Iranwire – Explosions struck a natural gas pipeline running from Iran’s western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province up north to cities on the Caspian Sea. Saeed Aghli, the manager of Iran’s gas network control center, told state TV that a “sabotage and terrorist” action caused explosions along several areas of the roughly 1,270-kilometer pipeline. The pipeline begins in Asaluyeh, a hub …

VOA – The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog warned Tuesday that Iran is “not entirely transparent” regarding its atomic program, particularly after an official who once led Tehran’s program announced that the Islamic Republic has all the pieces for a weapon “in our hands.” Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, just across the Persian Gulf, Rafael …

Al-Arabia – The websites of Iran’s parliament and its affiliated news agency went down Tuesday after they were targeted by hackers, state media reported. “The websites of the parliament and Khane Mellat (ICANA.ir) news agency have been hacked and become unavailable since this morning due to cyberattacks,” the official IRNA news agency reported. “The scale of the problem is under …

iranintl – Iran’s hardliners appear to be sowing division among Reformists following a declaration by their main organization that they would not participate in elections in Tehran. In fact, Iran’s election watchdog, the Guardian Council, packed with hardliners, has banned almost all Reformists from running in the March 1 parliamentary vote, leaving little choice to a coalition of parties known as the …

iranintl – Iran claimed Monday to have “successfully” launched a long-range ballistic missile from a warship, underlining the regime’s rising belligerence amid a regional crisis. “Nowhere is safe for those powers who seek to threaten our security,” IRGC commander Hossein Salami said in a thinly veiled threat to the United States and its allies, suggesting that Iran’s “ocean-liners” can get …

Iranwire – The Iranian authorities are not implementing the Law on Protection of Disabled Persons, claiming insufficient funds, even though six years have passed since its enactment. There are no accurate statistics on people with disabilities in Iran. The Welfare Organization says 1.6 million of them have been referred to this entity, but the real figure is believed to be …

RFL/RE – Almost six out of every 10 Iranians are neither employed or seeking work, while more than half of those who are employed also hold down a side job. Ghasem Rostampor, the director-general of entrepreneurship and employment planning at the Labor Ministry, told the Tasnim News Agency that 58.5 percent of the country’s population is considered inactive, which refers to …

Iranwire – Fifteen agents from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence raided the home of a Baha’i man, Babak Zamani, in the northern city of Qaimshahr on the morning of February 12, IranWire reports.  The agents had a search warrant in the name of Zamani’s wife, Maryam Zabihi,  Witnesses reported that the agents behaved aggressively toward Zabihi, while her son, Bahamin …

Armita Pavir’s voice trembles with emotion as she speaks from behind the walls of Tabriz prison. This university student has been on hunger strike for the past 17 days – her third over the past five months.  In an audio file obtained by IranWire, Pavir expresses her fears that the prison authorities might put into execution their repeated threats to transfer …

Iranwire – Iranian authorities have sentenced a young Baluch man, Mohammad Narooie, to 12 years in prison for alleged “membership in anti-Islamic Republic groups.”  According to Haalvsh, an organization that monitors rights violations against Iran’s Baluch minority, the alleged actions leading to this charge remain undisclosed, raising concerns about the fairness of the trial. Narooie, a 22-year-old resident of Zahedan, …