Iran Hits New Virus Records, Curbs Travel

Iran on Wednesday announced temporary travel restrictions on five major cities including Tehran as the country hit new single-day records in both COVID-19 deaths and new infections.

As well as the capital, the measures include banning travel to and from Karaj, Mashhad, Isfahan and Urmia, the health ministry's Kianoush Jahanpour told state television.

It runs from midnight until Sunday noon, only involving private vehicles but not "public transportation" such as buses and planes, he said.

According to Jahanpour, the measure may be renewed after Sunday and extended to other cities.

The aim was to dissuade Iranians from travelling at the weekend, which runs from Thursday to Friday in Iran, and a public holiday on Saturday.

"A large part of the population... is not being responsible," Jahanpour said.

A retired employee in Tehran named Pakzamir told AFP that "the authorities blame the people, but that is not true."

According to her, rising costs in a troubled economy are forcing people to "use the subway and public transportation, and that spreads the disease."

"The main reason for the rise in coronavirus (cases) is the government's lack of planning and not enforcing restrictions properly," teacher Fariba Ghasemi said.

Deaths and infections from the virus have been on a sharply rising trajectory in Iran since early September.

COVID-19 deaths numbered 279 on Wednesday as 4,830 new cases of infection were confirmed, the highest single-day figures since the country reported its first cases in February.

The novel coronavirus has killed a total of 29,349 people out of 513,219 cases in the Middle East country hardest hit by the pandemic.

The numbers are likely to be higher than officially reported, deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi acknowledged Wednesday, primarily due to testing and reporting protocols.

Iran on Saturday started imposing fines for the first time for breaches of health rules in the capital.

Tehran authorities on October 3 shut most public spaces and cancelled gatherings for a week, a move that was extended to Wednesday. 

It was not immediately clear if they were to be renewed again alongside the travel curbs.

Photo: IRNA

Iran Says Virus Deaths Rise 92 to 4,869

Iran on Thursday announced 92 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, the third straight day that official fatalities remained in double digits in the Middle East's worst-hit country.

Health ministry spokesman Kinaoush Jahanpour told a news conference the latest deaths brought the official total to 4,869.

He added that 1,606 new infections had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 77,995 from 310,340 tests.

Of those confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus and admitted to hospital, 52,229 had been discharged after recovering, which he described as a "rising trend".

Another 3,594 patients are in critical condition.

There has been speculation abroad that the number of deaths and infections is higher than officially announced.

A report published Tuesday by parliament said the real death toll from Iran's outbreak was estimated to be as much as 80 percent more than that announced by the government.

The number of COVID-19 infections were estimated to be "eight to 10 times" higher.

It said the officially announced figures were based only on "patients that are hospitalised with severe symptoms".

It also criticized the government for being slow to act against the outbreak and said a "second wave" of the virus may come next winter—possibly without a break due to containment measures taking too long.

In a statement on Thursday, the office that carried out the report denied it contradicted official figures and accused "foreign media" of lying and distorting its contents to "undermine official statistics".

'Second Wave'

A deputy health minister confirmed the numbers may be higher due to limited testing but rejected estimates based on "incorrect modelling", without directly addressing the report.

"The cases we have confirmed are certainly not the actual totals. But there are no exact assessments in the world, save for South Korea which has had many tests done," Alireza Raisi was quoted as saying on Wednesday by state news agency IRNA.

The ministry had also stopped provincial medical universities from reporting figures on their own, IRNA reported.

It argued such announcements have at times prompted Iranians to travel from worse-hit provinces to less-infected ones and further spread the virus.

The government of President Hassan Rouhani has struggled to contain the outbreak that emerged two months ago.

It shut schools and universities, postponed major events and imposed a range of other restrictions, but it has stopped short of ordering lockdowns.

Iran allowed small businesses outside Tehran to reopen on Saturday and is set to extend the measure to the capital next week.

The move has faced criticism from health experts and even some authorities, while top officials argue that sanctions-hit Iran cannot afford to shut down the economy.

State television showed busy banks, government offices and taxi queues in various provinces on Thursday.

It said that "smart social distancing,” a set of measures announced by Iran to keep both the economy running and prevent infections,” may still be applicable only on paper."

Photo: IRNA

U.S. Seeks Further Detention of Seized Tanker, Gibraltar Says

The United States applied on Thursday for Gibraltar to keep in detention an Iranian oil tanker at the center of a stand-off between Tehran and London, the public prosecutor said.

The announcement by attorney Joseph Triay delayed a court decision on whether to extend the detention of Grace 1, which is suspected of smuggling oil to Syria and has been held since July 4.

Triay did not detail in court the basis for the US request other than as "mutual legal assistance".

Chief Justice Anthony Dudley made clear that were it not for the US move, "the ship would have sailed" from the overseas British territory.

The Gibraltar Supreme Court decision on the fate of the ship has been adjourned until after four pm (14:00 GMT).

The captain and three officers from Grace 1, had their bail lifted and were formally released, a Gibraltar government spokesman said.

The supertanker, carrying 2.1 million barrels of Iranian oil, was seized by Gibraltar police and British special forces, provoking a diplomatic crisis. It was suspected of carrying oil to war-torn Syria in violation of EU sanctions.

Photo: Wikicommons

US Accuses Iran of Bad Faith Over Sanctions Lawsuit

The United States on Wednesday accused Iran of bad faith for challenging Washington's renewed nuclear-linked sanctions against it at the UN's top court.

Iran has asked the International Court of Justice to order the United States to lift the sanctions, reimposed after US President Donald Trump pulled out of a multilateral 2015 accord.

Iran brought the case at the court in The Hague under a 1955 friendship treaty that predates the country's Islamic Revolution.

Washington told the court it had no jurisdiction to rule on the case, which it said was a matter of national security.

"Iran is not invoking the treaty of amity in good faith in this proceeding," US State Department lawyer Jennifer Newstead said in her closing argument.

"Iran cannot be permitted to draw this court into a political and psychological campaign" against the United States, she added.

During four days of hearings, Iran said the sanctions reintroduced this month are causing economic suffering for its citizens.

The US lawyers retorted that economic mismanagement was at the root of Iran's woes.

A second wave of US measures is due to hit Iran in early November, targeting its vital oil exports.

Closing the hearings, ICJ president Abdulqawi Yusuf said the court would issue a ruling "as soon as possible" but did not set a date.

"The judges are well aware of the political stakes," said Eric De Brabandere, professor of international dispute settlement at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

But "in principle the court will focus strictly on the legal aspects of the case", he told AFP.

Despite their 1955 Treaty of Amity and Economic Relations, Iran and the United States have not had diplomatic ties since 1980.

The ICJ was set up in 1946 to rule in disputes between countries.

The court is tasked with deciding only whether it has jurisdiction over Iran's request, De Brabandere said.

But he noted that "the political consequences of the decision are of course important," since either state would see a favorable outcome as "a huge victory."

Photo Credit: ICJ

Iran's Khamenei Seeks Better Ties With The World, Apart From US

Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei has called for better ties with the world—though not with the United States, according his official website on Monday.

Khamenei met President Hassan Rouhani and his cabinet on Sunday and spoke of the "necessity of developing diplomacy and relations with foreign countries," according to a transcript published in English.  

"Except for a few cases—such as the United States—Iran's relations with other countries, including with the West and the East, must expand and further develop."

Tehran's diplomats have been scrambling to shore up trade ties with both European and Asian powers since the US announced in May that it was abandoning the 2015 nuclear deal and reimposing sanctions on Iran. 

Khamenei's statement recalls a famous slogan from the early days of the 1979 revolution: "Neither East nor West, Islamic republic", echoing a desire to strike a path independently from the major Cold War powers.

In February, Khamenei surprised observers by saying that Iran now prioritised ties with the East over the West—reflecting the much stronger ties it has developed with Russia and China in recent years. 

Even before the US withdrawal, Iran had already been disappointed with the economic benefits of the nuclear deal as it emerged that a raft of remaining US sanctions were preventing the country from establishing international banking ties and other trade links. 

He has called on Europe to give "real guarantees" that they can sustain trade with Iran despite US nuclear-related sanctions that will be fully reimposed by November 8. 

On Sunday, he called for "courage and determination" from the government as it faced down the threats from the US, and said economic officials were now key to maintaining "hope and morale in people."

Photo Credit: IRNA

US Hits Iran Central Bank Governor with Sanctions

The United States slapped sanctions Tuesday on Valiollah Seif, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran, accusing him of helping the country's Revolutionary Guard Corps transfer millions of dollars to Lebanon's Hezbollah. 

In the second move in a week taking aim at the money networks of the Revolutionary Guards, or IRGC, the US Treasury also blacklisted a second central bank official, Iraq's Al-Bilad Islamic Bank and its top two executives, and a liaison between IRGC and Hezbollah, which Washington has designated an international terrorist group.

The Treasury said Seif covertly moved "hundreds of millions of dollars" to Hezbollah from IRGC via Al-Bilad Islamic Bank.

Tuesday's action seeks to cut off what the US called a "critical" banking network for Iran, and deny those blacklisted access to the global financial system. 

"The United States will not permit Iran's increasingly brazen abuse of the international financial system," said US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

"The global community must remain vigilant against Iran's deceptive efforts to provide financial support to its terrorist proxies."

On Thursday, the Treasury announced sanctions against a "large scale" currency exchange network serving the Revolutionary Guards, hitting six individuals and three companies at the center of the network.

At the time, the US singled out the Central Bank of Iran as "complicit" in the operation, foreshadowing Tuesday's action.

The move against Seif came one week after President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear accord and signalled plans to ratchet up pressure on the Iranian economy, and especially on the economic power of the Revolutionary Guards.

Photo Credit: Mehr

EU 'Determined to Preserve' Iran Nuclear Deal: Mogherini

The EU is "determined to preserve" the Iran nuclear deal despite the US withdrawal, the bloc's diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini said Tuesday, pledging to "stay true" if Tehran stuck to its commitments.

The 2015 accord "is delivering on its goal which is guaranteeing that Iran doesn't develop nuclear weapons, the European Union is determined to preserve it," Mogherini said.

EU President Donald Tusk said the Iran deal would be on the agenda when the bloc's leaders meet for a summit in Sofia next week.

"Policies of @realDonaldTrump on #IranDeal and trade will meet a united European approach. EU leaders will tackle both issues at the summit in Sofia next week," Tusk wrote on Twitter.

Mogherini made a direct appeal to the Iranian people and their leaders to stick with the accord after US President Donald Trump said Washington was ditching what he called a "defective" agreement.

"Stay true to your commitments as we will stay true to ours and together with the rest of the international community we will preserve this nuclear deal," Mogherini said at a hastily arranged press conference in Rome.

She warned she was "particularly worried" by Trump's announcement of new sanctions on Iran, saying the EU would act to defend its economic interests.

An EU official said the European Commission, the bloc's executive, would meet next week to discuss possible countermeasures to US sanctions.

The official called Trump's decision "the worst that could have been taken". European powers Britain, France and Germany led a campaign to persuade Trump to stick with the deal negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama,  arguing that it was the most effective way of stopping Iran developing nuclear weapons.

But the massive diplomatic push ended in failure as Trump—as expected—announced the US was pulling out and reimposing sanctions that had been relaxed in return for Iran abandoning its nuclear program.

But Mogherini said the EU would stick with the accord, which was also signed by Russia and China. 

"As long as Iran continues to implement its nuclear related commitments, as it is doing so far, the European Union will remain committed to the continued full and effective implementation of the nuclear deal," she said.

"We fully trust the work, competence and autonomy of the International Atomic Energy Agency that has published 10 reports certifying that Iran has fully complied with its commitments."

Senior British, German, French and EU officials held last-ditch talks with Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi in Brussels just hours before Trump's announcement, stressing that Europe was committed to the deal whatever the news from the White House.

A German foreign ministry source said it was important to keep talks going in coming days to avoid "uncontrolled escalation" after Trump's decision.

Photo Credit: Wikicommons

Trump Announces US Withdrawal From 'Defective' Iran Deal

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the US withdrawal from the "defective" multinational nuclear deal with Iran,  as Washington moved to reinstate punishing sanctions against the Islamic republic.

"The Iran deal is defective at its core," Trump said in a televised address from the White House. "I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal."

After consulting US "friends" from across the Middle East, Trump said, "it is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement." 

"America will not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail," Trump vowed. 

"We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction and we will not allow a regime that chants 'Death to America' to gain access to the most deadly weapons on Earth."

Following his address, the US leader signed a presidential memorandum to start reinstating US nuclear sanctions on the Iranian regime.

"We will be instituting the highest level of economic sanction," Trump said. "Any nation that helps Iran in its quest for nuclear weapons could also be strongly sanctioned by the United States."

National Security Advisor John Bolton told reporters after Trump's speech that the US sanctions would apply to new contracts "immediately," and that foreign firms would have months to wind down existing operations in Iran.

Describing Iran as the world's leading state sponsor of terror, and decrying its influence in the Middle East, Trump said the United States intended to work with its allies to "find a real, comprehensive, and lasting solution to the Iranian nuclear threat." 

Such a solution, he said, would include efforts to eliminate the threat from Iran's ballistic missile program, stop its "terrorist activities"  worldwide, and block its "menacing" activity across the region.

In the meantime, Trump warned, "if the regime continues its nuclear aspirations, it will have bigger problems than it has ever had."

Trump had long pledged to tear up the "very badly negotiated" agreement—which his predecessor Barack Obama agreed with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia—daring Tehran's regime to restart its enrichment program and alleged quest for a nuclear weapon.

The US leader had until May 12 to decide whether to continue to waive sanctions on Iran's central bank and its oil sector dealings, a key pillar of the 2015 agreement.

For months, critics have warned that ending the waivers would unravel the carefully constructed deal, plunge Iran's already struggling economy into crisis and expose the biggest transatlantic rift since the Iraq War.

Photo Credit: Defense.gov

Tehran Dismisses Pompeo's 'Unfounded' Accusations

Iran on Monday dismissed "unfounded" accusations by new US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over its "ambition to dominate the Middle East."

Pompeo lashed out at Tehran on Sunday during a rapid tour of Middle East allies ahead of a crucial White House decision on whether to quit a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

Speaking during a visit to Iran's arch-rival and key US ally Saudi Arabia just days after he took office, Pompeo accused Tehran of destabilising the Middle East through its support for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and for rebels in Yemen.

"The US secretary of state's remarks on the presence and role of the Islamic Republic of Iran in certain countries in the region are a repetition of absurd and unfounded accusations," Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said in a statement Monday.

Iran's presence in Syria and Iraq is in response to requests from the two countries' governments and is part of "the fight against terrorism in the region", he said.

"This assistance will continue as long as (these) governments need help in this fight," he said. Ghassemi also reiterated previous government statements denying Saudi and US accusations that Iran is supplying weapons to Yemen's Huthi rebels, backed politically by Tehran. 

Such charges are "a false problem, created solely for the purpose of diverting the attention of international public opinion from the atrocities committed by Saudi Arabia in its daily attacks" in Yemen, he said.

Shiite-dominated Iran and Sunni heavyweight Saudi Arabia, which cut diplomatic ties in January 2016, are engaged in a region-wide struggle for influence and back rival sides in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.

Tehran has deployed "military advisors" and thousands of Iranian and Afghan "volunteer" fighters to Syria and Iraq.

Saudi Arabia launched a military coalition in 2015 to battle Huthi rebels in Yemen who had seized the capital Sanaa the previous year.

The United Nations and rights groups have slammed the Saudi-led campaign for causing civilian casualties and sparking a humanitarian crisis.

Photo Credit: Mehr

'No Decision' by Trump on Iran Nuclear Deal: Bolton

US President Donald Trump has not decided whether or not to scrap the Iran nuclear deal, US National Security Advisor John Bolton said Sunday.

"He has made no decision on the nuclear deal, whether to stay in or get out," Bolton told Fox News Sunday.

"He is certainly considering the framework, the four pillars that President (Emmanuel) Macron laid out in their meeting last week," said Bolton, referring to efforts to supplement the Iran deal with additional measures to make it more palatable to Trump.

In 2015 the United States, along with other nations, struck a deal with Iran to end a 12-year standoff over that country's nuclear program, which was feared to be leading towards an atomic weapons capability.

Iran agreed to freeze its nuclear program in return for the lifting of punishing international sanctions, but Trump has criticized the deal as not going far enough.

Britain, France and Germany—the three European countries that signed the Iran nuclear deal—are working to head off Trump's threat to walk away from the accord and reimpose sanctions.

Trump has called the existing accord "insane" and "ridiculous," in part because its restrictions start to expire in 2025.

French President Emmanuel Macron has proposed an additional deal that extends Iran's nuclear restrictions while also curbing its ballistic missile program and support for militias in the Middle East.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani rejected any hopes of rewriting the nuclear deal itself.

Photoe Credit: Wikicommons

Iranians Flock to Empty Exchangers After Currency Fix

Confused and frustrated Iranians flocked to exchange offices on Tuesday after the government fixed a new rate for the dollar, only to find there were none to buy.

On Ferdowsi Street in central Tehran, home to dozens of banks and currency exchanges, many had hoped to find much cheaper dollars than the day before.

Overnight, the government had announced it was fixing the rate at 42,000 rials per dollar in a bid to arrest a slide in the currency, which has lost more than a third of its value against the greenback in six months.

But all along Ferdowsi Street, exchangers were turning hundreds of people away or had signs up saying: "We have no dollars to sell", while rate boards showed blank spaces for US and European currencies.

"Last night on TV I heard it's 42,000 so I came here to buy some for my son who is overseas. I've checked every exchanger but I couldn't find any dollars," said Tahmoores Faravahar, a 71-year-old retired oil sector worker.

A day earlier, some reported dollars selling at a record-high rate of 60,000 rials—pushed up by fears over tensions with the United States and a difficult political and economic situation at home.

"The truth is that the people can't trust the word of the government that their money will be safe," said a trader who sold currency on the street and asked to remain anonymous.

"People don't have hope in the political and economic situation in this country. People are confused and just want to keep their money safe by turning it into dollars."

One exchange office said it was never clear when the central bank would deliver dollars for them to sell.

"I don't know why they haven't come yet today," he said in the early afternoon. "But the new rate is good. The price was not normal these last few days."

'Everything is down'

Another street trader said the recent currency speculation was driven by the fact that people had few other options to make cash.

"If you look at the market, everything is down except the dollar. Real estate is down, the retail sector is down. People need income so it's a good idea to buy and sell dollars and make some money," he said.

"Last night, the government lowered the price and some people had a heart attack, but it won't stay like this."

He said exchangers would find ways to fiddle the system to get round the new fixed rate, even though Vice President Eshagh Jahangiri warned this would be considered smuggling.

"Just like the smuggling of drugs, no one has the right to buy or sell it... If any other exchange rate is formed in the market, the judiciary and security forces will deal with it," Jahangiri warned on state television.

Some said this had only created fear and confusion. "I want to sell some dollars but no one wants to buy them because the market is not safe," said a man in his forties, who did not give his name.

"The exchanges are worried about the situation because the government says it is smuggling if they sell above the new rate, so no one wants to sell," he said.

Meanwhile, for the many journalists covering the scene at Ferdowsi Street on Tuesday, there was another, unexplained phenomenon. "There are so many police here, but no one has asked us anything," said one local reporter.

Other media, including AFP reporters, said it was the first time they had been left to work without even being asked for their papers or being told to move on.

Journalists have felt less pressure since President Hassan Rouhani came to power in 2013, but police routinely hassle reporters and stop them filming in public. "It's like a dream," said one journalist as police walked past his video camera without batting an eye.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Iran Sticking to Nuclear Deal: UN Watchdog

Iran is still sticking to the 2015 nuclear accord, a UN atomic watchdog report showed Thursday, four months ahead of US President Donald Trump's deadline to fix its "disastrous flaws".

The International Atomic Energy Agency document, the ninth since the deal came into force in January 2016, showed Iran complying with the accord's key parameters.

The number of centrifuges to enrich uranium was below the agreed level of 5,060, while Iran's total stockpile of low-enriched uranium "has not exceeded 300 kg", said the report seen by AFP.

Uranium when enriched to high purities can be used in a nuclear weapon. At low purities it can be used for peaceful applications such as power generation—Iran's stated aim.

The volume of heavy water, a reactor coolant, remained below the agreed maximum of 130 tonnes throughout the past three months.

Iran has inched above that ceiling twice since the accord took effect. It removed and rendered inoperable the core of the Arak reactor, which could in theory have produced weapons-grade plutonium, before the accord entered into force.

Aside from the relatively minor breach on heavy water, the IAEA reports have consistently shown Iran adhering to the deal in the two years since it took effect.

However, the future of the hard-won agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany is highly uncertain.

Trump in January set a 120-day deadline for US lawmakers and European
allies to "fix" his predecessor Barack Obama's main foreign policy achievement or face a US exit. He is concerned that parts of the deal start to expire from 2026 and that
it fails to address Iran's missile programme, its regional activities or its human rights abuses.

A US exit could kill the nuclear deal, which the Islamic Republic has refused to re-negotiate. While Iran has reaped massive economic benefits from the accord, notably by being able to resume oil exports, it is still constrained by US sanctions in other areas.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned Europe signatories against compromising on the deal, saying it would be a "slippery slope in a very dangerous direction".

The IAEA report also said that Iran informed it in January of a decision to "construct naval nuclear propulsion in future". The IAEA has asked Tehran for further details. Press reports in the past have said that Tehran wants to develop nuclear-powered ships and/or submarines.

Photo Credit: Wikicommons

Iran Teams Carry Plane Crash Dead Down From Mountain

Emergency teams on Wednesday began recovering bodies from a plane crash in Iran's Zagros mountains but the operation had to be suspended due to bad weather, officials said.

Aseman Airlines flight EP3704, carrying 66 people, disappeared from radar on Sunday morning around 45 minutes after taking off from Tehran on a domestic flight. No survivors have been found.

Search helicopters located the crash site after a break in the weather on Tuesday at a height of around 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) in the Dena range.

Helicopters were unable to land but officials said a recovery operation had begun on Wednesday, with emergency personnel carrying bodies on their backs to a road at the foot of the mountain.

The Iranian Red Crescent later said the operation had to be suspended as the bad weather returned, news agency ISNA reported.

It was unclear how many bodies had been recovered. One official reported seven bodies recovered but the Red Crescent said 32 "packages" had been brought down from the mountain and that these were not necessarily entire bodies.

A local rescue official told news agency ILNA that it should be possible to identify most of the remains.

The crash of the ATR-72 twin-engine plane, which had been in service since 1993, reawakened concerns over aviation safety in Iran, which has been exacerbated by international sanctions over the years.

Aseman Airlines was blacklisted by the European Commission in December 2016. It was one of only three airlines barred over safety concerns -- the other 190 being blacklisted due to broader concerns over oversight in their
respective countries.

By Eric Randolph in Tehran

Photo Credit: Morteza Salehi

Hazardous Effort to Recover Bodies From Plane Crash in Iran Mountains

Iranian rescue teams struggled to recover bodies on Tuesday from the wreckage of a plane that crashed in hazardous terrain near a mountain peak two days earlier with 66 people on board.

"Deep and dangerous crevices in the area of the crash have made it impossible for helicopters to land," Ghafoor Rastinrooz, director of the regional medical centre, told official news agency IRNA. "The bodies must be transferred by hand to the foot of the mountain which will be time-consuming," he said.

Aseman Airlines flight EP3704 disappeared from radar as it flew over the Zagros mountain range on Sunday morning, around 45 minutes after taking off from Tehran on a domestic flight.

After two days of heavy snow and fog, the weather finally cleared on Tuesday morning, allowing a helicopter crew to spot a piece of the wreckage with the company's logo.

A pilot told state broadcaster IRIB he had seen "scattered bodies around the plane" and that it was located on one of the Dena mountains at a height of around 4,000 metres (13,000 feet).

Footage from the helicopter showed a glimpse of the wreckage in deep snow on a sheer mountain face, while officials warned that bad weather was due to return in a few hours.

Around 100 mountaineers have been making their way up the mountain since Monday and teams were being choppered to near the crash site. "Helicopters are dropping off the rescue and relief teams in the nearest spot possible, as accessing the site of the crash is very difficult," Ali Abedzadeh, head of the Civil Aviation Organisation, told state TV.

"Only highly professional and trained mountaineers can go there, get close to the plane and bring back the bodies," he said.

Aviation Safety

The ATR-72 twin-engine plane, in service since 1993, flew early Sunday from the capital's Mehrabad airport towards the city of Yasuj, some 500 kilometres (300 miles) to the south.

A team of crash investigators from French air safety agency BEA was due to arrive in Iran later on Tuesday. The incident has reawakened concerns over aviation safety in Iran, which has been exacerbated by international sanctions over the years.

Aseman Airlines was blacklisted by the European Commission in December 2016. It was one of only three airlines barred over safety concerns -- the other 190 being blacklisted due to broader concerns over oversight in their respective countries.

Iran has complained that sanctions imposed by the United States have jeopardised the safety of its airlines and made it difficult to maintain and modernise ageing fleets.

Aseman was forced to ground many of its planes at the height of the sanctions due to difficulties in obtaining spares. In a working paper presented to the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in 2013, Iran said US sanctions were blocking "the acquisition of parts, services and support essential to aviation safety".

Iran has suffered multiple aviation disasters, most recently in 2014 when 39 people were killed as a Sepahan Airlines plane crashed just after take-off from Tehran, narrowly avoiding many more deaths when it plummeted near a busy market.

But figures from the Flight Safety Foundation, a US-based NGO, suggest Iran is nonetheless above-average in implementing ICAO safety standards.

Lifting sanctions on aviation purchases was a key clause in the nuclear deal that Iran signed with world powers in 2015. Following the deal, Aseman Airlines finalised an agreement to buy 30 Boeing 737 MAX jets for $3 billion (2.4 billion euros) last June, with an option to buy 30 more.

The sale could still be scuppered if US President Donald Trump chooses to reimpose sanctions in the coming months, as he has threatened to do.

By Eric Randolph in Tehran

Photo Credit: Ali Khodaei

New Wave Of Iranian Globetrotters Hits The Road

A travel frenzy is gripping young Iranians, who are inspiring each other through social media to overcome traditional constraints and expand their horizons.

The exploits of young Iranian travelers, hitchhiking and backpacking their way around the globe, have become immensely popular on Instagram and Telegram, the most widely used apps in Iran, with some gathering more than 200,000 followers.

Iran has long had a globetrotting elite thanks to the large diaspora that fled to the United States and Europe after the 1979 revolution, but now it is the turn of the emerging middle class to stretch their wings, overcoming cultural barriers and parental worries in the process.

Sara Louee, 31, grew up thinking that holidays were a family trip to the northern coasts of Iran.

But two years ago, she met a group of foreigners through the website couchsurfing.com and joined them as they hitchhiked to the ancient city of Yazd.

She was unprepared: "I had absolutely no equipment. I was wearing flimsy girly shoes and had borrowed a backpack from a friend," she told AFP.

But her mind was opened to a world of possibility and she was soon saving for a 40-day trip around Europe, even if it meant battling with her conservative-minded parents.

"My family didn't accept it easily or overnight. I went through a lot of pain. But I gradually proved I could do it with shorter trips and gained their trust," said Louee, who now blogs regularly about her travels.

"These days, if I stay home at the weekend, my dad comes over and asks if something is wrong," she added, laughing.

'Strangers in your room?!'

Other young Iranians, particularly women, say they had been taught that travelling alone was dangerous.

"When I told people I stayed in a hostel in Europe, Iranians would be shocked and say 'You mean there were strangers in your room?! Didn't they do anything to you?'" said Mahzad Elyassi, another travel blogger.

She only heard about hitchhiking for the first time in 2015 but has since travelled to all 32 of Iran's provinces and 20 countries.

"We've proven that Iran is really safe for such trips. It's become a trend.

"One woman said she used my Instagram page to convince her husband, saying: 'If she can do it alone, so can we.'"

Last year, Iran recorded 9.2 million departures, a 38.5-percent increase on the previous year and almost double the numbers a decade ago.

The trend has been helped by President Hassan Rouhani, who came to power in 2013 promising to improve Iran's relations with the world.

Iranians are not welcome everywhere: the United States this year banned them from entry unless they have close family, and European countries have strict and laborious procedures for tourists designed to weed out poor people.

But much of the rest of the world is welcoming Iran's tourist boom, with 38 countries now waiving visas for Iranians.

They include Georgia, Russia, Turkey and Malaysia, and talks are reportedly under way with India.

Tech Support

That has helped encourage travel among those outside of the rich elite by putting the focus on cheaper countries.

"Maybe Iranians don't have enough dollars or euros to travel to Europe but they can explore places like southeast Asia," said Elyassi.

Technology has also been crucial.

"When I started, Google Maps didn't exist. People couldn't just easily travel and share their experiences," said Reza Pakravan, 43, one of Iran's best-known travelers after he broke the world record for crossing the Sahara on a bike.

Alireza Zafari, 38, has spent two years on the "Herculean task" of documenting the whole of Iran for travelers, a project he expects will take another eight years to complete.

He hopes to encourage more Iranians and foreigners to visit Iran's beauty spots rather than the default option of popping across the border to Turkey, still the top choice for Iranians with 2.1 million visits last year thanks to cheap package tours and the availability of booze.

"The reason behind the travel wave is that people have become aware of the world, and technology gives them easy access to the information they need," Zafari told AFP.

By Ali Noorani in Tehran

Photo Credit: Negar Ghaffari, Iran Open Album