Social and Political

Al-Monitor – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson for Arab Media, Ofir Gendelman, recently accused the organizers of the Tehran International Book Fair of showcasing “dozens of anti-Semitic books on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day.” Gendelman made the commentin a tweet along with pictures of the visit of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the book fair as well …

Radiofarda – For the first time in days a top Iranian revolutionary Guard commander has commented about ongoing tensions in the Persian Gulf, saying that Iran does not seek war, but is not afraid of it either. The newly appointed chief commander of the Guards, Hossein Salami, in a ceremony introducing new commanders for the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) …

Radiofarda – Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for an Iranian man accused of murdering an American woman during a robbery in 2012. The official Iran Daily identified the accused May 18 by his first name, Siamak. According to Iran, Siamak, twenty-year-old at the time, plotted along with his 21-year-old accomplice, Akbar, to steal a car belonging to …

Al-Arabia – Iran is not pursuing war, the head of the elite Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday, according to the Fars news agency.“The difference between us and them is that they are afraid of war and don’t have the will for it,” Major General Hossein Salami said. Salami had said on Saturday that his country is in a full intelligence war …

Al-Arabia – Iran was “highly likely” behind the attacks on the four tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, according to the official assessment by the US.The US has evidence – photos of the damage and forensics – linking Iran or its proxies to the attacks, reported NBC News.Explosive charges were used to damage the four ships, two from …

RFL/RE – U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil has evacuated its foreign staff from an oil field in Iraq, the country’s oil minister says. The evacuation of around 60 ExxonMobil employees, mostly Americans, comes amid escalating tensions between the United States and Iran, with concerns about a potential military conflict. Iraqi Oil Minister Thamir Ghadhban said in a May 19 statement that …

RFL/RE – Saudi Arabia has called for two urgent meetings of its Arab allies later this month to discuss recent attacks on shipping and oil-production sites amid rising tensions with bitter regional rival Iran.Saudi King Salman on May 18 called for leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League to meet for the emergency summits in Mecca on …

VOA — Saudi Arabia said Sunday that it wants to avert war in the region but stands ready to respond with “all strength” following last week’s attacks on Saudi oil assets, telling Iran that the ball was now in its court. Riyadh has accused Tehran of ordering Tuesday’s drone strikes on two oil pumping stations in the kingdom, claimed by …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif has acknowledged that…. if anyone notices the Islamic Republic it is because its leaders are or pretend to be anti-American. In other words, anti-Americanism upgrades a ramshackle and incompetent regime that is visibly incapable of running a kebab-shop let alone a modern developing society. Zarif says that without anti-Americanism we would, at …

Radiofarda – Amnesty International has urged Tehran’s Prosecutor General to allow an imprisoned Swedish-Iranian scientist to receive specialized medical care after months of suffering from serious health problems. In a letter to the prosecutor, Ali Alghasi Mehr, the international human rights organization has noted that Ahmadreza Jalali (Djalali), who has been in prison since 2016, suffers from a low white …