Social and Political

Al-Arabia – The Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council called on Iran to reconsider its role in the region, the Secretary-General of the Arab League told reporters following the conclusion of two emergency summits held in Mecca. “The emergency Arab League Summit in Mecca called on Iran to reconsider its role in the region,” Secretary-General of the Arab League …

Al-Arabia – Iranian state broadcasters should replace female presenters with men, Iran’s ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda said, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Alamolhoda is the representative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the country’s Khorasan Razavi province. He is widely believed to be a conservative hardliner and has been in the headlines for making such statements in the …

RFL/RE – Rallies were held across Iran to mark Quds (Jerusalem) Day on May 31.Iran established Quds Day after the 1979 Islamic Revolution as an occasion to express support for the Palestinian people. The state-backed demonstrations are usually aimed against the United States and Israel.Rallies were held in about 950 Iranian cities and towns, as well as in Iraq, Lebanon, …

RFL/RE – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Iran attacked oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) earlier this month in an effort to push global crude prices higher.“These were efforts by the Iranians to raise the price of crude oil throughout the world,” Pompeo told reporters on May 30 before setting off on a …

VOA — Saudi Arabia’s King Salman opened an emergency summit of Gulf Arab leaders in the holy city of Mecca on Thursday with a call for the international community to use all means to confront Iran, but he also said the kingdom extends its hand for peace. King Salman was speaking at the first of three high-level summits in Mecca …

CHRI – Using Iranian government resources, a Tehran-based company has been developing an online censorship circumvention tool that specifically enables users in the country to access a widely used app that was blocked nationwide by judicial order one year ago, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. The proxy called MTProto, enables users to access the blocked Telegram messaging app, which …

Al-Monitor – Russia dispatched one of its leading diplomats to Tehran this week to urge the Iranians to back off their threat to resume certain nuclear activities in retaliation for the US “maximum pressure” campaign. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov sat down for “a square talk” with his counterpart Abbas Araghchi, the Russian foreign minister said in a statement after the …

CNBC – The oil industry is watching the progress of a Chinese tanker that is loaded with Iranian crude, potentially in violation of U.S. sanctions. Two websites that tracks oil vessels, documented the first departure of a supertanker carrying crude oil out of Iran since the Trump administration ended oil waivers earlier this month. The U.S. State Department warns the …

Radiofarda – In what appeared to be Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s first direct response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent denial of intention to change the regime in Iran, Khamenei said on Wednesday May 29 that Tehran will not negotiate with “European countries and others,” over “the honor of the revolution,” while also denouncing negotiation with America as “harmful.” …

Radiofarda – U.S. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus told reporters May 23 that Washington’s “maximum pressure campaign” against Iran “is working” and it will continue until Tehran is willing to reach “a comprehensive new deal”. In her daily briefing for reporters, Ortagus said the U.S. campaign “is designed to deny the Iranian regime…the means to conduct its destructive foreign policy. …