The US navy said Sunday it had stopped a ship carrying 40 tons of a fertiliser that can be used to make explosives as it travelled from Iran along a route previously used to smuggle weapons to Yemen’s Huthi rebels. The navy said it boarded and searched the ship, which last year was caught carrying thousands of weapons and handed to Yemen’s coast guard, after intercepting it in international waters in the Gulf of […]
Tag: Iran
Eight killed in southern Iran floods: state media
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — At least eight people have been killed in flash flooding in Iran’s south due to heavy rains expected to last until later this week, state media reported on Tuesday. “Following the floods and rains of the past few days in the southern regions of the country, we have seen an increase in casualties and deaths,” spokesman for the national rescue service Mojtaba Khaledi said, quoted by state news agency IRNA. “So […]
At least one dead as twin quakes hit Iran
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Two strong earthquakes struck southern Iran within 90 seconds Sunday, killing at least one person and sparking scenes of panic, official sources said. The 6.4 and 6.3 magnitude earthquakes hit at a depth of 15 kilometres (9.3 miles)in Hormozgan province, the Iranian seismological centre said. A 22-year-old man was killed by a falling electricity pole, Iranian Red Crescent chief Mehdi Valipour told state television. He said several teams have been deployed […]
Iran Guards say released seized Vietnamese tanker
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday they had released a Vietnamese-flagged oil tanker they seized last month in the Sea of Oman in a tense incident also involving the US Navy. While Iran’s Guards claimed they thwarted an attempt by the US ship to seize the MV Sothys carrying Iranian oil, US defence officials rejected that account and said that Iran seized the tanker and took it into its territorial waters. “The […]
Tehran suffering worst drought in 50 years: water official
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) – Iran’s capital is suffering its worst drought in half a century, a water resources official said Tuesday, citing a 97 percent drop in monthly rainfall compared with last year. Tehran has had 0.4 millimetres of rain since September 23, compared with 14.3 mm over the same period in 2020, said Mohammad Shahriari, deputy director of the company that supplies the region. “Groundwater and surface water are at a critical state and […]
Climate change a double blow for oil-rich Mideast: experts
by Frank ZELLER Agence France-Presse PAPHOS, Cyprus (AFP) – The climate crisis threatens a double blow for the Middle East, experts say, by destroying its oil income as the world shifts to renewables and by raising temperatures to unliveable extremes. Little has been done to address the challenge in a region long plagued by civil strife, war and refugee flows, even as global warming looks likely to accelerate these trends, a conference heard last week. […]
Treats and tradition in Tehran’s oldest, tiniest teahouse
by Sammy Ketz and Ahmad Parhizi TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — With his trimmed beard, red scarf and bronze-colored waistcoat, Kazem Mabhutian serves a steady stream of customers in the smallest and oldest teahouse in Tehran, but at 63 years old, he is counting on God to find him a successor. Tucked in an alleyway of the Grand Bazaar, wedged between a clothes shop and the door of a mosque, his 1.5-square-meter chaikhaneh (tea house) is […]
Iran says to buy 2 million doses of Pfizer vaccine
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran is considering the purchase of two million doses of the US-German Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, an official said Tuesday, as the country continues to battle the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak. “A contract is being drawn up with the Iranian foreign exchange office for the import within one to two months of two million doses of the Pfizer vaccine produced in Belgium,” said senior health official Mohammad-Reza Shanehsaz. “At present, six vaccines […]
Biden bids to renew US leadership in UN speech
by Sebastian Smith Agence France-Presse UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) – President Joe Biden will tell the world Tuesday that the United States wants to avoid a Cold War with China, while pivoting from continuous post-9/11 conflicts to an era of US-led diplomacy. Biden’s first speech as US president to the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York faces a tough reception. He has spent his presidency branding countries like China and Russia as […]
Iran museums reopen after year-long Covid break
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran reopened museums in Tehran and other cities Sunday after a more than year-long closure because of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Museums in Tehran and other large cities that are no longer red-coded, meaning the risk of contracting the virus was very high, reopened on Sunday,” the director of Iran’s museums, Mohammad-Reza Kargar, told AFP. “Tourists and visitors are welcome to return while observing (sanitary) measures.” A country with a millennia-long history, […]
Iran ‘strongly’ condemns Taliban offensive on Panjshir Valley
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran on Monday “strongly” condemned the Taliban’s military offensive against holdout fighters in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley, as the Islamist group claimed it had taken control of the area. “The news coming from Panjshir is truly worrying. The assault is strongly condemned,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters. © Agence France-Presse
Iran’s presidency confirms Raisi invited to Bagdhad summit
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raisi has been invited to a planned regional summit in Baghdad, his office said Tuesday during a visit by Iraq’s top diplomat. The invitation was delivered to the Iranian capital by Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, a day after Baghdad announced the summit set for later this month. French President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed he plans to attend, while Iraq has said Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan […]
