PayvandNews – The sporting team game of chovgan, which is played on horseback and recognized as a version of the modern polo game, has been added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. During the 12th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which took place from …

Reuters – President Donald Trump will announce on Wednesday that the United States recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will move its embassy there, breaking with longtime U.S. policy and potentially stirring unrest.

RFL/RE – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called the New York trial of a Turkish banker accused of conspiring to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions “blackmail” and a “blemish” on his country. His comments in Ankara on December 5 came as the trial of Halkbank executive Mehmet Hakan Atilla continued with a fifth day of testimony by the U.S. …

RFL/RE – Turkmenistan has agreed to seek international arbitration of a dispute with Iran over $1.8 billion Ashbagat says Tehran owes for deliveries of natural gas, Turkmen media report. The energy-rich Central Asian state halted shipments of natural gas to Iran at the start of the year, saying Iran owed $1.8 billion for supplies it never paid for. Myrat Archaev, …

RFL/RE – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said the five Caspian states have agreed on “all the outstanding key issues” regarding the legal status of the Caspian Sea. Lavrov made the announcement in Moscow on December 5 after meeting with his counterparts from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. Russia’s top diplomat said the draft text of the Convention on …

Al-Monitor – Iran’s recent decision to once again block Waze, a mobile navigation app developed in Israel, has created a great deal of controversy in the country. The GPS-based software had become popular both among the public as well as Iran’s leading ride-hailing apps, Snapp and Tap30. Snapp (founded in 2014) and Tap30 (founded in 2016) — known as the …

Al-Monitor – The death of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has received extensive coverage in Iran, with media outlets and newspapers describing his fate as the result of his “betrayal” of the Houthis. With the headline, “The End of the Complicated Arab Politician,” the government-run newspaper Iran wrote Dec. 5, “In 2013, in the midst of Yemen’s internal disputes …

PayvandNews – Ali Hashemi bagged another gold for Iran at the 2017 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships at the Anaheim Convention Center early Tuesday.

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Judicial System has become the greatest opposition of Sharia and the Law, to such extent that the Judges blatantly disregard the rules of the judicial system by forcing the defendants’ lawyers to resign. In the case of Dr. Mohammad Ali Taheri, he is under extreme judicial pressure as threats are being made to him and …

variety – Fereydoun Jeyrani’s elegant black-and-white thriller refracts Iranian gender politics through the prism of a twisty Hitchcockian noir. By Jessica Kiang Director: Fereydoun Jeyrani With: Navid Mohammadzadeh, Elnaz Shakerdoust, Mahaya Petrosian, Pardis Ahmadieh, Poulad Kimiaei, Parviz Pourhosseini 1 hour 48 minutes Official Site: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6486630/ On the international stage and on the festival circuit, Iranian cinema is not immediately associated …