Rouhani Warns Hardliners Against ‘Betrayal’

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani speaks to the media on Wednesday, March 17, 2021. (Iranian presidency)

London: Asharq Al Awsat

08:59-18 March 2021 AD ـ 05 Sha’ban 1442 AH

London: Asharq Al Awsat

08:59-18 March 2021 AD ـ 05 Sha’ban 1442 AH

Rouhani Warns Hardliners Against ‘Betrayal’

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani speaks to the media on Wednesday, March 17, 2021. (Iranian presidency)

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani accused hardline opponents on Wednesday of obstructing efforts to lift US sanctions.

“It is a great betrayal of the Iranian nation if any faction or person delays the end of the sanctions even for one hour,” Rouhani said in televised remarks.

“The small minority that is obstructing this path needs to stop its destructive act. If it stops … the government can break the sanctions,” Reuters quoted him as saying without elaborating.

“Today, conditions are better than ever for the lifting of the sanctions,” he stressed.

The Americans, he added, are willing to return to the deal. However, “words are not enough. We are waiting for action.”

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Rouhani defended Tehran’s foreign policy and claimed achieving diplomatic and political victories during three years of economic warfare.

In his remarks, Rouhani pointed to US failure in triggering a snapback of UN sanctions.

He indicated that US President Joe Biden is pursuing the former administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.

Rouhani seemed to agree with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian’s earlier statements.

Efforts to revive nuclear talks with Iran were being held up by “tactical problems” and the domestic situation in Iran ahead of its presidential election in June 18, the FM told a hearing at the French Senate on Tuesday.

“We are sending signals to the Iranians so that we can have this return (to the nuclear deal), which would be the prelude to a wider discussion beyond the JCPOA on regional destabilization, but also Iran’s missile capacities,” Le Drian said. “The return to the JCPOA is just the starting point.”

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is the 2015 nuclear deal struck between Iran and six powers.

Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, hit back on Twitter: “Nothing will happen unless the United States takes effective actions to lift the oppressive sanctions.”

“The current stalemate is not tactical and domestic, but related to the West’s deceptive strategy,” Shamkhani said, without mentioning Le Drian.

The new US administration aims to revive the 2015 agreement abandoned by former US president Donald Trump, under which Iran accepted curbs to its nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions.

After Trump quit the pact and reimposed sanctions, Iran took steps that violate the deal’s nuclear limits.

Iran and the Biden administration are at loggerheads over which side should move first to revive the agreement, with Tehran demanding Washington first lift sanctions and Washington calling on Tehran first to resume compliance with the deal.

On Monday, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told the European Policy Center think tank that he had seen no change between the Biden administration and the Trump administration’s policy of maximum pressure to force Iran back to the negotiating table.

He said he saw no reason to hold preliminary talks, because the US was making “extraneous” demands.

“There is a time constraint and that is once we go to our election it is a lame duck government and (it) will not be able to do anything serious and then we will have a waiting period of almost six months,” he said.

Iran President Tells Putin Region Can Solve Problems without US

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during the official welcoming ceremony at the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in Moscow, Russia, October 27, 2026. (Reuters)

17:27-27 October 2026 AD ـ 16 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

Iran President Tells Putin Region Can Solve Problems without US

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that the Middle East can solve its problems without the involvement of the United States.

"I believe we are capable of resolving our problems in the region without relying on the United States," Pezeshkian said at a meeting with Putin on the sidelines of a summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Moscow.

"Our trade is expanding and growing day by day. US actions in the region make it easier for us to move towards greater multilateralism and strengthen our cooperation with you and other countries subject to unilateral US sanctions," he told Putin.

Putin said he discussed the war with Pezeshkian, expressing hope that the situation would improve.

"We spoke earlier, one-on-one, about the situation in the region -- a situation that, undoubtedly, cannot help but cause concern," he said, adding that he hoped it would "evolve in a positive direction".

Pezeshkian said he was confident the will existed on both sides to expand cooperation in science, industry, culture, security and military affairs.

Moscow has been looking to mediate to help end the Middle East war which broke out on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Last week Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Iran for the first time since the war broke out, saying Russia's efforts were "aimed at preventing the return of a large-scale war", with talks stalled between Tehran and Washington.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later said Russia and Iran have "never" worked so closely.

Negotiations between Washington and Tehran have been stalled for months, with both the US and Israel threatening to resume their strikes on Iran.

World

Burnham Reignites Britain’s Divisive Brexit Debate with His Push for Closer EU Ties

Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham gestures as he speaks while hosting a "Rough Sleeping Summit" in Downing Street in central London on October 26, 2026, to push for further action to support people to get off the streets for good. (Reuters)

16:50-27 October 2026 AD ـ 16 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

Burnham Reignites Britain’s Divisive Brexit Debate with His Push for Closer EU Ties

For a decade, British governments have observed a cardinal rule: Don’t mention Brexit. In particular, don’t suggest that voters’ 2016 decision to leave the European Union should be reversed.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who marked his 100th day in office on Tuesday, has broken that code of silence and reignited a debate that bitterly divided the country. He says Brexit has been a failure and the UK should seek a much closer relationship with the EU, with options up to and including rejoining the 27-nation bloc.

“I am positive about closer ties with Europe and I’m not hiding that,” Burnham told the Sunday Times. “I think it will add to British GDP. I think it will give us stronger control of migration. I want to make those arguments.”

In recent interviews, Burnham has said the country should have an “evidence-based debate” about the consequences of Brexit. He gave the example of immigration. Supporters of Brexit argued that it would give the country control over its borders by ending the right of EU citizens to live and work in the UK, and of British nationals to settle across the bloc.

While Britain now sets its own immigration policy, Burnham said leaving the bloc had made it harder to control unauthorized migration because Britain has lost access to EU databases and agreements.

“The truth of the matter is we’ve lost immigration control in the way that we once had,” Burnham told broadcaster ITV on Monday.

Most economists agree that Brexit has hurt the British economy, but few politicians have wanted to reopen the painful debate.

The decision of British voters, by 52% to 48%, to leave the bloc after four decades of membership was followed by years of UK-EU wrangling over divorce terms. Britain finally left the EU in 2020 with a bare-bones trade deal that erected new barriers to doing business with the bloc of 450 million people on the UK’s doorstep.

In seeking closer ties, Burnham remains bound by the pledge of Keir Starmer, whom he replaced as Labour Party leader and prime minister, not to rejoin the bloc’s tariff-free customs union or frictionless single market for goods, services and workers.

Burnham says that could change after the next national election, which must be held by 2029.

He told the Labour Party’s annual conference last month that “Brexit has done more harm than good” and he will seek political consensus on a new relationship, with future options including rejoining the bloc.

A UK-EU summit in Brussels on Nov. 20 is set to discuss a more limited reset: a trade deal for food and drink, agreements on energy and emissions trading and a plan to let young people work for limited periods across Britain and the EU.

Around the same time as the summit, the British government says Burnham will set out options for the long-term relationship with Europe, and ask the public to weigh in.

Burnham’s office stressed that he wasn’t prejudging the outcome of that debate. But Downing Street acknowledged that UK and EU officials are already holding informal talks about the future relationship, with options including a return to the single market and freedom of movement.

The EU is welcoming but wary

The EU has welcomed Britain’s warmer tone, but its leaders are wary of UK attempts to secure some of the benefits reserved for members only.

In Britain, the return of the Brexit debate has stirred mixed feelings of hope, opposition and dread.

Anti-immigration Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who campaigned for years to take the country out of the EU, said Burnham “has no mandate” to renegotiate Brexit.

Even within the governing center-left Labour Party, views are mixed. Labour lawmaker Melanie Onn, who represents a district that voted heavily in favor of Brexit in 2016, warned against “reopening the divisions of the past.”

“Political trust is hard won and easily lost,” she wrote on the Politics.co.uk website.

David Henig, a trade expert at the European Centre for International Political Economy, said public support for Brexit has declined over the years. But he said politicians remain reluctant to revisit an issue that caused “a nervous breakdown for UK politics,” triggering a decade in which the UK has had seven prime ministers.

He said that for Burnham, “it’s the wider political support that is not there at the moment: within Labour, within his own Cabinet.

“The biggest challenge is actually not in Brussels,” Henig said. “I don’t think it’s with the public either. It’s whether he can make this work in terms of the politics.”

World

Iran Says Supreme Leader Met with Security Chief Over Hormuz

A cargo ship sails in the Arabian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP)

11:50-27 October 2026 AD ـ 16 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

Iran Says Supreme Leader Met with Security Chief Over Hormuz

A cargo ship sails in the Arabian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP)

Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to appear in public since he took office in March, has met with security chief Mohsen Rezaei to discuss regional security and the Strait of Hormuz, his office said Tuesday.

Mojtaba was chosen in March to succeed his father and longtime ruler Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on February 28 in central Tehran alongside senior military commanders, and was said to have been injured in the same attack.

He has only communicated through written messages since his appointment, some of them published in handwriting attributed to him.

During the meeting, the first publicly announced encounter between Rezaei and the leader, they discussed "strengthening bilateral relations with neighboring countries" and "safeguarding national and regional security through the management of the Strait of Hormuz," Khamenei's office said in a statement.

Khamenei "emphasized the need to safeguard the rights and interests of the Iranian nation and the resistance front by adhering to the conditions set by the country's authorities, with the aim of ending the war and the state of neither war nor peace," it added.

Neither the date nor the location of the meeting was disclosed.

Iran claims control over the Hormuz strait and regularly targets vessels that attempt to cross without its authorization, while the United States has imposed a naval counter-blockade on Iranian ports.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis remain stalled, especially since the collapse of a June deal which laid out a pathway to a permanent settlement.

Several Iranian officials, including Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, have in recent days said they held rare meetings with the supreme leader.

Rouhani Warns Hardliners Against ‘Betrayal’

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