Social and Political

Al-Monitor – A group of Iranian lawmakers is seeking caps on child marriage in the country, a drive that seems to have little chance of success due to fierce opposition from hard-liners.

PayvandNews – Europeans have constituted the highest number of arrivals in Iran’s Shahdad desert since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21), ISNA reported. Shahdad – a major part of the Lut desert in southeastern Kerman province – is home to massive sand pyramids created by wind and water. The “Lut” plain is a natural landscape of …

Radiofarda – Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has questioned Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s “Eastern” policy and ruled it out as “meaningless” in unprecedented and provocative comments he made during a speech in Tehran on Friday December 14.

Radiofarda – Iranian news agencies report that the value of the national currency rial has further increased against major currencies, and is now trading below the 100,000 rial to the dollar threshold.

Radiofarda – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday said US sanctions will have no impact on the policies of the Islamic republic at home or abroad.

Radiofarda – For the first time, an Iranian environmental official has admitted that fertile soil from farms and pastures is being smuggled abroad.

Al-Arabia – Political prisoner and lawyer, Narges Mohammadi, sent a letter to Iran’s attorney general, saying that she is not getting her right to receiving medical care and treatment in prison.

Al-Arabia – The appointment of President Hassan Rouhani’s son-in-law as head of Iran’s geological survey has renewed accusations of nepotism and led on Sunday to the resignation of a senior official, according to conservative media.

RFL/RE – Islamabad has lodged a formal protest with Tehran about an attack by militants who killed six Pakistani paramilitary troops as they were patrolling a mountainous area near the Iranian border.

Radiofarda – Tehran’s interim Friday Prayer Leader has once again called for keeping Iran out of international anti-corruption, anti-money-laundering rules and regulations.