HRW – Spate of Executions Despite Imminent Reforms: The Iranian government should immediately halt all executions for drug-related offenses while parliament debates amendments to reform the country’s drug law, Human Rights Watch said today. Parliament is expected to vote in two weeks on an amendment to the drug law that would drastically increase the bar for a mandatory death penalty sentence. “It makes …

Al-monitor – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, reacting to new US sanctions against Tehran over its missile program and alleged support for terrorism, said Iran should be alert and refrain from acting to the benefit of Washington. AUTHOR Al-Monitor Staff On July 18, the US departments of Treasury and State announced that they were targeting 18 Iranian individuals, groups and networks. Mentioning US President …

Al-monitor – Iranian authorities are struggling to address smuggling in border areas, and particularly the Kurdish region, where local economies are in tatters after decades of government neglect and discriminatory policies. Thousands of Kurds carry illegal goods into the country from Iraqi Kurdistan for a fee in order to provide for their families, in operations commonly organized by wealthy smuggling rings in …

RFL/RE – Iranian President Hassan Rohani says that Tehran would “respond appropriately” to new U.S. sanctions while reiterating that his country remained committed to its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.  “The Islamic Republic of Iran will always stick to its international commitments,” Rohani said at a July 19 cabinet meeting, according to a text posted on the government’s website. JCPOA …

Washington Post — A high-stakes power struggle between Iran’s moderate president and his hard-line opponents in the judiciary appeared to escalate with the arrest of the president’s brother and the conviction of an American student for espionage this weekend — rulings that seemed timed to embarrass the Iranian leader at home and abroad. President Hassan Rouhani, who was reelected in a …

RFL/RE – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration of trying to “poison the atmosphere” by imposing new sanctions on Tehran despite its adherence to the 2015 nuclear accord. The U.S. administration announced sanctions against 18 individuals and entities connected with Iran’s ballistic-missile program and other military activities on July 18, one day after certifying that …

Al-Arabia – The United States slapped new economic sanctions against Iran on Tuesday over its ballistic missile program and said Tehran’s “malign activities” in the Middle East undercut any “positive contributions” coming from the 2015 Iran nuclear accord. The measures signaled that the administration of President Donald Trump was seeking to put more pressure on Iran while keeping in place an …

VOA – The wife of a Princeton University graduate student sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage in Iran said Tuesday that he had been “unjustly imprisoned” and called for his immediate release. “My husband, Xiyue Wang, is one of the kindest, most thoughtful, and most loving men I have ever known,” his wife, Hua Qu, said in a written …

VOA —A British opposition lawmaker campaigning for the release of a British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran for more than a year has welcomed signs that the British government is trying harder to free her. In an interview with VOA’s Persian Service, lawmaker Tulip Siddiq said she was pleased that the government held a parliamentary debate Tuesday on the case of …

Iran Human Rights –  Four prisoners were reportedly hanged at Isfahan Central Prison, and a prisoner was reportedly hanged at Chabahar Prison. According to close sources, on the morning of Monday July 17, four prisoners were hanged at Isfahan Central Prison. Iran Human Rights has obtained the identities of two of the prisoners: Saeed Diyagar, charged with 800 grams of heroin, …