Social and Political

Al-Arabia – Iranian website Jamaran published on Wednesday an interview with Ghoulam-Ali Rajai, former chairman and advisor to Iran’s former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died two weeks ago at the age of 82. In the interview, Rajai accused former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad quoting Rafsanjani of obstructing the agreement with Saudi Arabia. According to Rajai, Rafsanjani stressed, saying to …

Iranhumanrights.org – Less than three months into his new post as culture and Islamic guidance minister, Reza Salehi Amiri boasted about banning ten films from entering the Tehran Fajr International Film Festival, “in line with the policies of the supreme leader,” on January 19, 2017. “For the first time, we cut out films with feminist and inappropriate themes and supported 30 films …

Al-Arabia – When former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died Jan. 8, much was made of the absence of a message of condolence from Saudi Arabia. This was especially stark since Rafsanjani personally enjoyed good relations with many Arab leaders and had played a key role in the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement in the years after the end of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. Indeed, rulers …

Al-Arabia – If Donald Trump preserves the Iran nuclear deal, that will surprise many Iranians. AUTHOR Barbara Slavin That’s one finding of a new poll by the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) & IranPoll.com, which have repeatedly surveyed Iranian public opinion in recent years. Of 1,000 Iranians polled from Dec. 10-24 last year, a month after Trump’s election, …

PayvandNews – Death toll from last week’s collapse of a high-rise in the Iranian capital Tehran rises as rescue teams recover more bodies. On Wednesday, rescue teams pulled out eight more bodies buried under rubble as they reached the ground stories of Plasco Building that collapsed in downtown Tehran on January 19. The fallen firefighters Rescue workers had already retrieved …

PayvandNews – Following the disclosure of Russian military presence in the form of Russian jets using the Iranian bases, and also firing of Russian cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea and over the airspace of Iran towards certain targets in Syria, some of the advisers to the Islamic Republic in Iran have announced that these are taking place in line …

RFL/RE – U.S. media are reporting that President Donald Trump, starting on January 25, will order sweeping anti-immigration measures, including a temporary ban on refugees and suspension of U.S. visas for citizens of Syria, Iraq, Iran, and other Muslim countries. The ban on allowing refugees into the United States except for religious minorities escaping persecution is expected to last multiple …

Iran’s Foreign Ministry responded to a letter from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed to the Iranian people, in which he said he “distinguishes between the Iranian regime and the people.” The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said at news conference on Monday that “Netanyahu ought to stop the massacres against the Palestinian people, and not talk about Iran, …

VOA – A rare protest by Iranians against their government’s use of broadcast jamming equipment is bringing global attention to growing concerns about the health impact of the practice. Dozens of residents of the southern Iranian city of Shiraz joined the protest January 9, rallying outside the headquarters of the governor of Fars province, of which Shiraz is the capital. Participants …

Radiozamaneh – The 17-story building that collapsed on 19 Jan in Tehran, Iran, was home to 560 small business units, many of them repairing workshops and sweatshops. The workers who worked in the building are now left unemployed without benefits. The body of a victim is excavated from the collapsed building rubble and carried by firefighters. The Plasco building collapsed …