Al-Arabia – The US hopes the recent departure of Iran’s ambassador from Yemen is a sign that the country’s people realize the “profoundly destabilizing role” Tehran plays in the country, a State Department official said Monday. Over the weekend, it was reported that Iran’s ambassador to the Houthis – a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – had been sent back …

RFL/RE – Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has reaffirmed Israel’s opposition to negotiations on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran during a meeting with visiting U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan. Sullivan told Bennett on December 22 the United States and Israel were at a “critical juncture” on various security issues and should develop a joint strategy. Sullivan’s trip comes as …

Iranwire – “We are allowed to kill every Iranian who is our enemy because it’s our people. And nobody should care about it. It’s our business.” On August 6, 1992, the body of Iranian entertainer, poet and anti-regime firebrand Fereydoun Farrokhzad was found on the floor of his flat in Bonn, stabbed multiple times and half-melted by the heat of …

Iranwire – A Turkish photographer and filmmaker, Bora Omeroglu, has been detained in Iran for the past four days. People close to Bora told IranWire his phone cut out near the city of Abadeh, halfway from Isfahan to Shiraz. He was then allowed to make one brief call to say he had been arrested. His whereabouts and the reason for …

Iran-HRM – Despite a poor health condition, detained student activist Leila Hosseinzadeh has been held in solitary confinement since she was arrested on December 7, 2021. The prolonged solitary confinement is an inhuman torture commonly used in Iran. After 11 days of being held incommunicado, she called home on December 18, 2021, informing her family that she has been taken …

Al-Monitor – Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh announced the death of Hassan Irloo, the country’s top diplomat to the Yemeni capital. Sanaa is controlled by the Tehran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels. The ambassador died of COVID-19 according to the spokesman, who described Irloo as a “martyr,” as Iranian officials often refer to soldiers who die in combat and selectively for public workers …

Al-Monitor – Much has been written in recent months regarding the possibility of an Israeli attack on Iran.  On Dec. 2, Mossad Chief David Barnea was quoted as saying, “Iran will not have nuclear weapons – not in the coming years, not ever. This is my personal commitment. This is the Mossad’s commitment.” On Dec. 18, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that he …

Shabtabnews – In a statement IOPHR condemned the execution of Mr. Heidar Ghorbani , who was executed despite the fact that the head of the Judiciary, as the highest authority within the Iranian judicial system, had invalidated the confessions of Mr. Heidar Ghorbani obtained under torture by the security forces, which was the only basis for his death sentence The …

RFL/RE – U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan will visit Israel this week for discussions likely to be dominated by a perceived threat from Iran amid U.S. concerns that the time Tehran would need to develop a nuclear weapon has become “unacceptably short.”Sullivan will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to “reaffirm the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security and consult …

Iranwire – The Iranian ambassador to Yemen has died of Covid-19, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. Saeed Khatibzadeh described the death of Hassan Irloo, a former senior member of the IRGC, as a “martyrdom”, adding he was an Iran-Iraq war-era chemical weapons survivor. Irloo was reportedly flown in an Iraqi-owned plane from the Yemeni capital of …