Free Republic

ran has backed China's calls to investigate yet unfounded claims of the United States being the origin of the new coronavirus as an international blame game worsened over a pandemic that has infected more than 200,000 people across the globe. Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani lashed out on Twitter Wednesday against what he called the "typical way" in which some U.S. officials have emphasized China and its central Hubei province city of Wuhan as the likely place where the COVID-19 disease began and have blamed both Beijing and Tehran's governments for failing to stop its spread. Shamkhani...

Congress will be so disappointed: A comprehensive nuclear agreement between Iran and the West will not lead to a larger rapprochement between Tehran and Washington, according to one senior Iranian official. Iran and the US “can behave in a way that they do not use their energy against each other,” Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, told the Financial Times on Monday in his first interview with international press. “Everything will depend on the honesty of the Americans in the nuclear talks,” he said. “We will not die if there is no agreement, and we will not...

TEHRAN, Oct 30 (AFP) - Iran must prepare itself to face a US attack, the Islamic republic's defence minister said Wednesday, accusing Washington of "seeking to reorganise the region". "We have to be prepared for the hypothesis of an American attack (against Iran), and reinforce our unity and avoid any divisive action," Rear-Admiral Ali Shamkhani told the student news agency ISNA. "The US government wants to reorganise the region and as a consequence Iran could constitute a target," he said. "If the Americans are in both Afghanistan and Iraq, this represents a significant challenge," he added. Only the previous day,...