Al-monitor – In the hours after the May 22 terrorist bombing in Manchester that claimed at least 22 lives, Iranian media sought to cover developments second by second and published analyses about it. AUTHOR Rohollah Faghihi On May 23, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said, “We believe that the roots and the ideological origin of the terrorist incidents in Iran’s Mirjaveh and the …

PayvandNews – Iran says it has discovered a new gas field close to the giant South Pars natural gas field which it jointly shares with Qatar. Local media have quoted an unnamed official at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) as saying that the field – named Sepand – holds 1.5 trillion cubic feet of sweet gas of which about …

RFL/RE – Qatar says hackers broke into the website of its state-run news agency and published a fake story quoting the country’s ruling emir. The fake article appeared on the website of the Qatar News Agency early on May 24 and claimed that the small Persian Gulf nation had withdrawn its ambassadors from Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the …

RFL/RE – At least five people were killed and hundreds arrested in Bahrain on May 23 after police stormed a sit-in by protesters supporting the Sunni-ruled kingdom’s top Shi’ite cleric, Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said. Police said they arrested nearly 300 people at the protest in Diraz, near the capital, Manama, as they demonstrated outside the home of cleric Isa Qassim, …

IRAN HUMAN RIGHTS –  Six prisoners were executed in two different Iranian prisons early Tuesday morning, May 24. According to the Kurdish Human Rights Network five prisoners were hanged in the prison of Tabriz. Three of the prisoners were identified as “Kazem Hajaji”, “Seyed Ali Mousavi” and “Jaber Fakhri”. All the five prisoners were convicted of murder and sentenced to …

CHRI – A major challenge for newly reelected President Hassan Rouhani’s second term is integrating guidelines from a UN agenda into the country’s educational system—a project he began in the summer of 2016 that was stalled by fierce opposition from hardliners. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a non-binding educational guidelines document published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and …

CHRI – Mostafa Daneshjou, a formerly imprisoned lawyer and member of a Sufi religious order known as the Gonabadi Dervishes, has been expelled from university without explanation, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. “I think the reason why they expelled me was my belief in the Gonabadi order,” Daneshjou told CHRI. “I have always defended the dervishes …

CHRI – The persecution of the Baha’i religious minority in Iran has grown worse under President Hassan Rouhani, the spokesperson for the community at the United Nations in Geneva told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). “Unfortunately, the situation has not changed in the past four years and if we look at the number of Baha’i citizens arrested, …

Amnesty – The health of Iranian women’s rights activist, Atena Daemi, has sharply deteriorated. After 46 days on hunger strike, she is critically ill and her body has started rejecting water. Despite doctors’ warnings, the authorities are still refusing to transfer her to a hospital outside prison for specialist medical care. She is a prisoner of conscience. View report in …

Al-monitor – A majority of Iranians voted May 19 to give moderate incumbent President Hassan Rouhani a second term, but conservatives appear unwilling to accept the results of the balloting. Conservatives have been protesting the election process since the first hours of election day and are now accusing the Rouhani administration of violating the law. Such is not unprecedented. AUTHOR Rohollah Faghihi In 2016, prominent Iranian conservative Gholam-Ali Haddad …