Science and Technology

VOA – Iran has moved all its machines that make centrifuge parts from its mothballed workshop at Karaj to its sprawling Natanz site just six weeks after it set up another site at Isfahan to make the same parts, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday. Iran granted International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors access to Karaj in December to re-install …

Iranwire – The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when the faithful in most Islamic countries keep a fast each day from dawn to dusk, began this year on Sunday, April 3. The very next day in Iran’s Lorestan province, it was reported that several businesses had been closed, and a handful of people arrested, for violating domestic fasting laws. Colonel …

Al-Monitor – The spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Saeed Khatibzadeh, dismissed new sanctions announced by the US Treasury against an Iranian national and his four companies connected to Tehran’s missile program. “It is yet another indication of the US government’s ill intentions toward the Iranian nation,” Khatibzadeh said in a statement on March 31. The US Treasury stated on Wednesday that it had …

VOA- The United States on Wednesday announced sanctions on five Iranians and several Iranian entities it said were involved in the country’s ballistic missile program. The sanctions specifically target the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Research and Self Sufficiency Jihad Organization, which is responsible for the research and development of ballistic missiles, the Treasury Department said. Also targeted was Iran’s Parchin …

Iranwire – People in rural areas of Iran were disproportionately affected by power outages in the aftermath of major blackouts in spring and summer 2021, a new survey by Iran Open Data has found. The country’s decaying electricity infrastructure was widely blamed for long-running outages in parts of the country from May through to August last year. Hospitals, local government and businesses …

Al-Monitor – Iran is offering a visa aimed at attracting startups, innovation and foreign investment.  The visa is for “innovators and startup managers who are keen on investing in Iran,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Wednesday.  Individuals who receive the visa can stay in the country from three to six months and will then be eligible to receive residency. Grantees …

Iranhr.net -We, the undersigned human rights and civil society organizations, are alarmed by Iranian parliament’s move to ratify the general outlines of the draconian “Regulatory System for Cyberspace Services Bill,” previously known as the “User Protection Bill” and referred to hereafter as “the Bill.” If passed, the Bill will violate an array of human rights of people in Iran, including …

Al-Monitor – Iran gained more than $2.7 million from nanotechnology sales in 2021, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Wednesday.  Nanotechnology refers to industrial production from atomic and molecule-sized matter. The field has several industrial and environmental benefits, but also has downsides, such as the possibility of creating toxic waste.  Among Iran’s nanotechnology products, 42% are related to construction, 17% are related to petroleum …

Al-Monitor – The Lead: US Intel community assesses the threats from Iran and Russia US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Director of Central Intelligence William Burns and other top national security officials are testifying this week before the House and Senate Select Committees on Intelligence on the Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community, the unclassified “collective insights” about “the most direct, serious threats to the …

CHRI – UN human rights experts have urged the Iranian government to abandon a proposed bill that would drastically increase the authorities’ ability to censor and surveil activity on the internet. “This bill represents a worrying step towards the consolidation of a digital wall in Iran,” the experts said on March 1, 2022. “It will further restrict information in an environment where the freedom …