Social and Political

voanews – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Thursday seized a tanker in the Persian Gulf that is claimed to have been carrying smuggled fuel. Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said Friday a vessel carrying 900 tons of smuggled fuel and a 12-man crew was seized by Revolutionary Guard’s navy patrol under a court order. The U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet said in …

voanews – Just one day after its launch, Threads, the latest social media network, was blocked by the Islamic Republic, denying access to the Iranian population. This action occurred even though an account had been created for Iran President Ebrahim Raisi on the platform. On Thursday afternoon, Raisi’s user account, under the address raisi.ir, was established on Threads. Within a …

alarabiya – Britain welcomes the recent rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran and hopes that it will change Tehran’s behavior in the region, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in an interview with Al Arabiya on Thursday. “We welcome dialogue and hope that the conversations and the meetings that the Saudis had with Iran bring about a change of behavior, …

alarabiya – The US Justice Department filed a forfeiture complaint this week to take control over thousands of weapons seized by the US Navy from Iran to terrorist groups in Yemen, including the Iran-backed Houthis. More than 9,000 rifles, 284 machine guns, approximately 194 rocket launchers, over 70 anti-tank guided missiles and over 700,000 rounds of ammunition were seized by …

apnews – UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and its Western allies clashed with Russia and Iran at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday over Tehran’s advancing uranium enrichment and its reported supply of combat drones to Moscow being used to attack Ukraine. The sharp exchanges came at the council’s semi-annual meeting on implementation of its resolution endorsing the …

RFL/RE – Iran tried to seize two oil tankers in international waters near the strategic Strait of Hormuz early on July 5, firing shots at one of them, the U.S. Navy said. It said that, in both cases, the Iranian naval vessels backed off after the U.S. Navy responded to distress signals, and that both commercial ships continued their voyages. “The …

Iranwire – The London-based ARTICLE 19 media freedom organization warns that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s recent call to further tighten internet restrictions represents a “renewed attack” on rights and freedoms, and signals a “new phase in digital repression” in Iran.  Addressing judicial officials during a meeting on June 27 amid what ARTICLE 19 described as an “already alarming deterioration of …

Iranwire – A fact-finding mission mandated by the UN Human Rights Council has urged the Iranian authorities to end their brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters and halt the wave of executions, mass arrests and detentions that followed the eruption of nationwide protests last year. In its first oral update to the council in Geneva on July 5, the Independent International …

VOA – Iran says it obtained a court order for the seizure of the Richmond Voyager tanker after it collided with an Iranian vessel in the Gulf of Oman, according to the official IRINN news agency. The U.S. Navy said it had intervened to prevent Iran from seizing two commercial tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday. According to an announcement …

VOA – Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom have asked the International Court of Justice to hold Iran responsible for the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane over Tehran that killed all on board and provide compensation to the families of those killed. The ICJ made public Wednesday the filing in which the four governments say Iran did not take “all …