iranintl – Hezbollah and Israel announced successful mutual attacks on Friday, raising concerns that a month of limited operations could eventually lead to an all-out war. The Israeli military confirmed it had struck targets in southern Lebanon, in response to drone and missile attacks on its forces. Hezbollah, for its part, published a video purporting to show its aerial operation. …

iranintl – Iran’s top Sunni cleric Mowlavi Abdolhamid has rejected allegations by regime media as a smear campaign aimed at justifying the crackdown on the Sunni minority. During his sermon, the outspoken Friday prayer leader of Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sunni-majority Sistan-Baluchestan, rejected reports by Revolutionary Guard-affiliated Fars news agency this week about the Makki Jameh Mosque of Zahedan. The …

RFL/RE – Iranian lawyer Erfan Karamveisi says he and his client, Jafar Ebrahimi, a teacher and union activist, have been summoned to Tehran’s Evin Prosecutor’s Office. “I’m required to appear within five days to address allegations of propaganda activity and spreading lies,” Karamveisi said in a post on social media on November 9.Karamveisi noted that Ebrahimi, the spokesman of the Iranian Teachers’ …

RFL/RE – A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran was on November 10 charged with aggravated terrorism for the 2022 deadly shooting ahead of an LGBT festival in the capital, Oslo. Two people were killed and nine seriously wounded in the shooting at three locations, chiefly outside a popular gay bar on June 25, 2022. Prosecutor Sturla Henriksbo said Zainar Matapour, …

Iranwire – Eight members of Iran’s parliament have been disqualified from running for reelection next year, according to the initial results of the vetting process by the Guardian Council, an unelected body that disqualifies election candidates it deems insufficiently loyal to the clerical establishment. The disqualified lawmakers include two members of the Minority Faction in parliament and several critics of …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Sadly, the Biden administration has yet to come out and publicly acknowledge Iran’s role in Hamas’s October 7 invasion of Israel, in which the terrorist group murdered over 1,400 Israelis and at least 31 Americans, and wounded over 4,500 Israelis. Hamas also abducted more than 240 people and took them back to Gaza, where they are being held …

Al-Monitor – Turkey’s efforts on a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas are continuing, though so far without results. Its Gaza diplomacy has, however, invigorated Ankara’s ties with Iran. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pleased Tehran by refusing to label Hamas a “terrorist” organization, and instead calling it a “mujahideen liberation group.” He intends to play a …

iranintl – Undeterred Iran proxies have launched four attacks on American troops the day after US fighter jets struck an IRGC arms depot in Syria. A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed that three personnel were lightly injured in the attacks, bringing the number of US military injuries to almost 60 in a total of 46 drone and rocket attacks since October 17. …

iranintl – Human-induced climate change including war and urbanization has played a major role in exacerbating a three-year drought in Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Citing the findings of scientists from Iran, the UK, the US, and the Netherlands, World Weather Attribution reported that the drought spanning 36 months from July 2020 to June 2023, was “the second worst in the observed record.” …

Iranwire – As tens of thousands of Afghan refugees deported from Pakistan arrive in Afghanistan, there has been a much quieter exodus along its western border, where the number of Afghans coming back from Iran has doubled during the past month. Abdullah Qayomi, head of the ruling Taliban’s refugee affairs at the Islam Qala border gate in the western province …