Social and Political

Al-Arabia – January is the first anniversary of Iran’s protests. Massive demonstrations shock Iran to the core. A year passed and the Iranian regime’s officials are celebrating their survival. Although supreme leader Ali Khamenei told his followers not to go overboard with joy because in his words” The enemy may have big plans for next year.”

Al-Arabia – The United States has no timeline to withdraw troops from Syria but does not plan to stay indefinitely, a senior State Department official said on Friday, a strong signal that forces could stay until the fight against ISIS militants ends.

CHRI – Judicial Order Tied to Previously Undeclared Policy of App Usage Level Eight months after Iran blocked the country’s most widely used messaging app, Telegram, a deputy prosecutor has announced a judicial order to also filter Instagram due to what he described as over-usage of the social media app.

Radiofarda – The Strategic Foreign Relations Council set up by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says it is not in Iran’s interest to take action about the slow pace of Europe’s initiative to come up with a mechanism to allow trade while Iran is targeted by U.S. sanctions.

Radiofarda – More details have been revealed about the last meeting between Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the leader of Iran’s Green Movement, Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Radiofarda – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that “the sanctions on Iran have an ultimate goal” of “creating an outcome where the Iranian people could have better lives than they have today under this tyrannical regime”.

Radiofarda – Two days after the setting up an expert team to solve the mystery of an obnoxious odor which is bothering the residents of the Iranian capital, the source of the foul smell has not yet been discovered.

Radiofarda – Mohammad Yazdi, 87, a senior influential ayatollah says that in forty years since the 1979 revolution, Iran has had 400 years’ worth of progress.

Al-Arabia – As the leadership in Tehran prepares to mark the 40th anniversary of the Khomeinist revolution, a growing number of Iranians are wondering whether the time has come for their country to close that chapter and resume its historic path as a nation-state.

RFL/RE — U.S. national security adviser John Bolton says he will travel to Israel and Turkey to discuss the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria and how Washington and its allies intend to counter Iran’s “malign behavior” in the region.