Posts tagged : "Asia"

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Iran has been rocked over the past week by the shocking death of a fugitive judge, raising the stakes in a high-profile corruption trial that has put the top echelons of the Islamic Republic under the microscope. The former judge, Gholamreza Mansouri, was found dead on June 19 after falling from a window of the Duke Hotel in Bucharest, Romania, taking with him potentially explosive information in the trial of the influential Akbar Tabari. Tabari, the former deputy head of administrative affairs at Iran’s judiciary, is being indicted along with 21 associates for creating a “criminal group” within his office. Prosecutors allege Tabari obstructed justice and received massive bribes in the form...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: As the death toll from the novel coronavirus in Iran approaches 7,000 and cases surge past 100,000, experts are warning that an untimely reopening in progress could precipitate a new wave of infections. “There is no other path ahead of us,” said President Hassan Rouhani, in explaining to the public his decision to ease a weeks-long nationwide lockdown. Iran remains the Middle East’s epicenter of Covid-19, with more than double the number of recorded infections in Saudi Arabia, the region’s second worst-hit country. The Rouhani administration’s appeal to the International Monetary Fund for a US$5 billion emergency loan to fight the public health crisis has not been responded to...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Iran’s tourism sector, the pearl of the post-nuclear accord and one of its last economic lungs under sanctions, now faces coronavirus-induced unraveling. The industry “cannot survive and will collapse” in the face of the recession precipitated by the global Covid-19 crisis, Iran’s official IRNA news agency assessed late last month. The stark warning came even as Iranian authorities proceeded with a phased re-opening of certain businesses and places of worship. Should the government of President Hassan Rohani fail to intervene and support the tourism industry, more than 1.5 million jobs risk being lost, IRNA reported. Banafsheh Tehrani is one of some 13,000 Iranian tour guides and tour...

Kourosh Ziabari - Responsible Statecraft: The exodus of Afghan immigrants fleeing Iran in the recent weeks because of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the Islamic Republic has largely gone off the radar of global media, but is actually a tragedy that has the potential of spawning broad, devastating consequences. Iran has been hosting between 3 and 4 million Afghans, of whom only 1 million are registered refugees with legal status and entitlement to government support. Afghans in Iran have faced discrimination on different levels, and unequal access to healthcare services is one of them. For decades, international organizations have been offering financial assistance to Iran to subsidize its support for the Afghan...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: When the Iranian government announced that schools and public offices would be closed from February 23 to curb the spread of coronavirus in Iran, many Tehran residents took precautions and stayed home. But thousands of others flocked to the northern province of Guilan on the shores of the Caspian Sea, seeking a respite from the virus-hit capital, camping and fresh air. That region has since been identified as a flashpoint in the health crisis, following only Tehran and the holy city of Qom for the highest number of cases and fatalities, with 218 confirmed cases and four deaths. In late February, a 25-year-old nurse working on the coronavirus response team at Guilan province’s Milad Hospital,...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Iran’s fatal downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet earlier this month has reverberated to the world of soccer, chipping away at the Islamic Republic’s right to host matches against its Asian neighbors. On January 18, the Asian Football Confederation sent a letter to four Iranian clubs competing in the 2020 edition of AFC Champions League, notifying them that they would be banned from hosting their home games inside Iran, and that these matches had to be moved to neutral venues. The governing body of soccer in Asia cited “security concerns” in explaining why the Iranian sides were denied their hosting rights. There was little doubt that the fatal downing of a civilian aircraft belonging to...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: The fatal downing by Iran of a Ukrainian passenger jet earlier this month touched a nerve across Iran, but few places have felt the collective loss more sharply than Sharif University of Technology – the alma mater of 14 of the victims. Known as Iran’s MIT, Sharif University of Technology is arguably the top higher education institute in Iran, with an extremely low admission rate. Only some of the best and brightest students manage to be accepted to its programs. “These young academics were the treasures of their community and country,” said Fatemeh, an undergraduate student at Sharif University who lost an acquaintance and a distant relative on the flight. “They were not appreciated in...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: As Iranians took to the streets in cities and towns across the country last month in response to a massive fuel hike tax, the northern province of Guilan stood out as an exception. Home to more than 2.5 million people, and bordering Russia from its perch on the Caspian Sea, Guilian’s muted reaction to the protest movement offers a window into the economic inequalities in the Islamic Republic today, as well as the resignation felt by many Iranians under sanctions. Figures by the Statistical Center of Iran indicate Guilan is the fifth richest province of Iran, outpacing 26 provinces in terms of household net worth thanks to its agricultural resources. According to the Rice Research Institute of...