RFL/RE – U.S. prosecutors have filed a lawsuit to seize the gasoline aboard four tankers that Iran is currently shipping to Venezuela, the latest attempt to increase pressure on the two sanctioned anti-American allies. The civil-forfeiture complaint filed in the District of Columbia federal court late on July 1 claims the sale was arranged by an Iranian businessman with ties …

RFL/RE – Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde says Iran has agreed that it will compensate the families of foreign victims who died when a Ukrainian airliner was shot down after taking off from Tehran’s main airport in January, killing all 176 people on board. “We have signed an agreement of mutual understanding that we will now negotiate with Iran about …

RFL/RE – Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei assured a doctoral student in a 2016 meeting that there was nothing wrong with criticizing the country’s top official. “Speaking against me is neither [reprimandable] nor is it a crime, I’ve said it many times,” Khamenei said at the July 2, 2016, meeting with a group of handpicked students, including Mohammad Ali …

VOA – New details of an Iranian nuclear facility damaged in a mysterious fire suggest Thursday’s incident is a much greater setback to Iran’s nuclear ambitions than Tehran has publicly admitted. The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security identified the facility as a centrifuge assembly workshop at the Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant in central Iran’s Isfahan province. In a …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Imprisoned human rights activist, Atena Daemi, has been sentenced to a further two years in prison and 74 lashes for a fabricated new legal case against her. According to Iran Human Rights, Branch 24 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, headed by Judge Mohammadreza Amouzad, issued a new arbitrary conviction against Ms Daemi. She has been …

Radiofarda – I left Iran when I was seven, during the 1979 revolution. My first trip back was ten years later, full of the excitement of seeing family we had left behind, but also the trepidation of seeing the country and the life we had cherished cancelled out by the Islamist regime, and our family suffering. As an American teen …

Radiofarda – The chairman of Iran’s National Safe Society Association (NSSA) warned about inadequate safety measures in public buildings which led to the death of nineteen people in an explosion in a medical clinic in Tehran on Wednesday. The explosion at the clinic was caused by a gas leak and faulty electrical wiring in the basement of the building where …

Radiofarda – On day seventeen of the new round of strikes at Haft Tappeh agro-industrial complex on Wednesday, workers took to the streets in Shush and chanted slogans about poverty and hunger and against President Hassan Rouhani. Videos posted on social media show a large group of masked workers protesting and chanting “Unity, unity”, “Death to Rouhani”, “Workers will die …

Radiofarda – Iran’s influence in Iraq through proxy groups appears to be facing serious challenges as the new Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazemi is trying to control pro-Iranian Shiite militia groups, while some shift their loyalty from Iran to Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Until a few months ago, Iranian military officials including former and current Qods Force commanders Qassem Soleimani and Esmail …

Radiofarda – As coronavirus infections soar in Iran, there is talk of a lockdown in Mashhad, the country’s second city and a major destination for pilgrims this week. Only hours after Iranian news agencies on Wednesday quoted two officials in Mashhad as saying that the holy city will be locked down for a week due to the worsening pandemic, another …