10 Iran Revolutionary Guards killed in Iraq border clash

TEHRAN: At least 10 members of Iran´s Revolutionary Guards were killed when insurgents attacked one of their bases along the border with Iraq, the force said in a statement on Saturday.

The attack happened on Friday night in the village of Dari, in the Marivan district of Iran´s northwestern Kurdistan region.

“The attack by the evil rebels and terrorists against a revolutionary border post and the explosion of a munitions depot caused the martyrdom of 10 fighters,” the Guards´ ground forces division said in the statement.

There was some confusion over the announcement, as the statement listed 11 names of “martyred” soldiers. It added that “several terrorists” had also been killed and injured in the clash. “A merciless vengeance awaits them,” the statement added.

Negotiations with US useless, SAYS Khamenei: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that negotiations with the United States are “useless” because it does not abide by agreements. “As I have previously said, we cannot trust in the words of the United States and even in their signature, so negotiations with the United States are useless,” Khamenei told a gathering of Iranian diplomats in Tehran. “The idea that problems can be resolved through negotiations or relations with the United States is a major error,” he added.

Having withdrawn from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, Washington is determined to isolate Iran and pile on economic pressure with a full reimposition of sanctions, starting in August. Europe opposes the move and has vowed to find ways of maintaining its trade ties with Iran, which under the deal curbed its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of sanctions. “Negotiations with the Europeans must continue, but we must not wait for their offer indefinitely,” said Khamenei. President Donald Trump has said he is open to a new deal that would cover not only Iran´s nuclear facilities, but also its missile programme and regional interventions which are seen as a threat to Washington´s Israeli ally.

“The US seeks the return of the situation and their status before the (1979 Islamic) revolution in Iran,” said Khamenei. “They are against the nuclear potential and the power of its (Iran´s) enrichment, and its presence in the region.” Iran was a close ally of the United States up until the revolution.

overturns ban on religious minority councillor: Iranian authorities ruled Saturday that a member of the minority Zoroastrian religion had been wrongly suspended from his post on a city council. Sepanta Niknam, a member of Iran´s ancient Zoroastrian religion, was the only non-Muslim elected to the council in the central city of Yazd in May 2017, but he was suspended later in the year following a complaint by one of his fellow councillors.

It had followed a ruling by the ultra-conservative head of Iran´s Guardian Council, which oversees elections, barring religious minorities from standing in municipal polls. Because the Guardian Council has power only over national elections, the ruling was rejected by parliament, but that did not prevent Niknam´s suspension. On Saturday, Majid Ansari, a member of the Expediency Council which is charged with resolving disputes between Iran´s multiple centres of authority, said they had finally ruled in favour of Niknam. “Today, the Expediency Council ruled that the 1996 law on religious minorities is applicable and they can participate in council elections in their town,” Ansari told the reformist ILNA. He added that Niknam was now free to retake his post on Yazd city council. Iran officially recognises “Iranian Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians” as religious minorities. The national parliament has several religious minority members, including three Christians, a Zoroastrian and a Jew among its 290 deputies. Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion in Persia, prior to the arrival of Islam, but only counts around 25,000 adherents today.