Social and Political

gatestoneinstitute.org – The threat of a nuclear-armed Iran must not be underestimated. Iran’s regime has frequently threatened to wipe a whole country — Israel — off the map, and is also increasing military cooperation with Venezuela and Cuba to threaten the US. Europe, too, remains a rich target for nuclear blackmail. Iran would not even have to use its nuclear …

CHRI – The surging executions of political prisoners in Iran are part of a state campaign deployed to crush dissent, and should be met with strong action by the international community, said the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). A child was among those hanged this week in Iran, in violation of the absolute prohibition against the execution of …

Al-Arabia – Iran warned of “severe consequences” as the deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas resumed on Friday after a seven-day truce expired.Militants from the Iran-backed Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 in which Israeli officials say about 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, and around 240 were taken hostage.Israel, whose main ally is the United States, …

RFL/RE – Iran remained the leading state sponsor of global terrorism last year, involved in backing terrorist recruitment, financing, and plotting across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, the U.S. State Department said in its 2022 Country Reports On Terrorism released on December 1. In the Middle East, Iran continued to back Hizballah, designated a terrorist group by Washington in …

iranintl – The Belgian police are beefing up security measures to protect Darya Safai, an Iranian-born member of parliament, following death threats she received on social media. In an interview with Iran International, Safai said that the death threats against her have increased following the Israel-Hamas conflict. “I should be careful and report any suspicious events around me” to the …

Iranwire – At least 118 transborder porters, or kolbars, were killed or wounded in western Iran in November, representing a nearly three-fold increase compared to the previous month, a human rights group says.  The Kurdish organization Hengaw reported that over the past month, eight kolbars died, including one under the age of 18, and 110 others sustained injuries, including 14 …

Iranwire – When Joe Biden became US president in January 2021, officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran expected that Donald Trump’s successor would not impose new sanctions on the country; in this, they were mistaken. President Biden’s administration was also expected to return to the nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – and while it …

RFL/RE – Iranian authorities on November 30 rearrested a dissident rapper and returned him to jail less than two weeks after his release on bail, according to his own social media account. Toomaj Salehi was violently detained by armed plainclothes agents in the city of Babylon and then taken to an unknown location, according to social media accounts affiliated with him. The …

VOA – Israel has made its first public comment on Iran’s apparent coercion of its Jewish minority into staging unprecedented anti-Israel rallies a month ago, telling VOA that it believes the Iranian Jews who participated in them had “no choice.” “We understand perfectly [their] circumstances,” said Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry Deputy Director General for Public Diplomacy Emmanuel Nahshon in a …

VOA – The House passed a bipartisan measure Thursday that would block Iran from accessing the $6 billion transferred by the U.S. in a prisoner swap, a step Republicans pushed in response to the nation’s alleged role in the deadly attacks last month by Hamas on Israel. The measure — titled the No Funds for Iranian Terrorism Act — passed …