Iran Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian with Bashar al-Assad (File/AP)
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian sat down with Bashar al-Assad for talks in Syria’s capital Damascus on Saturday.
As usual, the two sides offered no substantive details on the discussions. Iranian and Syria State media issued standard lines about bilateral ties and regional developments, including in Iraq, Yeman, and Afghanistan as well as Syria.
The Assad regime is in a long-term economic crisis, with shortages of food, electricity, fuel, and other basic goods. It has been dependent on Iran for assistance, including oil and gas, since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011. However, Tehran is facing its own economic difficulties amid US sanctions and long-term structural issues.
Assad has also been frustrated in his pledge to retake “every inch” of Syria, notably the opposition-held northwest and Kurdish-controlled northeass, although — enabled by Russia — pro-Assad forces have tightened their hold in the south in recent months.
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However, Iran is hopeful that Assad’s diplomatic isolation will ease, amid steps by countries such as the UAE, Jordan, and Egypt this year. Amir-Abdollahian declared that the atmosphere at the UN General Assembly in late September established that “conditions have changed in favour of Syria”.
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Assad avoided any public reference to the situation. Instead, he issued his template declaration about “the liberation of all territory from terrorism and end any illegitimate presence in the country”. He also proclaimed that his “re-election” this spring and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan were portents of the “rise of a new axis and the fall of the Western axis”.
Amir Abdollahian also met Assad in late August, soon after becoming Foreign Minister. This visit followed his meetings in Russia and Lebanon, including with Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah, another essential supporter of the Assad regime.
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“Yes, and in quoting the Western reports on vaccine efficacy, the Tehran Times buries your anti-vax disinformation. Good to see you accept this.”
Journalists are not scientists. The vaccines Iran has imported or produced are different from the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna.
Nobody doubts that the covid vaccines do offer significant protection. The question is that their efficacy wanes over time….I am not anti-vaccination in principle. I am just opposed to the use of mRNA vaccines or Covid-19 whilst we don’t know their short and long term side effects.
So you bring in the Tehran Times as a reliable source and then dismiss the Tehran Times as a reliable source?
Beyond that, you finally cite a fact with the note that efficacy vanes over time — thus, the likelihood of boosters in the future.
I am happy to revise my statement that you are anti-vaccination to the observation that you push misinfo/disinfo in an attempt to undermine vaccinations.
The TT is a source of news, not a scientific fact checker.
No, I am not anti-vaccination in principle. I support vaccination for children against measles and rubella etc. Would be nice if we had a chickenpox vaccine. I support the use of *safe* vaccines for demographic groups at risk of disease. Regarding covid vaccines:
1. I have serious concerns about mRNA-based vaccines which have never been used before on the general public.
2 I have no confidence in Pfizer given that it has previously been fined for fraud. I do not believe they went through all safety procedures.
3. I do not support universal vaccination for Covid-19, especially for under 30s who have minimum risk of serious illness or death.
4. I would like to see self-reported adverse events taken seriously (as is happening in Scandinavia) and investigated properly.
5. I do not believe mass vaccination alone will end the pandemic and could actually drive the evolution of more dangerous variants.
6. I believe that inactivated whole virus (Sinopharm/Barakat) and recombinant protein vaccines (Spikogen/Reliance) are generally safe.
Iran’s exports up in September: https://en.mehrnews.com/news/179504/Iran-s-foreign-trade-doubles-in-Sept-IRICA
A further sign that the economy is improving under the Raisi administration which the Economist weekly newspaper claimed was inept: https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2021/09/09/iranians-worry-that-their-new-government-is-inept
Covid cases and deaths have fallen sharply due to smart restrictions, improved hygiene and the import and production of safe vaccines. The WHO has praised the Iranian administration’s handling of the pandemic: https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/465891/Coronavirus-vaccination-in-Iran-progressing-well-WHO
I’ve yet to see any corroboration of Iran semi-official media’s claim that WHO representative Jaffar Hussain praised Iran’s handling of the pandemic this summer and autumn.
But, interestingly, given your anti-vaccination campaign, your link from Tehran Times asserts: “Studies show that people who are not vaccinated are 4.5 times more likely to develop COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated, and 10 and 11 times more likely to be hospitalized and die, respectively.”
The Tehran Times is just quoting western reports on vaccine efficacy, not local studies.
Yes, and in quoting the Western reports on vaccine efficacy, the Tehran Times buries your anti-vax disinformation. Good to see you accept this.
Legacy of Iran’s Green Movement: https://iranwire.com/en/features/1143
“Information and Public Opinion Solutions LLC (iPOS), a company that provides data about Iranian public opinion, conducted the poll for IranWire. Of those polled, around 88 percent said they had voted, a figure that correlates with Iranian official government statistics, which put the percentage at 85….. Of those who answered the survey, 59 percent believe that the 2009 election results, which led to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad securing another term as president, were correct. But 29 percent refused to say whether fraud was involved. Nineteen percent labeled the results as fraudulent.”
Not exactly a well-informed cross-section of the Iranian public:
“When asked about the current situation for leaders of the Green Movement, 31 percent of respondents said they were aware that reformist former candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi were under house arrest, while 58 percent stated that they were unaware of this. Nevertheless, when provided with this information, among those who said they had not previously known about it, 21 percent said that the former candidates should be freed; 19 percent believed that they should stand trial; eight percent said that Iranian law had to be applied to their cases to decide whether they should remain under house arrest; and six percent said they should remain under house arrest. Forty percent had no opinion.”
Iran Plans to Sell Oil in Exchange for Investment and Goods: https://leaderpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/iran-plans-to-sell-oil-in-exchange-for-investment-or-goods#
Iran is doing all it can to insulate itself from the effect of US sanctions. Iran’s new CBI governor is a sanctions-busting expert: https://www.bourseandbazaar.com/articles/2021/10/6/duality-of-irans-new-central-banker