It’s now been around six weeks since Iran’s “Smart Covid Management” project first got under way. The basic premise was to use an online data processing system, dubbed Omid (Hope), to track vaccination rates across Iran. Implemented in phases, a digital QR code system was meant to give the fully-vaccinated graduated access to government buildings, public transport and other key facilities, with the unvaccinated …
Read More »Monthly Archives: January 2022
Education Tsar: 95 Percent of Olympiad Medalists Have Left Iran
Iranwire – The secretary-general of Iran’s National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents (NODET) has said at least 82 out of its 86 young Olympiad medalists, winners of international contests in such fields as science, literature, computing and chess, have since left their country of birth. “We have seen a great deal of emigration over the years,” Safdar Zareh Hosseinabadi, …
Read More »Iranian wrestler who supported executed Navid Afkari disappeared
Iran-HRM – The Twitter account “1500 Tasvir (1500 Images)”, which covers news of those killed in the November 2019 protests in Iran, wrote Tuesday that Amin Bazrgar had been “repeatedly threatened by security forces for his support of Navid.” According to 1500 Tasvir, Iranian Greco-Roman wrestler Amin Bazrgar even “told his friends several times that security forces were pursuing him.” …
Read More »Iran lauds ‘good progress’ on return to nuclear deal
Al-Monitor – Iran says there has been progress made in the nuclear talks with world powers on containing Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for US sanctions relief, effectively reimplementing the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which the United States exited in 2018 under the previous administration. Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters today, “Progress in the …
Read More »Iran says it rules out US prisoner release as nuclear talks precondition
Al-Arabia – Iran on Monday ruled out any US preconditions for reviving a 2015 nuclear deal, including the release of American prisoners held by the Islamic Republic. “Iran has never accepted any preconditions by the United States… The US official’s comments on the release of US prisoners in Iran is for domestic use,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told …
Read More »U.A.E. Intercepts Two Missiles Fired At Abu Dhabi In Further Escalation Of Conflict In Yemen
RFL/RE – The United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) intercepted and destroyed two Huthi ballistic missiles targeting the capital of the Gulf country on January 24, the Defense Ministry said. There were no casualties and the remnants of the intercepted missiles fell in separate areas around Abu Dhabi, the ministry said. The military spokesman for the Iran-aligned Huthis, Yahya Sarea, said the …
Read More »Narges Mohammadi Jailed and Barred from Phone Calls in Five-Minute Trial, Husband Told
Iranwire – The husband of prominent Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi has said he’s been led to understand – but does not yet know for certain – that his wife has been sentenced anew to eight years in prison, 70 lashes and two years’ “deprivation of communications” for her peaceful activism. The sham trial is understood to have lasted fewer than ten minutes. …
Read More »First Lady of Iran Unveils Plans for ‘Michelle Obama-Style’ Book for Girls
Iranwire – Jamileh Alam al-Hoda, the wife of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, has said she has been asked to write a book in the style of ex-US First Lady Michelle Obama. Her husband, she told a conference in Qom on Thursday, had given her permission to go ahead with it. “A few days ago, I was given the book of the …
Read More »US Envoy: Iran Nuclear Agreement Unlikely without Release of US Prisoners
VOA — The United States is unlikely to strike an agreement with Iran to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal unless Tehran releases four U.S. citizens Washington says it is holding hostage, the lead U.S. nuclear negotiator told Reuters on Sunday. The official, U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley, repeated the long-held U.S. position that the issue of the four …
Read More »New Interrogations at Iran’s Airports, Jailing of Dual Citizens Challenge Officials’ Calls for Expatriates to Return
CHRI -Reports of security agents at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport singling out travelers returning from European destinations to collect “financial and personal” information, and the ongoing unjust imprisonment of dual nationals in the country, challenge claims by Iranian officials that it’s safe for expatriates to return to Iran. On January 15, 2022, an independent Persian news outlet reported that the travelers were pulled aside, taken …
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