Franco-German cyclist held in Iran for ‘crime', says Foreign Minister
France's foreign ministry said it was in contact with both Iranian authorities and the family of Lennart Monterlos. Citing concerns for his safety, the ministry declined to provide further details.The arrest threatens to further deteriorate diplomatic ties between Paris and Tehran, which have already been under pressure due to Iran's ongoing detention of two other French nationals, Jacques Paris and Ccile Kohler, who have been held for over three years.France has previously described their treatment as being akin to torture, and has repeatedly demanded their release.- Ends
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Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
Pak, Iran agree to increase bilateral trade volume to $10 billion annually
Pakistan and Iran on Sunday agreed to enhance bilateral trade volume to $10 billion from the current $3 billion annually as they signed 12 agreements and MoUs after talks between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Prime Minister Sharif announced the new bilateral trade target while addressing a joint press meeting with President Pezeshkian after their talks during which they also agreed to strengthen cooperation to combat militancy along their shared border, according to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP). The agreement to enhance bilateral trade volume to $10 billion was reached earlier in the morning during a meeting between Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan and Iranian Minister for Industry, Mines and Trade Mohammad Atabak. Sharif also said that Iran has the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, which had been at the heart of the current conflict with Israel. Pakistan stands with Iran for the acquisition of peaceful nuclear power, Sharif said as he condemned recent Israeli attacks against Iran and appreciated Tehran for its forceful defence of the country. Pakistan and Iran exchanged 12 agreements and MoUs in the presence of Sharif and Pezeshkian. These included cooperation in trade, agriculture, science, technology and innovation, information and communications, and maritime safety, among other issues, the APP said. Prime Minister Sharif on Sunday said that the leadership of Pakistan and Iran were keen to enhance the bilateral trade volume to the target of $10 billion as soon as possible, the APP said. The two leaders also discussed issues related to terrorism and agreed to strengthen cooperation to combat militancy along their shared border, it said. On his part, Pezeshkian said that the MoUs signed included one about finalisation of the free trade agreement at the earliest between the two sides. President Pezeshkian expressed satisfaction that serious and sincere efforts were being initiated by both sides for cooperation in diverse fields, and to take their current trade volume of $3 billion to the projected target of $10 billion, the APP said. President Pezeshkian landed in Lahore on Saturday afternoon and flew to the capital later in the evening. Meanwhile, after Khan's meeting with Atabak, a statement by Pakistan's Commerce Ministry said the high-level discussion between the two leaders marked a renewed commitment from both sides to accelerate trade, remove border bottlenecks, and build trust-based partnerships across priority sectors. The meeting emphasised maximising the potential of neighbourhood trade, with Khan highlighting how ASEAN countries have benefited enormously by trading within their region. Geography is an advantage. Pakistan and Iran must utilise this discount of distance. If we don't, we lose both time and cost benefits, he stated. The Pakistani minister suggested organising targetted trade delegations that include representatives from federal and provincial chambers of commerce, enabling focused discussions on market access and regulatory facilitation, according to the statement. The ministers also expressed a shared commitment to increasing the use of existing trade corridors and border facilities. Atabak also highlighted ongoing discussions about increasing Pakistani exports to Iran and encouraged swift follow-up on newly signed agreements. Khan said that beyond bilateral gains, such connectivity could expand to Turkey, Central Asia, Russia, and even parts of West Asia, creating an economic bloc of substantial power and resilience. Atabak supported the idea of holding a dedicated B2B day during every high-level visit and offered to bring Iranian business groups to Pakistan for in-depth meetings, the statement said. Both ministers agreed on the importance of identifying specific sectors such as agriculture, livestock, services, energy, and cross-border logistics for future collaboration, the statement said. With high-level political alignment and mutual trust, Pakistan and Iran appear poised to enter a new phase of strategic economic partnership that could reshape regional trade dynamics, it added. Centre for Strategic and Contemporary Research, a policy think tank in Islamabad, said the total volume of formal bilateral trade between Pakistan and Iran reached around $2.3 billion in 2022, with the trade balance largely tilted towards Iran. Iranian exports to Pakistan stood at $1.488 billion, mainly petroleum gas, electricity and petroleum coke. Pakistan's exports to Iran amounted to $842.8 million, primarily comprising Iron pipes, medical instruments and utility meters, it said in a September 2024 brief titled 'Pakistan and Iran's Struggle for Economic Cooperation'. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Business Standard
2 hours ago
- Business Standard
Scott Anderson captures US' hubris, Iran's revolution in exceptional detail
For most Americans, the hostage crisis was the revolution's defining event NYT KING OF KINGS: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation By Scott Anderson Published by Doubleday 481 pages $35 In September 1979, Michael Metrinko, the pugnacious political officer at the US Embassy in Tehran, was back in the US for a brief vacation when he was surprised to receive a summons to a high-level meeting at the State Department. For the previous several months — indeed, several years — Metrinko had been the Iran mission's black sheep, wholly out of step with the official flow of upbeat information from the country. That flow had been dead wrong. The US diplomats and intelligence officers charged with managing relations with Iran had not just missed the first signs of the Islamic Revolution; they had suppressed reports that it was coming. By September, the supposedly invincible shah had abdicated. Mobs ruled the streets. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had returned triumphantly from exile in France and installed himself in Qom. Yet the experts at the American Embassy were still playing a hopeful tune. Metrinko knew better. One of very few fluent Farsi speakers at the Tehran mission, he was better attuned to the depth of Iranian anger toward America. His pointed dispatches had earned him a dressing-down by the clueless ambassador, William Sullivan. Nevertheless, someone at the State Department had decided to give Metrinko his moment. He arrived at the meeting early, with notes, only to be asked to leave before it began because he lacked the appropriate security clearance. He protested that he had been specifically invited — to no avail. A little more than a month later, Metrinko became one of 52 American diplomats, embassy staffers, and military personnel, and a handful of civilians, held hostage for 444 days in Iran by a radical Muslim student group. The story of Metrinko's aborted meeting, recounted in Scott Anderson's King of Kings, his masterly new account of the Iranian revolution, illustrates the stubborn American blindness that hastened the shah's demise and helped the mullahs prevail. For most Americans, the hostage crisis was the revolution's defining event. An unprecedented and prolonged public exercise in humiliation, it riveted the nation for more than a year, dashed Jimmy Carter's bid for a second presidential term and ushered in the Reagan era. But in Iran, as Anderson shows, it was the final act in a much larger and more consequential drama. The fall of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the slight, pompous, pathetically dithering Shah of Shahs, or King of Kings, 'brought an abrupt end to one of the most important economic and military alliances the United States had established anywhere in the world,' Anderson writes. 'The radically altered Middle Eastern chessboard created by the revolution has led directly to some of America's greatest missteps in the region over the past four decades.' Propped up by a succession of presidents, the shah was an American creation first and last. His story is another sad chapter in the long history of self-defeating, misguided US meddling in the internal affairs of less powerful nations — Cuba, Nicaragua, and Vietnam already by 1978. In the case of Iran, US involvement meant toppling a constitutional monarchy (albeit an imperfect one) and supporting an increasingly capricious autocrat. Cold War priorities provided the initial impetus — containing the Soviet Union — but in time that motivation devolved into an ugly greed fest, as the shah, prized for his weakness by his masters and fabulously rich with oil money, developed an irrational appetite for new weapons systems. The shah had lived his life in a make-believe world, its fantasy enforced by a security apparatus, Savak, that terrorised anyone who refused to play along. With all sensible, independent voices silenced, deliberate misinformation, conspiracy theory, and superstition rushed into the vacuum. The most compelling voice in this haboob was the angry fundamentalist ranting of the exiled Khomeini. His sermons moved hand-to-hand under Savak's nose on cassette tapes, diligently collected by the CIA, most never listened to or transcribed. By early 1979, the storm incited by those sermons blew away the Peacock Throne, American influence and any hope for popular rule. This is an exceptional book. Scrupulous and enterprising reporting rarely combine with such superb storytelling. Anderson leavens his sweeping and complex chronicle with rich character portraits: Of the Shah and his discerning wife, Farah (whom Anderson interviewed); the harsh, cruel Khomeini; the bullheaded, ignorant Jack Miklos, the deputy US chief of mission and the shah's biggest 'cheerleader'. Yet the figure who stands out most is Metrinko, who took the trouble to learn Farsi, which enabled him to hear what Iranians said, and he paid attention to what he saw. Asked why he had foreseen what so many of his colleagues missed, he told Anderson, 'Because the guys in the political section of the embassy who were supposed to keep watch for this kind of stuff were lousy at their jobs. Is that overly harsh? I think it's deserved.'
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Pakistan, Iran decide to increase bilateral trade to USD 8 billion annually
Representive AI image Pakistan and Iran agreed on Sunday to increase bilateral trade to USD 8 billion annually, taking advantage of their geography and the "discount of distance," as trade ministers from the two countries held discussions to deepen economic and political ties. The agreement was reached during a meeting between Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan and Iranian Minister for Industry, Mines and Trade Mohammad Atabak on the sidelines of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's two-day state visit to Pakistan. Pezeshkian landed in Lahore on Saturday afternoon and then flew to the capital in the evening. A statement by the Commerce Ministry here said the high-level discussion between Khan and Atabak marked a renewed commitment from both sides to accelerate trade, remove border bottlenecks, and build trust-based partnerships across priority sectors. "[During the meeting], Kamal envisioned that, if fully leveraged, bilateral trade between Pakistan and Iran could easily exceed USD 5-8 billion annually in the coming years," the ministry said. Before departing from Tehran, Pezeshkian had said Iran and Pakistan have always maintained "good, sincere, and deep relations" and plan to increase bilateral trade volume to USD 10 billion annually. During Sunday's meeting, emphasis was placed on maximising the potential of neighbourhood trade, with Khan highlighting how ASEAN countries have benefited enormously by trading within their region. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Ukraine: Unsold Sofas at Bargain Prices (Prices May Surprise You) Sofas | Search Ads Search Now Undo "Geography is an advantage. Pakistan and Iran must utilise this discount of distance. If we don't, we lose both time and cost benefits," he stated. The Pakistani minister suggested organising targeted trade delegations that include representatives from federal and provincial chambers of commerce, enabling focused discussions on market access and regulatory facilitation, according to the statement. "We've done this model successfully in Belarus and elsewhere," he was quoted in the statement as saying. "Let's do the same for Iran, starting with sectors that show the greatest potential for mutual benefit." The ministers also expressed a shared commitment to increasing the use of existing trade corridors and border facilities. Atabak also highlighted ongoing discussions about increasing Pakistani exports to Iran and encouraged swift follow-up on newly signed agreements. "Traders and industrialists in both countries are ready. They trust each other. What they need now is a clear and consistent facilitation mechanism from our side," he noted. Khan said that beyond bilateral gains, such connectivity could expand to Turkey, Central Asia, Russia, and even parts of West Asia, creating an economic bloc of substantial power and resilience. Atabak supported the idea of holding a dedicated B2B day during every high-level visit and offered to bring Iranian business groups to Pakistan for in-depth meetings, the statement said. Both ministers agreed on the importance of identifying specific sectors such as agriculture, livestock, services, energy, and cross-border logistics for future collaboration, the statement said. "With high-level political alignment and mutual trust, Pakistan and Iran appear poised to enter a new phase of strategic economic partnership that could reshape regional trade dynamics," it added.
