Al-monitor – Candidates are gradually beginning to register to run in Iran’s upcoming city council elections, which are to be held concurrently with the May 19 presidential vote. AUTHOR Rohollah Faghihi The contest for the powerful Tehran City Council has always been one of the most controversial in Iran. During the past decade or so, the conservatives have been able …

PayvandNews – While the British government has reaffirmed its commitment to help Iran’s reintegration into the global financial system, reports say the country’s central bank is still reluctant to facilitate trade between the two countries. Bank of England (BoE) Reuters in an exclusive report quoted informed sources as saying that the Bank of England (BoE) had recently turned down a request by …

RFL/RE – The family of a retired FBI agent who went missing in Iran a decade ago has filed a lawsuit against Tehran, claiming that it has held Robert Levinson captive and falsely denied any knowledge of his whereabouts. The lawsuit was filed in a Washington, D.C., court on March 21 on behalf of Levinson, his wife, Christine Levinson, and …

RFL/RE – A senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump on nuclear matters says that the United States will honor Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers for now, while seeking to ensure strict compliance by Tehran. Christopher Ford, the White House National Security Council’s senior director for weapons of mass destruction and counterproliferation, told a conference in Washington on March …

VOA – They are nicknamed “kamikaze” drones. Houthi forces and those aligned with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen are using them to target the missile-defense systems of Saudi-led coalition forces, weapons analysts say. According to a study by Conflict Armament Research (CAR), a London-based organization funded by the European Union to monitor the movement and use of conventional …

Iranhumanrights.org – Iranian security forces arrested 12 administrators of reformist-aligned Telegram channels on March 14-16, 2017, deleted the channels’ content and changed their names. A number of those who were arrested have since been released, but Ali Heydarvalizadeh, the admin of the Majma Eslahtalaban (Reformist’s Forum) and Ali Ahmadnia, the admin of Eslahtat News (Reform News) remain incarcerated at an …

Iranhumanrights.org – A classified newspaper advertisement by the judiciary announcing prison sentences for 10 Iranian citizens currently outside the country has no legal merit, two prominent lawyers told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). Nasrin Sotoudeh and Farideh Gheirat, both based in Iran, said a classified ad placed by the judiciary in its official newspaper, Hemayat, announcing the sentences is unlawful if it …

Al-monitor – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned that he will stand up to anyone who refuses to accept the outcome of the upcoming May 19 presidential elections. AUTHOR Rohollah Faghihi In his annual speech on the occasion of the arrival of the Iranian New Year, Ayatollah Khamenei spoke mostly about Iran’s economic situation as well as the …

PayvandNews – Painter Shohreh Ghanbari’s new collection “Haji Firuz” shows the venerable harbinger of Norooz in a gloomy mood despite the philosophy of the occasion. Clad in a bright red costume, Haji Firuz with his face covered with soot is seen playing his tambourine on the streets to tell people that the New Year is coming and the springtime celebration is near. …

PayvandNews – Iran says it has exported $80 million worth of carpets to the United States over a period of 11 months starting March 21, 2016. Hamid Karegar, the president of Iran National Carpet Center, told local media that the exports had been mainly carried out directly from Iran to the US. The boost, he emphasized, came after a multi-year …