Social and Political

VOA – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has told allies in the Middle East and Europe that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, unless it can be fixed. Pompeo began his first official foreign trip just hours after he was sworn in on Thursday. After …

Amnesty – For nearly three decades, the Iranian authorities have systematically concealed the whereabouts of thousands of political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, who were forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed in 1988. Amnesty International and Justice for Iran have documented how the authorities have destroyed or damaged mass grave sites across Iran that are believed to contain the remains of …

Radiofarda – Iranian hackers have attacked user accounts of several Iranian charity workers, academics, dual nationals living abroad as well as tens of political and civil activists in Iran, reported Campaign for Human Rights in Iran on Saturday April 28.

Radiofarda – The managing editor of reformist daily Sharq was taken into custody on Saturday, April 28, by the order of a judge based in Mashhad, holiest Shi’ite city in Iran.

Radiofarda – Azerbaijan’s state-run oil and gas company, Socar, signed a new 25-year production sharing contract (PSA) with British Petroleum on April 26 to explore and develop an oil and gas block in the Caspian Sea. Socar is also preparing to contract another offshore gas project with Norwegian Statoil next month.

Radiofarda – A war of hashtags has taken over social media following a Q&A session with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the Council on Foreign Relations on April 23.

Radiofarda – Three representatives of the International Labor Organization (ILO) have been allowed to meet an unknown number of independent Iranian labor activists in Tehran, reports say.

 Al Arabiya  – Audio and text messages obtained by the Washington Post have revealed a multi-million dollar sum allocated to Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as part of a deal to release 25 members from its ruling family from Iraqi kidnappers last year.

VOA — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is using the Middle East leg of his first trip abroad as America’s top diplomat to call for concerted international action to punish Iran for its missile programs. He’s also urging Saudi Arabia and its neighbors to resolve a long-festering dispute with Qatar that U.S. officials say Iran is exploiting to boost its …

RFL/RE – An attempt by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to defend the hijab rule and downplay human rights violations in the country has not gone down well with some Iranians.