Iran

DUBAI, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Iran hanged a man on Thursday convicted of injuring a security guard with a knife and blocking a street in Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said, the first such execution over recent anti-government unrest.

Nationwide protests that erupted after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 represent one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979.

TEHRAN, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani condemned on Thursday the move by the French satellite operator Eutelsat to take Iran's Press TV network off air, noting the move reveals the "true face" of freedom of expression in the West.

Kanaani made the remarks in a post on his Twitter account after it was reported on Wednesday that Eutelsat had informed Press TV of its plan to remove the 24-hour Tehran-based English language network from its list of channels.

07 Dec 2022; MEMO: Iran's President, Ebrahim Raisi, said Wednesday that protesters will be heard by the government amid protests over the death of a young woman in police custody, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Speaking at a function at Tehran University to mark the annual Students Day, Raisi said his government deems dialogue with university students useful and stressed that everyone will be heard, including those with "opposite views".

06 Dec 2022; MEMO: Iran has arrested 12 people accused of being linked to overseas agents and planning "subversive action", as anti-government protests continue to take place across the country.

In a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), it claimed that 12 individuals were part of a network to threaten Iran's national security and foment instability, without specifying their nationality or any other details about them.

TEHRAN, Dec 6 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry, yesterday, denied U.S. claims that it had sent weapons to Yemen.

In reply to a question about an allegation that an Iranian vessel with ammunition was stopped on the way to Yemen recently, the Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, said that, the “repeated allegation” is “baseless” and “is only made for political exploitation.”

On Saturday, the U.S. Navy said that, it had seized an Iranian fishing trawler with ammunition en route to Yemen.

05 Dec 2022; MEMO: Iran said, Monday, it will not accept the resumption of nuclear negotiations with the West under pressure or threat, Anadolu News Agency reports.

"Iran is still committed to the negotiation process and seeks to resolve it, but it will not negotiate on the basis of the need for negotiations," Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, said in statements cited by the state news agency, IRNA.

05 Dec 2022; MEMO: Iranian authorities yesterday executed four persons who were accused of working for the Israeli foreign intelligence service, the Mossad.

Local Iranian media reported that the Revolutionary Guards and the Ministry of Intelligence had arrested members of a cell that was "stealing and destroying private and public property," kidnapping and obtaining false confessions.

TEHRAN, Dec 5 (NNN-IRNA) – A senior Iranian diplomat said yesterday that, Tehran and Moscow have developed frameworks and mechanisms, for improving bilateral relations.

Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs, made the remarks, following his meetings with Russian officials in Moscow.

He noted that “the two sides reviewed bilateral relations over the past months, and created frameworks and mechanisms in agreement with each other, for developing relations.”

TEHRAN, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman on Sunday condemned officials of some Western countries for making "false human rights gestures" by "dividing terrorism into good and bad."

Nasser Kanaani made the remarks on his Twitter account after posting a screenshot of a Sky News report on Thursday that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to give the British police new powers to clamp down on "illegal protests."

04 Dec 2022; MEMO: Iranian state media has reported that construction has begun on a new nuclear power plant in the country's south western province of Khuzestan. The 300-megawatt plant known as Karun will be situated along the river sharing the same name, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) announced yesterday.