VOA – An Iranian writer who produced a Farsi translation of a book praising Syrian Kurdish militias has been sentenced in Iran to an effective five-year prison term after a trial on security charges denounced as unjust by the man’s lawyer and by Iranian and American free speech advocates. In a December 30 interview with VOA Persian from Tehran, lawyer …

VOA – Lebanese Sunni Muslims, Christians, and others are condemning recent remarks by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Air Force Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who claimed that Lebanon owed its missile capabilities to Iran and that Lebanon was in the front line in Iran’s fight against Israel.   Political leaders and citizens alike say the remarks raise questions about Lebanon’s …

newyorker.com – Joe Biden knows Iran better than any American President since its 1979 revolution. He has personally dealt with its top officials—a few of them for decades. “When I was Iran’s representative to the U.N., I had several meetings with Biden,” the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, acknowledged after the U.S. election, in an interview with Entekhab, a Tehran publication. …

RFL/RE – Iranian state television has acknowledged that Tehran seized a South Korean-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. The report on January 4 alleged that the MT Hankuk Chemi had been stopped by Iranian authorities over alleged “oil pollution” in the Persian Gulf and the strait. The semiofficial Fars news agency said the naval forces of Iran’s Islamic …

Radiofarda – Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei welcomes a group of artists and filmmakers while exchanging pleasantries and cracking a joke about reports a prominent filmmaker had received residency in Canada.“I hear you’ve been Canada-ized,” Khamenei says to the director in a documentary shown on state TV. He then pokes fun at another man who he says has been active …

Radiofarda – The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Nimitz will remain in the Gulf due to “recent threats” by Iran, the Pentagon said on January 3.Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Christopher Miller issued a statement saying he had ordered the Nimitz to “halt its routine redeployment,” citing the threats, which he said had been “issued by Iranian leaders against President Trump and …

VOA – Iran says it has begun enriching uranium to 20%, its latest step away from a 2015 international agreement that limited its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.  State media quoted government spokesman Ali Rabiei saying the higher enrichment had begun Monday at the Fordo facility, which is located inside of a mountain.  Previously, Iran had been enriching …

Iranwire.com – Every Saturday, the National Coronavirus Taskforce reports the level of coronavirus alert in Iranian cities. During the last week in December, no city in Iran was in a red state of alert, but this week the level of alert in four cities in the northern province of Mazandaran reverted to red, raising concerns that, at least in parts …

Iran-HRM – The death penalty and the execution of human beings under any pretext and for any reason is an inhuman punishment and a crime which the regime ruling Iran has legalized and justified over the years. With 255 executions in 2020, the Iranian regime continues to hold one of the world’s top records in the use of the death …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Elias Ghalandarzehi and Hassan Dehvari, two Baluch prisoners on death row, have been executed at Zahedan Central Prison. A third prisoner named Omid Mahmoudzehi, on death row for the charge of “moharebeh” (enmity against God), was also executed along with the men. According to state-run ISNA, three prisoners were executed at Zahedan Central Prison in …