Iran

TEHRAN, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Iran and Nigeria signed agreements here on Saturday to expand energy cooperation, Iran's Oil Ministry's news service Shana reported.

The agreements were signed in the presence of Iranian Petroleum Minister Javad Owji and Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva.

Owji said on the sidelines of a meeting with Sylva that the documents included the exports of Iranian technical and engineering services and petrochemical product of urea to the African country.

27 August 2022; MEMO: Bloody clashes between the US and Iran's proxies have occurred in oil-rich Deir ez-Zur, where both have a strategic existence, The New Khalij reported on Friday.

Deir ez-Zur is the largest city in eastern Syria and the seventh largest in the war-torn country. It is located 450 kilometres (280 miles) northeast of Damascus, with the Euphrates River passing through it.

TEHRAN, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman condemned on Friday the U.S. military presence in Syria as an "occupation" and the fresh U.S. airstrikes there as an "illegal aggression against defenders of Syria's independence and territorial integrity."

Nasser Kanaani made the remarks in a tweet, condemning the U.S. justification for its Tuesday airstrikes on Syria's eastern province of Deir ez-Zor.

24 August 2022; MEMO: Iran has received Washington's response to an EU-drafted final offer for saving Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, giving no firm indication of how close they are to narrowing remaining gaps Reuters reports.

25 August 2022; MEMO: Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani has "strongly condemned" the US army air strikes on eastern Syria, describing them as an "aggression" and "a violation of the country's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity."

Kanaani denied a link between those "popular groups fighting against occupation" and Iran.

He added that the continued presence of US forces in parts of Syria "is against international law and constitutes a breach of Syria's sovereignty", calling for the US to leave Syria.

TEHRAN, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian oil minister said on Wednesday that the country has finalized talks with Russia on gas purchase and swap, according to the Oil Ministry's news service Shana.

The contract will soon be signed in Moscow, Javad Owji said following a meeting with Igor Levitin, the visiting Russian president's senior aide.

Iran currently has a contract with Russia for the development of seven oil and gas fields, Owji added.

TEHRAN, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- About 40 percent of Iran's commercial air fleet are inactive because of the undersupply of parts caused by the U.S. sanctions, Iranian civil aviation chief said Tuesday.

"Now we have about 330 aircraft in the country ... Almost 60 percent of our fleet are active and the rest of it are grounded" because of engine problems and the supply shortage of other items and parts, Mohammad Mohammadi Bakhsh, head of Civil Aviation Organization of Iran, told the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA).

22 August 2022; MEMO: Iran accused the United States, on Monday, of procrastinating in indirect talks aimed at reinstating Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal, and said a prisoner swap with Washington was not linked to the negotiations, Reuters reports.

TEHRAN, Aug 22 (NNN-IRNA) – A senior executive of the Iranian Offshore Oil Company said, his country planned to start developing the offshore Esfandiar oilfield in Iran, that is connected to a Saudi oilfield, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported yesterday.

Alireza Mehdizadeh, the company’s CEO, said Saturday, the first phase of the development project, in the Esfandiar field in Iran, which is connected to Saudi Arabia’s Lulu field, will be implemented in the next three years, according to the report.

TEHRAN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- One of the Iranian nationals detained by the United States is "held under dire humanitarian conditions" as his access to emergency medical care is denied, a top Iranian official said on Thursday.

Kazem Gharibabadi, the Iranian Judiciary chief's deputy for international affairs and secretary of the country's High Council for Human Rights, made the remarks in a tweet.