Al-monitor – On Aug. 1, the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia surprised political observers by shaking hands with each other at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Istanbul. Given that the encounter came in the wake of months of direct verbal clashes between the two over regional developments, some saw the unexpected greeting as potentially signaling a …

PayvandNews – US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is repeating the Trump administration’s anti-Iran allegations. Speaking to reporters at the State Department on Tuesday, he American top diplomat accused Tehran of violating spirit of the nuclear deal, which also involves the UK, Russia, Germany, China, and France. Watch Video The US has recently imposed new sanctions on Iran based on the …

Guardian – Concerns raised that Hassan Rouhani may unveil all-male list of ministers in cabinet reshuffle as he prepares for second term President Hassan Rouhani, who will be sworn in for a second term on Sunday, ran his election campaign on a reformist agenda. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters Saeed Kamali Dehghan Iran correspondent Wednesday 2 August 2017 07.48 BST Last modified on …

HRW – The families of two former opposition presidential candidates in Iran who have been under house arrest since 2011 say that they are being denied adequate care despite deteriorating health, Human Right Watch said today.The former candidates, Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Zahra Rahnavard, an author and activist who is Mousavi’s wife, have been under house arrest in Tehran since …

RFL/RE – Iran says it has lodged a complaint with the commission responsible for overseeing the implementation of the 2015 nuclear agreement over U.S. sanctions imposed on the country last month. Parliament speaker Ali Larijani disclosed the complaint on August 1, saying Tehran accused Washington of breaching the accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), between Iran and …

VOA – Iran successfully launched a satellite-carrying rocket into space on Thursday, the country’s state media reported without elaborating. Iranian state television described the launch as involving a “Simorgh” rocket that is capable of carrying a satellite weighing 250 kilograms (550 pounds). The state media report did not elaborate on the rocket’s payload. “Simorgh” means “phoenix” in Farsi. The website YJC.ir, …

Iran Human Rights  -100 executions were carried out in Iran in the month of July, but only eight of these executions were announced by Iranian officials. Most of the executions were for drug related charges. Since the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, there has been a surge of executions in Iran. According to Iran Human Rights reports, …

Iran Human Rights -A prisoner was hanged in public in Iran while a large crowd of people watched. A prisoner by the name of Hossein Sarooki was hanged in public in the city of Juybar on murder charges. According to the state-run news agency, Jouybaran, the execution was carried out on the morning of Tuesday August 1 in front of …

Amnesty – Iran’s judicial and security bodies have waged a vicious crackdown against human rights defenders since Hassan Rouhani became president in 2013, demonizing and imprisoning activists who dare to stand up for people’s rights, Amnesty International said in a new report published today. Caught in a web of repression: Iran’s human rights defenders under attack details how scores of human …

Amnesty – The Iranian authorities are intensifying their crackdown against human rights defenders, who have already been working under suffocating levels of repression. Human rights defenders are routinely portrayed in official statements and court verdicts as “criminals” and “foreign agents” bent on harming national security. Since 2013, dozens of human rights defenders have been imprisoned on spurious national security-related charges based …