Iran

Iran, bracing for the possible re-imposition of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" policy, said on Saturday that 2025 would be an important year for its nuclear issue.

Trump in 2018 reneged on a deal struck by his predecessor, Barack Obama, in 2015 in which Iran agreed to curb uranium enrichment, which can yield material for nuclear weapons, in return for the relaxation of U.S. and U.N. economic sanctions.

"2025 will be an important year regarding Iran's nuclear issue," Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told reporters in Beijing, adding in remarks aired by Iran's state TV that he had discussed the issue in talks with his Chinese counterpart.

He did not mention Trump by name, however, or spell out how the year might be significant.

Iranian leaders' main concern may be that Trump could empower Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Iran's nuclear sites, while further tightening U.S. sanctions on its crucial oil industry.

The Iranian rial on Saturday hit a new all-time low against the U.S. dollar amid uncertainty about Trump's arrival in the White House on Jan. 20.

The rial plunged to 820,500 to the dollar on the unofficial market, compared with 808,500 rials on Friday, according to Bonbast.com, which reports exchange rates. The bazar360.com website also said the dollar was being sold for about 820,500 rials.

Also facing an inflation rate officially put at about 35%, Iranians seeking to shelter their savings have been buying dollars, other hard currencies, gold or cryptocurrencies. The rial has dropped about 18% in total since Trump was elected in November.

Efforts to release Italian journalist Cecilia Sala from prison in Iran are "complicated," Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Saturday.

Sala was detained on December 19 by police in Tehran and is being held in the city's notorious Evin prison, according to her employer.

"We are trying to resolve a complicated issue and to ensure in the meantime that Cecilia Sala is detained in the best possible conditions," Tajani said.

Asked when she might be released, he said "I hope shortly, but it does not depend on us."

"She is obviously detained, which is not ideal, but she is fed and in a single cell," he said.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's office said she was "following the complex affair" closely, and Rome was pursuing "all possible avenues of dialogue" to bring Sala home "as soon as possible."

Chora Media, an Italian podcast publisher for which Sala worked, said she had traveled from Rome to Iran on December 12 on a journalist visa, and was due to return on December 20.

But she went quiet on December 19 and then did not board her flight. Shortly afterwards she called her mother to say she had been arrested, it said.

"She was taken to Evin prison, where dissidents are held, and the reason for her arrest has not yet been formalized," Chora Media said in a statement Friday.

Sala also worked for Italian newspaper Il Foglio, which said she had been in Iran "to report on a country she knows and loves."

"Journalism is not a crime, even in countries that repress all freedoms, including those of the press. Bring her home," it said.

Sala, reported to be 29 years old, last posted on X on December 17, with a link to a podcast entitled "A conversation on patriarchy in Tehran."

She had previously reported from Ukraine.