RFL/RE – It began with social-media posts claiming the head of the Women’s Basij organization in Iran had announced that “women will soon be banned from eating ice cream in public places” and that “violators” will face stiff punishments.As the claim spread on Twitter and Telegram, some openly criticized the “nonsensical” crackdown attributed to Minou Aslani, leader of the women’s …

VOA — Iran has taken a British-flagged oil tanker it seized in the Strait of Hormuz to Bandar Abbas port, where it and its crew will remain while an investigation into the vessel’s conduct is carried out, Iran’s Fars news agency said Saturday. The Stena Impero was in an accident with an Iranian fishing boat whose distress call it ignored, the agency …

VOA — Iran is “nothing but trouble,” U.S. President Donald Trump said after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two British-owned oil tankers Friday in the Strait of Hormuz. “We heard it was one, we heard it was two. We’ll be working with the U.K.,” Trump said on the White House South Lawn in response to a question from VOA. …

Radiozamaneh – An Iranian journalist who was arrested during the May Day pro-labor protest in Tehran more than two months ago was rushed to the hospital from women’s ward of Evin prison while seizing with internal gastrointestinal issues. Photo: Social Media Marzieh Amiri was transferred to Taleghani Hospital from Evin Prison on 15 July, according to her sister Samira Amiri’s …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Civil activist and Kurdish language teacher Zahra Mohammadi, has been under arrest since May 23 without access to a lawyer. Zahra Mohammadi, 27, a member of Nojin Socio-Cultural Association, was arrested by security forces in her home in Sanandaj city on May 23, 2019. Almost two months after her arrest, Zahra is still detained in Sanandaj …

CHRI – Political prisoners Atena Daemi and Golrokh Iraee Ebrahimi have been told they must serve an additional 3.7 years in prison for the charges of “insulting the supreme leader” and “propaganda against the state,” Daemi’s mother informed the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on July 15, 2019. Masoumeh Nemati said the two women are being punished for writing open letters …

CHRI – The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have been denying Imprisoned Iranian-British citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe all contact with the outside world since she was transferred to the psychiatric ward of a hospital in Tehran on July 15, 2019. In an interview with the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on July 19, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s London-based husband, Richard Ratcliffe, said it was …

CHRI – After refusing to break his hunger strike, prisoner of conscience Hossein Sepanta was transferred to the Intelligence Ministry’s wing inside Adelabad Prison in Shiraz, Fars Province, on July 10, 2019, on orders of the facility’s director, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. “His cellmates have not heard from him since he was moved to …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Yet, while Iran shows no sign of scaling down its aggressive stance towards the US and its allies in the region, Europe continues to cling to the wreckage of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to give the nuclear deal its proper name, in the misguided belief that the deal remains the best means of preventing Iran …

Al-Monitor — Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) in New York July 18 to feel out prospects for possible discussions between Iran and the United States, a non-government expert in contact with the Iranian team told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. The Iranian mission to the UN did not respond to Al-Monitor queries on the meeting. …