Author: Steven Sahiounie

Foreign and Expatriates Minister Fayssal Mikdad sent a message of condolence to Ali Bagheri Kani, the acting Iranian Foreign Minister, in which he expressed sadness and sorrow over the news of the demise of President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and their companions, following the crash of the plane they were traveling onboard. “I received with great sadness and sorrow the news of the death of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, and my brother and friend, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, and their companions, following the crash of the plane they were onboard,”…

Heads of the three branches of the Iranian government have agreed on a date for snap presidential elections in the country less than a day after it was confirmed that President Ebrahim Raeisi had been martyred in a helicopter crash in the northwest of the country. The official IRNA news agency said in a late Monday report that June 28 had been agreed as the date for Iran’s snap presidential elections during a meeting in Presidency Office in Tehran. The meeting featured Iran’s Head of the Executive Branch Mohammad Mokhber, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i.…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator More than 35,000 Palestinians are dead, and thousands of Israelis are in the streets asking for their government to resign. The Israeli people thought their government would work to negotiate a release of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but are now faced with the realization that to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “Hostage Lives Don’t Matter”. Netanyahu wants to hang on to power at all costs, even if it means his citizens have turned against him. Experts expect the Israeli war on Gaza to lasts months. With the US government and other western democracies…

Egypt mourned the deaths of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. Egypt’s presidency said in a statement: “It is with deep grief and sorrow that the Arab Republic of Egypt mourns the death of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and their escorts on Sunday in a tragic crash. “President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi extends his sincere condolences to the people of Iran, asking Allah to envelop President Raisi and the deceased with his mercy and grant solace and comfort to their families.” The Egyptian president expressed Egypt’s solidarity with the leadership…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has held a telephone conversation with Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber (acting head of the republic’s executive branch), the press service of the Kremlin said in a statement. The conversation took place in the context of the death of the Iranian leader Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on the previous day. “Russian President offered Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mohammad Mokhber and all the Iranian people his deepest condolences over the tragic death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and a number of other public officials of the country in a crash. Vladimir Putin…

China sold a record number of US bonds in the first quarter of this year, highlighting the country’s shift away from dollar assets, the latest data from the US Treasury Department reveals.

The President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas extended the deepest condolences to the government and people of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian following helicopter crash. “We extend our sincere condolences and sympathy to the brotherly Iranian people on the death of the late President Ebrahim Raisi and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, praying to God Almighty may have mercy on the deceased Iranian President, and grant their families patience and solace, stressing the solidarity of the State of Palestine and its people with the Iranian leadership and people…

The Syrian Arab Republic shares the friendly Iranian people grief over their great loss of death of President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister and their companions painful accident while performing their work duty, the Syrian government declares official general mourning for three day-period. The flags will be flown at half-mast across the Syrian Arab Republic, and in all embassies and diplomatic missions abroad throughout this period. Source: SANA

Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Iran his condolences on the death of the Islamic republic’s leader Ebrahim Raisi, the Kremlin said on its website. “Please accept my deepest condolences over the enormous tragedy that befell the Islamic Republic of Iran – a helicopter crash that claimed the lives of President Sayyid Ebrahim Raisi and a number of other prominent officials of your country,” Putin said in his telegram. A helicopter carrying Raisi crashed in Iran’s province of East Azerbaijan on May 19. Iran’s top diplomat, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and a number of other Iranian officials were also on board and died.…

The martyrdom of Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian will not disrupt the country’s regional and international role, the Foreign Ministry says. In a statement on Monday, the ministry offered its condolences to the noble Iranian nation over the passing of the popular president and his foreign minister as well as their companions. It said the martyrdom of these prominent figures will undoubtedly cause no disruption in the determination of the country’s diplomatic apparatus to serve national interests and will not impact the Islamic Republic’s “positive and constructive” role in regional and global equations. Over the past…