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8 Iran-sponsored schools closed in Quetta

It is said that the schools were unauthorized and were teaching only Iranian curriculum to students and excluding Pakistan curriculum….reports Asian Lite News

Pakistan has shut down eight Iran-sponsored schools in Balochistan’s capital Quetta, adding that these schools were unauthorised and teaching foreign curriculum.

Quetta Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Zohaib-ul-Haq said that the schools were unauthorized and were teaching only Iranian curriculum to students and excluding Pakistan curriculum.

Gulf News reported that six schools were sealed last week and two more shut on June 14. As per local authorities, the school management and teachers were Iranian nationals and they were teaching a foreign syllabus, which was “in violation” of the country’s law.

“Textbooks discovered contain only subjects pertaining to Iran’s history, geography and sociology [and] not Pakistan’s,” the Balochistan official said in a tweet.

The textbooks were written in the Persian language. The schools, located in Kirani road and Hazara town areas, were operating “illegally without registration” with the Balochistan education department, Zohaib said.

ALSO READ: Iran offers India port of Jask

Shabbir Ahmed, monitoring and evaluation director of Balochistan Education Foundation (BEF), said that two more schools are being investigated for teaching a foreign curriculum and operating without official authorisation.

The institutions, including both primary and high schools enrolling hundreds of students, were established in 1991 under a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the provincial education department and the school administration.

Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but most sparsely populated province. The security issues, wide geographical spread, scattered communities, lack of school infrastructure and weak monitoring mechanism are some of the key challenges faced by the provincial education sector that resulted in ghost schools and the highest ratio of out-of-school children in the country. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Blinken says sanctions on Iran to remain in place

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Blinken says sanctions on Iran to remain in place

Secretary of State reiterates support for returning to the nuclear accord, with which UN inspectors said Iran was complying before Trump pulled out the US, reports Asian Lite News

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “hundreds” of US sanctions will remain on Iran even if the United States rejoins a nuclear accord.

The US has been engaged in indirect talks with Iran about reversing former president Donald Trump’s exit from the 2015 nuclear accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“I would anticipate that, even in the event of a return to compliance with the JCPOA, hundreds of sanctions remain in place, including sanctions imposed by the Trump administration,” Blinken told a Senate hearing.

“If they are not inconsistent with the JCPOA, they will remain unless and until Iran’s behavior changes,” he said.

The discussions in Vienna, brokered by European diplomats, have been locked in dispute on which sanctions to lift.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

The Biden administration is ready to end the sweeping measures imposed by Trump — including an effort to stop all of Iran’s oil exports — if it reverses the steps away from the nuclear deal that it took to protest the last administration’s sanctions.

But Iran has insisted on a removal of all sanctions — while the Biden administration has insisted that some will remain if they were imposed over other concerns, including human rights and Iran’s support for extremist movements.

ALSO READ: Blinken calls on China to cooperate on Covid-19 origins

Blinken reiterated support for returning to the nuclear accord, with which UN inspectors said Iran was complying before Trump pulled out the United States.

Asked about concerns that Iran did not declare all activities from before the nuclear deal, Blinken said: “Plain and simple, we would be in an even better place to insist on it answering those questions if we had managed to get Iran back into compliance with the JCPOA and if we were part of it, too.”

Photo shows a corner of Natanz nuclear plant, some 300 kilometers south of Tehran, Iran.(Xinhua/Liang Youchang)

“But regardless, it needs to answer those questions. It needs to come clean about past activities,” Blinken said.

Meanwhile, the US told Iran on Tuesday that it must let the UN atomic agency continue to monitor its activities, as laid out in an agreement that has been extended until June 24, or put wider talks on reviving the Iran nuclear deal at risk.

The International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran reached a three-month agreement in February cushioning the blow of Tehran’s decision to reduce its cooperation with the agency by ending extra monitoring measures introduced by the 2015 deal.

Under that new side agreement, which on May 24 was extended by a month, data continues to be collected in a black-box-type arrangement, with the IAEA only able to access it at a later date. It is unclear whether the agreement will be extended again; the IAEA has said such negotiations are getting harder.

“We strongly encourage Iran to avoid any action that would prevent the collection of or IAEA access to the information necessary for it to quickly re-establish … continuity of knowledge,” a US statement to a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors said.

“Such action would, at a minimum, seriously complicate ongoing efforts to reach an understanding on how Iran can return to compliance with its JCPOA commitments in return for a similar US resumption,” it added, referring to the 2015 deal by its full name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Indirect US-Iran talks on reviving the deal are due to resume in Vienna this week. The data covered by the separate IAEA-Iran agreement includes real-time uranium enrichment levels as well as whether centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, remained in storage and the production of centrifuge parts.

ALSO READ: Blinken pledges visas for Afghans who helped US

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Iran offers India port of Jask

Narendra Modi and Hassan Rouhani (PIB)

With oil and gas as a major spur of the India-Iran relations, Chegeni proposed that Iran had earmarked and opened Bandar-e-Jask — a port on the mouth of the strategically crucial Strait of Hormuz — for major Indian and Chinese energy investments, reports Atul Aneja

The expected revival of the nuclear deal between Iran and the western powers is set to yield unexpected opportunities for India, including access to the Iranian port of Jask as base for strategic oil reserves and a new “land-and-sea” gas pipeline.

Speaking at a webinar on Monday, Iran’s ambassador to India, Ali Chegeni anticipated that it was only a matter of time before sanctions against Iran were lifted, following an early revival of an updated Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

In fact, negotiations in Vienna on the JCPOA in its new avatar could wrap up within three weeks, former Iranian Ambassador Seyed H. Mousavian, former Iranian ambassador to Germany, added during a brainstorming exercise on the future of India-Iran relation hosted by the Kolkata based Tillotama Foundation. Once the JCPOA is revived India will and no longer constrained by western sanctions in its dealings with Tehran.

With oil and gas as a major spur of the India-Iran relations, Chegeni proposed that Iran had earmarked and opened Bandar-e-Jask — a port on the mouth of the strategically crucial Strait of Hormuz — for major Indian and Chinese energy investments. He pointed out that India could build its strategic oil reserves at this port. Without going into details that India had a narrow window on investing in the construction of land- and- sea pipeline that originated from Bandar-e-Jask.

“Having huge oil storage capacity available, with just a short direct sea journey away from India, means that it is time to realize construction of the Iran-India oil and gas pipeline. India also can use Jask port facilities to store its strategic crude oil reserve to meet emergency needs in case of disruptions in supply,” he observed.

So far, India has rejected the construction of the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline, citing economic and security considerations. Another idea that has been in play is the construction of a gas pipeline that originates in Iran and via Oman, enters India’s west coast through an undersea gas pipeline.

Analysts point out that a strategic energy pipeline can truly anchor the India-Iran relationship, whose cultural roots can be traced to antiquity.

ALSO READ: UN suspends Iran voting rights over unpaid dues

Without naming them, Chegeni said that several countries were in the queue to join a budding quadrilateral arrangement among India, Iran, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan to use the Iranian port of Chabahar in the Indian Ocean to route their trade. The Chabahar port and a corridor that extends towards Afghanistan and Uzbekistan is expected to emerge as key gateway to channel trade between Eurasia, including landlocked Central Asia and the rest of the world.

The Iranian ambassador also said that India can invest up to a mammoth $ 20 billion in a sprawling free trade zone that was coming up next to the Chabahar port. flows for India.


He pointed out that “there is possibility to revive the India’s plan to invest $20 billion in Chabahar Economic Free Zone (EFZ) for setting up petrochemical and fertilizer plants either independently or through joint ventures with Iranian public-private companies”.

He added that Iran has already allocated land in the EFZ, and willing to offer a favourable treatment in pricing of gas for India and also supply of rich gas at a competitive price and on a long-term basis for the entire life cycle of the joint venture projects.

The Iranian ambassador’s assertions on Chabahar dove tailed with another proposal — of linking the Chabahar route with the older International North South Transport Corridor initiative.

The Chabahar route begins at Mumbai, though Gujarat’s Mundra port is now acquiring greater resonance. From India’s west coast, the corridor heads to Chabahar, from where the route heads towards Afghanistan via Iran’s Sistan Baluchistan province along a recent India-built road. Over time, a railway is also envisaged, which will link Chabahar with the Hajigak iron ore mines in Afghanistan, where India has made major investments.

Essentially, the new INSTC is a combination of two corridors. It then heads to Bandar Abbas, a famous Iranian port in the Gulf. From there it takes the overland route to Bandar Anzali, which is located on the Caspian Sea coast in the north.

Containers are off-loaded here and shipped along the Caspian to its Russian shore at Astrakhan, which becomes the base of further transportation into Eurasia. Over time, other countries are being networked in this rapidly mutating corridor including Azerbaijan and Armenia, in tune with the rise of Eurasia in the 21 st century.

Earlier this year, India’s external affairs minister S. Jaishankar proposed the integration of the Chabahar Port with the INSTC. “I am hopeful that during the INSTC Coordination Council meeting, member-states would agree to the expansion of the INSTC route to include the Chabahar Port and also agree on expanding the membership of this project.”

(This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

ALSO READ: Israel concerned over US-Iran nuke deal

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Israel concerned over US-Iran nuke deal

US-Iran nuclear deal cause of concern: Israel counter-terror chief

Israel counter-terror chief expressed concerns about the funds that will go to Hamas once the US lifts sanctions on Iran…reports Aarti Tikoo Singh

Israel on Monday said that it is concerned about the billions of dollars that could go to terror organisation Hamas if the US lifts its sanctions on Iran.

In a special virtual exchange with the Indian media, Nevo Barchad, the head of the counter-terrorism department in the strategic affairs division of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that though Israel trusts the judgment of its old friend and US President Joe Biden, it has concerns about the funds that will go to Hamas once the US lifts sanctions on Iran, which is the major sponsor of the Islamist terror group operating in Gaza.

The Biden administration is likely to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — which had been negotiated by P5+1 (China, France, Russia, the UK, the US plus Germany) together with the European Union.

Recently, indirect talks on the restoration of the agreement between the US and Iran resumed in Vienna.

In response to an IANS question on the latest development, Barchad said that Israel has opposed the JCPOA.

ALSO READ: Netanyahu says ready to risk friction with US over Iran

“We think it is a bad deal. If P5+1 are holding indirect talks and if Americans are going back to the deal, we hope it includes various changes and with a stronger enforcement. We also hope that the Americans won’t lift all the sanctions,” the top Israeli official said.

Emphasising that US President Biden is “a true friend” of Israel, Barchad said that his government trusts his judgement on Iran, which he said funds 50 per cent of Hamas’ terror activities against the Israeli people.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

The remaining 50 per cent comes from various other sources, including funds raised from Islamic charities in Muslim nations and Europe, Barchad said, adding that Israel has been making efforts to block all those channels of terror-funding.

At the same time, he added, it is not far-fetched to think that billions of dollars will go to Hamas, Hezbollah, Houtis and the pro-Iranian militia in Syria, once the sanctions are lifted.

Barchad, however, warned that Hamas should not underestimate Israel’s defence capabilities.

Responding to another question on the use of Chinese weaponry by Hamas against Israel, Barchad said that Israel and China shared a good relationship and understanding.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh delivers a speech in Gaza City, on Jan. 23, 2018. The Islamic Hamas movement called on Tuesday for Palestinian national conference to discuss a new Palestinian strategy. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh stressed in a televised speech the need for a new strategy that addresses the U.S. and Israeli declaration aimed at striking the Palestinian issue. (Xinhua/Wissam Nassar/IANS)

“Any use of Chinese weapons or technology by the Hamas has happened without the knowledge of China,” he said.

Barchad added that the Chinese military technology serves a dual purpose — for surveillance as well as military build-up. If their equipment is being used for military and not civilian purposes, it is not happening knowingly, the official said.

Barchad also said that the truce with Palestine after the 11-day ‘war’ is not a permanent solution.

Hamas, he said, openly wants destruction of Israel and even as the ceasefire is the best outcome at the moment, it can’t be a long lasting solution.

The counter-terrorism chief said that the ideal solution would be that the Hamas regime steps down followed by PLA and Israel coming to the table for talks.

ALSO READ: UN suspends Iran voting rights over unpaid dues

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UN suspends Iran voting rights over unpaid dues

Iran and the Central African Republic will lose their voting rights at the UNGA since the countries are in arrears on paying their dues…reports Asian Lite News

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has expressed “strong dismay” over the suspension of the country’s voting rights at the UN General Assembly (UNGA), saying the US sanctions were to be blamed for Tehran’s inability to pay dues.

Iran and the Central African Republic will lose their voting rights at the UNGA since the countries are in arrears on paying their dues to the world body’s operating budget, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a letter to UNGA President Volkan Bozkir circulated on Wednesday.

“In ‘black is white’ world, UN deprived Iran of its voting rights in the UNGA as we’re in arrears,” Zarif said in a tweet on Thursday, adding that the decision is “fundamentally flawed, entirely unacceptable and completely unjustified”.

Iran’s inability to fulfil its financial obligation towards the UN is “directly caused by unlawful unilateral sanctions imposed by the US”, the Foreign Minister added.

He noted that since former US President Donald Trump withdrew his country from the 2015 nuclear agreement and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran, “the people of Iran have been under the most unprecedented economic warfare and indeed economic terrorism”.

Zarif added that the Iranians “have been forcibly blocked from transferring their own money and resources to buy food and medicine, let alone pay UN contributions arrears”.

The “extreme restrictions” on Iran’s international banking relations caused by Washington’s “acts of war and economic terrorism” have impaired the country’s capacity to transfer its financial contribution to the UN, he added.

ALSO READ: UN help sought for funding Special Tribunal for Lebanon

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Rouhani says main issues with US on n-deal resolved

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

Rohani also said a breakthrough in Vienna talks to revive a nuclear deal before he leaves office in August required a “will” beyond his power….reports Asian Lite News

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran’s main issues with the United States in Vienna negotiations were resolved, adding that there are “only few minor issues left”, on which negotiations will be done, according to media reports.

Rohani also said a breakthrough in Vienna talks to revive a nuclear deal before he leaves office in August required a “will” beyond his power.

“If there is the will that this be done in the current administration, then this administration has finished the work,” reports quoted Rouhani as saying.

However, a final decision regarding the talks rests with the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Meanwhile, Iran has dampened hopes of an early agreement in its dispute with the US over the 2015 nuclear deal.

“We have come closer, but we are still far from an agreement,” Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Thursday.

He did not want to confirm speculation that the nuclear negotiations in Vienna would enter the final round next week, reports dpa news agency.

Before that, Araghchi said, the US and other parties would have to make “some difficult decisions”.

Iran’s final decision would also definitely not be made in Vienna, but in Tehran, the Deputy Minister and head of Iran’s delegation in Vienna said.

A new problem in the Vienna negotiations is the imminent change of political power in Iran.

ALSO READ: Iran’s largest navy vessel catches fire and sinks

The top favourite in the presidential election is the arch-conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi, who had always sharply criticised the 2015 Vienna nuclear agreement.

Whether he will continue President Hassan Rouhani’s moderate course is questionable, according to observers.

It is also unclear at present who will soon be appointed as chief nuclear negotiator and lead the negotiations on behalf of Iran.

According to European diplomats, the negotiations to save the nuclear agreement with Iran are heading for the most delicate phase.

Representatives from Germany, France and Britain have been trying since early April, together with Russia and China, to mediate between Iran and the US.

At stake are the difficult questions which of the many Iran sanctions Washington is willing to lift and how to permanently prevent Iranian nuclear facilities from being used for military purposes.

Under the leadership of the previous president Donald Trump, Washington had unilaterally left the nuclear pact in 2018 and again imposed economically painful sanctions on Tehran.

The Islamic Republic then gradually expanded its nuclear activities in contravention of the agreements and restricted international nuclear inspections.

Most recently, Iran began producing uranium that is just below the purity level suitable for nuclear weapons.

ALSO READ: Biden vows to press Putin on human rights at Geneva meet

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Iran’s largest navy vessel catches fire and sinks

The support ship Kharg sank on Wednesday morning near the southern Iranian port of Jask on the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz….reports Asian Lite News

Iran’s large navy ship Kharg caught fire and later sank Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported.

Following the spread of the fire on the vessel, the crew safely disembarked, the report said, adding that efforts to save the ship failed, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The support ship Kharg sank on Wednesday morning near the southern Iranian port of Jask on the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz.

The vessel has been used in training missions for more than four decades, said the report. It did not give details on the cause of the blaze.

Last week, Indonesia has released an Iranian oil tanker seized by the country’s coast guards earlier this year.

The MT Horse, belonging to the National Iranian Tanker Company that had been detained in Indonesian waters since January 24, was released on Friday.

The vessel was released after a legal battle and efforts by senior Iranian officials and “has now resumed its mission”, it added.

In January, Indonesia announced that its coast guard had “seized the Iranian-flagged MT Horse and the Panamanian-flagged MT Freya vessels for suspected illegal oil transfer in the country’s waters”.

A spokesman for the Indonesian Maritime Security Agency, Colonel Bakamla Wisnu Pramadita, claimed the two tankers concealed their identity by not showing their national flags, turning off automatic identification systems and did not respond to a radio call, the Tehran-based Press TV reported.

Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said at the time that Tehran was “waiting for more reports from the Indonesian government on the seizure of the Iranian oil tanker”.

ALSO READ: Netanyahu says ready to risk friction with US over Iran

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Netanyahu says ready to risk friction with US over Iran

Netanyahu says ready to risk friction with US over Iran

Embattled Israel PM says he is prepared to neutralize Iran’s nuclear capabilities even if the US and other nations succeed in reinstating the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, reports Asian Lite News

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he is prepared to risk tension with the US if that is what it takes to neutralize Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

The embattled premier, whose political future is in question just 11 days out from a bruising war, said Israel’s biggest threat remains the possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran.

He said Israel is prepared to prevent that from happening even if the United States and other nations succeed in reinstating the 2015 Iran nuclear accord.

“If we have to choose, I hope it doesn’t happen, between friction with our great friend the United States and eliminating the existential threat — eliminating the existential threat” wins, Netanyahu said.

US President Joe Biden

He spoke at a ceremony for David Barnea, the new chief of Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

Iran has accused Israel of being behind a number of attacks killing Iranian nuclear scientists or sabotaging Iranian nuclear facilities.

ALSO READ: Are Netanyahu’s days as PM numbered?

Netanyahu’s comments come amid ongoing talks in Vienna between nations seeking to update and reinstate the 2015 agreement, in line with President Joe Biden’s campaign promise. His predecessor, Republican President Donald Trump, pulled the US out of the accord in 2018 and imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

The deal places curbs on Iranian nuclear activities in exchange for relief from crippling economic sanctions.

Netanyahu staunchly opposes the agreement, arguing that it does not have enough safeguards to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Israel also says the deal must address Iran’s support for militant groups, its military actions across the region and its development of long-range missiles capable of striking Israel.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only and says the nuclear deal should be reinstated without any changes.

Netanyahu spoke about Iran on Tuesday as his rivals in the Knesset huddled to try to form a coalition government that would end Netanyahu’s 12-year rule.

The developments come amid a fragile truce between Israel and Hamas’ militant rulers in the Gaza Strip after a brutal 11-day war that killed more than 250 people, most of them Palestinian.

Hamas, which opposes Israel’s right to exist and is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the US and other Western countries, receives millions of dollars of military aid from Iran each year.

ALSO READ: Opposition parties inch closer to ousting Netanyahu

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Two Iranian ships on US radar

US Navy warships sailing through the South China Sea (Photo twitter@USNavy)

The sources said the American officials were not sure of the destination of the Iranian naval vessels, but they believe “they may be ultimately headed for Venezuela.”…reports Asian Lite News

US national security officials are reportedly monitoring two Iranian ships which are believed to be headed to Venezuela, according to a news report.

The Politico, citing three people familiar with the matter, said “an Iranian frigate and the Makran, a former oil tanker that was converted to a floating forward staging base, have been heading south along the east coast of Africa.”

The newspaper said the move could be perceived as “provocative” amid tense US-Iranian relations, the Arab News reported.

The sources said the American officials were not sure of the destination of the Iranian naval vessels, but they believe “they may be ultimately headed for Venezuela.”

Three weeks ago, a US Coast Guard ship had fired warning shots during a close encounter with vessels belonging to the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) in the Strait of Hormuz.

Six US Navy vessels escorting the USS Georgia, a guided missile submarine, encountered 13 IRGCN fast attack boats while transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Iranian boats approached the US formation at high speed, closing in as close as 150 yards (about 137 metres).

The US Coast Guard Cutter Maui fired about 30 warning shots from a machine gun before the Iranian boats left, Kirby added.

That was the second such encounter in two weeks.

In April, a US Navy patrol ship fired warning shots as IRGCN vessels approached to an “unnecessarily close range” in international waters of the northern Persian Gulf.

The incident came days after the US Navy seized an illicit shipment of weapons, including thousands of small arms and dozens of anti-tank guided missiles, from a stateless dhow in the North Arabian Sea.

ALSO READ: Stage set for Biden-Putin summit

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Iran confirms talks with Saudi

Tehran, May. 27, 2020 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addresses the opening session of Iran's new parliament in Tehran, Iran, on May 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Ahmad Halabisaz/IANS)

Tehran had not previously confirmed the meetings but Iraqi President Barham Salih said his country had hosted several rounds of talks between the two countries’ representatives….reports Asian Lite News

Iranian authorities have confirmed reports that direct talks had taken place with Saudi Arabia on Monday.

“There have been talks and they have been about bilateral and regional issues,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh told a press conference.

He said it was too early to talk about results, but said that “it is well known that we have always welcomed talks with the Saudis in any form and at any level”, reports dpa news agency.

Saudi and Iranian officials have met at least twice in Iraq in recent weeks, according to media reports.

Tehran had not previously confirmed the meetings but Iraqi President Barham Salih said his country had hosted several rounds of talks between the two countries’ representatives.

Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran view each other as arch-enemies and have been competing for decades for economic and political primacy in the region.

The two countries severed diplomatic relations in 2016 and are currently facing off in multiple proxy conflicts, including in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has been leading a military alliance supporting the Yemeni government in its fight against the Iran-linked Houthi rebels.

However, Saudi and Iranian officials have softened their language recently, and said they are prepared for reconciliation.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told state television that Riyadh seeks positive and special relations with Iran if Tehran ended negative behaviours.

Iran followed by saying it hoped for constructive dialogue to resolve differences between the countries, in a marked change of tone compared to past years.

Also read:Iran ready for talks with Saudi Arabia