VOA – The head of the United Nations’s nuclear monitoring agency says he will travel to Iran next month in hopes of reviving the 2015 accord aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear activities. Speaking Tuesday in Brussels before members of the European Parliament’s security and defense subcommittee, Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the Islamic Republic …

Iran-HRM – Kambiz Kharoot, a 20-year-old Baluch citizen, is from Jam-e-Jam area of Zahedan. He was arrested during nationwide protests on September 31, 2022, by Iran’s Intelligence services and sentenced to death by the Judiciary.Kambiz Kharoot was born on February 2, 2002. Meaning this year the young Baluch will be forced to spend his birthday alone behind bars and haunted …

CHRI – Four months into the Islamic Republic’s violent suppression of anti-state protests, Iranian authorities are beating, firing and threatening the families of detained and killed protesters to force them to remain silent, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. “In addition to hanging, shooting, and imprisoning Iranians to crush the protests, Islamic Republic authorities are attacking …

Al-Monitor — The Iranian police announced on Tuesday the deaths of two officers in the country’s volatile and protest-hit Sistan-Baluchistan province. The pre-dawn ambush targeted a police patrol near the town of Bampour, according to the provincial police commander, Mohammad Qanbari, who was interviewed by Tasnim news agency. The report identified those shot as Maj. Mokhtar Momeni and Lt. Abouzar Omidvar …

Al-Monitor – Iran is strengthening its relations with China and Venezuela in defiance of US sanctions. A senior Biden administration official said on Monday that Washington intend to press Beijing on the issue.  Bloomberg reported last week that Iran’s oil exports to China reached 1.3 million barrels a day. This was close to a four-year high, according to the outlet.  On Monday, …

RFL/RE – An Iranian professional soccer player has been summoned to face a disciplinary committee and banned from participating in the country’s Premier League after he showed solidarity with protesters by not celebrating after scoring a goal. Reza Shekari, who plays with Golgohar FC, said in a post-game interview that he did not celebrate his goal after scoring “due to the conditions …

RFL/RE – Iran has charged 16 people, including several teenagers, in the northwestern Iranian city of Urmia for planning demonstrations and accusing them of espionage amid reports those detained gave confessions after being beaten. In November, 25 people were arrested for allegedly having connections with “spy organizations” and “attempted to deceive and incite youth and teenagers through social networks to …

Iranwire – An Iranian student who is serving a 10-month prison sentence has defended his doctoral thesis behind bars. Pictures posted on social media show Yashar Dar’al Shafa, a student at Tehran’s University of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, defending his thesis in Rajai Shahr Prison, west of the capital. His supervisor and a three-member panel from the university were in attendance. …

Iranwire – The US administration’s special envoy for Iran says the United States will increase pressure on China to stop buying Iranian oil, as Washington seeks to enforce sanctions aimed at curbing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Robert Malley told Bloomberg Television on January 23 that China is “the main destination of illicit exports by Iran” and talks to dissuade …

Iranwire – The Islamic Republic of Iran has arrested three women journalists in Tehran in less than 48 hours, bringing the number of women journalists currently behind bars in the country to 16, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). In a statement on January 23, the Paris-based media freedom watchdog said a total of 55 journalists, including 25 women, have …