Health: Iran’s Ministry of Health reported 328,844 cases and 18,616 deaths from COVID-19. Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari announced that Tehran, Mazandaran, East Azerbaijan, Isfahan, Ardabil, Khorasan Razavi, North Khorasan, Gilan, Alborz, Semnan, Golestan, Markazi, Kerman and Yazd provinces were considered “red zones” due to high rates of infections and deaths.
Many of Iran’s most pressing issues – in politics, the environment, the economy, health and security – converge in Sistan and Baluchistan. The largely mountainous southeast province is one of Iran’s most strategic frontiers. It shares a nearly 200-mile border with Afghanistan and a nearly 575-mile border with Pakistan. Chabahar, Iran’s only oceanic port, is on its coast on the Gulf of Oman. Chabahar has the potential to be a key trading hub for the Middle East and South Asia.
Health: Iran’s Ministry of Health reported 312,035 cases including 17,405 deaths from COVID-19. Health Ministry spokesman Sima Sadat Lari said that Tehran, Mazandaran, East Azerbaijan, Khorasan Razavi, Alborz, Golestan, Kerman, Isfahan, Ardabil, North Khorasan, Semnan, Yazd, Gilan, and Markazi provinces were all considered “red zones” due to high rates of infections.
In 2020, Iran’s myriad challenges – political, economic, environmental and from the coronavirus pandemic – converged in oil-rich Khuzestan province. In May, protests in the province, home to Iran’s restive Arab minority, flared over unpaid wages and growing water scarcity. On May 23, security forces used tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse a protest over a drinking water shortage near Ahvaz, the provincial capital.
The fires and explosions in Iran in the summer of 2020 were not anomalies. Some were quite ordinary, especially in a country with a long record of neglected infrastructure and especially in summertime. Data retrieved from the archives of IRNA — used for consistency and because the news agency provides fairly consistent media coverage of such incidents–shows that these kinds of events occur frequently.
Since at least 2000, Israel has sought to prevent Iran from becoming a military nuclear power—or the tenth nation to get the bomb. The urgency to develop overt and covert operations has increased because of Iran’s growing arsenal of long-range missiles, its entrenchment in Syria, and its attempts to provide Hezbollah with precision missiles that could hit Israel.
Iranian opposition groups reflect diverse political grievances, ethnic tensions, and ideological trends. The regime’s most visible opponents are partially or entirely based outside Iran. Their goals are either regime change or self-determination for an ethnic group inside Iran. The government has banned, persecuted or prosecuted members of each of the five groups profiled here. Some groups have ties to neighboring governments in the region; others operate from Europe.
In 2019 and 2020, Iran failed to prevent human trafficking, prosecute its perpetrators or protect victims, the State Department said in the annual report released on June 25, 2020. Iranian officials often condoned crimes. They were also involved in recruiting children to fight for Iranian-led militias in Syria and forcing adults and children into the commercial sex trade. The annual U.S.
In 2019, Iran supported terrorist organizations across the Middle East, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shiite groups in Iraq and Palestinian groups in Gaza, the State Department said in the annual report on terrorism released on June 24, 2020. The report also accused Tehran of helping the Assad regime crush the opposition in Syria, plotting to assassinate Iranian dissidents in Europe, and harboring al Qaeda operatives in Iran. “If Iran wants to rejoin the community of responsible nations, here is a start: Crack down on the terrorists that caused 9/11.
On June 19, the U.N. nuclear watchdog and the United States rebuked Iran for denying access to two suspect sites where it may have used or stored undeclared nuclear material. The resolution, which passed 25 to 2 with seven abstentions, called on Iran to fully cooperate with an investigation into its past nuclear work after more than a year of stonewalling.
