Iranian Reformists Winning All Capital Seats in Parliament

"TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian reformists appear have won all 30 seats representing the nation's capital in parliament, a definitive rebuke to the hard-liners opposing President Hassan Rouhani's efforts to increase economic openness and cooperate with the West.

State television said Friday's vote heralds "the end of the presence of a powerful majority in the parliament that overshadowed decision-making apparatus in the country over the past decade."

Rouhani thanked voters Saturday night in a message that encouraged Iranians to help him end the nation's isolation.

"The competition has ended. Now it is time to open a new way through unity between people and the government to have a new chapter in growth of the national economy by using domestic strength and foreign opportunities," he said.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, called the vote "proof of democracy" at work in Iran....."
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/02/28/world/middleeast/ap-ml-iran-elections.html?_r=0

Will the 'hard-liners' within the U.S. political establishment accept Iran as a 'democracy' as they consider Israel a 'democracy'?

Methinks Democrats will make much hay of this leading into November elections:

Nuclear deal could transform Iran

How a Nuclear Deal Could Bring Democracy to Iran

The Nuclear Deal Could Transform Iran's Revolution

 

Freed from sanctions, Iran’s airlines go on a spending spree

"In the 1970s, just before the Iranian Revolution, Iran Air was considered one of the fastest growing and safest airlines in the world.

The company operated daily flights to New York with Boeing 747s. It had two supersonic Concordes on order and its marketing department billed Tehran as an ideal stopover for flights between Europe and Southeast Asia.

No one could have predicted what was to come. The founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979 triggered a wave of international sanctions that decimated Iran’s domestic industries – including civil aviation.

Portrayed as a facilitator of a terrorist regime, Iran Air spent more than three decades shut out of the international aviation system. Unable to buy or repair aircraft through the usual channels, the flag-carrier and its 15 domestic rivals were pushed into the black market to keep their fleets airworthy. Safety records suffered, as did market shares. A new breed of Gulf carriers filled the void, funneling traffic through Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha while Tehran languished in isolation.

But all that came to an end on 16 January 2016 – Implementation Day for the lifting of nuclear sanctions against Iran – when the skies finally cleared for the airline industry’s forgotten success story.

Flag-carrier back in business
Iran Air is wasting little time showing the world that it is back in business. Within a fortnight of Implementation Day the flag-carrier signed a tentative order for 118 Airbus jets, including 12 A380 superjumbos – a behemoth of an aircraft that only the very largest global carriers operate.

“Today’s announcement is the start of re-establishing our civil aviation sector into the envy of the region,” Farhad Parvaresh, the flag-carrier’s chairman, was quoted as saying on 28 January.

The spending spree continued on 1 February, when Iran Air agreed to buy 20 turboprops from French Italian manufacturer ATR. America’s Boeing has yet to announce any orders, though with Iran’s Transport Ministry estimating that the country needs 500 aircraft over the next decade it is unlikely to stay in the shadows for long. ..."

 

The topic is 'post nuclear deal Iran'. FYI, from the beginning I was for striking a deal and lifting the sanctions on Iran for several reasons, not the least being the fact that there are many moderates in the country that want to have good relations with the west.

Iran’s Zombie Democracy Comes Back to Life

"Once again, elections in Iran have confounded the expectations of watchers of the Islamic Republic. President Hassan Rouhani’s allies seem set to control at least 100 seats in the 290-member parliament, and have seized a decisive majority in the Assembly of Experts, which will choose the heir to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. As a result, the decade-long and relentless effort of hardliners to exclude all voices other than their own has been decisively blocked, and perhaps even reversed.

The election has proven that the rumors of the death of Iranian politics were greatly exaggerated. The prospects for a revival of the art of the (negotiated) deal on a host of domestic issues — especially economic policy — are greater now than at any time in recent memory...."

 

Lol, "Even so, the underground trade in Tomcat parts continues, with shady companies scouring the planet for leftover components. In early 2014, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigated Israeli arms dealers that it said had twice tried to send F-14 spares to Iran. ...."