Social and Political

Iranwire – On Friday night, the first feature-length documentary to focus on the Flight 752 disaster will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Veteran filmmaker Babak Payami’s 752 is Not a Number relives the horror visited on scores of families in five countries after a passenger plane carrying 176 people was shot out of the skies over Tehran by the IRGC on January …

ntd.com – Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent, close to weapons-grade, has grown to enough, if enriched further, for a nuclear bomb, a report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog showed on Wednesday. Passing that threshold is a milestone in the unravelling of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, which capped the purity to which Iran …

Iranwire – Women have gathered in front of the main courthouse in Marivan, Kurdistan province, to protest over harassment and poor public safety in the city. The protest on Thursday saw participants holding up placards stating “We Want Security” and highlighting a recent recorded increase in violence against women. Local media in Marivan and the Kurdistan Human Rights Network report …

Al-Monitor – The United States on Thursday sanctioned an Iranian company it said was involved in the shipment of Iranian drones to Russia for use in Ukraine.  In a news release on Thursday, the Treasury Department accused the Tehran-based Safiran Airport Services of coordinating Russian military flights between Iran and Russia, “including those associated with transporting Iranian [drones], personnel and …

Al-Arabia – A member in the Albanian parliament, Taulant Balla, confirmed to Al Arabiya on Wednesday that his government has evidence of Iran’s involvement in the cyberattack against his country, stressing that the Albanian security services have identified the Iranian groups responsible. Balla said: “This decision comes after a very severe cyberattack that Albania suffered on July 15. It was …

Iranwire – Liz Truss is the first British prime minister since the 1979 revolution not to have to deal with a thorny issue in UK-Iran relations : namely Britain’s debt to Iran for Chieftain tanks that the Shah had paid for but were not delivered after the revolution. In fact, it was during her short tenure as Foreign Secretary that the matter …

Iranwire – Close to 11,000 people have signed a petition calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Zahra Sedighi-Hamedani and two other women who face the death sentence in Iran for LGBT+ rights activism. Sedighi-Hamedani, a 31-year-old blogger known online as Sareh, and Elham Chubdar, 24, were convicted of “corruption on earth” by a court in Urmia this week for “promoting …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Hezbollah and its patrons in Tehran have done nothing to help end the disastrous economic crisis in Lebanon, where nearly 80% of the people live below the poverty line. The World Bank has warned that the crisis ranks as one of the three most severe the world has seen since the mid-19th century. Hezbollah does not pose a threat …

VOA – A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is nearing the level where further enrichment could be enough for a nuclear bomb. It also says that Tehran has failed to provide credible answers on the origin of uranium particles found at three undeclared sites that the U.N. nuclear watchdog has been investigating for …

Al-Monitor – The Iran deal isn’t doomed, but expectations are low that an agreement will be reached before the November midterms. A senior European source told Ali Hashem this week a deal won’t happen before the elections, if at all. “Because of the last Iranian response, there can be no return to the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] before the midterms,” adding …