HRW – Since May 6, the Iranian authorities have imposed a near-total shutdown of mobile and home broadband data in some cities in Khuzestan Province, amid reported street protests against a potential hike in the price of bread, Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)  reported. According to HRANA, authorities have arrested at least 10 people in connection with the protests in …

Al-Monitor – Iran’s judiciary said that it will move forward with the execution of Iranian-Swedish citizen Ahmad Reza Jalali. Judiciary spokesperson Zabiollah Khodaian said that Jalali was arrested and charged with spying for the Israeli Mossad and sharing intelligence about Iran’s nuclear scientists in 2016. He also faces national security charges. Khodaian said that Sweden gave Jalali citizenship after his arrest, but he …

RFL/RE – The Iranian government’s decision to cut subsidies for imported wheat has led to a spike in the cost of flour and flour-based products, including bread, pasta, and confectioneries. The move by the government of ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi has sparked widespread anger. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has supported the measures. Other hard-liners have said that food prices should be controlled, …

RFL/RE – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) has fired on targets in Iraq’s northern Kurdish regional capital of Irbil, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency has reported. Tasnim said on May 11 that forces from the IRGC launched artillery attacks on “the positions of terrorist groups” in Irbil. No casualties were reported.“Headquarters of terrorist groups in Iraq’s northern region, including the …

Iranwire – IranWire has received information that a new wave of arrests of documentary filmmakers and cinematographers has started in Iran. So far all of the known detainees have been women. “Last night, May 9, Mina Keshavarz and Firoozeh Khosrovani, two documentary filmmakers, were arrested at their homes,” an informed source told Iranwire on Tuesday. The next day, they said, security agents had …

Iranwire – The Iranian Intelligence Ministry confirmed on Wednesday it has arrested two Europeans in the run-up to a visit by European Union envoy Enrique Mora. The pair’s identities and nationalities were not given. In a statement, the Ministry said they were professionals in “creating riots” and had come to Iran to stir up “chaos, social disorder and instability”. It …

Iranwire – On Saturday, May 7, the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri reported that the government plans to repeal all domestic food and fuel subsidies, apparently without a Plan B. The report predicted that after the recent repeal of flour subsidies, the next to be axed could be cooking oil, followed by gasoline. The Raisi administration knew from the get-go that it was running …

Iranwire- Last week a delegation from Iran headed by Oil Minister Javad Oji and Mohammad Javad Bavand, head of the National Oil Refining and Distribution Company, arrived in Nicaragua on a mission to strengthen Tehran’s commercial presence in the country. It formed part of a larger tour of friendly countries on the continent that saw the group sign eight memoranda …

VOA – The daughter of Iran’s former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani faces prosecution over social media comments on the Revolutionary Guards and the Prophet Mohammed, the judiciary said Tuesday. Faezeh Hashemi, 59, is “summoned by the prosecutor over these two affairs,” judiciary spokesman Zabihollah Khodayian told a news conference, quoted by the service’s Mizan Online website. Khodayian referred to “remarks …

Iran-HRM – Internet outages, arrests, and the presence of state security forces throughout the Khuzestan Province have continued after people came to the streets to protest skyrocketing prices of essential goods. On Friday and Saturday evenings, May 6 and 7, 2022, the people of Khuzestan Province, came to the streets in the cities of Ahvaz, Izeh, Baghmalek, and Susangerd, protesting …