calcalistech – An Iranian cyber espionage group known as Charming Kitten is believed to be behind a campaign targeting academic researchers, human rights activists, media outlets and political advisors focusing on Iran, according to a report published earlier this week by Israel-based threat intelligence company ClearSky Cyber Security. The group has also set up a news outlet called The British …

RFL/RE – The U.S. government’s star witness in a high-profile Iran sanctions case has admitted in court that he paid bribes to secure his release from a Turkish jail after he was arrested in a sweeping corruption scandal in 2013. Reza Zarrab, in a fourth day of testimony in New York after pleading guilty to charges that he helped Iran …

RFL/RE – U.S. Supreme Court justices have expressed skepticism over a lawsuit that seeks the seizure of ancient Persian museum relics to pay for a $71.5 million U.S. court judgment against Iran for its alleged role in a suicide bombing. The Supreme Court on December 4 heard oral arguments in the case brought by several U.S. citizens injured in the …

RFL/RE – The U.S. Supreme Court has handed a victory to President Donald Trump by allowing his latest travel ban targeting people from six predominantly Muslim countries to go into full effect, even as legal challenges continue in lower courts. The court voted 6-to-2 to grant his administration’s request to lift injunctions imposed by lower courts that had partially blocked …

VOA – The United Nation’s envoy for Yemen is due to brief members of the Security Council on Tuesday, a day after rebels killed the country’s former president and their former ally, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and following a spike in violence in the capital with the dissolution of their alliance.

CHR – Iranian-British dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been held captive in Iran since April 2016. For 19 months, the UK government refused to condemn Nazanin’s imprisonment while it pursued business and trade deals with the Islamic Republic. There is no evidence to support the national security charges against Nazanin. Now she’s facing new charges for the same dubious claims. …

Al-Monitor – Political prisoners Majid Assadi, Payam Shakiba, and Mohammad Banazadeh were sentenced to prison and exile after the Intelligence Ministry pressured the court, a family member of one of the prisoners told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). “The lawyers defended their clients in court but the judge found them guilty in the presence of the Intelligence …

Al-Monitor — Turkish-Iranian business tycoon Reza Zarrab’s testimony in a US court has received extensive coverage in Iranian media; however, this coverage doesn’t stem from his real charge in the United States, which is bypassing the sanctions against Tehran, but rather because he has been linked to a controversial billionaire tycoon who is now in jail in Iran: Babak Zanjani. …

Al-Monitor – Iran is calling for a dialogue between all Yemeni groups amid reports that a missile was launched from Yemen toward the United Arab Emirates and that clashes have intensified between Houthis and followers of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was killed Dec. 4. Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said Dec. 3 that “all domestic differences can be …

Al-Arabia – As developments across the Middle East continue to signal landmark breakthroughs in the near future, Iran is resorting to desperate measures to safeguard a fading role. By Heshmat Alavi Special to Al Arabiya As over 85 percent of Yemen is retaken by the Saudi-backed coalition, reports indicate a second ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s armed Iran-supported Houthi militias …