Social and Political

Radiofarda – The U.S. military has released additional photos that it claims bolster allegations that Iran was responsible for attacks last week on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. The Pentagon on June 17 released images, many taken from a U.S. Navy helicopter and purporting to show Iranian forces removing an unexploded mine from the hull of the …

Al-Arabia – Speaking on Iran’s Channel 2 on Tuesday, the representative of the Iranian Supreme Leader at the Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili said that “the cost of compromise is greater than the cost of resistance,” Mehr News Agency reported. “We can resist America’s economic pressure with the same determination we displayed during the Sacred Defence,” he said, referring …

RFL/RE – China has warned the United States to ease what it calls its “extreme pressure methods” on Iran as concerns about a possible confrontation between Washington and Tehran mount.Speaking in the Chinese capital after a meeting with Syria’s foreign minister, Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi, the government’s top diplomat, also called on Iran to remain in a nuclear accord …

VOA – The U.S. Defense Department has released new photographs it says are more proof that Iran attacked two foreign oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week. The pictures show what the United States says are Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces taking an unexploded mine off the side of the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous tanker. Another shot shows where the …

CHRI – The Iranian Parliament has approved a bill that if enacted into law would allow courts to impose severe punishments including the death penalty against individuals convicted of acid attacks. But activists and some reformist members of Parliament argue that the government should be focused on restricting the availability of the corrosive substances that are being used to disfigure …

Al-Monitor – Iranian Reformists are getting serious about boycotting the upcoming 2020 parliamentary elections. In the disputed 2009 presidential vote, the camp rallied behind contenders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi as they faced incumbent hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The outcome was shocking for many, leading Reformist candidates to allege the ballot was rigged, with mass protests ensuing. The two Reformist …

Al-Monitor – In an apparent last-ditch attempt to force Europe’s hand in preserving the nuclear deal and showing Iranian resolve to step away if their interests are not guaranteed, Iran has announced it will continue to scale back its commitments under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, spoke to reporters …

Al-Monitor – When Pooyeh Nourian tweeted her outrage with a Tehran cab driver she had ordered through a popular ride-hailing app, she probably had no idea that her tweets would open a Pandora’s box on Iran’s controversial hijab rules. Minutes into embarking on the trip from Tehran’s affluent north, the young Iranian woman was criticized by the driver over her failure to observe proper hijab. In …

Radiofarda – As more countries openly accuse Iran and its Revolutionary Guards for the attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, top Iranian officials, religious leaders and media mostly keep a low profile. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani have been conspicuously silent about the reports on IRGC’s involvement. Rouhani has mainly repeated the usual …

Radiofarda – Iran’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Hamid Baeidinejad, says the husband of a dual national, British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran has blocked the doorway to the embassy. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard, spent Saturday night in a tent near the embassy in Kensigton, London in solidarity with her wife who went on hunger strike on the same day at …