RFL/RE – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has sparked anger by using media proxies to crowdsource the identification and reporting to authorities of individuals photographed at antiestablishment protests, including indirectly through social media like Twitter. The effort came as a week of demonstrations and violent unrest across the country eased but were said to be continuing in some places, …

RFL/RE –  The United States has imposed sanctions on five Iranian companies it says are involved in Tehran’s illegal ballistic-missile program. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on January 4 said the “sanctions target key entities involved in Iran’s ballistic-missile program, which the Iranian regime prioritizes over the economic well-being of the Iranian people.” The five companies are subsidiaries of Iran’s Shahid …

Al-Arabia – Activists in Lebanon ridiculed the announcement, during an interview with a TV station, by Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah that his monthly salary, from Iran, was $1300.

VOA – Iranian authorities have accused the West and the country’s regional enemies of fomenting the street protests that have roiled Iran for a week, but reformists question whether some of their domestic conservative foes had a hand in orchestrating the demonstrations in the first place — suspecting they did so to weaken the government of President Hassan Rouhani.

Radiozamaneh – Iranian authorities appear to have once more fallen back on their old way of dealing with people’s protests. By: Taher Khaljani January 5, 2018 at 7:47 am The continued street protests of Iranian citizens has caught Iranian government by surprise. At first they tried to completely deny the existence of protests. Then for the first time in the …

Radiozamaneh – The experience of the protests in Iran’s streets is very different from the reports we are getting in the state media. What is going on in the streets of Iran? Are they chanting slogans against the government? Are protesters demanding regime change or are their demands related to the ailing economy, unemployment and hunger? Are protesters chanting in …

Iran Human Rights –  On the morning of Thursday, two prisoners from Varamin were executed at Rajai Shahr Prison. The official media had earlier reported the execution of a juvenile offender at the same prison. According to a close source, on the morning of Thursday January 4, a prisoner named Abolfazl Ghorbani was executed at Rajai Shahr Prison. He was …

Iran Human Rights –  Amir Hossein Pourjafar, who was charged with rape and murder when he was less than 16 years old, was executed at Rajai Shahr Prison today, This is despite the fact that the international laws strictly ban execution of minor offenders. According to a report by Fars News, on the morning of Thursday January 4, Amir Hossein …

Al-Monitor – Shirin is unsure about what to make of the recent protests that have rocked Iran, including the 35-year-old’s hometown of Sanandaj in the heart of Iranian Kurdistan. The region is afflicted with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. “The atmosphere in Sanandaj is intimidating, with so many armed security forces standing by the side of …

Al-Monitor – In his first comments since protests erupted in Iran a week ago, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, Iran’s prosecutor general, discussed the role of social media in the unrest in the country and called for a national internet. Montazeri, who was speaking in Qom, the religious center of Iran, addressed the inability of the country’s officials and seminaries to control …