Syria and Iran Sign 'Strategic' Economic Agreement

Syria and Iran signed 11 agreements and memoranda of understanding late Monday, including a "long-term strategic economic cooperation" deal aimed at strengthening cooperation between Damascus and one of its key allies in the civil war that has torn the country apart.

The agreements covered a range of fields including economy, culture, education, infrastructure, investment and housing, the official Sana news agency reported.

They were signed during a visit to Damascus by Iran's First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri.

Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis said it was "a message to the world on the reality of Syrian-Iranian cooperation", citing "legal and administrative facilities" to benefit Iranian companies wishing to invest in Syria and contribute "effectively to reconstruction".

The agreements included two memos of understanding between the railway authorities of the two countries as well as between their respective investment promotion authorities.

In relation to infrastructure, there was also rehabilitation of the ports of Tartus and Latakia as well as construction of a 540 megawatt energy plant, according to Khamis.

In addition there were "dozens of projects in the oil sector and agriculture", he added.

The civil war has taken an enormous toll on the Syrian economy and infrastructure, with the cost of war-related destruction estimated by the UN at about USD 400 billion.

Iran will stand "alongside Syria during the next phase that will be marked by reconstruction", Jahangiri promised.

Iran and Syria had already signed a military cooperation agreement in August while Tehran has supported Damascus economically during the conflict through oil deliveries and several lines of credit.

The new agreements come against the backdrop of fresh US sanctions against Iran, while Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime and several Syrian businesspeople and companies are already on US and European blacklists.

They also come as Israel has repeatedly pledged to keep arch-foe Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where the war has already claimed more than 360,000 lives and displaced several million people.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Amid Cool Response, US Says Warsaw Conference Not Aimed at Iran

A US-Polish conference next month on the Middle East is not aimed at Iran, a US official said Monday, after key players balked at attending.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to head to Warsaw for the February 13-14 "Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East," which he earlier said would look at "making sure Iran is not a destabilizing influence."

But the conference has drawn few concrete RSVPs amid unease over the hard US line on Iran, with EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini saying she had previous commitments even though the event is taking place in the European Union.

A senior US official, previewing the conference to reporters, said that Iran would not be a specific agenda item.

"It's important to underscore that this is not an anti-Iran meeting or coalition-building exercise," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"From the start, this ministerial has been focused on exploring a range of issues important to the region's security and prosperity," he said. 

He said Pompeo "will certainly discuss concerns regarding Iran's destructive policies in the region," but said this was because "it's difficult to talk about the region's challenges without referencing Iran."

The official said that the conference would discuss the crises in Syria and Yemen as well as missile proliferation, cyber issues, human rights and refugees, with working groups then tasked with following up.

The conference, which Pompeo said will draw ministers from around the world, comes almost exactly as Iran marks 40 years since its Islamic revolution and after the United States reimposed sweeping sanctions on the country. 

Iran summoned a Polish diplomat to protest the conference, which it called a hostile act.

A Polish official said that, despite serving as co-host, that Poland still supports an international agreement on Iran's nuclear program from which President Donald Trump withdrew.

Russia has also said it will not attend the conference because of its "one-country" focus and failure to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Photo Credit: Polish MFA

EU's Iran Payments Vehicle Ready - But Stuck

A payment mechanism the EU hopes will save the Iran nuclear deal by bypassing US sanctions is ready, diplomats said Monday, but is held up by disagreements among European countries.

The "Special Purpose Vehicle" is being put together by Germany, France and Britain, the European signatories to the 2015 accord that curbed Tehran's nuclear ambitions in return for sanctions reilef.

The entity, to be based in France with German governance and finance from all three countries, will allow Iran to receive payments despite Washington reimposing sanctions after ditching the deal.

"It will be registered, it is not yet registered. I would say that we are immediately before the point of the implementation of our plan," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said at a meeting in Brussels organized by the Belgian government.

While the vehicle is the work of the three governments involved, the EU wants to launch it along with a formal statement on Iran endorsed by all 28 member states and addressing the whole spectrum of European concerns about the Islamic republic.

The EU has commended Iran for sticking to its commitments under the nuclear deal, but has growing concerns about Tehran's ballistic missile program, as well as its human rights record, its interference in Middle East conflicts and recent attempted attacks against opposition groups in Europe.

Diplomatic sources said that Italy and Spain have so far blocked the adoption of the statement, meaning it may have to wait until the next formal meeting of EU ministers on February 12.

It is not clear whether Germany, France and Britain will wait for consensus on the statement or go ahead and launch the vehicle without it.

Photo Credit: Phototek

Iran Accuses France of 'Destabilizing' Region

Iran has accused France of being a destabilizing force in the region after its foreign minister threatened new sanctions against Tehran over its missile program.

"The Islamic republic has always called for the strengthening of peace and stability in the region," the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement released overnight Friday.

As such Iran "considers the mass sales of sophisticated and offensive weapons by... France as a factor in destabilizing the balance of the region," the statement said.

It came after French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Friday said Paris was ready to impose new sanctions on Tehran if talks on its missile program and its regional influence fail to make progress.

"We have begun a difficult dialogue with Iran... and unless progress is made we are ready to apply sanctions, firmly, and they know it," Le Drian said.

Le Drian also demanded that Iran change its behavior in the region, specifically regarding its military presence in Syria.

The Iranian foreign ministry responded saying "Iran's missile program is not negotiable" and warned that "any new sanction by European countries will lead to a review of our relations with them".

Iran reined in most of its nuclear program under a landmark 2015 deal with major powers—Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States—that lifted sanctions on the Iran.

But in May the United States withdrew from the deal and re-imposed sanctions on Tehran.

The EU has been trying to set up a special payment mechanism to maintain trade and business ties with Iran and circumvent the US sanctions.

Tehran has continued to develop its ballistic missile technology but says it has no intention of acquiring atomic weapons and that its missile development programs are purely defensive.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran Deplores 'Unjustifiable' German Banning of Mahan Air

Iran's foreign ministry on Tuesday deplored Germany's decision to ban Iranian airline Mahan air from its airports describing the move as "hasty and unjustifiable.”

"The rescinding of Mahan Air's flight permits to Germany is a hasty, unjustifiable act," the ministry said in a statement.

"This action is in conflict with the spirit governing the long-standing relations between the Iranian and German nations," and "contrary to the interests of bilateral relations, it said.

Iran said it hope Germany will reconsider its decision.

Germany said on Monday it had banned Mahan Air from its airports.

Germany foreign ministry spokesman Christofer Burger told reporters in Berlin the move was necessary to protect Germany's "foreign and security policy interests".

A spokeswoman at Germany's transport ministry said Iran had been informed that the ban would take effect from Monday and involve Mahan Air flights from and to Germany.

Mahan Air, Iran's second-largest carrier after Iran Air, flies four services a week between Tehran and the German cities of Dusseldorf and Munich.

The ban caused confusion and chaos for Mahan Air passengers as the airline rushed to secure replacement flights for them.

"I've been in the aviation industry for decades, and I've never seen such a thing" a Mahan Air employee from the company's Dusseldorf office told AFP in Tehran on Tuesday.

"It borders on cruelty for all of these passengers," he said on condition of anonymity, adding that staff had been fielding calls from distraught passengers all day long.

Mahan air was blacklisted by the US in 2011, as Washington said the carrier was providing technical and material support to an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards known as the Quds Force.

Iran's aging air fleet has had a string of crashes in recent years mostly due to tough decades-long US sanctions hindering the purchase of new airplanes and critical spare parts for its civilian fleet.

Hopes for a change in the situation were dashed last May when Washington pulled out of a landmark 2015 deal over Iran's nuclear program, reimposing sanctions that had been lifted as part of the multilateral accord.

Photo Credit:

Russia Snubs US-Polish Conference on Iran

Russia on Tuesday slammed a planned US-Polish conference on peace and security in the Middle East as "counterproductive" because of its focus on countering Iran, and said it would not attend.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced plans for the major conference in Warsaw on February 13 and 14 to be attended by ministers from a dozen countries.

Addressing the UN Security Council, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the conference would fail to bolster Middle East security because of its "one-country aspect" and failure to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Attempts to create some kind of military alliances in the region by holding conferences and focussing on having a simplified unilateral approach that is clearly linked just to Iran are counterproductive," Nebenzia told a council debate on the Middle East.

Such a move "just further pushes away the prospects of finding a genuine security architecture for the region," he added.

In Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry released a statement saying Russia would not attend the meeting which is described as an "anti-Iran platform" and a bid to create conditions to weaken the Iran nuclear deal.

"Why has that conference not invited Iran, which is one of the most significant and large countries in the region?" asked Nebenzia.

Iran has reacted angrily to the planned conference and warned Poland that it could face consequences for hosting the gathering.

Pompeo first announced the conference on January 11 to bring together countries in addressing peace and security in the Middle East, and make "sure that Iran is not a destabilizing influence" in the region.

The conference has also received a cool reception from European countries. 

Facing a lack of enthusiasm, acting US Ambassador Jonathan Cohen described the Warsaw meeting as a "global brainstorming session" and stressed that it was "not the venue to demonize or attack Iran."

Some of the agenda items for the conference include the humanitarian crises in Syria and Yemen, missile development and cyber security, Cohen told the council.

Photo Credit: UN

Polish Deputy FM in Tehran Over Conference Row

Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Maciej Lang met in Tehran on Monday with his Iranian counterpart in an effort to solve a dispute over a conference his country is to host.

Lang described as "constructive" his talks with Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi over the jointly organized conference with the United States on peace and security in the Middle East.

"We spoke about a wide range of issues, including misunderstandings about the Warsaw conference, and I presented our point of view on this issue. We had a long discussion and I hope that I did it in a clear way," Lang told AFP in an interview.

"For Poland this conference is not against any country," he said.

The summit had first been announced on January 11 by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said that it "includes an important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilizing influence" in the region.

The Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement the reasons provided by the Polish government for organizing the summit were unacceptable and that the Poles "must be mindful of the consequences".

The Islamic republic would not allow any country in or outside the region "to build coalitions against its interests", the statement said.

Lang expressed hopes that the conference would have a positive impact on relations with Iran.

"We intend to organize an event to discuss problems. Basically the outcome of this conference is to find a process serving stability in the region," he said.

"We believe the outcome will be positive. Why should we suppose that relations with Iran would suffer?"

Iran had reacted angrily to the conference when news of it first broke.

Poland's charge d'affaires was summoned by the Iranian foreign ministry to "protest the anti-Iranian so-called peace and security conference" on January 13.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif poured scorn on the Warsaw summit and pointed out that the country welcomed more than 100,000 Polish refugees during World War II.

"Polish Govt can't wash the shame: while Iran saved Poles in WWII, it now hosts a desperate anti-Iran circus," Zarif tweeted on January 11.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Resisting New Technology is 'Outdated' Says Iran's Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday said resistance against new technologies is "outdated" as he once again criticized the judiciary's blocking of social media.

"Resisting new technologies and modern developments is an outdated approach," Rouhani said in a speech broadcast by state television.

"We can see that some still oppose new phenomena especially those related to communication and information," he added.

Iran in recent years has blocked access to many social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and in May the judiciary blocked the Telegram messaging app.

In May Rouhani said the government does not approve of the judiciary's blockage of Telegram—the country's most popular social network with some 40 million users or around half the population. 

In his speech Monday he said preventing Iranians from accessing social would amount to creating a forbidden fruit which they would crave more.

"Filtering is not the solution. We must raise the society's digital literacy so that they can use it (social media) without being harmed by it," Rouhani said.

"We don't have free media in Iran and only have state television and radio," he said.

"Everything is congested in the cyberspace ... everyone wants to say everything in this space since they don't have any other media," he added.

In January, Iranian media said the judiciary was mulling banning Instagram, the last major platform still freely available in the country.

Despite social media restrictions, Iranians including top officials such as Rouhani himself and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif continue to use services such as Twitter, which are widely accessible via proxy servers.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Germany Plans to Sanction Iran Airline

Germany said Monday it had banned Iranian airline Mahan Air from its airports, in an escalation of sanctions adopted by the European Union against Tehran over attacks on opponents in the bloc.

The move was necessary to protect Germany's "foreign and security policy interests", foreign ministry spokesman Christofer Burger told reporters at a regular Berlin press conference.

Officials at the Federal Aviation Office (LBA) sent Tehran-based Mahan Air a notification "ordering the immediate suspension of its authorization to operate passenger flights from and to Germany" from Monday, a transport ministry spokeswoman added.

Mahan, Iran's second-largest carrier after Iran Air, flies four services a week between Tehran and the German cities of Duesseldorf and Munich.

It was blacklisted by the US in 2011, as Washington said the carrier was providing technical and material support to an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards known as the Quds Force.

The US treasury has threatened sanctions against countries and companies offering the airline's 31 aircraft landing rights or services such as on-board dining.

But Brussels and Washington have been at odds on how best to deal with Iran since President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from a 2015 deal lifting some sanctions in exchange for Tehran suspending its nuclear program.

'Destabilizing Activity'

Foreign ministry spokesman Burger reiterated that Germany wished to "uphold" the agreement "and play our part in keeping economic exchange with Iran possible".

"But we have always said that destabilizing activity by Iran in the (Middle East) region as well as Iran's ballistic missile program are unacceptable," he added.

"On top of that, there are recent indications regarding the activities of Iran's secret services within EU states."

The EU earlier this month targeted sanctions at Iran's security services and two of their leaders, accused of involvement in a series of murders and planned attacks against Tehran critics in the Netherlands, Denmark and France.

Brussels' measures included freezing funds and financial assets belonging to Iran's intelligence ministry and individual officials, but did not target any companies.

US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, a close Trump ally, welcomed Berlin's decision.

"Mahan Air has flown terrorists, weapons, equipment, and funds to international locations to support Iranian terrorist proxy groups," he said in a statement, adding that it had been used "to support the Assad regime in Syria."

Since his arrival, Grenell has exerted unusually intense pressure on German firms over Iran sanctions.

Rail operator Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Telekom, Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler and industrial group Siemens have all said they will stop their operations in the country.

Last week German authorities said they had arrested a German-Afghan military advisor on suspicion of spying for Iran.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iraq Likely Theater if US, Iran Tensions Worsen: Study

Iraq could bear the brunt if conflict intensifies between Iran and the United States, a think-tank study said Wednesday.

The International Crisis Group, which researches ways to prevent war, interviewed officials around the world including Iran for an extensive report on the state of the 2015 denuclearization accord between Tehran and major powers.

President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States and ramped up economic pressure aimed at isolating Iran, although Europeans still back the accord negotiated under former president Barack Obama.

The International Crisis Group said that Iran would likely continue to comply with the deal, seeing itself as holding the moral high ground and capable of waiting out Trump, who faces re-election next year.

But the study said that Tehran's calculations could change if its oil exports, which stood at 3.8 million barrels a day in 2017, fall below 700,000, a level that could trigger hyper-inflation and intensify domestic protests which for now appear manageable.

If Iran decides to retaliate against the United States, the report said that Tehran may find its most attractive option to be to employ its proxies around the Middle East, a path that would be murky enough to avoid a strong European reaction.

The report quoted a senior Iranian national security official as saying that the likeliest theater was Iraq, where militias from the Shiite majority have close ties with Tehran. 

"Iraq is where we have experience, plausible deniability and the requisite capability to hit the US below the threshold that would prompt a direct retaliation," the official was quoted as saying.

Iran is also deeply involved in Syria and Lebanon, but the two countries are especially fragile and Tehran could lose its gains, the official said.

Iran has limited assets in Afghanistan, while stepping up support for Huthi rebels in Yemen would hurt regional rival Saudi Arabia more than the United States, the official said.

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Trump's hawkish national security adviser, John Bolton, asked for military options to strike Iran after an Iranian-linked group launched a mortar attack in September on Baghdad's "Green Zone," the protected area where the US embassy is located. The US says its embassy was the target.

No one was hurt and demonstrators also ransacked the Iranian consulate in Basra during the wave of protests over economic conditions in Iraq.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Opel Helps France's PSA Buck China, Iran Auto Downturn

French auto giant Groupe PSA, which makes the Citroen and Peugeot brands, reported record vehicle sales Tuesday as the acquisition of General Motors' Opel unit helped offset a sharp downturn in key markets China and Iran.

PSA sold 3.88 million vehicles, up 6.8 percent from 2017 when it acquired the Opel business which includes British-based Vauxhall.

PSA said that without the Opel contribution, 2018 sales would have been down 12 percent despite a strong showing in Europe.

Ranked second in Europe after Germany's Volkswagen, PSA said it did well last year to increase overall sales "for a fifth consecutive year... against a background of adverse economic and geopolitical winds."

The company failed, however, to hit the overall target of four million vehicles it had set, largely due to the impact of fresh sanctions imposed on Iran by US President Donald Trump and a slump in China.

PSA announced in June that it was suspending operations in Iran, where it would have expected sales of 300,000 vehicles.

In China, PSA said sales plunged more than 34 percent in an overall market down nearly six percent.

Total sales in China and Southeast Asia fell for a fourth consecutive year to 262,600.

PSA and its Chinese partner and major shareholder Dongfeng, sold 740,000 vehicles in China in 2014 and had targeted one million for last year.

The company said early last year that it hoped that new SUV models and upgrading its distribution network would boost sales in China.

In Europe, PSA said sales jumped 30.6 percent to 3.1 million vehicles, accounting for 80 percent of the total compared with 65 percent in 2017.

The Opel and Vauxhall brands chalked up sales of around one million vehicles.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran Satellite in US Row Fails to Reach Orbit

Iran launched a satellite criticized by the United States as a breach of a UN resolution on Tuesday but it failed to reach orbit, the telecommunications minister said.

Iran's arch foe Israel swiftly condemned the launch, which it charged was cover for the testing of the first stage of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

"The Payam satellite was successfully launched this morning with the Safir satellite carrier," Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi told state television.

"But the satellite unfortunately failed to be placed in orbit in the final stage."

The Payam (Message in Persian) and its launch vehicle had gone through successful testing of its first and second stages, the minister said.

But in the actual launch, the satellite failed to reach the required speed on detachment from the rocket in the third stage.

Both the Payam and its carrier were designed and produced at Tehran's Amirkabir University of Technology.

University head Ahmad Motamedi said Amirkabir had already received an order for a replacement, Mehr news agency reported.

Iran also plans to launch another low Earth orbit satellite, the Doosti (Friendship in Persian), Jahromi said.

He did not give a date for the launch but said the satellite was intended to orbit the earth at an altitude of 250 kilometres (156 miles).

"We will do our best to place it in the orbit," he said.

Iran has said repeatedly that its space program, like its wider ballistic missile programme, is for scientific research and defense purposes only. 

The Payam and the Doosti were both designed to gather information on environmental change in Iran, President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday.

"The satellite will give us all the information we need, and we will prove to the world that we are a country of science," Rouhani said.

But Israel and its US ally both claim the space program is cover for the development of longer-range ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads.

"Iran is lying now that it launched an innocent satellite to space," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the abortive launch.

"It actually wants to achieve the first stage of an intercontinental missile, in violation of all international agreements," he told a ceremony in Tel Aviv for the investiture of new armed forces chief of staff, Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi.

"We fully support the United State's firm objection to this act of aggression," he added.

Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Iran's plans to send satellites into orbit would violate the UN Security Council resolution that endorsed a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between major powers and Tehran.

Tehran reined in most of its nuclear program under the deal, since abandoned by Washington last year, but has continued to develop its ballistic missile and rocket technology. 

Security Council Resolution 2231 calls on Iran to refrain from testing missiles designed to be capable of carrying a nuclear weapon, but does not specifically bar Tehran from missile or rocket launches.

Washington says the space launches violate the resolution.

Iran's satellite-delivery rockets use technology "virtually identical" to nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, Pompeo said on January 3.

“The United States will not stand by and watch the Iranian regime's destructive policies place international stability and security at risk."

Tehran denied the planned launch was a violation of Resolution 2231.

"The satellite is part of a civil project with purely scientific aims, foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told the semi-official ISNA news agency.

"Iran will wait for no country's permission to conduct such scientific projects."

The Payam satellite, first designed over a decade ago, was initially expected to be launched on a foreign-manufactured rocket, project manager Mostafa Safavi told ISNA in an interview published just hours before the launch.

"The Payam is a non-military satellite with a non-military mission but some countries, thinking that it could have a military purpose, showed no enthusiasm for launching Iranian satellites," Safavi said. 

"When they did not cooperate for non-technical reasons, the satellite's specifications were altered and made ready for a domestic launcher," he added.

Iran has launched several short-life  satellites into orbit over the past decade, including the Simorgh and the Pajouhesh.

Photo Credit: IRNA

White House Sought Military Strike Against Iran

The White House demanded that the military draft plans for strikes on Iran after attacks in Iraq last year, sparking concern at the Pentagon and State Department, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

The report said the move came after a mortar attack launched by an Iran-linked group on the Baghdad diplomatic quarters home to the US embassy in September. No one was hurt by the shells, which landed in an open lot.

But the White House National Security Council (NSC) sought to develop a forceful American response to the low-scale attack, including options for a strike against the Islamic republic, the Journal reported.

It added that the NSC also requested options to respond with strikes in Iraq and Syria.

"It definitely rattled people," a former senior US administration official told the newspaper. "People were shocked. It was mind-boggling how cavalier they were about hitting Iran."

Although the Defense Department did develop proposals for a possible strike, the Journal said it was unclear whether they were shared with the White House.

In one NSC meeting, then deputy national security advisor Mira Ricardel called the attacks in Iraq an "act of war" and called for a decisive US response.

Pentagon officials stressed that it was not unusual for the Defense Department to draw up military plans for the White House.

"The Department of Defense is a planning organization and provides the president military options for a variety of threats," Colonel Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, told AFP.

He said the Pentagon's activities include "routinely reviewing and updating plans and activities to deal with a host of threats, including those posed by Iran, to deter and, if necessary, to respond to aggression."

Asked about the report during his Middle East trip, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined comment.

After the attack in Baghdad, the White House warned that "the United States will hold the regime in Tehran accountable for any attack that results in injury to our personnel or damage to United States government facilities."

“America will respond swiftly and decisively in defense of American lives," it added.

National Security Advisor John Bolton, a known Iran hawk, has pressed for regime change in the Islamic republic. 

He penned a 2015 New York Times opinion piece prior to his current role titled "To stop Iran's bomb, bomb Iran."

Photo Credit: Wikicommons

Cargo Plane Crashes in Iran, Killing 15

A military cargo plane overshot a runway, crashed and caught fire during a botched landing near the Iranian capital Tehran, killing 15 people, the army said Monday.

The plane was carrying meat from Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan when it crashed near the capital Tehran, the army said in a statement.

"The plane had 16 passengers, 14 of whom were the army crew and two were civilians; 15 were martyred," spokesman Amir Taghikhani said. "One, the flight engineer, was injured and is currently in hospital."

The charred remains of a plane's fuselage with Iranian Air Force colors, its nose wedged through the wall of what appeared to be a house, were seen in photographs obtained by AFP.

Wreckage including a landing gear and a mangled jet engine were scattered nearby.

"A (Boeing) cargo 707 place carrying meat took off from Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan and had an emergency landing at Fath airport this morning," the army said in a statement on its website.

"It exited the runway during the landing and caught fire after hitting the wall at the end of the runway."

Fath airport is in Alborz province, just northwest of Tehran.

The Fars news agency, considered close to the military, earlier said there were 16 people onboard and that only the flight engineer had survived.

State broadcaster IRIB showed footage of burning wreckage. 

Still Smoldering

Investigators found the plane's black box, which will provide more details about the crash, deputy Alborz governor Azizollah Shahbazi told Tasnim news agency.

Pictures published by local media showed the charred carcasses of the animals on board, still smoldering inside one of the buildings the plane smashed into.

Fars carried a video showing emergency teams cutting through the plane's nose, which had penetrated what it said was an empty residential complex.

Iran's aging air fleet has had a string of crashes in recent years.

Iran's Aseman Airlines was ordered to ground its fleet of ATR planes in February last year after one of them crashed in the Zagros mountains, killing all 66 people onboard. 

Iran has been subject to tough US sanctions for years, hindering the purchase of new aeroplanes and critical spare parts for the US-made planes in its air force, civilian flag carrier Iran Air and domestic airlines.

 Hopes of a change in the situation were dashed last May when Washington pulled out of a landmark 2015 deal over Iran's nuclear program, reimposing sanctions that had been lifted as part of the multilateral accord.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran Foreign Minister in Baghdad for Talks

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with his Iraqi counterpart in Baghdad on Sunday for wide-ranging talks, including on US sanctions against Tehran.

The visit came just days after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a surprise stop on his regional tour to urge Iraq to stop relying on Iran for gas and electricity imports.

Washington has granted Baghdad a waiver until late March to keep buying Iranian gas and power, despite reimposing tough sanctions on Tehran in November.

After a two-hour meeting on Sunday, Iraq's top diplomat Mohammed Ali al-Hakim said he had talked through the restrictions with his counterpart. 

"We discussed the unilateral economic measures taken by the US and are working with our neighbour (Iran) on them," Hakim said.

Zarif slammed Washington's role in the region.

"These failures have continued for the past 40 years and my proposal to countries (in the region) is to not bet on a losing horse," he told reporters. 

Iran's foreign minister went on to meet Iraqi premier Adel Abdel Mahdi, who released a statement affirming: "Iraq's policy is built on seeking the best ties with all of its neighbors." 

Zarif is expected to attend several economic forums in various Iraqi cities, including Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdish north.

 While in Baghdad, he discussed numerous political and economic issues with his Iraqi counterpart including Syria and Yemen.

Hakim said Iraq was in favour of the Arab League reinstating Syria's membership, eight years after suspending it as the conflict there unfolded.

Following Zarif's visit, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is also expected to travel to Iraq in the near future.

Iran is the second-largest source of imported goods in Iraq.

Besides canned food and cars, Baghdad also buys 1,300 megawatts of electricity and 28 million cubic meters of natural gas daily from Iran to feed power plants.

That dependence is uncomfortable for Washington, which sees Tehran as its top regional foe and expects Iraq to wean itself off Iranian energy resources. 

But energy ties between Baghdad and Tehran appear to have remained close, with Iran's oil minister visiting Baghdad last week to denounce US sanctions as "totally illegal.”

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran Summons Polish Diplomat to Protest US Summit

Iran's foreign ministry summoned Poland's top diplomat in the country to protest its decision to host what it called an "anti-Iranian" summit, a spokesman said Sunday.

Poland's charge d'affaires was summoned to "protest the anti-Iranian so-called peace and security conference," ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said on his Telegram channel.

He was told "this is a hostile act by the United States against Iran and Poland is expected to refrain from going along with the US in holding this conference," Ghasemi added.

The summit was announced Friday by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said dozens of countries would participate.

They will "focus on Middle East stability and peace and freedom and security here in this region, and that includes an important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilising influence," he told Fox News.

Poland's representative in Iran, Wojciech Unolt, reportedly said the conference, to be held February 13-14 in Warsaw, was not anti-Iranian and that Poland did not share recent remarks by the US against Iran.

The Iranian official said this was inadequate and Iran would be "forced to retaliate" if Poland did not back down.

Poland's foreign ministry said in a statement late Sunday "the international community has the right to discuss various regional and global issues.”

And Poland had the right "to co-organize a conference, whose goal is to develop a platform for actions promoting stability and prosperity in the Middle East region," it added.

Iran's cinema organization said it had cancelled a Polish film festival scheduled for next month, according to local media.

"A guest who does not honor their host cannot continue to be a guest. To honor Iran's dignity, the Polish film week in Tehran will be postponed until Warsaw's behaviour is proper," tweeted cinema organisation chief Hossein Entezami, according to the semi-official news agency ILNA.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif earlier poured scorn on the Warsaw summit and pointed out that the country, then impoverished after invasion by Britain and the Soviet Union, welcomed more than 100,000 Polish refugees during World War II.

"Polish Govt can't wash the shame: while Iran saved Poles in WWII, it now hosts a desperate anti-Iran circus," Zarif tweeted.

Photo Credit: IRNA

US to Host Global Summit on Iran in Poland, Pompeo Says

The United States is organizing an international summit in Poland next month, focusing on Iran's Middle Eastern influence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News.

Pompeo made the announcement in an interview with the network during a regional tour aimed at reassuring US allies after President Donald Trump's shock decision to withdraw all US troops from Syria, which sparked concerns that Iran's influence could grow.

"We'll bring together dozens of countries from all around the world," Pompeo told Fox.

They will "focus on Middle East stability and peace and freedom and security here in this region, and that includes an important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilizing influence," the top US diplomat said.

The event will take place on February 13 and 14.

Photo Credit: Wikicommons

Pompeo Vows to Expel 'Every Last Iranian Boot' from Syria

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed Thursday the United States and its allies would chase all Iranian troops from Syria, and urged Middle East nations to forge a common stand against Tehran.

"It's time for old rivalries to end, for the sake of the greater good of the region," said Pompeo at a keynote address in Cairo.

America "will use diplomacy and work with our partners to expel every last Iranian boot" from Syria and bolster efforts "to bring peace and stability to the long-suffering Syrian people," he added.

The top US diplomat was in Egypt on the latest leg of a whistle-stop regional tour aimed at shoring up Washington's Middle East policy following President Donald Trump's shock decision to withdraw 2,000 US troops from Syria.

Pompeo stressed the pullout would go ahead, despite comments in recent weeks appearing to walk back Trump's decision, but that the US would remain engaged.

The "decision to withdraw our troops has been made. We will do that. We will withdraw our forces, our uniformed forces, from Syria and continue America's crushing campaign," Pompeo told reporters at a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shukry.

He also met earlier with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, after arriving in Cairo late Wednesday on his longest trip since taking office last year which has already taken him to Jordan, Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital Arbil.

'New beginning'

In his address entitled "A Force for Good: America Reinvigorated in the Middle East" at the American University in Cairo, Pompeo also took aim at former president Barack Obama without naming him.

Trump's predecessor had "grossly underestimated the tenacity and viciousness of radical Islamism," Pompeo said.

And parroting Obama's words in his landmark 2009 speech in Cairo, Pompeo vowed that now was really "a new beginning" in ties between the US and the Middle East.

Pompeo's tour is aimed at urging regional allies to continue to confront the "significant threats" posed by Iran and jihadists.

Even though Islamic State group jihadists have been largely eradicated from Iraq, after capturing a vast swathe of territory in 2014, some still control a few pockets in war-torn Syria.

Pompeo will also visit Gulf countries including Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

As he arrived in Egypt, the State Department described the country as a “steadfast partner in the anti-terror fight, and a courageous voice in denouncing the radical Islamist ideology that fuels it". 

But there are rising concerns that US policy is getting bogged down. A long-promised Trump plan for a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians has so far failed to materialise. 

And many of the Trump administration's decisions have stoked confusion and angered many regional allies. 

'Middle East even messier'

"By most accounts, Trump's Middle East policy has made a messy Middle East even messier," Aaron David Miller, a former US diplomat and now an analyst at the Wilson Center, said on Twitter.

"A risk averse president who makes new policy by tweet or phone call surrounded by risk-ready advisers who run cleanup, don't respect deliberation and have objectives that aren't clear or attainable equals US policy (or lack of it) in Syria."

Turkey and the United States are now at loggerheads over the future of Syrian Kurdish forces, considered by Ankara as "terrorists", after the troop pullout.

Turkish officials had a tense meeting this week with Trump's national security adviser John Bolton in Ankara aimed at coordinating the pullout process after Bolton set conditions that appeared to postpone it indefinitely. 

The terms included total defeat of IS—still active in some Syrian regions—and ensuring that Kurdish fighters who fought alongside the Americans against the jihadists will be protected. 

On Thursday, Turkey renewed its threat to launch an offensive against Kurds. 

"If the (pullout) is put off with ridiculous excuses like Turks are massacring Kurds, which do not reflect the reality, we will implement this decision," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told NTV television.

Photo Credit: Nadeen Shaker

Iran's Khamenei: Some US Officials are 'First-Class Idiots'

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said some US officials are "first-class idiots" in a speech on Wednesday. 

"Some US officials pretend that they are mad. Of course I don't agree with that, but they are first-class idiots," he said in the speech in Tehran, quoted on his official Twitter feed.

Khamenei was having a dig at US officials who had predicted there would be regime change in Iran by the end of 2018. 

Some U.S. officials pretend that they are mad. Of course I don't agree with that, but they are first-class idiots.

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) January 9, 2019

"A while ago, a US politician had said, among a gathering of terrorists and thugs, that he hopes to celebrate this Christmas in Tehran," Khamenei said, according to his Twitter feed. 

"Christmas was a few days ago. This is how US calculations work."

It was not clear to which US official he was referring, but members of President Donald Trump's administration have called for regime change and predicted it would happen soon.

This has included National Security Advisor John Bolton—a long-time regime change advocate—who often speaks at gatherings of the exiled  People's Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) opposition group, considered a terrorist cult by Tehran's leaders. 

"Before 2019 we here will celebrate in Tehran," Bolton told an MEK meeting in Paris in July 2017.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran Behind Two Assassinations in the Netherlands: Dutch Minister

The Netherlands accused Iran Tuesday of involvement in the murder of two dissidents on Dutch soil, adding that the EU was hitting Tehran with sanctions partly as a result of the killings.

The Dutch secret service "has strong indications that Iran was involved in the assassinations of two Dutch nationals of Iranian origin in Almere 2015 and in The Hague in 2017," Foreign Minister Stef Blok said in a letter to parliament.

"These individuals were opponents of the Iranian regime," he said in the letter, also signed by Dutch Interior Minister Kajsa Ollongren.

"The Netherlands considers it probable that Iran had a hand in the preparation or commissioning of assassinations and attacks on EU territory," the ministers said.

They added that the EU had on Tuesday "partly at the recommendation of the Netherlands" agreed to impose fresh sanctions on Iran.

Dutch police have previously named the two victims as Ali Motamed, 56, who was killed in the central city of Almere in 2015, and Ahmad Molla Nissi, 52, murdered in The Hague in 2017.

Last June, the Netherlands expelled two workers from the Iranian embassy in connection with the murders.

Tehran at the time protested the expulsion of the two diplomats as an "unfriendly and destructive move" and threatened to retaliate.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen had earlier confirmed that the European Union has agreed on new sanctions targeting the Iranian Intelligence and Security Ministry and two Iranian nationals.

Denmark had led efforts for sanctions after allegations that Tehran tried to kill three Iranian dissidents on Danish soil. 

France had meanwhile hit two suspected Iranian agents with asset freezes over a plot to bomb a rally near Paris.

Photo Credit: Wikicommons