Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi announced he would run for a seat at the Assembly of Experts.

Former President and the current member of the Assembly of Experts Hassan Rouhani also announced he would run for a seat at the oversight body.

Raisi’s candidacy was announced by Hojatul Eslam Babaei, who appeared at the elections office of the Interior Ministry on Saturday on behalf of Raisi.

Raisi is currently a member of the Assembly of Experts representing South Khorasan Province. He is running for the next Assembly of Experts from the same constituency.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Assembly of Experts Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati has not registered for the 6th term of the Assembly of Experts, according to IRNA.

The Assembly of Experts elections will be held in early March at the same time as the parliamentary elections.

Members of the Assembly of Experts are elected for an 8-year tenure and must be highly qualified in terms of knowledge of religion. The oversight body is comprised of 88 members, all are mujtahids. Candidates should pass an exam before qualifying for the elections.

The registration for the elections, which started on Sunday, November 5, ended on November 11 with 510 people willing to participate in the election.

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Two expert-level groups held separate meetings on Tuesday to discuss “technical” issues related to lifting sanctions and reverse nuclear measures.

“These expert-level meetings are to discuss technical aspects and details pertaining to the removal of sanctions and nuclear issues and report the result of their discussions to the [JCPOA Joint] Commission,” the statement said. It also quoted Abbas Araghchi, the senior Iranian nuclear negotiator in the Vienna talks, as saying that “lifting U.S. sanctions is the first and most essential move to revive the JCPOA.”

 ‘Constructive’

Enrique Mora, the European Union’s senior diplomat who led the Tuesday meeting called the talks “constructive”.

“Constructive Joint Commission meeting. There’s unity and ambition for a joint diplomatic process with two expert groups on nuclear implementation and sanctions lifting,” Mora wrote on his Twitter account.

The EU is the coordinator of the JCPOA Joint Commission.

“As Coordinator I will intensify separate contacts here in Vienna with all relevant parties, including the U.S.,” Mora added.

Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russian ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, also called the talks “successful”

“The Joint Commission meeting of #JCPOA was successful. Two expert-level groups (on sanctions lifting and nuclear issues) were tasked to identify concrete measures to be taken by Washington and Tehran to restore full implementation of JCPOA,” Ulyanov tweeted.

He added, “The groups started to work immediately.”

Diplomats from Iran and the U.S. did not meet face to face.

Representatives from Europe, Russia and China were to serve as a go-between. Both the U.S. and Iran insist the other needs to make a concession first. Iran insists the U.S. should lift sanctions because it is the U.S. that has quit the nuclear deal. However, the U.S. says Iran should scale back its nuclear program.

Robert Malley, who was present in Vienna on Tuesday leading the American team, told Morning Edition a day before that it’s only a first step in a long and difficult process with the goal of bringing both countries back into compliance.

“This is going to involve discussions about identifying the steps that the U.S. has to take and identifying the steps that Iran is going to have to take,” he says. “Because they’ve been increasingly in noncompliance with their nuclear commitments.”

Former President Donald Trump broke off from the deal in 2018 and imposed punitive sanctions. A year later Iran in turn began to gradually remove limits on its nuclear work.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the sanctions imposed by Trump are illegal and that they must be removed before Iran changes its nuclear activities.

Malley, who is serving as a special envoy for the Biden administration, responds that “it’s not going to work that way,” telling NPR’s Steve Inskeep that stance would mean Iran is “not serious” about rejoining the deal.

Iran has not quit the nuclear agreement. It has just taken remedial measures in accordance to paragraph 36 of the JCPOA.

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IRAN NEWS NATIONAL DESK

TEHRAN – The Commander of IRGC Aerospace Force noted that the country’s defense sector enjoys high-tech equipment made by Iranian experts.

Iran’s aerospace section and its achievements are standing at the world’s  top-level, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said on Sunday in the inauguration ceremony of an exhibition which showcases the achievements of the force.

“When we talk about missile, drone, and radar development, these are cutting edge technologies and we are among the top five countries in these fields,” he added.

He noted that the defense achievements of the country have been the result of experiences during Sacred Defense. “We learned from Imam Khomeini to stand on our own feet. Of course, we faced challenges in the path. At the time of the Soviet Union collapse, millions of dollars’ worth missiles and launchers were being easily offered to us but the Leader of the Islamic Revolution opposed. If those purchases had been made, we would have not gained these achievements and this progress is the result of the wisdom of the Leader.”

He noted that the exhibition aims to inject self-confidence in the younger generation while also transferring the key of these technologies to others.

The Brigadier General also said that country’s problems can be solved with self-confidence.

The exhibition has been opened on the occasion of the Sacred Defense Week which marks the start of imposed Saddam Hussein’s war on Iran in 1980.

He also hailed the Zolfaqar-e Basir missile, with a range of more than 700 kilometers (434 miles) as its new-generation ballistic missile — after predecessors Khalij-e Fars and Hormuz– to be used against mobile seaborne targets.

The newest projectile is fitted with a warhead that is guided by an optical seeker head. The precursors to the naval military achievement could respectively fly as far as 300 and 250 kilometers (186 and 155 miles).

Zolfaqar-e Basir’s surface-to-surface version can also travel a 700-to-750-kilometer distance.

The Corps has previously deployed the missile against overseas targets such as gatherings of the terror group Daesh as well as the U.S.’s Ain al-Assad Airbase located in western Iraq. The latter operation was conducted in January after a U.S. drone strike assassinated Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, in Baghdad.

“We have [well] understood the equations governing independence and esteem, and will never stop manufacturing power,” General Salami said during the inauguration ceremony, which was also attended by the Aerospace Division’s Commander Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh and Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf.

The exhibition also demonstrated the IRGC’s other capabilities in the areas of missiles, UAVs, satellites, defense systems, reconnaissance apparatuses, and electronic warfare, as well as some of the invading drones that have been successfully shot down by the Corps in the past, including American and Israeli ones.

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IRAN NEWS NATIONAL DESK

TEHRAN – Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi said on Thursday that there were no casualties in Shahid Ahmadi Rowshan Natanz Complex as a result of the incident occurred this morning, and the normal process of enrichment continues far from the site of the incident.

He further noted that on Thursday, around 2:00 o’clock, an incident occurred, as a result of which material damage was caused but, thanks God, there were no casualties.

There has been no nuclear material at the site, so there has been no pollution, contrary to the propaganda and rumors of the dissident and counterrevolutionary media that speak of pollution, he said.

Noting that production of enrichment materials at this important site continues unabated, he said that the experts are investigating to determine the cause of the accident and extent of damages.

“We have started enrichment since Iran’s move to scale down commitments, and currently we have no commitment both in terms of the level of and amount of enrichment, and we are now producing materials over 3.67 percent and above 300 kilograms,” he said.

Kamalvandi said the incident in Natanz nuclear site did not affect its centrifuge operation or cause any release of radiation.

Pre-fabricated steel framework of Natanz out-door site has broken, he added.

Some rumors have been spread by the opposition media claiming spread of pollution, which is not true at all, Kamalvandi added.

Expert teams from the AEOI have been deployed to investigate the factors leading to the damage of the pre-fabricated steel framework, he added.

Ali Akbar Salehi, Head of Iran Atomic Energy Organization, was also present in the site, the spokesman said, adding the AEOI experts are investigating the issue.

The enrichment site has not interrupted performance, and the site continues to do so, he said.

A fire broke out early Thursday at a building above Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. Officials said it did not affect its centrifuge operation or cause any release of radiation.

Meanwhile Head of Iran’s Passive Defense Organization Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali yesterday said that very limited cyberattacks waged against facilities of the country since the start of the current Iranian year (March 20).

Security is never absolute and there are always ways to penetrate it, he said, adding, “modern and up-to-date technologies, in addition to rendering quality services to people, are threatening due to their advanced and intelligent cyber elements.”

Turning to this point that new technologies are a combination of threats and opportunities, he stated, “for instance, social networks are one of the essential functions of people and everyone uses them but social networks, that are dominated by foreign countries, are used to control people of other countries, create chaos and disrupt the order of countries.”

In general, social networks, which are controlled and dominated by foreign countries, are used for security and economic attacks, Brigadier General Jalali added.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he said, “we use nuclear technology for medical diagnosis and treatment but ignoring the safety issues of this technology can be harmful.”

Safety and security considerations are usually divided into three layers, he said, adding, “the first layer is safety while the other layer is security. The third is war and defense layer, in which, enemy and threat are raised.”

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