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SEAN NUGENT

Last updated09:45, August 8 2017

SEAN NUGENT

The entrance to Iran's Grand Bazaar.

Iran is not the first place on most people's list of travel destinations. The Middle-Eastern nation has been virtually cut off from the majority of the Western world since the Islamic revolution that overthrew the Shah in 1979. It is often aligned with neighbouring nations struggling with war, terrorism, anti-US sentiments and an overwhelming amount of sand.

But the reality is far different. Iran is a country full of culture, history, welcoming people, and a surprising amount of greenery.

The capital Tehran can overwhelm even the most experienced travellers, with a population of 15 million people, as well as more than 5 million cars. At times, the noise can be deafening, and tourists should be extremely careful when crossing the road in front of some of the world's craziest drivers.

SEAN NUGENT

The Grand Bazaar food stall rivals that of the same name in Istanbul.

Due to strict sanctions enforced by the United States, Iran is a cash-only country. There are no ATMs and foreign credit cards are useless. There are money exchange offices throughout the city that accept US dollars or euros.

READ MORE *How totravelthroughIranby bus *Backpacking 70-year-old hitchhiking throughIran *Ask an expert: Is solotravelsafe in the Middle East?

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are blocked and your best bet of keeping in contact with friends and family is via WhatsApp. Due to all of the above, the chaotic state of Tehran will come as a huge culture shock for most first-time visitors to Iran.

SEAN NUGENT

Golestan Palace, the former home of the Qajar royal family.

Nonetheless, the city is full of energy and excitement. The hustle and bustle of the Grand Bazaar is comparable to that of the same name in Istanbul. Bargains can be found throughout the labyrinth of corridors, and travellers should check out the collection of high-quality Persian rugs and artwork.

Just a stone's throw away is the architectural beauty of Golestan Palace, the former home of the Qajar royal family. Arguably the greatest attraction in the city, the palace has several unique structures set in a large quiet complex with a beautiful garden. One could easily spend a few hours here viewing the nine separate museums and sites, or lounging in the shade next to a dancing water fountain.

Head to the streetside market and buy some fresh cherries and peaches, a range of nuts, or even a salami-filled sub. Iranian food is not of the same calibre as Italy, France or Greece, but it is cheap, healthy, and filling. A kilo of cherries is around NZ$6, a price you would be lucky to find even during peak season in Central Otago. For dinner, it's hard to go past a succulent lamb or chicken kebab. Accompanied by rice and a selection of vegetables, it is simple, but affordable, usually costing around $5.

SEAN NUGENT

A view of Tehran on Mt Tochal trail

Tehran sits more than 1000 metres above sea level and lies at the foot of the imposing Alborz mountain range, where Iran's highest peak, Mt Damavand, rises to 5610m. In the foothills of its neighbour Mt Tochal lies the serene village of Darband, a definite must-visit while in Tehran. Like something out of a fairytale, a crystal clear river runs down through the village, with waterfalls, chasms, and an abundance of greenery creating the perfect setting for relaxation. For hiking enthusiasts, a trail out of the village winds its way up Tochal and provides an outstanding view of the city below.

Despite the size of Tehran, the drinking water is safe, as are the streets. Iranian people are remarkably friendly and will often approach you to ask where you'refrom and welcome you to their country. Thieves are very uncommon, and you will feel safe wherever you are in the city (although watch out while crossing the road!). As is the case in other Middle Eastern nations, women are required to wear a hijab in public and it is customary for both genders to cover their shoulders and wear some form of trousers. In summer when temperatures in the city often hover around 40 degrees celsius, this way of dress can be difficult to maintain. It's best to think ahead and pack very light clothing that will suit the conditions.

As Tehran is so high above sea level, winters often bring snowfall to the city. In 2014, one snow drift left over 2m of snow in parts of the city. The surrounding mountains are also home to some of the best skiing in the world. Dizin and Shemshak resorts are both less than two hours' drive out of Tehran and cost less than half than what it does for a day's skiing here in New Zealand.

SEAN NUGENT

The serene village of Darband, a definite must-visit while in Tehran.

As Iran has been virtually cut off from the Western world, its people are not strong English speakers, even amongst the youth. Therefore, it would be wise to learn some Persian phrases, as you will need to deal with things in Persian outside of tourist attractions or public spaces like the metro or Grand Bazaar.

Venturing into Iran will throw you out of your depth and give you a massive culture shock. But in a world where travelling has become significantly easier with improvements to technology and English becoming a global language, Iran brings a fresh challenge to even the most experienced traveller. There a few other places on the globe that allow you to fully embrace the culture and have a truly unique experience away from home.

Getting there Several airlines fly into Tehran, including Emirates, Qatar Airways, and AirAsia. Built in 2004, Imam Khomeini Airport is located about 45 minutes drive outside of the city. Taxis and buses are available outside and there are plans the Tehran Metro will extend to the airport soon. The capital also serves as a great outpost to travel around the rest of the country, with the Caspian Sea lying in the north, and the beautiful city of Isfahan lying in a few hours south.

Sean Nugent is a 21-year old Massey University journalism student who has recently returned from couchsurfing in Iran.

-Stuff

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Couchsurfing in Iran: A country of culture - Stuff.co.nz

Lena Epstein Published 10:48 p.m. ET Aug. 6, 2017

U.S. policy has essentially boosted Tehrans ability to foment terrorism and threaten American interests, Lena Epstein writes.(Photo: Vahid Salemi / AP)

When Sen. Debbie Stabenow joined 41 of her Democratic Senate colleagues to vote for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, more commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, back in 2015, they made a catastrophic foreign policy mistake that has left the U.S, Israel, and the international community at large much less secure.

As recently as July 27, their mistake once again became painfully obvious when Iran conducted a successful launch of a long-range missile into space: such a blatant pretext for continued advancement of its ICBM program, youd have to be completely naive not to realize it. But, given the terms of the deal negotiated under President Obama, this type of activity isnt a violation of the nuclear deal.

Iran is free to continue testing and perfecting its nuclear delivery systems, just as long as it doesnt enrich uranium or plutonium to dangerous levels. This is not what I consider a comprehensive plan to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of the worlds most prolific state sponsor of terror, the same state that has explicitly called for the annihilation of the state of Israel.

As a result of the deal, Iran has experienced a windfall of cash flowing into its coffers. With sanctions eased and foreign assets unfrozen, Iran has had an influx of over $100 billion, which it has used to double down on terrorist activities, and dramatically expand its military budget.

The consequences can be felt throughout the already unstable Middle East as Iran provides support to Hamas and Hezbollah, and actively works to further destabilize Syria by sending thousands of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to support Bashar al-Assads brutal regime that has slaughtered and displaced millions of Syrians. U.S. policy has essentially bolstered Irans ability to carry out these terrorist activities and threaten American interests in the region, including putting American service members, stationed in the Middle East, at risk.

This cannot continue. A nuclear-armed Iran poses an existential threat to one of our closest allies, Israel, and puts American security in jeopardy. Both of our U.S. senators here in Michigan Stabenow and Gary Peters voted in favor of this reprehensible deal.

Stabenows vote on the Iran deal is one of the key factors that spurred me, an American, a Jewish woman, and a staunch supporter of Israel, to enter the U.S. Senate race and take her on next November. A member of Congress is no friend of Israel if he or she doesnt vote in our close allys best interest when it counts the most when there is a deal on the table that puts the Jewish states very existence in danger.

The American people opposed the Iran deal by a 2 to 1 margin, and yet were in this perilous situation because Stabenow pushed it through anyway. We cant keep sending the same people back to Washington and expect different results.

We need elected officials who support Israel because its a moral obligation, not because its politically expedient.

Lena Epstein is the third-generation owner and general manager of Southfield-based Vesco Oil Corp.

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Column: US needs to stand up to Iran - The Detroit News

Since the Iranian regime has been the main source of conflict in the Middle East, countering Irans destabilizing interventions should be the top priority of the U.S. Middle East policy. The recent act passed by Congress and signed by President Trump takes the first step in that direction.

However, the primary reason for accelerated Iranian meddling in the region has been the security guarantees provided by the 2015 nuclear deal. Therefore, to successfully counter Irans destabilizing activities, the U.S. needs to deprive Iran of those undeserved security guarantees by ending the nuclear deal.

To be successful in keeping Iran in check, we need to understand the dynamics of the three main threats originating from the Iranian regime: its nuclear program and the joint missile development; its destabilizing regional activities and its violation of human rights at home.

Tehran is standing on shaky ground. The Iranian regime started its regional interventions shortly after taking power in 1979. It's interventionist approach stemmed from a lack of popular support at home, which was clear during the first presidential election in 1980 whenthe candidate of the Islamic Republic Party followers of Khomeini who are now ruling the country achieved less than 5 percent of the popular vote.

To compensate for its domestic weakness, the regime needed to find or create allies like Hezbollah in the region.

Brutal suppression of dissidents and flagrant violation of human rights is another indication that the regime has a mostly nonexistent popular base. It was less than a month after the establishment of the regime in 1979 that the Iranian people started their anti-regime resistance movement via the demonstration of Iranian women against compulsory veiling or hijab instituted by reactionary mullahs.

Since then, ongoing rule of the regime has been made possible only by the ruthless suppression of all dissident groups by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its affiliate bodies, like Basij.

Deprived of legitimacy at home, the Iranian regime sought to forcibly gain recognition by seeking weapons of mass destruction. It poured tens of billions of dollars into its nuclear and ballistic missile programs instead of investing in the economy, education and the Iranian people's long-term demands. The mullahs want the nuclear capability to dishearten the dissident majority at home and deter foreign actors.

There is, therefore, a clear link between Irans destabilizing activities and its nuclear program. Since, for the mullahs, the nuclear program is vital, and due to their lack of legitimacy at home, the mullahs perceive the threat of military action and sanctions against their nuclear facilities as an existential threat.

In fact, credible threat of military action and the harm done by sanctions were the main reasons for Irans temporary retreat on the nuclear issue and its return to negotiations in 2011. Accordingly, when Iran achieved the nuclear deal with the U.S. and its allies and was reassured of the practical improbability of military action, the mullahs intensified their destabilizing regional interventions.

One might object that the nuclear deal is working, and scrapping the deal might not be in Americas interest. However, the problem is that most of Iran's nuclear facilities are located in military bases to which the IAEA inspectors do not have any access. Against this backdrop, how can one definitively claim that Iran is not cheating?

Worse yet, who would be able to conclude that Iran is in fact cheating? Under the deal, it is not surprising that Iran "remains in compliance with the deal," as the proponents of the deal claim.

Irans destabilizing regional interventions cannot be addressed with the current security reassurances Iran enjoys as a result of the nuclear deal.

In the end, the regime's greatest security vulnerability is at home. That is why any U.S. policy on Iran must include the indigenous forces within Iran, including the organized opposition, as the primary actors for confronting the threat of the mullahs once and for all.

Ultimately, it is up to the Iranian people to produce fundamental and long-lasting change. The international community should support them by ending the policy of engagement toward Tehran.

Dr. Shahram Ahmadi Nasab Emran, MA, Ph.D., teaches at the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics, Saint Louis University. He has participated in international policy forums, including the Policy Studies Organization's 2016 Middle East Dialogue, and has written for multiple Iranian news outlets.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

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Scrap the nuclear deal to make sure Iran sanctions work - The Hill (blog)

Men greet each other in front of Turkish flag and picture of modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk at Istanbul Ataturk airport, Turkey, following yesterday's blast June 29, 2016. . (photo credit:REUTERS)

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotoveli told Israel's Reshet Bet radio on Monday that the Iranian blogger who was offered asylum in Israel was delayed from coming to the country because of "personal reasons" and would be arriving in "the coming days."

Hotoveli also said that the Israeli consulate was in touch with her.

Israel's foreign ministry was looking into reports that the Turkey-based Iranian blogger who was offered asylum in Israel was arrested at Istanbul Airport Monday morning, according to Reshet Bet radio station. The blogger, Neda Amin was reportedly en route to Tel Aviv.

Times of Israel Editor-in-Chief David Horovitz who's online publication featured Amin's blogs tweeted that the report was false.

Neda Amin faced forcible deportation to Iran, where she would be at risk given her work as a Persian-language blogger at an Israeli news site, before Israel offered her asylum on Sunday. Amin left Iran in 2014 for Turkey, according to The Times of Israel. She has been in a court battle to prevent her repatriation and has sought other countries that might take her in as a refugee, the site said.

Iranians are generally not admitted to Israel, due to hostility between the two countries.

But following appeals by Israel's journalist federations, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said he would issue 32-year-old Amin with a special visa on Sunday.

"This is a journalist whose life is in real danger," Deri said in a statement. "Given the clear humanitarian circumstances, I authorized her entry without delay."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Deputy FM says Israel is in touch with Iranian blogger seeking asylum - The Jerusalem Post

President Trump seems determinedto not certifythat Iran is complying with the nuclear deal when that question comes before him this fall. But that would be only the beginning of the story. He could follow such a determination with actions thatrisk blowingup the deal and the U.S.-Iran relationship. Or he could assome of his senior national security advisersprefer adopt a more careful, complicated approach.

Theres a growing push both inside and outside the administration to craft a way to acknowledge what many see as Irans violations of the nuclear agreement without precipitating a crisis. Many worry that provoking the deals collapse would not only risk an unpredictable and dangerous escalation but also hamper the international effort to confront Irans regional expansion, support for terrorism and other mischief.

The question is whether Trumps national security team can persuade him to take a middle approach to a nuclear deal he campaigned against and clearly despises.

In a news conference last week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson laid out his view that the Iran deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), must not dominate the administrations Iran focus. Tillerson admitted he disagrees with the president on whether the agreement can be salvaged.

The JCPOA represents a small slice of the Iranian relationship, he said, adding, We continue to have conversations about the utility of that agreement, whether it has utility, whether it doesnt have utility.

[President Trump] and I have differences of views on things like JCPOA and how we should use it, he said.

Tillerson argued for certifying Irans compliance when it came up in April and July. Both times, Trump yielded to Tillersons view. But in an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week, Trump suggested he wont again.

If it was up to me, I would have had them noncompliant 180 days ago, Trump said, adding that next time, I think theyll be noncompliant.

The intelligence community believes that Irans violations are minor and do not amount to a material breach. But the presidents view is that Iran is in violation of the spirit of the deal, a senior White House official told me. Under the law Congress passed, the certification is subjective.

Its also unclear what follows non-certification. Trump could continue to waive nuclear sanctions on Iran or stop, effectively reimposing them. The White House admittedly does not know how the Iranian government would react to new sanctions, the official said.

Congress could also reimpose sanctions if Trump does not certify compliance. For many Republicans, having new negotiations with Iran would be nice but is not necessary. They agree with Trump that the deal is probably not worth saving.

I dont think we get much benefit from the deal, so it collapsing doesnt trouble me all that much, said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). The presidents instincts on Iran are sound.

Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster argue that if Trump decides not to certify Iranian compliance, rather than scuttle the deal he can work to improve it and increase pressure on Iran in other ways, according to sources involved in the discussions.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo agrees with Tillerson and McMaster that Irans regional threats are the near-term priority. Unlike Tillerson, Pompeo has never supported certifying compliance.

McMasters team is leading an interagency policy review that is sure to call for expanding confrontation with Iran in places such as Yemen, Syria and Lebanon. The Iran deal, if in place, could be used as a pressure point while upping the ante on those fronts, experts argue.

Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and David Albright of Institute for Science and International Security have offered a middle approach they describe as waive and slap, recommending that Trump not certify compliance but continue to waive nuclear sanctions while imposing new sanctions on nonnuclear issues.

Skeptics doubt the Trump team can thread the needle, considering that once Trump declares noncompliance, theres no way to predict what Iran will do. Also, tinkering with the deal or reimposing sanctions could cause new disputes with European allies and other partners, such as Russia and China.

Even if they did a great job, its serious risks, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. And for what gain?

If Trump is determined to get the United States out of the Iran deal, nobody can stop him. But if the majority of his national security team gets its way, Trump will repeat what he did with Cuba: make minimal changes to the policy, then declare he has undone Obamas terrible deal and fulfilled a campaign promise.

And if Trump cant bring himself to certify Irans compliance anymore, he should at least minimize the chances his decision will cause a diplomatic crisis and distract the United States from the mission of combating Irans other nefarious activities.

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How Trump can confront Iran without blowing up the nuclear deal - Washington Post