rferl.org – Turkey says it expects Moscow to put an end to the Syrian government forces’ attacks in the northwestern province of Idlib immediately. Speaking on February 6 in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey needs to work with Russia to resolve problems in Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has …

rferl.org – Canada has again urged Tehran to send the black boxes from the airliner Iranian forces shot down to France, where the data can be analyzed. Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne on February 5 said he called for a “thorough, credible, and transparent investigation” in a call with Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif. After initially denying it had anything …

rferl.org – At least eight Iraqi protesters have been killed in clashes after supporters of influential Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed an anti-government protest camp in the southern city of Najaf, medial officials and activists say. Medical officials said at least 52 others were injured in the unrest on February 5. The fighting marked the deadliest clash yet in the …

payvand – The first person suspected of having the coronavirus in Iran was identified and hospitalized in the city of Isfahan, IRIB reported. Arash Najimi, a spokesman with Isfahan University of Medical Science, said that a 29-year-old person with symptoms of coronavirus, including fever, cough, and shortness of breath, is now hospitalized and is under intensive care. “This person works …

radiofarda – Iranian President’s Chief-of-Staff Mahmoud Vaezi on Wednesday said the administration has been informed of the death toll of the November protests but the announcement has to be made by the Coroner’s Office and the Joint Staff of the Armed Forces. Speaking at the sideline of a cabinet meeting Vaezi said the administration has the information but is not …

radiofarda – Iran will support Palestinian armed groups as much as it can, Iran’s Supreme Leader said on Wednesday, urging Palestinians to confront a U.S. plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace. “We believe that Palestinian armed organizations will stand and continue resistance and the Islamic Republic sees supporting Palestinian groups as its duty,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech carried on …

radiofarda – A prominent human rights activist, Nargess Mohammadi has made an appeal to Iranian voters from prison to boycott parliamentary elections scheduled for February 21. Narges Mohammadi, 47, is currently serving a sixteen-year sentence for alleged “political crimes.” Ms. Mohammadi has been imprisoned several times, but her last arrest was in 2014 after a meeting with the European Union’s …

radiofarda – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is urging the Iranian authorities to drop the cases against the editors of three news outlets convicted of defamation and spreading false news. Tehran’s Media Court on February 2 found three editors in chief of the semiofficial ISNA news agency, the Bultannews news website, and the energy news website NeftEMA guilty of …

radiofarda – Iran’s Minister of Roads and Transportation on Tuesday questioned the relevance of a leaked air traffic control audio, which proves Iranian authorities knew a Ukrainian plane which crashed near Tehran on January 8 had been targeted by Revolutionary Guard missiles. Speaking to the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) on Tuesday, Mohammad Eslami said the leaked audio of the …

rferl.org – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says Iranian security forces have raided journalists’ homes in recent days in an attempt to intimidate critics ahead of next month’s parliament elections. Members of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) raided the Tehran homes of journalists Maziar Khosravi, Yasaman Khaleghian, Moloud Hajizadeh, and Yaghma Fakhshami, CPJ said in a statement …