AMERICAN SCIENTISTS, SCHOLARS OVER PERILS OF REMOVING TERROR STATUS

Despite warnings from member nations like the U.K., France and Germany, the U.S. abandoned the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018 under the Trump administration over what it regarded as weak points in the deal.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), did not report that Tehran had violated the JCPOA, but Irans continued deployment of ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead prompted the U.S. to withdraw from the agreement.

Retired Air Force Gen. Charles Wald, who also formerly served as deputy commander of U.S, European Command, said he supports finding a solution to the nuclear issue in the Middle East through diplomacy, but argued no deal is better than a bad deal.

"The idea of an agreement is a good idea. We agree with diplomacy," Wald told Fox News. "But we agreed with a fair agreement that would not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon breakout and then have weapons delivery systems that would then change the dynamic in the Middle East particularly for Israel but all other countries too."

Wald said one of his chief concerns with the latest deal is that the Biden administration is not considering Irans role in fueling terrorism and backing rebel groups in the war in Yemen a war that has prompted one of the greatest humanitarian crises.

A huge mural of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, includes an inset of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, on March 8, 2020, in Tehran, Iran. (Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)

DEMOCRATS BAND TOGETHER TO RAISE CONCERNS WITH IRAN NUKE DEAL REVIVAL: 'WE CAN'T STAY QUIET'

President Biden made re-entering a nuclear agreement with Iran a chief priority of his administration and indirect talks through European allies have been on and off for roughly a year.

But reports surfaced late last month suggesting the administration was considering a request from Iran to remove its top military branch, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations.

In exchange, the U.S. has called on Iran to end its support for terrorist organizations fueling unrest in the region but several groups from Iranian American scientists to retired military commanders have little faith Iran will live up to this commitment.

"Thats a red flag," Wald said in reference to removing the IRGC as a designated terrorist group. "That just doesn't sit well with us because the IRGC is the most malicious group in the region."

The retired general said the death of 600 U.S. military members could be attributed "directly" to IRGC, and noted they continue to attack U.S. and allied forces in the region.

Talks between western nations and Iran appeared to be stalled and officials involved in the negotiations remain tight-lipped on deal specifics.

President Hassan Rouhani visits the Bushehr nuclear power plant just outside of Bushehr, Iran, on Jan. 13, 2015. (AP Photo/Iranian Presidency Office, Mohammad Berno, File)

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Wald said he would need to see "unfettered access by the IAEA" and assurances that Iran will not continue with its ballistic missile system even if a nuclear agreement is reached, in order for him to support a deal with Iran.

"The Iranians will push up to the point where they know something bad is going happen to them," Wald continued. "So the more difficult we make for them to operate with impunity, the more they're going to take advantage of it."

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46 retired generals, admirals urge White House against Iran nuclear ...