RFL/RE – Saudi Arabia and Iran have held a new round of talks aimed at mending badly strained ties, the Jordanian state news agency reported on December 13, as the Saudi envoy to the United Nations accused Tehran of playing “games” in its dialogue with Riyadh.Shi’ite-led Iran and Sunni-controlled Saudi Arabia are bitter rivals in the struggle for influence in …

Iranwire – In recent weeks, the Ministry of Education has been trumpeting the proportion of vaccinated school pupils: a reported, underwhelming 35 percent. Concurrently, health officials are warning that Covid-19 cases among both students and their teachers are rising, while fears abound over the new, highly transmissible Omicron variant. Between September and November all schools across Iran gradually reopened, even …

Iranwire – Kazem Mousavi, deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament’s Economic Committee, has said people trying to buy musical instruments in defiance of a ban on imports “can leave Iran”. Earlier this month Mehdi Mirasharfi, the head of Iran’s customs, musical instruments would no longer be imported into the country. Shortly afterward Gholam-Ali Ahankoob-Nejad, head of the Ahvaz Spectacle Manufacturers …

Iranwire – Antisemitism has compelled tens of thousands of Iranian Jews to leave their homes and move abroad over the past 42 years. Those who chose to remain in the Islamic Republic have had to endure continuous hatred, promoted and institutionalized by the state. Since the foundation of the Islamic Republic, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, state-owned news agencies and …

Iranwire – PEN America has called for the immediate release of jailed writer Baktash Abtin after it emerged he had contracted severe Covid-19 in prison. Abtin was summoned to Evin Prison last September to begin his sentence alongside two other senior members of the Iranian Writers Association, Keyvan Bajan and Reza Khandan Mahabadi. He has had Covid-like symptoms twice and this time …

RFL/RE – Naftali Bennett has announced a trip to the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) on December 12 for a meeting with that Gulf state’s leaders in the first-ever visit by an Israeli prime minister. It is the most senior mutual visit since a U.S.-mediated formalization of Israeli-Emirati relations was achieved last year through the so-called Abraham Accords. “I will be …

gatestoneinstitute.org – This may be an exaggeration, but the Kayhan editorial says that without the “Resistance Front” there would be no Iran and, of course, no Iraq, no Syria, no Lebanon, and no Yemen. Control of the four Arab countries is vital for protecting the Islamic Revolution. In that context, Tehran has been pumping cash and weapons into regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua …

Iranwire – With a jump in foreign exchange prices in the open market in Iran, prices in the official market and the Integrated Currency Trading System (NIMA) market have relatively stabilized. But how reliable is such stability, and who will benefit? In the last few days, the gap between the price of the dollar in the open market and that …

VOA – The G-7 on Sunday said time was running out for Iran to agree a deal to curb its nuclear ambitions and warned Russia about the consequences of invading Ukraine. Foreign ministers from the world’s richest nations have held a two-day meeting in Liverpool, northwest England, seeking to present a strong, united front against global threats. On Iran, G-7 …

Iran-HRM – Pressure has doubled on political prisoners in ward 4 of Sheiban Prison of Ahvaz on the orders of the Intelligence Ministry. Gholam Hossein Kalbi, Ayyub Porkar, Massoud Massoudi, Shahyad Ghanavati, and several other Arab political prisoners detained in ward 4 of Sheiban Prison are under double pressure on the Intelligence Ministry’s order. The political prisoners in ward 4 are forbidden …