RFL/RE – Iran’s top security body has said the cause of an incident at one of the country’s nuclear facilities has been determined, but it declined to release details, citing security reasons. A building at the Natanz uranium-enrichment plant was damaged in what appeared to be an explosion or fire in the early hours of July 2, fueling speculation of …

VOA – Iran will retaliate against any country that carries out cyberattacks on its nuclear sites, the head of civilian defense said, after a fire at its Natanz plant that some Iranian officials said may have been caused by cyber sabotage. The Natanz uranium-enrichment site, much of which is underground, is one of several Iranian facilities monitored by inspectors of …

CHRI – UN human rights experts have strongly condemned the Iranian judiciary’s secret execution of 27-year-old Kurdish-Iranian political prisoner Hedayatollah (Hedayat) Abdollahpour, who was on death row based on false charges since 2018. Following is the UN’s press release. UN human rights experts today expressed outrage at reports of Iran’s secret execution of Hedayat Abdollahpour, a member of the Kurdish minority in the country. The execution reportedly took place on …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – In a speech prior to the Friday prayer sermons, Isfahan’s Chief Justice announced eight protestors arrested in the city had been convicted of “corruption on earth”. Iran Human Rights calls for an immediate response from the international community to the intensification of suppression and death penalty for protesters in Iran. Mahmoud Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the …

Shabtabnews – In a statement IOPHR called “on all international organisations to condemn all death sentences issued by the Iranian regime, especially for journalists, and to use all available means to put pressure on Iranian authorities to overturn this type of inhuman sentence.”  The IOPHR invited all journalists, news presenters, and staff of Persian-language satellite TV stations abroad to unanimously …

Radiofarda – A mysterious explosion and fire in one of Iran’s nuclear facilities has opened the flood gates to speculations and analysis as to whether it was an accident, sabotage or foreign attack. A spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) announced on Thursday, July 2, that an “accident” had occurred at the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility in …

Radiofarda – Burglars have “cleaned out” the Museum of Anthropology of old Tehran without leaving traces, the state-run Iran Students News Agency, ISNA, reports. The museum is in a mansion called Sara-ye Kazemi in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Tehran. The burglary took place three weeks ago and it is not clear why law enforcement and media did not …

Radiofarda – A mysterious group calling itself “Homeland Panthers” on Thursday claimed responsibility for the explosion at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility hours before its announcement by sending emails to a number of BBC Persian journalists. According to the website of BBC Persian, in the emails which were sent to the BBC journalists hours before any news of the incident had …

Radiofarda – The rate of exchange for the U.S. dollar has risen 2,700 times during the past 41 years since the start of clerical rule in Iran under the Islamic Republic system. During the past two weeks the rate has been nearing 210,000 rials per dollar due to an extremely sharp devaluation of Iran’s national currency. The decline has been …

Iran-HRM – The wife of an Iranian political avtivist who has been imprisoned since last year said that her sick husband has been denied furlough, regular phone calls and medical treatment despite the Coronavirus outbreak in Vakilbad Prison in Mashhad. In a post on her Facebook page on June 29, Sedigheh Maliki-Fard said that for more than 325 days, her …