Al-Arabia – Iran has appointed career diplomat and former nuclear negotiator Majid Takht Ravanchi as its envoy to the United Nations, state media said, as it tries to salvage a nuclear deal with world powers despite Washington’s unilateral withdrawal. Takht Ravanchi, 61, was Iranian deputy foreign minister for European and American affairs. He has also served as ambassador to Switzerland.His …

RFL/RE – The U.S. designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) marks the first time Washington has officially used that label on a foreign state institution. “It underscores the fact that Iran’s actions are fundamentally different from those of other governments,” U.S. President Donald Trump said in an April 8 statement. His secretary of …

CHRI – A woman suspected of murdering her husband was sentenced to death in Iran based solely on Qsameh, the state-run ISNA news agency reported Monday. Citing that the case has “procedural and substantive” defects, the woman’s attorney Abdulsamad Khorramshahi who was cited by ISNA said they have submitted an appeal and the case will be reviewed by the Supreme …

Iran-HRM – Imprisoned human rights activist Atena Daemi is being denied visitation, her family members said on Sunday April 7, 2019. When the family on Sunday went to the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran for their New Year’s visit, they were told that Atena was banned from any visit. Daemi has been behind bars in Iran since November 2016, serving a …

CHRI – Newly released from prison, civil rights activist Golrokh Iraee Ebrahimi may have to serve more time behind bars depending on the outcome of another case against her, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned.  Iraee, who had been serving a six-year prison sentence since October 2016 primarily for writing an unpublished story about stoning in Iran, …

IRNA- Three intense weeks have past since Iran has been hard hit by flash floods that have taken the lives of dozens of people and left a huge trail of destruction behind. International aid supplies have been sent from several countries but no cash donation has been received due to the US sanctions. Residents departing Atish village in Khuzestan province …

PayvandNews – At least a total number of 77 schools were destroyed due to devastating floods in various provinces across Iran, a non-governmental organization said on Monday. Out of the 77 destroyed schools, 55 were in Lorestan Province in central west of Iran and 22 were in Golestan north of the country, according to Mehr Giti that has conducted an …

Radiofarda – The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) is one of the oldest institutions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, yet, it is less than 40 years old, and there is still no consensus on how it was formed and who were its real founders. The IRGC, which is tasked with “defending the Islamic revolution” as opposed to the conventional …

The governor of the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, southwest Iran, says a major dam on the Karkhe river is completely full, and local residents in several cities and villages have been ordered to evacuate their homes. Furthermore, according to Gholamreza Shariati, the volume of water in Iran’s biggest and only navigable river, Karoon, is increasing at an alarming rate of …

Iran-HRM – Iran’s security forces arrested two residents of a village in the southwestern province of Khuzestan for providing aid to the flood survivors. The two, who were taken to an unknown location, have been identified as Ahmad and Yaghoub Ka’bi, residents of Guorieh Village. Ahmad Ka’bi and Yaghoub Ka’bi were working with an aid group in flood stricken areas. …