Social and Political

Al-Arabia – Iraq’s powerful Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said on Monday he was quitting politics and closing his institutions in response to an intractable political deadlock, a decision that could fuel instability. “I hereby announce my final withdrawal,” Sadr said in a statement posted on Twitter, criticizing fellow Shia political leaders for failing to heed his calls for reform. …

Al-Arabia – The head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency will visit the US in early September for talks on the possible revival of the Iran nuclear deal, an official said Sunday. The announced visit is the latest in the Jewish state’s push to sway Western powers from a deal to return to the landmark 2015 deal with Tehran. Israel says …

RFL/RE – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi says there can be no revival of a nuclear deal with global superpowers unless the UN’s nuclear watchdog drops its probe into the origins of nuclear material found at three undeclared Iranian sites. In a news conference in Tehran to mark his first year in power on August 29, Raisi also said that he …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Interestingly, none of the problems that nation-states might have with one another, problems such as border disputes, competition for sources of raw materials and markets, water-sharing disputes, irredentism, maltreatment of kith-and-kin, and bitter historic memories, exist between Iran and Israel. No Iranian leader, even under the present regime, could rationally explain why Israel should be regarded as Iran’s …

jpost.com – An airstrike Thursday on the Syrian city of Masyaf that was attributed to Israel struck a missile warehouse containing more than 1,000 Iranian-made missiles, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Saturday. The warehouse, in the city’s Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) complex, stored thousands of medium-range, surface-to-surface missiles assembled under the supervision of Islamic Revolutionary …

washingtonexaminer.com – Word from Vienna suggests a further American collapse is in progress as Europe tries to broker a renewed Iran nuclear deal. With sanctions lifted and oil sales permitted, Iranian authorities will reap tens of billions of dollars, much of which will flow to Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps coffers. While the White House is trying to spin this deal …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Newly leaked information from inside Iran, obtained by Iran International, reveals that the Biden administration has made even more concessions to revive the nuclear deal, which have not been revealed to the public. According to the report, “the US guarantees that its sanctions against IRGC would not affect other sectors and firms: e.g. a petrochemical company shouldn’t be …

RFL/RE – Thousands of Iranians attended a funeral procession in Tehran for prominent poet Houshang Ebtehaj, whose life and work spans many of Iran’s political, cultural, and literary upheavals. Born in 1928, Ebtehaj, considered by many as the last living old-school Iranian poet, died on August 10 in Germany. According to his daughter Yalda Ebtahaj, the cause of death was kidney failure. …

IranWire – In the afternoon of Thursday, August 25, the people of Hamedan took to the streets for the third consecutive day to protest severe water shortages in the city and surrounding area. Videos of these protests received by IranWire showed an extensive deployment of riot police in response. The first two nights saw rallies held in front of the tomb of Avicenna. …

Iranwire – A young kolbar or border courier has been killed by security forces while crossing between Iran and Iraq, the human rights observatory Hengaw reports. Ribwvr Rashidi, 30, was reportedly killed in the early hours of Friday morning after being directly shot at by officers at the Haftash base, by the Barvish Kani border crossing. Rashidi was from one …