Social and Political

RFL/RE – An influential cleric and the representative of the country’s supreme leader in the northeastern province of Khorasan Razavi has called those who didn’t vote in recent elections “inconsequential,” even though they comprised almost 60 percent of the electorate as turnout hit a record low. Ahmad Alamolhoda, who serves as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative in the city of …

VOA – The U.S. Treasury Department imposed new sanctions Wednesday on procurement networks supporting Iran’s ballistic missile, nuclear and defense programs. The networks are based in Iran, Turkey, Oman and Germany, according to the Treasury Department’s statement, and acquired carbon fiber, epoxy resins and other materials used in missiles. According to Brian Nelson, the Treasury Department’s under secretary for terrorism …

VOA — Germany on Wednesday said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador over an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in 2022 that Berlin believes was planned with the help of Tehran. A German Iranian national was sentenced in December to two years and nine months in prison in the plot to attack a synagogue in the western German city …

iranintl – Iran’s envoy to the United Nations is refuting Tehran’s role in supplying Houthi rebels with sophisticated and heavy weapons to target vessels in the Red Sea. Reacting to a UN Security Council briefing on the Yemen crisis, Amir Saeid Iravani dismissed statements made by the US and UK as “baseless allegations”. Since November, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been targeting …

iranintl – Amidst the looming prospect of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, a small cohort of former Iranian officials is floating a recalibration of relations with the West. But, within the limited timeframe of the Biden administration’s tenure, Iran finds itself at a critical juncture. In blatant disregard of Western admonitions, Tehran persists in advancing its nuclear agenda …

Iranwire – Prominent Iranian cleric Kazem Seddiqi and his sons have been accused of acquiring prime real estate through illegal means. Iranian journalist Yashar Soltani published documents suggesting that Seddiqi, the temporary Friday Prayers leader of Tehran, and his children obtained a sizable plot of land in Tehran’s affluent northern districts. Soltani’s investigation reportedly reveals that Seddiqi established the Ozgol …

CHRI – Crimes Against Humanity: State Atrocities in Iran Revealed in First Report of UN Fact-Finding Mission Unlawful deaths, extra-judicial executions, disproportionate lethal force, torture, rape, arbitrary arrests, and enforced disappearances were among the many rights violations amounting to “crimes against humanity,” that have been revealed in the detailed inaugural report of the UN’s independent, international Fact-Finding Mission on Iran (FFMI), …

iranintl – The Australian government has been accused of hiding the true threat posed by Iran’s IRGC as it denies documents as to the truth behind the u-turn to proscribe the world’s most dangerous state-backed terror group. Sydney-based Iranian Arash Behgoo has been denied access to government records after lodging a Freedom of Information request with the Attorney-General’s Department in …

iranintl – Iran’s chairmanship of the UN Conference on Disarmament sparked outrage on Monday, as activists and US lawmakers expressed concerns about the erosion of trust in the international body. The 2024 session of the conference began in Geneva in late January and will continue till mid September. The Presidency of the conference rotates among its member states in alphabetical order, each …

iranintl – Nearly three weeks after the parliamentary elections in Iran, disputes continue about the results and the way the elections were held, with 7,000 complaints received from just three towns. Gholam-Ali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi, a former lawmaker from the northern city of Rasht, questioned why candidates with judicial clearance were rejected from running in the parliamentary election, while others caught …