Joss Stone was deported from Iran. She has been saying, “the Iranian authorities did not believe she would not try to play a public show in the country.” She may have been told so, and not being familiar with the settings, she believed it too. I assure you, no one in Iran, not the authorities and not the people believe that to be the case.
Regardless of her intentions, it was not even a remote possibility.…
See MoreFrom Our Correspondent In Iran:
Recently an official in Iran, in his inaugural address, had referred to Nas Surah in Quran and its emphasis on working for the people, hoping he, too, could live up to the teachings of Quran and serve our people. Little did he know that the Surah had nothing to do with the subject.
In Arabic, Nas means people (mankind more like in the context, really) so, his Excellency didn’t deem necessary to go any further and check the content.…
See MoreRory Stewart has apologized for smoking opium in Iran some 15 years ago. I do not usually dwell on these sorts of things and I am not going to spend much time about it here either but since the matter seems to come up quite frequently I thought I’d say a quick word about it.
Mr. Stewart says he smoked opium at a wedding. It is important to note that Iran is a vast country and despite common belief it is a melting pot of many different cultures and ethnicity.…
See MoreFor the past forty years, the majority of policy-makers in Iran have been arguing for more government intervention in the economy. They think it is necessary to regulate and control the prices down (or up) to a desired point. Hence, we have multiple organizations for price control in the country. Some of them try to come up with the correct price for each and every good and service. Others, try to enforce the set prices and root out the wrongdoers.…
See MoreTensions rise as President Trump designates Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist group. This is the first time that the United States government has designated a part of another country’s military as such a threat. On a side-note, by designating the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group, the United States may have inadvertently implicated the Iranian head of state, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran who, happens to be the commander in chief of the armed forces, including but not limited to the IRGC.…
See MoreFive plucky Iranians have crossed the Channel in a dinghy in order to be able to claim asylum in our sceptered isle. This is a claim which should be rejected out of hand. No, not because they’re Iranian, not because asylum shouldn’t be granted where it is justified and not because of any idea that foreigners shouldn’t just be allowed to turn up as they wish. Rather, because they should have claimed asylum in France, if not before, and that’s just the way the system works.…
See MoreThat the Chief Financial Officer of Huawei, a Chinese company, has been arrested in Canada over issues of breaking American law might seem a little odd. Seriously? How can someone in a Chinese company in China break US law? But I have to tell you – and this is from direct personal experience, I’ve been there and done this – US law really does apply. Assuming, that is, that what we’re told abut the story so far is correct.…
See MoreFrom our Special Correspondent in the oil industry:
From the BBC:
France has condemned as “unacceptable” a US move to re-impose sanctions on companies trading with Iran.
The action from Washington followed President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of a landmark deal that sought to curb Iran’s nuclear programme.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said European companies should not have to pay for the US decision.
So much for this being about Iran’s nuclear capabilities, eh?…
See MoreThat the US pulls out of the nuclear deal with Iran will mean that US sanctions are reimposed upon US companies. That’s generally how domestic law works of course. But it will also mean that pretty much everyone else – other than say North Korea and the like – also have to obey US sanctions. There’s a lot of spluttering about this over here in Europe but that is in general the way that things will work out.…
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