Iranwire – A political prisoner is facing imminent execution in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad amid a surge in the use of the death penalty in the country.  “Political prisoner Mohammad Javad Vafaie, currently held in Vakil Abad Prison, Mashhad, is facing the threat of being executed,” the HRANA human rights website reported on January 31.  Vafaie, a 28-year-old …

RFL/RE – An Iranian man is being held for allegedly murdering his 17-year-old son over what he called the teenager’s “feminine” behavior and makeup, in a case that has put the plight of the Islamic nation’s LGBT community in the spotlight once again. According to the Rokna news agency, the father, distressed by his son’s conduct in the northwestern city …

RFL/RE – The United States has charged four Chinese nationals with illegally exporting dual-use U.S. electronic components to Iran over several years. The four individuals smuggled the technology via China and Hong Kong to entities affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL), the U.S. Justice Department said in a …

VOA – The United States struck up to 10 unmanned drones in Yemen that were preparing to launch, a U.S. official said late on Wednesday, amid escalating tensions from the war in Gaza spreading through the region. A U.S. Navy ship also shot down three Iranian drones and a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile in the Gulf of Aden, the U.S. …

VOA – The Iranian government has traced this month’s twin suicide bombings in Kerman city to ethnic-Tajik fighters of the Islamic State Khorasan Province who, experts say, are “fairly small” in number but play “an important part” in the group’s military activities. The Afghanistan-based branch of the Islamic State (IS-K) claimed responsibility for the January 3 blasts that killed at …