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A ray of hope for Iran after a brutal year
雨后的彩虹
A TERRIBLE YEAR for Iran got worse when the country's top nuclear scientist was killed. As the architect of Iran's nuclear weapons program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was a national hero, and his Nov. 27 assassination has ignited fury across the country. Iran's Foreign Ministry and state media were quick to pin blame on Israel.
頂尖核科學家的遇害讓今年本就不堪重負的伊朗雪上加霜。穆赫辛·法赫里扎德是伊朗核武器項目的設計師，是伊朗的民族英雄，11月27日穆赫辛·法赫里扎德遭遇暗殺，引發了伊朗的全民憤怒。伊朗外交部和國家媒體隨即將矛頭指向以色列。
2020 began with the U.S. assassination in Iraq of General Qasem Soleimani, one of Iran's most powerful men, which was soon followed by Iran's military accidentally shooting down a passenger plane, setting off a round of antigovernment protests.
2020年伊始，美國在伊拉克刺殺了伊朗最有權勢的人之一卡塞姆·索萊馬尼將軍，隨后，伊朗軍方意外擊落了一架客機，引發了一輪反政府抗議。
Then came COVID-19. Iran became the first corona virus hot spot outside East Asia as Iranian officials lied about the severity of the outbreak to protect voter turnout for parliamentary elections that boosted handpicked hard-line candidates. Bungling by the government set off more demonstrations, and many more Iranians died than the government acknowledged. The economic toll grew heavier when the pandemic forced down the global prices of oil and natural gas, vital Iranian exports. In July, a fire at Iran's most important nuclear-fuel-enrichment site, which offi cials blamed on a bomb planted by Israel, inflicted enough damage to delay Iran's nuclear program by months.
再之后是新冠病毒。伊朗的議會選舉中多了一些頗具實力的強硬派候選人，為了維護投票率，伊朗官員謊報了疫情的嚴重程度，致使伊朗成為東亞以外的第一個新冠病毒熱點地區。政府的拙劣表現引發了更多的示威，伊朗的死亡人數比政府宣稱的還要多。石油和天然氣是伊朗重要的出口產品，當疫情迫使全球石油和天然氣價格下跌時，伊朗遭受了更加嚴重的經濟損失。今年7月，伊朗最重要的核燃料濃縮設施發生火災，造成的破壞足以使伊朗的核計劃推遲數月。官員們將火災歸咎于以色列安置的炸彈。
Nor can Iran be pleased to see its two main enemies—Israel and Saudi Arabia— taking steps toward better relations. According to Israeli offi cials, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in November—though the Saudis deny it happened. The meeting is historic, even if they have little in common beyond a mutual need for regional stability and a shared antipathy toward Iran.
伊朗也不愿看到自己的兩個主要敵人——以色列和沙特阿拉伯——關系改善。據以色列官員稱，去年11月，沙特王儲穆罕默德·本·薩勒曼和以色列總理本杰明·內塔尼亞胡會晤了美國國務卿邁克·蓬佩奧——沙特對此表示否認。兩國雖說除了在地區穩定和討厭伊朗上有共同需求之外其它的共同點少之又少，但這次會晤仍具有歷史性意義。
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