Social and Political

Iranwire – Washington says it has held back-channel talks with Tehran in recent days to warn the Islamic Republic against escalating the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas. While the United States has not had formal diplomatic relations with Tehran since 1980, US national-security adviser Jake Sullivan told US broadcaster CBS News on October 15 that the White House …

VOA – One of Iran’s most prominent filmmakers, Dariush Mehrjui, was stabbed to death Saturday evening alongside his wife at their home near Tehran. A provincial chief justice said Mehrjui and his wife, Vahideh Mohammadifar, “were killed by multiple stab wounds to the neck,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said. According to Hossein Fazeli-Harikandi, chief justice of Alborz province near …

VOA – Iran warned Israel of escalation if it failed to end aggressions against Palestinians, with its foreign minister saying other parties in the region were ready to act, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Sunday. “If the Zionist aggressions do not stop, the hands of all parties in the region are on the trigger,” Hossein Amirabdollahian was quoted …

gatestoneinstitute.org – “We coordinated with Hezbollah and with Iran and the Axis [of Resistance] before, during and after the battle at the highest level.” — Hamas representative Ahmed Abdulhadi, revealing Hamas coordination before and during the massacre, Newsweek, October 11, 2023. Another Hamas official, Ali Baraka, told Russia’s state-run RT outlet that his group had secretly planned the assault for two …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – Three men including two Afghan nationals who were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, were executed in Qezel Hesar Prison. This brings the number of people executed at the prison that day to four. According to HRANA news agency, three men were executed in Qezel Hear Prison in Karaj on 11 October. Their identities have been established …

Al-Arabia – US military officials displayed what they said were pieces of Iranian drones recovered in Ukraine to UN member states on Thursday — evidence, according to the Pentagon, of growing ties between Iran and Russia. The US mission to the UN said representatives from more than 40 countries attended the event, where Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officials said the …

Al-Arabia – Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement said Friday it would be “fully prepared” to join its Palestinian ally Hamas in the war against Israel when the time is right. Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem spoke as Hamas and Israel traded heavy fire for a seventh day, after hundreds of Hamas gunmen stormed across the border from Gaza into Israel on Saturday and …

iranintl – Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations has called for a credible military threat to punish Iran for its ongoing support of terrorist groups. In an interview with Iran International, the Israeli UN ambassador Gilad Erdan called the Iranian regime a global threat and said: “The Ayatollah regime today is exactly like the Nazi regime during WWII,” after Israeli …

iranintl – Indiscriminate violence against Afghan migrants earlier this month has led to serious concerns of escalation of maltreatment of Afghans in Iran in the coming days. At least three major instances of violence against Afghans have been reported on social media where the hashtag “Expulsion of Afghans a National Demand” was used to promote Anti-Afghan immigrants’ views. A large …

Iranwire – Professor Amir Mobarez Parasta, an Iranian-German eye surgeon and head of Munich Eye Center, has dedicated a major part of his life to helping Iranians who lost one or both eyes during the 2022 nationwide protests. After protester were killed and maimed all throughout the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, Dr. Parasta and his colleagues in the Munich Circle, a …