Tehran

TEHRAN: Five of the 14 Iranian border guards who had been abducted on the border with Pakistan in October returned home following consultations with Pakistani diplomatic and military officials, Iranian media reported. The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Public Relations Department announced in a statement that the abductees returned to Iran Wednesday night after consultation and interaction with Pakistan. Last week, the Pakistani armed forces and law enforcement agencies safely recovered the five Iranian guards.…

WASHINGTON: The US Treasury Department on Tuesday slapped sanctions on an Iranian paramilitary group along with a network of businesses that were providing it financing, as part of Washington’s campaign of maximum economic pressure against Tehran. In announcing the sanctions, Treasury said a network of more than 20 businesses known as the Bonyad Taavon Basij was financing the Basij Resistance Force, a component of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). It also accused the militia of sending child soldiers to…

ISLAMABAD: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday called Prime Minister-designate and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan. The Iranian President congratulated him on his election victory. Both discussed bilateral relations and other matters of mutual interest. President Rouhani said that Pakistan and Iran are not merely neighboring countries but also bonded by religious and cultural values. He also invited Imran Khan for a formal visit to Iran which was gladly accepted. Imran Khan said he would visit…

ISLAMABAD: The Embassy of Pakistan in Tehran organized a ceremony on Friday to observe solidarity with the innocent Kashmiris of the Indian Occupied Kashmir who have been recently subjected to worst kind of brutalities by Indian forces, says a press release received here from Tehran. Ambassador of Pakistan to Iran Asif Durrani, in his speech, paid homage to the sacrifices of the valiant Kashmiris and said that the recent brutal use of force by the Indian forces had failed to suppress the indigenous struggle of the…

WASHINGTON: United States on Friday charged and sanctioned nine Iranians and an Iranian company for attempting to hack into hundreds of universities worldwide, dozens of companies and parts of the U.S. government, including its main energy regulator, on behalf of Tehran’s government.  The cyber attacks, beginning in at least 2013, pilfered more than 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property from 144 U.S. universities and 176 universities in 21 other countries, the U.S. Department of Justice said, describing…

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron called on his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Sunday to put the "necessary pressure" on the Syrian government to halt "indiscriminate" attacks on civilians in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta. During a telephone call between the two leaders, Macron underscored the "particular responsiblity for Iran, because of its ties to the regime, regarding the implementation of the humanitarian truce" sought by the UN, his office said. Their talks came as a monitoring group said…

TEHRAN: Some 450 people have been arrested in the Iranian capital over the past three days during unrest linked to protests, an official told local media on Tuesday. "200 people were arrested on Saturday, 150 on Sunday and around 100 on Monday," Ali-Asghar Naserbakht, a deputy in the Tehran city governor's office, told the reformist-linked ILNA news agency. Protests have been relatively small in country compared with many parts of the country since the unrest began last Thursday. "We feel the situation in country is…

DUBAI: Street protests hit Iran for a third day running on Saturday, spreading to the capital Tehran with crowds confronting police and attacking some state buildings, and a social media report said two demonstrators had been shot dead in a provincial town. The wave of anti-government demonstrations, prompted in part by discontent over economic hardship and alleged corruption, are the most serious since months of unrest in 2009 that followed the disputed re-election of then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Saturday’s…

LONDON: The deputy head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned Europe that if it threatens Tehran, the Guards will increase the range of missiles to above 2,000 kilometers, the Fars news agency reported on Saturday. France has called for an “uncompromising” dialogue with Iran about its ballistic missile program and a possible negotiation over the issue separate from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Iran has repeatedly said its missile program is defensive and not negotiable. “If we have kept the range of our…

TEHRAN: Flash floods triggered by heavy rain in northeastern Iran have left at least 11 people dead and two missing, the Red Crescent said on Saturday. "So far 11 people have died in this accident -- eight of them in Khorasan Razavi, two in Golestan and another in North Khorasan," Red Crescent rescue chief Morteza Salimi told the ISNA news agency. Friday's storms caused flooding in five provinces and some villages remained cut off on Saturday. The two people missing were part of a family of three whose car…