Social and Political

iranintl – Hopes for increased economic cooperation between Iran and Saudi Arabia following last year’s diplomatic reconciliation have not materialized, due to historical and political factors Saudi Arabia and Iran have a long history of hostility, usually taking opposing sides in regional conflicts such as Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria. This competition, fueled by disruptive activities and outright attacks on Saudi land and oil …

RFL/RE – An emboldened Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, has changed the balance of power in the South Caucasus in recent years. Baku reclaimed full control over Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region that for three decades had been under ethnic-Armenian control, last year. A weakened Armenia, meanwhile, has distanced itself from its traditional ally, Russia, and looked to move closer to the …

Iranwire – The Pentagon confirmed on Monday that United States officials visited Niger last week to address concerns about the West African nation’s potential development of ties with Russia and Iran.  “The US delegation was there to raise a number of concerns… We were troubled (about) the path that Niger is on,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said, according to Reuters.  …

Iranwire – The Constitutional Council of Iran has formally approved the outcomes of the March 1 parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections.  Council spokesperson Hadi Tahan Nazif, speaking on state TV Monday night, confirmed “the correctness and validity of elections in 208 polling areas for the parliamentary elections and in all of the polling areas of the Assembly of Experts …

Iranwire – Israel launched missile strikes targeting several military installations outside the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Tuesday, according to Syria’s defense ministry.  The ministry claimed they intercepted some missiles with their air defense systems, resulting only in “material damage.” This latest strike comes amidst heightened regional tensions following the Hamas attacks on Israel in October last year.  Since December, several …

Iranwire – The Tehran Province Court of Appeals has upheld the five-year sentence for Saeed Azizi, a 60-year-old Iranian-Swedish dual national.  Azizi, currently incarcerated in Tehran’s Evin Prison, was initially handed the five-year term for charges of “assembly and collusion against national security” by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. He was arrested by Iranian security forces on November …

Iranwire – Viviana Krsticevic, one of the experts on the United Nations fact-finding mission investigating the suppression of the 2022 protests in Iran, described the rape of detained women as “terrible.” She emphasized that the security forces of the Islamic Republic have perpetrated these acts in a “systematic” manner. The mission’s report documented various instances of rape and other forms …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – Prominent human rights defender and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Narges Mohammadi sent an urgent appeal to the 55th session of the Human Rights Council which was read by IHRNGO Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. She called for the mandates of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission and Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran to be extended “to allow …

iranintl – Renowned Tehran academic Mohammad Fazeli suggests that Iran could incur a loss of 35 quadrillion rials (roughly $60 billion) if the United States were to target its power plants in an attack. Fazeli, responding to a hypothetical scenario during an interview with Khabar Online website in Tehran regarding a potential US attack on Iran’s infrastructure, estimated a loss of roughly …

iranintl – A case of a large land grab by Tehran’s interim Friday prayer Imam, Kazem Sedighi, has sparked uproar in Iran, adding to the growing list of corruption scandals implicating regime insiders. Sedighi, a cleric trusted by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, found himself embroiled in controversy following the publication of documents in recent days revealing that he and his …