Al-Monitor – Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif gave an absolute “no” to questions about whether he will run in the country’s next presidential election, slated to be held next June. In a Persian-language interview with Afghanistan’s Tolo News TV, Zarif appeared confident in his answer, noting that such a decision does not indicate that he has been fatigued by politics. …

RFL/RE – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says 21 journalists worldwide were singled out for murder in reprisal for their work in 2020, more than double the previous year’s figure of 10.Overall, at least 30 journalists were slain while on duty this year, the New York-based media freedom watchdog said in a report released on December 22.“It’s appalling that the murders …

Iranwire.com – We may yet remember 2020 as the year that apathy died. During the pandemic, billions of people have been compelled to live, breathe and engage, with a directness that for many was totally unprecedented, with the impact of political choices and top-down decisions made in the countries they call home. Crises such as this have a way of …

Iranwire.com – Yalda, the longest night in the northern hemisphere, when Iranians gather with friends and family to celebrate “the rebirth of the sun,” has now passed. Special restrictions and curfews were announced earlier to prevent the gatherings – which were bound to spread the virus – but many people and businesses ignored these restrictions. The consequences of so much mixing will …

Iranwire.com – BBC Persian journalists have told United Nations experts they continue to receive death threats from Iranian agents, and that a campaign of harassment and intimidation has increased over the last year. On December 18, lawyers for the BBC Persian journalists filed an Urgent Appeal with three UN experts detailing the death threats and other harassment, including the freezing of assets …

Iranwire.com – A politician has released details of a wide-ranging report on corruption among some of Iran’s well-known officials, just the latest in a long history of scandals. On Friday, December 18, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a former Iranian parliamentarian, published the full text of an investigation into the corrupt practices of Sarmayeh Bank carried out during the previous parliament, which ran …

VOA – The remaining signatories of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal Monday expressed “their readiness to positively address” the potential return of the United States to the agreement. President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the deal in 2018, arguing it unfairly favored Iran.    But President-elect Joe Biden, who was part of the U.S. administration that signed the deal, has said …

Iran-HRM – Soghra Khodadadi, the new warden of Qarchak Prison, has threatened to attack political prisoners in this prison, again. On Sunday, December 13, the anti-riot guards in Qarchak Prison accompanying Soghra Khodadadi raided political prisoners in Ward 8 of Qarchak Prison. They beat them up with stun guns and batons and abandoned them in the ward without any medical …

Iran-HRM – Political prisoners Mohammad Amirkhizi and Payam Shakiba were transferred from Evin Prison in Tehran to Rajaishahr Prison in Karaj on Saturday, December 19, 2020. The two prisoners had been abruptly moved from the political prisoners’ ward in Rajaishahr Prison to the Intelligence Ministry Ward 209 in Evin Prison in July 2020, along with political prisoner Majid Assadi. All …

Iran-HRM – After eight years of imprisonment and while his crime had not been proven in court, a Baluchi prisoner was executed in the Central Prison of Zahedan. On Sunday, December 20, 2020, a Baluchi prisoner by the name of Abdol-Basset Khesht was hanged in the Central Prison of Zahedan, capital of the southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan Province. Abdol-Basset, son …