Al-Monitor – In open defiance of the US “maximum pressure” policy, a second Iranian tanker has arrived in the Venezuelan port of El Palito. The tanker Forest was second in a flotilla of five, carrying a total of 1.5 million barrels of gasoline and other petrochemical products to the Latin American nation grappling with hyperinflation. The United States had earlier announced it was considering …

PayvandNews – The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has infected 1,787 people and claimed 57 lives in Iran in the past 24 hours, a senior health official said. See full Iran’s coronavirus stats on IRNA’s website Iran’s Health Ministry Spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour made the announcement on Tuesday, saying that the number of total coronavirus cases in the country has so far reached 139,511 with …

Radiofarda – In a voice recording sent from Qarchak prison on Monday Soheila Hejab, a political and civil rights activist, has said that agents of the Revolutionary Guard brutalized and arrested her after attending an appeals court hearing on Saturday. In her message, the activist says her assailants held her by her hair, dragged her on the ground and kicked …

Radiofarda – Iranian news agencies on Monday reported that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative in Khuzestan has visited the families of those injured with plastic bullets on May 23 during protests for lack of drinking water. In a video published by Fars News Agency, Seyed Abdolnabi Mousavifard, Khamenei’s representative in the oil-rich province, is seen at the home of a …

Radiofarda – France’s foreign minister has condemned Iran’s decision to sentence a French-Iranian academic to prison and said relations with Tehran have become more difficult after its politically motivated decision. Fariba Adelkhah was arrested a year ago and charged with “propaganda against the system” and “colluding to commit acts against national security”; common accusations against dual-nationals Iran arrests as bargaining …

Radiofarda – A clash between protesters demanding drinking water and security forces in southwestern Iran has turned into the hottest issue on Iranian social media. On Saturday May 23, security forces fired tear gas and “plastic bullets” into a crowd of residents in Gheizaniyeh in Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province who were protesting lack of drinking water. According to the web …

Radiofarda – The Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) announced on Monday that two banks owned by the country’s armed forces will be merged into Sepah Bank in the next ten days. According to Abdul Nasser Hemmati, Mehr Eghtesad Bank and Hekmat Iranian Bank will be merged into Sepah Bank, and three other armed forces banks will gradually …

Radiofarda – Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh on Monday blamed Turkey for not showing interest in repairing a gas pipeline near the Iranian border blown up by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in March. “Iran offered to help repair the pipeline but the other side did not welcome it,” Zanganeh said while maintaining that the repair work would not …

Radiofarda – Some Iranians including those who follow Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s religious edicts marked the end of the fasting month with group prayers on Sunday, despite the coronavirus pandemic, while others who follow the edicts of other religious leaders hold Monday as the day of Eid al-Fitr. The beginning and the end of the lunar month of Ramadhan, the …

Iran-HRM – Military forces stationed in the border regions of Urmia shot three porters on Sunday, May 24. As a result of security forces’ direct shooting, two of the porters got wounded and one was killed in Sumabradoust region near Koran village. The three porters were Arsalan, Touran and Roudan Ahmadi. Arsalan Ahmadi was killed and the other two were …