Iran
LONG READ: How Iran’s “Shadow Commander” Qasem Soleimani left home at 13 and took a stranglehold on the Middle East
217-page think tank report looks at why US and allies are on back foot in so many of region’s conflict zones.
40TH ANNIVERSARY OF IRAN HOSTAGE CRISIS: Present-day US “wilder, ruder” says Ayatollah Khamenei
Mickey Mouse with a smoking gun among murals unveiled on compound walls of former American embassy in Tehran.
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Trump sanctions ‘hit Iran’s supplies of cancer drugs’
As reported by bne IntelliNews a year ago, Tehran’s MAHAK Pediatric Cancer Treatment & Research Center cannot entirely escape the impact of measures despite so-called US exemptions for humanitarian goods.
IIF: IMF meetings, not as bad as you think
Investors and policymakers finished the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank annual general meetings in October on a more positive note than expected.
Albanian police ‘foiled planned attacks by Iranian agents on exiled opposition group MeK’
Mujahideen-e-Khalq enjoys support of Trump administration figures including US president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Iranians typically see it as a Marxist-Islamic cult.
Turkey’s Halkbank now seen as “fugitive” by New York prosecutors
State bank fails to send lawyer to initial court hearing on conspiracy to evade Iran sanctions.
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Former jailed Halkbank deputy GM appointed boss of Istanbul stock exchange
Move will be taken as underlining Turkey’s angry rejection of US indictment of public lender on Iran sanctions-busting charges.
Erdogan officials bring in more irregular measures to defend Turkish markets after US presses Iran sanctions-busting Halkbank charges
From out of nowhere oil revenues laundering case is back to haunt Turkey’s strongman. Officials act to stop shorting of lira and banking shares.
CONFERENCE CALL: Decline of the West and rise of the rest
It was 30 years ago that the Berlin Wall came down, ushering in hopes of a united, peaceful and prosperous world. Today the world is unpredictable and moving towards a new division between East and West. How did we get here?