Radiofarda – Critics say the ratification of a controversial motion by Iran’s hardliner-dominated parliament that obligates the government to distribute free asphalt (Bitumen) worth around $600 million to contractors will lead to massive corruption. On Wednesday, lawmakers approved the outlines of the motion despite much protest from critics. Free distribution of asphalt produced by refineries to contractors was included in …

Radiofarda – A member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Committee says the blast at Iran’s main nuclear establishment in Natanz on July 2 was caused by a “security breach”. A satellite image showing a building at Natanz enrichment facility before (R) and after a July 2, 2020 incident. Courtesy: Iran International TV The Persian word Javad Karimi Qoddousi has …

Radiofarda -Iran’s Parliament on Wednesday elected a controversial politician known as an associate of the former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the new head of its supervisory arm, the Supreme Court of Audit. Mehrdad Bazrpash who is a former Basij militia leader, lawmaker and vice president in the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected with 158 of the total 244 votes …

VOA- An Iranian rights activist has denounced an Iranian court’s upholding of his eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence as unfair due to what he said were multiple injustices in the case against him. “I object to the verdict and have done nothing wrong,” Arsham Rezaee told VOA Persian in a phone interview from his home in Tehran this week. Rezaee, a 28-year-old …

VOA – The Iranian deputy foreign minister said recently in Kabul that Afghans fought in Syria as part of the Fatemyon Brigade to make Afghanistan “more secure.” Afghans say that Iran deployed Afghans as a proxy force to fight in Syria for its own national interest.  VOA’s Sayed Hasib Maududi reports from Kabul. 

RFL/RE – A provocative street protest in southwestern Iran last week that was critical of the Islamic establishment has many predicting more demonstrations are coming amid the country’s faltering economy and anger over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.People in the city of Behbahan chanted anti-government slogans including “Mullah’s regime, we don’t want it!” before the July 16 protest was …

Iran-HRM – Abolfazl Karimi, a teenager arrested during the November 2019 protests, recently wrote a letter stating that he had been tortured during interrogation and threatened with the rape of his girlfriend. Aborfazl Karimi was born on November 27, 2001. He was a worker and the only breadwinner of his family. He was under 18 years of age at the …

Iran-HRM – An Appeals court in Fars Province, southwestern Iran, sentenced 12 followers of the Baha’i faith to a total of 33 years in prison. A court Shiraz, the capital of Fars Province, sentenced four Bahai’s on July 21 to a total of eight years in prison. The men and women have been identified as Farham and Shahnaz Sabet, Farzan …

Iran-HRM – According to a report received from the Women’s ward of Sepidar Prison, inmates held in overcrowded wards are at increasing risk of a health catastrophe as the Covid-19 pandemic sweeps through Iran’s jails. As the temperatures soar to 50C in the city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan Province, accounts by inmates provide a glimpse of conditions in this facility. …

Radiozamaneh – This paper is a critique of Vira Ameli’s essay titled “Sanctions and Sickness,” which was published in the March/April 2020 edition of the New Left Review. In her essay, Ameli employs selective evidence and makes inaccurate claims. Her piece is not only an unreserved defense of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), but a deceitful portrayal of the …