Social and Political

Al-Arabia – Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Saturday frequent US comments about oil prices had created market tensions, the ministry’s news website SHANA reported. Washington had granted waivers to eight major buyers of Iranian oil after the US reimposed sanctions on Iran’s oil sector in November, after withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.“We do not know whether …

VOA — A Washington-based lawyer says a U.S. Navy veteran held in Iran, the first American known to be detained since President Donald Trump took office, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. FILE – Michael White, an American Navy veteran, is seen in an undated photograph. Credit – Joanne White. Mark Zaid told The Associated Press on Saturday …

gatestoneinstitute -The last century witnessed a plethora of ideology-based regimes: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the People’s Republic of China, the United Arab Republic and the Buddhist Socialist State of Myanmar among others. The pretension behind all those labels was that rather than being the art of solving the people’s problems, politics was a means of advancing the real …

Al-Monitor – Two separate terrorist attacks in Iran and India last month – both perpetrated by Pakistan-based Islamist groups – have accelerated the ongoing convergence of Tehran and New Delhi. The first attack took place Feb. 13 in Iran’s Zahedan province, claiming the lives of 27 members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. On Feb. 14, in Kashmir’s Pulwama, a …

Radiofarda – A veteran member of parliament and a former commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has been convicted of rape, the head of the Justice Department, Gholamhossein Esmaeili, announced on March 15. Iranian MP Salman Khodadadi (L), who’s been accused of sexual misconduct and one of his alleged victim Zahra Navidpour. Hours later, the IRGC-run Fars news …

Radiofarda – A member of the Iranian reformist Supreme Council for Policymaking says Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri continues to serve in his post after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected his resignation. Reports about Jahangiri’s resignation made headlines in recent months, but Rouhani’s administration has denied it. Ali Soufi, who was minister during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami (2001-2005), said, …

Radiofarda – Western European cities dominated Mercer’s 2019 Quality of Living report comparing the quality of life in cities around the world, while Tehran ranked near the bottom, at 199 out of 231 cities surveyed. For the tenth year in a row, the Austrian capital, Vienna, held its spot as the number one city in terms of quality of life. …

Radiofarda – Praise for prominent jailed Iranian lawyer and human rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh by France’s representative to the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) last Tuesday turned into a war of words between Tehran and Paris. France – Marlene Schiappa, Secretary of Equality between women and men in the French government. CSW, launched in 1946, is the …

Radiofarda – Institute for Science, a Washington-based think tank focused on nuclear non-proliferation has published evidence on its Twitter page, that might prove Iran’s famous nuclear site Fordow had been set up years before the Islamic Republic admitted its existence. Students form a human chain during a protest to defend Iran’s nuclear program outside the Fordow Uranium Conversion Facility in …

CHRI – Sentences Range from Six to 26 Years Including Lashes March 15, 2019 – The mass conviction of 23 dervishes of the Sufi Gonabadi Order to prison terms of up to 26 years as well as lashings further curbs religious freedom rights in Iran. “It’s a clear assault on a religious minority,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of …