Iran

Iran reportedly dropped India from a major railway project amid reports China has finalized a 25-year, $400 billion “strategic partnership deal” with the Islamic Republic, Radio Farda reported Tuesday.

TEL AVIV — At least seven ships caught fire Wednesday at the Persian Gulf port of Bushehr in Iran which houses Iran’s only nuclear plant, the regime-affiliated Tasnim news agency reported.

Iran’s Justice Minister for Human Rights said that people who knowingly spread coronavirus should be sentenced to death, based on the Islamic law precept of an eye for an eye, Radio Farda reported on Tuesday.

TEL AVIV — Attacking Israel would be a “great mistake” on Hezbollah’s part, a U.S. general touring the region said this week, adding it would not end well for the Iran-backed terror group.

Iranians have taken to social media to mock the fanciful claims of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Commander, Major General Hossein Salami, that his scientists have invented a secret magnetic coronavirus detection machine.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has executed a former employee of the defense ministry who was convicted of spying on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency, the country’s judiciary said Tuesday. It was the second such execution in the past month.

Tehran — Iran said that the misalignment of an air defence unit’s radar system was the key “human error” that led to the accidental downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane in January.

Iran reportedly executed a man this week for the crime of drinking alcohol for the sixth time, ignoring repeated warnings from authorities.

Another mysterious explosion – a series of them, according to some sources – rocked Tehran on Thursday night, knocking out the power along the western edge of the city.

Iran’s health minister lashed out at his country’s top officials on Wednesday, accusing them of “losing control” of Iran’s devastating coronavirus outbreak, believed to be one of the deadliest in the world, Radio Farda reported.

Controversial statements made by Joy Reid are surging back to the forefront following the news of her new primetime weekday slot on MSNBC — statements that included an apparent approval of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling for the expulsion of Jews from Israel, suggesting they establish a “Zionist regime” in Germany and Austria instead.

TEL AVIV — The leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, Hassan Nasrallah, on Tuesday vowed to “do anything” to prevent Israel’s plans to apply sovereignty to parts of the West Bank.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reported to the Iranian parliament on Sunday that negotiations for a 25-year bilateral trade deal with China are proceeding with “confidence and conviction.”

The deadly January U.S. drone strike that eliminated Iran’s terror commander Qasem Soleimani and nine other people was a violation of international law, a U.N. human rights investigator claimed Monday.

The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has touted underground “missile cities,” along the Gulf coastline.

Israel was behind an explosion at an Iranian nuclear facility last week that caused “significant damage” and set back Tehran’s nuclear program by months, The New York Times reported Thursday citing a Middle Eastern intelligence official.

The United Nations flagged Monday it is ready for the world to shrug off its cares and woes and consider a holiday in Iran.

An accident at a nuclear complex in Iran caused significant damage and could slow the production of centrifuges used to enrich uranium, the country’s atomic energy spokesman said.

Iranian officials insisted on Thursday that a mysterious fire at the Natanz nuclear facility was not an act of “intentional sabotage,” although they also stated the “incident” was still under investigation, and felt it necessary to throw in a belligerent warning to “hostile countries” that Tehran will retaliate if anyone crosses its “red lines in any way.”

Tehran police have arrested one person in connection with an explosion at a medical clinic that killed at least 19 people, Radio Farda reported Tuesday.

Iran has sentenced an opposition journalist to death after he reported on the damage Tehran’s belligerent international positions brought to the nation’s economy, the Iranian state-controlled PressTV reported Tuesday.

Interpol rejected a request from Iran to issue a “red notice” – a call to arrest anywhere in the world – President Donald Trump over the decision to target terrorist leader Qassem Soleimani with a drone strike in January, citing the “political” nature of the move.

TEL AVIV — The Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group is attempting to recruit Israeli citizens as operatives, the Shin Bet security agency revealed Tuesday, following the arrest of two Arab Israeli women earlier this month who were recruited by a Lebanon-based operative to carry out terror activities.

Tehran Prosecutor General Ali Alqasi-Mehr has identified 36 individuals he says contributed to the death of Lieutenant General Qasem Soleimani in January, with U.S. President Donald Trump among those he told Interpol on Monday to arrest in relation to the matter.

Tehran — Iran said Sunday it will make mask-wearing mandatory in certain areas and has allowed virus-hit provinces to reimpose restrictions, as novel coronavirus deaths mounted in the Middle East’s worst-hit country.

Police in Tehran arrested three men this week for attempting to sell newborn babies on Instagram, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported.

An Iranian refugee and Islamic State “fanatic” was jailed for inciting two Islamists, who arrived in Germany during the migrant crisis, to commit a mass act of terror by driving into a crowd in Germany and hacking to death any survivors with meat cleavers and swords. He told the migrants to commit the act of terror to show the victims that “Islam is here”.

Iraqi counter-terrorism units raided the Baghdad headquarters of Kataib Hezbollah (KH) late Thursday night, capturing as many as 23 of the Iran-backed terrorist militia’s fighters, according to Iraqi officials.

Paris — The unexplained death of a fugitive Iranian judge, who plunged from a top floor of his hotel in Bucharest last week, has infuriated activists who say a rare chance has been missed to bring a senior Iranian official to justice over alleged rights violations.

The militant separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) launched an attack against a Turkish outpost near the Iranian border on Tuesday night, killing at least one Turkish soldier and wounding another.