Iranwire – Reza Mohammad Hosseini, a political prisoner in Rajaei Shahr prison, has said in an audio file sent exclusively to IranWire that the Iran-Iraq war veteran Abdul Rasoul Mortazavi had been transferred back to the prison’s quarantine ward. Mortazavi lost a limb during the war and prison authorities have reportedly moved him to the new location without his prosthetic …

Iranwire – As Iran entered a new year, Iranian authorities intensified their crackdown on the nation’s Baha’i people. Iranian citizens continue to face mounting problems, including economic crisis, political turmoil that is likely to increase as the presidential election draws closer, and nowhere enough coronavirus vaccines to protect its population just as the country is hit by a fourth wave. But instead of taking steps to tackle …

VOA – The Biden administration is considering a near wholesale rollback of some of the most stringent Trump-era sanctions imposed on Iran in a bid to get the Islamic Republic to return to compliance with a landmark 2015 nuclear accord, according to current and former U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter.  As indirect talks continue this week in …

axios.com – Israel and the U.S. want to fence their disagreements over the 2015 nuclear deal off from cooperation on other Iran-related issues, a senior Israeli official told me following talks on Tuesday in Washington between White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben Shabbat. Why it matters: The Israelis see a U.S. return to the …

Al-Monitor – Iran is nearing completion of a domestically produced vaccine for the coronavirus, according to state-affiliated media. A nationwide vaccine campaign for the public could still be several weeks away, however, as cases continue to rise despite lockdown measures. The COVIran Barekat vaccine entered its third trial phase on April 25. The current phase consists of a human trial involving more than …

Al-Monitor – Traditionally, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei uses his Nowruz speech to produce a slogan for the upcoming year.  In his March 20 speech he presented the following objective for the new Iranian year: “Support production and remove barriers to domestic production.” In line with this objective, the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade conducted a survey of industrialists to identify the …

RFL/RE – Iranian President Hassan Rohani has said that the leak of a recording of the country’s foreign minister making frank comments about the limits of his power sought to “create divisions” during talks aimed at reviving a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The Intelligence Ministry “must to do its best to find out how this tape was stolen,” Rohani said …

RFL/RE – Saudi Arabia’s crown prince struck a softer tone toward Iran in a television interview broadcast late on April 27 in which he also said that Saudi Arabia and the Biden administration agreed on most issues of mutual concern. “Iran is a neighboring country, and all we aspire for is a good and special relationship with Iran,” Saudi Crown …

Iranwire -Even by the standards of the eleventh parliament, Iran’s budget for 2021-22 is nothing short of a scandal: the first instance of its kind since the Islamic Revolution and indeed, since the Constitutionalist movement. There has been no record of individuals directly interfering in MPs’ approval of a budget law since 1907. There have also been no recorded cases …

Iranwire – For Iran, the talks in Vienna with the United States must have one key outcome: the lifting of sanctions. For the US, the main objective is a massive scaling down and curtailing of Iran’s nuclear program — an objective it shares with the five other countries that helped broker the nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2015. …