Dec. 29 – A controversial call to bomb Islamic Revolutionary Guard strongholds in Iran was made by a US Republican lawmaker this week.
Senator Lindsey Graham, who is known for his hardline policies on the Islamic Republic, said the US should strike the elite military wing’s headquarters and Iran’s oil fields during an interview with Fox News.
The Guards are believed by the West to be the force behind several militia groups in the Middle East who are funded by the Iranian regime, including Hamas which is currently at war with Israel.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei invited women to go out and vote in Iran’s upcoming elections, following concerns that turnout next March would be low.
The cleric told women that they had a “better ability to recognize people and strategies,” and “better able to identify the most qualified candidates” than men during a conference.
The appeal follows decades of discrimination and violence against women in Iran under the cleric’s rule, in which women have become increasingly disenfranchised.
And Iran’s production of saffron, the world’s most expensive spice and a staple in Persian cooking, has halved due to climate change, according to a report by the Financial Times.
Iran produces more than 90 percent of the world’s saffron and is also the largest exporter of the spice, with a value of more than $172 million.
Extreme weather and water shortages have all contributed to the decimation of the crop, the Financial Times said.
