Social and Political

Al-Arabia – Israel’s envoy to the United Nations said on Thursday that Iran had recruited at least 80,000 Shiite fighters which it was training at a base just over five miles from Holding up a map, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told the Security Council that Iran had set up a training base just over five miles …

VOA – Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says there has been no decision made on any U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement but Washington is working with its European allies to see if there are ways to improve the pact.

Al-Monitor – Censorship is nothing new for the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), but particularly awkward editing has recently brought the state broadcaster international ridicule. The censoring of sports events and movies is common on Iranian television. Iranian viewers have grown accustomed to shots of the audience being cut from live coverage of sports competitions. But IRIB made world …

Al-Monitor – A former commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that if the United States walks away from the nuclear deal, Iran could respond by exiting the international treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Talking to reporters on April 26, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, deemed as “very serious” the warnings issued by …

Radiofarda – Approximately nine thousand child laborers in Iran, many of whom homeless and vulnerable to violence and sexual abuse, have been identified and given shelter, according to top officials in the Islamic Republic.

RFL/RE – Iranian authorities have ordered the social-messaging app Telegram to move its servers outside the country. The Supreme Cyberspace Council, Iran’s Internet watchdog, said in a statement on April 26 that it had canceled the license that allowed Telegram servers to be hosted in Iran. The decision means that all incoming messages have to be channeled through Iran’s government-controlled …

RFL/RE – The U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation into suspected violations of Iran sanctions by China’s Huawei Technologies, U.S. media reported on April 25.

AL-Arabia – Israel would retaliate against any Iranian attack on Tel Aviv by striking Tehran, Israel’s defense minister said in remarks published on Thursday, as the arch-foes faced off over Syria.

VOA – Dozens of steel workers in northern Iran have staged a public protest outside government buildings to call for pressure on their employer to hand over several months’ worth of unpaid wages. Iranian state-run news agency ILNA said about 100 workers of the Qazvin Steel Company rallied on Wednesday outside the provincial governor’s office in Qazvin, before moving on …

lobelog – Recently the neo-conservative writer Eli Lake of Bloomberg Views interviewed Iranian exiled dissident and Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi. He chose a highly charged title for the interview: “Shirin Ebadi Is Done Trying to Reform Iran. She Wants Regime Change.” Ebadi, an established lawyer in Iran who also took on human rights cases, left Iran some years ago. She …