Al-Arabia – One person dies of COVID-19 every three minutes in Iran, state television said on Wednesday, as the health ministry reported a record daily toll of 415 fatalities. For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page. Parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf tweeted that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, the latest among dozens of officials to be infected. Non-essential businesses …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Swiss and German economic deals might be aiding Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program…. The Swiss firm Ceresola TLS reached an agreement [in 2010] with the Rahab Engineering Establishment in Iran to deliver tunneling technology as part of a subway project. This is precisely the type of heavy earth-moving equipment Iran’s rulers need to burrow away nuclear facilities underground, …

Radiofarda – Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has tested positive for coronavirus, he said in a tweet early Wednesday. “One of my office staff got infected with coronavirus, and I received my test result which was positive at midnight,” Ghalibaf wrote on Twitter. For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page. He added in the same tweet that …

Radiofarda – The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency said that Iran has begun construction of an underground centrifuge assembly plant near its nuclear facility at Natanz. International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi said in an October 28 interview in Berlin that the facility seems to be a replacement for one that exploded in July in what Tehran called a …

Radiofarda – In an open letter to world leaders and the United Nations Secretary-General, 74 Iranian political and civil activists wrote that the agreement between Iran and China “is a threat to world peace and stability.” Addressed to the leaders of the United States, India, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the UN secretary-general, the letter …

Radiofarda – The former Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Majlis parliament, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, says that Iranian government officials failing to “round up” protesters in November 2019 could have led the country toward unbridled chaos or a “velvet revolution.” In an interview published by the state-run Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA) on Monday, October 26, Bahonar expressed his satisfaction with …

Radiofarda – The trunk of a tree in Mashhad Mellat Park, on which a young artist had carved a portrait of the late legendary vocalist, Mohammad Reza Shajarian, has been cut down. A local journalist, Farzaneh Ebrahimzadeh, posted photos of the trunk on her Twitter account before and after being cut down. She tweeted, “the artist says he had created the piece …

VOA – Iran has imposed harsh sentences on 36 residents of a southwestern city who joined the nation’s last major wave of anti-government protests in November 2019, according to a knowledgeable source who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.    Speaking to VOA from Iran on Friday, the source said the 36 protesters from Behbahan in Khuzestan province were handed their sentences by …

Iran-HRM – The security forces’ direct and indiscriminate shootings over the past month has led to the death of six people including a 17-year-old child, and 11 being injured in various Iranian cities.Iranian security forces have a history of shooting and killing ordinary citizens. They carry out these attacks with impunity, especially against ethnic minorities such as Kurds and Baluchis. …

Iran-HRM – Reports from inside Iran indicate that a wave of arrests over the past month has increased the already large number of prisoners in Qezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. Iran Human Rights Monitor has received reports that some 2,000 detainees have been transferred to Qezel Hesar Prison over the last month. That is over 500 new admissions per week. …