HRANA – The following is an overview of human rights violations in Iran on February 1st, 2019 based on the information compiled and verified by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

Al-Monitor – Nearly eight years after the start of the Syrian conflict, forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad — backed by Iran, Russia and Lebanon’s Hezbollah — have reclaimed control over most territories once held by the rebels. As one of the main allies of Assad, who received Iranian aid in the form of military advisers, manpower and billions of …

atlanticcouncil – Forty years have passed since the Iranian Revolution—a revolution that promised to usher in democracy, freedom, and prosperity for all. Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, an influential cleric, recently exclaimed that Iran has progressed more in the last “forty years than it had in the 400 years prior.” Has it?

Radiofarda – The U.S. dollar and other major currencies have witnessed a notable rise on the Tehran currency exchange market this week. The dollar’s gain has been about 10 percent. As a reaction the chief of Iran’s central bank sounded a warning, that this trend will not necessarily stay, and people should not take risks with their money.

NYT – An author unafraid to defy midcentury attitudes about her gender. “What is important is humanity,” she said, “not being a man or a woman.”

Radiofarda -More than a year after an Iranian oil tanker sank in the East China Sea, reportedly killing all aboard, the families of the Iranian victims say they’ve been receiving mysterious telephone calls from their supposedly dead relatives that are abruptly cut off.

Radiofarda – As the anniversary of events leading up to the fall of Iran’s monarchy in 1979 starts, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has tweeted a message in Persian saying, “40 years of failure – It didn’t need to be this way”.

Radiofarda – One day after Germany France and the UK launched INSTEX (Instrument In Support Of Trade Exchanges) to help reduce the impact of sanctions on Iran there are still speculations about the measures’ effectiveness, with some saying INTEX simply has symbolic significance.

Radiofarda – One day after calling U.S. intelligence chiefs “naive”, President Donald Trump accused the Democrats of being “weak and passive with Iran”.

RFL/RE – Iran is marking the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that toppled the shah, ending 2,500 years of monarchical rule.