asdasdasdasdasdasdasdasdasdasd
With less than a year until Iran’s presidential election, political camps are making preparations for what is expected to be a watershed contest to decide who will succeed moderate president Hassan Rouhani.
When industry minister Reza Rahmani sat down for a meeting with Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri on Monday, he did not know that he was about to be sacked.
Iran’s giant automakers, Iran Khodro and Saipa, are in a tug of war with the Rouhani administration over demands to lift price controls. The state-owned firms are seeking to increase prices by 40 percent.
A Swiss payment channel touted by the Trump administration as a solution to ease humanitarian trade with Iran under sanctions has so-far failed to process any transactions during Iran’s COVID-19 outbreak.
Iran could face a devastating second wave of coronavirus infections as the country re-opens, but keeping the economy closed down without a safety net would have likely led to unrest.
The COVID-19 crisis has forced Iran’s government to turn to little-used financial tools to help stabilize the economy and address a widening fiscal deficit.
Several reports released by key ministries and research centers over the last few weeks warned of dire economic if the government did not rollback the lockdown, despite warnings from health experts about the risks of new infections.
The Trump administration’s sanctions have made it impossible for Iranian medical personnel to keep themselves safe amid the pandemic.
The coronavirus outbreak has wrecked Iran’s cultural calendar, putting strain on finances of theaters and livelihoods of performers. But Iranian artists are rising to the occasion, finding ways to ensure their music reaches audiences at a time when it is needed most.
The Iranian healthcare system is reliant on long-standing relations with European suppliers to see it through the COVID-19 crisis. European governments should press the US to strengthen the humanitarian exemptions in its Iran sanctions.
Faced with the gravity of the COVID-19 outbreak, members of Iranian civil society and private sector business leaders have joined the fight against the virus, seeking to address gaps in the government’s response.
Iranians are staying at home, doing their part to “flatten the curve” as the country confronts COVID-19. Adjusting to confinement at a stressful and uncertain time, many Iranians have found a new and creative pastime—baking bread.
The combination of Iran’s physical interconnectivity and its relative political and economic isolation pose unprecedented challenges for international public health, particularly as U.S. sanctions constrain the supply of raw materials and imported medical supplies.
The Germany foreign ministry has announced that INSTEX, the trade mechanism backed by nine European states to facilitate humanitarian trade with Iran, has completed its first transaction.
Washington and Tehran could use the COVID-19 public health emergency to show goodwill, dial down tensions while saving face, and avoid a dangerous confrontation.
In the past year, the prospect of withdrawing from the NPT has transformed from a fringe idea among hard-liners in Iran into a real policy option that resonates with a surprisingly large spectrum of Iranian society.
The European Commission has announced a new regulation that will establish export controls for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), a category of goods that includes the face shields, gloves, masks, and other protective gear. The new policy could make it more difficult for Iran to source the equipment necessary to protect doctors and nurses fighting COVID-19.
For the first time in 60 years, Iran has requested a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), seeking emergency financing to support its efforts to combat COVID-19. If the IMF fails to provide Iran financial assistance that it makes available to countries in similar situations, the fund’s reputation will take a hit, as the fact of effective American control over its operations is laid bare.
While Iran’s economy has struggled over the last two years, the country has nonetheless seen a boom in new restaurant and café openings, especially in the bustling capital, Tehran. But the COVID-19 outbreak has brought the shutters down at establishments across the country, leaving the owners to wonder if they will ever open again.
At a time when constructive diplomatic relations between Europe and Iran may prove instrumental in efforts to stave off a regional conflict, the speedy operationalization of INSTEX remains an imperative—a point underscored by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell following his first trip to Tehran earlier this month.
