Al-Arabia – Iran rejected the Wall Street Journal report citing intelligence shared by Saudi Arabia with the US warning of an imminent Iranian attack on the Kingdom and said it contains “baseless accusations,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday. “Such biased news production by some Western and Zionist parties aims to create a negative atmosphere against Iran and …

Iranwire – Iranian authorities have arrested a member of the country’s long-persecuted Baha’i religious minority, and transferred him to an unknown location. According to a report received by IranWire, security and intelligence forces on November 2 stormed the workplace of Pouya Sarraf in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran. They seized his personal computer and mobile phones. Security forces …

Iranwire – Iranian authorities have arrested three “citizen journalists” accused of receiving “significant amounts of money” from two foreign organizations, local media reported. Tasnim, a news agency affiliated with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, said the trio were working with Tavaana, a U.S.-based organization that provides free online training to Iranians, and Iran International, a London-based, Saudi-funded news television channel. …

Iranwire – Iranian intelligence agents have arrested a bodybuilding champion who had sustained injuries while participating in an anti-government rally. A source close to Reza Olfati’s family told IranWire that the Kurdish bodybuilder was arrested in the western Kermanshah province on October 30 after security forces stormed the house where he was staying. Olfati, a champion at the provincial level, …

Iranwire – “My twins were born on March 22, 1999. I only had this daughter and this son. They killed Reza,” says Ebtehaj Azizi, who immediately bursts into tears. Twenty-two years old Reza Shahparnia was shot dead during a protest in the western city of Kermanshah. “They killed my son on September 20,” she tells IranWire. “My Reza was the …

Amnesty – More than 760,000 people across 218 countries and territories have added their voices to petitions calling for the establishment of an independent UN mechanism to conduct investigations as a step towards pursuing accountability for the most serious crimes under international law committed in Iran, Amnesty International said today. On 2 November, Nazanin Boniadi, a British-Iranian actor and Amnesty …

CHRI – With mass public trials for protesters recently announced in Iran, and charges already beginning to be issued that could carry a death sentence, it is urgent that the international community forcefully warn the Iranian authorities against leveling death sentences against the protesters, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today. “The international community …

VOA – Iran ordered an investigation on Wednesday into videos and images of violence by the government forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran against Iranian protesters. In one of these videos, several government agents are seen beating a man severely. Then one of the agents runs over the man with a motorcycle and another agent shoots him from close …

VOA – The United States called Wednesday for Iran to be removed from the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the main intergovernmental body dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. “This work is vital. It makes a real difference,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said of the CSW. “And it deserves our full support, especially when …

Al-Arabia – Iran will “never forget” the US killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday, adding that Tehran remains committed to avenging his death. “We will never forget the martyrdom of Soleimani … We have said something about (avenging Soleimani), and we stand by that word. It will be done in its own …