VOA – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday he would not consider renegotiating the Iran nuclear deal with the incoming Trump administration, which has repeatedly denounced the deal. Speaking at a news conference Tuesday on the first anniversary of the deal’s signing, Rouhani said there would be “no sense” in trying to renegotiate it now. “The nuclear deal is …

Al-monitor – Mahyaddin spent the final hours of 2016 in solitude, deciding whether to spare the life of a man on death row for killing his only son, Pouya. Five years ago, Pouya was knifed to death by 17-year-old Hemin Oraminejad in a brawl over petty issues in the western Iranian city of Sanandaj. The Supreme Court rejected Oraminejad’s appeal …

Amnesty – Iran’s persistent use of cruel and inhuman punishments, including floggings, amputations and forced blinding over the past year, exposes the authorities’ utterly brutal sense of justice, said Amnesty International. Hundreds are routinely flogged in Iran each year, sometimes in public. In the most recent flogging case recorded by Amnesty International, a journalist was lashed 40 times in Najaf …

Iranhumanrights.org – Political prisoners Zanyar Moradi and Loghman Moradi, both ethnic Kurds on death row in Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj, have been denied visitations since mid-December 2016 without reason and worry a previous ban that lasted for years has been reinstated. “I don’t have a good feeling about this visitation ban,” Loghman Moradi told the Campaign for Human Rights …

Iranhumanrights.org – Requests by prominent reformist leader Mohammad Khatami, political prisoners, and his ailing mother ultimately convinced imprisoned civil rights activist Ali Shariati to halt his hunger strike, after 75 days, on January 14, 2017. “Ali ended the hunger strike because of my health problems and after requests from a group of political prisoners and (former president) Mohammad Khatami, who …

Iranhumanrights.org – Fatemeh Haghighatjou, a former reformist member of Iran’s Parliament currently living in the United States, is desperately seeking information about her sister, Leila Haghighatjou, who was arrested on December 19, 2016 in Tehran by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and is being held without access to a lawyer. “The only thing the authorities have told us is …

PayvandNews – In a recent article, Matthew Levitt and Michael Knights of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) highlighted Iranian support of “terrorism” in Bahrain and suggested a future path for the country “balancing security and human rights.” Although the authors rightly suggest that Bahrain should do more to address human rights problems, their article suffers from three …

RFL/RE – European Union foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini insisted that the accord served Europe’s security needs and was “proof that diplomacy works and delivers.” The European Union head of foreign affairs says the EU will stand by the nuclear agreement with Iran, setting up a potential conflict with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has condemned the deal. Federica Mogherini on …

RFL/RE – “We are optimistic about the incoming administration and look forward to working with it in all areas that are a concern for both of us,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir says he is “optimistic” that President-elect Donald Trump’s administration will work to restore U.S. influence in the world, contain Iran, and fight …

RFL/RE – The UN atomic agency says Iran has complied with a key commitment of a nuclear agreement with major world powers by removing sensitive equipment from an underground site. In a January 16 statement, Yukiya Amano head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that Tehran had met a deadline and taken “excess centrifuges and infrastructure” from its …