Iranwire – During the Iranian government’s one-year anniversary in August last year, President Ebrahim Raisi and officials in his administration claimed that their policies had resulted in a 20-percentage points reduction of the inflation rate – from about 60 percent to nearly 40 percent. However, this statistic was incomplete and did not reflect the true situation. Data published by the …

Iranwire – The BBC’s Persian radio service, one of the oldest Persian-language media, went off the air after 82 years of broadcasting. The radio station was a crucial source of information for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, and other officials who relied on it for their daily political updates. The last king of Iran, Mohammadreza Pahlavi, …

VOA – The United States expressed concern Monday about the strengthening of ties between Russia and Iran. “It should be a concern for countries not just neighboring Russia and Iran, but the world broadly,” deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters at a briefing. “We have seen the havoc caused by Iranian-made drones that Russia has unleashed on Kyiv, …

Amnesty – This is Amnesty International’s annual report on the state of human rights in Iran during 2022/23, subdivided by key human rights themes. It is part of Amnesty International’s annual 2022/23 report on the state of the world’s human rights. View Report in English DOWNLOAD PDF

RFL/RE – The British Defense Ministry said on March 26 that Russia had “likely launched” at least 71 Iranian Shahed kamikaze drones against Ukraine after a two-week letup in late February. The resumption suggests that “Russia has started receiving regular resupplies of small numbers of Shahed” uncrewed aerial drones, the U.K. military added in its daily intelligence assessment. It said Russian forces …

Iranwire – Iranian authorities have withdrawn the license of prominent lawyer Nemat Ahmadi, according to the country’s lawyers’ association, amid growing pressure on attorneys who have represented protesters in recent months. More than 50 defense attorneys have been arrested since the September 2022 death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in police custody triggered an ongoing wave of nationwide anti-government …

Iranwire – The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to meet during the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan under a deal to restore ties. Iran’s Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud of Saudi Arabia discussed the matter during a phone call on March 26, the two countries’ state media reported. “During the call, …

Iranwire – Iran recorded an annual inflation rate of 46.5 percent in the last Iranian calendar month, which ended on March 21, according to the central bank, amid a worsening economic situation triggered by years of sanctions and political instability sparked by nationwide protests. The official inflation rate announced on March 26 is among the highest reported by the authorities …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Perhaps a more interesting sign has come with the purges carried among security forces with some of the more hardline officers moved aside or sent into early retirement. If there is indeed a change of course, the most important part of the scheme is the prospect of normalization with Saudi Arabia. Soon, however, it became clear that, flush …

Al-Monitor – Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), continued his diplomatic surge of recent weeks, signing a border security agreement in Baghdad on March 19.  The memorandum of understanding commits Iraq to cracking down on Iranian Kurdish opposition groups operating from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. It’s a message to Baghdad, but also to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). …