thedispatch.com – The Guardian’s diplomatic editor put it best. “If Joe Biden thinks Vladimir Putin deserves to be called a killer, his description of Ebrahim Raisi, the 60-year-old president-elect of Iran, is likely to be unprintable.” The selection of Raisi—an ultra-hardline cleric responsible for the mass execution of dissidents—provides a timely reminder as to the nature of the regime in Tehran, the threat it represents, …

Al-Monitor – Nothing came unexpectedly in the Iranian presidential race. While Ebrahim Raisi’s election was a done deal, the only questions were about the size of voter turnout and who would vote for him. But Raisi’s ascent to power wasn’t to happen without open support from the establishment as a whole, the Principlists as a political current and the so-called “Hezbollahis” — a rising revolutionary power …

Al-Monitor – In his latest speech on the occasion of judiciary day and in the presence of President-elect Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed Iran’s June 18 elections and discussed doubts about the judiciary changes made by Raisi. Khamenei said Iran’s presidential elections were “truly an epic created by the Iranian people.” He said many Western countries and even …

Shabtabnews – In a report the INLF states : ” The Islamic regime of Iran, after forty years of isolation is now focusing its attention in attracting foreign investments in Iran, especially from Europe. With an economy in shambles, unemployment at a staggering high rate and a population disenchanted with the “Islamist” policies at home and abroad, the regime is …

RFL/RE – Tehran has not made a decision yet on prolonging a deal with the UN atomic watchdog over access to surveillance footage at its nuclear sites, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on June 28.A three-month agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to preserve video footage at the country’s nuclear installations expired last week, following a …

Iranwire – Following an outpouring of criticism in Iran of an emergency permit being issued for the country’s first domestic Covid-19 vaccine, CovIran-Barekat, Kianoush Jahanpour, a  spokesman for Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, has called the critics “jerks”. The ex-Health Ministry spokeman’s unprofessional outburst came after news also broke that CovIran-Barekat would cost three times as much as imported vaccines. …

Iranwire – On June 19, Iranian workers at Farab Company’s Bidkhoon Power Plant project in the southern province of Bushehr downed tools and left the power plant en masse. The walkout came as part of nationwide strike action called by the Council for Organizing Protests of Contract Oil Workers: the biggest wave of industrial action to affect the country’s petroleum industry in …

Iranwire – The  repression of religious minorities has a long history in the Iranian educational system. Although children from minority groups faced difficulties in schools before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the oppression of these children and adolescents systematically increased after the Revolution. Some students either have to hide their religious identities or lie about it to pursue higher education. They all …

VOA – strikes on eastern Syria near the border with Iraq killed at least five Iran-backed militia fighters, a war monitor reported on Monday.  “At least 5 Iran-backed Iraqi militia fighters were killed and several others were wounded in an attack by US warplanes” on the Syrian side of the frontier, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.  The war monitor, …

VOA – Israel’s new government on Sunday pledged close cooperation with the United States even as it expressed “serious reservations” about efforts by Washington to rejoin the international pact to restrain Iran’s nuclear program. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Rome in their first face-to-face meeting since a new coalition government assumed power …