Saudi Official Says Talks With Iran Are Serious But Exploratory

The highest number of child mothers giving birth came from one of the poorest provinces, Sistan and Baluchistan in the southeast with 248 births.

Activists have said that poverty is big reason for child marriages as poor families receive a few hundred dollars to allow their young girls to marry with prospective grooms who are also often as young as 14. In other cases, young girls are wed to much older men.

Despite years of efforts by activists and some politicians to outlaw child marriage, the ruling clerics have opposed a legal ban, saying that in Islam it is up to the parents to decide if their child is ready for marriage. The minimum age according to Islamic tradition is nine.

A report earlier this year said there were up to 30,000 marriages of children younger than 14 in one year.

"Iran believes that the people, the government, the army and the resistance in Lebanon will successfully overcome seditions backed by the Zionist entity," IRNA news agency quoted the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh.

Tension over an investigation into a massive blast last year in Beirut developed into the worst street violence in more than a decade on Thursday, with six Shi'ites shot dead and gun battles reviving memories of the country's 1975-90 civil war.

Shiite protesters came out in force to stop a judge from continuing his work related to the port explosion. Unknown elements opened fire at the crowd, leading to hours of gunfire and chaos.

The official IRNA report however, said the “Lebanese Army forces attacked people marching toward the Justice Palace”. So far, no other reports have mentioned the army being responsible for the shooting.

The United States offered an additional $67 million to support the Lebanese army, US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said in Beirut on Thursday. The US has traditionally assisted the Lebanese army as the best-placed institution to maintain order in the conflict-ridden country.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington and exchanged views on Iran's nuclear program and international talks on the matter, Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday.

"Had a productive meeting today with my friend Secretary Blinken, during which we discussed a range of issues of common interest & concern to both our nations & ways to strengthen our strategic partnership & cooperation on multiple fronts," Al Saud said in a twitter post on Friday.

Israeli, Saudi and Emirati top officials in Washington this week discussed the stalled Iran nuclear negotiations with top US officials. The US regional allies have been concerned over the Biden Administration’s plans to revive the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA), which they think is inadequate to address their concerns over Iran’s policies.

Al Saud also met the US Special Envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, and discussed intensifying joint efforts against "Iranian violations of international treaties related to the nuclear agreement," the Saudi foreign ministry said.

Eghbal Shakeri, who is a member of Parliament's urban development committee, was quoted by Tasnim news agency on Monday that the ministry of roads and urban development was discussing with Chinese operators their possible involvement in President Ebrahim Raisi's (Raeesi) ambitious housing plans in order to avoid the delays in building projects under previous administrations. The urban development minister has also hinted that foreign companies, including those from China might be invited to bid on the housing project.

Iranian Students News Agency Thursday reported that Shakeri, who is also a member of the ministry's housing council, had now explained that the negotiations he referred to were "related to the ministry's own works," and not to Raisi’s scheme for building one million affordable units for sale every year.

The economic website Tejarat news last month suggested Raisi’s plans would need 10 trillion rials ($40 million) daily, or $15 billion annually, which is more than Iran’s oil export revenues last year. The World Bank noted this month that despite slight economic growth “poor economic activity, partly due to US [United States] sanctions, low oil revenues and higher recurrent and COVID-19 related expenditures” meant that Iran’s government faced a widened fiscal deficit.

China is easily the world’s biggest lender for development projects, with Chinese banks committing over $462 billion in development finance to 93 countries between 2008 and 2019, including building projects from Hong Kong to north America. China itself has had a massive program of social and affordable housing.

But Iranian private-sector operators and some media have rejected Chinese involvement, arguing that both resources and technical know-how are available in Iran. Speaking to the economic website Eghtesad News Wednesday, Iraj Rahbar, deputy chairman of Iran's Housing Companies Association, said Chinese companies could not expedite matters.

"The problem of delay in delivery [by Iranian companies] results from cash flow issues, not their technical and engineering incompetence in comparison with the Chinese," he said. Rahbar argued that the government's failure to pay contractors on time would hinder projects whether domestic or Chinese. "They will just abandon the work," he said.

Rahbar cited the Tehran-North Freeway project to connect the capital to the Caspian Sea region through the Alborz mountains. "We used Chinese companies but they abandoned the project after 20 years and left Iran," he said. "Sadly, we haven't learned a lesson from such cases."

The new minister for urban development, Rostam Ghasemi, has also suggested that Iran has everything needed for a large housing program − land, building material and engineering. On Thursday Ghasemi said money was also available, with 3,600 trillion rials (about $14.5 billion at current exchange rates) to be offered in loans to buyers in the first year.

Land would be provided free, the minister said, with the government also investing in infrastructure and amenities, and offering discounts on building tax.

While most principlist media and politicians welcome Raisi's plan, critics disparage it by citing the Mehr housing scheme of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-13), when oil prices were far higher than today and Iran, especially until 2011, was under far less stringent sanctions.

Three million units were built under the plan during Ahmadinejad’s presidency and a further 1.3 million under President Hassan Rouhani (2013-21), although Rouhani in 2014 conceded the scheme had boosted inflation.

In a devastating earthquake in western Iran in 2018, Mehr apartment buildings sustained more damage than other constructions and President Hassan Rouhani called for an investigation . Many new owners complained about problems, including a lack of infrastructure and amenities like public transport and schools near new apartment blocks, often built away from cities and towns.

Ahmadinejad who never left Iran after the end of his second term in 2013, suddenly flew to Dubai this week, proving that he is not under a political travel ban.

In a message he read out while visiting the Islamic Republic of Iran's stand and published on his Telegram channel, which has over 414,000 subscribers, the former populist president called himself "the representative of the Iranian nation" at the Expo.

He said he will carry "the Iranian nation's message of peace, friendship and brotherhood" to all other stands at the exhibition.

Some Persian-speaking media outlets outside Iran questioned his claim of representing the Iranian nation.

Ahmadinejad's telegram channel carried several photos and videos showing him with Iranian and foreign visitors taking selfies with him or greeting him at various stands.

Iranian reformist daily Arman wrote in an extensive commentary about Ahmadinejad's visit to the Expo that the former president "always likes to be in the spotlight. He wants others to talk about what he does and says."

The daily described the visit to a foreign country by Ahmadinejad as a move similar to other recent developments that indicate a change in the regime's treatment of former politicians whose movement had been restricted. Arman pointed out that former president Mohammad Khatami was recently allowed to deliver a speech at a mausoleum in Tehran and there are rumors that proreform Green Movement Leader Mirhossein Mousavi's wife who has been under house arrest for over a decade with her husband is now free to go around.

Meanwhile, another Green Movement Leader, Mehdi Karroubi was also allowed to deliver a speech in a small group of Iranian politicians last week when he said there is nothing wrong with the essence of the Islamic Republic and only its shortcomings need to be addressed.

However, it is still not known that the travel ban imposed on Khatami, and the ban on the publication of his pictures in the Iranian press have been lifted. Also, there is no news about whether restrictions on Mousavi are going to be lifted or eased.

Iranian analysts speaking to Iran International TV, including Morteza Kazemian, said that Ahmadinejad's situation appears to be different as he has a sizable following who might support his return to the political scene if not to power at one point.

Others say that the presence of many Ahmadinejad's political allies, including vice president Massoud Mirkazemi and Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian as well as several provincial governors in President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration and dozens of lawmakers in Majles gives him a special position.

Ahmadinejad is being accompanied by his wife during the visit and her appearance next to Ahmadinejad has attracted attention in Dubai.

Ahmadinejad's visit is taking place while both he and his media adviser Ali Akbar Javanfekr who accompanies him have outstanding legal cases against them at the Iranian Judiciary which seems to have turned a blind eye to allow the foreign visit, Arman noted, adding that there is probably no travel ban imposed on Ahmadinejad. Javanfekr has also denied the existence of a travel ban.

Another former Ahmadinejad aide, Abdolreza Davari has denied accusations that Ahmadinejad, who has been extremely critical of the regime since 2017, is getting special treatment for keeping silent. Davari said this is not true as Raisi's condition for giving key posts to the former Ahmadinejad allies was cutting their ties with Ahmadinejad.