• 2020-12-28

    Alongside the continued development of its huge West Karoun oil fields, the completion of the supergiant South Pars non-associated gas offshore sector (including the implementation of Phase 11 operations), and the finalisation of the crude oil transfer pipeline from Guriyeh to Jask, Iran’s core focus in the current sanctions environment is to optimise the output and revenues from its already world-scale petrochemicals sector. This has always played a key role in Iran’s ‘resistance economy’ model - the concept of generating value-added returns by leveraging intellectual capital into business development wherever possible. In the last week or so, Iran has launched another three major petchems projects and discussed further co-operation with Russia in the sector.

  • 2020-12-28

    Russia To Aid Iran In Major Sanctions-Skirting Energy Megaprojects

    By Simon Watkins

    December 28, 2020

    https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Russian-To-Aid-Iran-In-Major-Sanction-Skirting-Energy-Megaprojects.html

  • 2020-12-27

    A visit by Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to Iran's capital city of Tehran is a milestone, which helped Doha and Tehran to enhance relations in 2020. […] Iran has good relations with Qatar, and Tehran has taken friendly stances when the Qatari people and government were grappling with oppressive siege by some littoral states of the Persian Gulf; so, Doha is grateful for the Iranians' support, Al-Qahtani stated. In 2020, the two friendly countries also held the seventh joint economic commission in Isfahan, Iran, in order to expand bilateral trade ties.

  • 2020-12-19

    The Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee has strongly condemned a European Parliament resolution on human rights situation under the Islamic Republic of Iran. In a statement on Saturday, the committee denounced the European Parliament’s interference in the internal affairs of Iran after the MEPs adopted the anti-Iran resolution. […] The statement came after the European Parliament strongly condemned the “arbitrary detention, sentencing and, recently, return to prison of woman human rights defender, lawyer and 2012 Sakharov Prize laureate Nasrin Sotoudeh in Iran.” […] In addition, the resolution condemned “the recent executions in Iran of France-based journalist Ruhollah Zam, editor of the Amad News Telegram channel, and wrestler Navid Afkari, while urging Iran to immediately halt the imminent execution of Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali.

  • 2020-12-18

    The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said in mid-October that Moscow will consider military technical cooperation with Iran in line with mutual interests after the expiration of a United Nations arms embargo on Tehran. “We are convinced that all possibilities stemming from the expiration of the provisions of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 that are linked with military technical cooperation with Iran will be duly taken into account and used on the basis of mutual benefit and in the interests of the peoples of our two states,” Maria Zakharova said. […] Elsewhere in his interview, Jalali said the US must compensate Iran for losses due to its sanctions if it wants to returns to the nuclear deal with world powers. […] The Iranian ambassador also noted that the Islamic Republic seeks to boost cooperation with Russia in the production of the coronavirus vaccine while negotiations have been held over the issue in the recent months.

  • 2020-12-18

    The Iranian government’s human rights breaches should be addressed using a combination of pioneering legal and diplomatic tools to ensure victims can hold perpetrators to account, according to experts speaking in an online seminar hosted by the Washington-based think tank the Atlantic Council. The conference, held on Dec. 15, looked at how global litigation strategies could be used to promote human rights in countries around the world, with a particular focus on the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

  • 2020-12-18

    This week, Iran’s Supreme Leader leaves the door open for Iran to negotiate with the U.S. under President Elect Biden. Also, Iran’s execution of dissident Ruhollah Zam provoked international condemnation, while the Rouhani administration submitted its budget proposal. 

  • 2020-12-17

    Filmed in secret, Jeff Kaufman’s portrait of the Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh captures her ongoing battles for the rights of women, children and minorities.

  • 2020-12-16

    Recent Western reporting and analyses of Iran depict dire circumstances and make natural assumptions about how the population must be reacting to an economy battered by sanctions from the United States and ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. A public opinion survey conducted in September and early October by the University of Maryland’s Center on International and Security Studies and IranPoll provides data to compare with these assumptions. The telephone survey included a national probability sample of 1,004 respondents. Some results are surprising, and some are remarkably similar to public attitudes about the pandemic in the United States and European countries. The survey finds that Iran’s public is more pessimistic about the economy than they were earlier in the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign. But domestic mismanagement and rising inflation appear to be bigger factors in this shift than the sanctions per se. Those most directly affected by COVID-19 are more negative about the economy. Yet, the Iranian public is generally satisfied by the government’s response to the pandemic and support public health efforts, even when they make a bad economic situation worse.

  • 2020-12-13

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced plans to boost ties between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and countries such as Iran, saying negotiations have begun with Tehran on a free trade agreement. […] On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that Moscow and Tehran would be looking for “new methods of ignoring the sanctions’ negative economic effect." Russia and Iran are taking measures not to allow bilateral trade and economic cooperation "to shrink,” he told Iran's IRIB broadcaster in an interview. "On the contrary, it is growing, in particular, thanks to the refusal to use the US dollar, the shift of the gravity center towards national currencies in settlements and new creative schemes of economic interaction. It works.” 

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