Radiofarda – A newspaper in Iran has reported that the higher gasoline price announced in November has paralyzed the country’s family fishing industry, affecting 60,000 fishermen. Iran, which is under immense financial pressures due to U.S. sanctions tripled state gasoline prices on November 15 to around 22 US cents a liter or 83 cents a gallon. Even though prices were …

Radiofarda – A young labor-rights activist’s tweet has once again triggered a heated debate over the role of the state-run TV reporters and anchors in producing forced confessions of dissidents in Iran. Iranian state TV IRIB reporters Ali Rezvani and Amena Sadat Zabihpour Reporters. File photo Labor rights defender, Ms. Sepideh Qolyan (Gholian), 24, revealed in a series of tweets …

Radiofarda – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that the United States and the European Union should either comply with the terms of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran, or recognize it as nonexistent.Lavrov made the comments on December 30 after meeting in Moscow with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who said that the European signatories to the …

Radiofarda – Iran police says it has disbanded a “monarchist propaganda network” with over 150 members and arrested 14 leaders of the group in Qom, the country’s religious capital. Qom is one of the most religious and conservative Iranian cities, a bastion of hardliners and the cradle of Iran’s theocracy. However, Qom was among more than one hundred Iranian cities …

Radiofarda – In another clear sign of the once all-powerful Larijani family losing influence in Iran, the country’s Judiciary announced that Mohammad-Javad Larijani has been removed as head of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights. Judiciary’s spokesperson announced Sunday, December 29 that Ali Baqeri Kani will replace the long-serving Larijani. Two other Larijani brothers headed both the legislature and the …

Radiofarda – As the amount of loans for marriage has doubled in Iran, the number of applicants planning to marry under-fifteen-year-old partners shows a ninety-fold increase, reports say. Speaking to the state-run Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA) on December 29, a member of parliament Tayebeh Siavoshi, said, “Since the amount of marriage loan has reached 600 million rials (roughly $5,000 …

Al-Arabia – The US military carried out air strikes in Iraq and Syria against the Kataib Hezbollah militia group in response to the killing of a US civilian contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base, US officials said on Sunday. Iraqi security and militia sources said at least 25 militia fighters were killed and at least 55 wounded …

VOA – U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Sunday said airstrikes against a pro-Iran militant group in Iraq and Syria succeeded, and he did not rule out additional action “as necessary.” “The strikes were successful. The pilots and aircraft returned back to base safely,” Esper told reporters after F-15 jet fighters hit five targets associated with Kata’ib Hezbollah in western …

HRANA – On December 25, 2019, Abdolreza Karimi, the head of the National Organization of Civil Registry of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province confirmed registering marriages of 48 girls under the age of 13 and a 16-year old boy in this province in the past nine months; 45 girls were 13 years old and three of them are 12 years old. …

Radiofarda – The police chief of western Tehran Province has said that eight people who played a major role in Iran’s mid-November anti-government protests in the townships near the capital have been arrested. The official police website quoted Mohsen Khancherli December 29 as calling the detainees “the main elements who created disturbances in public order”. He accused them of agitating …