Radiofarda – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has threatened the U.S. with unveiling more advanced centrifuges after Washington designated Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a “terrorist organization”. Speaking on April 9 at the ceremony for 13th National Day of Nuclear Technology in Iran, Rouhani addressed Washington, saying, “You were afraid of IR1 centrifuges, today we unveiled IR6, and if …

Radiofarda – Washington has stepped up the rhetoric against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, calling his Russia-backed government a threat to the United States and urging the world to recognize his opponent as the legitimate ruler of the oil-rich South American country. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on April 10 said the increased involvement of Russia, Iran, and Cuba in Venezuela …

Radiofarda – A member of Isfahan’s city council in Iran has been barred from attending council meetings for six months, for a social media comment he posted in support of a defender of the embattled Baha’i community. Mehdi Moghaddari published a comment on Instagram last September to voice support for two people in the city of Shiraz who had been …

Radiofarda – U.S. President Donald Trump will continue to increase pressure on Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has told the Senate. “I can assure the rest of the world that President Trump will continue to ratchet up the pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran so that their behavior will change,” Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on …

Radiofarda – Iranian authorities have ordered residents of five districts of the southwestern city of Ahvaz to evacuate, as floodwaters entered Khuzestan Province’s capital, local media report.Provincial Governor Gholamreza Shariati said on April 10 that the evacuation order was a “precautionary and preventive move to avert any danger,” according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.The five districts have an estimated …

Radiofarda – Egypt has pulled out of the U.S. effort to forge an “Arab NATO” with key Arab allies, according to four sources familiar with the decision, in a blow to the Trump administration’s strategy to contain Iranian power. Egypt conveyed its decision to the United States and other participants in the proposed Middle East Security Alliance, or MESA, ahead …

Radiofarda — The bodies of the elderly woman and her 51-year-old son were found wrapped in blankets, decomposing in their home in southern Tehran. They had been stabbed to death, their corpses entombed in a closet sealed off with a makeshift wall, Iranian authorities say. The grisly discovery in the fall of 2012 ended the search for the pair. But …

CHRI – Supporters Barred from Court Room Iranian university student Mojtaba Dadashi, 23, has been sentenced to three years in prison and 74 lashes for sharing a video on social media criticizing the Islamic Republic as “un-Islamic,” the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned.  “This young man was condemned on three charges in a closed trial just …

CHRI – Four staff members of Gam news, an independent Persian-language news channel on the Telegram messaging app, remain in detention three months after being arrested in connection with the channel’s coverage of workers’ rights protests in the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan.  Correspondent Ali (Amir) Amirgholi, who was arrested on January 16, 2019, remains in detention in Ahvaz Central Prison, in …

Al-Monitor – Hours before the United States designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on April 9, worries about renewed economic pressure sparked a fresh plunge in the value of Iran’s national currency. In a matter of 24 hours, the rial lost around 7.5% of its value. Hovering near 145,000 rials against the greenback, worries were fueled of yet another …