VOA – Iran has released 19 crew members and the captain of a South Korean tanker that was seized in the Persian Gulf last month, Iranian state TV announced Tuesday. The South Korean-flagged MT Hankuk Chemi, whose crew included sailors from Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea and Vietnam, has been in custody at the port city of Bandar Abbas, near the Strait …

VOA – Tehran said Monday that the impasse over the future of the Iran nuclear deal could be broken, suggesting that Europe help choreograph moves by Iran and the United States to return to the agreement. Henry Ridgwell looks at the future prospects for the 2015 accord.

Iran-HRM – At least 27 prisoners were executed in Iran in January 2021. The executed include four political prisoners, six drug offenders, 16 people convicted of murder and one accused of rape. At least 10 of those executed are Baluch citizens. This figure does not include prisoners who are secretly executed and whose identities cannot be registered due to the …

Iran-HRM – A Gonabadi Dervish, Abbas Dehghan, has received a prison sentence, in addition to flogging and payment of blood money. He is presently detained in the Greater Tehran Penitentiary (GTP). Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced Abbas Dehghan to five years in prison on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security.” Then, Branch 1146 of …

CHRI – As President Joe Biden sets the course for a new U.S. policy toward Iran, he would do well to put human rights at the center of the American agenda. Under former President Donald Trump, the United States occasionally voiced concern about Iranian human rights abuses, but such advocacy was widely seen as little more than a political bludgeon, …

Iran Human Rights – 36 human rights organizations including Iran Human Rights (IHR) call on the international community for urgent action to immediately release all the arrested Kurdish activists and stop the arbitrary arrests of minority activists in Iran. We, the undersigned 36 civil society and human rights organizations, call for the urgent attention of the international community to an …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – More than five prisoners, all of whom appear to have been sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for “premeditated murder,” have been transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for their executions in Rajai Shahr Prison. According to Iran Human Rights, on Monday, 1st February, more than five prisoners, all of whom appear to have been sentenced to qisas for “premeditated murder,” …

Al-Monitor – The US Navy’s Nimitz carrier strike force has left the Middle East after a nine-month deployment abroad that was extended to keep pressure on Iran, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby declined to tell reporters whether any specific event had influenced Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s decision to send the carrier home, nor whether the United States’ assessment of the …

(AP) — Iranian state TV on Monday aired the launch of the country’s newest satellite-carrying rocket, which it said was able to reach a height of 500 kilometers (310 miles). The footage of the solid-liquid-fueled rocket showed the launch taking place during daytime in a desert environment. The report did not say when or where the launch happened. The rocket, …

Al-Arabia – Iran’s parliament, dominated by hard-liners, rejected on Tuesday a budget bill proposed by the country’s relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani, state TV reported. For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app. The move is part of a political struggle between moderates and conservative hard-liners in Iran’s parliament ahead of June elections, which …