VOA- An Iranian Kurdish husband and wife involved in local activism in western Iran have defied a court summons to face trial for alleged national security offenses for which they made forced confessions, according to a knowledgeable source.   In a November 2 interview with VOA Persian from Iran, the source said Sirous Abbasi and his wife, Farideh Veysi, boycotted the second session of their …

iranwire.com – Members of religious minority groups in the Islamic Republic of Iran have faced institutional repression and neglect ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Among them are not only adherents to non-Muslim faiths such as Christians, Jews and Baha’is, but also Sunni Muslims, many of whom fought alongside their compatriots to bring about the overthrow of the Shah and …

iranwire.com – Khamenei.com is a review of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s 31-year record as Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. Khamenei is one of the world’s most secretive and unknown leaders. Details on his personal life are scant and, except for his son Mojtaba, whose name has been in Iran’s news only in recent years, media outlets have seldom published any reports …

iranwire.com – With 10,463 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 485 fatalities in the 24-hour period spanning November 8 and November 9, Iran hit yet another record. As the surge of coronavirus continued seemingly relentlessly, a range of officials, especially in Tehran, have accused the government of lacking the will to take necessary actions to stem the tide of the pandemic. Some …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – A prisoner sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, has been executed at Mashhad Central Prison. According to the Khorasan newspaper website, the death sentence of a 60-year-old male prisoner was carried out on Saturday, 7 November 2020. His identity has not yet been established. The report states that the man had also been sentenced to …

Al-Monitor – Despite US President-elect Joe Biden’s team expressing interest in rejoining the Iran nuclear deal, Iranian officials are not eager to discuss the idea. During a press conference with Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, a reporter asked about the likelihood of reentering the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Zanganeh said that he had nothing to say about the topic and would not be commenting on …

(Reuters) – Iran’s health ministry reported on Monday a rise of 10,463 in the number of daily coronavirus cases, bringing total cases in the Middle East’s worst-affected country to 692,949. Ministry’s spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state TV that 458 people had died from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 38,749. Iran’s government has imposed …

Payvandnews –Iran’s statistics bureau says number of births in the country fell to nearly 1.2 million in the year ending March 2020. The number of births in Iran fell to one of its lowest in 8 years in year to March 2020 as data provided by the Statistical Center of Iran shows economic problems in the country have dented government efforts to …

Al-Arabia – The United States must “repent” and stop the “economic war” against Iran, an Iranian foreign ministry official said on Sunday, following Democrat Joe Biden’s win over incumbent President Donald Trump in the US presidential election. Iran has prepared a list of demands that Biden must “compensate” the Islamic Republic for, foreign ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told Iran’s Arabic-language …

Al-Arabia – The Trump administration will impose new sanctions on Iran every week during the ten weeks leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 20, Axios reported on Sunday, citing Israeli sources. The US State Department’s Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela Elliott Abrams is in Israel to discuss the sanctions plan, according to the Axios …