Axios – Former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro has joined the State Department’s Iran team as a senior adviser, a senior State Department official tells Axios. Why it matters: Israel is pressing the Biden administration to start discussing a “Plan B” in case diplomacy with Iran fails. Shapiro, who has a personal relationship with many Israeli officials, including Prime Minister …

Iran-HRM – The state security forces raided the homes of detained lawyers two weeks after they were unlawfully arrested along with their colleagues. Security forces raided the homes of detained human rights lawyers, Arash Keykhosravi and Mohammad Reza Faghihi, in Tehran on Wednesday, August 25, and searched their homes to collect or plant evidence to build a case against the …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Relatives of Kurdish political prisoner Heydar Ghorbani tell IHR he is due to be executed in the coming days. He was sentenced to death on charges of baghy (armed rebellion) without any evidence or a confession. Iran Human Rights calls for his execution to be immediately halted and asks the international community for urgent action to save …

Al-Arabia – Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday appointed a minister from the administration of his predecessor Hassan Rouhani as the new head of the country’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI), state media reported. For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app. Mohammad Eslami, who most recently served as minister of roads and urban development …

gatestoneinstitute.org – The immediate question everyone faces is whether or not to recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government. To start with, the current international doctrine is that no government produced through war and violence should be granted de jure recognition unless and until it has submitted to some form of referendum or elections supervised by the United Nations. Whether or not …

RFL/RE – The situation in Afghanistan overshadowed a summit in Baghdad of key regional leaders and French President Emmanuel Macron, who vowed his country would stand firm in Iraq.“Given the geopolitical events, this conference has taken a special turn,” Macron said at the summit on August 28.The summit came two days after the Islamic State-Khorasan claimed responsibility for a suicide …

Iran-HRM – In summer of 1988, over 30,000 political prisoners were summarily executed throughout Iran, based on a Fatwa (religious decree) issued by Khomeini. The Fatwa reads, “it is decreed that those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the Monafeqin [Mojahedin MEK/PMOI], are waging war on God and are condemned to execution.” …

Shabtabnews- In a statement IOPHR stated that “the recent harrowing images of the inhumane behaviour of the agents of the ruling regime in Iran in prisons once again reminded the world of the bitter, painful and undeniable reality of the continuous and organized violation of human rights in Iran. These images show the definite violations of the law of the …

gatestoneinstitute.org – In the past, the Iranian regime used to hide its ties with Taliban; not anymore…. “The Taliban today,” Kayhan wrote recently, “is different from the Taliban that used to behead people.” So far, there seems insufficient evidence if that is true. At the moment, it does not look that way. “Thinking that the Taliban will come under Tehran’s command is …

Al-Arabia – The Biden administration’s demands from Iran are identical to the Trump administration’s, and as such Tehran sees no difference between the two, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Saturday. “The current US administration is no different from the previous administration … Their demands are the same as [former president Donald] Trump’s demands and have not changed at …