Al-Arabia – Israel will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weaponry, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, reiterating a long-held Israeli position after Tehran announced it was scaling back some of its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal. “This morning, on my way here, I heard that Iran intends to pursue its nuclear program,” Netanyahu said in a speech …

Al-Arabia – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told his Russian counterpart on Wednesday that Tehran’s decision to reduce some voluntary commitments within its nuclear deal with world powers was legal, the RIA news agency reported. Zarif, in Moscow for talks, told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Iran’s actions did not violate the original terms of the nuclear agreement …

Iran-HRM – Iran secretly hanged four prisoners on drug related charges in Central Prison of Arak. The four prisoners executed on April 29 are identified as Seyed Hamidreza Hosseinkhani, 37, Majid Kazemi, 42, Mohammad Hemmati, 26, and Mohammad Davoudabadi, 26. On the same day, two 17-year-old boys in Iran were also executed on charges of rape and robbery, after a …

Iran-HRM – Iran Human Rights Monitor Monthly Report – April 2019 Introduction The issues of Iran human rights violation in April ranged from arbitrary killings and arrests, torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners, issuance of cruel sentences to violation of the rights of minorities, to violence against prisoners and stepping up pressure on political prisoners and executions, most horrible of which …

Iran-HRM – The sister of Kurdish political prisoner Ramin Hossein Panahi who was executed in September 2018, was summoned by the Intelligence Department of Sanandaj and interrogated on April 29, 2019. Parvaneh Hossein Panahi has been apparently summoned because she was trying to find out the place of burial of her brother. Agents of the Intelligence Department have threatened her …

Iran-HRM – Charity Worker Akram Nasirian was arrested by unidentified security agents in Tehran for unknown reasons, on April 29, 2019, according to the “Voice of Iranian Women” charity organization. Ms. Akram Nasirian, who prior to her arrest had worked in flood-impacted areas of the country, disappeared on Monday, April 29. Looking for her, her family was informed by Tehran’s …

RFL/RE – The United States has pledged to cut Iran’s oil exports to “zero,” denying Tehran a key source of revenue through tough sanctions and the threat of stiff penalties to potential buyers.But economists say that while the U.S. measures will hit Iranian oil sales, which account for 70 percent of the country’s revenues, they will not completely halt them.Iran …

VOA – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced Wednesday his country will suspend its compliance with prohibitions on stockpiles of enriched uranium and heavy water that were imposed as part of the 2015 international agreement on its nuclear program. With the withdrawal of the United States from the agreement and its imposition of economic sanctions against Iran, Rouhani said the remaining …

VOA — Europe would have to reimpose sanctions on Iran if Tehran reneged on parts of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, a French presidency source said on Tuesday. Iran’s state-run IRIB news agency reported on Monday that Tehran would restart part of its halted nuclear program in response to the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, but …

VOA — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has made an unscheduled visit to Iraq, amid growing tensions with Iran after intelligence reports indicated that Iran moved short-range ballistic missiles by boat in waters off its shores. The move, first reported by CNN, was one of several clues that Iran might be considering or preparing to attack U.S. forces in …