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Al-Arabia – Iran’s former president Mohammad Khatami has called on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to end the house arrest of opposition leaders, Khatami’s website reported Sunday, the first such public call by a senior political figure. The continuing detention of Mirhossein Mousavi and fellow reformist Mehdi Karroubi, both of whom disputed the results of the 2009 presidential election that triggered …

CHRI – Now that detained political leader Mehdi Karroubi has ended his life-threatening hunger strike, all eyes are on President Hassan Rouhani to see if he will honor Karroubi’s second demand: a public trial. The 79-year-old cleric agreed to end his hunger strike the day after he began it after Health Minister Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi and Deputy Intelligence Minister Mohammad Pourfallah visited him …

PayvandNews – The tourist flow from the U.S. to Iran has not been slowed down as its year-on-year rate shows no decrease in the stream, says the chief executive of the Iranian Tour Operators Association. Related Iran travel website: irandoostan.com “U.S. tourist arrivals to Iran have not come to a halt and the number of inbound tourists from the U.S. during the …

RFL/RE – Iran’s parliament on August 20 approved all but one of the cabinet nominees submitted by President Hassan Rohani, who said protecting the landmark 2015 deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for an easing of sanctions would be the key foreign policy priority for his new government. President Rohani’s new cabinet after holding their first session (source: ISNA) …

CHRI – To protest being returned to prison two years after he was released, prominent labor activist Reza Shahabi started a hunger strike on August 9, 2017, in Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj, 31 miles east of Tehran. Reza Shahabi “The prosecutor had told Shahabi and his family that he only had to spend three more months in prison to cover …