Page 9 - IRANRptDec20

reason behind Trump’s failure was his wrong foreign policies, wrong health policies and racist military action. He was unreliable to everyone and continued his demagogic and populist behaviour, and thank god that the American people and the people of the region are ridden of this evil ... He didn’t even allow $5bn in international aid to reach Iran to fight the coronavirus.”
He added: “We hope that the next US government will clearly condemn Trump’s policies against Iran and make up for the incorrect policies implemented by the former US government in the past four years.”
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has this week made it clear he does not see any easy path to the normalisation of relations with the US and the lifting of Washington’s sanctions on the Islamic Republic, despite Biden becoming US president-elect.
A difficulty in righting relations between the US and Iran might be Rouhani’s push for compensation from the US for the economic damage Trump’s heavy sanctions have caused the Iranian economy in the past two and a half years. Another complicating factor is the fact that the Iranian presidential elections are scheduled for June next year. Rouhani, a pragmatic centrist, will step down and the hardliners might fancy their chances of taking the presidency, especially if there is no reconciliation with the US.
Early progress in talks between Iran and the Biden administration would likely help reformist candidates on the campaign trail.
The supreme leader can in effect vet all the candidates for the election.
2.6​ ​Iran ‘hopes foreign militants involved in Karabakh war have gone home’
Iran hopes that foreign militants involved in the six-week Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that concluded with a truce deal last week have left the region, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Said Khatibzadeh has said, IRNA reported on November 16.
During the fighting between its neighbours Azerbaijan and Armenia, Iran was on edge due to warfare in border localities. There were many instances of cross-border friendly fire from both sides and other events such as an Armenian military helicopter crash landing in Iran.
Armenia accused Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey of deploying 4,000 militants, largely recruited from conflict zones in Syria, to assist the Azerbaijani armed forces. Ankara denied it was the case but various media outlets documented instances of recruitment, both Moscow and Tehran expressed concern and Armenia presented a handful of fighters captured during battles that it said were mercenaries from Syria. Unverified video of combatants amid the fighting speaking Arabic was posted on social media channels. Turkey accused Armenia of using Syrian Kurdish mercenaries. Yerevan denied it was the case.
During the short war, there were also claims in some regional media that Turkey deployed 1,200 special forces to the conflict zone. Istanbul denied this allegation.
9​ IRAN Country Report December 2020 www.intellinews.com