Social and Political

Al-Monitor – The Biden administration is shifting its approach to the Yemen war, now entering its seventh year, in response to escalating drone and missile attacks by Ansarallah (Supporters of God, the formal name of the Houthis) on the home territories of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.  Just this week, the United States committed more military support to …

RFL/RE- When jailed Iranian poet and filmmaker Baktash Abtin died in a hospital in Tehran, rights groups quickly pointed the finger at authorities.The 48-year-old dissident died on January 8 after twice contracting COVID-19 at Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. Doctors had placed Abtin, who suffered from coronary heart disease, in a medical coma before he was transferred to a hospital. Rights …

Iranwire — Hackers have targeted the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) app Telewebion, streaming anti-regime images and slogans on the platform. The group Edalat-e Ali [Ali’s Justice] was behind the disruption on Tuesday, February 1, the anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini’s return to Iran in 1979 ahead of the Islamic Revolution. During the period the hacktivists had control, audiences could hear …

Iranwire – The verdict in a massive corruption case involving the Iran Petrochemical Commercial Company (PCC) was announced on September 5, 2021. But nearly three years after proceedings first got under way, the details remained shrouded in mystery. We were told at the time that 15 named defendants had been sentenced to a total of 180 years in prison, linked to the embezzlement of …

Iranwire – On Saturday, January 29, a spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s Budget Committee for 2022-23 said members had agreed that exemptions from military service could again be sold to individuals at a cost of 250 to 600 million tomans (US$9,000 to $21,500). The news met with widespread outrage. A buy-out scheme was in place in Iran until three years …

Al-Monitor – Hard-line Iranian politician Saeed Jalili, who led his country’s nuclear negotiations with world powers from 2007 to 2013, has reportedly called for uranium enrichment at a 90% purity rate in Iran’s nuclear program. In a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the former chief negotiator is said to have expressed unease with the trajectory of the talks over …

RFL/RE – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, says Iran has informed it that it will move the production of centrifuge parts to the central city of Isfahan from a workshop in Karaj. The move, which comes a month after a standoff between the agency and Tehran over reinstalling cameras at a centrifuge-parts workshop that was …

Iranwire – The verdict in a massive corruption case involving the Iran Petrochemical Commercial Company (PCC) was announced on September 5, 2021. But nearly three years after proceedings first got under way, the details remained shrouded in mystery. We were told at the time that 15 named defendants had been sentenced to a total of 180 years in prison, linked to the embezzlement of …

Iranwire – The number of new daily coronavirus infections in Iran is likely to pass 100,000 again in the next few weeks, health officials have warned. The rapid spread of the Omicron variant combined with low nationwide testing capacity means even this figure is likely to be an understatement. Ebrahim Ghaderi, head of patient care at the Ministry of Health’s …

VOA—Indirect talks between the United States and Iran on returning to the 2015 nuclear agreement are entering the “final stretch,” with all sides having to make tough political decisions, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Monday. The latest talks in Vienna were “among the most intensive that we had to date” on returning to the deal formally known …