RFL/RE – An Iranian Revolutionary Guards general died on December 16 after he accidentally shot himself in the head while cleaning his pistol, official media report.

HRANA – The following is an overview of human rights violations in Iran on December 16th,2018 based on the information compiled and verified by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Iranian political prisoner, Vahid Sayadi Nasiri,  has passed away following two months of hunger strike. Iranian authorities informed Vahid’s family about his death on 12 December 2018.

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – A Prisoner was hanged on murder charges at Mashhad Central Prison last Wednesday.

Al-Monitor – A group of Iranian lawmakers is seeking caps on child marriage in the country, a drive that seems to have little chance of success due to fierce opposition from hard-liners.

PayvandNews – Europeans have constituted the highest number of arrivals in Iran’s Shahdad desert since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21), ISNA reported. Shahdad – a major part of the Lut desert in southeastern Kerman province – is home to massive sand pyramids created by wind and water. The “Lut” plain is a natural landscape of …

PayvandNews – Which countries did Iranians travel to the most during the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year started on March 21?  Are they mostly the neighbors to the north, west, east and south? Western and European ones? The answer is an amalgam of all of the above, but Iraq holds a greater share than any other …

Radiofarda – Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has questioned Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s “Eastern” policy and ruled it out as “meaningless” in unprecedented and provocative comments he made during a speech in Tehran on Friday December 14.

Radiofarda – Iranian news agencies report that the value of the national currency rial has further increased against major currencies, and is now trading below the 100,000 rial to the dollar threshold.

Radiofarda – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday said US sanctions will have no impact on the policies of the Islamic republic at home or abroad.