VOA – A human rights group covering Iran has identified 24 demonstrators among those detained Friday by authorities during protests in the country’s Zahedan region. The Hengaw Human Rights Organization posted an online report Saturday identifying the Baloch detainees. Among them are five teenagers: Mohammad Amin Mohammadzehi, 14; Yaser Ali-Zehi, 17; Balal Rakhshani, 15; Yasin Isa-Zehi-Rigi, 17; and Mohammad Oweis …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Why did Hamas trigger its attack out of the blue? Hamas apologists repeat the usual shibboleths: occupation, colonial settlements, expulsions, Apartheid, the two-state solution. A closer look, however, shows that none of those “reasons” could explain, let alone justify, why Hamas did what it did on October 7. The [Palestinian Authority] and Hamas have preferred to pose as …

Al-Monitor – Iran will be held “accountable”, Biden warns US President Joe Biden, in his speech to the nation Thursday, said Hamas and Russia are linked because they “both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy,” threats to the US-led international order which cannot be allowed to win. Biden also connected Russia and Hamas via Iran, which is supporting both parties …

iranintl – A prominent Iranian politician has called for the establishment of a tribunal to bring to trial the statesmen who have jeopardized Iran’s national interests. The former head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Relations Committee Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh has told the press in Iran that three groups of Iranian statesmen should be put on trial on charges of weakening …

iranintl – Two weeks after Hamas attacked Israel, diplomatic efforts have intensified to prevent a full-blown regional war involving Iran and its proxies in the Middle East. On Friday, President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen, who has traveled to Washington for a US-EU summit, raised the issue with US President Joe Biden. “We must work actively to …

iranintl – To defend Palestine is a Quranic command, Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, a firebrand senior cleric told worshippers on Friday, as tensions remain high in and around Gaza. God commanded Muslims to defend and protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the hardliner cleric said, and that means keeping “infidels” away from Jerusalem. Alamolhoda is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative in one of the …

RFL/RE – Iranian activist Fatemeh Sepehri, an outspoken critic of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was on medical leave from prison, was rearrested at her residence and taken back to prison, her brother said. “Should any harm befall my sister or brothers, the responsibility lies squarely with [Iran’s Supreme Leader] Ali Khamenei,” Asghar Sepehri, Fatemeh’s brother, said in a post on X, …

Iranwire – Reports from the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan say security forces fired gunshots and tear gas to break up hundreds of protesters who had gathered in the streets after Friday prayers for weekly protests against the Islamic Republic. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but local sources said that an undisclosed number of demonstrators were detained.  Videos …

Iranwire – The morning of October 19, London time, and hours after midnight in Tehran, marked the eighth anniversary of the adoption of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) by the Islamic Republic of Iran, the United States and the European Union.  Eight years ago on this day, the restrictions outlined in United Nations Security Council resolution 2231 concerning …

gatestoneinstitute.org – In 1930s, Britain pursued a policy of appeasing Hitler and Nazi Germany in the hope of avoiding a war. To the contrary, as we know, by empowering the Nazis to invade and attempt to take over other nations, this policy of appeasement led to World War ll. [T]he Obama administration imagined, it seems, that enabling the expansionist, revolutionary regime of …