Al-Monitor – Heating up: Iran is escalating tensions with Azerbaijan over Baku’s longstanding close ties with Iran’s nemesis, Israel. Iran has staged troop exercises near the Azerbaijan border in response to joint Azeri exercises with Turkish forces, at which Azeri President Ilham Aliyev showed up in military attire. Azerbaijan has reportedly stopped Iranian trucks transiting to its rival, Armenia, and Iran has …
Read More »Monthly Archives: October 2021
Iran ‘concerned’ by Israeli ‘presence’ in the Caucasus
Al-Arabia – Iran said Wednesday that it has “serious concerns” about Israel’s presence in the Caucasus, as tensions mount between Iran and Azerbaijan over Baku’s ties with Israel, a major arms supplier. For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app. The comments came a day after unconfirmed reports in Azerbaijani media said Iran has …
Read More »Three Jailed Iranian Writers Honored By PEN America
RFL/RE – The open-expression advocacy group PEN America has honored three imprisoned Iranian writers during its annual gala in New York, and awarded them with the 2021 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award.Keyvan Bajan, Baktash Abtin, and Reza Khandan Mahabadi are “celebrated writers who have been imprisoned by the Iranian authorities for their writing, their defense of free expression, and their …
Read More »Azerbaijan Shuts Office, Mosque Linked To Iranian Supreme Leader Amid Tensions
RFL/RE – Azerbaijan has closed a mosque and an office linked to Iran’s supreme leader in Baku just days after Tehran held military maneuvers close to the two countries’ common border.“The [Husseiniyya] mosque and the office of Seyyed Ali Akbar Ojaghnejad, representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Baku, were sealed and closed today by order of the authorities …
Read More »Officials Warn of Looming Winter Gas Shortages
Iranwire- Tehran province could face a serious gas shortage over the winter months, the deputy governor for civil affairs has warned. In an announcement on Monday, Abdolreza Cheraghali said the province could be down by as much of 150 million cubic meters of natural gas, but “the necessary planning has been done for autumn and winter” to deal with any issues that …
Read More »Mehdi Karroubi Gives First In-Person Address in 10 Years of House Arrest
Iranwire – Mehdi Karroubi, a veteran reformist cleric and leader of the Green Movement who has been under house arrest in Iran for more than 10 years, has used his first in-person public address to reassert his belief in the reformist cause. This week Karroubi was allowed to attend an event at the home of Gholamhossein Karbaschi, secretary-general of the …
Read More »Two Iranian Studies Finally Admit the Real Reasons for Mass Protests Since 2017
Iranwire – For almost four years now, Iran has witnessed large-scale protests on a regular basis, with civic activism erupting across numerous cities and provinces across the country. The phenomenon of frequent, mass demonstrations started in December 2017 and January 2018. Overwhelmingly, these protests were catalyzed by the rising cost of living, but there were a number of other factors at play. Whether …
Read More »The Handmaid’s Tale in Iran: Leaked Letter to Hospital Chief Sparks Fears for Pregnant Women
Iranwire – In Margaret Atwood’s fictional land of Gilead, the fertile women are marked out by red clothing. Their menstrual cycle is monitored by high-ranking “aunts”, and if a woman falls pregnant, she’s no longer allowed to breathe alone. Those who fail to give birth naturally are brutally punished. In this Canadian novelist’s grim future history, women exist as “handmaids”: …
Read More »US ready ‘to turn to other options’ if Iran fails to return to nuclear deal: Official
Al-Arabia – The US is ready to “turn to other options” if diplomacy fails to convince Iran of the need to return to the original nuclear deal, a senior Biden administration official said Monday. Speaking to reporters ahead of a visit to Washington by Israel’s National Security Council chief, the US official said meetings would focus on regional issues and, “of course, …
Read More »More Than 900,000 Iranian Women Out of Work Post-Pandemic
Iranwire – A recent report by the Statistical Center of Iran has put the unemployment rate across Iran at 9.6 percent this summer: an 0.1 percent increase on the same period last year. Also this season, though, the overall labor force participation rate – generally a better indicator of the country’s economic health – stood at just 41.1 percent: a decline of …
Read More »