Social and Political

Al-Arabia – The UK government on Tuesday said it had imposed a full asset freeze on a Lebanese businessman suspected of financing Hezbollah. The Treasury action against Nazem Said Ahmad on national security grounds follows similar restrictions imposed in 2019 by the United States. “All assets and economic resources belonging to Ahmad in the UK have been frozen and no UK …

RFL/RE – An association representing the families of those killed in the downing of a Ukrainian commercial flight by Iran more than two years ago has criticized the verdicts issued in Iran against the alleged perpetrators as a “show trial.” Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 crashed on January 8, 2020, while en route to Kyiv, killing all 176 people on …

Iranwire – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reiterated threats against Israel during a ceremony marking the Islamic Republic’s annual Army Day celebrating the country’s regular military. Raisi made the comments on April 18 as fighter jets and helicopters flew overhead in Tehran during a ceremony carried live by state television. “Enemies, particularly the Zionist regime, have received the message that any …

Iranwire – A series of chemical attacks against girls’ schools were reported in at least a dozen cities across Iran on Monday. Reports and videos on social media reveal that students were poisoned at schools in Isfahan, Sanandaj, Ravansar, Saqqez, Bukan, Diwandrareh, Urmia, Gilangharb, Tabriz, Dezful, and Mahdasht. Since November 2022, more than 13,000 students have suffered symptoms including nausea, …

VOA – A spate of attacks from Iranian-backed militants last month on U.S. military personnel in Syria caused traumatic brain injuries in 23 military personnel, Defense Department officials tell VOA. One American contractor was killed, and 25 U.S. military personnel were wounded in the attacks. Thirteen of the 26 casualties were the result of a follow-on attack from Iranian-backed forces …

gatestoneinstitute.org – An overwhelming majority of American people reportedly do not trust President Joe Biden on Iran’s nuclear deal. “The Biden administration remains obsessed with reentering a nuclear deal with the Iranian regime.” — Senator Ted Cruz, The Washington Free Beacon, February 3, 2023. “[I]n a timely question in the McLaughlin & Associates survey, 63% of Americans believe that providing …

Al-Arabia – Iran has officially invited Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz to visit the country, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Monday, after the two regional rivals agreed to end years of hostility following a China-brokered agreement in March. After years of bad relations, the two countries reached an agreement to end a seven-year diplomatic rift. “Iranian President (Raisi) …

Iranwire – Female students at multiple Iranian universities protested mandatory hijab rules as the authorities continued to harass and suppress women who flout the Islamic Republic’s dress codes. Images published on social media show female students at Tehran University’s Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences staging a sit-in on April 16. The protesters held placards with slogans such as “No …

VOA – Iran’s exiled crown prince is scheduled to come to Israel this week on a visit that reflects the warm ties his father once had with Israel and the current state of hostility between Israel and the Islamic Republic. Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last shah to rule Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, said Sunday that he …

VOA – An Iranian court has sentenced an air defense commander allegedly responsible for the deadly downing of a passenger plane amid Iran-U.S. tensions several years ago, a state news agency, Mizan, reported Sunday. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard mistakenly shot down the Ukraine International Airlines flight in January 2020. The missile strike killed all 176 people on board and came …