Iran

San Francisco (Foreign Correspondent) – While the world focuses on the coronavirus pandemic, tensions between the US and Iran are heating up. The two countries are engaging in tit-for-tat military attacks that threaten a wider war. In mid-March, Washington officials accused an Iran-allied militia of launching rockets at a US military base in Iraq, killing […]

Donald Trump

Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei Pulls a Trump on Coronavirus: Denies Own Responsibility, Blames a Foreign Country (US)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump and his cronies in the GOP got high-level, frantic briefings from US intelligence in January and February that the coronavirus would produce a major pandemic and send the US economy into a tailspin. That would have been the time to order test kits (rather than having Jared Kushner futz […]

Donald Trump

Trump Spared Iran from Bombing, but his Sanctions Fed Pandemic in which 1 dies every 10 Minutes

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Courtney Kube, Carol E. Lee and Kristen Welker at NBC News report that Trump refused to bomb Iran last weekend for fear it would be a public relations disaster given international sympathy for that country’s coronavirus plight. It appears that some officials had considered bombing Iran in response to Shiite […]

Epidemics

To Help Stem Coronavirus, Lift the Sanctions on Iran

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Ariel Gold and Medea Benjamin, March 13, 2020. (Foreign Policy in Focus) – U.S. sanctions have gutted Iran’s economy and health system. In a pandemic, that’s a global public health threat. The COVID-19, or coronavirus, pandemic is far from the first proof of how intertwined we are as a global community. The climate crisis […]

Epidemics

Accusing US of “Medical Terrorism,” Iran Demands Trump Lift Economic Blockade amid Coronavirus

Common Dreams

By Jake Johnson, staff writer | – (Commondreams.org) – Facing a humanitarian crisis with at least 9,000 coronavirus cases nationwide and a death toll of more than 350 people, Iranian officials on Wednesday demanded that the U.S. lift crippling … sanctions that Tehran says have hindered the government’s ability to respond effectively to the outbreak. […]

Epidemics

Rapid Spread of Virus Further Tests Iranians’ Faith in Government

Human Rights Watch

Successful Measures to Contain Coronavirus Require Public Trust

Donald Trump

How the US could Restart Negotiations with Iran

Thomas Buonomo

(Special to Informed Comment) – Trump‘ s policy of exerting maximum pressure on Iran, highly provocative targeting of Quds Force General Qassem Suleimani, non-recognition of Congress’s war powers, vow that as long as he remains in power Iran will not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons, and Iran’s increasingly alarming violations of its own obligations […]

Epidemics

How many Iranians will die of Coronavirus because of Trump’s Economic Blockade on that Country?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Babak Dehghanpisheh at Reuters reports that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced on Thursday that the coronavirus Covid-19 has spread to nearly all of the 31 provinces of the huge country (Iran is as big geographically as Spain, France and Germany combined, and its population rivals that of Germany at 81 […]

Iran

The Impossible Presidency: Rouhani Caught in Cross-hairs of Trump, Iranian Hardliners and Public Apathy

Shahram Akbarzadeh

Melbourne (Special to Informed Comment) – For the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran the voter turn-out at the parliamentary elections has fallen below the psychological threshold of 50%. According to the Interior Ministry in charge of administering the elections, the national participation rate was 42.5%. In the capital city […]