Iranhumanrights.org —The upholding of the 16-year prison sentence against human rights defender Narges Mohammadi by Iran’s Appeals Court for her peaceful work is cruel and indefensible, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said in a statement today. “Sixteen years in prison for engaging in peaceful civil activities is a blatant violation of Iran’s own laws as well as …

Iranhumanrights.org – Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said he hoped the situation of detained dual nationals in Iran could be “resolved amicably,” adding that the office of the president has no control over the Judiciary, at a talk in New York on September 23, 2016. http://www.facebook.com/49929580840/videos/10153812249835841/ Bagher Namazi, Siamak Namazi, Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, Robin Reza Shahini, and Kamal Foroughi, a …

Al-monitor – The Iranian press’ interest in the first debate between the Republican candidate for US president, Donald Trump, and his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, was clear in Iran’s print media on Sept. 28. Analysis and opinions of the two presidential candidates, who battled it out at Hofstra University in New York on Sept. 26, was made all the more impassioned …

Al-monitor — The Iranian government’s efforts to get off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist is spurring attacks against President Hassan Rouhani by primarily conservative forces. Given the agreement to adhere to FATF guidelines, critics say many institutions such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Intelligence and universities such as Sharif University of Technology will effectively be sanctioned …

PayvandNews – Iran and Australia have signed fresh agreements to forge closer ties, with Austrian Trade Minister Steve Ciobo announcing the dawn of a new age of relationship. Ciobo is leading a trade delegation of more than 20 companies to Tehran, seeking out opportunities, buoyed by the prospects in Iran’s mining, oil and gas, and other industries as well as …

PayvandNews – The “I’m Lake Urmia” hashtag is a newly initiated campaign spearheaded by the public aims to collect one million signatures to push the United Nation to take serious measures to restore the lake. #من_دریاچه_ارومیه_هستم Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran was once the largest lake in the Middle East and the sixth-largest saltwater lake on Earth with a surface …

VOA – Hundreds of Iranian Kurds are bolstering Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq as volunteers in the fight against the Islamic State, according to fighters and Kurdish sources in Iraq and Syria. “I decided to come to Syria to help my Kurdish brethren fight (IS),” said Iranian Kurd Zanyar Rafaat, who joined the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) …

RFL/RE – Oil prices plunged anew as signs of discord reemerged between Iran and Saudi Arabia over an oil production freeze being pushed by the Saudis and Russia. At a meeting of the OPEC oil cartel in Algeria on September 27, Iran rejected an offer by the Saudis to cut their oil production if Tehran agreed to freeze its output …

Iran Human Rights –  A prisoner sentenced to death for murder was reportedly executed at Urmia Prison while two prisoners in Shahroud and one prisoner in Gorgan prisons were reportedly executed on drug related charges. According to reports by the unofficial news agency, HRANA, early morning on Monday September 26, a prisoner was hanged at Darya, Urmia’s central prison (West …

Iranhumanrights.org – Iranian authorities have ignored requests to reinstate a student expelled from a university because of his faith. Nineteen-year-old Faraz Karin-Kani Sisan was expelled from Ghiyaseddin Jamshid Kashani Institute for Higher Education (GJKI) in Abyek, Alborz Province, 62 miles northwest of Tehran, after completing his second term in development studies. “In the national university entrance exam form they ask …