Social and Political

RFL/RE – Iranian oil workers have struck for a second day over wages and the government’s inability to tame price growth as official data showed the country’s inflation rate jumped to 52.5 percent in June.According to the Coordinating Council of Protests of Oil Contract Workers, employees at the Tehran Oil Refinery continued their protest against an increase in working hours and low …

Iranwire – The G7 group of countries has issued a wide-ranging communique on Iran at the end of a three-day summit in the Bavarian Alps in Germany. Amongst other things it touched on hostage-taking by the Islamic Republic and the Flight 752 disaster. The joint statement from leaders of the G7, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States, reiterated its commitment to …

Iranwire – Last week the heavy-handed arrest of at least 10 teenage skaters at a friendly gathering in Shiraz made headlines in Iran. The official pretext was that some of the girls walking around the park off Chamran Boulevard had been seen without hijab. But so grievous was this offence that the chief justice of Fars Province said the “perpetrators” – by …

Al-Monitor – Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani was in the Qatari capital Doha on June 28, as Tehran and Washington agreed to push the restart button on nuclear talks that have been stalled since March. In a tweet, Iranian Ambassador to Doha Hamidreza Dehghani avoided “any unrealistic prejudgement” about the negotiations that are meant to restore the Iran nuclear deal, the Joint …

RFL/RE – Iranian pensioners and retired public employees showed no signs of letting up in their protests against what they say is the government’s failure to address deteriorating living conditions. Videos posted on social media on June 27 showed retirees gathering in at least four cities, Ahvaz, Kermanshah, Arak, and Rasht, chanting slogans against the government of President Ebrahim Raisi.The recent wave …

Iranian-born Norwegian lawmakers Masud Gharahkhani and Mahmoud Farahmand have condemned an attack by a man of Iranian descent in Oslo that killed two people and wounded eight others. Gharahkhani, the speaker of Norway’s parliament, said the weekend shooting near the London Pub, which describes itself on its website as “the largest gay and lesbian venue in Oslo,” reminded him of …

gatestoneinstitute.org – When Hamas and Hezbollah talk about “develop[ing] the program and axis of resistance,” they are referring to terrorist attacks against Israel. The two terrorist groups have tens of thousands of rockets and missiles that are ready to be fired towards Israel at any moment from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. Haniyeh’s visit to Beirut has outraged many Lebanese …

Iranwire – In the last half-decade, a greater degree of scholarly attention has been paid to street protests in Iran in their various forms. From the nationwide protests of 2017 until today, universities, government journals and think-tanks have published dozens of studies on the nature and direction of civil unrest in Iran, and what lies behind it. The latest of …

CHRI – European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who has traveled travel to Tehran and issued multiple public statements in an effort to restore the nuclear deal with Iran, should devote the same level of energy to address the intensifying human rights crisis in the country, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today. Since May, hundreds of …

Al-Monitor – Talks aimed at reviving the landmark nuclear agreement are set to resume in Qatar, Iranian and US officials said on Monday.  The resumption of indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran comes amid a push from the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borell, who during a surprise visit to Tehran on Saturday announced that the talks would resume …