Radiofarda – Cultural Heritage Organization of Iran has finally come up with the money needed to pay the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) to free a historic castle, which is a national heritage site. The Falak ol-Aflak Castle or fort was built during the Sassanid period (224–651) on a hill, surrounded on two sides by a river, in Khorramabad in …

Radiofarda – The office of Iraq’s top Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Sistani has denied an AFP report that he has agreed with the chief commander of Iran’s Qods Force Qassem Soleimani, and influential Iraqi Shi’a politician Moqtada Sadr to support the embattled Iraqi prime minister. Adil Abdul Mahdi, 77, came to power last year through a shaky alliance between populist …

Radiofarda – Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on November 9 in Moscow that Iran will respond to the attack on one of its tankers off Saudi Arabia’s coast in October. Araqchi who was taking part in the Moscow Non-Proliferation Conference, said, “we have had a lot of attacks and incidents. The latest was the attack was a month ago …

Radiofarda – The Philippine government has granted asylum to an Iranian former beauty queen and critic of the Iranian regime after she was stranded for four weeks in an airport, the Guardian reported on Friday, October 8. Police detained Bahareh Zare’ Bahari, on October 17, in Manila airport when she returned from Dubai. The former beauty queen was the subject of an …

Radiofarda – Iraqi security forces killed at least five people on Saturday as they pushed protesters back towards their main camp in central Baghdad using live ammunition, tear gas and sound bombs, police and medics said. The clashes wounded scores more people and put security forces back in control of all except one major bridge linking the Iraqi capital’s eastern …

Iran-HRM – Civil rights activist Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee was re-arrested Saturday November 9, by 10 male security forces in her Tehran home. The former political prisoner is the wife of cancer-stricken political prisoner Arash Sadeghi and was campaigning for his release and much needed medical treatment on Twitter. On June 18, 2019, the Revolutionary Court of Tehran examined a new case filed against Golrokh Ebrahimi …

RFL/RE – The United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) has urged Iran to negotiate with world powers and its Persian Gulf neighbors in broader talks that include not only nuclear issues but also Tehran’s ballistic-missile program and its use of proxy groups abroad. The November 10 call, by a U.S. ally with longstanding territorial tensions with Iran, follows Tehran’s announcement last week …

VOA – Iran’s state TV is reporting that construction has begun on a second nuclear power reactor at its Bushehr plant amid heightened tensions over Tehran’s collapsing nuclear deal with world powers. Authorities began pouring concrete for the base of the reactor on Sunday in the presence of journalists in Bushehr, some 700 kilometers (440 miles) south from Iran’s capital, …

VOA – Iran has discovered a new oil field in the country’s south with over 50 billion barrels of crude oil, its president said Sunday, a find that could boost the country’s proven reserves by a third as it struggles to sell energy abroad over U.S. sanctions. The announcement by Hassan Rouhani comes as Iran faces crushing American sanctions after …

IHR – UN member states raised alarm today at violence and discrimination against women, juvenile executions, and child marriage among other violations of Iran’s human rights obligations and called on Iran to take decisive action to uphold its human rights obligations. The situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran was under review this morning in Geneva, as the …