gatestoneinstitute.org – He [the late Ambassador Hassan Ayerloo] had reorganized Ansar Allah, the armed wing of the Houthi movement, raising the number of its fighters from 1,000 in 2005 to over 10,000 last year. Thanks to Ayerloo’s leadership, the Houthis, initially a small tribal group in Saada, northern Yemen, was built into a major political movement seeking to rule the …

RFL/RE – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) killed six “armed bandits” in the country’s southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, the IRGC said in a statement on January 1. Three local members of the volunteer Basij militia fighting alongside the IRGC forces were killed in the clashes, the statement said, adding that at least five “bandits” were wounded. Sistan-Baluchistan, one of …

Iran-HRM – Iranian political prisoner Adel Kianpour died Saturday after a week of hunger strike without receiving medical care in a prison in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province. Political prisoner Adel Kianpour had gone on hunger strike since December 25, 2021 to protest being denied basic due process rights. He was demanding furlough and to be held in political ward. Ahwaz Human …

gatestoneinstitute.org – While the mullahs are using religion to justify their mission of taking over the region, they are more likely attempting to take control of all the oil in the region; they appear to be advancing their hegemonic ambitions to this end. Iran has for decades been encircling the Middle East — in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq — by …

gatestoneinstitute.org – China’s regime has bought America’s academic community and turned it against America. “This case is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what needs to be done by the U.S. government to penetrate and prosecute China’s co-option of America’s academia.” — Kerry Gershaneck, the author of Political Warfare: Strategies for Combating China’s Plan to “Win Without Fighting” and …

RFL/RE – The year 2022 could see an escalation of tensions between Iran and the United States if nuclear talks aimed at reviving the stalled 2015 nuclear deal collapse. While analyst believe an agreement is still reachable as ongoing negotiations are entered into the new calendar, the United States and EU countries have warned that there are only “weeks” left …

VOA – Iran’s space launch Thursday failed to put its three payloads into orbit after the rocket was unable to reach the required speed, a defense ministry spokesman said in remarks carried on state television Friday. The attempted launch, which came as indirect U.S.-Iran talks take place in Austria to try to salvage a 2015 nuclear deal, drew criticism from …

VOA – France on Friday condemned Iran’s satellite rocket launch and said it was “all the more regrettable” as nuclear talks with world powers were making progress, echoing concerns expressed by the United States and Germany. Iran said Thursday it had used a satellite launch rocket to send three research devices into space, as indirect U.S.-Iran talks take place in …

Iran-HRM – An annual report by a human rights group said that at least 163 citizens were killed or wounded by Iran’s state security forces in western Iran in the past year, of which 52 lost their lives. Hengaw human rights organization reported on Friday that of the 52 Kurd citizens who were killed by the state security forces in …

Iran-HRM – A political prisoner held in Sheiban Prison, sewed his right eyelid to protest the authorities’ to grant him parole and temporary leave. In an audio file which political prisoner Khaled Pirzadeh sent from the prison on Thursday, he said that he sewed his right eyelid to protest the authorities’ refusal to fulfill their promises and their repeated disrespect …