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And with Uber locked out of the Iran for the foreseeable future due to U.S. sanctions, startup Snapp is seizing its chance to become the leading local player.

"The Iranian Uber" launched in 2014. Its current CEO, Shahram Shahkar, joined early last year.

"I felt that there was this underdeveloped market that I could potentially use the skills and experience that I've gained abroad to help develop further," Shahkar, who previously studied and worked in the U.K. and Canada, told CNN.

Snapp is available on iOS and Android and also has an Apple Watch version. The app promises to find its users a ride in less than five minutes.

Related: Who stands to lose if U.S. hits Iran with sanctions again?

Shahkar said his company -- backed by South African mobile firm MTN -- has seen the number of rides grow by 70% a month on average during the past year. It has hired more than 400 people in that time and now has 120,000 active drivers.

It offers four services, including Snapp Rose, which provides female drivers for women and families.

In designing the app, Shahkar took account of other local market factors. To begin with, it bans the customary haggling that often takes place between Iranian vendors and their customers.

"From day one, we have used pre-trip pricing to show the cost of the trip to both the passenger and the driver," Shahkar said.

And he had to work around sanctions that left the country with few links to international banking and no credit card networks. People using Snapp either have to pay cash or use a debit card issued by an Iranian bank.

Some sanctions were eased at the beginning of 2016 after Iran agreed to rein in its nuclear program. That has allowed Iran to pump more oil, giving a boost to the economy. The International Monetary Fund expects it to grow 3.3% this year and 4.3% in 2018.

Companies such as France's Total (TOT) and Germany's Volkswagen (VLKAF) have moved quickly to take advantage of Iran's potential. Airbus (EADSF) and Boeing (BA) have signed deals to sell hundreds of airplanes to Iranian carriers.

Related: Iran signs $2 billion gas deal with France's Total

Most of Iran's 80 million people are under 30, and many of them, like Hossein Chardoli, are desperate for jobs. Unable to find work as a hardware engineer, he now drives for Snapp and makes about $900 a month, more than the average income in Iran.

Chardoli is hoping Snapp's rapid growth will continue so he can earn even more.

"It would mean I can go from one city to another and make more even more money," he told CNN.

He may not have long to wait. Snapp is already available in four cities and will "soon be covering all the major cities of Iran," Shakhar said.

Snapp claims to have 80% of the market but doesn't have Iran's streets entirely to itself. Other local apps such as Tap30 and Carpino are vying for a share.

But like Uber, big regional competitors are steering clear of Iran for the time being.

Careem, which is based in Dubai and operates in more than 70 cities in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, said it has no plans to enter Iran.

-- Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Shahram Shahkar as the founder of Snapp.

CNNMoney (Dubai) First published July 30, 2017: 11:31 PM ET

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Snapp: Iran's answer to Uber is growing fast - Jul. 30, 2017 - CNNMoney

Amazon.com is underfederal investigation forpossibly violating U.S. sanctions on Iran, the online giant said Friday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company says it sold and delivered about $34,000 worth of products including books, software, consumer electronics, musical instruments and jewelry to an Iranian embassy, as well as to others with links to the Iranian government, between January 2012 and June 2017. The company says it also sold about $300 worth of items to a person on the U.S. governments terrorism watch list.(Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.)

We are unable accurately to calculate the net profit attributable to these transactions, Amazon said in the filing. We do not plan to continue selling to these accounts in the future.

Amazonsaid it has voluntarily reported those transactions to the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments, which are leading the investigation, and that the review could lead to the imposition of penalties.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Obama in 2012 signed the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act as part of an effort to get Iran to give up its nuclearweapons program. As part of the act, public companies that knowingly do business with Iran are required to disclose those activities to the government.

Earlier this month, the Treasury DepartmentfinedExxon Mobil$2 million for violating U.S. sanctions on Russia. Exxon has said it will challenge the fine.

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Amazon says it is under investigation for selling goods to Iranian embassy, others - Washington Post

The newly opened Mokran Solar Power Plants Complex is the latest proof of Irans ambitions in renewable energy.

The countrys biggest solar plant was constructed in the eastern province of Kerman in six months and has a capacity of 20 megawatts.

Made up of two 10 megawatts photovoltaic units, it was financed with 27 million dollars by the Swiss company Durion AG, and supervised by a German company, Adore.

The complex has been built with a total number of 76 thousand and 912 solar panels, each producing 260 watts in an area of 44 hectares.

A number of countries including Switzerland, Germany, Spain, China and South Korea have shown interest in investing in renewable energies in Iran. The Iranian Energy minister. Hamid ChitchianI, says there have been offers of over 3.5 billion dollars in foreign investment so far and ii is the most attractive field since the nuclear deal.

President of the German Energy Watch Group, Hans Josef Fell, says now solar and wind technologies are very, very cheap. Cheaper, than energy from gas, oil, coal or nuclear so, we can replace the conventional energy systems with 100 percent renewable in the future.

Mokran Solar Energy company has also started the construction of a 100 megawatts solar power plant, which will be Middle East s largest.

With over 300 sunny days and an average of 2800 hours of sunshine, Iran is considered one of the best countries for producing and using solar energy.

This potential and the incentives offered by the government have provided worthy opportunities for investing in this field.

Iran planned to use renewable energies two decades ago, but its progress has been sluggish. Out of the 76 thousand megawatts capacity of Irans power plants, only 12 thousand megawatts come from renewable energies, with the largest share from hydroelectric energy.

However, solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and small hydro turbines have been increasing recently.

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Largest solar power plant in Iran opens - euronews

North Koreas recent test of an intercontinental ballistic missile is a game changer. Only last month, Secretary of Defense James Mattis told Congress that the despotic nation was the most urgent and dangerous threat to peace and security. Kim Jong-uns new missile launch confirms Secretary Mattiss assessment. Perhaps even more concerning is the potential for North Korea to compound the threat by transferring this dangerous technology to another rogue regime, namely its longtime ally Iran.

Tehran checks every box for being a global menace, just like its friends in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK). Both are state sponsors of terror, have clear nuclear ambitions, and directly threaten U.S. interests and those of our allies with ballistic missiles. Iran looks to North Korea to support and enable its nuclear ambitions. For years, experts have suspected North Korea as being the key supporter behind Irans missile and nuclear programs. Today, many of the missiles Iran would use to target American forces in the Middle East are copies of North Korean designs.

North Korean engineers are in Iran helping to improve its missiles to carry nuclear warheads, according to a report released last month from Irans main opposition movementthe same movement that exposed Tehrans secret nuclear facilities at Natanz and Arak in 2002. According to the National Council of Resistance of Irans new report, the Islamic Republic is using North Korean blueprints to build underground missile sites and experts are regularly traveling between the two countries to assist the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps efforts to develop nuclear warheads and guidance systems. This would enable the jihadist state to launch nuclear weapons at the large U.S. bases in the Middle East that restrain Irans expansionist ambitions.

Fortunately, Iran is still behind the DPRK in acquiring a nuclear device. But like the ill-fated 1994 agreement with North Korea to halt its nuclear program, the nuclear deal President Barack Obama signed with Iran in 2015 is destined to fail. Once it does, Iran will be able to quickly mount nukes on its massive arsenal of ballistic missiles thanks to North Korean assistance that has occurred since the deal was signed. This time, Irans missiles will be better protected because North Korea has helped it build as many as thirteen secret underground launch facilities modeled after their own.

Pyongyangs ICBM tests in July make these revelations far more worrying. The missile tested last week exceeded most analysts expectations, demonstrating an ability that could put American cities as far as Chicago within Kims nuclear crosshairs. This is astonishing given many experts said as recently as May that North Korea would not have a working ICBM until 2020. Unfortunately for the world, they were wrong. With North Korea outpacing our own expert expectations, Iran will likely not be far behind.

According to the Pentagon, North Korea already gave Iran an intermediate-range missile known as the Musudan in 2005, which Iran tested earlier this year. The DPRK used the same missile to develop their new ICBM. Tehran will likely follow the same path to an ICBMexcept with their North Korean friends providing tips to accelerate their program. When Iran reaches this threshold, the IRGC will be able to extend its threats beyond the Middle East and deep into Western Europe to endanger our NATO allies. At that point we will have evil regimes pointing nuclear capable missiles at us from both the east and west. The prospects look dire, but we can still prevent this.

During the Cold War, the world came to the brink of nuclear war when the Soviets placed nuclear missiles on our doorstep in Cuba. The United States stood up to Moscows challenge, and the Soviets backed down. Now with Little Kim building missiles that can target American cities and with Iran following his footsteps, we must again find our courage and stare down these thugs. How do we do that?

We can start by re-designating North Korea as a State Sponsor of Terror. I introduced H.R. 479 earlier this year to require the State Department to review and report to Congress whether Pyongyang should be put back on the list. The bill passed the House 394 to 1 in April. I urge my colleagues in the Senate to move this bill to the presidents desk quickly in light of recent events. Pyongyang shows no sign of slowing its missile program, and with their known assistance to the terrorist sponsors in Iran, the ICBM threat to America may soon grow another head.

Next, we must demonstrate to Iran that acquiring ICBMs is a costly and foolish endeavor by imposing even tougher sanctions on North Korea in response to their ICBM test. This should include sanctions targeting the myriad Chinese, Iranian, and other banks and companies that act as a lifeline for the Kim regime. If these entities stopped funneling money to North Korea, up to 40 percent of the regimes revenues would be eliminated. The world must decide: either choose the American financial system or North Korea. There is simply no middle ground.

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North Korea's ICBM Test is a Win for Iran - The National Interest Online

Smoke rises from the Saudi Arabian Embassy during a demonstration in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 2, 2016.(photo byREUTERS/TIMA/Mehdi Ghasemi/ISNA)

Author:Al-Monitor Staff Posted July 31, 2017

Ten individuals involved in the attack on the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Tehran in January 2016 had their prison sentences upheld by an appeals court, according to the lawyer of one of the defendants. Mohammad Narimani said that five individuals were sentenced to six months in prison and five other individuals were sentenced to three months in prison. In the original sentencing, 13 individuals received a suspended sentence; a number of others were acquitted.

In response to the execution of Saudi Shiite clericSheikh Nimr al-Nimr, protesters who had gathered at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Tehran and at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Mashhad eventually stormed the buildings and destroyed property. Iran arrested approximately a hundred individuals after the attack. One of the main organizers of the attack is believed to be a cleric who was linked to conservative Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

Saudi Arabia cut all diplomatic relations with Iran after the attacks on the embassy. This crisis, however, was preceded by another crisis between the two countries in September 2015 when 474 Iranians were killed in a stampede in Mina while on hajj.Iran accused Saudi Arabia of incompetence and called for Mecca to be under international supervision. Saudi Arabia accused Iran of politicizing the event. Iran skipped the 2016 pilgrimage after the two countries were unable to agree on provisions to guarantee safety for Iranians.

But this year, after intense negotiations, Iranian pilgrims were sent to hajj. According to Iranian media, the first group of Iranian pilgrims in Medina for this years hajj were greeted by Saudi Arabias deputy minister for hajj.

During a speech to hajj officials July 30, Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei discussed Saudi-Iran tensions related to hajj. We will never forget the tragedy of 2015 hajj, Khamenei said. He added that the safety and honor of all pilgrims is one of the demands of the Islamic Republic. Khamenei also addressed current political events and urged Muslims on hajj to take a united stand against Israel, in light of the Al-Aqsa protests, and the United States. Saudi Arabia has objected to any politicization of hajj.

At the event for Khameneis speech, Ghazi Askar, Khameneis representative ofhajj affairs, said that Iran sentpilgrims this year because Saudi Arabia accepted Irans conditions, especially with respect to the safety of Iranian pilgrims. Iran had previously accused Saudi Arabia of banning Iranian planes from landing in their country and also requiring Iranians to travel to a third country to obtain an entry visa. Other media have reported that Iran objected to bracelets for tracking. The decision to send pilgrims this year was reportedly made by the Supreme National Security Council, which is headed by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

While the attendance of Iranian pilgrims is a positive sign, there are still many differences between the two countries. Iran claims that Saudi Arabia has still not apologized for the Mina stampede. The two countries are still vying for regional dominance, and there continues to be a number of tension points in the region.

Read More: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/iran-hajj-pilgrimage-saudi-embassy-attackers-sentenced.html

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Iran upholds sentences for Saudi Embassy attackers - Al-Monitor