Iran Would Hail US Return to Nuclear Deal - With 'Guarantees'

Iran said Tuesday said it would welcome a US return to the landmark 2015 nuclear deal after its November 3 election provided it "guarantees" not to pull out again.

"It makes no difference to us which president in America decides to return" to the accord between Tehran and world powers, government spokesman Ali Rabiei told reporters.

"We would welcome such a decision by any president," he said.

But Washington "should be ready to be held responsible for the damages it has caused the people of Iran during the time it withdrew" and also "to provide other guarantees it will not repeat" such action.

Tensions have soared between Washington and Tehran under US President Donald Trump, who pulled out of the deal in 2018 and has unilaterally reimposed sanctions on Iran.

Joe Biden, Trump's challenger who is leading in polls, favours diplomacy with Iran and has backed the nuclear accord negotiated while he was vice president under Barack Obama.

The Trump administration has accused Iran as well as Russia of trying to interfere in the 2020 election, charges which Tehran has strongly denied.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said they favour no specific candidate in the race.

Photo: IRNA

Virus-Hit Iran Warns Against Weddings and Funerals

Tehran on Monday warned Iranians against holding wedding and funeral gatherings as the country's novel coronavirus outbreak showed no signs of abating, claiming another 212 lives.

"Despite repeated calls to not hold weddings and mourning ceremonies, reports from across the country still indicate they are taking place," said health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari.

"The presence of people at these overcrowded events increases the risk of mass infection," she added, in remarks aired on state television.

While there is no nationwide ban on weddings and funerals, the venues in which they are staged have been ordered shut and authorities have repeatedly urged people to keep such gatherings small.

 The Islamic republic has been battling to contain the Middle East's deadliest novel coronavirus outbreak since announcing its first cases on February 19.

Lari said another 212 people had died of the COVID-19 illness in the past 24 hours, bringing the country's overall death toll since February to 15,912.

She added that 2,434 new infections during the same period took the total case load to 293,606.

Government spokesman Ali Rabiei has also tested positive for the novel coronavirus, state news agency IRNA reported on Monday.

Rabiei had been "resting at home since late last week after showing some symptoms" but has since been hospitalized, IRNA added.

He is the latest high-profile Iranian official to contract the novel coronavirus. Several have died but most have recovered.

Virus-related deaths and infections in Iran have risen to record highs since hitting months-long lows in May.

That has prompted authorities to make masks mandatory in enclosed public spaces and reimpose restrictions in some areas.

Photo: IRNA

Iran Says Still in First Wave of Virus Outbreak

Iran's coronavirus epidemic is still in its first wave, the government said Tuesday as it announced nearly 150 new deaths a day after reporting a record high daily toll.

The Islamic republic has struggled to contain COVID-19 since it reported its first cases—two deaths—in the Shiite holy city of Qom in late February.

Official figures have shown a rising trajectory in new confirmed cases since early May, when Iran hit a near two-month low in daily recorded infections.

But officials have repeatedly denied the upward trend amounts to a second wave.

"The coronavirus is currently peaking in border provinces or cities which did not experience a peak in the first months of the outbreak," health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said on Tuesday.

"Therefore, we're still witnessing the first wave in the country," she said, quoted by state news agency IRNA.

Lari said Iran would only have a second wave if there was another rise in cases in provinces that "had a significant peak" when the first cases were declared.

Iran recorded 162 deaths from the novel coronavirus on Monday, its highest figure for a single day since the start of the outbreak on February 19.

Lari on Tuesday reported 147 new fatalities, raising overall deaths to 10,817.

She also raised the country's COVID-19 caseload to 227,662, with 2,457 new infections in the past 24 hours.

Vaccine in Making

Authorities have so far refrained from enforcing full lockdowns to stop the pandemic's spread and the use of masks and protective equipment has been optional in most areas.

Iran closed schools, cancelled public events and banned movement between its 31 provinces in March, but the government gradually lifted restrictions from April to try to reopen its sanctions-hit economy.

The increasing virus caseload has seen some previously largely unscathed provinces classified as "red"—the highest level on Iran's color-coded risk scale—with authorities allowed to reimpose restrictive measures if required.

They include Bushehr, Hormozgan, Kermanshah, Khuzestan, Khorasan Razavi, Kurdistan, and West and East Azerbaijan, all located along Iran's borders.

Iran has announced that wearing masks will be made mandatory in covered public spaces as of next week.

Authorities have for weeks been urging citizens to use protective equipment.

"Our attempts so far have been to avoid entering the second wave" of the outbreak, government spokesman Ali Rabiei told a news conference on Tuesday.

"Considering the problems the coronavirus has created for the economy, we have no choice but to try to live healthily in co-existence with the virus every day," he added.

Iran's health minister Said Namaki said on Tuesday that a coronavirus vaccine in the making has "mostly passed animal models successfully" and that the country "will start human clinical trials soon.”

Phoro: IENA

Iran Lets More Businesses Reopen as Virus Toll Rises

Iran on Monday reported 91 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, as the government allowed more economic activity to resume after a gradual reopening in the past 10 days.

After nearly a week of declining fatalities, there has been a slight uptick in the past few days for the Islamic republic, one of the world's hardest hit.

Sanctions-hit Iran had shut down all non-essential economic activity in mid-March, weeks after its coronavirus outbreak first came to light.

But top officials argued the country's battered economy could not remain shuttered, and President Hassan Rouhani has allowed low-risk businesses to reopen since April 11.

Shops in passages and bazaars were the latest businesses permitted to resume trading as part of the reopening.

A clothier at Tehran's Grand Bazaar said his customers would expose themselves to the virus regardless as they had to go out to buy necessities anyway.

"Even if we stay closed, what's the use?" Mahmoud Fakhrzadegan, who has worked at the bazaar for 60 years, told AFP.

For 27-year-old Reza, standing masked in front of his small stall, the reopening was not a "100 percent correct" decision but shopkeepers had to make a living, as "no one else is going to help them".

Another shopkeeper put it in darker terms.

"What should we be afraid of? We were born once, and we're going to die sometime," said Ahmad, 67.

Nearly all retailers were open at north Tehran's Tajrish Bazaar, said an AFP correspondent who visited the sprawling complex on Monday.

Appeal for Vigilance

But health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour appealed for people to remain vigilant as he announced the latest tolls from the deadly virus.

"With some businesses reopening and movement increasing, observing health protocols and social distancing become more and more necessary," he said.

"It does not mean we should be less careful, but the exact opposite," he told a televised news conference.

Iran reported its first coronavirus cases on February 19—two deaths in the Shiite holy city of Qom.

Jahanpour said the latest COVID-19 fatalities brought the country's official number of dead to 5,209.

An additional 1,294 infections took the country's total number of COVID-19 cases to 83,505.

Of those admitted to hospital, 59,273 had recovered and were discharged, while 3,389 remained in critical condition.

There has been scepticism about Iran's declared coronavirus casualty figures from officials and experts both in the country and abroad.

Rouhani's government allowed "low-risk" shops in the capital to reopen on Saturday and other provinces last week.

Businesses such as restaurants, gyms and wedding halls are still closed due to the high risk of spreading the virus.

Iran has been under crippling US sanctions since President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a landmark nuclear deal and reimposed them in 2018.

With sanctions targeting key oil and banking sectors, Tehran has struggled to keep its economy running while handing out cash to the poor.

"The government must fight the direct and indirect impacts of coronavirus like poverty, unemployment, and recession, with the fight becoming harder and more complicated due to sanctions," government spokesman Ali Rabiei told a news conference on Monday.

Photo: IRNA

Iran Says Ready for More US Prisoner Swaps

Iran said Monday it was open to more prisoner swaps with the US while stressing an exchange at the weekend was not the result of formal negotiations with its arch-foe.

US President Donald Trump thanked Iran for what he called a "very fair negotiation" after an American scholar was released Saturday in exchange for an Iranian scientist held in the United States.

The exchange involved Xiyue Wang, a Chinese-born American held in Iran since 2016, and Massoud Soleimani, an Iranian scientist detained in the United States since 2018.

But Iran's government dismissed the idea that it was the result of any negotiations between the two countries, which have not had diplomatic ties since 1980.

"This was only an exchange and... regarding exchanges we are ready to act but there are no negotiations," spokesman Ali Rabiei said on state television.

"Negotiations or any kind of talks" can only take place "within the framework of the 5+1 and after America has refrained from sanctions and economic terrorism," he said.

The P5+1 is the group of countries that agreed a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015—the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

The nuclear deal has been hanging by a thread since last year, when Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord and began reimposing sweeping sanctions on the Islamic republic.

Iran's government has long demanded that the US first drops the sanctions for it to return to negotiations under the auspices of the P5+1.

Wang, doctoral candidate at Princeton, was conducting research in Iran when he was imprisoned in August 2016. He had been serving 10 years on espionage charges.

Soleimani, a professor and stem cell researcher at Tehran's Tarbiat Modares University, was arrested at a Chicago airport in October 2018 for allegedly attempting to ship growth hormones.

On Monday, the Iranian spokesman Rabiei said the prisoner swap came despite a US rejection of an offer Tehran made to Washington last year for an exchange of all detainees.

A few months ago, he said, Iran had received a message from "a former US official" saying the Americans were ready to make an exchange.

Rabiei appeared to be referring to former US congressman Jim Slattery who, according to the New Yorker magazine, had approached the Iranians on behalf of the Wang family's lawyer.

In its report, the New Yorker said Soleimani was expected to be deported after pleading guilty under a deal that Slattery had worked on with Soleimani's lawyers.

"In a surprise move, however, the Justice Department instead dropped all charges against Soleimani," before the exchange went ahead, it said, citing an official from the US administration.

Photo: IRNA

US Imposes Sanctions on Iran Space Program

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Iran's space program, saying that a recent explosion on a launch pad was a sign of missile work.

"The United States will not allow Iran to use its space launch program as cover to advance its ballistic missile programs," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

"Iran's August 29 attempt to launch a space launch vehicle underscores the urgency of the threat," he said.

Pompeo said that the United States was imposing sanctions on the Iran Space Agency as well as two affiliated research centers.

Under the orders, all US citizens or residents would be held criminally responsible for interacting with Iran's space program.

"These designations should serve as a warning to the international scientific community that collaborating with Iran's space program could contribute to Tehran's ability to develop a nuclear weapon delivery system.

President Donald Trump on Friday tweeted a high-resolution picture pointing to damage at a satellite launch pad and said the United States had nothing to do with it.

The tweet gathered wide attention not only for Trump's denial but due to speculation the president was taking to his favorite medium to show US intelligence that was likely classified.

While Trump focused on denying a role by the United States—which has widely been reported to have used clandestine means to set back Iranian military development—Pompeo said that the launch showed a threat from Iran.

Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei on Monday confirmed an explosion at a satellite launch pad in the north of the country and blamed a technical fault.

Photo: IRNA

Iran Impeaches Labor Minister

Iran's Labor Minister Ali Rabiei was impeached on Wednesday after months of mounting anger over the government's handling of an economic crisis which has deepened with the return of US sanctions.

Rabiei lost a confidence motion in parliament by 129 votes to 111, giving President Hassan Rouhani three months to replace him. 

Rouhani has been under mounting pressure in recent weeks to reshuffle his economic team. 

The withdrawal of the United States from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal led to the first tranche of related sanctions being reimposed on Tuesday. 

But Iran was already struggling with longstanding problems of unemployment and low investment, which his team has appeared powerless to tackle. 

Rabiei, 62, is a longstanding ally of Rouhani, who also served as an adviser to reformist former president Mohammad Khatami between 1997 and 2005.

Photo Credit: IRNA