VOA — Three of the eight countries to which Washington granted waivers to import Iranian oil have now cut their shipments from Iran to zero, a U.S. special representative said on Tuesday. While the United States has set a target of driving Iranian oil exports to zero, it granted temporary import waivers to China, India, Greece, Italy, Taiwan, Japan, Turkey …

CHRI – Iranians Ask Why Apps that Could Hasten Relief Remain Blocked State filters on social media apps have reduced the efficiency of relief operations in flood-hit regions of Iran, according to an official working for a state agency that publishes public awareness statements. “If filtering was not an obstacle, the rescue operations would have been more effective,” tweeted Alireza Moezi, the …

Al-Monitor – On the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution back in February, Ayatollah Ali Khameneiunderlined the necessity of leading an Islamic lifestyle in the Second Step of the Revolution, his most important public message in the past few months. It was one of several other instances of Khamenei raising this subject in the last few years. The hard-line preacher Alireza Panahian has asserted, “The revolution …

Al-Monitor – Political controversy has never ceased to surround the artistic career of Iranian rapper Amir Hossein Maghsoudlou, known by his fans as Amir Tataloo. On March 24, the 35-year-old rapper created a fresh backlash of furious reactions during his latest performance at a Tbilisi concert attended by hundreds of Iranians. Tataloo apparently smoked marijuana on stage and even encouraged his …

Radiofarda – Heavy rains on Monday completely overwhelmed several towns in the mountainous Lorestan province, where forced evacuations were ordered and people in many cases had to flee to nearby mountains to escape unending torrent of floods. The head of Iran’s Red Crescent Sarem Rezaee says Pol-e-Dokhtar, one of these towns, is still in super-crisis state and rescue workers are …

Radiofarda – On the fortieth anniversary of a referendum that led to the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran, a human rights organization has published the first volume of a series of books, titled “The Face of Crime.” A combo picture of some of the hundreds of victims of Iran’s mass executions on 1988. The first volume of the …

Radiofarda – Iranian Baha’i citizen and human rights activist, Jinous Sobhani, was briefly arrested, Iran Human rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) reported on March 31. Hours later, informed sources said she was released, but there are no details about her arrest or release. Jinous Sobhani, human rights activist and former secretary of Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Shirin Ebadi was arrested …

Al-Arabia – The risk of floods has forced the Iranian government to order the evacuation of 70 villages in the oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan on Tuesday, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.The villages were close to the Dez and Karkheh rivers, Shush county governor Adnan Qazi said, quoted by IRNA.At least 45 people were killed in the past …

RFL/RE – Washington is considering additional sanctions against Iran, a senior U.S. administration official has said. The United States intends to follow through with new sanctions around the first anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from a landmark international nuclear deal, the official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, said on April 1. President Donald Trump announced in May that …

An Iranian state-linked charity says more than 25,000 homes have been destroyed in flash floods across Iran amid what authorities said were the heaviest rains recorded in the past decade.At least 45 people have been killed since March 19, according to official figures, in floods that swept northern, central, and southern Iran and spread to western and southwestern parts of …