Radiofarda – The commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, appears to be using a financial conglomerate in Iran to fund his activities in Iraq, establishing and extending Iran’s long reach in the region. Soleimani, who leads a ring of IRGC commanders and strongmen from his hometown province of Kerman, has appointed a new chief at the Headquarters for Reconstruction …

Radiofarda – Azerbaijan rescued all nine crew members of an Iranian cargo vessel on Friday before it sunk in the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan’s state maritime agency said. Iran said the ship was owned by private sector, without giving details about the owner of the vessel. “The ship was carrying tiles … all members of the crew, seven Iranians and two …

Radiofarda – Lebanon’s heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah group on Friday denied using Beirut’s sea port to import arms in response to an accusation by Israel’s United Nations envoy this week. “I completely deny the claim of the Israeli representative in the Security Council that Hezbollah uses the Beirut port to transfer weapons or weapon components into Lebanon,” Hezbollah leader Sayyed …

Radiofarda – Denmark said on Friday it welcomed a British government proposal for a European-led naval mission to ensure safe shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and would consider a military maritime contribution. Britain has sought to assemble the mission in Hormuz, used by tankers carrying about a fifth of the world’s oil, following Iran’s seizure of a British-flagged ship …

Radiofarda – Iran did not allow foreign participants and guests to attend an electronic music festival, according to the official in charge of organizing the event in late July. Speaking to the state-run Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA), Mehdi Jalali said, “For the first time, our prominent foreign guests, including Joachim Heintz (German composer), Dimitri Papageorgiou (Greek composer), Ulrike Brand …

Radiofarda – Iranians are disappointed with their search for employment, the parliament’s Majlis Research Center (MRC) announced on July 24 in response to latest report by the Iranian Statistical Center (SCI). Earlier, MRC had declared a significant drop in the unemployment rate in the first quarter of the Iranian calendar year (beginning March 21). In Iran, the unemployment rate measures …

Radiofarda – Before Nazilla Akbari can check out the latest offerings on Twitter or YouTube, she scrolls through an array of icons on her smartphone, searching for the right workaround to bypass state censors. It’s a cat-and-mouse game that has become second nature in Iran, where the clerically-led government restricts access to popular social media sites and where U.S. sanctions …

Al-Monitor – Two tankers stranded in two straits almost 4,000 miles apart are threatening to sink the already-adrift relationship between Britain and Iran. When it comes to Iran, Britain is the old fox who’s always desperate to exploit Persia.  Britain’s decision to back authorities in Gibraltar as they seized control July 4 of Iranian oil supertanker Grace 1 was seen in Tehran …

RFL/RE – Iranian security forces have prevented devotees of fans of late poet Ahmad Shamlou, who pushed for greater freedoms and had some of his work banned under successive governments, from marking the 18th anniversary of his death. Iranian poet Ahmad Shamlou (1925-2000)(artwork by Bozorgmehr Hosseinpur) Eyewitnesses told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that dozens of supporters of Shamlou attempted to hold a …

PayvandNews – Iran’s Visual Arts Office director Hadi Mozaffari said on Monday that the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance is considering taking legal action against the writers of “Iran Modern: The Empress of Art” published in New York last September. Iran Modern: The Empress of Art “Iran Modern: The Empress of Art” uncovers the last journey of Iran’s former …