Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has urged his nation to provide equal opportunities and rights for both men and women, arguing that gender equality was crucial for economic and social progress.
In a speech marking Women’s Day in Iran on Sunday, Rouhani told a gathering of women professionals in Tehran that he strongly opposed gender discrimination, though he admitted that the country still had “a long way to go” to ensure gender equality.
The ongoing talks between U.S. and Iran politicians over the Islamic state’s nuclear program – and the resulting sanctions – signal a major shift in their bilateral relations. But there is more at stake for the two countries, rather than just these issues. Iran will need the U.S.’s help to repair its economy, while America sees Iran as an opportunity to manage its interests in the Middle East.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is secretly controlling a business empire worth over $95 billion, Reuters reported on Monday, following a six-month long investigation into Khamenei’s financial affairs.
According to Reuters, Khamenei accumulated his wealth through a little-known organisation known as Setad, which seizes thousands of Iranian properties in the name of the supreme leader.
Iran’s desperation to boost oil revenues amidst international sanctions has seen it offer free delivery of crude to remaining clients such as India, according to a report by Reuters on Monday.
Washington sanctions on Iran have undermined the very goals that it would like to achieve. Rather than engaging Tehran, the sanctions are reinforcing the hardliners; isolating a moderate sections of Iran’s community, including the business community and the middle class; dividing old U.S. allies and strengthening China’s clout in the Middle East.
The Iranian government is considering giving crude price discounts to its former customers as long as Western sanctions against it can be eased in the future, said a senior oil official on Tuesday, in the hopes of seeing a return to their old market share, which had been lost to other Middle Eastern nations.
Iran’s newly elected president Hassan Rouhani has promised to “never” develop a nuclear weapon under his reign, during a U.S. television interview ahead of a visit to the United Nations in New York.
Rouhani, who came into power in June, insisted that his country had no intention of ever building nuclear weapons and claimed to have full authority over any negotiations Tehran may have with the west over its controversial uranium enrichment programme.
The Obama administration in June introduced its ninth set of international sanctions aimed at driving Iran’s oil sales to a halt. If we are very lucky, the United States’ stepped up financial pressure could get Iran to back down on its nuclear weapons programme. But if we are less lucky, we may find ourselves with spiking oil prices.
Winning a stunning victory in the country’s six-way presidential race, Iran’s new leader Hassan Rouhani has vowed to integrate Tehran into the international community, bolstering hopes for better relations with the West. A skilled negotiator and a moderate, Rouhani’s election could be the best news in many years for the future of the whole region – for Iran, its economy, the nuclear standoff, as well as diplomatic relations with Israel.
The White House on Monday announced its ninth set of sanctions against Iran, including measures that target the Iranian rial for the first time, as it increases the pressure on Tehran to abandon its nuclear programme.
This is the first time the United States has directly targeted the Iranian currency, which has already lost two-thirds of its value against the U.S. dollar since late 2011, hurt by a relentless slew of Western sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.
