US President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Iran not to execute wrestling star Navid Afkari.
Mr Trump made the request to the Iranian government on Twitter.
“Hearing that Iran is looking to execute a great and popular wrestling star, 27-year-old Navid Afkari, whose sole act was an anti-government demonstration on the streets," he wrote.
"To the leaders of Iran, I would greatly appreciate if you would spare this young man’s life and not execute him."
Iran last week sentenced the wrestling champion to two death sentences and 74 lashes for his role in the 2018 protests, Iran Human Rights said.
“The sentences were upheld by the Supreme Court and as their request for a retrial has been denied, Navid Afkari is in danger of execution,” the rights group said on Wednesday.
Mr Trump’s request to Iran follows an indirect diplomatic movement between Washington and Tehran.
On Wednesday, the State Department said US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo called Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis to discuss Iran and US hostages in the country.
“Secretary Pompeo thanked Foreign Minister Cassis for Switzerland’s continued and constructive role as our protecting power in Iran and for its assistance in caring for and repatriating US citizens wrongly imprisoned by the Iranian regime,” the department said.
Mr Cassis is due to arrive in Tehran on Saturday and hold talks with its leaders.
Mr Trump’s tone was softer than usual in addressing the Iranian government, with whom he has clashed repeatedly.
He has pursued a strategy of maximum pressure against Tehran, taking the US out of a landmark 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
Mr Trump also ordered the killing of prominent Iranian general Qassem Suleimani in January, sparking weeks of sky-high tension in the region.
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
