iranintl – Jordan’s army foiled a plot on Monday by dozens of infiltrators from Syria linked to pro-Iranian militias, who crossed its border with rocket launchers and explosives. Jordan’s State broadcaster said the army blew up a vehicle laden with explosives as it resisted the biggest armed cross-border operation to smuggle weapons and drugs in recent years. The army earlier …

iranintl – The leader of Iran’s ultra-hardliner Paydari Party is paving the way for the return of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to politics, one of his former aides claims. In an interview with the conservative Khabar Online, excerpts of which were published Monday, Abdolreza Davari alleged that the Secretary General of Paydari, Sadegh Mahsouli, in a recent interview, has signaled to …

Iranwire – Fuel pumps in Iran are reportedly back online a day after a cyberattack paralyzed gas stations across the country, but less than half of stations are still able to take subsidized fuel cards. The CEO of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company, Jafar Salari Nesab, said on December 19 that “almost all” gas stations are operational, though only …

Iranwire – In a powerful act of defiance, Iranian singer Khatereh Hakimi has shared a video of herself singing “Safarnak,” accompanied by three women journalists imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin prison. The video, which was posted on social media, shows Hakimi playing the guitar and singing. The journalists Nasim Sultanbeigi, Elahe Mohammadi and Niloofar Hamedi can also be heard singing over …

Iranwire – Iranian Revolutionary Guards have shot dead a transborder porter, or kolbar, in the western province of Kurdistan, according to Kurdish human rights activists. The man, identified as Ali Qaderi from Baneh, was fatally shot without prior warning at the Asnawa crossing on the border with Iraq.  Qaderi, a 52-year-old father of four, was shot in the heart, and …

RFL/RE – Record temperatures, prolonged droughts, and the drying up of rivers and lakes are displacing tens of thousands of Iranians each year, experts say. Many of the climate migrants are farmers, laborers, and fishermen who are moving with their families from the countryside to major urban areas in Iran in search of alternative livelihoods. To mark International Migrants Day …

RFL/RE – A Swedish appeals court will announce on December 19 its verdict in the trial of a former Iranian prison official handed a life sentence in a lower court for crimes committed during a 1988 purge of dissidents. The verdict could have repercussions on the fate of Swedish prisoners in Iran, including EU diplomat Johan Floderus, who has been …

Iranwire – Tension was reportedly high in two predominantly Baluch cities in the southeastern Iranian province of Zahedan after armed forces stormed at least three Sunni mosques there and arrested an undisclosed number of people. The Campaign of Baluch Activists reported that two mosques were raided in the provincial capital of Zahedan on December 18, resulting in the arrest of …

Iranwire – One of the lesser-known facts about Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, is his relationship and his close associates’ with the deputy commander of NATO before the 1979 Islamic Revolution and Heydar Aliyev, who later became the president of Azerbaijan.  Aliyev was reportedly associated with Khomeini during his time as an agent of the Soviet spy …

Iranwire – While the United Kingdom and other democratic nations are holding their officials accountable for their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to deflect blame for its delayed and restricted vaccine imports.  The Iranian authorities’ negligence, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iranians, can partially be attributed to political reasons.  …