CHRI – Protests by hard-hit farmers over Iran’s worsening water crisis are being repressed by state security forces as officials increasingly describe the protests as a “national security” issue. Environmental scientist Kaveh Madani explained in an interview with the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) that a major portion of the Iranian population “has become directly dependent on water for its …

(Reuters) – Iran has hand picked hundreds of trusted fighters from among the cadres of its most powerful militia allies in Iraq, forming smaller, elite and fiercely loyal factions in a shift away from relying on large groups with which it once exerted influence.FILE PHOTO: Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani, the newly appointed commander of Iran’s Quds Force, reads the will …

Iranwire – Iran’s Supreme Court has thrown out an attempt at group litigation by Sunni Muslims against President Hassan Rouhani. According to Etemad newspaper, the Sunnis had prepared a 33-page complaint against the premier and registered it in the Supreme Court on April 28, 2021. In it, they said Rouhani had broken his election manifesto promises to ensure the rights of minority …

Iranwire – A Canadian court has ruled the downing of Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 last January was a deliberate act of terror. On Thursday, May 20 the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario ruled that “on the balance of probabilities” the Revolutionary Guards had deliberately shot the passenger plane out of the skies over Tehran, killing all 176 people onboard. …

Iranwire – On Monday, May 17 it emerged that Sina Estavi, CEO of Cryptoland, one of the biggest digital currency exchanges in Iran, had been arrested. The incident caught investors by surprise, and ever since then, the issue of cryptocurrency trading in Iran has been in the news. Estavi’s Twitter account was also seized by Iran’s Organized Cyber Crime Police as well and …

atlanticcouncil.org – The leaked audiotape of Islamic Republic Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has elicited much fanfare in recent weeks. Among the less scrutinized aspects of the tape has been Zarif’s reference to the Islamic Republic’s ongoing support of the Bashar al-Assad regime, including the fact that Iran Air—the flag carrier of the country—continues to transport arms and fighters into the Syrian …

gatestoneinstitute.org – These Arabs evidently understand what the anti-Israel activists around the world fail to see — that Hamas has brought nothing but disaster and despair to the two million Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip…. [They] also seem to understand that Israel is not waging war on the Palestinians, but against an Islamist terrorist group….. These …

Iran-HRM – Farzin Rezaei Roshan, a political prisoner who has been in prison since March 2020, has been transferred to Aminabad psychiatric hospital in southern Tehran’s Shahr-e-Rey district. Babak Paknia, the prisoner’s lawyer, wrote on his Twitter account that the coroner’s office had written a letter in 2017 stating that Mr. Rezaei Roshan was suffering from personality and mood disorders. …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Younes Totazehi and Abdullah Totazehi, two Baluch men who were on death row for drug-related charges, have been executed in Birjand Central Prison. According to the Baluch Activists Campaign, two Baluch men were executed in Birjand Central Prison yesterday morning. Younes and Abdullah Totazehi, both Zahedan natives and uncle and nephew, were sentenced to death …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Four men and two women sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, are at imminent risk of execution at Shiraz Central Prison. Informed sources told IHR that their cases have been sent to the Sentence Enforcement Unit and are expected to be sent to the gallows soon. According to Iran Human Rights, four men and two women are …