Iranwire – A recently-published report examining decades of water resource management in Iran has made the most convincing argument yet that the political structure in Iran – not global warming, sanctions or the behaviour of Iranian citizens – is what’s stopping the country from resolving the water crisis. Published in the peer-reviewed journal Sustainability, University of Maryland researcher Mehdi Ketabchy’s Investigating the Impacts …

Iranwire – The bullet-riddled body of Saadi Khaledi, a Kurdish political activist and vocal critic of the Islamic Republic, was found on Saturday, January 22 in Afghanistan’s Baghlan province. He was buried in Kabul days later. His family told IranWire they are convinced the Iranian regime was behind the killing. The plot to assassinate Khaledi was initiated on January 20. A car …

Iranwire – Prison Narratives is a collection of reports based on the testimonies of current and former prisoners. The narrators are both prisoners of conscience and people who have been detained for “ordinary,” non-political crimes. They talk about their lives in prison and guide the reader through the environment and the people they encounter. This report is from Shapur Detention Center, a …

Iran-HRM – Toomaj Salehi, a dissident rap artist said that a court has handed down a fine and six months suspended imprisonment for him on charges of “insulting the leadership and propaganda against the regime.” He did not elaborate on his sentence in a tweet he posted on January 24, but wrote that his prison sentence is suspended for a …

CHRI – The manner in which an Iranian judge sentenced French national Benjamin Briere to eight years imprisonment is “against the law,” a member of Briere’s legal team told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). “The way this case was handled makes it clear that Briere is a hostage in Iran whose fate is tied to how much Iran can extract from …

gatestoneinstitute.org – The Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the second largest and hugely influential group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas, does not believe that the conflict with Israel is over Jerusalem, settlements, borders, checkpoints or Palestinian prisoners. Qattati’s article shows that PIJ and its masters in Tehran consider not only Israel as the “enemy,” but the US too. This …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Attempts to deliver humanitarian aid to the poverty-stricken people of Yemen appear to have been blocked by the Houthis themselves, as well as by the United States, which has withdrawn support for Saudi Arabia, while giving the Houthis a free pass. The Houthi strategy, it appears, is to use the dire living situation of the civilians under its …

RFL/RE -A senior U.S. envoy working to revive the Iran nuclear deal has left the negotiating team amid a report of differences of opinion on the way forward as the attempt to restore the deal intensifies.Richard Nephew is “no longer serving” as deputy special envoy for Iran, a senior State Department official said in a statement e-mailed to RFE/RL on …

RFL/RE — Iran says it would negotiate directly with the United States in ongoing nuclear talks aimed at reviving the moribund 2015 nuclear accord with world powers if a “good agreement” can be reached. Speaking at a press conference in Tehran on January 24, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian rejected reports that Iran and the United States are directly negotiating in …

Iranwire – Civil rights activist and political prisoner Atena Daemi was finally released on Monday, January 4 after seven and a half years of arbitrary detention. Pictures of the 33-year-old embracing her family were widely shared on social media last night. Daemi’s sister Ansieh posted a video of her climbing the stairs to embrace her shocked mother and father, clutching a bouquet …