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MUMBAI :Amid mounting tensions between the US and Iran,Iranian foreign affairs minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday said India will not find a stable and reliable energy partner other than Iran.

He said losing Iran as a reliable source of energy will not make Indian economy more reliable.

"For India's economic growth you need more and more energy and energy security, which has been an area of concern. I can assure you that youcan'tfind an energy partner which is more stable more reliable than Iran.

"We never involved politics in our energy relations. And if we did, we don't have political problem with India. We are the secured source of energy for India," he said at the FIEO meeting here.

India had stopped importing oil from Iranafter the US refused to extend exemption from sanctions since last year.

The minister, who is on a four-day visit to India, further said that India also needs diversification of the sources of the energy.

"Losing Iran as the reliable provider of indian energy needs, certainly does not make India more secured, does not make Indian economy more reliable," he said.

Condemning the Donald Trump government for the recent "terrorist attack" on Iran which killed its top commander Qassem Soleimani,and imposition of the sanctions, the minister said these actions by the US are regrettable.

"These attempts are to ensure that the people of Iran starve. It is regrettable that he (Trump) said if Iranians want to eat they should listen to him. Butwe won't beg to the US to eat.Starvation is crime against humanity and punishable."

"These are also attempts made so that they (the US) can increase the prices of oil and energy. Now the US is the biggest exporter of oil and they want to take Iranian share in Asia through the sale of their shale gas, which is much more expensive and much less reliant energy. We need to find a response to this. But I want to tell you that Iran can continue to provide economical and reliable oil to India," Zarif said.

He further said Iran can also supply gas through land pipeline or sea pipeline as also LNG.

"We just adopted a legislation expanding Chabahar port as a free trade zone that is a new possibility for India to use the port as a source for production of and export of LNG," he said.

The minister also said that the two countries can collaborate and complement each other in various other areas as well.

"We have, like India, young and talented human resource and there are more Iranian graduate engineers here in Iran. If we bring our resources together we can ensure we can have the cutting edge technology," the minister said.

He said both the countries have complementary economies. "Iran and India have possibilities for cooperation in various fields. There are almost no areas of economy where we compete. We can complement each other with India's great advances in many ways," Zarif said.

He added that for the bilateral trade to continue to be viable, Iran needs money coming in so that it can buy Indian rice, technology and other products and the main source of that money is oil.

"I have, at various meetings with the Prime minister Narendra Modi, security adviser and the Indian foreign minister, said and discussed possibilities of trade. We don't want to put our friends in difficult situation. But we need to find mechanism for improving the trade," he added.

He said the bilateral trade between the two countries has seen a sharp decline in 2019 mainly impacted by oil exports.

While it stood at $17 billion in 2018, it fell to $7 billion in 2019 and will go further low if money dries up, Zarif said.

"There is an interest in long and short term perspective. We are not being able to buy commodities from India. Therefore it is in our interest to find mechanism for trade. We hope India will pick up our oil and gas. This will give India a much bigger bargaining power. We can also start a more developed system of barter. We need to innovate to think about barter where we can provide anything for anything. We need to start working in the right direction," he added. PTI PSK MR MR

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Iran expects India to source its oil, devise new barter trade: Iranian minister - Livemint

The exchanges were all the more notable because until Tuesday night, foreign policy had been a side show in the 2020 campaign. But the targeted killing of the Iranian commander Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani this month ended the moment when the six Democratic candidates could avoid addressing some of the most complex and intractable conflicts that they would inherit if elected. Most seemed to be hoping the subject would soon return to more familiar ground, like universal health insurance or universal background checks for gun sales.

It should have been the moment for Mr. Biden to shine: A former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he was among the most experienced in the Obama Situation Room during debates over increasing troop levels in Afghanistan and secretly carrying out cyberattacks on Irans nuclear facilities.

He had a moment to look decisive, especially in contrast to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who was the most vociferous about extracting the United States from what he called endless wars. Again, it echoed a phrase that Mr. Trump has often used or at least did until his decision to kill General Suleimani all but assured a greater American troop presence in the Middle East for years to come.

Mr. Biden was clearly the one with the best grasp of the global situation, but he seemed unsteady at moments, even when describing events in which he was deeply involved. He argued that he was the one who led the effort against surging tens of thousands of troops into Afghanistan, without noting that Mr. Obama ignored his advice and ordered a surge anyway. On Iraq, he claimed he was the one who engineered the withdrawal of 156,000 troops from Iraq without noting that it was Mr. Bush, just before leaving office, who ordered a troop withdrawal.

But it was on North Korea a nation that, unlike Iran, is already believed to have nuclear weapons, with American intelligence agencies putting the number at 30 to 60 that the candidates seemed softer. Curiously, none vowed that the North would have to give up its weapons, a statement that just a decade ago was a staple of any foreign policy discussion by leading presidential candidates, even if it seemed like a pipe dream.

Instead, the candidates seemed to silently acknowledge that disarming the North was all but a lost cause. Instead, they focused on negotiating tactics, without ever quite saying what the goal would be. Mr. Biden vowed he wouldnt meet Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, without any preconditions, but never described what those might be.

What was most striking about the discussion was that the candidates talked about the use of diplomacy and military coercion as if they were alternatives, rather than mutually reinforcing tactics to accomplish a strategic end.

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The Democrats All Disagree With Trump on Iran. Then It Gets Mushy. - The New York Times

The Islamic Republic is nervous and men with guns are back on motorcycles.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has announced he will lead Friday prayers in Tehran something he does only in times of crisis. Irans political elites, meanwhile, are bracing for a new round of United Nations sanctions over the unraveling 2015 nuclear deal. And the feared plainclothes Basij paramilitary soldiers on motorcycles are roaring through crowds at university protests as the nation braces for fresh upheaval.

The Islamic Republic has for decades weathered threats from within and without. It is no stranger to protests. Ever since the disputed 2009 presidential election that sparked months-long political demonstrations, known as the Green Movement, Khamenei has dispatched the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and paramilitaries to crush defiance with tear gas and bullets.

The latest round of unrest was triggered last week after Iranian officials admitted that the Revolutionary Guard had mistakenly fired missiles that downed a Ukraine International Airlines jet, killing all 176 people aboard. The protests follow a massive revolt in November that left hundreds of people dead. The question now is whether a reignited fervor for the theocracy to be overthrown marks a danger zone for Khamenei or becomes the latest frustration by protesters seeking to upend a government run by ayatollahs since the 1979 revolution.

It is uncertain whether the protests will grow big enough and include all layers of society. During the Arab Spring, which began in 2011, Egyptian protesters, backed by the military, overthrew autocrat Hosni Mubarak. But in Syria, President Bashar Assad, supported by Iran and its proxy, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, beat back protesters and plunged the country into civil war.

The Jan. 8 downing of the jetliner came as Iranian officials fired ballistic missiles at two military bases used by U.S. forces in Iraq in retaliation for the drone strike ordered by President Trump that killed Iranian military strategist Gen. Qassem Suleimani. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets of Tehran to mourn Suleimani, commander of the elite Quds Force.

An Iranian opposition supporter gestures as she takes part in an anti-government demonstration at Tehran University in the Iranian capital on Jan. 13, 2020.

(AFP/Getty Images)

But any suggestion that the government could exploit a brief show of unity and play on anger against Trump for imposing harsher sanctions in 2018 to ease deepening resentment was short-lived. Iranians are now channeling their frustrations at their leaders. The test, as its been over the last decade, is how fiercely the government will respond to silence dissent even as chants of Death to the dictator! echo down boulevards and European nations threaten new sanctions over charges Iran has violated the nuclear accord by enriching uranium above its limits.

These are serious protests, said Majid Tavakoli, 34, a human rights activist and former political prisoner from the Green Movement. The firing of the rocket at the plane changed the atmosphere [in Iran]. Despite the November crackdown and Suleimanis funeral, the streets have been revived and nationwide protests have taken place.

Tavakoli is a former student at Tehrans Amirkabir University of Technology. He was arrested in 2009 and spent four years in jail on charges including insulting the supreme leader and spreading propaganda against the regime. He said of the current protests: The language of the slogans [now] is to reject the political system and [demand] structural change.

Whats at stake is the future of a government born of revolution.

The reality of these protests is that there is no political opposition, said Vali Nasr, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. There is no leadership. They [protesters] are not fighting for something, they are fighting against something.

However, Nasr added that the protests reveal that Khamenei no longer has an ideological hold over his population. We are at a place, said Nasr, where [a] majority of Iranians are not supportive of the Islamic Republic, but it doesnt mean they want to overthrow that government.

Hard-liners, for example, are expected to win big in the parliamentary elections slated for February, analysts said. Already, 90 members of Irans parliament, many of whom are reformist-leaning, have been barred from seeking reelection after the Guardian Council rejected them.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has announced he will lead Friday prayers in Tehran something he does only in times of crisis. Above, he leads the Eid al-Fitr prayer in Tehran in July 2018.

(Handout / Associated Press)

Students, teachers, actors and engineers have taken to the streets, standing side by side, shouting slogans in unison. On Sunday, riot police in black uniforms and helmets lined Azadi street in Tehran. Despite the massive police presence, hundreds of protesters gathered nearby in downtown Tehran.

Fear, fear, we are all together! people chanted as security forces fired tear gas at crowds. Many of the protests have erupted outside prestigious institutions including Amirkabir University and Sharif University of Technology, where demonstrators have yelled: The Islamic Republic must be destroyed, and Supreme Leader, resign, resign!

Such outbursts illustrate an uptick in intensity compared with the 2009 unrest, said a former leader of the Green Movement who served 10 years in prison on charges of creating unease in the public mind. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns.

Supporters of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi set fire to a barricade as they protest in Tehran. Police beat protesters and fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands who rallied in defiance of Irans clerical government.

(Associated Press)

The same slogans have become more severe, he said. We hear Death to the dictator! The center of power is targeted, unlike November, when the economy and the livelihood of Iranians was under question. This time, the issue is politics.

Since the early 2000s, beginning with the administration of then-President Mohammad Khatami, hard-liners in the Islamic Republic have repressed calls of reform and stoked anti-American sentiment. Western nations have a long history of interfering in Irans affairs, including a 1953 CIA-backed coup to overthrow the prime minister. From the student protests in 1999 to the ones that erupted in 2003, authorities in Iran have become adept at clamping down on dissent and rejecting any calls for internal reform.

It wasnt until 2009, during the Green Movement, that Iranians upended the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic, said Pouya Alimagham, a historian of the Middle East and professor at MIT. What started off as anger directed toward what many considered a rigged election and the defeat of Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi soon galvanized protesters into usurping whatever religious symbolism the Islamic Republic had co-opted.

The potency of the Islamic Republics ideology has been robbed by activists, said Alimagham.

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'Death to the dictator': What is Iran's future? - Los Angeles Times

FILE PHOTO: Attendees hold flags from Iran and the United States as Iranian Americans from across California converge in Los Angeles to participate in the California Convention for a Free Iran and to express support for nationwide protests in Iran from Los Angeles, California, U.S., January 11, 2020. REUTERS/ Patrick T. Fallon/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday it will allow for a 90-day period to wind down transactions in certain sectors of Irans economy hit with fresh U.S. sanctions last week.

The period, good through April 9, allows transactions in the construction, mining, manufacturing or textiles sectors of Irans economy that could be targeted under last weeks action to be wound down without exposure to sanctions, the Treasury Department said in an update to its frequently asked questions, or FAQs, on Iran sanctions on its website.

Entering into new business that falls under the sanctions imposed on Friday, however, would not be considered winding down and could still be sanctionable, the FAQ said.

The United States imposed more sanctions on Iran on Friday in retaliation for its missile attack on U.S. forces in Iraq last week and vowed to tighten the economic screws if Tehran continued terrorist acts or pursued a nuclear bomb.

The targets of the sanctions included Irans manufacturing, mining and textile sectors as well as senior Iranian officials who Washington said were involved in the Jan. 8 attack on military bases housing U.S. troops.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have spiked since Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal struck by his predecessor, Barack Obama, and began reimposing sanctions that had been eased under the accord.

Those U.S. sanctions have driven down Iranian crude sales, the Islamic Republics main source of revenues, but so far have not brought Iran back to the negotiating table to discuss a new nuclear pact as sought by Trump.

Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis

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U.S. allows time to wind down deals hit by fresh Iran sanctions - Reuters

Just over a week ago, 13-year-old Ryan Pourjam's father, Mansour Pourjam, died in a plane crash after Iran's government shot down the jet just outside Tehran. All 176 passengers were killed.

Iran initially blamed the Jan. 8 crash on engine failure but later admitted it was shot down in a "human error" amid heightened tensions with the US military.

On Wednesday, Ryan gave an emotional speech at a memorial service at Carleton University. His father earned his degree in biology there in 2001 and went on to become a dental technician in Ottawa, according to the Ottawa Citizen.

Ryan said his dad was an incredibly positive person who would have wanted his loved ones to remain optimistic through such a painful time.

"Hed always tell me to stay positive through the dark times and through the good, when we'd get stuck in traffic or when I couldn't get the coffee that I wanted," he said.

"I dont want to talk about the bad things," he continued. "Because I know that if my dad was alive and if someone else died in the crash and that he was right here giving a speech, he wouldn't talk about the bad stuff. I wont."

Ryan said he would describe his dad in one word as "strong."

"Hes been through tragedy after tragedy, wall after wall, wrong turn after wrong turn, and he stood strong," he said. "He was amazing, and we loved each other."

More than 200 people came to the Wednesday vigil, which was held jointly for Mansour Pourjam and another victim, Fareed Arasteh. Arasteh was a PhD student studying molecular genetics at the university, according to CBC.

Ryan said he was comforted by how many people came together to "celebrate Mansour and Fareeds amazing lives."

"I stand up here a week after this horrible tragedy, and I still cant believe it," Ryan said. "I feel like Im dreaming."

"But I know that if I was dreaming, and that if he woke me up, he'd tell me that it's going to be OK," he said. "And it will be."

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A 13-Year-Old Gave An Emotional Speech About His Dad Who Died In The Iran Plane Crash - BuzzFeed News