Social and Political

VOA – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the visiting Iranian foreign minister discussed the need for “vigilance in defending their national interests against external pressures,” according to a statement released Saturday. The Caracas visit Friday by Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian underlined the strength of an alliance between two countries seen as outcasts by much of the international community, both …

gatestoneinstitute.org – What does an autocrat do when his support base is shaken by popular protests? The standard answer is: he tries to reassure supporters by increasing their privileges, thus giving them a bigger stake in the preservation of the status quo. Transfer of public assets to chosen supporters has a routine pattern. The supporter, usually a senior IRGC officer …

Al-Arabia – Iranian expatriates in Australia opposed to the Iranian regime have reported their families in Iran being targeted by authorities due to their political beliefs. Massoud Modabber, a supporter of the protests in Iran, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that his opposition to the Islamic Republic led to his mother’s arrest and imprisonment in Iran for 28 days. She …

RFL/RE – The United States issued a joint statement with France, the United Kingdom, and Germany on February 3 criticizing Iran’s “inadequate” response to an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on its nuclear program. The UN nuclear watchdog issued a warning to Tehran on February 1 after it found that changes had been made without prior notification at the Fordow Fuel …

RFL/RE – The United States has imposed new sanctions on a previously designated Iranian drone maker, Paravar Pars, this time targeting the board of directors. The U.S. Treasury Department said on February 3 that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had designated eight senior executives of Paravar Pars. The drone maker was previously blacklisted by OFAC for making Shahed-series …

Iranwire – President Ebrahim Raisi, a longtime establishment figure in the Islamic Republic who has been Iran’s president since August 2021, was before his election a senior judiciary official for more than 40 years. His role as a prosector in political executions is well-documented – but what is less widely-reported is that members of Iran’s Baha’i religious minority were also executed under Raisi …

Iranwire – Tensions are running high in Iran’s mainly Kurdish town of Abdanan, with activists reporting a heavy presence of security forces and widespread arrests as the Islamic Republic intensifies its brutal crackdown on nationwide anti-government demonstrators. On February 2, security forces raided the house of a political activist and fired tear gas and pellets at protesters who had gathered in …

Iranwire – Jafar Panahi, one of Iran’s best-known filmmakers, was released from prison on bail, two days after he announced he was launching a hunger strike to protest his continued detention. Social media footage shows Panahi meeting with his family outside Tehran’s notorious Evin prison late on February 3. The Cannes film festival award-winner and director of The White Balloon, The Circle …

VOA —An Iranian government-backed hacking team allegedly stole and leaked private customer data belonging to French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, security researchers at Microsoft said Friday. The magazine was hacked in early January after it published a series of cartoons that negatively depicted Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The caricatures were part of a media campaign that Charlie Hebdo said was intended to …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Thanks to the Biden administration’s weak and vacillating leadership, Iran, Russia and China have been emboldened to levels never before seen. [T]he Biden administration has not been taking any action to deter, disincentivize or punish those who breach the sanctions. Ever since the Biden administration assumed office, in fact, Iran’s oil exports have been on the rise… of …