Al-Monitor – During a speech to government officials today, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, discussed the ongoing nuclear negotiations and Iran’s plans for moving forward with or without a nuclear deal.  Khamenei said that the direction of the nuclear talks is going well. Khamenei presumably meant Iran’s position in the nuclear talks …

Al-Monitor – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen in a Twitter flurry Tuesday night.  Khamenei told Saudi Arabia via Twitter to cease its involvement in Yemen’s civil war, saying he made the comments out of “good will” towards the Gulf kingdom.  “I have a word with the Saudis, and I give this counsel out …

Al-Arabia – The killing of all American leaders would not be enough to avenge the US assassination of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ top commander Qassem Soleimani two years ago, a senior Iranian Guards commander said on Wednesday. The United States and Iran came close to full-blown conflict in 2020 after Soleimani’s killing in a US drone attack at Baghdad airport and …

RFL/RE – According to official Iranian statistics, there was a 32 percent increase in girls marrying between the ages of 10 and 14 in Iran in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same quarter in 2020. Here, two women who married as children talk about the psychological and physical toll that marrying young has had upon them. https://www.rferl.org/a/i-didn-t-have-a-childhood-the-emotional-scars-of-iran-s-child-brides/31791726.html

Iranwire – Yesterday Iran’s security forces raided the home of veteran activist Narges Mohammadi. She was arrested alongside the photographer and women’s rights defender Alieh Motallebzadeh, who like Mohammadi was on a leave of absence from prison at the time. The rearrest had been scheduled for Tuesday despite the fact that Mohammadi was out for heart surgery. The person who …

RFL/RE – Iran has demanded that Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government do more to protect diplomatic posts after Afghan protesters pelted a consulate with stones and appeared to set fire to part of it. Dozens of Afghans rallied outside the Iranian Consulate in Herat, chanting “Death To Iran” on April 11 after unconfirmed videos appeared on social media networks allegedly showing Afghan refugees being …

Iranwire – The government of the Islamic Republic continues to court ridicule by sanctioning American officials in a time when Tehran’s economic clout has never been weaker. The latest “targets” were some 24 US officials, bringing the total close to 100. New additions to the list include an ex-commander of US Central Command, General Joseph Votel, and Rudi Giuliani, Donald …

Iranwire – Tehran was logged as the most polluted city in the world on Friday, with a “very unhealthy” average real-time air quality index (AQI) of 236 reported by the Swiss monitoring company IQAir. At one point, according to local estimates, the index even exceeded 500, the maximum level on the index. In recent years, the number of days Tehran has …

amnesty – This briefing documents how Iranian officials are committing shocking violations of the right to life by deliberately denying ailing prisoners lifesaving healthcare and refusing to investigate and ensure accountability for unlawful deaths in custody. The briefing details the circumstances surrounding the deaths in custody of 92 men and four women in 30 prisons in 18 provinces across Iran …

Al-Monitor A group of Republican senators warned President Joe Biden on Monday against lifting the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ terrorist designation, which Iran has made a condition of its return to the landmark nuclear accord.  Whether the IRGC remains on Washington’s formal list of terror organizations remains the principal sticking point in the now-paused talks in Vienna. The Trump administration …