Shabtabnews – At the Weekly IRF Roundtable meeting, the IOPHR representative and Chair of the Iran Action Group presented a report on Death Threats Against IOPHR Members by the Iranian regime. The report states that: “As the tragic comedy of the presidential election in Iran looms, Ayatollah Khamenei and his occupying regime, faced with a nation determined to send a …

RFL/RE – The departing head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service has hinted at possible Israeli involvement in recent attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities and on an Iranian scientist, though he stopped short of directly claiming responsibility. The statements to Israel’s Channel 12 by Yossi Cohen, broadcast late on June 10, included phrasing that suggested that other Iranian scientists working on …

Iranwire – “Half of Iran’s economy does not pay taxes.” So says Abdolnasser Hemmati, the main quasi-reformist candidate in Iran’s 2021 presidential election. In his campaign speeches, the former governor of Iran’s Central Bank has constantly raised the spectre of “stakeholders” and “those people” who have turned their backs on Iran’s economy. In one such tirade, as if in conversation …

Iranwire – This week the International Olympic Committee (IOC) unveiled the Olympic Refugee Team for the delayed Tokyo 2020 games. The list of 28 scholarship-holders from 11 countries, who trained in 13 separate host nations, has been in the making since 2018 and five Iranian athletes are now set to compete under the shared banner. Among them are Saeed Fazlouli, a …

washingtonpost – Russia is preparing to supply Iran with an advanced satellite system that will give Tehran an unprecedented ability to track potential military targets across the Middle East and beyond, according to current and former U.S. and Middle Eastern officials briefed on details of the arrangement. The plan would deliver to the Iranians a Russian-made Kanopus-V satellite equipped with …

(JNS) – When it comes to matching words with action against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s political class have their heads deep in the sand. In a jaw-dropping May editorial on the webpage of the Bild, Germany’s largest newspaper, the co-editor-in-chief, Julian Reichelt provides a bill of particulars for Merkel’s failing grade: “Germany is Iran’s most important …

VOA – The United States said Thursday it had removed sanctions on three former Iranian officials and two companies that previously traded Iranian petrochemicals, a step one U.S. official called routine but that could show U.S. readiness to ease sanctions when justified. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the U.S. official said the moves by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign …

VOA – The U.S. imposed sanctions Thursday on “members of a smuggling network” that generate millions of dollars for the Iranian-affiliated Houthi movement in Yemen.  The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned individuals from Yemen, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Somalia and India. Also sanctioned were entities in Dubai, Istanbul and the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital of Sanaa.  “This network generates tens of …

CHRI – Political prisoner Shakila Monfared was beaten and injured on Monday, June 7, by a number of prisoners after she was unlawfully kept in a ward that holds inmates convicted of dangerous crimes in Qarchak Prson. Prisoners incited by prison staff attacked and insulted Shakila Monfared, injuring her with the lid of a tuna can. According to Iranian law, …

Iran-HRM – Esmail Gerami, a 67 year-old pensioner and labor activist was sentenced to prison and lashes for participating in protests held by pensioners for higher wages in Tehran. The Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Mill Labor Syndicate reported on Wednesday that Esmail Gerami, one of the leaders in the nationwide pensioners protests, had been fined two million tomans in addition …