Archive for the ‘Iran’ Category

First Iranian fuel tanker reaches Venezuelan waters without US interference – The Guardian

The first of five tankers loaded with gasoline sent from Iran has reached Venezuelan waters, expected to temporarily ease the South American nations fuel crunch while defying Trump administration sanctions targeting the two US foes.

The oil tanker Fortune encountered no signs of US interference as it eased through Caribbean waters toward the Venezuelan coast late on Saturday. Venezuelan officials celebrated the arrival.

Iran and Venezuela have always supported each other in times of difficulty, Venezuelan foreign minister Jorge Arreaza tweeted. Today, the first ship with gasoline arrives for our people.

The tanker and four behind it were finishing a high seas journey amid a burgeoning relationship between Iran and Venezuela, both of which Washington says are ruled by repressive regimes.

The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, had earlier warned of retaliatory measures against the US if Washington causes problems for tankers carrying Iranian fuel to Venezuela.

If our tankers in the Caribbean or anywhere in the world face trouble caused by the Americans, they [the US] will also be in trouble, Rouhani said in a telephone conversation with the emir of Qatar, the semi-official news agency Mehr reported.

A flotilla of five tankers carrying Iranian fuel for gasoline-starved Venezuela is approaching the Caribbean.

Iran will never initiate a conflict, Rouhani said. We have always the legitimate right to defend our sovereignty and territorial integrity and to serve our national interests, and we hope that the Americans will not commit an error.

Iran is supplying about 1.53m barrels of gasoline and alkylate to Venezuela, according to both governments, sources and calculations made by TankerTrackers.com based on the vessels draft levels.

Venezuela sits atop the worlds largest oil reserves, but it must import gasoline because production has crashed in the last two decades. Critics blame corruption and mismanagement by the socialist administration amid an economic crisis that has led to huge migration by Venezuelans seeking to escape poverty, shortages of basic goods and crime.

The Iranian tankers hold what analysts estimate to be enough gasoline to supply Venezuela for two to three weeks.

The shipments have caused a diplomatic standoff between Iran and Venezuela and the US, as both nations are under US sanctions. Washington is considering measures in response, according to a senior US official who did not elaborate on any options being weighed.

The US recently beefed up its naval presence in the Caribbean for what it said was an expanded anti-drug operation. A Pentagon spokesman, Jonathan Hoffman, said on Thursday he was not aware of any operations related to the Iranian cargoes.

Venezuelas defence minister has said its military will escort the Iranian tankers once they reach the nations exclusive economic zone.

Iran seized a British-flagged tanker in the Gulf last year after British forces detained an Iranian tanker off the territory of Gibraltar. Both vessels were released after a months-long standoff.

Venezuela recently arrested mercenaries, including US citizens, who botched an operation to kidnap the president, Nicols Maduro.

The failed raid provided a propaganda boon for Maduro, who has long claimed to be the subject of a US-sponsored assassination plot.

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First Iranian fuel tanker reaches Venezuelan waters without US interference - The Guardian

The Twilight of the Iranian Revolution – The New Yorker

One night last December, the chief resident physician at a hospital in the Iranian city of Gorgan was asked to consult on a baffling case: a patient was racked with a mysterious virus, which was advancing rapidly through his body. The doctor, who asked to be identified only as Azad, for fear of retribution by authorities, performed a CT scan and a series of chest X-rays, but the virus overwhelmed the patient before he could decide on a treatment. After reading reports from China, Azad determined that the cause of death was the coronavirus. Id never seen anything like it before, he told me.

More patients started coming in, first a few at a time, then in droves, many of them dying. When Azad and his colleagues alerted hospital officials that they were treating cases of the coronavirus, they were told to keep quiet. We were given special instructions not to release any statistics on infection and death rates, a second doctor told me. The medical staff was ordered not to wear masks or protective clothing. The aim was to prevent fear in the society, even if it meant high casualties among the medical staff, Azad said.

As the weeks went on, and the epidemic exploded in China, the Iranian media remained nearly silent. Two reporters who work at a news outlet in Tehran told me that they could see accounts of the virus on social media, but their editors made it clear they should not pursue them; nationwide parliamentary elections were scheduled for February 21st, and news about the virus could discourage voters. Everyone knows what stories can get you in trouble, one reporter told me. It was understood that anything that helped to lower turnout would be helping the counter-revolutionaries, and no one wanted to be accused of supporting foreign-based opposition groups.

Officials were also worried about relations with Chinaone of the few countries that has continued to buy Iranian oil since the imposition of American-backed sanctions. For weeks after the outbreak was reported in Wuhan, Irans Mahan Air continued direct flights there. Mahan is controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the powerful security force that increasingly acts as a shadow government in Iran.

Two days before the election, on February 19th, the Iranian government finally announced that two citizens had died of the coronavirus. In the Tehran newsroom, bitter laughter broke out. We reported deaths before we even reported any infections, the reporter told me. But thats life in the Islamic Republic. By then, hundreds of sick patients were crowding the hospital in Gorgan. So many bodies piled up that a local cemetery hired a backhoe to dig graves. It was worse than treating soldiers on a battlefield, the second doctor said.

Soon, Iran became a global center of the coronavirus, with nearly seventy thousand reported cases and four thousand deaths. But the government maintained tight control over information; according to a leaked official document, the Revolutionary Guard ordered hospitals to hand over death tallies before releasing them to the public. We were burying three to four to five times as many people as the Ministry of Health was reporting, Azad said. We could have dealt with thiswe could have quarantined earlier, we could have taken precautions like the ones the Chinese did in Wuhanif we had not been kept in the dark. On February 24th, Iraj Harirchi, the deputy health minister, appeared at a press conference and denied covering up the scale of infections. He looked pale and flustered, and he repeatedly wiped sweat from his brow. The next day, he, too, tested positive.

In mid-March, the Washington Post published satellite photos of newly dug mass graves. A few weeks later, inmates rioted at prisons across the country, terrified that they were trapped with the virus, and guards opened fire, killing at least thirty-five. As the pandemic devastated an economy already weakened by sanctions, Iran asked the International Monetary Fund for an emergency loan of five billion dollars. It was the first time in nearly sixty years that the government had appealed to the I.M.F., which it has historically described as a tool of U.S. hegemony.

With the country spasming, Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Irans theocratic system, suggested that the United States and its allies had deployed a biological weapon. Americans are being accused of creating this virus, he said, during a speech in March. There are enemies who are demons, and there are enemies who are humans, and they help one another. The intelligence services of many countries coperate with one another against us.

Even as Khamenei spoke, the virus was spreading to the highest levels of the regime, which is heavily populated by elderly men. At least fifty clerics and political figures were infected, and at least twenty died. The Supreme Leader was said to be closed off from most human contact, but his inner circle was still susceptible; two vice-presidents and three of his closest advisers fell ill. The virus, which seemed able to reach anyone, sharpened a sense of crisis among ordinary Iranians. Khamenei, who has led the country since 1989, is eighty years old and a prostate-cancer survivor, rumored to be in poor health. What will become of the country when he dies?

In February, I paid a clandestine visit to the home of a reformist leader in Tehran, who spent several years in prison but remains connected with like-minded officials in the regime. Concerned that he might be at risk by talking to me, I took a circuitous route to his apartment; midway through the trip, I got out of my taxi, walked to the next block, and hailed another.

My host told me that the country has reached a decisive phase. Public confidence in the theocratic systeminstalled after the Iranian Revolution, in 1979has collapsed. Soon after Khamenei took power, he promised Iranians that the revolution would lead the country on the path of material growth and progress. Instead, Irans ruling clerics have left the country economically hobbled and largely cut off from the rest of the world. The sanctions imposed by the United States in 2018, after President Trump abrogated the nuclear agreement between the two countries, have aggravated those failures and intensified the corruption of the governing lite. I would say eighty-five per cent of the population hates the current system, my host said. But the system is incapable of reforming itself.

Speculation about Khameneis longevity is rampant in the senior levels of government and the military. The struggle to succeed him has already begun, my host said. But Khamenei has spent decades placing loyalists throughout the countrys major institutions, building a system that serves and protects him. Khamenei is like the sun, and the solar system orbits around him, he told me. This is my worry: What happens when you take the sun out of the solar system? Chaos.

Before the revolution remade Iran, Khamenei was a young cleric in the city of Mashhad. He had grown up modestly, the son of a cleric; a slender man, he had a long, thin face adorned by large round glasses that gave him an owlish demeanor. He was a devotee of Persian poetry and literature, and also came to admire Tolstoy, Steinbeck, and especially Victor Hugo, whose Les Misrables he described as a miracle... a book of sociology, a book of history, a book of criticism, a divine book, a book of love and feeling. Khamenei was influenced by the radical Islamist thinkers of his time, particularly Sayyid Qutb, who extolled the use of violence against enemies of the religion. But, at family gatherings, he kept his harsher ideas to himself. He hugs people, he kisses the children, he talks very well with children, a relative who grew up with Khamenei told me. When he wears the political dress, thats when he becomes bad. Thats when he becomes aggressive.

As Khamenei was forming his views, the country was in tumult. In 1953, an American-backed coup had displaced Mohammad Mossadegh, the democratically elected Prime Minister. He was replaced by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, who dominated the country, with help from the U.S. and from a ruthless force of secret police. In the years that followed, an exiled ayatollah named Ruhollah Khomeini raised an increasingly fervid opposition, built around the idea that a state led by clerics, answerable only to God and set against Western notions of modernity, could lift up the country after decades of humiliation.

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The Twilight of the Iranian Revolution - The New Yorker

Poor handling of pilgrims from Iran led to Covid-19 controversy: report – DAWN.com

ISLAMABAD: While it was alleged that the coronavirus reached Pakistan through pilgrims returning from Iran, a think-tank in a report said that the governments poor handling of the pilgrims upon their return from the pandemic-stricken country intensified the controversy.

The report claimed that the pilgrims remained in quarantine for a minimum of 28 days and were allowed home only after they tested negative for Covid-19.

In some instances, the pilgrims remained on quarantine for up to 50 days. Therefore, the pilgrims cannot be responsible for local transmission, the report saod.

PML-N leader Khawaja Asif had alleged that pilgrims were allowed to enter Pakistan without tests on directions from Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Syed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari. However, Mr Bukhari denied the allegation.

Says pilgrims cannot be blamed for virus transmission as they remained in quarantine and were allowed home after testing negative

The report, Covid-19 in Pakistan: The Politics of Scapegoating Zaireen was prepared by Islamabad Policy Institute (IPI).

The report, which said that around 7,000 pilgrims returned from Iran after the coronavirus outbreak there, looks into the handling of pilgrims at the Taftan border crossing, their transfer to the provinces and the political and media narratives about their return.

IPI Executive Director Sajjad Bokhari said there were genuine fears about the new disease but the row was driven mainly by intense political polarisation, undercurrents of sectarian bias and anti-Iran sentiments.

He noted that governments communication on the pilgrim crisis was particularly irresponsible and could have consequences for a society with a delicate sectarian balance.

The report said the government had consistently tried to evade responsibility for the mishandling of pilgrims at the Taftan border by presenting it as a deserted and remote border outpost.

As a matter of fact, it is a regular border crossing on a well-frequented land route between Pakistan and Iran which ought to have been better equipped and well prepared, it said.

The report cites official figures stating that about 300,000 people use the border crossing annually. The inadequate facilities at Taftan often hit headlines at the time of peak traffic periods every year. Covid-19, however, underscored those inadequacies unlike before.

Shortcomings at Pakistans ports of entry were also pointed out in a World Health Organisation (WHO) evaluation in 2016 which showed that they were not fully prepared to prevent, detect and respond to health threats.

The IPI report said the haphazard closure of the border crossing on Feb 23 and absence of a proper explanation for shutting it down and then its subsequent reopening on Feb 28 contributed to the deluge at Taftan amidst aggressively spreading disease in Iran. This particular mistake led to allegations within Pakistan that the decision to reopen the border was politically influenced and motivated by sectarian considerations.

It said tests conducted at provincial quarantines showed that of the 6,834 pilgrims who had returned from Iran 1,331 were positive for Covid-19. This included 701 in Punjab, 280 in Sindh, 141 in Balochistan, 68 in KP, 139 in GB and two in AJK. No tests were done at Taftan.

It infers that the higher infection rate among the pilgrims was because of all of them being kept together at the Taftan quarantine and the long distances they travelled with each other without adequate protection.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2020

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Poor handling of pilgrims from Iran led to Covid-19 controversy: report - DAWN.com

North Korea to Bolster Nuclear Forces as Iran Busts Venezuela Sanctions – MSN Money

Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP In this undated photo provided on Sunday, May 24, 2020, by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during a meeting of the Seventh Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea in North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)North Korea leader Kim Jong Un ordered his military to bolster nuclear deterrence and an Iranian tanker entered Venezuela waters over U.S. objections on Saturday, setting up new tests for a Trump administration distracted by the pandemic.

In his first public appearance in three weeks, Kim set in place new policies to further ramp up the nation's nuclear war deterrence during a meeting with the ruling Workers' Party's Central Military Commission on Saturday, state news agency KCNA reported.

The hermit kingdom's move comes as Trump-led denuclearization negotiations have made little progress since late last year as the U.S. president continues to prioritize his domestic response to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

Trump's offshore worries compounded on Saturday as Iran, ignoring U.S. warnings and sanctions, sent the first of five tankers loaded with gasoline into Venezuela's exclusive economic zone. According to Refinitiv Eikon, the vessel, named Fortune, arrived at around 7:40 p.m. local time today, despite a warning from American officials that Washington would likely respond to such shipments to the fuel-starved nation.

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"The ships from the fraternal Islamic Republic of Iran are now in our exclusive economic zone," Venezuela's Economy Vice President and Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami tweeted. The country's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza also took to the social media platform to confirm that "the first ship with gasoline" had arrived.

The shipment, expected to temporarily ease the South American country's fuel shortage, defies Trump's sanctions imposed on the two U.S. foes.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani earlier on Saturday warned the U.S. against intervening with the tankers that were, at the time, headed for Venezuela. While American officials were not planning on intercepting the Iranian ships, the Trump administration has accused Iran of supporting Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro, whom the U.S. views as an illegitimate dictator.

It is currently unclear how Trump intends to respond to the two events that occurred today. A senior U.S. official told Reuters that Washington is currently weighing up measures to retaliate against Iran's breach of their Venezuela sanctions, but declined to give further information.

As for North Korea, Kim warned the U.S. last fall that it had until the end of 2019 to restart denuclearization negotiations. After the deadline passed, North Korea ramped up missile testing earlier this year. In late March, the country's regime fired an unidentified projectile into the sea near Japan's coast, marking its sixth launch in one month.

Newsweek reached out to the White House and the Department of Defense for comment. This article will be updated with any response.

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North Korea to Bolster Nuclear Forces as Iran Busts Venezuela Sanctions - MSN Money

Labor Activist In Iran Summoned To Prison Amid Coronavirus Threat – Iran News By Radio Farda

The Free Trade Union of Workers in Iran has reported that a member of its board of directors, Ms. Nahid Khodajo, was summoned to Tehran's Evin Prison, to serve her sentence amid the coronavirus crisis.

Deploring the decision, the April 16 statement says the Evin Court of Appeals has given Ms. Khodajoo five days to surrender herself to the prison and serve six years behind bars. "The judge has disregarded the fact that the deadly outbreak of the novel coronavirus has created an extremely life-threatening situation at prisons across the country", the statement noted.

A retired worker and a member of the board of directors of the Free Trade Union of Iran, Khodajoo, was arrested in front of Majlis (Iranian parliament) on International Workers' Day last year and released on bail after 33 days in detention. She was later sentenced to six years in prison, and 74 lashes by an Islamic Revolutionary Court.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said at the time, "Radio Farda reported on May 1 that the authorities had arrested more than 35 people in a demonstration in front of Irans parliament that was organized by twenty independent local labor rights organizations. While the authorities released several of those detained, including Reza Shahabi, a prominent labor activist, security forces continue to detain others in Evin prison."

Based on the Free Trade Union's Thursday statement, the appeals court held a session without Ms. Khodajoo and her lawyer's presence, and the verdict was not even sent to Ms. Khodajou.

"The court verbally informed Ms. Khodajoo's legal counsel that her primary court verdict, six-year prison sentence, and 74 lashes, had been upheld", the statement said.

In recent days, the statement has disclosed, the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence have phoned "a significant number" of members of the Free Trade Union and threatened them while demanding an explanation about their involvement in celebrating last year's International Labor Day.

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Labor Activist In Iran Summoned To Prison Amid Coronavirus Threat - Iran News By Radio Farda