Iran

Iran has paid off some $16.2 million in arrears it owed to the United Nations, allowing the country to regain voting rights, diplomats said Friday.

The United States said on Thursday it had dropped sanctions on three former Iranian officials and two companies that previously traded Iranian petrochemicals, Reuters reported on Friday.

Russia is set to supply Iran with an advanced satellite that would enable it to track potential military targets across the Middle East, and increase the country’s intelligence-gathering ability, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

Washington told Tehran on Tuesday that it must let the UN atomic agency continue to monitor its activities, as they agreed on, or put wider talks on reviving the Iran nuclear deal at risk, Reuters reported.

The director of the international nuclear watchdog agency, IAEA, said Iran's lack of cooperation over the past few months prevents him from being able to assure the public that the country is not building a nuclear weapon.

Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, a Shiite cleric who helped found the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and lost his right hand to a book bombing reportedly carried out by Israel, died Monday of the coronavirus, local media reported.

A fire broke out at a steel plant in southeastern Iran with no report of casualties, the semi-official news agency Fars said on Sunday.

Ukraine said it refused Iran’s proposal to pay $150,000 as compensation for each victim of the PS752 plane victims, local media reported citing the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman.

The United States expects to have a sixth round of indirect talks on reviving compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Thursday, according to Reuters.

A massive fire on Wednesday broke out at Tondgooyan Petrochemical Co. in the Iranian Capital city of Tehran, videos received by Avatoday shows the incident.