Free Republic

European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini participated in the swearing-in ceremony of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. This will be 68-year-old Rouhani’s second term as president. […] In his speech to Iran’s parliament, Rouhani said his country will not be the first to violate the nuclear deal, but will also not stand by the deal if other countries violate it. […] In a pre-ceremony meeting with Mogherini, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Khonsari said the EU must remain alert to Trump’s efforts to “undermine the deal and blame Iran.” In her response, Mogherini promised that the EU...

Ahmad Jannati has been chosen to lead Iran’s new assembly of experts, the body which oversees the work of the country’s supreme leader and will elect his successor. Jannati was voted chairman of the 88-member Assembly with 51 votes. The 90-year-old is said to be dismissive of President Hassan Rouhani and his attempts to end Iran’s global isolation by normalizing ties with the West. He is also the leader of the Guardian Council, a hardline vetting body that disqualified thousands of reformists from standing in February’s elections for the assembly and parliament. …

A decision by Italian officials to cover up ancient nude statues to not offend Iran's visiting president is drawing ridicule in Rome. Ahead of a news conference Monday with Premier Matteo Renzi and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, wooden panels were erected around some Roman statues in Rome's Capitoline Museums. When images of the cover-up made the Italian media Tuesday, politicians from across the spectrum decried and derided the decision. The museum said Tuesday that the premier's office wanted the statues along Rouhani's path to the news conference covered up. Renzi's office declined to comment. ...

Everyone loves to deal with moderates, especially when they represent a rare shift toward moderation for a rogue state. The trouble is that the concept of a moderate is relative. In dealing with the former Soviet Union we heard the term "Politburo moderates" over and over. Reaching out to this fabricated species was an excuse for being nice to despicable governments. In the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran, reaching out to "moderates" among the ayatollahs' inner circles has been a constant dream of American officials for the past 30 years. These moderates are supposed to be the...

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani says the official implementation Saturday of the landmark deal reached between Tehran and six world powers has satisfied all parties except radical extremists. Speaking in the parliament in comments broadcast live on state television, Rouhani said, "In (implementing) the deal, all are happy except Zionists, warmongers, sowers of discord among Islamic nations and extremists in the U.S. The rest are happy." ...

A shortlist of candidates chosen by TIME magazine*s editors for the 2015 Person of the Year was revealed on NBC*s TODAY show Monday morning. The eight contenders are, in alphabetical order:

The death of a top Iranian military commander in Syria this week has dealt a "psychological blow" to elements backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to a U.S. intelligence official. The killing of a commander in the Revolutionary Guards Corps at the hands of ISIS also highlights the extent of Iranian involvement in Syria and the dire straits in which Assad finds himself, Washington-based analysts say. Brig. Gen. Hossein Hamedani was killed outside Aleppo, Syria, where he was advising the Syrian army in its fight against extremists, Iranian state media reported Friday. Iranian media carried messages of condolence from Iranian...

Saudi Arabia firmly rejected Iran’s criticism of its handling of the Haj pilgrimage Saturday after Tehran demanded an inquiry into the Mina stampede. “I believe the Iranians should know better than to play politics with a tragedy that has befallen people who were performing their most sacred religious duty,” Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said, according to AFP. Al-Jubeir, delivering remarks along US Secretary of State John Kerry, insisted that Saudi Arabia was on top of the situation. “The Kingdom has had a long history of spending tremendous resources to care for the pilgrimage to ensure that the pilgrims who come...

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Monday. Thomas Erdbrink, the Tehran bureau chief for The New York Times, looks at what message Mr. Rouhani has for international leaders and how it might be received. What’s different from the last time President Rouhani spoke to the General Assembly? Mr. Rouhani, Iran’s leader since 2013, now has something to show for his presidency at the assembly: He concluded a nuclear deal with six world powers, including Iran’s nemesis, the United States. And, for the first time in years, Iran can look forward to...

The Republican candidates for U.S. president who are attacking the nuclear deal with Iran could hardly find the country on a map, or know that Tehran is the capital, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Sunday. "Sometimes when I would have time, some of it was broadcast live and I would watch it -- some of it was quite laughable. It was very strange, the things that they spoke of," he said through an interpreter. "Some of them wouldn't even know where Tehran was in relation to Iran. Some of them didn't know where Iran was geographically,...

Iran's president uses UN speech to call for investigation into hajj stampede Hassan Rouhani demands review of what caused the crush that killed more than 700 after Saudi Arabia’s top cleric reportedly absolves officials of blame Staff and agencies at the United Nations Saturday 26 September 2015 17.40 BST Iranian president Hassan Rouhani used a major United Nations speech on Saturday to demand an investigation into a crush that killed more than 700 people at the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. His remarks came after Saudi Arabia’s most senior cleric, the grand mufti, appeared to absolve the authorities of blame...

Over the weekend, the undecideds in Congress got another confidence-builder from Iran on the nuclear deal that Barack Obama and John Kerry insist they support. If Congress approves the deal, it carries legal weight in the US, at least for the next 16 months or so until the next President takes office. The Iranian parliament must be rushing to provide the same level of legal commitment, right? Right? Er … no, not really: President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday he opposes a parliamentary vote on the landmark nuclear deal reached with world powers because terms of the agreement would turn...

Senate Republicans concede they are not likely to have enough votes to overturn President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran unless they can swing a key Democratic voice against the accord. They’re setting their sights on Hillary Clinton, vowing to tie her to the deal in hopes of pressuring her to oppose it. GOP leaders need 67 votes to override Obama’s expected veto and keep sanctions on Iran in place. The administration has not yet announced an accord but lawmakers expect it to come soon. “It could be a good policy strategy. It’s not going to be hard to come up...

Top Iranian Official: Obama is ‘The Weakest of U.S. Presidents’ Adviser to Iranian president mocks Obama’s ‘humiliating’ presidency Share Tweet Email AP BY: Adam KredoOctober 23, 2014 4:10 pmThe Iranian president’s senior advisor has called President Barack Obama “the weakest of U.S. presidents” and described the U.S. leader’s tenure in office as “humiliating,” according to a translation of the highly candid comments provided to the Free Beacon.The comments by Ali Younesi, senior advisor to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, come as Iran continues to buck U.S. attempts to woo it into the international coalition currently battling the Islamic State (IS, ISIL,...

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has said ongoing nuclear negotiations with world powers are a matter of “heart”—not just centrifuges. […] He asked if “we are ready to stop some types of enrichment which we do not need at this time, does it mean we have compromised our principles and cause?” He responded by saying: “Our cause is not linked to a centrifuge. It is connected to our heart and to our willpower.” He later added that the discussion also involves “foreign policy interests, not principles and ideals.” …

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that the sharp fall in global oil prices is the result of "treachery," in an apparent reference to regional rival Saudi Arabia, which opposed production cuts. Oil prices have plunged by more than 40 percent since June to around $65 a barrel, placing severe strain on Iran's economy, which is already hobbled by international sanctions imposed over its nuclear program. An OPEC meeting last month failed to reach agreement on production curbs, mainly because of Saudi opposition.

An Iranian woman sentenced to death for killing a man who tried to rape her told her mother goodbye and prepared to die, even as the Islamic republic’s president was meeting with world leaders at the United Nations. Rayhaneh Jabbari, 26, is set to be executed Tuesday, according to reports from Iran. On Monday, her mother, Shole Paravan, recounted on her Facebook page an emotional farewell call her daughter made when a sympathetic guard loaned her a cellphone before she was taken to Rajaiy Shahr Prison to be hanged. […] In April, a court postponed Jabbari’s execution in the face...

(Reuters) - The U.S. Senate passed legislation on Monday seeking to bar Iran's proposed U.N. ambassador, Hamid Abutalebi, from entering the United States. The legislation, introduced by Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, would prevent "known terrorists" from entering the United States to serve as U.N. ambassadors. The Democratic-controlled Senate passed the measure by a voice vote. The possibility that Abutalebi may have played a role in the 1979-1981 hostage crisis has outraged some of the U.S. Embassy workers held by the Iranians for 444 days. Several lawmakers had said they were infuriated that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani would make such...

By now you have probably read and heard a flood of analysis on the interim deal the Obama Administration made with the Iranian government in coordination with five other governments. Except for two people who write for the New York Times, the reviews we have read are quite damning. The purpose of this column is neither to analyze the position of any parties nor to project whether this agreement will do harm to our allies in the region. They have certainly strongly expressed they were sold down the river by the agreement, but the only thing that they are hearing...

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has challenged his successor, Hassan Rouhani, to a debate intended to defend his eight-year record in office, reports the British Telegraph. In his first political intervention since stepping down last August, the former president expressed outrage at a recent televised speech in which Rouhani took aim at Ahmadinejad’s stewardship of Iran’s economy. Rouhani said that his predecessor had presided over “unprecedented stagflation” in an address made to mark his own administration's first 100 days at the helm. During Ahmadinejad’s presidency, Iran’s currency plummeted to an all-time low as the country faced a growing shortage of...