The UK banned Ali Rezvani from travelling to Britain, saying any possible assets belonging to the journalist will be frozen.
Following the British government’s move, the IRIB’s CEO Peyman Jebelli issued a statement.
Jebelli congratulated Rezvani on succeeding in angering the “arrogant British government”.
Jebelli said Britain’s record is full of rights violations that it has committed over the past centuries and the fact that such a country blacklists a journalist shows it’s politically decayed.
The IRIB’s CEO said Iran will not forget the crimes Britain committed during its WWII occupation of the country. Jebelli also referred to London’s role in the notorious 1953 coup against then democratically-elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosadegh in collaboration with the Pahlavi regime.
He said the list of the British violations against Iran is so long including London’s support of the former Baathist regime of Iraq during its war against the Islamic Republic.
Britain blacklists Iranian reporter
US: Mutual return to compliance with Iran nuclear deal possible
The United States will resume indirect nuclear talks with Iran in Vienna, the State Department has confirmed, saying the Joe Biden administration is giving diplomacy “another chance” after little progress was made in discussions last week.
Price told reporters on Wednesday that the Biden administration’s special envoy on Iran, Robert Malley, and his delegation “will plan to join the talks over the weekend”.
Top European diplomat Enrique Mora had confirmed earlier in the day that the negotiations would continue on Thursday after the seventh round of talks was halted last Friday.
US and European officials had questioned Iran’s willingness to revive the pact, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), after last week’s negotiations – the first under conservative Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
Price stated the negotiations were suspended on Friday, less than a week after they began, because it was “clear” that Iran did not come with “seriousness of purpose”. But he added that restoring the deal is still a “viable option”.
“We continue to believe that a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA is possible,” Price continued, adding, “That is why we are returning for the next iteration of talks – the continuation of the seventh round in Vienna.”
Iran says it submitted two proposals last week “based on the provisions of the 2015 agreement” to revive the deal.
Former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 and started a “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions against the Iranian economy that his successor, Biden, has continued to enforce.
Iranian officials say they want all the sanctions lifted immediately, while the US administration is calling for a mutual return to compliance that would see an end to nuclear-related sanctions and a scaling back of Iran’s nuclear programme.
Tehran has been escalating its programme in response to Washington’s withdrawal from the pact.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced new sanctions against two Iranian security agencies and several officials linked to them, citing human rights abuses.
“Washington fails to understand that ‘maximum failure’ & a diplomatic breakthrough are mutually exclusive,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh wrote on Twitter, criticising the fresh sanctions.
“Doubling down on sanctions won’t create leverage—and is anything but seriousness and goodwill,” he stressed.
On Wednesday, Price noted Washington is prepared to negotiate a return to the deal in “good faith” and pick up the talks from where they left off after a sixth round in June before the Raisi government came into office.
Asked whether the US is giving Iran another chance by returning to the Vienna talks, the US spokesperson said, “We are giving diplomacy – diplomacy towards a mutual return to compliance – another chance because it’s in our interests.”
What are the chances of Russia and China making a u-turn in JCPOA talks?
Kourosh Ahmadi said Iran now has geopolitical alignment with Russia in the Middle East, say, in Syria. Therefore, he added, Russia does not want Iran to be exposed to threats.
According to the former diplomat, assumingly, Russia and China will support Iran only to the extent of lifting the JCPOA-related sanctions and at the same time avoiding compromising the integrity of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, NPT.
Ahmadi added that any violation of this agreement would constitute crossing a serious red line for these two countries, just as China has always spoken of the need for all sides to revive the Iran nuclear deal and return to their commitments under the agreement while Russia also wants them to return to obligations.
Touching on Russia’s stance on Iran’s nuclear program, Ahmadi said Moscow does not want Iran to have nukes because it believes that this will ignite an arms race in the Middle East, which is not in the best interests of Moscow.
He however noted that Russia does not either want Iran to face threats. “For Iran, Russia and China are the most important countries, but for these two world powers, Iran is an actor,” the former Iranian diplomat said, noting that Moscow and Beijing should not be expected to support Iran under any circumstances.
Ahmadi said Iran is like other players such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel, etc., with whom they have very close relations.
He added China and Russia voted in favor of all Security Council resolutions against Iran during the four years up to 2010.
Ahmadi stressed that China and Russia’s relations with the United States are not as good as they were in the past, but their policies on Iran have not changed largely.
Iranian daily calls for closure of strategic Strait of Hormuz
The daily’s managing director Hossein Shariatmadari referred to the United States’ forfeitures of fuel and weapons shipments allegedly from Iran to Yemen and Venezuela this week, writing that the United States is openly admitting to piracy, so it must, as in many other cases, receive an appropriate response.
The editorial notes that the Strait of Hormuz is the second busiest strait in the world, through which about 18 million barrels of oil, equivalent to 42% of the world’s tanker-transported crude oil, pass on a daily basis.
Shariatmadari adds that under the 1958 Geneva Convention and the 1982 Jamaica Convention, which deal with the legal system of international waterways and the right of passage of ships, the Islamic Republic has the right and can close the Strait of Hormuz to all oil tankers and even ships carrying commercial goods and weapons if its national interests are at stake.
The editorial adds that Iranian officials can rest assured that the entire Iranian nation will support a proper response to American looting and crimes.
Bodies of hundreds killed in Karabakh handed over to Baku, Yerevan
“The peacekeepers returned more than 1,960 bodies to the local authorities in Armenia and Azerbaijan. Search operations are continued,” he said, adding that more than 100 soldiers on both sides were released from prison and returned to their home countries.
Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, 2020, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. On November 9, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh. As per the document, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides stopped at the positions that they had held and Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the engagement line in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor that connects Armenia with the enclave to exercise control of the ceasefire observance. In addition, a number of districts came under Baku’s control.
Billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets unlocked
Safari added that the talks produced good results. He also said he met with European officials during a trip to the continent and one country is going to soon release a huge amount of Iranian funds.
Safari did not specify the country though.
Safari accompanied the Iranian negotiating team last week during the Vienna talks where he met several European officials including Austria’s deputy foreign minister.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Safari spoke of expansion of ties with Tajikistan, saying exports to the country has increased three-fold from 60 to 180 million dollars. He also said exports to Uzbekistan increased from 120 to 500 million dollars.
The new Iranian administration has said its foreign policy prioritizes neighboring countries. To this end, the administration of President Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi has made numerous efforts since taking office to expand ties with neighbors including the Central Asian countries.
Iraq declares end to US-led combat mission
According to the official, Baghdad would continue its cooperation with the US-led coalition in the fields of development capacity and training.
So far, there has been no confirmation from the US-led coalition officials on the pullout of their troops from Iraq.
Following the US assassination of Iran’s top commander and anti-terror icon General Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi companion Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in January 2020, Iraq’s parliament approved a bill demanding Washington withdraw its forces from the Arab country.
Washington drew some of its allies into Iraq in 2014 under the pretext of fighting Daesh, a terrorist group that was invading the country. But the foreign troops stayed on, even after the terrorists were defeated four years ago.
Russia slams US-led military presence in Syria
According to the top military official, this weakens the effectiveness of the fight against the terrorists and contributes to their strengthening across the war-torn Middle East nation.
“Illegal armed groups have not abandoned their plans of territorial expansion. The illegal military presence of the US and a number of other countries on Syrian soil contributes to this, and makes the fight against terrorists less effective,” Gerasimov pointed out.
According to him, the Russian Aerospace Forces jointly with Syrian government forces have been continuing raids to stamp out terrorists in addition to providing assistance for the return of refugees, along with restoring infrastructure and the country’s territorial integrity.
“Work with the Turkish side is in progress to implement existing agreements and uphold the cessation of hostilities in the Idlib de-escalation zone,” the top Russian military official noted.
Iranian parliament speaker meets Turkish peer in Istanbul
The Iranian parliament speaker said Iran and Turkey can have a positive impact at the regional and international levels through close cooperation, adding, “I saw the result of this cooperation in the meeting of metropolitan mayors when I was the mayor of Tehran, and now we are ready to define joint cooperation”. Qalibaf said Iran’s priority is to develop cooperation with neighboring and Islamic countries. He also expressed hope that in the near future, the strategic agreement between Iran and Turkey will be finalized and a roadmap for developing bilateral relations will be developed.
The Iranian parliament speaker said close bilateral cooperation between Tehran and Ankara will play an effective role in regional and international developments.
He also said the US enmity toward Iran and its recent pressures on Turkey show Washington understands the power f the two countries and their influence in the region.
Şentop also said it is necessary to strengthen the position of the Inter-Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation once again through coordinated actions and close cooperation on problems of Islamic countries.
The Turkish parliament speaker emphasized the formation of a committee for the rights of Muslims, saying the issue of Palestine has always been on Turkey’s agenda.
On bilateral ties, Şentop said “We are also determined to develop ties with Iran within the framework of parliamentary relations”.
EU’s Mora: New sense of JCPOA revival in Vienna
“What I felt this morning was that all the delegations had a fresh sense of the need to work and reach an agreement on reviving the provisions of the JCPOA,” Mora made the remarks after a meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission in the Austrian capital on Thursday.
He said there are different views on the negotiation process, and the parties are currently working to bring these views closer together, adding that he considered overcoming the differences as the most important factor in the ongoing negotiations.
“I emphasize that there is an urgent need to reach an agreement, and the more time passes, the greater the need,” the European Union’s deputy foreign policy chief noted.
Earlier, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri said there is no obstacle to an agreement if necessary grounds are provided during the negotiations in the Austrian capital.
He added that at the JCPOA Joint Commission meeting on Thursday, Iran and members of the P4+1 group expressed their views on the future direction of their talks.
Negotiators of Iran and the P4+1 group namely Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are discussing ways to remove anti-Iran sanctions and a possible U.S. return to the 2015 deal.
