RFL/RE – The Iranian and Russian negotiators meeting in Vienna with global powers played down the hopes for a quick settlement in the talks to revive the 2015 landmark deal that curtailed Tehran’s nuclear programs. Abbas Araqchi, Tehran’s chief negotiator, said late on June 12 that he did not think they could conclude this week, ahead of the country’s June …

VOA – European Union negotiators said international talks that resumed Saturday on the Iran nuclear agreement were on track to revive the deal, which crumbled after the United States withdrew in 2018. Senior diplomats from China, Germany, France, Russia and Britain concluded a 90-minute meeting with Iranian representatives at a hotel in the Austrian capital. “We are making progress, but …

VOA – Iran held a final presidential debate Saturday that showed the fissures within the Islamic Republic’s politics, as hardliners referred to those seeking ties to the West as “infiltrators” and the race’s two other candidates brought up the unrest that surrounded Tehran’s disputed 2009 election. Analysts and state-linked polling put hardline judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi as the clear front-runner …

Iran-HRM – Plainclothes agents beat and brutalized the Afkari family when they gathered Sunday outside the Adelabad prison in Shiraz to protest Vahid and Habib’s conditions in solitary confinement for 280 days. Saeed Afkari, brother to executed wrestling champion Navid Afkari tweeted Sunday that plainclothes agents attacked his family and other civil activists who had gone to the prison to …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Death row juvenile offender Ali Arjangi has been transferred to Fatemi Hospital after trying to commit suicide in Ardabil Central Prison. “Ali Arjangi’s suicide attempt may be his last effort to make his voice be heard by the international community. A voice that says, I want to live. I hope the media and international community …

Shabtabnews – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has organised a virtual event examining the long-term impact of the Arab Spring movement on religious freedom across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and assessing U.S. policy options, under the title of : Ten Years after the Arab Spring: How has Religious Freedom Changed Across the Middle East? …

RFL/RE – The influential political scion and speaker of Iran’s parliament, Ali Larijani, has demanded an explanation from the country’s vetters as to why he was excluded from running in next week’s Iranian presidential election. Larijani’s query toward the hard-line Guardians Council follows that body’s disqualification of hundreds of would-be candidates in a familiar feature of Iranian elections that left …

Iranwire – “Until further notice, we have no coronavirus vaccines”. This notice pinned to doors has greeted visitors to many vaccination centers in Iran over the past week. Elderly people aged over 70 are supposed to be receiving their second jab now, but countless patients have been turned away. This is deeply worrying because of the time-frame in which the …

Iranwire – Akbar Faraji is a political prisoner being held in Greater Tehran Penitentiary, commonly known as Fashafuyeh (Fashafouyeh). Arrested in January 2019 over a handful of social media posts, he told IranWire he was tricked by interrogators into incriminating himself. Faraji, who was born in 1981 and is a resident of Baqershahr in Shahr-e Rey, Tehran province, was abruptly …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) –  Yesterday, a draft bill was passed in the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Parliament), which if approved, can result in the death penalty for citizen journalists reporting on the death penalty. Iran Human Rights condemns the draft bill which is in breach of international human rights standards. IHR director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “Instead of adopting repressive measures …