Iranwire – On Sunday, March 6, Facebook flung the official page of the Tehran-sponsored Al-Alam TV channel off its platform. The official Arabic-language arm of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) had had a presence on the site since 2010. The permanent ban came without warning, but at a time when tech giants including Google, Facebook and Twitter have purged …

Iranwire – The sixth wave of coronavirus in Iran appears to have reached its peak a week earlier than predicted and is now subsiding. The official daily number of fatalities, which stood at 241 on February 27, fell to 172 at the end of the week. Persian new year, or Nowruz, arrives on March 21. The Nowruz holidays are traditionally a time …

CHRI – On the eve of International Women’s Day, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) celebrates women everywhere who are at the vanguard of the struggle for human rights despite crushing adversity. In Iran, courageous women, including lawyers, activists, journalists, and mothers of the victims of state violence, are demanding justice, freedom, equality, and basic civil liberties for …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNG) – On International Women’s Day, Iran is the world’s top executioner of women. In 2021, the number of women executions almost doubled to at least 17 executions compared to 9 in 2020.  Of the 17, 12 were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder and five to death for drug-related charges. Eight of the women were charged with murdering their husbands. Five qisas cases …

Al-Monitor – Many observers following the negotiations in Vienna to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), had hoped an agreement would finally be announced this last weekend. However, no deal was announced and Russia appeared to throw a last-minute wrench into the talks.  Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian spoke today to members of …

Al-Arabia – Iran said Monday it was awaiting “details” on Russia’s demands for US guarantees that could potentially delay reaching an agreement in talks aiming to restore Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that Moscow wants written guarantees from Washington that Western sanctions imposed on it over the Ukraine conflict will …

RFL/RE – Tehran says there has been significant progress in talks with the United States on an agreement to swap prisoners. Iran is holding a number of dual nationals, including several Iranian-Americans, amid accusations by rights activists and others that Tehran is using the detainees to extract concessions from other countries. “These negotiations have progressed significantly and we are waiting …

Iranwire – Russia relies on official Arabic-speaking media to help justify the war on Ukraine by airing and disseminating disinformation to audiences across the Middle East. Kremlin-controlled media outlets are backed in the endeavour by a cluster of Arabic-language channels, notably those controlled by Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The main Russian state-controlled outlets …

VOA – France on Monday warned Russia not to resort to blackmail over efforts to revive a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, after Moscow demanded a U.S. guarantee that sanctions it faces over Ukraine would not hurt its trade with Tehran. Iran in turn said it would not allow others to impede its interests as, following the potential …

Iran-HRM – A Baluch man was killed Saturday by the state security forces in Zahedan, southeastern Iran. Loghman Narouii, a 33-year-old Baluch man, was shot in the head by security forces after he refused to stop at a police checkpoint for not having a driving license. The Iranian regime’s armed forces, shoot, kill, or injure innocent civilians without being held …