Radiofarda – A joint American-Israeli delegation was set to fly to Bahrain Sunday on the first direct Israeli commercial flight to the Gulf Arab state, where they’ll be signing a number of bilateral agreements following an announcement last month to normalize relations. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, are leading the …

Radiofarda – Iraqi military intelligence officials announced on Thursday that they confiscated 19 trucks loaded with hundreds of thousands of medicines smuggled from the country’s western neighbor, Iran. Describing it as “the largest drug smuggling operation from Iran,” Iraqi media say the trucks were avoiding main roads in Iraq’s Diyala province to evade customs. Iraqi authorities have not yet announced …

RFL/RE – The Iranian Foreign Ministry says a UN embargo on conventional arms sales to Iran was lifted on October 18 under the terms of the 2015 landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.The ministry announced that the ban had been lifted in a statement, saying “all restrictions on the transfer of arms, related activities, and financial services to …

VOA – Iran said it was self-reliant in its defense and had no need to go on a weapons-buying spree as a United Nations conventional arms embargo was set to expire Sunday despite strong U.S. opposition. “Iran’s defense doctrine is premised on strong reliance on its people and indigenous capabilities. … Unconventional arms, weapons of mass destruction and a buying …

Iran-HRM – Reports from Iran’s Sheyban Prison indicate that the condition of political prisoners is alarming. This is while that the number of inmates contracting Covid-19 in the prison has jumped up in recent months due to the increase in the number of prisoners in this facility.Prisoners’ access to food is extremely difficult, and the prison store, which is the only food …

Al-Arabia – Iran has announced that its death toll from the coronavirus has passed the milestone of 30,000 killed.Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.The announcement Saturday by Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari saw Iran put its total death toll from the outbreak at 30,123 killed, with a total of 526,490 confirmed cases. Iran has been struggling with …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Elliott Abrams, the U.S. Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela, pointed out during a hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “The U.S. is committed to holding accountable those who deny freedom and justice to people of Iran and later today the United States will announce sanctions on several Iranian officials and entities including the judge who …

Al-Arabia – The UN arms embargo on Iran is set to expire Sunday despite US efforts to extend it, giving the regime the freedom to purchase military equipment. This will compound the danger its current missile program already poses in the Middle East. The embargo is due to expire on October 18, as agreed under the 2015 nuclear deal among …

Radiofarda – In his annual report, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described “repeated and serious violations” of human rights in Iran as a “grave concern.” The report published on Wednesday was prepared for submission to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) two months ago. Guterres’s report, which covers the period from September 2018 to the summer of 2020, underlines “repeated serious violations” …

VOA- Two female Iranian dissidents have responded defiantly to being summoned to start prison terms in Iran, saying they have no regrets for signing the 2019 letter that called for the nation’s Islamist ruler to quit and triggered their arrest. In exclusive Thursday interviews with VOA Persian from Iran, Shahla Entesari and Shahla Jahanbin said they had received phone calls …