Iranwire – President Hassan Rouhani has announced that if the United States returns to the nuclear deal, Iran will reinstate its adherence to the terms of the agreement, taking its lead from the US. If the US returns, he said, either with immediate effect or gradually, the Islamic Republic will use the same timetable to re-instate its own commitments. If the …

VOA – Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded “action, not words” from the United States if it wants to revive Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, challenging new U.S. President Joe Biden to take the first step toward a thaw. Iran has set a deadline of next week for Biden to begin reversing sanctions imposed by his predecessor, Donald …

Iran-HRM – Iranian security forces shot and killed a 19-year-old Baluch man in an impoverished province in southeastern Iran bringing the total number of fatal shootings by regime forces to at least seven in February. The young Baluch man, Mohammad Sanjarzehi, was shot and killed by security forces on February 15. He was carrying a 60L gas can when security …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Seven prisoners, including one woman, have been executed in Rajai Shahr Prison. All prisoners appear to have been sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. According to Iran Human Rights, six men and one woman were executed at Rajai Shahr Prison in the early hours of this morning. The six male prisoners were transferred to solitary confinement in …

BBC – Golnoush Khaleghi, first Persian woman conductor and daughter of legendary composer Rouhollah Khaleghi, passed away on February 14. She was 80. Golnoush Khaleghi in Tehran, 1975 Golnoush Khaleghi was the conductor of the NIRT (National Iranian Radio & Television) Choir in the 1970s. Shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution Ms. Khaleghi moved to the United States and founded the …

Iranwire – Behnam Mahjoubi, a Gonabadi dervish being held in Evin Prison, has died in Tehran’s Loghman Hospital after eight months of imprisonment and torture. The hospital’s medical staff announced his death at 2pm on Tuesday, February 16. But security forces are understood to have ordered them to keep him attached to a respirator. Behnam Mahjoubi had a diagnosed panic …

Al-Arabia – France said it will host talks Thursday between the top diplomats of European powers and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken focused on Iran, as they try to salvage a 2015 deal on Tehran’s nuclear program. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will meet his counterparts Heiko Maas of Germany and Dominic Raab of Britain in Paris, with …

RFL/RE – Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Iran wants to see “action not words” from the signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal, after the new U.S. administration said it could return to the pact that was abandoned by former President Donald Trump. “We have heard many nice words and promises which in practice have been broken and opposite actions …

RFL/RE – Bulgarian authorities say they have confiscated more than 400 kilograms of heroin from a ship traveling from Dubai that was transporting construction materials from Iran.Prosecutor Vladimir Chavdarov said on February 16 that the drugs were divided into 487 packages and hidden among asphalt rollers, which the ship was carrying.Customs officials in the Black Sea port of Varna valued …

Iranwire – A special court in Iran’s Mazandaran province, and subsequently an appeals court, have ruled that the recent confiscations of 27 homes owned by Baha’is in the village of Ivel by the Imam Khomeini’s Directive, a foundation under the control of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, were legal. The confiscations are the latest incident in years of persecution faced by …