Social and Political

Radiofarda – The U.S. Mission in Geneva has strongly condemned the Iranian authorities for “acts of violence committed against Iranian protesters”, in tweet on November 21. The Mission in Geneva represents U.S. interests at the United Nations bodies and other international organizations based in that city. In the tweet the U.S. Mission expresses its deep concern over reports of fatalities …

Al-Arabia – The recent anti-government protests in Iran resembled a “full-fledged world war” against Iran involving a “satanic coalition” of foreign powers, said a senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported late Thursday. The recent protests in Iran, which “suddenly spread across the entire country,” were a “full-fledged world war” …

Al-Arabia -Iraq’s top Shia Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Friday called on politicians to hurry up in reforming electoral laws and said the changes would be the only way to resolve weeks of deadly unrest. “We affirm the importance of speeding up the passing of the electoral law and the electoral commission law because this represents the country …

Al-Arabia – Three Iraqi protesters were killed and 25 wounded on Friday amid ongoing clashes with security forces near a strategic bridge in Baghdad, security and medical officials said. The clashes come just hours after some of the most intense street altercations in recent days, which killed 10 protesters and injured over 100. Security forces used tear gas and live ammunition …

RFL/RE – Special prosecutors have filed a new charge against a woman suspected of conspiring with relatives in the alleged honor killings in Texas of her estranged sister’s American husband and a friend, who was an Iranian rights activist. Gelareh Bagherzadeh, a Texas Medical Center student and Iranian activist was shot dead in Houston in 2012. The authorities on November …

RFL/RE — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is calling on Iranians to send the United States videos, photos, and other information “documenting the regime’s crackdown” on protesters, as authorities in Iran are slowly easing up on blocking access to the Internet.“The U.S. will expose and sanction the abuses,” Pompeo wrote in a tweet published late on November 21 in both English and Persian,s Iran’s …

RFL/RE – U.S. President Donald Trump has accused Tehran of disconnecting Iranians from Internet access to cover up dozens of killings over the past week amid protests that erupted over fuel-price hikes.“Iran has become so unstable that the regime has shut down their entire Internet System…thinking the world will not find out the death and tragedy that the Iranian Regime …

CHRI – App Would Expose Users to State Surveillance, Various Security Risks Recent news that the Iranian government is developing a virtual private network (VPN) app that would grant less censored internet access to select groups of users has raised concerns that the state is implementing a discriminatory system that would restrict the right of access to information to be determined by a …

CHRI – The European Union’s External Action Committee, which manages the EU’s diplomatic relations with other countries and conducts EU foreign and security policy for the 28-country bloc, released a statement today, November 21, calling on the Iran’s security forces to exercise “maximum restraint” in handling the protests throughout the country, noting that “any violence is unacceptable.” Protests broke out across Iran on November …

Al-Monitor – After four days of a near complete internet blackout, Iranian authorities have begun to restore internet connectivity to the country. According to Fars News Agency, the resumption of internet access is being done “gradually” and “province by province.” According to the Fars report, Hormozgan, Arak, Kermanshah, Mashhad, Qom, Tabriz, Hamedan, Bushehr and parts of Tehran are being reconnected. Public acces to the internet was …