Social and Political

Radiofarda – US. and Iranian leaders issued statements or delivered speeches on the occasion of the Iranian New Year or Norooz (Nowrouz), March 21, all vying for the attention and sympathy of the people in Iran, who are facing one their hardest year’s ahead. These messages inevitably had a heavy political tone, with leaders blaming one another for increasing hardship …

Al-Arabia – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hopes to use his first visit to Lebanon this week to step up pressure on Iran and its local ally, Hezbollah. Pompeo will meet Friday with President Michel Aoun and will also hold talks with Lebanon’s parliament speaker and foreign minister – all three of whom are close Hezbollah allies. He will …

Al-Arabia – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the economic difficulties of Iranians the main and most urgent problem of the country in a message aired Thursday on state TV. Iran has faced increased economic hardship in the last 12 months, which was aggravated after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world …

VOA – Turkey is heralding as groundbreaking a joint military operation with Iran against Kurdish rebel groups. Turkish-Iranian relations have markedly improved, to the concern of Turkey’s Western allies. Coordinated and concurrent military strikes against “terror groups” were carried out along the “borders of the two countries,” read a statement by the Iranian Interior Ministry, released Wednesday and reported by …

VOA – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are vowing to counter what they call Iran’s aggression in the Middle East. “We need to increase it, we need to expand it, and together the United States and Israel are working in close coordination to roll back Iranian aggression in the region and around the …

Al-Monitor – The reimposition of secondary US sanctions and the consequent hesitation of international banks, European export credit agencies and enterprises to engage Iran have severely undermined the potential for Iran-EU trade. The establishment of the Instrument to Support Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) can be seen as a positive step forward, but it is yet to become operational. In the meantime, …

Al-Monitor – Alarmed by losing viewers to home videos or online broadcasts, Iranian state TV has found a not-so-original way to keep Iranians interested: copycatting popular Western shows. The controversial move has brought both praise and criticism. In recent years, state TV has lost many of its viewers for different reasons. The public broadcaster, controlled fully by hard-liners, is often accused of not being objective in …

Radiofarda – The trial of Esmaeil Bakhshi, Ali Nejati and other defendants arrested amid protests and strikes at the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane industrial complex in the city of Shush, southwest Iran, has been referred to the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. The Revolutionary Courts, set up after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, are tasked with trying those suspected of crimes …

Radiofarda – A right-wing student group in Iran has called on the country’s new Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raeesi (Raeisi) to indict his predecessor and another senior politician for being involved in a “land grab” case in the lavish Lavasan area north of Tehran. The group has asked the Judiciary to hand Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani and former Parliament Speaker and …

Radiofarda – The United States is extending a waiver to allow Iraq to continue to buy electricity from Iran, despite sanctions imposed by Washington targeting Tehran’s energy sector.The original waiver, issued in December 2017, expired on March 19.The State Department issued the second three-month exemption to help prevent a destabilization of Iraq, which has relied on Iranian gas and electricity …