Social and Political

Al-Monitor – Nearly eight years after the start of the Syrian conflict, forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad — backed by Iran, Russia and Lebanon’s Hezbollah — have reclaimed control over most territories once held by the rebels. As one of the main allies of Assad, who received Iranian aid in the form of military advisers, manpower and billions of …

atlanticcouncil – Forty years have passed since the Iranian Revolution—a revolution that promised to usher in democracy, freedom, and prosperity for all. Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, an influential cleric, recently exclaimed that Iran has progressed more in the last “forty years than it had in the 400 years prior.” Has it?

Radiofarda -More than a year after an Iranian oil tanker sank in the East China Sea, reportedly killing all aboard, the families of the Iranian victims say they’ve been receiving mysterious telephone calls from their supposedly dead relatives that are abruptly cut off.

Radiofarda – As the anniversary of events leading up to the fall of Iran’s monarchy in 1979 starts, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has tweeted a message in Persian saying, “40 years of failure – It didn’t need to be this way”.

Radiofarda – One day after Germany France and the UK launched INSTEX (Instrument In Support Of Trade Exchanges) to help reduce the impact of sanctions on Iran there are still speculations about the measures’ effectiveness, with some saying INTEX simply has symbolic significance.

Radiofarda – One day after calling U.S. intelligence chiefs “naive”, President Donald Trump accused the Democrats of being “weak and passive with Iran”.

RFL/RE – Iran is marking the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that toppled the shah, ending 2,500 years of monarchical rule.

RFL/RE — The Republican-led U.S. Senate approved a mainly symbolic bill opposing plans to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan in a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump.

VOA — Facebook said Thursday it took down hundreds of “inauthentic” accounts from Iran that were part of a vast manipulation campaign operating in more than 20 countries.

Al-Monitor There is no doubt that the reimposed US sanctions on Iran will compel Tehran to shift more proactively toward deeper political and economic ties with Eastern powers. Here, China stands out not only as Iran’s largest trading partner, but also as the top buyer of Iranian oil — and hence the key player in filling the vacuum left by a …