VOA – Iran has said it would block the Strait of Hormuz if it was barred from using the strategic waterway through which about a fifth of oil that is consumed globally passes. The threat from an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander followed a U.S. announcement Monday that it would end exemptions granted last year to eight buyers of …

Iran_HRM – Imprisoned university student Mojtaba Dadashi has started a hunger strike since April 23, in protest against the denial of urgently needed medical care, including for respiratory tract infection he has been suffering since last week. Mojtaba Dadashi was in the last semester of his undergraduate studies in political science at Hakim Sabzevari University in Sabzevar, Khorasan Razavi Province, …

Radiofarda – Saudi Arabia on Tuesday called for international pressure to be kept up on Tehran after a US decision to end sanction exemptions for Iran’s oil customers. The latest US move was a “necessary step” to hold Iran responsible for its “destabilizing policies and support for terrorism”, Saudi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf said in a statement carried by the …

Radiofarda – The leader of a “deviant” spiritual movement whose repeated death sentences drew international condemnation has been freed after almost eight years in prison, Iran’s Judiciary said Tuesday. Mohammad Ali Taheri faced “numerous cases and verdicts” but has been released due to time served, spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told the Judiciary’s official Mizan Online news agency. “The cases were recently …

Radiofarda – The European Union has reacted negatively to the latest U.S. move to increase pressure on Iran. The European Union on Tuesday criticized the U.S. decision to scrap exemptions allowing limited oil purchases by five friendly countries. Washington imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil exports in November but allowed some countries to continue buying some oil for six months, ending …

Al-Arabia – Iranian lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that labels all US military forces as terrorists, state TV reported, a day after Washington ratcheted up pressure on Tehran by announcing that no country would any longer be exempt from US sanctions if it continues to buy Iranian oil. The bill is a step further from the one last …

Al-Arabia – Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil has been accused of engaging in widespread acts of corruption, including receiving Iranian funds as payment for providing a “Christian cover” for Hezbollah. The charges leveled by former justice minister Ashraf Rifi, who was also the general director of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces from 2005 to 2013, are certain to inflame political …

VOA – Oil prices reached a six-month high Tuesday after the Trump administration announced it would no longer exempt countries from U.S. sanctions, if they continue to buy Iranian crude oil, a move aimed at imposing a complete oil embargo on Iran. Waivers granted to eight countries, including big Iranian crude importers China, India, Japan, Turkey and South Korea, are …

CHRI – Lawyers representing workers’ rights activists Esmail Bakhshi and Sepideh Qoliyan say the two are being held unlawfully now that their two-month detention orders have expired. “[Bakhshi’s] detention order ended on March 21 without an extension, which makes his detention a violation of Article 242 of the Criminal Procedures Regulations,” Bakhshi’s lawyer, Farzaneh Zilabi, told the Telegram app channel of the Haft Tappeh sugar mill …

CHRI – Some Internet Users in Iran Warned of Prosecution for Accessing Blacklisted Websites In 2019, Iranian media outlets began reporting on the sudden appearance of branch offices of a “Prosecutor General’s Cyber Division Rapid Reaction Center,” a new state agency that appears to be tasked with monitoring and censoring online content and activities. The center reportedly has offices in …