RFL/RE – U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has accused Iran of “mucking around” in Iraq’s parliamentary elections, in which Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi is seeking another term in office in May.

Al-Arabia – The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey were locked in talks on Syria in Kazakhstan Friday, almost a month after the Moscow and Tehran-backed regime began pounding an opposition enclave just outside of Damascus.

VOA —The United States is demanding the world hold Syria’s government, Russia and Iran responsible for what a top official calls “some of the worst atrocities known to man.” The statement, by U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster, came Thursday during an event at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington marking the seventh anniversary of the start of the Syrian …

VOA – The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Iran held the first-ever quadrilateral meeting in Baku to discuss regional cooperation.

IRAN HUMAN RIGHTS –  The 10th annual report on the death penalty in Iran by Iran Human Rights (IHR) shows that in 2017 at least 517 people were executed in the Islamic Republic of Iran. With an average of more than one execution every day and more than one execution per 167.000 inhabitants in 2017, Iran remained the country with …

Iran Human Rights – Two prisoners were hanged in public on the charge of armed robbery today.

CHRI – Death Certificate Makes No Mention of Officials’ Claim of “Stroke” The death in custody of a nursing student arrested for allegedly filming anti-state protests in the Iranian Province of Ilam marks the fifth known death of a detainee in Iran within the course of two months. Officials claimed Taleb Basati, 26, died of a stroke but his death …

Al-Monitor – “I am a dependent filmmaker. I am a man of the system. … I thank Owj [Arts and Media] Organization. They work hard and deserve the title of ‘The unknown soldiers of Imam Mahdi.’ I am honored to have made a film for ‘the defenders of the shrine’ [Iranian-led soldiers in Syria]. I am proud to have received …

Al-Monitor – On March 14, Iranians woke up to a surprising piece of news: Tehran’s mayor, prominent Reformist Mohammad Ali Najafi, who was only chosen as mayor in August, had submitted his resignation to the city council. Explaining the reason for what had occurred, Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, the chairman of Tehran’s Reformist-dominated city council, said at a press conference on …

PayvandNews – When I was a teenager in the 1960s growing up in Tehran, Hollywood had not yet monopolized stardom. We had a number of European stars to swoon and argue over.