Al-Arabia – Farhad Dabiryan, a commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed in Syria Friday night, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. Dabiryan was killed in Set Zaynab, 10 kilometers (six miles) south of the Syrian capital Damascus, Fars said. Fars did not give details on how or by whom he was killed. Dabiryan was “in charge …

VOA — The U.S. State Department has raised its alert level for Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan over steps taken by the countries in response to the global coronavirus crisis and the outbreak being seen in neighboring Iran. The alert levels announced on March 6 for both countries were raised to Level 3, one below the highest warning classification. A State Department …

RFL/RE – An Iranian lawmaker has died after being infected with the coronavirus, Iranian media reported on March 7. Iran is one of the countries outside China most affected by the spread of the disease. As of March 6, the country had reported 4,747 infections. The parliamentarian who died on March 6 was identified as Fatemeh Rahbar, a newly elected …

VOA – Iranian authorities warned Friday they may use “force” to limit travel between cities and announced the new coronavirus has killed 124 people amid 4,747 confirmed cases in the Islamic Republic. Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour offered the figures at a televised news conference. He did not elaborate on the threat to use force, though he acknowledged the virus …

HRW – Iran is currently battling one of the fastest growing outbreaks of the coronavirus outside China – 4,747 confirmed cases and 124 deaths to date. Despite the high toll, many Iranians remain skeptical their government is being fully transparent about the scale of crisis.  Over the past three months, authorities have severely damaged public trust by brutally repressing widespread protesters …

CHRI – Iranian authorities have excluded peaceful political prisoners from the mass prisoner release that was announced by Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi in late February 2020 to control the growing COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in the country, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. Political prisoners have been forced to remain in the country’s overcrowded jails even as inmates around them have been transferred out due …

Al-Monitor – The month of February came to a close with a watershed event: The United States formally signed an agreement with the Taliban, the Islamist militant group it has been fighting in Afghanistan since October 2001. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Feb. 29 with Taliban delegation leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Doha, Qatar, and announced the agreement, which Baradar and …

Radiofarda – Iran says the death toll from the new coronavirus has risen to 124 in the Islamic republic, including a former deputy foreign minister who reportedly died after being infected with the virus. Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpur said on March 6 that 17 people had died over the previous 24 hours, while more than 1,000 new cases were …

Radiofarda – Former Iranian ambassador to Syria and a hostage-taker of U.S. diplomats, Hossein Sheikholeslam, died Thursday from a Covid19 infection, local news outlets report. An advisor to the Islamic Republic Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, 68-year-old Sheikholeslam was one of the leaders of the so-called “Muslim Student Followers of Imam’s Line,” who took 52 U.S. diplomats hostage, on November …

Radiofarda – An influential member of Iran’s parliament has repeated the accusation that the coronavirus epidemic in China and Iran is “bio-terror attack”, one day after the commander of Revolutionary Guard made the same statement. Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, a conservative leading lawmaker who is a member of parliament’s influential National Security Commission who spoke with the semi-official ISNA news website on …