Mediaboss Marketing

As President Trump wrapped up his first foreign trip on Friday, Iranian leaders made another defiant declaration in the war of words unfolding between Tehran and Washington.

According to a senior Revolutionary Guard commander who spoke to the semi-official Fars news agency, the regime has apparently built a third underground missile factory despite sanction by both the U.S. and the United Nations.

"Iran's third underground factory has been built by the Guards in recent years," Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the Guards airspace division, was quoted as saying. He added that the regime "will continue to further develop our missile capabilities forcefully."

The announcement flies in the face of a series of statements and sanctions designed to curtail this exact kind of activity. A 2015 U.N. Security Councilresolution"calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology."

IRAN ATTEMPTED MISSILE LAUNCH FROM SUBMARINE, US OFFICIALS SAY The Trump administration imposed new sanctionsin Februaryof this year in response to an Iranian missilelaunchshortly after the president's inauguration. Thesanctions came after President Trump declared on Twitter that he was formally putting Iran "on notice."

It was barely a week before Iran was conducting tests again, even launching the new missile fromthe same launch padused a week before.

Tehranwas back at it about a month later, launchinga pair of ballistic missilesin a test that unfolded around the same time as an alarming confrontation between Iranian fast-attack vessels and a group of U.S. Navy and international warships.

Just last week, the administrationannounceda new round of economic penalties over activities related to Iran's ballistic activities and programs. And President Trump has made a point to criticize Iran publicly, and repeatedly, during his ongoing trip to the Middle East and beyond.

IRAN'S ROUHANI: WE WILL NOT WAIT FOR US'S PERMISSION TO TEST BALLISTIC MISSILES

Thepresident has called out the regime by name, suggesting that combating "the threat posed by Iran" is a top priority, and blaming Tehran for the spread of "destruction and chaos" across the region.

On Saturday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he hoped Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who had just been re-elected for a four-year term, "puts an end" to the launches.

Just a few days later, on Monday of this week, Rouhanimade clearthat won't be happening anytime soon. Iran's missiles "are for peace, not for attack," he said, adding that his nation will not wait for "permission" from the U.S. and others before conducting its own controversial tests.

Follow this link:
Iran missile program growing, not slowing, according to senior commander - Fox News

Iran expects around US$50 billion worth of oil contracts to launch their operational phases next year, according to Fardad Daliri, director of investment at the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) of Iran.

The Islamic Republic is inviting local and foreign companies to take part in oilfield development projects that Iran wants to launch soon, Daliri said at an international exhibition in Tehran, as reported by Trend news agency.

We are hopeful to be able to sign huge oil deals on the development of shared oil fields both on and offshore, Trend quoted Daliri as saying.

Iran is finalizing talks and expects to soon sign deals with major international companies, including Frances Total, Denmarks Maersk, Malaysias Petronas, Indonesias Pertamina, and Russias Lukoil, the official said.

Totalthe first oil major to return to looking at investing in Iranis waiting for an extension of the waiver on U.S. sanctions against Iran before it makes the final decision on a US$2.2-billioninvestment in a gas project in the country, according to Totals chief executive Patrick Pouyanne.

OPECs no.3 producer, Iran, which is currently pumping just below 3.8 million bpd of crude oil, wants to increase its production to 5 million bpd by 2021.

In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, Irans Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said that the re-election of reformist President Hassan Rouhani last week was an important step toward signing big deals with big international companies.

Related:Europe Joins Race For Cheaper Batteries With This Gigafactory

One important step was the election, because in this election Iranian people said 'yes' to positive interaction with the world, the minister noted.

Zanganeh reiterated Irans long-term plan to lift the countrys production capacity to 5 million bpd in the next five years, thanks to new projects developed together with international companies.

Iran hopes to sign this year oil development contracts with Total, Lukoil, and Maersk, and possibly Pertamina, Zanganeh told Reuters.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

Read the rest here:
Iran Sees $50B Oil Deals Enter Operational Phases In 2018 - OilPrice.com

McClatchy Washington Bureau

Trump's move to isolate Iran could further strain Sunni-Shiite relations in Mideast McClatchy Washington Bureau While President Donald Trump's recent visit to Saudi Arabia preached partnership with Muslim leaders to end terrorism, critics say his alignment with one side of the Middle East's sectarian divide could do more harm than good. Trump's criticizing of ... and more »

Original post:
Trump's move to isolate Iran could further strain Sunni-Shiite relations in Mideast - McClatchy Washington Bureau

Irans President Hassan Rouhani won re-election by a wide margin Saturday, giving the moderate cleric a second four-year term.

The 68-year-old incumbent secured a commanding lead of 57 percent. His nearest rival in the four-man race was hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi, who secured 38 percent of the vote.

Rouhani won the presidential election back in 2013 with only 51 percent of the vote.

As Rouhani appeared close to victory, some female drivers held out the V for victory sign and flashed their car lights on highways in Tehran's affluent north.

"We made the victory again. We sent back Raisi to Mashhad," his conservative hometown in northeastern Iran, said Narges, a 43 year-old beauty salon owner, who declined to give her full name. She said she spent more than three hours outside waiting to vote, "but it was worth it."

Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli announced the vote tallies in a televised news conference, based on a count of more than 99 percent of the ballots. He said Rouhani garnered 23.5 million votes out of 41.2 million ballots cast. Iran has 56.4 million eligible voters.

Iran's president is the second-most powerful figure within Iran's political system. He is subordinate to the supreme leader, who is chosen by a clerical panel and has the ultimate say over all matters of state.

Election officials repeatedly extended voting hours until midnight to accommodate long lines of voters, some of whom said they waited hours to cast their ballots. Analysts have said a higher turnout would likely benefit Rouhani.

Friday's vote was largely a referendum on Rouhani's more moderate political policies, which paved the way for the landmark 2015 nuclear deal that won Iran relief from some sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

Rouhani has come to embody more liberal and reform-minded Iranians' hopes for greater freedoms and openness at home, and better relations with the outside world.

Raisi, his nearest challenger, is close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, who stopped short of endorsing anyone in the election. Raisi ran a populist campaign, vowing to fight corruption and fix the economy while boosting welfare payments to the poor.

The two other candidates left in the race, Mostafa Mirsalim, a former culture minister, and Mostafa Hashemitaba, a pro-reform figure who previously ran for president in 2001, respectively have 478,000 and 215,000 votes each.

Hashemitaba was among the first to predict an outright win for Rouhani as he offered his congratulations Saturday morning.

"Rouhani will apply his ever-increasing efforts for the dignity of Iran" in his next term, the reformist said.

The Tehran Stock Exchange rallied after the election results came out, extending a recent winning streak to close nearly 1 percent higher at its highest level in three months.

Although considered a moderate by Iranian standards, Rouhani was nonetheless the favorite pick for those seeking more liberal reforms in the conservative Islamic Republic.

He appeared to embrace a more reform-minded role during the campaign as he openly criticized hard-liners and Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force involved in the war in Syria and the fight against Islamic State militants in neighboring Iraq.

That gave hope to his supporters, who during recent campaign rallies called for the release of two reformist leaders of the 2009 Green Movement who remain under house arrest. The two figures, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, both endorsed Raisi, as did Mohammad Khatami, another reformist who served as Iran's president from 1997 to 2005.

Iran has no credible political polling to serve as harder metrics for the street buzz around candidates, who need more than 50 percent of the vote to seal victory and avoid a runoff. But what scant data that was available before the vote showed Rouhani in the lead.

The position of president is a powerful post. He oversees a vast state bureaucracy employing more than 2 million people, is charged with naming Cabinet members and other officials to key posts, and plays a significant role in shaping both domestic and foreign policy.

All candidates for elected office must be vetted, a process that excludes anyone calling for radical change, along with most reformists. No woman has ever been approved to run for president.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continued here:
Iran's incumbent president Rouhani wins second term | Fox News

I wanted to show different perspectives of the parade while connecting it to the beautiful history of Iran. The parade, food, and atmosphere was all...

Who would risk their own safety tending to the injured and recovering the dead in one of the most violent cities on earth? Samira Shackle...

Before we all get too excited by yet another Iranian election, it is important to remember how Irans election process works, and why it cannot...

In an article recently published by The Guardian, the late Iranian poet and filmmaker Forough Farrokhzad (1935 1967) was introduced as Irans Sylvia Plath....

Cats Eye. Salt Pit. Guantanamo Bay. Places of mystery, controversy, and torture. Places highly ridiculed by government officials and American citizens alike. But are they...

After the latest shooting on Facebook video, I realized that contrary to the claims, Facebook was not actually doing me any favors! In fact it...

Governments around the world were slow to get to grips with HIV/AIDS. But a big change came when they started understanding it not just as...

Parastou Foruhar, daughter of Dariush and Parvaneh Foruhar, cried when she found the name of Ayatollah Omid Najaf Abadi on the list of Reformists running...

For those of us who do not suffer from mental illness, its hard to imagine the sufferings of those who do. The more we go...

There remains much heated discussion with trepidation on the decline of the Zoroastrian population, which currently stands at up to 200,000 worldwide. The same topic...

Horrifying images of a three-year-old Syrian boy washed up on a beach made headlines in 2015. Alan Kurdi, a refugee, had drowned while trying to...

Willem Marius Floor was born in Utrecht, the Netherlands. After finishing highschool, he attended the University of Utrecht were he studied Arabic and eventually became...

Sacramento, once known as a staid government town, has been undergoing a gradual evolution. While retaining its historical character, a raft of regeneration measures has...

Ah, 1979: the year the Shah said adios to the land of the Lion and Sun; the year Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile in Fgghhhance...

Im terribly sorry, someone from a cultural organisation in Abu Dhabi recently told me, but you cant use that term. As part of an interview...

View original post here:
Iranian | Proud to be.