Al-Monitor – Iran’s Finance Minister Ehsan Khandouzi landed in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Thursday, two months into a Chinese-brokered deal that ended a seven-year hiatus in Tehran-Riyadh relations.   According to the state-run IRNA news agency, the minister will discuss bilateral trade while also delivering speeches at a summit of the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah.   As the first Iranian official …

Al-Monitor — The recent rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran hasn’t stopped Tehran from sending weapons to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking said Thursday.  Tehran and Riyadh, which back opposing sides in Yemen’s civil war, agreed in March to resume diplomatic relations and reopen their respective embassies shuttered in 2016. Lenderking told reporters that the United States …

iranintl.com – The Swedish Parliament voted in favor of designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization today [May 10]. It followed the execution this week of Swedish-Iranian Habib Chaab (Asyud) which saw Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summon Iran’s charge d’affaires in protest of the execution, one of hundreds since the start of the year. Iran’s relations with Sweden …

RFL/RE – Tehran’s prosecutor has filed charges against the Jahan Sanat newspaper after it published a report on the increasing trade of body parts in Iran due to the deteriorating economic conditions hitting households across the country. The Judiciary Media Center on May 9 cited the reason for the charges as the newspaper’s failure to provide evidence and documentation regarding the “fabricated …

Iranwire – Arvin Nikpay, a 20-year-old Kurdish man from the western town of Marivan, was subjected to three months of interrogation and torture following his arrest during protests on January 31, a source close to his family told IranWire. On May 6, Nikpay was transferred to Fajr hospital after he attempted to take his life while in the custody of the Intelligence Department of Marivan. His relatives tried …

Iranwire – The number of suicide deaths has grown by more than 40 percent in Iran over a decade, according to officials statistics, as the Iranian people faced deepening economic, political and social upheaval. The 2022 report on “Social Justice Indicators” shows that law enforcement agencies recorded 5,085 suicide cases in 2021, compared to 3,559 in 2011, the collaborative initiative Iran …

Iranwire – The Iranian Ministry of Health has established a “cultural council” to supervise the observance of “appropriate clothing and religious values” in hospitals and other medical centers, according to local media, as more women flout the Islamic Republic’s mandatory headscarf rules. The council’s duties also include organizing “workshops on chastity and hijab training,” KhabarOnline reported on May 10.  The report said that from now on, …

VOA – Iran executed seven men Wednesday in two prisons outside Tehran on drug and rape charges, a rights group said, accelerating what activists describe as a hanging spree over the past two weeks. The United Nations had warned on Tuesday of a “frighteningly” high number of executions in the country after a rare execution on Monday of two men …

VOA – Billboards across Iran’s capital proclaim that women should wear their mandatory headscarves to honor their mothers. But perhaps for the first time since the chaotic days following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, more women — both young and old — choose not to do so. Such open defiance comes after months of protests over the September death of 22-year-old …

Al-Monitor – Iran has been ramping up trade with members of the BRICS group, as Tehran looks to join the five-nation alliance that is often seen as an alternative to the Western economic and political hegemony.  BRICS is comprised of the emerging economies of Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa. The alliance accounts for 42% of the global population and about …