Social and Political

RFL/RE – Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter thinks Iran should be barred from the World Cup amid widespread protests in the Islamic republic sparked by the death of a woman in the custody of morality police, a Swiss paper quoted him on November 11 as saying. “Iran should be excluded from the World Cup,” the Blick tabloid reported, saying Blatter …

IAEA – Iran has agreed to a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency this month to provide answers the U.N. watchdog and its 35-nation board have long called for on the origin of uranium particles found at three sites, an IAEA report on Thursday seen by Reuters said. Iran has yet to provide new material, however, and its offer …

newsweek.com – After numerous calls for harsh punishments in recent days, the Iranian parliament on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of the death penalty for protesters. Iran has been experiencing unprecedented levels of protests and civil unrest since the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16. The 22-year-old Kurdish woman was arrested by the country’s “morality police” for supposedly wearing an “improper” form of …

Iranwire – At least three female students were reportedly wounded by rubber bullets when security forces cracked down on an anti-government protest in the Iranian city of Kerman. Protesting students were gathered in the streets around a dormitory of the Kerman University of Medical Sciences on November 11 when the rally turned violent, the United Students Telegram channel reported. A …

Iranwire – In the 1990s, the so-called principalists and associates of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei controlled few media outlets besides the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). But by the early 2000s, they founded several newspapers and news agencies while reformist papers were being suspended. And, in the 2010s, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its affiliates established …

Iranwire – Iranian state media have published the photos, names and addresses of nine exiled reporters who are set to cover the 2022 World Cup starting later this month in Qatar, warning them it would be their “last supper.” The named journalists are living abroad and are working for the BBC Persian Service, Iran International and Manoto, three London-based Persian-language …

Iranwire – Nearly 30 years after a 1994 attack on a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires killed 85 people and injured hundreds, no one has been brought to trial yet. Argentine courts have blamed the attack on Iran, which denies any role in the bombing, and Argentina’s repeated calls on other countries to detain those accused of involvement have …

gatestoneinstitute.org – The Iranian regime, which has long argued that it is not seeking to develop nuclear weapons… has lately changed its tone and is boasting that it currently has the ability to build a nuclear bomb. Biden’s new nuclear deal, if reached, will also allow Russia to cash in on a $10 billion contract to further expand Iran’s nuclear …

Amnesty – Security forces unlawfully killed at least 18 protesters, bystanders and worshippers, including two children, and injured scores of others during a deadly crackdown on largely peaceful protests after Friday prayers in the city of Khash, Sistan and Baluchistan province, on 4 November 2022. This latest deadly incident in Sistan and Baluchistan province reveals that protesters from the oppressed …

Al-Arabia – On October 17, Kyiv residents woke up to loud explosions. Russia had just launched a wave of drone attacks on civilian targets across Ukraine, which it carried out with Iranian-made Shahed-136 “suicide drones.” The Ukrainian targets had little military value but spread fear among the population and signaled the potential scale of wanton destruction Russia can still inflict …