Radiofarda – The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, Hossein Salami, says the United States is “incapable of controlling the coronavirus [pandemic] and is in the worst economic situation”, while “our great leader shined in dealing” with the virus. This is the first time a major military figure in Iran is vocally singling out Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei …

Radiofarda – Speaking online to the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday, the U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook United States will continue working to re-instate the arms embargo on Iran and that the sanctions have produced “excellent results” so far. The sanctions have deprived the Iranian regime of billions of dollars, he said and reiterated that Iran is at the …

RFL/RE – Iran has told the United Nations aviation agency that it will send the black boxes from a downed Ukrainian passenger jet to Paris for analysis after it secures agreements with countries involved in the investigation, Reuters reported.Iran has refused to hand over the flight recorders from the Ukraine International Airlines flight, which was shot down on January 8 …

RFL/RE – Iran has told the United Nations aviation agency that it will send the black boxes from a downed Ukrainian passenger jet to Paris for analysis after it secures agreements with countries involved in the investigation, Reuters reported. Iran has refused to hand over the flight recorders from the Ukraine International Airlines flight, which was shot down on January …

VOA – A female Iranian dissident imprisoned since 2016 for a five-year term that was extended last September by two years now faces new charges that could keep her in prison even longer. Speaking to VOA Persian by phone from Tehran on Monday, the father of jailed rights activist Atena Daemi said she learned of the new case against her …

VOA – The January killing of powerful Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq has resulted in a new reality in which Iran is deterred from attacking American assets and those of its allies in the Middle East, said the top U.S. commander in the region. “I think [killing Soleimani] has had a significant effect in …

Shabtabnews- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday called out China, Iran, Nigeria and other nations for religious freedom violations. VOA Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more on the release of the State Department’s 2019 Report on International Religious Freedom. The very existence of the International Religious Freedom Report is evidence of our resolve to defend human dignity. No …

CHRI – Fears that the ethnic Kurdish Iranian political prisoner Zeinab Jalalian (also spelled Zeynab) could have contracted COVID-19 in Tehran Province’s Gharchak Prison have deeply worried her family, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. “Zeinab phoned her mother last week… and said she was not feeling well,” her father Ali Jalalian told CHRI on June 9, 2020. “She said …

Amnesty – Dual British-Iranian national and retired engineer, Anoosheh Ashoori, is serving a lengthy prison sentence after a grossly unfair trial that relied on torture-tainted “confessions” to convict him of “cooperating with a hostile state against the Islamic Republic” and obtaining “illicit funds”. He is being denied transfer to a dental facility outside prison for the specialized care he urgently …

gatestoneinstitute.org – “In 2017, after the Nineveh Plains were liberated from ISIS, Iran’s influence started its increase. They now have allied support from Shiite groups in Baghdad… The presence of the Shia Shabak is expanding, particularly in the town of Bartella. They are taking over houses and properties that Christians who fled from ISIS terror left behind.” — Athra Kado, …