Al-Arabia – Iran and Russia have connected their interbank communication and transfer systems to help boost trade and financial transactions, a senior Iranian official said on Monday, as both Tehran and Moscow are chafing under Western sanctions.Since the 2018 reimposition of US sanctions on Iran after Washington ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers,the Islamic Republic has been disconnected …

RFL/RE – Drones equipped with explosives targeted an Iranian defense factory in the central city of Isfahan overnight, the Iranian Defense Ministry announced on January 29, causing some damage at the facility. The Iranian Defense Ministry released few details on the attack and did not say who it suspected was behind it.Iran has been targeted in the past by suspected Israeli drone …

RFL/RE – At least 527 people have been killed in Iran since the beginning of the anti-government demonstrations more than four months ago, said a report by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency on January 29. Among them were 71 minors and 70 members of the police and other security forces, according to the group’s tally. In total, nearly …

Iranwire – An Iranian court sentenced two bloggers to 10 ½ years in prison each on January 29 for publishing a video of themselves dancing in Tehran’s central Azadi Square, amid a fierce crackdown on anti-government demonstrations. Amir Ahmadi and his partner Astiaj Haghighi were also banned from carrying out online activities and from leaving Iran for two years after …

VOA – Iran summoned Ukraine’s charge d’affaires in Tehran on Monday over his country’s comments on a drone strike on a military factory in the central Iranian province of Isfahan, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. In Ukraine, which accuses Iran of supplying hundreds of drones to Russia to attack civilian targets in Ukrainian cities far from the front, …

RFL/RE – Azerbaijan will evacuate embassy staff and family members from Iran on January 29, the Foreign Ministry said, two days after a gunman shot dead a security guard and wounded two other people in an attack Baku branded an “act of terrorism.” Police in Tehran have said they have arrested a suspect. Iranian authorities condemned the January 27 incident …

Iranwire – US prosecutors have charged three alleged members of a criminal organization with ties to Iran’s government with conspiring to murder a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin in New York. Rafat Amirov, Polad Omarov and Khalid Mehdiyev were charged with murder-for-hire and money laundering for their role in the thwarted Tehran-backed plot, the Department of Justice said in a statement on …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Since 1979, when the mullahs seized power, Iran has topped the list of countries hit by “brain drain”. However, what was a sectoral hemorrhage may now become a general bleeding affecting other sectors of the population. The study shows that the desire to flee Iran isn’t caused by economic hardship, unemployment or inflation. It is not the poor …

VOA – A loud explosion at a military plant in Iran’s central city of Isfahan was caused by an “unsuccessful” drone attack, Iranian state media reported Sunday, citing the defense ministry. “One of (the drones) was hit by the … air defense and the other two were caught in defense traps and blew up. Fortunately, this unsuccessful attack did not …

VOA – Iranian Olympic skier Atefeh Ahmadi has quit her home country and applied for asylum in Germany, a Persian-language media outlet outside Iran reported Saturday, publishing an emotional interview with the athlete. Ahmadi, in her early 20s, was the only Iranian woman to qualify for last year’s Beijing Winter Games. “I left Iran to reach my goal, but my …