Al-Arabia – US President Donald Trump notified Congress on Monday that he was extending the national emergency with Iran that has been in place since the 1979 hostage crisis. “Our relations with Iran have not yet normalized, and the process of implementing the agreements with Iran, dated January 19, 1981, is ongoing,” Trump wrote Congress in the formal notice.

Iran Human Rights –  Four prisoners who were sentenced to death on drug related charges were transferred to solitary confinement in Urmia Central Prison in preparation for executed. According to a close source, on the morning of Monday November 6, four prisoners were transferred to solitary confinement from ward 15 of Urmia Central Prison (Darya) to be executed. The prisoners were …

CHRI – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has condemned the recent suspension of a Zoroastrian member of a city council as “illegal” and asked the supreme leader to intervene in the growing dispute that has highlighted divisions within the state. In a meeting with members of the Tehran City Council on November 6, 2017, “Mr. Rouhani made some remarks about Sepanta Niknam’s …

CHRI – Imprisoned labor activist Mahmoud Salehi remains in intensive care three days after being rushed from a prison in Saqqez, in Iran’s Kurdistan Province, to a local hospital. Salehi’s wife, Najibeh Salehzadeh, told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on November 6, 2017, that his doctors suspected he had experienced “mild heart failure.” “He was first taken to the emergency section of …

Al-Monitor – All countries face the phenomenon of an “informal economy.” Focusing on the definition of that term — which means all economic activities that are not covered or are insufficiently covered by formal arrangements, not including illicit activities — a World Bank report finds: “Informality arises both from a lack of development and poor governance, and each of them to a different …

Al-Monitor – Mohammad Ali Jafari, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has denied claims by President Donald Trump that Iran was responsible for the missile that was launched into Saudi Arabia from Yemen over the weekend. After Saudi Arabia claimed that the Houthis fired a ballistic missile into a heavily populated area for the first time, Trump, while on …

PayvandNews – Khar Turan National Park or Touran Wildlife Refuge is an Iranian National Park in Semnan province, southeast of Shahrud. The place is home to one of the largest populations of the critically endangered Asiatic cheetahs. Currently there are about 60 collars in the world, all of which are living in Iran. Watch related video About: The Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus), also …

RFL/RE – A Saudi-led military coalition is blaming Iran for the launch of a ballistic missile by Yemeni Shi’ite rebels toward Riyadh, warning that it could be “considered as an act of war” and that it reserves its “right to respond.” A statement issued early on November 6 said that “Iran’s role and its direct command of its Huthi proxy in …

Al-Arabia – Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Monday that political leaders had been responsive to calls for calm, strengthening security and national unity after the prime minister’s shock resignation. Saad al-Hariri quit on Saturday, saying he believed there was an assassination plot against him and accusing Iran with its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of sowing strife in the Arab world. …

CHRI – The relatives of three members of a banned Kurdish separatist organization in Iran have been sentenced to prison after being accused of collaborating with the group, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. “In late June [2017], several members of Komala [armed separatist organization] were surrounded by the Revolutionary Guards, which killed three of the members …