PayvandNews – All of Iran’s celebrations this year to mark Sadi Day on April 20 will be organized online due to the COVID-19 disaster.  Mausoleum of Persian poet Sheikh Muslih od-Din Sadi Shirazi, Shiraz.(photo by Amin Berenjkar, Tehran Times) The day marks the anniversary of the completion of the Gulistan (The Rose Garden), a major work of the classical Persian literature …

Radiofarda – Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman on Monday said despite President Donald Trump’s claims, Iran will not engage in any negotiations with the United States as long as economic pressures and sanctions continue. “They are probably figuring they can wait and maybe it will be Biden and they will own America if Biden gets in and they know with me …

Radiofarda – President Hassan Rouhani’s Chief of Staff Mahmoud Vaezi has joined voices with other members of the cabinet to slam Iran’s Supreme Audit Court (SAC) for a report last week that said $4.8 billion provided to importers disappeared. In a new response to SAC’s annual report, Vaezi lambasted the court for keeping mum about the financial activities of other …

An Iranian man calling himself an Islamic prophetic medicine healer has prescribed drinking camel urine to prevent and cure COVID-19. In a video now widely shared on social media Mehdi Sabili who is also the chairman of prophetic medicine society treats himself to camel urine and says it must be taken “fresh and warm”. There has been a strong reaction …

Radiofarda – Tehran City Council Chairman Mohsen Hashemi says the number of those infected with the new coronavirus in Iran is “much higher” than the official figures released by the government. He also called on the authorities to release the outbreak figures in Tehran separately, something the government has refused to do in the case of the two outbreak hotspots; …

Radiofarda – Half of the respondents to a poll by the Iranian Students Polling Agency (ISPA) have lost some of their income as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 50% of the respondents to the poll have said that their income has been affected. While 13.5% have lost their jobs, 41.7% say they had to shut down their …

Iran-HRM – Labor activist Shapour Ehsani Rad has been summoned to Branch 1 of Evin Prison’s Implementation of Verdicts to serve his sentence, the Free Trade Union of Workers in Iran reported. Shapour Ehsani Rad received an electronic mail on April 12, 2020, instructing him to turn himself in within five days to serve his prison sentence. The Revolutionary Court …

RFL/RE – Iran’s foreign minister has held talks with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad as both countries grapple with the coronavirus outbreak. The country’s official government news agency IRNA said Mohammad Javad Zarif met with Assad in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on April 20, but no further details were released. Photographs posted to the Iranian government’s Twitter account showed Zarif and …

RFL/RE – The global death toll from the coronavirus is more than 165,000 with more than 2.4 million infections confirmed, causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness. Here’s a roundup of COVID-19 developments in RFE/RL’s broadcast regions. Iran Iran has further loosened coronavirus restrictions, opening intercity highways and shopping malls …

RFL/RE – The lawyer of an Iranian-French academic being tried in Tehran on security charges says he expects the court in charge of the case to issue its ruling in the coming days. Fariba Adelkhah’s lawyer told AFP by telephone that Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court held a session in her trial on April 19 — the second since …