iranintl – The Biden administration is set to move towards a reduced role for the US military in Iraq, amid continuing attacks by Iran proxies on American interests in the region. In a statement published Thursday, secretary of defense Lloyd Austin confirmed that the US-Iraqi Higher Military Commission (HMC) will convene meetings in the “coming days” to discuss new ways …

iranintl – A day after former president Hassan Rouhani was barred from running in the upcoming March 1 election, the Iranian public remained indifferent to his situation. Iranian hardliners controlling a conspicuous vetting mechanism told the former president that he was barred for running for re-election at Assembly of experts that will elect the next Supreme Leader after Ali Khamenei’s death. Most …

RFL/RE – It is not only missiles that are being lobbed as U.S. and U.K. air strikes aim to stop the Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen from targeting ships in a key global trade route — mutual threats of continued attacks are flying around, too. The question is how far each side might go in carrying out their warnings without …

Iranwire – A sharp rise in executions in Iran has sparked a passionate call from Iranian civil society to abolish the death penalty in Iran, with a growing number of activists in and outside of the country announcing plans to go on hunger strike to make their voices heard. The campaign has grown since imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges …

Iranwire – An Iranian deputy education minister has said that approximately 30,000 children with disabilities are unable to attend primary schools in the country. Speaking on January 26, Masoumeh Najafi Pazuki also said that 140,000 pupils dropped out of school last year, while media reports have put the figure at over 200,000. Pazuki attributed the discrepancy to “deficiencies in the …

Iranwire – China has asked the Islamic Republic of Iran to help rein in attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthi rebels, the Reuters news agency reported on January 26. Four unidentified Iranian sources and a diplomat were quoted as saying that the matter was raised at recent meetings between Chinese and Iranian officials in both …

Iranwire – The Revolutionary Court of Karaj has sentenced a Master’s student in economics at the University of Tehran to one year in prison for engaging in propaganda against the Islamic Republic, as the authorities are intensifying their efforts to control the universities’ population which has been at the forefront of the 2022 uprising. Parisa Salehi was also handed a …

Iranwire – An Iranian woman prisoner in her 70s was rushed from Tehran’s Evin prison to a hospital after suffering a heart attack. Raheleh Rahemipour underwent an electrocardiograph on January 25 before being taken to hospital, Narges Mohammadi, the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner imprisoned in Evin, said on her Instagram account. The incident occurred as dozens of women political …

Iranwire – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk says he is alarmed by the “sharp spike” in the use of the death penalty in Iran, including the executions of two men earlier this week.  “The right to due process and a fair trial for all defendants must be adhered to. I am also deeply disturbed by reports of …

VOA – The U.S. government privately warned Iran that the Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan was preparing to carry out a terrorist attack before bombings in Kerman earlier this month that killed 95 people, a U.S. official said Thursday. The official, who was not authorized to comment and insisted on anonymity to discuss the intelligence, said the U.S. was …