Radiofarda – Protesters in Ahvaz in Khuzestan Province and some Ethnic Arab rights’ activists claim Iranian security and intelligence bodies are responsible for the death of Hassan Haydari, a popular poet and advocate of ethnic Arab rights who passed away in a hospital in Ahwaz on November 10. According to some reports that have not been confirmed by Iranian officials, …

Al-Arabia – At least four protesters were killed and more than 65 wounded on Thursday in clashes with Iraqi security forces who were trying to push them back to their main camp in central Baghdad, police and medical sources said.The protests erupted in early October over economic hardship and endemic graft. The government responded with some measures such as handouts …

Al-Arabia – Iraq will be deeply marked by weeks of demonstrations demanding sweeping reform, its top Shia cleric said on Friday in some of his strongest remarks yet on the protest movement. “If those in power think that they can evade the benefits of real reform by stalling and procrastination, they are delusional,” Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said in his …

RFL/RE – Iranian authorities have imposed rationing on gasoline purchases and have increased the price of fuel substantially as the economy continues to be hit by U.S. financial sanctions.The National Petroleum Products Distribution Company on November 14 said a 60-liter monthly limit of gasoline will be set on every private automobile and that prices will go up to about 12.7 …

RFL/RE – In the summer of 1988, thousands of political prisoners were secretly executed in Iran following a fatwa by the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. More than three decades later, for the first time, an Iranian national has been jailed for his suspected role in the estimated execution of at least 5,000 members of …

VOA – A former IAEA official says diplomats working with the U.N. nuclear agency do not believe Iran’s apparent explanation for the presence of manmade uranium particles at a site in southern Tehran. In a report published Monday, the IAEA said its inspectors monitoring Iranian compliance with commitments to curb potential weapons-related nuclear activities had “detected natural uranium particles of …

CHRI – A man claiming to be a reporter in a pseudo-documentary about Iran’s detained conservationists that was aired by the state-controlled Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) organization on national television has been recognized as an interrogator by one of his victims. Ramin Seyed-Emami—whose father Kavous Seyed-Emami, a sociologist and conservationist died under suspicious circumstances in Tehran’s Evin Prison in …

CHRI – Imprisoned civil rights activist Farhad Meysami was transferred from Evin Prison in Tehran to Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj (west of the capital) on November 9, 2019, as punishment for launching a peaceful protest, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. “After taking him away, Evin Prison officials gathered his personal belongings in Ward 4 and refused to answer …

Al-Monitor – In the past four decades, Iran’s intelligence organizations and the like-minded state broadcaster have aired many “confessions” by individuals detained over “security” charges. One outspoken lawmaker is now pushing legislation that could abolish the controversial practice. The proposed legislation on the “prohibition of recording and airing of detainee confessions from the state broadcaster” was officially taken up by the Iranian parliament …

Al-Monitor – China’s special envoy to the Middle East, Zhai Jun, visited Iran recently to discuss key developments in the region with high-ranking Iranian officials. During the Oct. 21 trip, Iranian leaders described relations with China as strategic and called on Beijing to play a more prominent role in the Middle East. They also highlighted the achievements of the so-called “Axis of Resistance” (Iran, …