Al-Monitor – Iran’s official inflation rate is reaching new highs. The Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) — the country’s main statistics agency — reported a monthly inflation rate of 12.2% and a point-to-point rate of 52.5% for the Iranian month ending June 21. Both are record numbers.  The monthly inflation rate reports the changes in the consumer price index — based on a …

Al-Arabia – Expanding joint action to counter Iran will top the agenda during US President Joe Biden’s upcoming visit to Israel, Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Sunday, urging a “decisive” response to Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Addressing his second cabinet meeting since taking office on July 1, Lapid called Biden — who is due in Jerusalem on Wednesday – “one of …

RFL/RE – Iran’s oil minister has announced a 50 percent increase in oil exports and a 100 percent collection of oil revenues, but the Supreme Audit Court of Iran says revenue collected from customers in April and May was less than 15 percent. Meanwhile, in the current annual budget, the government predicted the daily export of 1.4 million barrels of …

RFL/RE – Iranian director Sadaf Foroughi’s film Summer With Hope (Tabestan Ba Omid), an Iranian-set social drama, captured the top Crystal Globe award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic. Taki Mumladze and Mariam Khundadze shared the award for best actress for their roles in the German-Georgian film A Room Of My Own (Chemi Otakhi) at the ceremony …

VOA — Iranian authorities arrested an outspoken pro-reform activist, saying he conspired to act against state security, semi-official media in Iran reported Saturday. The arrest is the latest in a wave of detentions against the backdrop of escalating tensions with the West and Tehran’s rapid advancement of its nuclear work, while talks to revive the landmark 2015 atomic accord remain at …

Iran-HRM – Mashhad University of Medical Sciences confirmed that the teams of ” Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice” started their activities in hospitals to control the compulsory hijab.  In a statement on Thursday Mashhad University of Medical Sciences said by the decision of the headquarters of Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, special teams “have …

Al-Monitor – As Qatar’s foreign minister visited Tehran Wednesday in an effort to follow up on talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal, there’s no indication the sides have come close to a resolution on the issue of removing the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from the US terror list.  Top Qatari diplomat Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani’s visit this week …

gatestoneinstitute.org – The EU partly wants the deal so it can buy oil and gas from the Iranian regime. The EU also appears to want the nuclear deal in order not to lose its other economic relationships and trade with the ruling mullahs of Iran. Despite US sanctions, European countries are still trading with Iran; the Biden administration has yet …

Iranwire – On June 29, Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that 10 convicts had been executed at Rajaei Shahr Prison in Karaj near Tehran. Of these 10, one was sentenced to death for “sodomy by force” and the other for “rape”. The other eight were executed for murder. The two men executed in relation to sexual offences have been identified …

VOA —Britain’s Royal Navy said Thursday one of its warships seized Iranian weapons, including surface-to-air-missiles and engines for cruise missiles, from smugglers in international waters south of Iran early this year. A helicopter from the HMS Montrose frigate spotted speedboats moving away from the Iranian coast on Jan. 28 and Feb. 25 and dozens of packages containing the advanced weaponry …