Monday, December 29, 2025
type here...
Home Blog Page 1340

Iranian firefighters put out blaze in wildlife reserve of Miankaleh, Mazandarn Province

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-
Fire Jungle

Two fire extinguishing helicopters were deployed to the area in northern Iran.

Local officials say the fire started at 10 AM on Tuesday in three parts of the Miankaleh Sahra wildlife reserve and immediately, firefighting teams were dispatched to put it out.

They added that winds whipped up the fire, causing it to expand in the area.

According to the director general of the environment protection department of Mazandaran, the fire had a human cause but it’s still unclear if it was started deliberately or unintentionally.

The Miankaleh international habitat has an area of 68 thousand hectares and is spread from Miankaleh village in Behshahr to Ashuradeh in neighboring Golestan Province.

Located in the heart of the Miankaleh Peninsula, and thanks to its biodiversity, the ecological haven is the most important habitat for more than 320 migratory and native birds as well as 180 plant species.

Student mourning groups gather outside Swedish embassy in Tehran

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-
Student mourning groups gather outside Swedish embassy in Tehran

They also held a Quran recitation session in front of the embassy.

Take a look at the related images of the event:

US pledges to continue military aid to Israel despite judicial overhaul

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Biden and Herzog

“There is not going to be any cut or stoppage of military aid, and that is because our commitment to Israel and our commitment to Israel’s security is ironclad. Our decades-long partnership with Israel is ironclad,” said US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel on Tuesday.

“It is clear that the legislation has consequences for people’s day-to-day lives, and that is why we said that such changes in democracy require a broad consensus,” he added.

Earlier this week the White House announced it was “unfortunate” that Israel’s parliament passed a law diminishing the powers of the courts, as part of planned reforms to the judicial system.

The Joe Biden administration has sought to dissuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-nationalist coalition government from passing legislation that many in Israel and abroad see as an attempt to subvert the country’s democratic institutions.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking on Tuesday to his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, urged a “broad consensus through political dialogue, especially in the coming weeks and months”, both of which he said “are critical elements of a resilient democracy”.

While continuing its military aid to Israel hasn’t been questioned by US officials, the Israeli judicial crisis has strained relations between the Biden and Netanyahu administrations.

“It is unfortunate that the vote took place today,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday.

“It happened with the slimmest possible majority,” she continued, adding in a rebuke that the relationship between the countries is based on “democratic values – shared democratic values and interests”.

Supported by legislators from Netanyahu’s coalition government, the Israeli parliament passed a law abolishing the “reasonableness standard”, removing the Supreme Court’s ability to block government decisions it deems unreasonable.

It is part of a package of bills proposed by the government earlier this year, seeking to overhaul the judicial system.

Since being re-elected late last year to head one of the most right-wing coalitions in Israel’s history, Netanyahu has been pursuing changes to the judiciary that would give his government greater sway in selecting judges and limit the power of the Supreme Court to strike down legislation.

Earlier this week the American Jewish Committee expressed its “profound disappointment over the passage of the law”. According to a statement, the organisation said that this deepened the divisions in Israeli society, as evidenced by the hundreds of thousands of people who have taken to the streets.

“The continued effort to press forward on judicial reform rather than seeking compromise has sown discord within the Israeli Defense Forces at a time of elevated threats to the Jewish homeland and has strained the vital relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jewry,” the statement read.

Nuclear chief says Iran produces yellow cake from phosphate

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Mohammad Eslami

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Eslami said a “supplementary achievement” of the Iranian scientists at the AEOI is the production of yellow cake from phosphate.

Yellow cake (also called urania) is a type of uranium concentrate powder obtained in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. It is a step in the processing of uranium after it has been mined but before fuel fabrication or uranium enrichment.

He also pointed to plans to generate 20,000 megawatts of nuclear electricity in Iran, saying five coastal regions have been designated across the country for the construction of new nuclear power plants.

Highlighting the “constant and sustainable” interaction between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency, the AEOI chief stated that the bilateral cooperation conforms with the Safeguards Agreement and the NPT.

Eslami added that the country has provided the UN nuclear watchdog with new information over its recent probe into what it terms the unexplained presence of uranium particles in certain locations in Iran and is willing to settle those issues with the agency.

In March, Iran and the UN nuclear agency issued a joint statement after IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi’s trip to Tehran, agreeing on closer cooperation to settle the outstanding issues pertaining to the Safeguards Agreement.

Tehran has strongly rejected the accusations about the existence of undeclared nuclear activities or material in Iran but voiced readiness to cooperate with the IAEA to settle disputes.

Death sentence overturned for young Iranian involved in last year’s unrest

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-
Mohammad Ghobadlou

This was announced by Amir Raisian, the lawyer for Mohammad Qabadlo, in a tweet.
Raisian said after the violation of Qobadloud’s Gesas sentence by the Supreme Court, his case was referred to the lower court to deal with the issues related to his client’s mental health.

Mohammad Qabadloud is accused of killing a security officer in incidents related to last year’s unrest and deadly riots in Iran. He has also been accused of corruption on earth, a charge that is punishable by death.

Protests erupted in Iran after the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of “morality police” for not wearing her hijab properly in September last year. Several months of protests and deadly riots gradually subsided.

A number of people have received death sentences on charges of killing security forces.

Saudi Arabia spent $6bn on ‘sportswashing’: Report

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Cristiano Ronaldo

Saudi Arabia has deployed billions from its Public Investment Fund over the last two-and-a-half years according to analysis by the Guardian, spending on sports at a scale that has completely changed professional golf and transformed the international transfer market for football.

On Monday, the Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal submitted a world-record bid for the French captain, Kylian Mbappé, understood to be worth €300m (£259m).

The $6.3bn investment is almost equivalent to the GDP of Montenegro or the island of Barbados. It dwarfs data compiled by Grant Liberty two years ago, estimating that Saudi Arabia spent $1.5bn in the period between 2014 and early 2021.

Rights groups including Grant Liberty, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch term such spending “sportswashing” – bankrolling big-name sporting events in order to distract from a poor record on human rights.

“Previously, sports figures and brands had rejected offers to engage with Saudi Arabia due to its well-documented human rights abuses,” said Grant Liberty. “However, there has been a worrisome shift in moral stance, as lucrative deals are now being accepted despite the ongoing and deteriorating violations.”

After the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia was broadly shunned, with many major corporations withdrawing or pausing investments in the country.

But the past two years have seen a shift in how the kingdom is regarded internationally. President Joe Biden, who once promised to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over the killing, travelled there last year, greeting the crown prince and de-facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, with a controversial fist bump.

The Guardian has compiled and analysed a list of investments made by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund – one of the 10 largest sovereign wealth funds in the world with assets estimated at $700bn – as well as other state bodies including the tourism authority, all signed since 2021. The $6.3bn total figure is probably an underestimate of the true amount, as the PIF is notoriously opaque about its finances, and details of some deals are not made public.

The purchase of Newcastle United in October 2021 by the PIF for $391m drew concerns from rights groups, notably Amnesty International, which criticised the club after leaked images showed changes to its away kit to match the colours of the Saudi national team.

Felix Jakens of Amnesty International said the choice “exposes the power of the Saudi dollar and the kingdom’s determination to sportswash its brutal, blood-soaked human rights record”.

A year later, the PIF stated its intention to spend $2.3bn on football sponsorships. This includes massive unspecified investments to buy majority stakes in four Saudi Arabian football teams. The four clubs have spent lavishly to attract players from around the world, particularly Al-Nassr, which signed star player Cristiano Ronaldo for a reported $200m annually, making him the world’s highest paid athlete.

Ronaldo’s signing last season has been followed by a host of stars and coaches including Karim Benzema from Real Madrid, N’Golo Kanté from Chelsea, Roberto Firmino from Liverpool, and the former Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard.

The footballer Lionel Messi is reportedly paid an estimated $25m by the Saudi Arabian tourism authority for his promotion of the country, including posting about lavish trips on social media. He received an offer from Al Hilal of £350m but instead opted for the US MLS team Inter Miami.

In February this year, Saudi Arabia announced it would host the 2023 Fifa Club World Cup.

The PIF has also made major investments that have upended golf, and now make Saudi Arabia perhaps the most influential force in the sport. In October 2021, the fund invested an estimated $2bn to create LIV golf, a major tournament.

The move set off a bitter rivalry with the PGA tour, which took legal action claiming that the Saudi-funded project was luring players to breach their existing commitments. One lawsuit accused LIV of a campaign to use “astronomical sums of money … in an effort to use the LIV players and the game of golf to sportswash the recent history of Saudi atrocities and to further the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s … initiatives”.

The feud ended in dramatic fashion with an effective takeover of the PGA to create a conglomerate to dominate professional golf. The governor of PIF, Yasir al-Rumayyan, is slated to be the chair.

A PGA executive told the US Congress this month that the sovereign wealth fund would invest “north of $1bn” in the new body. The deal is being investigated by a US Senate committee.

Some of the kingdom’s other investments include boxing and motor sports. This year, YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul fought Tommy Fury in Riyadh for payments of $3.2m and $2m respectively, plus a share of the pay-per-view revenue. The kingdom also paid an estimated $60m to host a heavyweight match between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua in 2022.

In 2021, PIF invested in a $550m sponsorship of McLaren Group Ltd, a Bahraini-owned company based in Woking which is a major part of Formula One through its manufacture of racing cars. The $6.3bn figure, however, does not include the $40-45m which state-owned oil giant Aramco spends annually to sponsor Formula One, or other contracts signed prior to 2021 such as $65m to hold an annual Grand Prix in the kingdom.

The total also excludes the PIF’s extensive spending in the world of e-sports, including a recent $1bn investment in video game company Embracer Group, and sporting events where the sponsorship amount is unknown, such as a March 2021 four-year deal between the planned city of Neom on the Red Sea coast and the Asian Football Confederation.

Peace deal reachable if Baku talks with Nagorno-Karabakh: Armenia

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Russian peacekeeper

The PM made the prediction during a press conference on Tuesday, warning, however, that a prospective peace deal is unlikely to include provisions on the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh area that would satisfy all parties. Yerevan is in no position to decide the fate of the breakaway region and the conflict must be settled directly between it and Baku, he noted.

“Should dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert begin?” Pashinyan stated, referring to the de-facto capital of the breakaway region, known in Azerbaijan as Khankendi.

“Will this become an opportunity to sign a peace treaty before the end of the year? I believe so,” he added.

The remarks from the Armenian PM come amid trilateral talks between top diplomats of Armenia and Azerbaijan, hosted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. All the sides have acknowledged significant progress made to settle the decades-long conflict, noting, however, that major differences still remain.

“The dynamics of the negotiation process are quite high. We must frankly say that the results are somewhat inferior compared to the dynamics of the negotiation process itself. Yet, it would probably be wrong to say that there are no positive results at all,” Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Dzheykhun Bayramov said ahead of the meeting on Tuesday.

A similar assessment was given by his Armenian counterpart, Ararat Mirzoyan, who stated that “negotiations on all issues on the agenda” have been quite intensive. The two sides have achieved “visible prospects” on certain issues, however, the diplomat added.

Following the talks, Lavrov expressed hope that negotiating would continue and yield an agreement on unblocking “vital roads” in the troubled region, at the very least.

“I hope that today’s discussions will help give a positive impetus to the negotiation process,” he continued.

The dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh dates back to the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Armenia and Azerbaijan entered a conflict over the region, which is a part of Azerbaijan with a predominantly ethnic Armenian population. The region de-facto broke away from Baku after a bloody war in the 1990s, which became the main source of tensions between the two nations. In 2020, the two countries fought a 44-day war, which ended with a Russian-brokered truce and resulted in Azerbaijan regaining control over vast parts of Nagorno-Karabakh. Since then, multiple skirmishes have occurred at the line of contact, reportedly resulting in dozens of fatalities for both sides.

Earlier this year, however, both Armenia and Azerbaijan indicated their readiness to end the lengthy territorial dispute.

No one purchasing Iranian oil stuck off US coast: Report

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Iran Oil Tanker

The Tuesday report by Reuters news agency said no company has been willing to lighter crude oil cargo aboard Suez Rajan, a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker that has been anchored off Galveston, about 50 miles (80 km) outside of Houston, since May 30.

The report added a main reason for the ship to be unable to unload is because commercial agents fear that any vessel that takes the cargo will be shunned by customers in future voyages.

However, it quoted an unnamed industry expert as saying that shipping agents avoid lightering the tanker out of fear of repercussions from Iran.

Iranian authorities have warned in the past that the country would retaliate against any oil company unloading Iranian oil that is illegally seized by another country.

Commander of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Navy Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri said last week that Iran would take action against the US if it allows the discharge of the Iranian oil cargo off the Texas coast.

The deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Cords (IRGC) said on Tuesday the country will act in kind if the United States empties the cargo of an Iranian tanker that it has illegally seized to use or sell.

Iranian authorities have previously designated attempts by the US to seize Iranian oil through enforcing court orders in other countries as an act of piracy.

Tehran has used its political and military capacities to prevent previous US attempts to seize its oil shipments.

The inability of the Suez Rajan to unload after eight weeks of sitting off the US coast comes as the vessel has secured the necessary US approvals and paperwork for doing so, said the report by Reuters.

Senior Russia, China officials visit North Korea

By
IFP Media Wire
-
North Korea

The two delegations will take part in the celebration of the 70th anniversary of “Victory Day” on Thursday in Pyongyang, an event that state media said will be marked in a “grand manner that will go down in history”.

Satellite imagery indicates North Korea has been preparing for the kind of large-scale military parade with which it typically fetes such anniversaries. But the inclusion of Chinese and Russian guests this year is a post-pandemic first, which hints at new flexibility towards enforcing border controls.

North Korea has been under a rigid self-imposed coronavirus blockade since early 2020 to protect itself from COVID-19, which has prevented even its own nationals from entering the country.

Russia’s defence ministry announced Shoigu’s visit “will help strengthen Russian-North Korean military ties and will be an important stage in the development of cooperation between the two countries”.

It posted a short video on its Telegram channel showing Shoigu being greeted by a North Korean military official on a red carpet at an airport’s tarmac.

A red banner with a sign saying, “Welcome, Comrade Defence Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu!” in Korean and Russian stood behind a line of saluting soldiers.

The anniversary comes during a time of heightened tensions in the region as the pace of both North Korea’s weapons tests and the United States’s military exercises with South Korea have intensified in a tit-for-tat cycle.

North Korea has conducted three separate rounds of missile firings since last week, apparently in protest of the US sending naval vessels, including a nuclear-armed submarine, to South Korea in a show of force.

Since the start of 2022, North Korea has test-fired about 100 missiles as leader Kim Jong Un exploits the distraction created by Russia’s war on Ukraine to accelerate the expansion of his country’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programme.

North Korea has backed Russia over the war in Ukraine, insisting that the “hegemonic policy” of the US-led West forced Moscow to take military action to protect its security interests. The US has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia to aid its fighting in Ukraine, although Pyongyang has denied the claim.

Russia and China, meanwhile, have been thwarting US efforts to strengthen United Nations Security Council sanctions on North Korea over its flurry of missile tests.

China asserted on Monday that it “strictly” implements UN sanctions on North Korea, reacting to a letter from the Group of Seven, the European Union and others that urged Beijing to stop Pyongyang from evading the measures by using Chinese waters.

Little is known about discreet contacts between the two nations but Beijing has long been committed to preventing the collapse of North Korea’s three-generation-old Kim regime.

China’s exports to North Korea in June were eight times higher than a year before when the secretive state was reporting tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases per day and had shut its border.

US claims Russia building drone-manufacturing facility with Iran’s help

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Russia Ukraine War
A fragment of a kamikaze drone after the Russian attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine, on October 17.

Analysts from the Defense Intelligence Agency told a small group of reporters during a briefing on Friday that the drone-manufacturing facility now under construction is expected to provide Russia with a new drone stockpile that is “orders of magnitude larger” than what it has been able to procure from Iran to date.

When the facility is completed, likely by early next year, the new drones could have a significant impact on the conflict, the analysts warned.

In April, the US released a satellite image of the planned location of the purported drone manufacturing plant, inside Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone about 600 miles east of Moscow.

The analysts said Iran has regularly been ferrying equipment to Russia to help with the facility’s construction.

They added that to date, it is believed that Iran has provided Russia with more than 400 Shahed-131, 136 and Mohajer drones — a stockpile that Russia has almost completely depleted, they said.

Russia is primarily using the drones to attack critical Ukrainian infrastructure and stretch Ukraine’s air defenses, a senior DIA official stated.

CNN has reported Iran has been using the Caspian Sea to move drones, bullets and mortar shells to Russia, often using vessels that are “dark”, or have turned off their tracking data to disguise their movements.

The US obtained and analyzed several of the drones downed in Ukraine, and officials say there is “undeniable evidence” that the drones are Iranian, despite repeated denials from Tehran that it is providing the equipment to Russia for use in Ukraine.

The DIA analysts showcased debris from drones recovered in Ukraine in 2022 during the briefing on Friday, comparing them side-by-side with Iranian-made drones found in Iraq last year.

One of the drones recovered in Ukraine had only its wings and engine partially intact. But judging by its shape and size, it appeared to be a Shahed-131, the same model as an Iranian-made drone found in Iraq. The analysts removed components from one and easily slid them onto the other, showing that they are virtually “indistinguishable” in their design.

Both Iran and Russia have repeatedly denied claims that Tehran has provided Moscow with drones to be used in the Ukraine war.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in November dismissed media controversy over Iran’s alleged support for Russia in the Ukraine war, adding, however, that Tehran had provided Moscow with a limited number of drones months before the war in Ukraine.

He also assured that Iran will not be indifferent if it is proven that Russia has used Iranian drones in the conflict.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has also blasted these reports as bogus and stressed that the Russian army used domestically-made drones.

1...1,3391,3401,341...5,129Page 1,340 of 5,129

© All Content by IFP News ( Iran Front Page ) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

About Us

Popular Articles

Editor Picks