A video of the hostages as they were being released circulated on social media, showing some of the officers bloodied and bruised with bandages around their heads.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the police officers were released early Monday following “negotiations” with the TLP, which was labeled a terrorist organization by the government last week.

The TLP was banned after its supporters took to the streets to protest against the arrest of their leader Saad Rizvi. The protests turned violent on Sunday and the TLP leaders said several of the party’s supporters were killed in the clashes.

Six police officers have also been killed in conforntations with TLP supporters.

The interior minister confirmed that the “first round” of talks with the TLP had been “successful,” adding that a second round would take place later on Monday in an attempt to settle “the rest of the issues.”

The far-right group launched an anti-French movement and set April 20 as the deadline for the French ambassador to be expelled from Pakistan after President Emmanuel Macron defended the Charlie Hebdo magazine’s cartoons insulting Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Prime Minister Imran Khan clarified on Saturday that the party had been banned for its violent methods rather than its hardline ideology.
“Let me make clear to people here & abroad: Our govt only took action against TLP under our anti-terrorist law when they challenged the writ of the state and used street violence & attacking the public & law enforcers,” he tweeted.Protests have been raging on across Pakistan since the TLP leader, Rizvi, was detained in Lahore after calling for a march in Islamabad.

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The day when U.S. President Donald Trump announced withdrawal of the U.S. from of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the White House put on a righteous face regarding his decision and issued a perfectionist statement, the reactions in Iran were different.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

Some expressed their hatred regarding Trump and the U.S. Administration, and some other called this decision a totally ineffective and useless one. This action was praised by the U.S. conservatives who considered the JCPOA as a weak agreement. Other American political personalities like former President Barack Obama and his vice-president Joe Biden criticized Trump’s decision while European countries including UK, France and Germany which were the signatories of the JCPOA deplored this action of President Trump. By the way, all polls conducted showed that most of American people disagreed President Trump’s decision and preferred at least some part of the deal to be preserved.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action which is unofficially known as Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal was an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program which was inked in July 2015 between Iran, P5+1 (five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – China, France, Russia, UK and the U.S. – plus Germany) and EU, and Iran’s pullout of it was not considered as a legal action.

President Trump had repeatedly spoken about the modification of the JCPOA until May 12, 2018 and reiterated that if other signatories of the JCPOA (France, UK, Russia, China and Germany) did not take action for modifying the deal based on the U.S. policy (of course supporting Israel), the U.S. would reimpose the nuclear sanctions against Iran. He used to say that the U.S. would only stay in the JCPOA if it was modified and four new conditions to be included in it.

Trump during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron officially announced, “Nobody knows what will be my decisions for May 12 (the deadline for Iran’s commitment to the JCPOA).” Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his equivocal remarks said that he presumed strongly that the U.S. would soon pull out of the nuclear deal. He considered the U.S. being on the verge of leaving the JCPOA. Former counselor to the U.S. Department of State Wendy Sherman expressed her concern over isolation of the U.S. after its pullout of the nuclear deal. She even in an article published in the New York Times emphasized, “The U.S. exit from the nuclear deal will provide Iran with this opportunity for uranium enrichment, and as long as the U.S. is not committed to its deal obligations, Iran will not remain committed to its obligations, either.”

She tried to make her friends taking office in the White House believe if the U.S. was not a trustable ally, its European allies would not involve it in other international equations. Most of the critics of the White House policies also believed that the U.S. exit from the JCPOA would harm seriously the relation between the U.S. and its European allies. They believed that this action, besides being a threat against the U.S. national security interests, would decrease the international capability for monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities and it would be crystal clear that the U.S. exit of the JCPOA would dishearten hostile countries to the U.S. (like North Korea which is considered a dangerous nuclear threat to the U.S.) from negotiation with this country and this exit would be more loss to the U.S. and instead in favor of Iran.

Now 22 months after the U.S. pullout of the deal, Trump is on the slope of falling from the power and legally handing over the White House to the Democrat Party representative, and he should accept this point that whatever his non-partisan rivals had criticized have come true, and if there was not President Hassan Rouhani government’s tiptoeing-around in Iran regarding the reactions to the U.S. action, today Iran could have stood three hundred steps ahead of its current position.

Trump should believe this fact that his deadly sanctions despite inefficiency of Iran government have not succeeded so much. He should believe that all of his actions in the past might turn into the encounter of him versus nothing, and the U.S. legal president-elect Joe Biden, with winning some 51 percent of Americans’ votes in the 2020 presidential election, would indisputably return to the same JCPOA in order to prove the world that the U.S. is not a uncivilized country where a government signs a deal and the next government retreats its signature under any pretext.

Now Biden should think of how he does convince Iran for the U.S. return to the JCPOA and what concessions he should give Iran or how he compensates Iranian people with the damages they have suffered in these years.

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The media disputes among state governors of the U.S. in facing with the management of the U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House in his ways of dealing with the Coronavirus crisis in New York and Washington are totally different.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

In the past five decades, the U.S. economy has been deeply rooted in New York and today, that very economy has inflicted the most damages on the West’s economy after the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Just some two weeks ago, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its report forcasted that the U.S. economy would shrink by 6% in 2020. In other words, the U.S. inevitably would withdraw the dominance of its national currency dollar in the world. In the IMF report, it has also been noted that European Union economy would also shrink by 7.5 percent and actually the West, in a deep and serious challenge with the Coronavirus, will be in economic decline, and New York is the capital of this challenge and decline.

The IMF report also forecasted that China’s economic growth will be one percent in 2020. It means the gap between economic growths of China and both Europe and the U.S. will be some 8 percent in just one year. It actually means that the hub of bourses and banking sector of the Wall Street have turned into the capital city of the Coronavirus in the world and this stunning pandemic can push all the West into an economic abyss.

This concern has also forced French President Emmanuel Macron to outspokenly say that in upcoming months it would be determined whether EU as a big economic and political project would collapse or it would challenge with the crisis to overcome it.

The concern about the collapse in New York is several times more than Europe but it has not become media headlines. Of course this concern can be seen apparently in the faces of American people and the U.S. media anchors.

Last week acclaimed American actor Robert De Niro in one of the most popular programs, The Late Show, launched a scathing attack on the performance of Trump’s Administration and mostly the White House regarding the management of the Coronavirus crisis. In his video interview and during his chat with the program’s anchor Stephen Colbert, he shared his COVID-19 experience and what he did in the lockdown phase and his dissatisfaction with the government’s services regarding the virus. De Niro reports that he doesn’t watch a whole lot of movies anymore, but he’s glued to the news. And these days, who isn’t? It feels like it’s been up-to-the-minute news updates for four non-stop years – and even more so now. He added it’s a lot of reading scripts, a bit of working out and “trying to stay alive.” The Irishman’ actor also explained that he has been lifting weights “to keep bone mass strong” and doing a lot of cardio and other routine exercises such as using a treadmill to be ready for his next  which will be a Coronavirus-themed movie where he is to play the role current New York governor Andrew Cuomo.

In his interview he strongly defended the performance of Cuomo and slammed Trump Administration’s in dealing with the Coronavirus crisis. On Cuomo’s performance, De Niro said, “Cuomo… he’s doing what a president should do.” Calling the pandemic “a national tragedy,” the actor expressed his disappointment in the current administration’s attempts to control the coronavirus outbreak.

De Niro who has acted in acclaimed movies like Raging Bull and Taxi Driver is popular among the American people as the cultural statue. On the central government, he labelled the U.S. President “an idiot” who largely ignored many of the warning signs. It’s all about him getting re-elected. I have no words for it anymore. I’m nonplussed. Dumbfounded …,” he added.

These remarks are like what French President Macron have made implicitly and they reveal the decayed root of American economy in facing of  New York as the center of country’s economy and Washington as the center of political management of the country.

Today Coronavirus pandemic in the world has turned into dominance of economic misery influence in different levels and with what I elaborated, New York City is considered as the capital of this crisis.

 By: Hamid Reza Naghashian

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According To Iran News, France’s hardleft trade unions on Friday threatened industrial action for months to come, as they searched for a way to force President Emmanuel Macron to ditch the biggest overhaul of the country’s pension system since World War Two.

The unions have been locked in battle with Macron over the fate of France’s generous pension benefits since early December. The former investment banker has made some concessions to the unions but refuses to abandon his reform.

The unions on Friday brought thousands of protesters onto the streets for a seventh round of nationwide demonstrations, although their large-scale actions are petering out and they are increasingly resorting to wildcat actions to cause disruption.

 “Our determination remains intact,” Yves Veyrier, head of the Force Ouvriere union, told reporters ahead of a street march in Paris. “We have weeks, months, of protest ahead of us”, Reuters reported.

Macron wants to streamline the existing set-up of 42 different pension schemes, each with their own levels of contributions and benefits, into a single system that gives every pensioner the same rights for each euro contributed.

The myriad special benefits deter job mobility, says Macron, for whom the reform is central to his drive to create a more flexible labor market.

Trade union opponents say the reform will require people to work longer for a full pension.

“I still believe in our fight,” said one protester in Paris who identified herself as Karine and carried a banner reading ‘We Shall Overcome’.

Walkouts at power plants left electricity generation reduced by 6.4% of available capacity, according to grid operator data. Power demand is outstripping supply due to cold weather, leaving France a net importer of electricity from its neighbors.

Macron’s Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, insists the reform must result in a balanced pension budget by 2027.

Under pressure from the unions, he has withdrawn raising the retirement age for a full pension by two years to 64. But unions must now find another way to balance the pension books or the provision will be added back in before the bill is due to be voted into law this summer.

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According To Iran News, In a telephone conversation on Wednesday, President of France Emmanuel Macron andd Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed Iran nuclear deal.

According to the Global Times, the two sides exchanged views on a number of issues, including China-France ties and Iran nuclear deal.

Last week, France, Britain, and Germany announced their decision to trigger the dispute mechanism in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – a step that could lead to the restoration of UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The E3 said the measure was in response to Iran’s reductions of its commitments to the JCPOA, which in turn was a reaction to the US’ withdrawal from the nuclear deal and EU’s failure to find practical ways to shield mutual trade from the US sanctions.

The JCPOA lifted nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran by the UN and some other signatories of the deal, particularly the US.

The Islamic Republic, in return, voluntarily changed some aspects of its nuclear program. The agreement was later ratified in the form of Security Council 2231, which terminated previous UN resolutions against the Islamic Republic.

Bowing to Washington’s pressure, the three remaining European signatories failed to protect Tehran’s business interests under the deal after the US’s withdrawal and started to tow Washington’s sanction line.

Consequently, Iran began in May 2019 to gradually reduce its commitments under the JCPOA to both retaliate for Washington’s departure and prompt the European trio to respect their obligations towards Tehran.

The E3, however, refuted the argument that Iran is entitled to reduce compliance with the JCPOA and they eventually decided to activate the trigger mechanism.

Referring to activation of trigger mechanism by E3, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, on January 20, said that Iran will leave the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if EU takes Iran’s nuclear to UN Security Council.

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Dozens of protesters had gathered outside the Les Bouffes du Nord theatre on Friday evening where Emmanuel  Macron was watching a play, reportedly with his wife Brigitte.

Police tried to hold back the protesters but some managed to enter the building, amid chants of “Macron, resign!” and “We are here, even if Macron does not want us we are here”, Sky News reported.

A black car reported to be carrying the French president then sped away under a hail of boos.

According to reports, he later returned to the theater to watch the play – a modernist drama called The Fly.

The incident came on the 44th day of strikes aimed at overturning the French government’s plans to overhaul the country’s pension system.

On Friday, protesters blocked the entrance to the Louvre museum and forced the famous Paris landmark to close.

Some museum employees were among the demonstrators who chanted: “Mona Lisa is on strike, Leonardo is on strike.”

It is the first time since railway strikes and protests against the pension overhaul began on 5 December that the Louvre and its Leonardo da Vinci exhibit were fully shut down.

Several dozen people also invaded the headquarters of the CFDT union, which favors a point-system that Macron wants to put in place to determine retirement benefits.

The protesters were seen on video singing and mocking the union’s leader.

Macron condemned the action as violent, unacceptable and “shameful for our democracy.”

Meanwhile, dozens of lawyers opposing the president’s proposed pension reforms put on a dance show in Versailles wearing their black robes.

Unions have called for a seventh-round of street marches next Friday when the contested pension plan is to be presented to France’s cabinet.

The weeks of strikes and protests have disrupted public transport, schools, hospitals, courthouses and even opera houses and the Eiffel tower.

Major French retailers Fnac Darty and Casino said that business in France has been badly affected by the strikes.

Fnac Darty said the strikes had cost it around €70m (£60m) in lost revenue.

Meanwhile, Casino estimates that the strikes in December cost it about €80m (£68m) in lost revenue.

The French prime minister’s office said earlier this week that the SNCF train authority and the RATP, which runs public transport, had lost more than a €1bn (£852m) since the start of the strike.

Trains have suffered most, so far losing some €850m (£724m).

While the number of striking workers has diminished since the movement, the country’s trains and the Paris subway were still disrupted on Friday.

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According To Iran News, US President Donald Trump denounced recent comments made by French President Emmanuel Macron on the military alliance NATO.

In November, Macron told The Economist magazine that the world was experiencing the “brain death” of NATO, warning that members of the alliance could no longer rely on the US.

In comments to the press ahead of a NATO meeting in London on Tuesday, Trump said Macron’s words had been “very, very nasty” to the other 28 member states. He added that it was “very insulting” for the French president to label NATO as brain dead. “You can’t go around saying that about NATO,” Trump added.

The US president said relations between the US and European NATO members were not causing any divide, with the exception of France.

“I do see France breaking off. I’m looking at him and I’m saying he (Macron) needs protection more than anybody and I see him breaking off, so I’m a little surprised at that,” said the American leader, CNBC reported.

Trump has himself criticized the international body, previously describing NATO as “obsolete.” And in comments just before arriving in the UK, Trump also called out some of the alliance members as “delinquent,” in an apparent reference to the amount of money that some nations spend on defense.

The US leader also took a swipe at France’s economy, suggesting with its high unemployment rate, that the country was “not doing well economically at all.” The unemployment rate in France moved higher to 8.6% in the third quarter of 2019 but has been steadily improving over the past five years.

Trump suggested France was looking to bolster its budget by introducing a levy a digital tax on US giants such as Facebook and Google. The president said he would now counter this move. “They are starting to tax other people’s products, so we are going to tax them,” Trump told the reporters.

On Monday, the White House had said it may impose duties of up to 100% on $2.4 billion in imports of French Champagne, cheese and other luxury goods.

Leading losers in the French stock markets on Tuesday morning were luxury stocks such as Hermes, LVMH and Kering.

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Protestors for 54th week of Yellow vest protests, gathered at Estienne-d’Orves Square and marched towards Felix Eboue square.

In addition to Paris, protests were held in various other cities of the country.

Police banned protests in Champs-Elysees, around Notre-Dame Cathedral that was significantly damaged following a fire in April, National Assembly and Elysee Palace.

Protests started Nov. 17, 2018, in reaction to rising fuel costs and economic injustice, but later spiraled into deadly anti-government riots.

Protesters decided to use yellow vests, part of the standard safety kit in French cars, to make their members more easily visible.

Demonstrations left 11 people dead and more than 4,000 injured since the start of protests, including protesters and the police, according to the French government.

Activists claim 24 protesters lost an eye and five lost a hand.

At least 8,400 people have been arrested since the beginning of Yellow Vest protests, and 2,000 remanded into custody.

A total of 17 protestors were arrested in Toulouse and five people, including two police and three civilians, were injured.

France has lost 2.5 billion euros ($2.75 billion) over the yellow vest protests, which started exactly a year ago, citing the government, French RTL radio station reported on Friday.

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IRAN NEWS NATIONAL DESK

TEHRAN – Supreme Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has reiterated the futility of talks with the U.S., calling on the Iranian officials to learn from the experiences of Cuba and North Korea who did not see any relief from American sanctions after interaction with Washington.

In an address to a gathering of Iranian students in Tehran on Sunday, Ayatollah Khamenei underscored that entering negotiations with the U.S. government will not settle any problem.

The Leader then highlighted the experience of Cuba and North Korea in the talks with the U.S., saying the American and North Korean authorities took photos together and gave each other the highest compliment, but the White House did not ease the sanctions against Pyongyang a bit afterwards.

“They (Americans) are like this (in the negotiations). They say we would bring you (Iran) to your knees, and they do not make any concessions ultimately,” Ayatollah Khamenei warned.

Iran decided to give the U.S. another chance by urging Washington to correct its mistakes, to lift the sanctions, to return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and to attend talks within the framework of the JCPOA, but the U.S. declined the offer, Ayatollah Khamenei added, saying it was a strategy to test the US and prove the U.S.’ intentions to the world.

The U.S. government’s demands have no limits, the Leader noted, stressing that Iran will never agree on them.

The U.S. wants Iran to stay out of the region, to stop supporting the axis of resistance, and to scrap its missiles, and will gradually urge the Islamic Republic to become lax in enforcing the laws on hijab, Ayatollah Khamenei warned.

The Leader then touched on France’s efforts to mediate between Iran and the U.S., saying French President Emmanuel Macron who claims that a single meeting with the US president would solve all of Iran’s problems is either “very naïve or an accomplice of the US.”

Ayatollah Khamenei then asked the Iranian official not to wait for the French president to address the problems, saying such limbo would plunge the country into depression.

“The key to resolving the country’s economic problems is production. This is what the economists say. There is no other option. It is not possible to wait for the foreigners to settle the country’s problems. Such a wait harms the country’s progress,” the Leader underlined.

Ayatollah Khamenei emphasized that it would be meaningless to keep waiting for the plans of the US or French presidents on the JCPOA.

The Leader then asked the Iranian administration to stop pinning hopes on the foreigners, but not to sever contacts with them, and to rely on the internal capacities instead of waiting for the foreigners.

Ayatollah Khamenei noted that Tehran’s main response to Washington’s hostile plots has been to prevent the U.S. government from making inroads into the Islamic Republic.

The Islamic Revolution has been based upon countering the U.S., as the slogans that demonstrators chanted during the Revolution were anti-American ones, he added.

Since the 1979 Revolution in Iran, the U.S. has resorted to every measure to harm the Iranian nation, such as plotting coups, provoking anti-Iranian moves and separatist movement, and blockades, the Leader deplored.

Ayatollah Khamenei emphasized that Iran has not stood idle in the face of the U.S. and has sent the enemy to the “corner of the ring” in the fight.

“But the Islamic Republic’s most important response to the U.S. plots has been that it has blocked the U.S.’ way for renewed arrival and infiltration into the country,” the Leader underlined.

Ayatollah Khamenei also decried the attempts at distorting history, saying while some claim that the takeover of the den of espionage (U.S. embassy) in Tehran triggered the conflicts between Iran and the U.S., such struggle dates back to before the 1953 coup, orchestrated by the U.S. government.

The U.S. government has not changed over the past decades and has maintained the same “wolfish characteristics”, evil attitudes, and tendency to be a global dictator as of today, the Leader added.

Ayatollah Khamenei concluded that the U.S. has become weaker, but at the same time wilder and ruder, compared to the past.

Every year in early November, the Iranian students mark the anniversary of the takeover of the American embassy.

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