News stories by Farideh Farhi

HONOLULU, Hawaii, Jun 15 (IPS) - Iran's June 14 presidential election results, announced the day after, was nothing less than a political earthquake.

HONOLULU, Hawaii, Jun 12 (IPS) - The decision by the reformist candidate Mohammadreza Aref to withdraw his candidacy -- and in effect open the path for the centrist Hassan Rowhani to become the unified candidate of both the centrists and reformists -- is an important development in Iranian politics.

HONOLULU, Hawaii, May 22 (IPS) - With the disqualification of former president and current chair of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani by a vetting body, the Guardian Council, Iran's presidential campaign is opening with many in the country in a state of shock.

HONOLULU, Hawaii, Mar 27 (IPS) - Since Barack Obama became president of the United States, messages marking the Iranian New Year – Norouz - celebrated at the onset of spring have become yearly affairs. So have responses given by Iran's Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from the city of Mashhad where he makes a yearly pilgrimage to visit the shrine of Shi'i Islam's eighth imam, Imam Reza.

HONOLULU, Hawaii, Mar 10 (IPS) - The meeting between Iran and the so-called P5+1 (five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany) that took place in late February in Almaty, Kazakhstan was described as positive and even a "turning point" by Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili.

HAWAII, U.S., Dic 11 (IPS) - As the Iranian leadership prepares to engage in negotiations with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) over the fate of its nuclear programme, the conversation inside Iran has moved beyond the nuclear issue, and now includes a debate about the utility of engaging in direct talks - even relations - with the United States.

HAWAII, U.S., Aug 24 (IPS) - It must be considered pure fortuity for the Islamic Republic of Iran that the decision to hold the Nonaligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran was made three years ago in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

HAWAII, U.S., Aug 14 (IPS) - Turkish-Iranian relations have been rocky since the deepening of the Syrian imbroglio, but the latest row suggests a new low.