PayvandNews – Ann Linde, Swedish Minister for EU Affairs and Trade tweeted: I’m proud of my delegation to Iran, which consisted of a large majority of women, 12 of 15! by Sussan Tahmasebi (source: LobeLog) Over the last two years, countless trade and diplomatic delegations have traveled to Iran to kick off economic cooperation in diverse sectors from the auto …

PayvandNews – Iran says it has been informed by Washington that US nationals can have bank accounts in the Islamic Republic. The announcement was made by a top official at the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), as reported by the domestic media. Hamid Qanbari, the deputy director of the CBI for supply of foreign currencies, told a seminar in Tehran …

RFL/RE – The Pentagon has blasted what it called the “unsafe and unprofessional” behavior of the Iranian navy after two separate incidents in the Strait of Hormuz last week. A Pentagon spokesman said on March 6 that an Iranian frigate came within 150 meters of the lightly armed USNS Invincible on March 2. Then on March 4, several small assault …

Al-Arabia – More than 2,000 fighters sent from Iran have been killed in Iraq and Syria, the head of Iran’s veterans’ affairs office said Tuesday. “Some 2,100 martyrs have been martyred so far in Iraq or other places defending the holy mausoleums,” Mohammad Ali Shahidi told the state-run IRNA news agency. Shahidi, who is head of Iran’s Foundation of Martyrs …

VOA – U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a long telephone conversation Monday about strategic threats posed by Iran. “The two leaders spoke at length about the dangers arising from the nuclear deal with Iran and Iranian aggression in the [Middle East] region and the need to work together to deal with those dangers,” Netanyahu’s …

Iranhumarights.org – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are preventing the hospitalization of political prisoner Arash Sadeghi, who needs urgent medical treatment for the effects of his prolonged hunger strike, an informed source told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). “Arash Sadeghi is bleeding in the stomach and intestines and his kidneys are not working properly. He can hardly eat and …

Iranhumanrights.org – Two Iranian Catholic converts have been arrested in their home by the Revolutionary Guards in West Azerbaijan Province, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. “At 7 a.m. on February 20 (2017), two plainclothes intelligence agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) entered the home of Christian converts Anoohe Rezabakhsh and her son Sohail …

Al-monitor – With the prospect of confrontation, headlines in Iran are once again focusing on relations with the United States. Ali Khorram, a former Iranian ambassador to China, recently argued that more could have been done to reduce Tehran’s vulnerability by improving ties during US President Barack Obama’s presidency. This is a compelling point, but not everyone in Iran agrees. …

Al-Monior – Hojat al-Islam Ahmad Montazeri, son of late Iranian dissident cleric Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, was released March 4 from prison, reportedly after the intervention of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The story of Montazeri’s sentencing by the Special Court of Clergy and subsequent suspension of it days later is full of intrigue allegedly involving a rising and powerful conservative candidate in the …

Washington Post – President Trump signed a new travel ban Monday that administration officials said they hope will end legal challenges over the matter by imposing a 90-day ban on the issuance of new visas for citizens of six majority-Muslim nations. By Matt Zapotosky, David Nakamura and Abigail Hauslohner In addition, the nation’s refu­gee program will be suspended for 120 …