Radiofarda – Ahead of his planned U.N. visit on Thursday to trigger the mechanism for re-introduction of all U.N. sanctions on Iran, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened Iran’s allies Russia and China with sanctions if they refuse to endorse the U.S. move. When on Wednesday asked by Fox News if the United States would target Russia and China …

Radiofarda – The head of a wealthy, state-sponsored charity in Iran has apologized Wednesday for his controversial and revealing remarks earlier naming officials who received real estate holdings by orders of the Supreme Leader. The revelations by Parviz Fattah, appointed by Khamenei as head of the Mostazafan (oppressed) Foundation led to widespread public outcry about the inherently corrupt practice of …

Radiofarda – The Islamic Republic’s Court of Appeals recently upheld the sentences of Rev. Victor Bet-Tamraz and his wife Shamiram Issavi. They were sentenced to ten and five years in prison respectively Article 18 a website covering news on minority rights in Iran. The couple was charged with “evangelical activity,” “acting against national security by launching and running house churches.” …

(AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday slapped sanctions on two aviation companies in the United Arab Emirates over their work for an Iranian airline already under U.S. sanctions. At the same time, federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against one of the companies for violations of U.S. export control regulations. The Treasury Department announced it is imposing penalties on the …

Radiofarda – Majles Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said this on Wednesday, August 19 following a constitutional warning issued by Jabbar Kouchaki Nejad, a lawmaker for Rasht in the Majles. Kouchaki Nejad had asked Qalibaf earlier during Wednesday’s session why President Rouhani had not acknowledged the receipt of a motion by the members of the parliament to question him. Qalibaf said …

RFL/RE -Thirty-seven-year-old Facebook engineer Behdad Esfahbod has made the same wintertime trip every year since 2015. Yet this past January, the 37-year-old programming whiz’s visit to Iran to see his family took a wildly different turn. Within days of his arrival, the Iranian-Canadian dual national and graduate of Tehran’s top Sharif University had been thrown in jail and was being …

RFL/RE – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will formally notify the UN Security Council on August 20 that the United States intends to begin the process of restoring UN sanctions on Iran. “The United States intends to restore virtually all of the previously suspended United Nations sanctions on Iran,” President Donald Trump said late on August 19. “It’s a …

VOA – The U.S. Justice Department has charged three people in connection with what prosecutors say was a campaign to move U.S. currency from the United States to Iran on behalf of Iran’s supreme leader.  Muzzamil Zaidi, a U.S. citizen living in Qom, Iran; Asim Naqvi, a U.S. citizen living in Houston; and Pakistani national Ali Chawla, living in Qom, …

Iran-HRM – Infected labor activist Jafar Azimzadeh has started a hunger strike since Sunday August 16, after being transferred from Evin Prison to Gohardasht Prison (Rajai Shahr) in Karaj instead of a hospital. Mr. Azimzadeh contracted the corona virus while in Evin Prison. After a clinic doctor diagnosed that he was an emergency case, prison authorities transferred him out of …

Iran-HRM – Iranian authorities executed five people including a woman on Tuesday, August 18, 2020, in the Central Prison of Mashhad, known as Vakilabad Prison. Three of those executed are identified as Ardeshir Bahadori, Ali Gholami Aghuyi, and Marzieh Ebrahimipour. Their executions have not yet been announced by the state media at the time of publishing this news. All the …