Iranwire – British-Iranian hostage Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been sentenced to another year in prison and a one-year travel ban by an Iranian court. The charity worker’s initial five-year prison term on trumped-up espionage charges ended in March 2021. But the Iranian regime had also charged her with “propaganda against the regime” in November 2017, for which she has now been found …

Iranwire – In an explosive leaked audio recording from an as-yet unpublished interview, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has identified a problem that other officials of the Islamic Republic first highlighted some 30 years ago. The discussion, in which Zarif criticized the unaccountable role of the IRGC’s Quds Force in the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic, was recorded …

Iranwire – A student at the University of Isfahan’s Khansar School of Mathematics and Computer Science has been expelled for being a Baha’i. Sina Shakib first discovered he had been kicked out on April 19 after trying to log into the school’s intranet to take part in an online class. According to HRANA news agency, he then contacted the university’s …

Iranwire – Nurses, retirees and pensioners have taken part in mass rallies in several cities in Iran in protest against their low payments and salaries. Demonstrations by state pension recipients took place over the weekend in Ardabil, Arak, Tehran, Isfahan, Karaj, Qazvin, Boroujerd, Kermanshah, and Shoush. According to national organization the Retirees’ Union Group, the group’s main demand is a …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Under the terms of the Doha deal former US President Donald Trump negotiated with the Taliban in the Gulf state of Qatar last February, the withdrawal of US forces was contingent on the Taliban renouncing violence, as well as ending its long-standing support for Islamist terror groups like al-Qaeda. [A]s a recent US Treasury report has concluded, the …

VOA – A recording of Iran’s foreign minister offering a blunt appraisal of diplomacy and the limits of power within the Islamic Republic has been leaked, providing a rare look inside the country’s theocracy.  The release of the comments by Mohammad Javad Zarif set off a firestorm within Iran, where officials carefully mind their words amid a cut-throat political environment …

Iran-HRM – The state security forces raided the homes of 13 Baha’i citizens today in the Baharestan city in central Iran’s Isfahan Province. Security forces arrested at least eight Baha’i citizens. They were identified as Sara Shakib, Firouzeh Rastinejad, Sanaz Rasteh, Azita Rezvani, Mojgan Pourshafi, Nasrin Khademi, Afshin Vajdani, and his wife Noushin Hemmat. They have been taken to an …

Iran-HRM – An appeal court in Iran has upheld prison and flogging sentences against two Azerbaijani Turkic activists. The Branch 10 of Ardabil Court of Appeal, has upheld a total of eight months in prison and 40 lashes against Meysam Jolani and Ali Khairjou. Their trial, presided over by Judge Sajjad Habibi, was initially held on December 1, 2020. They …

gatestoneinstitute.org – “The connection between the BRI and the strategic partnerships it creates in the region… allows it to gradually take over the region without creating tensions with the U.S. or the West. In other words, the BRI is a sophisticated Chinese plan to transfer hegemony from the West and the U.S. to China without war or conflict”. — Dr. …

gatestoneinstitute.org – It is precisely on Afghanistan that Biden has adopted Trump’s hare-brained scheme for total troop withdrawal in exchange for a vague promise by the Taliban, one of the larger terrorist groups, to tone down their deadly attacks. Interestingly, this is precisely the policy that Biden, as Obama’s vice president, opposed as “premature.” His [Biden’s] cheerleaders in part of …