Al-Arabia – The Islamic Republic of Iran Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base, broadcasted on Tuesday morning, a video of the new “Zahra 3” air defense system. The Air Defense remained silent on the S 300 missile system that Tehran received from Moscow a month ago and has not been experimented yet, without giving any clarification on the reasons for the …

VOA – News reports out of Turkey say Ankara and Russia have prepared a cease-fire agreement for all of Syria, but Russia is refusing to comment on the reports and rebel groups say no such official truce has been agreed on. “There are two texts ready on a solution in Syria,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted Wednesday as …

Iranhumanrights.org – More than 70 people who were arrested in October 2016 at a peaceful gathering celebrating Cyrus the Great were tried in mid-December without legal council and sentenced to long prison terms by the Revolutionary Court in the city of Shiraz. “The exact number of those arrested is not known because the court has not publicized their cases and …

Al-monitor – On Dec. 27, Shahrvand daily ran an article that shocked ordinary Iranians and officials alike. The piece, titled “Living inside the grave,” reported on how a group of homeless people had taken shelter in a cemetery close to Shahriar, a town in Tehran province. AUTHOR Rohollah Faghihi “It’s been a month since the cold led the homeless to …

Al-monitor – The long-awaited Citizens’ Rights Charter promised by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was finally unveiled Dec. 19. After the signing ceremony of the charter, a text message from the president was sent to millions of cellphones in Iran. It read, “Noble people of Iran, let’s get more familiar with our rights and powerfully protect them.” AUTHOR Zahra Alipour The …

PayvandNews – Puppeteer Donya Fannizadeh who was mostly known for manipulating Kola-Qermezi, Iran’s most popular puppet character that features a playful boy, died on Wednesday at 49 after about ten years battling sarcoma. Donya Fannizadeh: Mother of Kola-Qermezi, Daughter of Parviz Source: 40Cheragh magazine The illness severely affected the muscles of her right hand so that she had to use …

PayvandNews -Tehran’s wet streets provide temporary relief to millions who have been tolerating unbearable levels of pollution. In today’s Tehran, precipitation is associated with romanticism and blessings, washing away polluted skies briefly before reality sets in again. Pollution has plagued Iran’s capital for years, manifesting in various health problems amongst locals, closing of schools, and transforming daily activities into questions …

PayvandNews – India and South Korea have raised oil imports from Iran more than four times in a month which saw four major Asian buyers more than double their purchases from a year ago. China, India, South Korea and Japan imported 1.94 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, up 117 percent on a year earlier, government and ship-tracking data …

RFL/RE – A major exhibition in Berlin of works from the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art has been scrapped because Iran hasn’t issued required permission for their export, the German capital’s museum authority announced on December 27. German organizers had hailed the exhibition as a “significant gesture of cultural diplomacy.” The show was supposed to feature works by Iranian modern …

Al-Arabia – Optimism diminished over the success of a Russian-Iranian conference over the Syrian peace process that is scheduled for mid-January in Astana. Well-informed Turkish sources told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that the Iranian leadership was imposing vetoes on its possible representatives to the conference. Meanwhile, Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said that Iran would never coordinate with the United States …