عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

US Slams Iran’s Efforts to Prevent Exercise of Freedom of Expression

Jury president Darren Aronofsky holds the Golden Bear for Best Film for the film 'Taxi' by Jafar Panahi as he stands between presenter Anke Engelke and festival director Dieter Kosslick (R) at the awards ceremony of the 65th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin February 14, 2015. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo
Jury president Darren Aronofsky holds the Golden Bear for Best Film for the film 'Taxi' by Jafar Panahi as he stands between presenter Anke Engelke and festival director Dieter Kosslick (R) at the awards ceremony of the 65th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin February 14, 2015. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo
TT
20
TT

US Slams Iran’s Efforts to Prevent Exercise of Freedom of Expression

Jury president Darren Aronofsky holds the Golden Bear for Best Film for the film 'Taxi' by Jafar Panahi as he stands between presenter Anke Engelke and festival director Dieter Kosslick (R) at the awards ceremony of the 65th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin February 14, 2015. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo
Jury president Darren Aronofsky holds the Golden Bear for Best Film for the film 'Taxi' by Jafar Panahi as he stands between presenter Anke Engelke and festival director Dieter Kosslick (R) at the awards ceremony of the 65th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin February 14, 2015. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo

The United States, which has tense relations with Iran, has condemned Tehran's "continued efforts to prevent the exercise of freedom of expression".

Award-winning dissident Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi, arrested last week in Tehran, must serve a six-year sentence previously handed to him in 2010, the judicial authority announced Tuesday.

Panahi, 62, has won a number of awards at international festivals for films that have critiqued modern Iran, including the top prize in Berlin for "Taxi" in 2015, and best screenplay at Cannes for his film "Three Faces" in 2018.

He is the third director to be detained this month, alongside Mostafa Aleahmad and Mohammad Rasoulof, who won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2020 with his film "There Is No Evil".

"We urge the Iranian government to release all media workers, activists and peaceful protesters it has arbitrarily detained," a State Department spokesperson said.

France on Tuesday again called for Panahi's "immediate" release, decrying his "arbitrary arrest", a foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Last week the ministry had cited a "worrying deterioration in the situation of artists in Iran".

Iran has in recent weeks arrested several leading figures, including reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh, who was detained on July 8.

Most Viewed

 
World

US Targets Chinese Companies over Drone Components Used by Hamas, Houthis

A Houthi fighter wears a machine gun bullet belt during a rally marking the second anniversary of the 07 October attacks carried by Hamas against Israel, in Sanaa, Yemen, 07 October 2025. (EPA)
A Houthi fighter wears a machine gun bullet belt during a rally marking the second anniversary of the 07 October attacks carried by Hamas against Israel, in Sanaa, Yemen, 07 October 2025. (EPA)
TT
20
TT

US Targets Chinese Companies over Drone Components Used by Hamas, Houthis

A Houthi fighter wears a machine gun bullet belt during a rally marking the second anniversary of the 07 October attacks carried by Hamas against Israel, in Sanaa, Yemen, 07 October 2025. (EPA)
A Houthi fighter wears a machine gun bullet belt during a rally marking the second anniversary of the 07 October attacks carried by Hamas against Israel, in Sanaa, Yemen, 07 October 2025. (EPA)

The United States said on Wednesday it was adding 15 Chinese companies to its restricted trade list for facilitating the purchase of American electronic components found in drones operated by Iranian proxies including Houthi and Hamas militants.

Ten companies in China were designated for the Commerce Department's so-called Entity List, for facilitating the purchase of components found in weaponized unmanned aircraft systems operated by proxies including Yemen's Houthi militants, according to a post in the Federal Register.

Five additional Chinese companies were listed after information that around October 7, 2023, Israel forces recovered numerous weaponized unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) operated by Iranian proxies including Hamas, the post said.

Hamas-led fighters staged an attack in Israel that day that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and triggered the war in Gaza.

In all, the Commerce Department is adding 29 entities to the list, including companies based in Türkiye and United Arab Emirates.

Among those, the US added another Chinese company to the list for being part of an illicit network that obtains and supplies UAV and other components to front companies of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force (IRGC-QF).

Companies are added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List for activities deemed contrary to US national security and foreign policy interests. Licenses are required to export to companies on the list and are likely to be denied.

World

French-German National Monterlos Back in France After Release by Iran, France Says

France's Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot looks on during a meeting with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki (not seen) at the Headquarters of the Africa Union (AU) in Addis Ababa on November 29, 2024. (AFP)
France's Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot looks on during a meeting with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki (not seen) at the Headquarters of the Africa Union (AU) in Addis Ababa on November 29, 2024. (AFP)
TT
20
TT

French-German National Monterlos Back in France After Release by Iran, France Says

France's Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot looks on during a meeting with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki (not seen) at the Headquarters of the Africa Union (AU) in Addis Ababa on November 29, 2024. (AFP)
France's Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot looks on during a meeting with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki (not seen) at the Headquarters of the Africa Union (AU) in Addis Ababa on November 29, 2024. (AFP)

French-German national Lennart Monterlos has been released from detention in Iran and is back in France, outgoing French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Wednesday.

Iran had been holding the 18-year-old cyclist after arresting him in June on espionage charges. Monterlos was acquitted on Monday, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

"Lennart Monterlos is free!" Barrot wrote in a post on the social media X.

Both Barrot and President Emmanuel Macron reiterated demands that Iran release French nationals Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who have been held in the country since 2022.

On Monday, the two countries said talks for the release of all three prisoners were progressing.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi suggested in mid-September the French nationals could be exchanged for Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian student living in the French city of Lyon who was arrested this year over anti-Israel social media posts.

World

Putin Visits Tajikistan for Meetings with Other Ex-Soviet Leaders

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the General Staff, commanders of troop groups in the special military operation zone in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the General Staff, commanders of troop groups in the special military operation zone in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
TT
20
TT

Putin Visits Tajikistan for Meetings with Other Ex-Soviet Leaders

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the General Staff, commanders of troop groups in the special military operation zone in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the General Staff, commanders of troop groups in the special military operation zone in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin began a state visit Wednesday to Tajikistan, a three-day trip that includes a series of meetings with leaders of other nations that once were part of the Soviet Union.

Trade and other ties with Tajikistan and other countries in Central Asia are increasingly important for Russia amid sweeping Western sanctions over its military action in Ukraine.

Putin is set to have talks with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon, followed by a Russia-Central Asia summit involving leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. On Friday, they will be joined by leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus for a broader meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose alliance of other former Soviet nations.

Rakhmon, in power for nearly 33 years, is the longest-serving of all ex-Soviet leaders. The 73-year-old former collective farm head came to power in 1992 following a devastating civil war that engulfed the country after the demise of the USSR. He crushed or cowed all opposition to his rule soon after coming to power, and he later pushed constitutional changes that allow him to rule for life.

Putin turned 73 on Tuesday, but has only been in power in Russia for a quarter century.

Russia has maintained a military base in Tajikistan, which shares a porous 1,300-kilometer (810-mile) border with Afghanistan.

Tajikistan is a member of the International Criminal Court that in 2023 issued a warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes stemming from Moscow’s actions in Ukraine, but he faces no risk of arrest in the country that relies on close political, economic and military ties with Russia. The ICC has no police force and relies on members to assist in arrests.