Iranwire – The Islamic Republic’s parliament has once again forwarded the contentious “Hijab and Chastity Bill” to the Guardian Council, after President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration committed to allocate the necessary budget for its implementation. The review of the proposed legislation in parliament has been marked by controversy and delays.  The bill, aimed at enforcing stricter adherence to mandatory hijab rules, …

Iranwire – The United States says it will unveil new sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran “in the coming days” in retaliation for its arms sales to Russia, and threatened a “severe” response if Tehran moves forward with selling ballistic missiles to Moscow. “We have not seen any confirmation that missiles have actually moved from Iran to Russia,” National …

RFL/RE – Documents leaked by the hacktivist group Edalat-e Ali (Ali’s Justice) appear to show clandestine actions against journalists of Persian-language media operating outside of Iran, including those affiliated with RFE/RL’s Radio Farda, by the Iranian judiciary.The leaked documents list 44 journalists and media activists who have been targeted for allegedly undermining the regime. The findings were part of a broader expose …

VOA – Four foreign nationals were charged Thursday with transporting suspected Iranian-made weapons on a vessel intercepted by U.S. naval forces in the Arabian Sea last month. Two Navy SEALs died during the mission. The criminal complaint unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Richmond alleges that the four defendants — who were all carrying Pakistani identification cards — were …

VOA – Candidates for Iran’s parliament began campaigning Thursday in the country’s first election since the bloody crackdown on the 2022 nationwide protests that followed the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody. State television said 15,200 candidates will compete for a four-year term in the 290-seat chamber that hardliners have controlled for two decades. That is a record …

gatestoneinstitute.org – “Ending Hamas’s rule is very good for everyone, even for Hamas itself. It will prevent Hamas from tampering with the Gaza Strip and will put an end to the torture and killing of the people of Palestine. Overthrowing Hamas and ending its coup in Palestine is important for every Palestinian and Arab.” — Abdullah Ghanem al-Qahtani, Saudi social …

Iran-HRM – Shahab Nadali, a political prisoner from Hamedan, has been convicted and sentenced to execution by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court of Iran, presided over by Judge Iman Afshari, in a fabricated case on charges of “membership in opposition groups” and “connection with the Mojahedin and armed cooperation with them” accused of rebellion. (Bagh-y) Shahab Nadali is a …

Al-Arabia – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Thursday described Israel as a “cancerous tumor” destined for “destruction.” “The Islamic world will certainly witness the destruction of the Zionist cancerous tumor,” state news agency IRNA quoted Khamenei as saying. Iran does not recognize Israel and has made support for the Palestinian cause a fundamental component of its foreign policy since …

iranintl – A newspaper previously inked to the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of murdering opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Simultaneously, at least two reports in the Iranian press have accused Putin and Russia of interfering in Iran’s internal affairs. The conservative Jomhouri Eslami newspaper, founded by Khamenei in 1979, charged in its February 20 …

iranintl – Despite global sanctions, Iran has imported at least $236 million worth of aircraft and drone engine parts over the past 10 years from countries including Turkey, the UAE, Germany and even Ukraine and the US.  Data by the Islamic Republic’s customs organization, scrutinized by Iran International, show that around $26 million worth of items listed as prohibited under the US …