Social and Political

RFL/RE – For decades, the grieving relatives of thousands of political prisoners and regime opponents who were killed in the late 1980s were denied access to their unmarked graves at Tehran’s Khavaran cemetery. Now, as the current authorities try to keep the lid on the war crimes that took place during the massacre, they are erecting barriers in an apparent effort to …

RFL/RE – The death toll from the collapse of a residential building in the Iranian port city of Abadan has reached 37 as demonstrators continued to protest what they see as widespread negligence and corruption among officials. Officials said on June 1 that another body had been found under the rubble, bringing to 37 the number of those killed while …

RFL/RE – Protesters have again taken to the streets in several Iranian cities, with some shouting “Death to Khamenei,” as the death toll in the collapse of a building in the city of Abadan rose to 34. The collapse of a large section of the 10-story Metropol building that was under construction was one of Iran’s deadliest such disasters in …

gatestoneinstitute.org – The goal of Iran’s mullahs is to spread their control to as many countries as possible by using their terrorist proxies, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthi militia in Yemen. Iran’s rulers are also seeking to increase their political influence in these countries. They aim to turn Iran …

Iranwire – In 2008, the Baha’i International Community published the names of 221 Iranian Baha’is who had been murdered or executed in the three decades since the Islamic Revolution. The youngest on this list was Payman Sobhani Ezabadi, a resident of Saravan in the southwestern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, who was only 15 at the time. Based on his …

Iranwire – The housing situation in many Iranian cities, both inner city and on the margins, is becoming more insecure by the day. Building safety standards have fallen; engineering experts believe that in the past five decades the useful life of buildings in Iran has fallen from an average of 32 years to 26. The collapse of the 10-storey Metropol tower in …

Iran-HRM – The Iranian regime carried out a shocking number of executions in May. This increase in the number of executions comes at a time when popular protests are ongoing in several provinces. In the face of growing societal discontent, the clerical regime has found the only way to preserve its rule by intensifying executions to intimidate society. An investigation …

Al-Arabia – Iran urged Greece on Tuesday to cooperate to resolve a crisis over the seizure of ships without involving the United States, after Iranian forces seized two Greek tankers in the Gulf following the seizure of an Iranian vessel off Greece. Tehran seized the Greek ships on Friday after Athens impounded the Iranian-flagged Pegas in April. The United States, which …

RFL/RE – Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett accused Iran on Tuesday of stealing internal UN nuclear watchdog reports under a plan to prepare ways of staving off scrutiny of its nuclear program. Neither Tehran nor the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) immediately responded to requests for comment about the allegations, which appeared to be part of an Israeli campaign to …

RFL/RE – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has condemned the “unjustified seizure” last week of two Greek-flagged vessels by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Blinken made the comments in a telephone call with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a readout of the call. Iranian forces seized the two Greek tankers in the …