Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s parliament voted Sunday to sack the finance minister, dealing another blow to President Hassan Rouhani as he faces mounting discontent over the economy.

Critics of the ousted finance minister, Masoud Karbasian, said the government had failed to do enough to shore up the economy as President Donald Trump began restoring sanctions after withdrawing the United States from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

TEHRAN, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that they would strike Israeli cities with missiles if the Islamic country was threatened, according to local Mizan News Agency.

The Revolutionary Guards added that they will continue increasing Iran's defensive capabilities despite U.S. pressure to scrap its ballistic missile program.

On the same day, a senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami warned that if his country was attacked by the United States and Israel, Tehran will give a tit-for-tat fightback.

21 Aug 2018; AFP: Iran unveiled its first domestic fighter jet on Tuesday, with President Hassan Rouhani insisting that Tehran's military strength was only designed to deter enemies and create "lasting peace".

Images on state television showed Rouhani sitting in the cockpit of the new "Kowsar" fourth-generation fighter at the National Defence Industry exhibition in Tehran.

State media said it had "advanced avionics" and multi-purpose radar, and that it was "100-percent indigenously made" for the first time.

TASS, August 19. The US dreams of once again overthrowing the Iranian government but it will not succeed, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter.

His tweet says that "65 years ago today, the US overthrew the popularly elected democratic government of Dr. Mossadegh, restoring the dictatorship and subjugating Iranians for the next 25 years. Now an "Action Group" dreams of doing the same through pressure, misinformation and demagoguery. Never again."

TEHRAN, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Iran's missile program is a non-negotiable issue and it is not linked with the country's nuclear deal, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said here on Monday.

The Iranian 2015 international nuclear deal and the country's missile program are two separate issues, Bahram Qasemi said with a reference to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's recent remarks.

Merkel earlier said that Berlin was willing to preserve the deal in the wake of U.S. withdrawal, while expressing concern over Tehran's missile program.

MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/. The Iranian Defense Ministry has unveiled a next-generation Fateh Mubeen ballistic missile capable of evading radars and hitting targets with pinpointed accuracy, the news agency Tasnim reported on Monday.

The presentation ceremony was attended by Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami who congratulated the army and military designers with the completion of the work on the new missile.

8 Aug 2018; AFP: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Wednesday it was hard to imagine new talks with the US after it lost the trust of the world with its erratic decision-making.

"Imagine negotiating now -- how can we trust them?" Zarif told reporters on state broadcaster IRINN. "America has zig-zagged constantly, so now no one trusts them."

Zarif was speaking a day after Washington reimposed a first tranche of harsh sanctions following its withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal.

TEHRAN, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Central Bank (CBI) on Monday unveiled a new policy to protect value of rial against foreign currency.

The policy includes the lift of ban on currency trade and the activity of official money exchange markets ordered by new governor of the CBI Abdolnasser Hemati, Tasnim news agency reported.

Hemati said the policy, endorsed by President Hassan Rouhani's administration, aims to control the currency market and allow economic activists to interact freely.

TEHRAN, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Monday that the Iranians would make the United States regret for re-imposing sanctions against the Islamic republic.

"Through unity and solidarity, the Iranians will weather away the return of sanctions," Rouhani said. "Trump will learn that these kinds of pressures did not surrender Iranians in the past and will never do so in the future."

Rouhani also said that the U.S. administration "is not trustworthy for any negotiations" after its withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal.

Tehran, Aug 5, IRNA – Spokesman of the Interior Ministry Salman Sameti said on Sunday that foreigners have masterminded the recent chaotic situation in the country in protest to inflation, deplorable status of living standards being spread by cyberspace.