Social and Political

Iranwire – The Iranian Ministry of Health reports that 16,967 more people tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday, February 2022 while 242 were known to have died: a 30 percent rise on the previous day, and likely a fraction of the total due to low testing capabilities in Iran. For the time being the Iranian government still holds that the …

timesofisrael – Foreign Minister Yair Lapid indicated on Monday that the Biden administration may be open to delisting the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization, and called on international actors to convince the White House to reject this Iranian demand. “Everyone in his right mind should talk to the administration about this and tell them, ‘This is just …

VOA — An Iranian fighter jet crashed Monday in a residential area of the northwestern city of Tabriz killing three people, including two crew, state television reported. The head of the local Red Crescent organization said the plane smashed into a school and that one of the dead was a resident of the neighborhood. Local official Mohammad-Bagher Honarvar told state …

VOA – Iranian lawmakers have urged President Ebrahim Raisi to obtain guarantees from the United States and three European countries that they won’t exit the nuclear deal being renegotiated in Vienna, Iranian state media reported on Sunday. In a letter to Raisi, they stated that the United States and European parties to the nuclear deal — Britain, France, and Germany …

Iran-HRM – In a new report, the American Heritage Foundation, a U.S. institution, reported a 4.8-step drop in Iran’s economic freedom index in 2021 compared to the year before. According to the report, published on Tuesday, February 15, 2022, Iran ranks 170th out of 177 countries on the Economic Freedom Index with a score of 42.4. The Foundation rates countries …

Al-Arabia – Iran’s parliament has laid out six conditions for Tehran to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal with global powers in a letter to President Ebrahim Raisi published on Sunday, the country’s official IRNA news agency reported. The letter, signed by 250 out of 290 parliamentarians, stated that US and European parties should guarantee that they would not exit a …

gatestoneinstitute.org – [Elite capture] is a crucial tool of [China’s] success. The idea is simple enough: by tempting another country’s elite with money, access and favors, you move them to see their interests and China’s interests as intertwined or even the same. [Each] of the individuals we discuss would deny their role in helping China gain access to American capital …

RFL/RE – Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, said on February 19 that the kingdom was looking to schedule a fifth round of direct talks with Iran despite a “lack of substantive progress” in previous rounds. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Al Saud also voiced hope that there was a serious desire by Iran to …

VOA – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Saturday that “now is the moment of truth” to determine whether Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers can be salvaged, and the Iranian leadership needs to make a choice. Iran’s foreign minister, though, said that it’s up to Western countries to show flexibility and “the ball is now in their court.” Negotiators …

Iran-HRM -Political prisoner Forough Taghipour has been taken to a filthy cell with no access to hygiene or medical care after she contracted the omicron Covid variant in Qarchak Prison in Varamin, in Tehran Province. She suffers from lung disease and asthma and has symptoms of the virus since last week. Alarm is growing over the danger the poor condition …