Iran

TEHRAN, Jun 20 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, yesterday, slammed the U.S.-led West, for its expansionist policies that undermine national independence and sovereignty, according to Khamenei’s official website.

“The Americans and westerners are constantly seeking to expand their sphere of influence in various regions, including East and West Asia, and to undermine the independence and sovereignty of nations,” Khamenei said, in a meeting with Kazakh President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in the capital Tehran.

20 June 2022; MEMO: Iran possesses three per cent of the world's nuclear capabilities, the head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) announced yesterday.

AEOI Chief Mohammad Eslami was quoted by Tasnim News Agency as saying that Iran was subjected to "more than 25 per cent of the International Atomic Energy Agency inspections," urging the international organisations "to avoid abusing their authority."

19 June 2022; MEMO: Iran on Saturday told the United Arab Emirates that Tehran gave a high priority to improving ties with its neighbours, Iranian state media reported, a day after the UAE voiced concern over Tehran's nuclear programme, Reuters reported.

The UAE's envoy at the United Nations' nuclear watchdog on Friday said he hoped Iran would work with the body to provide reassurances to the international community and the region about Tehran's nuclear programme.

TEHRAN, Jun 18 (NNN-IRNA) – Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, said yesterday that, Iran possesses the right “not to trust” the United States.

“I’m surprised by the Americans, who are sending a message of negotiation on the one hand and adding to the sanctions list on the other,” Raisi said, referring to fresh U.S. anti-Iran sanctions on Thursday.

“The world must give us the right not to trust America, because it is a pact-breaker,” he noted.

Iran has received from Iraq a sum of $1.6 billion the Arab country owed to Iran for imports of natural gas in the past years, according to remarks by the Iranian Oil Minister, Javad Owji, AFP reports.

According to the report, Baghdad had been scheduled to pay that amount to Tehran before the start of June.

Owji stated that, on Thursday, the new payment by Iraq is related to an outstanding debt for natural gas imports that had taken place before the current Iranian administration came to office in August, report says.

17 June 2022; MEMO: Iranian Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on Thursday, described the last round of talks between his country and regional arch-rival, Saudi Arabia, as "positive", Anadolu News Agency reports.

In a phone call with his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussain, Amir-Abdollahian said Tehran welcomes the outcome of the Iranian-Saudi talks in Baghdad, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

TEHRAN, Jun 16 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran and Turkmenistan signed nine cooperation agreements here, in the Iranian capital, yesterday, vowing to expand ties.

Under the agreements, the two countries will boost their partnership in the fields of transportation, scientific and cultural exchanges, environmental protection, trade, and economic ties, the Iranian state TV reported.

TEHRAN, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Thursday that its intelligence forces have smashed a major fuel smuggling network.

The IRGC said on its official Sepha news website that the intelligence's "accurate and smart operations" identified and disbanded the country's biggest networks to smuggle subsidized fuel.

TEHRAN, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said the Islamic republic maintains that foreign powers' presence and interference in the region fail to resolve any issue, and only complicate regional problems, the Iranian president's website reported on Thursday.

Making the remarks in a meeting with visiting President of Armenia's National Assembly Alen Simonyan in Tehran on Wednesday, Raisi stressed that dialogue among regional countries is the sole path to the resolution of the problems.

15 June 2022; MEMO: A tanker built by an Iranian shipyard for Venezuela plans to depart next month from the Middle Eastern country with a cargo of fuel components for the gasoline-thirsty nation, three sources with knowledge of the deal told Reuters.

The new vessel is the latest sign of the growing energy collaboration between the two nations under US sanctions. Iran and Venezuela are increasingly swapping crude for diluents and for fuel the South American country desperately needs due to the poor condition of its refining network.