Social and Political

Iranwire – On May 9 the firestorm of popular protests  was reignited in Iran. The jump in the prices of bread, cooking oil, poultry and then several other basic commodities triggered protests first in cities in Khuzestan province, then in the provinces of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Kermanshah, Lorestan and Ardebil. Scattered videos posted on social media show protesters chanting slogans …

VOA – Protests over soaring food prices continued in several cities in Iran on Saturday, according to postings on social media, while an Iranian lawmaker told a local media outlet that one person was killed in a demonstration in the southwest. The protests were triggered last week by a cut in state subsidies for imported wheat that caused price increases …

VOA – The EU’s foreign policy chief said on Friday that he believed there had been enough progress during consultations between his envoy and Iranian officials in Tehran this week to relaunch nuclear negotiations after two months of deadlock. Talks to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers have been on hold since March, chiefly over Tehran’s insistence that …

Al-Monitor – In a last-ditch effort to get the Iran nuclear deal back on track, Enrique Mora, the European Union’s deputy foreign policy chief, was in Tehran this week for a four-day visit. Yet signs of growing ties with China that came just before his visit indicate Iran may be prepping for backup options.  Since Iran refuses to directly engage in talks with the …

RFL/RE – As a court verdict looms in Sweden in a case that has implicated high-ranking members of Iran’s clerical regime in war crimes, Tehran appears to be targeting Swedish citizens in Iran as payback.Iran has expressed outrage over the ongoing trial of Hamid Nouri, an alleged former deputy prosecutor and member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) who …

RFL/RE – France’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the “baseless arrests” of two French citizens and called for their immediate release after being detained in Iran. The ministry said in a statement on May 12 that French authorities are “fully mobilized” to address the situation after Iran’s Intelligence Ministry announced a day earlier that two “Europeans” had been arrested on accusations of seeking …

Iranwire – Feminist and women’s rights campaigns with a focus on Iran have been the subject of a mass cyber-attack this week, with many forced to temporarily switch their Instagram pages to private mode.  The hosts of the Iranian Me Too, Harass Watch and Cheragh Academy, all three of which work to combar sexual violence and harassment in Iran through education and public callouts, reported …

Iranwire – The Raisi administration on Thursday announced price increases for four staple foodstuffs in Iran: chicken, eggs, cooking oil and dairy products. The news was met with near-instantaneous reports of shortages and people crowding into stores to stock up on the affected goods. The approved price for a kilogram of chicken has increased from 30,500 tomans (about a dollar: a significant …

CHRI – Ongoing street protests in Iran could lead to more killings and arbitrary imprisonments by state security forces if the international community remains silent, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) warned in a statement today. “The Iranian government has a documented pattern of using lethal force to crush protests while cutting off internet access to prevent the …

CHRI — A group of prominent civil rights activists in Iran has called on UN representative Alena Douhan, who will be visiting Iran shortly to assess the negative impact of sanctions on the country, to meet with them during her state-sanctioned trip this week. In the published open letter, the activists decried the refusal of the Islamic Republic to allow the special rapporteur on …