Social and Political

Al-Monitor – Iran criticized the UN nuclear watchdog’s board for a statement being prepared by Western countries during their week-long meeting.  The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) questions regarding Iran’s nuclear program is one of the main outstanding issues preventing the revival of the Iranian nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Some observers anticipated …

RFL/RE – For the past week, the families of prisoners on death row have been staging protests to demand that authorities halt their pending executions. Dozens of protesters have rallied in front of Iran’s judiciary headquarters in Tehran and outside the Islamic Revolutionary Court in the city of Karaj.Amateur videos and images from the protests have shown protesters holding signs that read …

RFL/RE – Iranian oil officials said a fire at the southwestern Shadegan oil field has been extinguished amid claims that the blaze was an act of sabotage. The fire broke out early on September 13 after “tampering by unknown elements,” but it was quickly brought under control, Qobad Nasseri, head of the Maroon Oil and Gas Production Company which exploits Shadegan, told …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Significantly, Russia and Iran’s cooperation extends to the military and space fields, with Russia recently helping Iran to launch a new satellite into space. Iran’s Khayyam satellite “will greatly enhance Tehran’s ability to spy on military targets across the Middle East… [and give] Tehran “unprecedented capabilities, including near-continuous monitoring of sensitive facilities in Israel and the Persian Gulf.” …

Iranwire – The Iranian National Olympic Committee’s so-called Sports Ethics Commission has written to Mehdi Taj, the newly re-elected head of the Iranian Football Federation, asking that he impose tighter restrictions on women and girls coming to watch football matches at Azadi Stadium. Recent weeks have seen renewed pressure on Iran to drop the decades-old discriminatory policy that bars female fans from …

Iranwire – A 19-year-old in the city of Maku in Iran’s West Azerbaijan province has been arrested by the local intelligence department for highlighting the crisis at Lake Urmia. Aydin Jafari held a small rally with fellow citizens on Saturday to call for action over the drying-up of the lake, which was once the biggest in the Middle East but has …

Al-Monitor – There is complete radio silence between Tehran and Washington, with no messages moving via mediators. There appears to be a sort of “negotiations fatigue” among all the parties. Iran says the ball is in the United States’ court, and the United States says the opposite.   Pessimism has prevailed as European officials express skepticism over the possibility of reaching a deal …

Al-Monitor – Ukraine’s military reported Tuesday that it had destroyed an Iranian drone used by Russian forces near Kharkiv. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry published photos of what it said were the remnants of an Iran-made Shahed-136 kamikaze drone shot down near Kupiansk. An intact tail fin of the drone bore the words M214 Giran-2, or “Geranium-2,” in Cyrillic lettering. The photos were first posted online by …

Al-Arabia – Iran has arrested several people over the killing of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) colonel in the capital Tehran in May, the judiciary’s spokesperson said on Tuesday. “Several people have been arrested” over the killing of IRGC colonel Sayad Khodaei, the semi-official ISNA news agency quoted Masoud Setayeshi as saying. He did not say when the arrests were …

Al-Arabia – Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Monday that Iran has used more than 10 military facilities in Syria to produce advanced missiles and weapons for its proxies. For several years, Israel has been mounting attacks on what it has described as Iranian-linked targets in Syria. There were no immediate comments from Iran and Syria on Monday, but Damascus has …