The woman, who has not been officially named, was found guilty of “encouraging moral corruption”, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi said.

He added that 21 months of the woman’s sentence had been suspended and that she was in need of medical treatment.

It follows dozens of similar arrests of Iranian women in recent weeks.

Most of those detained for defying the country’s strict law on appearing in public in a headscarf have been released without charge.

The woman sentenced in the capital, Tehran, on Wednesday was jailed for three months without parole.

She is “in need of long-term medical treatment and has to be seen by a psychiatrist”, Mr Jafari-Dolatabadi said.

He criticised the suspension of the majority of her sentence and argued that she should serve the full term of her penalty.

In December, an Iranian woman who was detained after defiantly taking off her headscarf and holding it on a stick in Tehran became the face of protests in the country.

Images of her standing on a telecoms box in a busy street in the city were widely shared on social media. The woman was later freed.

The photograph of the woman was first widely used in connection to the White Wednesday campaign in which women in Iran wear white to protest against the country’s strict dress code.

Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, women have been forced to cover their hair according to Islamic law on modesty.

–

Source: BBC

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Officials told state media that the wreckage had been found, but an aviation spokesman said he could not confirm this.

The Aseman Airlines passenger plane came down in the Zagros mountains on Sunday, and all 66 people on board are feared to have been killed.

Hundreds of mountaineers with dogs and drones are trying to reach the site.

The searchers face bad weather conditions. Due to fog and strong winds, helicopters that were deployed for the search at dawn on Monday have had to be grounded, a Red Crescent official told local media.

And on Sunday, teams had to stop work altogether due to winds and snow.

The ATR 72-500 twin-engine turboprop was travelling from Tehran to the south-western city of Yasuj.

Flight EP3704 left Tehran at 04:30 GMT on Sunday, and crashed about an hour later in the Mount Dena area, about 22km (14 miles) from its destination.

On Monday officials from the region told news channels rescuers had reached the site.

But both channels – IRINN and English-language Press TV – said they could not confirm the reports independently, and a civil aviation spokesman told Reuters news agency the reports could not be confirmed.

‘Grief and sorrow’

The crashed plane was 25 years old, Iran’s civil aviation organisation said.

Sixty passengers, two security guards, two flight attendants and the pilot and co-pilot were on board.

Following the crash, the airline initially said that all on board had died, but later on Sunday said that it could not confirm this as no-one had reached the site.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani expressed sympathy for all involved, saying in a statement that the incident brought “great grief and sorrow”.

–

Source: BBC

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Mike Pompeo told the BBC that the Chinese “have a much bigger footprint” to do this than the Russians do.

As examples he cited efforts to steal US commercial information and infiltration of schools and hospitals – and this extended to Europe and the UK.

Mr Pompeo was a hardline Republican congressman before becoming CIA chief.

In his BBC interview, Mr Pompeo also said:

• He expected Russia to try to disrupt US mid-term elections in November 2018. There had been no significant diminishing of Russian attempts at subversion in Europe and the US.
• North Korea may have the ability to strike the US with nuclear missiles “in a handful of months”
• Recent claims in the book Fire and Fury that Mr Trump was not up to the job were “drivel”.

Focused efforts

“Think about the scale of the two economies,” Mr Pompeo said of Russia and China.

“The Chinese have a much bigger footprint upon which to execute that mission than the Russians do.”

Earlier this year, a former CIA officer was arrested on charges of retaining classified information in a case thought to be connected to the dismantling of the agency’s spy operations in China.

In the two years before Jerry Chun Shing Lee’s arrest, some 20 informants had been killed or jailed – one of the most disastrous failures of US intelligence in recent years.

But officials did not know at the time whether to blame a mole or data hack.

The US spy chief told the BBC countries could collectively do more to combat Chinese efforts to exert power over the West.

“We can watch very focused efforts to steal American information, to infiltrate the United States with spies – with people who are going to work on behalf of the Chinese government against America,” he said.

“We see it in our schools. We see it in our hospitals and medicals systems. We see it throughout corporate America. It’s also true in other parts of the world… including Europe and the UK.”

Mr Pompeo also challenged the idea that the US had little influence on the conflict in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is still in power and backed by Russian and Iranian support.

“We’re going to work on those complicated problem sets and push back against the Iranians everyplace we can,” he told the BBC.

It emerged last year that he had written to Qasem Soleimani – the leader of the Quds force, part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards – to warn him that any attacks on US interests would not go unpunished.

“I wanted to send a clear message to Qasem Soleimani that there are American interests – there are Western interests, British interests and others – and an attack on those will be met with an equal response.

“He should be deeply aware that it is intolerable for the Iranians to take on American interests,” he continued.

The CIA director said that Iran firing missiles at Saudi Arabia through a proxy force in Yemen was “unacceptable” and constituted “acts of war”.

He told the BBC the best way of avoiding an escalation of conflict was to make sure the Iranian people understood the cost of such activities by their government, not just in the region but also in Europe.

“I hope that they will rise up and understand that it is not the best interests of their country to send forces to places like Europe as proxies to try and conduct malign activity in Europe when there’s so much that can be done to make Iran a better place,” he said.

“We are confident that the Iranian people will understand that. We are hopeful that their leaders will accept that proposition as well.”

–

Source: BBC

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The foreign ministry vowed to retaliate, but did not say what form any action might take.

Iran also rejected any changes to its nuclear deal with world powers.

US President Donald Trump, a critic of the 2015 accord, said on Friday he would extend sanctions relief over the landmark deal one last time.

At the same time the US imposed fresh sanctions on 14 individuals and entities over alleged rights abuses.

President Trump said he was giving Europe and the US “a last chance” to fix “terrible flaws” in the nuclear agreement signed by Iran and six world powers in 2015.

The White House wants EU signatories to agree permanent restrictions on Iran’s uranium enrichment. Under the current deal they are set to expire in 2025. Mr Trump also wants Iran’s ballistic missile programme to be addressed.

What are the new sanctions?

Although the US has suspended sanctions against Iran following the nuclear deal, it still imposes punitive measures over issues such as terrorism, human rights and ballistic missile development.

The US Treasury issued a statement on Friday saying Ayatollah Amoli-Larijani was responsible for the “torture or cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment or punishment of prisoners in Iran, including amputations”.

He had called for a crackdown on “rioters” and “vandals” following a recent spate of anti-government protests in Iranian cities.

Iran has complained that US sanctions not connected to nuclear activity have effectively cancelled out any financial benefits it expected from the 2015 deal.

What was Iran’s reaction?

“The Trump regime’s hostile action (against Larijani)… crossed all red lines of conduct in the international community and is a violation of international law and will surely be answered by a serious reaction of the Islamic Republic,” the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement.

It accused Mr Trump of “continuing to take hostile measures against the Iranian people and repeating the threats that have failed many times”.

Referring to Mr Trump’s threats to scrap the nuclear deal, the statement said Iran “will not accept any amendments in this agreement, be it now or in the future, and it will not allow any other issues to be linked to the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]”.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Friday it was a “desperate attempt” to undermine a “solid” deal.

What is the nuclear deal?

The accord signed between six global powers and Iran saw Iran agree to reduce uranium enrichment activity drastically, dispose of its enriched uranium stocks and modify a heavy water facility so it could not produce material suitable for a nuclear bomb.

In return, decades of international and US nuclear-related sanctions were suspended. As part of an agreement with Congress, the president has to sign a waiver suspending the sanctions every 120 days.

What does Mr Trump want to change?

Mr Trump has repeatedly criticised the deal – reached under his predecessor Barack Obama – as “the worst ever”.

The waiver he will sign suspends sanctions for another 120 days, but he warned that if a new agreement was not made “the United States will not again waive sanctions”.

“If at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately,” he said.

US officials say the president will work with European partners to try to broker an agreement limiting Iran’s ballistic missiles activities.

He was prepared to back a modification to the existing deal if it were made permanent, one official said.

The president also wants the US Congress to amend a law on US participation in the nuclear deal, so that Washington could reimpose all sanctions if Iran breaches certain “trigger points”.

This would involve negotiations between the US and its European allies rather than talks with Iran, the official said.

What have other countries said?

Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, described Mr Trump’s comments as “extremely negative”.

Germany has said it will continue to call for the deal’s full implementation and would consult on a “common way forward” with the UK and France.

French President Emmanuel Macron phoned Mr Trump on Thursday to call for “the strict application of the deal and the importance of all the signatories to respect it”.

–

Source: BBC

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The foreign ministry vowed to retaliate, but did not say what form any action might take.

Iran also rejected any changes to its nuclear deal with world powers.

US President Donald Trump, a critic of the 2015 accord, said on Friday he would extend sanctions relief over the landmark deal one last time.

At the same time the US imposed fresh sanctions on 14 individuals and entities over alleged rights abuses.

President Trump said he was giving Europe and the US “a last chance” to fix “terrible flaws” in the nuclear agreement signed by Iran and six world powers in 2015.

The White House wants EU signatories to agree permanent restrictions on Iran’s uranium enrichment. Under the current deal they are set to expire in 2025. Mr Trump also wants Iran’s ballistic missile programme to be addressed.

What are the new sanctions?

Although the US has suspended sanctions against Iran following the nuclear deal, it still imposes punitive measures over issues such as terrorism, human rights and ballistic missile development.

The US Treasury issued a statement on Friday saying Ayatollah Amoli-Larijani was responsible for the “torture or cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment or punishment of prisoners in Iran, including amputations”.

He had called for a crackdown on “rioters” and “vandals” following a recent spate of anti-government protests in Iranian cities.

Iran has complained that US sanctions not connected to nuclear activity have effectively cancelled out any financial benefits it expected from the 2015 deal.

–

Source: BBC

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Following talks in Brussels with his Iranian and European counterparts, he said the 2015 accord was a considerable accomplishment that was preventing Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.

Mr Johnson stressed that Iran was fully in compliance with it.

US President Donald Trump wants to amend the deal or withdraw from it.

In October, he refused to recertify for Congress that Iran was complying, accusing it of “not living up to the spirit” of the agreement.

Why does the EU back the deal?

At a news conference after meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday, representatives of the EU, the UK, France and Germany reiterated their support for the nuclear deal they helped negotiate.

“The deal is working; it is delivering on its main goal, which means keeping the Iranian nuclear programme in check and under close surveillance,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.

“The unity of the international community is essential to preserve a deal that is working, that is making the world safer and that is preventing a potential nuclear arms race in the region. And we expect all parties to continue to fully implement this agreement.”

Mr Johnson described the deal, which is known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as a “considerable diplomatic accomplishment”.

“I don’t think that anybody has produced a better alternative to the JCPOA as a way of preventing the Iranians from going ahead with the acquisition of a military nuclear capability,” he said. “It is incumbent on those who oppose the JCPOA to come up with that better solution because we have not seen it so far.”

Critics of the deal in Congress have also proposed amending legislation to ensure that US sanctions would “snap back” automatically if Iran carried out certain actions.

On Friday, Mr Trump is set to decide whether to extend relief for Iran from some US economic sanctions.

The sanctions, which were suspended in 2016, had cut Iran’s central bank out of the international financial system and imposed penalties for buying Iranian oil.

US officials told the Associated Press on Wednesday that Mr Trump was expected to extend the sanctions relief for another 120 days. But they said he might also impose new, targeted sanctions on Iranian businesses and people allegedly involved in missile tests, supporting terrorism, and human rights abuses.

Why is Iran’s missile programme controversial?

The US and EU say Iranian ballistic missile tests conducted in the past year have violated UN Security Council resolution 2231, which endorsed the nuclear deal.

The resolution calls upon Iran not to “undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology”.

Iran’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that if the US withdrew from the agreement, it was ready to give an “appropriate and heavy response”.

What does Mr Trump want to change?

The US president declared in October that the agreement was “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into”, and warned that within a few years Iran would be able to “sprint towards a rapid nuclear weapons breakout”.

He accused Iran of committing “multiple violations” and promised to work with Congress to “address the deal’s many serious flaws”.

Mr Trump said they included the deal’s “sunset clauses”, one of which allows for the lifting of restrictions on Iran’s uranium enrichment programme after 2025.

He also wants to give the International Atomic Energy Agency access to Iranian military sites, and for the deal to cover Iran’s ballistic missile programme.

Iran says the missiles it has tested are not designed to carry nuclear warheads and insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.

The European ministers expressed serious concern about Iran’s ballistic missile programme, as well as its alleged transfer of missiles and assistance to non-state entities in the Middle East. But they said the issue should be kept separate from the nuclear deal.

Source: BBC

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A local MP said the pair were shot dead overnight in the town of Izeh, raising the toll from the protests to six.

Demonstrations were also reported in a number of other cities on Sunday night, including the capital Tehran.

In his first intervention, President Rouhani warned on Sunday that violence would not be tolerated at the protests.

The demonstrations, which erupted on Thursday in Iran’s second city of Mashhad, are the biggest show of dissent seen since the huge rallies of the Green Movement were brutally suppressed in 2009.

Mr Rouhani acknowledged grievances over Iran’s economic situation, a lack of transparency and corruption but defended his record.

The Iranian president said that citizens were “completely free to express their criticism of the government or stage protests… in a way that would lead to the improvement of the country’s conditions” but warned against violent acts.

Nevertheless, protests continued. Police used tear gas and water cannon to quell a rally in Tehran’s Engheleb Square, reported AFP news agency, and demonstrations were reported in Kermanshah and Khorramabad in the west, Shahinshahr in the north west and the northern city of Zanjan.

–

Source: BBC

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Three days of demonstrations erupted over falling living standards.

But a Revolutionary Guards commander said the protests had degenerated into people chanting political slogans and burning public property.

They are the biggest show of dissent since huge pro-reform rallies in 2009. There are reports of two deaths.

There were calls for the removal or death of Iran’s Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the cities of Khoramabad, Zanjan and Ahvaz.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutions Guards Corp is a powerful force with ties to the country’s supreme leader, and is dedicated to preserving the country’s Islamic system.

Brigadier-General Esmail Kowsari told the ISNA news agency: “If people came into the streets over high prices, they should not have chanted those slogans and burned public property and cars.”

Iran’s interior minister has also warned the public that protesters will be held accountable.

“Those who damage public property, disrupt order and break the law must be responsible for their behaviour and pay the price,” Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli said.

“The spreading of violence, fear and terror will definitely be confronted.”

What has been happening?

Protests began in the north-eastern city of Mashhad on Thursday and spread to other major cities on Friday.

A small demonstration in Tehran grew to several thousand people on Saturday, and students clashed with police. The protests also became violent in several other towns.

Among the recent events across Iran:

• Two people were reported dead in Dorud, after apparently being shot
• In Abhar, demonstrators set fire to large banners bearing the picture of the supreme leader
• In Arak, protesters reportedly set fire to the local headquarters of the pro-government Basij militia
• In Mashhad, protesters burned police motorcycles in a confrontation caught on video
• The CEO of popular mobile messaging app Telegram said an Iranian account had been suspended for calling for attacks on police
• There are numerous reports of people losing internet access on their mobile phones

BBC Persian correspondent Kasra Naji said a common factor in all locations has been protesters’ demand for an end to clerical rule in Iran.

There is also anger at Iran’s interventions abroad. In Mashhad, some chanted “not Gaza, not Lebanon, my life for Iran”, a reference to what protesters say is the administration’s focus on foreign rather than domestic issues.

Iran is a key provider of military support to the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. It is also accused of providing arms to Houthi rebels fighting a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, which it denies, and is an ally of Lebanon’s powerful Shia movement Hezbollah.

What has been the response, at home and abroad?

The Iranian authorities are blaming anti-revolutionaries and agents of foreign powers for the outbreak.

Also on Saturday, thousands of pro-government demonstrators turned out for pre-arranged rallies to mark the eighth anniversary of the suppression of the 2009 street protests.

The US has led international support for the protesters.

President Donald Trump tweeted: “Oppressive regimes cannot endure forever, and the day will come when the Iranian people will face a choice. The world is watching!”

Iran’s foreign ministry called earlier comments from Mr Trump and other US officials “opportunistic and deceitful”.

–

Source: BBC

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State TV showed crowds of black-clad supporters in the capital, Tehran.

Dozens of people have been arrested during days of protests over corruption and living standards, which the vice president suggested were being organised by political opponents.

The US administration warned Iran that “the world was watching” its response.

Saturday’s official rallies were organised in advance of the anti-government protests, to mark the eighth anniversary of the suppression of major street protests.

In 2009, masses came out in favour of the then-president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in response to protests by reformists over a disputed election which returned him to power.

Meanwhile, the Iranian authorities are blaming anti-revolutionaries and agents of foreign powers for the protests.

They have promised that the protestors will be dealt with harshly, while admitting there is genuine and widespread discontent.

How did the anti-government demonstrations start?

The protests started in the north-eastern city of Mashhad – the country’s second most-populous – on Thursday.

People there took to the streets to express anger at the government over high prices, and vented their fury against President Hassan Rouhani. Fifty-two people were arrested there for chanting “harsh slogans”.

The protests spread to at least half a dozen cities on Friday. In some cities police in riot gear and on motorbikes clashed with demonstrators.

Some protests developed into broader demonstrations against the authorities, calling for the release of political prisoners and an end to police beatings. It was the biggest display of public dissent since huge pro-reform rallies in 2009.

Overall, the numbers said to be taking part range from less than 100 in some places to thousands in others – but demonstrations do not appear to be taking place on a massive scale.

On social media, there are calls for more protests later on Saturday. Some reports suggested these were already taking place.

–

Source: BBC

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Videos posted on social media showed demonstrators in Mashad in northwest Iran, one of the holiest places in Shia Islam, chanting “death to (President Hassan) Rouhani” and “death to the dictator”.

The semi-official ILNA news agency and social media reported demonstrations in other cities in Razavi Khorasan Province, including Neyshabour and Kashmar.

Rouhani’s signature achievement, a deal in 2015 with world powers to curb Iran’s nuclear program in return for lifting most international sanctions, has yet to bring the broad economic benefits the government says are coming.

Many Iranians believe their economic situation has not improved due to corruption and mismanagement.

Unemployment stood at 12.4 percent in this fiscal year, according to the Statistical Centre of Iran, up 1.4 percent from the previous year. About 3.2 million Iranians are jobless, out of a total population of 80 million.

Mashad governor Mohammad Rahim Norouzian was quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency as saying that “the demonstration was illegal but the police dealt with people with tolerance”.

He said a number of protesters were arrested for “trying to damage public property”.

Videos posted on social media showed riot police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse crowds.

Norouzian was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA that the protests were organized by “enemies of the Islamic Republic” and “counter-revolutionaries”.

Demonstrators also chanted ”leave Syria, think about us”, criticizing Iran’s deployment of troops to support President Bashar al-Assad against the uprising that broke out in 2011.

Tehran has also provided funds to prop up Syria’s struggling economy.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has repeatedly criticized the government’s economic record, said on Wednesday that the nation was struggling with “high prices, inflation and recession”, and asked officials to resolve the problems with determination.

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Source: Reuters

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