Reuters – At least a quarter of Iran’s oil rigs are out of action as U.S. sanctions strangle the Islamic Republic’s vital oil industry, according to a Reuters review of financial documents and industry sources, dealing a potentially long-term blow to its oil industry. By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin​ The lack of rig activity could damage the OPEC member’s capacity to produce …

Radiofarda – The number of Iranian patients infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) soared during the past day and reached 8,042, and the official death toll climbed to 291 by mid-day Tuesday March 10. The coroner in Iran has registered 54 new deaths as a result of the coronavirus infection during the past day, and the health ministry spokesman Kianush …

Al-Arabia -Five members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have died from coronavirus, IRGC spokesman Ramezan Sharif said on Wednesday. Visit our dedicated coronavirus site here for all the latest updates. The five IRGC members and a number of Basij members have been “martyred” in the “fight against coronavirus,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency cited Sharif as saying. The …

RFL/RE – The United States has called on Iran to “immediately release on humanitarian grounds” all U.S. citizens who are “wrongfully” detained in the country. “The United States will hold the Iranian regime directly responsible for any American deaths. Our response will be decisive,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on March 10. His remarks came amid news that …

CHRI -– Individuals detained in Iranian detention facilities are suffering from serious human rights violations and the situation of those arrested during the November 2019 protests is a subject of particular concern, said a UN expert in his latest report presented to the Human Rights Council. Javaid Rehman, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of …

Al-Monitor – Amid anxieties in Iran over the coronavirus outbreak and a flurry of precautions to prevent its spread, a controversial ayatollah has declared a new method to “cure” the virus: applying violet oil to the anus. Abbas Tabrizian, described by his supporters as “the father of Islamic medicine of Iran,” began focusing on “Islamic medicine” when his wife was diagnosed with …

Al-Monitor – As expected, conservatives (known as Principlists) won Iran’s parliamentary election Feb. 21 with about 85% of the vote. This election was a revival for conservatives after their defeat in previous parliamentary and presidential elections. More importantly, conservatives’ victory could be a prelude to a win in next year’s presidential election. If that happens, conservatives will control most political …

theguardian.com – After much intrigue, one of the earliest copies of the 14th-century author’s revered Divan, illuminated with gold, to be auctioned in April  Gold star … the Divan of Hafez copied by Shaykh Mahmud Pir Budaqi, dated 1462. Photograph: Sotheby’s A “magnificent” stolen manuscript by the revered 14th-century Persian poet Hafez, which was dramatically discovered earlier this year by …

indiewire.com – Cannes and the European Film Academy are among organizations protesting the Iranian filmmaker’s prison sentence. Mohammad Rasoulof Francois Mori/AP/Shutterstock Figureheads from the European film industry have gathered to protest the imminent incarceration of Iranian film director Mohammad Rasoulof, whose film “There Is No Evil” won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale, which he was unable to attend because …

Shabtabtab – Today the International Organisation to Preserve Human Rights (IOPHR) in a letter sent to Dr Javaid Rehman, (The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran) requested his assistance in freeing all political prisoners in Iran due to the rapid spread of coronavirus within Iranian prisons. In the letter IOPHR states …