News in Brief
Borrell: De-escalation, cooperation with IAEA crucial
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Wednesday tweeted about his phone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on the “importance of continuing dialogue on JCPOA,” saying “de-escalation on nuclear programme & cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) remains crucial”.
Borrell welcomed the ongoing cooperation and negotiations between Tehran and the IAEA and assessed the continuation of that cooperation as useful and positive.
Borrell said, “The JCPOA and maintaining its structure, as well as the continuation of constructive negotiations, on the one hand, and the process of normalizing relations between Tehran and Riyadh, on the other hand, are important for the EU.”
Iranian
rapper’s death sentence
commuted to imprisonment
IFP – Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, who was arrested for “provoking violence” during anti-government protests in Iran last year, first received a death sentence, but the ruling was later commuted to imprisonment.
Tasnim news agency said in a report on Wednesday that Salehi’s sentence has been commuted because of his “active cooperation” with authorities. The report did not say where it had received the news from, or how long Salehi’s prison sentence was.
None solely owns Arash gas field: Ex-deputy
Mehdi Hosseini, a former Iranian deputy oil minister, said Wednesday no country can legally claim exclusive ownership of the Arash gas field since no demarcation has been done for it.
In recent statements, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia claimed joint sovereignty over the Persian Gulf gas field, excluding Iran.