Amnesty – Iranian journalist Hengameh Shahidi is in a critical condition in Tehran’s Evin prison. She has been on hunger strike for 29 days in protest at her arrest on 9 March. She has a heart condition and is refusing her medication. She is being held in solitary confinement and has been denied access to a lawyer. For the report …

Al-monitor – Members of President Hassan Rouhani’s Cabinet have publicly criticized the recent arrests of Reformist journalists and online activists on the threshold of a presidential election. AUTHOR Arash Karami “From the beginning, the administration has been opposed to the arrests of account managers of Telegram channels and continues to be,” said Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi to reporters April 5 …

PayvandNews – Oil market sources say Iran has sold all the oil it had stored at sea for years – a sign of the country’s positive performance in marketing its vital crude oil supplies. Reuters in a report quoted tanker tracking and oil sources as saying that Iran had sold its last stocks from the floating storage in the past …

Al-arabia – Millions have been shocked by the sight of children dying as a result of the recent Khan Sheikhoun massacre in Idlib. We should be aware that unfortunately this might not be the last chemical attack. Such attacks have taken place several times in the past. We wake up to the news of horrific massacres and then life goes …

Radiozamaneh – Ebrahim Raisi, head of Iran’s wealthiest religious institution, an ex-high-ranking official with the judiciary and a hardliner cleric involved with the mass execution of more than 4000 political prisoners has announced his candidacy for the upcoming presidential race. On 6 April 2017 Solat Mortazavi, a hardliner politician announced that Ebrahim Raisi is registering as a candidate. He plans …

Al-monitor – It is now an established tradition that Iran’s supreme leader travels to Mashhad on the first day of the Iranian New Year, which fell on March 21 this year, to deliver his most important annual policy speech. This year’s speech was significant as it almost entirely dealt with economic conditions, an indication that the economy, especially unemployment, is …

Al-monitor – Mayor and two-time presidential candidate Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has announced that he does not intend to run in the presidential elections May 19. The move came amid widespread speculation that Ghalibaf would take a third shot at the presidency, having been the runner-up to Hassan Rouhani in the 2013 elections. AUTHOR Rohollah Faghihi Following his statement, there were …

RFL/RE – A magnitude-6.1 earthquake has struck near the northwestern Iranian city of Mashhad, reportedly killing at least two people and injuring several others. The quake struck nearly 80 kilometers southeast of Iran’s second-biggest city at about 10:40 a.m. (0640 GMT/UTC) on April 5, the U.S. Geological Survey and Iranian media said. Reports said aftershocks shook the region. The Iranian …

VOA – A bill to slap new sanctions on Iran has been delayed in the U.S. Senate because of concerns about Iran’s May presidential election, in which conservative hard-liners hope to defeat moderate President Hassan Rouhani, U.S. lawmakers said Tuesday. A group of Democratic and Republican senators introduced the bill in March seeking to impose tighter U.S. sanctions on Iran …

Iranhumanrights.org – Political activist Jafar (Shahin) Eghdami shaved his head and went on a three-day hunger strike on March 30, 2017 to protest “children being bothered during body searches in the visitation halls” of Rajaee Shahr Prison, an informed source told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). “Shahin’s brother has two small kids who insisted on coming to …