Al-Monitor – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with the United States was not his priority, claiming that under his administration, Tehran has managed to overcome Western sanctions.   Addressing reporters at a televised press conference in Tehran on Tuesday, Raisi said the accord — formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — was …

Al-Monitor — The Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee demanded answers from the US State Department on Monday night after Iranian outlets published details about the suspension of Iran envoy Rob Malley. “I have requested transparency from the State Department on the ongoing Robert Malley saga and will continue to demand answers,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said in a …

RFL/RE – Prominent Iranian pop singer Mehdi Yarrahi has been arrested following the release of an “illegal” song urging women to remove their mandatory head scarves as officials continue to clamp down on dissent ahead of the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini next month. The official IRNA news agency reported on August 28 that Yarrahi’s arrest was ordered by …

Iranwire – Iranian authorities have dismissed at least 10 university professors who supported nationwide protests that began last September following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. Just weeks ahead of the anniversary of her demise, reports on social media showed that Hamideh Khademi and Ameneh Aali, two professors from Allameh University in Tehran, were dismissed via phone call, while the …

Iranwire – Yasaman Rezaei Babadi is a young woman who has been arrested multiple times for her participation in nationwide protests sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini in September last year.  During her detentions, she endured torture, physical assaults and threats of being killed.  On one occasion, she was threated of being raped by plainclothes personnel.  …

Iranwire – A 40-year-old football coach in Tehran is on trial for sexually abusing nine teenage boys, local media reported.  The coach, who has not been named, is accused of luring the boys to his home and subjecting them to sexual abuse, Etemad newspaper reported on August 29. The man has confessed using pressure to compel the teenagers to engage …

Iranwire – In our “Did You Know?” series of articles, IranWire collects, analyses and compares reliable data to produce illuminating infographics on current events in Iran. *** Did you know that there is a significant disparity in the inflation rates between Iran’s 31 provinces?  According to a recent report from the Iranian Statistics Center, the inflation rate in central Yazd …

Iranwire- Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller has announced that his country will prevent an Iranian former minister from becoming a temporary resident of Canada for 36 months, citing the Islamic Republic’s human rights record. Seyed Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, who served as the minister of health for the Iranian government from 2013 to 2019 under former President Hassan Rouhani, “will be …

VOA — Iran has summoned a Swiss diplomat over the apparent U.S. seizure of Iranian crude oil from a ship that sat for months off Texas, an official said Monday, as the oil now appeared to be moored in Houston. The remarks by Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani mark the latest twist in the saga of the oil once aboard …

Iran-HRM – On the eve of the anniversary of the killing of Zhina Amini and the start of last year’s nationwide protests, pressures on civil activists and families of victims have intensified throughout the country. Threats, summons, and detentions of activists in various cities are alarming. On Sunday, August 27, 2023, eight activists from the Turkish community, named Zulikha Ghazizadeh, …