RFL/RE – The U.S. special envoy for Iran has welcomed a resolution passed on June 19 by the board of governors of the United Nations’ atomic agency that urges Iran to provide access to two sites where nuclear activity may have occurred in the past.Brian Hook said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board’s resolution “is significant and it raises …

Iran-HRM – A 34-year-old prisoner in Saqqez, in Iran’s Kurdistan province was tortured to death in the city’s prison, a human rights group said.According to the report by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, prison agents forced his father to write off the cause of death as COVID-19 even though he had tested negative for the virus upon entering the …

VOA – Iran has withheld confirmation of its apparent recent execution of a Kurdish activist, in the latest example of its long-running practice of secretly executing ethnic minority dissidents. Kurdish activist Hedayat Abdollahpour’s brother Farhad told VOA Persian that their father received a call on June 10 from an official who asserted that Hedayat was executed on or around May …

VOA – Fugitive former Iranian judge Gholamreza Mansouri was found dead in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, in suspicious circumstances. Police initially told RFE/RL’s correspondent in Bucharest that the man fell from the sixth-floor window of the hotel onto the sidewalk, but later in the evening authorities said Mansouri’s body was found inside the hotel near the lobby. The correspondent said the hotel is …

VOA – The United Nations nuclear agency said it passed a resolution Friday urging Iran to allow inspectors access to two sites where undeclared nuclear material was believed to have been used or stored. The resolution was adopted at an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting at the United Nations.  Iran has not allowed access to the sites for months, leading …

Al-Monitor – On the surface, momentum seems to be building toward a further prisoner exchange between Iran and the United States. After two detainee swaps in the past six months, both sides have expressed a desire for more. The Donald Trump administration has made winning the release of US citizens a priority, and the Hassan Rouhani administration called for its own citizens to be …

Al-Monitor – Iraq summoned the ambassadors from Iran and Turkey on Thursday due to their ongoing military actions against Kurdish groups in the country. Iraq demanded in a statement Turkey stop its military actions against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Iraq. Iraq also sent a statement to Iran protesting its attacks on Kurdish groups within Iraq, saying the recent shelling damaged property, according …

Shabtabnews – USCIRF Urges the Administration to Immediately Enforce the Uyghur Human Rights Policy ActWashington, DC – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released the following statement urging the Administration to immediately enforce the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, which was signed by President Donald Trump yesterday:“Along with Congress, the official communication and policy of this administration has been …

Radiofarda – The Republic of Azerbaijan border guard force says its forces have clashed with three armed men who had illegally entered the country from Iran. According to Azerbaijani sources, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s border guard informed Baku on Wednesday evening, June 17, that three persons had crossed a border river and entered Azerbaijan. Border guards in Azerbaijan tracked …

Radiofarda – Iran’s currency the rial has again fallen to record lows against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, June 18, with each dollar trading at 188,200 rials or 20 percent higher than just a few weeks ago. Until Sunday the dollar was below 180,000 rials but it rose throughout the trading week in Iran in the open market among citizens …