It was early afternoon in New York last when I first heard loud chants outside my window. I rushed down six flights of stairs. A crowd of people was marching uptown. A man, his mouth and nose covered by a mask, was perched on top of a subway entrance, balancing himself on a metal bar. “I can’t breathe," he shouted out, drawing responses from the protestors, as they repeated some of the painful last words of George Floyd, the unarmed black American who died on May 25 after a police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes despite his plea. More

On July 9, French President Emmanuel Macron sent his top diplomatic adviser to Tehran on a mission to ease spiraling tensions between the U.S. and Iran. Having cultivated direct lines to President Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and spoken to each since Trump ordered and then canceled airstrikes on the Islamic Republic in June, Macron saw the potential for dialogue. For all the chest thumping, he was confident the Iranians didn’t want further escalation, according to a person familiar with the French president’s thinking. Trump’s aggressive approach, Macron reasoned, was nothing but a tactic from his past life as a real estate dealmaker. More

In the Motahari commercial district of central Tehran, Mohammad Mohammadzadeh is more concerned about soaring prices than the threat of war with America. Folding a pile of documents in his empty printing shop, Mohammadzadeh lists the challenges facing his business, including a 10-fold increase in the cost of ink cartridges, and bemoans the lack of help from Iran’s government. He regards the deteriorating state of relations with the U.S. with wearied resignation. “The U.S. just talks and talks and their words are meaningless now,” he said, as heavy traffic crawled past the banks, government offices and car showrooms lining the congested boulevard outside. “What can America do that they haven’t done before? They’ve been doing this sort of thing for 40 years.” More

Rare wildlife and dramatic canyons attracted a steady stream of travelers to Mina Fatemi Sadr’s hotel on Iran’s Qeshm island each Persian New Year holiday. Then it got its biggest break courtesy of Donald Trump. His decision in May to reimpose U.S. sanctions led to a collapse in the rial currency that’s sapped Iranians’ spending power, forcing many to abandon the idea of expensive overseas trips. While the resulting runaway prices and shortages are causing hardship for poorer Iranians, it’s boom time on dolphin-shaped Qeshm in the Gulf. More

Ashkan Gomrokian is a young man who’s easy to find. Most afternoons he’s in the skate park in downtown Tehran, perfecting his crooked kickflip and lipslide. The commonplace scene would’ve been considered deviant in Iran a few years ago. Gomrokian, 26, says authorities still don’t like his skater tribe much—“the oversized clothes, the hair, the tattoos”—but the Tehran municipality has built multiple dedicated skateboard spaces in the past few years, part of an effort to beautify the city and make it more livable. More

Anyone wanting to gauge Donald Trump's success in isolating Iran would do well to study the menu at Maryam Sharifi's restaurant in Dubai. Iranian businessmen are leaving the city as links with the Islamic Republic are slowly severed, and in July, she began offering pasta and biryani alongside Persian favorites like kebabs and saffron rice to attract a broader clientele. “We had to train our cook to make different dishes,” said Sharifi, an Iranian who moved to Dubai 12 years ago. The Homa Iranian eatery’s changing fortunes highlight the U.A.E’s crucial role in enforcing U.S. sanctions on Iran, a historic trade partner situated a short sail across the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow entrance to the world’s oil-exporting nexus. More

When he was studying in Tehran, Abbas would catch a pre-dawn train in from the provinces. A few scenes glimpsed through the window are etched in his mind: street-sweepers huddled around fires, men curled up under blankets in front of closed shops. Student life didn’t often take him to the affluent downtown, where glitzy malls sell Western-branded clothes and watches. On the weekends Abbas would would head back to the northwestern city of Zanjan, famous for hand-made knives and elaborately decorated shoes. The extremes of poverty and wealth on display in the capital were much less apparent in his hometown. More

Tehran traffic is gridlocked half the time, and the city spends most of the year engulfed in smog, so it’s not surprising that locals travel underground when they can -- on a metro system that sometimes carries 2 million people a day. During the sanctions decade, when Iran was largely frozen out of global commerce, the capital’s authorities managed to steadily expand the network -- roughly doubling its size. It wasn’t easy. Often, “the parts we needed, we had to build ourselves,’’ said Ali Abdollahpour, deputy managing director of Tehran Urban and Suburban Railway Operating Company. More

Plenty of force was on display as Iran’s authorities stamped out protests over the past two weeks. Something more unexpected emerged as well: a political debate. The last time Iranians took to the streets en masse, in 2009, the clampdown was swift and absolute. Then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad characterized protesters as “dirt and dust.” This time, too, there have been hundreds of arrests, and at least 25 deaths. But both main factions in Iranian politics claimed to see something legitimate in demonstrators’ demands -- even if they disagree about what it is. More

President Donald Trump decided against killing off the Iran nuclear deal in a day-one spectacular. It may face a lingering death instead. Trump’s administration sends out mixed signals on many issues, but on the need for a tougher line against Iran, it speaks with one voice. And words have been accompanied by action. In Syria, the U.S. military is directly clashing with Iranian allies. In Saudi Arabia, Trump performed a sword-dance with Iran’s bitterest foes. In the Senate, new sanctions on the Islamic Republic sailed through with near-unanimous approval. The 2015 accord reined in Iran’s nuclear program, and offered the Islamic Republic a route back to the mainstream of the world economy. It was the fruit of many years of work by many governments. Its breakdown would likely add to turbulence in the Middle East, and impose new strains on America’s ties with Europe. Yet there’s a serious risk that the deal could unravel, according to one former U.S. official who was intimately involved. “Death by a thousand cuts” is what former Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns fears could be the fate in store for the agreement he helped negotiate. More

Maryam was 22 days old when Iranians dethroned their king in 1979. The Islamic regime that followed- with its black and brown robes, covered heads, and dour religiosity - was “just a fact” of life, she says. “We never thought about anything different, because we hadn’t seen anything else.” Thirty-eight years later, that acceptance is wearing thin. The May 19 presidential vote - and the jubilant street celebrations that followed the reelection of President Hassan Rouhani, the nearest thing to a liberal allowed onto the ballot box - showed an Iranian society much changed since the days of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic revolution and unwilling to turn back. More

Aryan’s timing was impeccable: Months after he returned to Iran from college in Canada, job offers started to pile up. A decade of economic sanctions was drawing to an end in early 2016 as he settled back home, prompting a frenzied chase for Iran’s small pool of white-collar professionals. “It’s a battle for talent,” said Aseyeh Hatami, founder and managing director of Iran’s leading jobs website, Iran Talent. Those with skills “and who are fit for a professional work environment are seized immediately,” she said. The thriving metropolitan upper middle class that includes Aryan is a natural constituency for moderate President Hassan Rouhani, the architect of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that ended Iran’s isolation, as he seeks a second term at May 19 elections. More

After international sanctions on Iran were relaxed last year, Iranian-Americans started looking to invest money in their homeland. With Donald Trump in the White House, many are planning to pull it out. “For the first part of last year we were getting a lot of calls from people looking to explore business opportunities in Iran,” said Erich Ferrari, a U.S. sanctions lawyer based in Washington. “That has pretty much stopped since the election. We have in the last month or so been getting a lot of requests for licensing to sell property or to move assets.” More

He hasn’t even taken office, but Donald Trump is already looming large in Iran’s presidential election. As the Islamic Republic prepares to vote in May, Trump’s threats to dismantle the 2015 nuclear accord, along with Congressional action against Iran, are providing a rallying cry for Tehran’s conservatives. Under pressure, President Hassan Rouhani, the moderate leader who clinched the deal, and his officials have adopted a harsher tone against Washington: If Trump tears up the deal, “we will burn it here,” Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday. State TV compared U.S. lawmakers to gangsters in a Martin Scorsese movie. “This election will be shaped by Donald Trump coming into office,” said Mahjoob Zweiri, a professor of Middle Eastern politics who focuses on Iran at Qatar University in Doha. More

The group of men and women in their twenties sat in a frog-green office on orange chairs as they debated marketing strategies, occasionally breaking to tap on Mac computers or play a game of ping-pong. The meeting of tech-savvy startup entrepreneurs wouldn’t have been out of place in any wired, developed-world city. But this was Tehran, the capital of an Islamic theocracy better known for state-directed heavy industry struggling under the weight of international sanctions. A decade of economic isolation, austerity and high unemployment has sapped business investment and put all but the essentials beyond reach for most. Yet it has also nurtured a burgeoning club of educated young Iranians with good ideas, little to lose and no competition to speak of. “They think, ‘well, now that I can’t find my ideal job let me go and launch my own’,” said Hamid Mohammadi, the 35-year-old co-founder of Digikala, Iran’s fledgling answer to Amazon. More

Xanyar Kamangar feared he was out of luck. Due to fly from London to Tehran last month to host foreign investors, he had lost his Iranian passport. A new one would take seven weeks. The consul general agreed to see the 39-year-old, who had left a career with Deutsche Bank AG to co-found a Tehran-based investment firm, believing his native country would soon open for business after years of sanctions and isolation. “The consul called his aide and said ‘Let’s help this young man help the country,’” Kamangar recalled. “The passport was issued in 16 minutes.” For years after the 1979 revolution, Iranians who left were dismissed as traitors and those who returned often treated as outsiders. Hundreds of thousands moved to southern California, dubbed their new city Tehrangeles, and didn’t look back. But following the 2013 election of President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate, and his government’s success in reaching a nuclear accord with world powers last month aimed at lifting international sanctions, a shift has begun. More

The Jews congregated at Tehran's Levian Synagogue recited prayers into the early hours, the men wearing skullcaps and the women flower-patterned head scarves. In a corner, half a dozen kids wrestled over an Ipad. Tea and biscuits were served, followed later by strong coffee. The end of Rosh Hashanah marked the end of another Jewish year for a millennia-old community that has clung on since the 1979 Islamic revolution ushered in a Shiite theocracy and led many Jews to emigrate. More

One of the first things Leila Daneshvar did after Iran agreed to a framework for a nuclear accord was to contact European suppliers that had shunned her company because of the sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic. Trade restrictions had forced Daneshvar to rely on Chinese suppliers to make the medical rehabilitation equipment her Tehran-based company sells. Sanctions that cut off Iranian banks from the global financial system meant she had to fly with cash to Beijing and Shanghai to pay suppliers in person. Now European suppliers say her requests are under consideration. “Finally the gates open,” she says. “I know it’s not going to be immediately all right, but we’re happy that things are moving forward.” More

Maliheh Kazemi agreed to forgo the $18 a month that Iran's government provided to help pay the bills, in a gesture of support for the president she helped elect last year. “I didn’t sign up for the payments this time because I want to help Hassan Rouhani’s government,” the 62-year-old Kazemi, who lives alone in Tehran said. “They want to do things for the country. If more people don’t get the money, it will be freed for other projects.” More

After decades portraying starkly different visions of Iran through their movies, two of the nation’s leading filmmakers have turned on each other in a dispute that has sucked in some of the country’s top officials. At the heart of the discord between Ebrahim Hatamikia, a household name in Iran, and Abbas Kiarostami, whose films have won global recognition, is the cinematic portrayal of the 1980s war with Iraq. Hidden in the acrimonious exchanges is a tussle between those who stand by the tenets of the Islamic Republic, and draw power from proximity to the clerical establishment, and proponents of a more open, liberal Iran. Their clash symbolizes “a type of free-thinking versus the authoritative opinion of the state,” said Parviz Barati, an author of books on Iranian culture and commentator for the Shargh newspaper in Tehran. “The same friction we see between these two icons of cinema is visible within Iranian society.” More

On a recent morning in December, a 23-year-old college graduate named Samira stands with hundreds of others inside the stock exchange in downtown Tehran, considering whether to invest $600. As stock prices flash on screens above the trading floor, she says she's excited to buy her first shares. "I like the feel of this-it has a buzz," says Samira, who declined to give her last name for fear of reprisals for talking to a reporter from a foreign news organization. "Anyone you speak to these days will tell you the stock exchange is the best place to invest right now." The June election of President Hassan Rouhani to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has helped set off a stock market boom in Iran. The Tehran Stock Exchange's benchmark index soared 131 percent this year through Dec. 30 to a record, beating returns posted by 93 major global equity gauges. Most of the rally followed the election of 65-year-old Rouhani, who pledged to reestablish Iran's ties to the world economy after decades of crippling sanctions. More

When Hassan Rohani won Iran’s presidential election this month, he garnered more votes than when his predecessor swept to power eight years before. He also gained a larger list of things to fix. Rohani, 64, a lawyer, cleric and former diplomat, inherits an economy that under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was defined by falling oil exports because of international sanctions, accelerating inflation, a currency collapse and enduring unemployment. He’s also confronted by a political scene marked by squabbling over how to drag Iran out of the mire amid pressure from the U.S. and European Union over its nuclear program, which Israel has vowed to curb by any means. “This Iran is going to be much harder to manage,” said Cliff Kupchan, director for the Middle East at New York-based political risk consultants Eurasia Group. “Rohani has much more of a mandate than Ahmadinejad had, while the country is in a lot more trouble today than it was in 2005.” More

Iran’s rulers are applauding Arab people power as it sweeps away hostile regimes, and cracking down on domestic opponents who today attempted a repeat of the mass protests that roiled the Islamic republic in 2009. Hours before President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11 and Cairo reverberated with cheers, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a speech to […] More

Nasser didn't think much of Iran's Islamic regime -- until it paid for him to become a woman. Growing up in the city of Mashhad, Nasser knew he was different from the other boys, sneaking around in his aunt's skirts and experimenting with makeup. At age 14, he told his parents he wanted to have a sex change. “I realized that I had a problem and that I needed to solve it through an operation,'' Nasser, now 18, says at a downtown Tehran clinic two days after he became a she called Hasti. “Even if lots of negative things are said about the regime, they also do things that are good.'' In Iran, where men and women are segregated, and homosexuality is punishable by death, the government plans to spend 6 billion rials ($647,000) this year to help pay for sex- change operations. The policies aren't as contradictory as they seem, because in traditional societies there is more pressure to conform to standard gender roles, says Mahdis Kamkar, a Tehran psychologist who works with transgenders.

An American friend recently forwarded me a chain e-mail. It contained a multimedia slide show of an Iran rarely seen by Western eyes - backed by the gentle sound of Cat Stevens' "Peace Train," photos showed a couple hugging on a park bench, cheerful snowboarders on a slope, a student observing a modern art installation, a woman playing golf. . . . In short, pictures of mundane life in Tehran rather than bearded faces and burning American flags. The slide show ended with a black screen and a quote from the former U.S. Defense Department official and prominent neo-con Frank Gaffney: "I would say the likelihood of a military action against Iran is 100 percent." The subject line of my friend's email was, "This made me cry." More

For Iran's young population, celebrating a solemn religious holiday while also gearing up for the excitement of Valentine's Day created an enthralling cultural dichotomy on the streets of Tehran last week. The two-day religious festival of Tassoua-Ashura is an essential date in the Shi'iah Muslim calendar. In cities throughout Iran, thousands of Iranians dressed in black march in the streets flagellating themselves to the beat of a drum in tribute to the suffering of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet (PBUH), who was slain in battle in 680 C.E. The backs of many in the procession are red, swollen, even bloodied by the end of the day. For non-Muslims, it's certainly a strange and overwhelming sight to behold. More

Habillée d'une veste rose et perchée sur des bottes en daim qu'elle fait claquer sur le carrelage, Sharareh, 24 ans, entre dans la salle d'attente. Elle virevolte, soulève le foulard qui couvre sa chevelure et fait admirer à l'hôtesse son nouveau balayage doré. Puis elle lisse une longue mèche sur le côté de son visage et scrute de haut en bas la reporter de Libération qui attend dans la pièce. «Vous avez été opéré il y a longtemps, vous ? C'est drôlement réussi, dites donc !» s'exclame-t-elle, convaincue que toutes les personnes présentes sont, comme elle, des transsexuelles. Grâce au bouche à oreille, la clinique du docteur Bahram Mir Jalali, au nord de Téhéran, est devenue une sorte de QG des transsexuels, accueillant des patients de provinces éloignées et parfois de pays avoisinants, désireux de se libérer d'un corps auquel ils n'arrivent pas à s'assimiler. Sharareh, de son ancien prénom Aydin, a passé le cap il y a deux mois. «Je viens tout juste de naître», dit-elle, cajoleuse. More

Dix-huit heures de bus à partir de Bushehr, dans le sud de l'Iran, et l'équivalent de dix euros de leurs maigres économies claqués en deux jours. Leyla et Mina, 21 ans, sont venues pour être «auprès de Mehdi» le soir de son anniversaire, qui tombait cette année le 20 septembre. Des néons multicolores illuminent le ciel à la mosquée de Jamkaran, située à sept kilomètres de la ville sainte de Qom. Petits gâteaux, thé et sirop sont offerts ça et là. Seul souci : Mehdi est absent. Cela fait onze cents ans qu'il manque au rendez-vous organisé par ses fidèles. More

La salle de lutte est à quelques rues du grand bazar, dans le sud de Téhéran. Chaleur d'enfer et brouhaha continu. Pas une présence féminine parmi les spectateurs, encore moins sur la piste. Au centre, deux colosses en maillot moulant et épaules bombées se toisent avant de s'empoigner. Objectif : faire basculer l'autre sur le dos et maintenir ses deux omoplates au sol le temps de deux secondes. La lutte est «libre», il est ainsi possible de saisir l'adversaire par les jambes. Malgré les visages farouches et les dégaines de mauvais garçon, l'ambiance est étonnamment bon enfant. Les participants venus de 23 pays différents et assis côte à côte dans les tribunes discutent technique dans un anglais de cuisine. Ils s'encouragent mutuellement avant de passer à l'action. La lutte est généralement une affaire d'hommes et il n'en est pas autrement à Téhéran où se déroulent jusqu'à aujourd'hui les 14es championnats du monde de lutte libre des vétérans. More

I've spent more than two thirds of my life in fashionable capitals: Paris, London, New York. For a time I worked on the Champs- Elysees, developing ad campaigns for an international clothes designer. I'm now back in my home-town of Tehran--looking oddly like a nerd. I realized that recently after sharing a taxi with a long-haired young man wearing swanky sunglasses. "I'm a country kid, too," he said flirtatiously. "Which province are you from?" When I told him I was actually from New York, he took off his glasses and double- checked me from head to toe in astonishment. A scarf was tightly knotted under my chin; I was draped in loose brown pants and a black trenchcoat bought a size too big to safeguard maximum decency. Dark and baggy, I was the epitome of revolutionary unchic a la the Iranian Islamic Republic '85-'90. The young man shook his head. Away for so long, I hadn't yet realized how much Iran has changed. More

Iran appeared to have at least temporarily backed away from its ultimatum on breaching the 2015 nuclear deal, as European nations made last-ditch efforts to salvage what remains of the multilateral accord and avert a slide toward war. Iran’s atomic energy organization had said the country would probably exceed the cap on stockpiles of low-grade uranium on Thursday, as it pushes back against U.S. crippling economic sanctions imposed after the Trump administration unilaterally exited the agreement more than a year ago. But by 6:30 p.m. local time, there was no word from Tehran that it had done so. A European Union diplomat said remaining parties to the deal were “scrambling” to find a solution. More

“Who’s not acting like a normal state?” The rhetorical question from Iran’s foreign minister to a New York audience took aim at President Donald Trump’s administration for exiting global treaties on issues from arms control to climate change. Yet foremost in Mohammed Javad Zarif’s mind was the U.S. decision to rip itself free from the 2015 nuclear accord. Trump blames the breakdown on Iranian military meddling in the Middle East, and he’s struck at the nation’s economic jugular to try and force it to change behavior. But his riding roughshod over diplomatic agreements swung the pendulum of Iranian politics toward hardliners digging in for greater confrontation, rather than engagement, with the West. More moderate politicians face a dilemma: become more strident or be pushed to the margins. More

Iran is combining six local banks as President Hassan Rouhani looks to curb the military’s role in the economy and bolster the country’s financial industry. State-run Bank Sepah will take over five lenders linked with the security forces -- Ansar Bank, Ghavamin Bank, Hekmat Iranian Bank, Mehr Eqtesad and the Kowsar financial credit institution. This is “an important step with a view to stability and the health of the banking system,” Iran’s central bank said on its website. More

To Iranians, Shiraz is known as the city of poetry and roses. To Norwegian Air Shuttle, it has become the focus of a two-month battle to retrieve a Boeing jet that’s been trapped in the net of U.S. sanctions. The 737 Max aircraft made an emergency landing Dec. 14 in Shiraz after developing engine problems while en route from Dubai to Oslo. Passengers were flown out the next day, but the stricken plane has been grounded in the ancient city at the foot of Iran’s Zagros mountains ever since. Norwegian Air initially imagined it would be a straightforward matter to fly in the needed parts, said Reza Jafarzadeh, head of public relations at Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization. “Then it realized that there was a bigger problem.” More

The Iranian foreign minister’s on-again, off-again resignation played out across two tense days on the very social media platforms that are either banned in his country or possibly headed that way. Mohammad Javad Zarif got the whole thing rolling by posting his resignation around midnight Monday on Instagram, which isn’t banned -- though efforts to do so are in the works. An online feeding frenzy followed, thanks to virtual private networks that are commonly used in Iran to sidestep bans on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. More

Leila Koochaki’s health has become collateral damage as the U.S. extends its economic offensive against Iran. The 47-year-old had to contact 15 pharmacies across Tehran before she finally secured the anti-fatigue medication she takes to cope with multiple sclerosis. “I found a small drugstore that could give me a little, just two strips of 10 tablets each,” Koochaki said. “I begged “I begged them to keep it for me until I got there.” On paper, U.S. sanctions permit Iranian purchases of humanitarian goods like medicines. To avoid accidentally triggering penalties, however, foreign drug companies and international banks are taking extra precautions even when dealing with permitted business. The new legal complications, along with panic buying and hoarding, mean some drugs are increasingly difficult to find. More

A slump in the value of Iran's rial currency amid a tense standoff with the U.S. has triggered a chain of events that's paralyzed money markets and businesses. Payam’s range of Bosch and Karcher products is hardly selling, and suppliers are wary of meeting new orders. […] More

U.S. President Donald Trump’s desire to isolate the Iranian economy seems to be working. Within hours of Washington unveiling its first round of sanctions, German carmaker Daimler AG froze a plan to make Mercedes Benz trucks in Iran. That’s even after the European Union tried to salvage the Iran nuclear deal by pledging to protect firms from Trump’s assault. “I wouldn’t be surprised if more companies were to follow Daimler out of Iran,” said Frank Biller, a automobile analyst based Stuttgart, Germany for Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg. “With the political situation right now, I’m sure a lot of companies are at least thinking about suspending their activities.” More

Iranian authorities are scrambling to stem a growing crisis over air pollution in the province that produces a major share of the country’s oil, showing a sensitivity to people’s demands not always visible before anti-government protests raged earlier this month. A yellow smog has enveloped the southwestern Khuzestan region ever since a severe dust storm struck on Jan. 19, shutting schools and offices and prompting criticism of the administration across local media. So far, 1,530 people have been hospitalized with breathing problems, according to state-run television. When pressed on the public-health implications on live television, President Hassan Rouhani said […] More

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, sworn in for a second term in front of an audience of foreign officials, reiterated on Saturday that his nation will stand by its obligations in an international nuclear deal. “Iran will never be the first country to start violating” the accord, Rouhani, 68, said in the Iranian parliament, speaking to officials including European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. “But we will not sit idle in the face of violations” by other countries, he said, adding that his government would “respond in proportionate measure.” Mogherini’s presence is a clear show of support for the Iranian president, who built his first four years in office on a policy of engagement with western nations, and for the nuclear deal whose fate is increasingly unclear given U.S. President Donald Trump’s opposition and renewed financial penalties. More

Iran's presidential election shifted toward a straight fight between moderate incumbent Hassan Rouhani and a leading conservative cleric, a contest that polls suggest is too close to call. Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the 55-year-old mayor of Tehran who lost to Rouhani in 2013, withdrew his candidacy on Monday and called on his backers to switch allegiance to Ebrahim Raisi. A survey by the state-affiliated Iranian Students Polling Agency last week showed the potential implications: support for Rouhani was at 42 percent, with Raisi on 27 percent and Qalibaf at 25 percent. “A two-way race between Rouhani and Raisi will polarize society and mobilize the electorate,” Ali Vaez, a senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, said by phone. The narrowing of the field to two main candidates, he said, also makes it less likely that voting will go to a second round. More

Iran’s nuclear facilities have suffered a cyber attack that shut down computers and played music from the rock band AC/DC, the F-Secure Security Labs website says. A new worm targeted Iran’s nuclear program, closing down the “automation network” at the Natanz and Fordo facilities, the Internet security site reported, citing an email it said was sent by a scientist inside Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization. The virus also prompted several of the computers on site to play the song “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC at full volume in the middle of the night, according to the e-mail, part of which is published in English on the website. Iran’s nuclear program and oil facilities have been subject to a succession of cyber attacks that the Foreign Ministry said in May were launched by hostile governments as part of a broader “soft war.” Iran accuses the United States and Israel of trying to sabotage its technological progress. Both countries say Iran’s nuclear activities may have military intent, an allegation that Iran denies. More

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was on course for a landslide victory giving him a second term in office, a result that would deal a blow to hardliners seeking to derail his policies of a greater engagement with the world. A victory for Rouhani would strengthen his domestic mandate to integrate Iran with the global economy. Yet the extent of his success would depend on the cooperation of the Iran’s conservative establishment, led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who implicitly supported Raisi during the campaign. It will also depend on actions taken by U.S. President Donald Trump, who arrived on Saturday in Saudi Arabia for talks expected to focus on ways to contain the Islamic Republic’s regional influence. More

Iran’s May 19 election is being fought as a referendum on the policies of President Hassan Rouhani, the moderate cleric who championed integrating Iran with the global economy and curbed his nation’s nuclear work in exchange for relief from sanctions. His opponents say gains from the nuclear deal are yet to make their way down to the majority of ordinary Iranians. A victory for Ebrahim Raisi, Rouhani's leading conservative challenger, would likely worsen already-tense relations with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump—who has described the 2015 nuclear deal as a disaster and Iran as a terrorist-supporting nation that needs to be confronted. A hardline president would also be a further deterrent for foreign investors, the very people Rouhani maintains his country needs to boost its economy and standing in the world. More

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a co-founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a key ally of President Hassan Rouhani, has died from heart failure four months before the next presidential election. More

Iranian banks are trying to catch up with the rest of the world. After years of isolation left them with outdated practices, they’re attempting to fall in line with international standards of transparency so they can better attract business and integrate with the global industry. The central bank has instructed local lenders to set up compliance departments and risk management programs, and to to implement globally accepted accounting practices so the economy can take further advantage of the easing of international sanctions under the 2015 nuclear deal. The central bank “felt the need to address and resolve the issues our banks have,” Vice Governor Peyman Ghorbani said in an interview on the sidelines of the Frankfurt European Banking Congress. “Good steps have been taken.” More

Top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani said he hopes to remain a soldier “until the end” of his life, in remarks that follow weeks of media speculation he might contest presidential elections in May. “I am a soldier of Velayat and the Islamic Republic regime and the brave population, which I value more than my own life,” Soleimani said in a statement published on Thursday. “God willing, I will remain in this role of soldier until the end of my life.” Velayat refers to Iran’s ultimate arbiter on all matters of state, the supreme leader, currently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Soleimani’s popularity has surged as he became the most high-profile face of largely Shiite Iran’s fight against the Sunni jihadists of Islamic State. He regularly visits frontlines in Iraq and Syria, where the governments are Iranian allies, and in recent months his interests have appeared to spread to social issues and foreign policy. More

Less than a fortnight after a decade of crippling economic sanctions on Iran ended, President Hassan Rouhani is being treated to red carpets dinners with top CEOs and billion-dollar deals in Europe. In Italy, accords worth $22 billion covered industries from natural gas to high-speed rail, while in France Rouhani is expected to purchase Airbus Group SE jetliners and seal manufacturing partnerships with PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault SA. The speed with which the president travelled to Europe once July’s nuclear deal finally came into force underscored the depth of Iran’s economic problems. More

Iran plans to unify the rial’s exchange rates with the dollar after the nuclear accord signed with world powers is implemented, according to the country’s central bank governor Valiollah Seif. “We have a very stable currency market, but to proceed toward a unified exchange rate requires accelerating the country’s access to foreign currency,” Seif said in an interview in Frankfurt. More

Anyone would think the sparring over Iran’s nuclear program has been physical as well as verbal. Broken legs, aching backs, cranky bowels and ruptured pinkies are all on the list of ailments to have afflicted the diplomats at the talks. Iran’s top nuclear official, Ali Akbar Salehi, could only rejoin proceedings in Vienna on Tuesday after a hospital stay following intestinal surgery. The negotiations began in September last year. As the June 30 deadline for a historic deal curbing Iran’s nuclear work in return for sanctions relief gets extended, diplomats may need to draw on untapped reserves of stamina. More

The prospect of access to Iran's $500 billion economy is tempting executives from countries including France and the Netherlands as […] More

A large crystal-studded bear embracing a sleeping child by Farhad Moshiri was the top lot today at an auction in Dubai estimated to raise $5.5 million as Christie’s International tests demand for Middle Eastern art. More

After blaming trade sanctions for delaying a new Tehran highway last month, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf ordered extra work shifts to meet the deadline. “We are making all efforts to fully launch this project,” said Qalibaf, who is mayor of the Iranian capital. “Partners have promised to make up for two of the four months delay.” Qalibaf, who lost to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential vote, has been using the city of 12 million people as a platform to foster a reputation as a politician who gets things done. As another election looms before Ahmadinejad steps down, Qalibaf is poised to translate that support into votes should he run again in June. With Iran threatened over its nuclear program and grappling with accelerating inflation and oil output that in 2012 fell to its lowest in more than two decades, the stakes are high for the leaders deciding who to promote as the next premier. More

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes his final appearance at the United Nations this week as a leader vilified abroad […] More

Two U.S. nationals held in Iran on charges of espionage and illegal entry into the country were freed from prison and left from Mehrabad International Airport in the Iranian capital on a flight to Oman, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were released from Evin prison today and handed over to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, Masoud Shafiei, their lawyer, said earlier today in a telephone interview. The Swiss mission represents the interests of the U.S., which doesn’t have diplomatic ties with Iran. The two Americans were released after an Iranian judge signed documents today approving the payment of $500,000 each on their behalf, according to Shafiei, who said that Oman had arranged for the money. More

Iran’s opposition movement lacks the resolve and mass support needed to overthrow the country’s clerical regime, said Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, the Islamic republic’s first president. In 1979, when Bani-Sadr helped lead the revolution that overthrew the Shah, “the young generation was determined to get rid of the monarchy,” the former president said in an interview at his home in Versailles, France. “Today’s opposition supporters are hesitant and confused as to what they are fighting for,” he said. “They are caught between what they desire and what they think is attainable.”

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has hurt the nation by creating tensions with other countries, his main challenger in the June 12 presidential election said in a televised debate. “In your foreign policy, you have damaged the nation’s dignity,” former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi said during yesterday’s evening debate in Tehran broadcast live by state television. “Shame has been brought on Iran. You have created tension with other countries. Heavy costs have been brought on the nation in these four years.”

Iranian presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi said he will strive for a policy of détente with western countries on the country’s nuclear program if elected in the June 12 race. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s approach on the nuclear program “has increased the U.S. ammunition against us and allowed it to rally countries against Iran,” Karrubi told Bloomberg News in an interview late yesterday. “I don’t believe Iran’s nuclear program is the issue,” Karrubi said, speaking in the southern city of Shiraz on his campaign trail. “The issue is the harsh stance taken by the president that has created problems for us and soured our relations with other countries.”

For 30 years, Parviz Tanavoli led a quiet life teaching sculpture and holding shows in his native Iran and abroad. That changed in April when a work sold for a record $2.84 million at an auction in Dubai. “The phone started ringing a few hours after that,” said Tanavoli, 70, in an interview in his studio in northern Tehran. “I’m getting upset with buyers. This is not a coin shop. I have a limited number of works.” To stop the flood of offers to buy his sculptures, he unplugged his phone for several days, he said.

Tous les matins, sur son ordinateur, Fereshteh, 59 ans, suit le cours de ses actions à la Bourse de Téhéran. Sa stratégie est claire : se défaire de toutes celles en relation avec les investisseurs étrangers, dont la valeur semble susceptible de chuter. «L'avenir du pays est incertain, le moment n'est pas au risque», dit-elle. Consciente qu'avec le renvoi du dossier nucléaire de l'Iran au Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies l'ombre des sanctions plane sur le pays, elle préfère verser une partie de ses fonds dans un compte épargne. Elle n'est pas la seule. A Téhéran, investisseurs, entrepreneurs et businessmen parlent déjà de «limiter les dégâts». Ali-Reza, 31 ans, importateur de machines industrielles de France, confie : «Toutes les réunions de travail débutent et finissent inévitablement sur le thème des sanctions», mentionnées dans les clauses du contrat ; elles font aujourd'hui parties des «risques du métier». More

«Ganji arrive avec le printemps», titre en une le journal réformiste Shargh. Cheveux grisonnants, barbe fournie et avant-bras osseux, l'homme aux allures de derviche qui apparaît sur la photo n'a pourtant rien de printanier. Et pour cause. Akbar Ganji, journaliste dissident du régime islamique et le plus emblématique des prisonniers politiques en Iran, a été relâché dans la nuit de vendredi à samedi, après six ans de prison. Humour. «Tu ressembles à Robinson Crusoé. D'où sors-tu donc ?» le vanne, lors d'une visite au lendemain de sa libération, son ami Mohsen Kadivar, un dissident qui a, lui aussi, passé quelques années en prison. Sens de l'humour intact, Ganji, 46 ans, lance : «Faute de discussions politiques, je suis maintenant prêt pour des débats spirituels et bouddhistes.» More

Kill Bill au cinéma, Usual Suspects à la télé et Nora Jones dans les boutiques de disques ? Cela existe bel et bien sous la République islamique d'Iran. Mais plus pour longtemps. Un rapport en provenance du Conseil suprême de la révolution culturelle, dirigé par le président ultraconservateur, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a interdit hier la distribution et la projection de films étrangers faisant «la propagande des idées laïques, féministes, libérales, nihilistes». De même, «aucune licence ne doit être délivrée pour la diffusion de films allant à l'encontre de la suprématie de la religion». More