Social and Political

Iranwire – The head of the IRGC Aerospace Force has claimed that Hassan Rouhani was reprimanded in front of top generals during his tenure as president and warned not to “defame” the Revolutionary Guards. In a newly-published interview with the ultraconservative Kayhannewspaper, Amir Ali Hajizadeh described a behind-closed-doors meeting between Rouhani and IRGC commanders Mohammad Ali Jafari, Ghasem Soleimani, Gholam Hossein Gheibparvar and Ismail …

Iranwire – Recently, a video resurfaced and was shared by the BBC depicting former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani giving a speech. The subject is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the date of the recording unknown. In the video, Rafsanjani tells an assembled group of clerics that Khamenei had once told him he found leadership “suffocating”.  In fact, he says, Khamenei had told …

VOA — Iran, Venezuela and Sudan are in arrears on paying dues to the United Nations’ operating budget and are among eight nations that will lose their voting rights in the 193-member General Assembly, the U.N. chief said in a letter circulated Wednesday. Also losing voting rights are Antigua and Barbuda, Republic of Congo, Guinea, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu, Secretary-General …

VOA – Iran and the United States are displaying little flexibility on core issues in indirect nuclear talks, raising questions about whether a compromise can be found soon to renew a 2015 deal that could dispel fears of a wider Middle East war, diplomats say. After eight rounds of talks, the thorniest points remain the speed and scope of lifting …

(HRW) – Iranian intelligence and judicial authorities continued their crackdown on dissent in 2021, while lawmakers passed and debated laws that further violate human rights, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2022. Over the past three years, security forces have responded to widespread protests stemming largely from economic rights issues with excessive and unlawful force, including lethal force, and arrested thousands …

Iran-HRM – The torture and cruel mistreatment of detainees and prisoners in Iran are among the most serious human rights violations in the country’s jails. Iranian security officials routinely subject prisoners to ill-treatment particularly during interrogations. There are noumerous reports of detainees’ deaths during interrogation phase in detention centres run by the ministry of intelligence, the IRGC, and the investigation …

Al-Monitor – The United States military identified Iranian intelligence as being behind a group of hackers widely known as MuddyWater on Wednesday, confirming previous reports by private cybersecurity groups. MuddyWater has reportedly attacked both government and private enterprise networks in the Middle East, but has also targeted organizations in the United States. The group, also believed to be known as Seedworm, Static Kitten, …

Shabtabnews – In a statement IOPHR reminded the world that based on the past evidence of the Iranian Regime’s inhuman action, it’s likely that the regime will continue to exploit the current Corona crisis as means of stealth massacre of Iranian ideological and political prisoners like the death of Baktash Abtin. The statement also stated ” countless prisoners of conscience, …

RFL/RE – The British Council says an Iranian female employee convicted of spying for Israel has been acquitted by a court and is now free and has arrived in the United Kingdom. Aras Amiri, who worked for the council’s London office, was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2019. The British Council said on January 12 that an appeal …

RFL/RE – A homeless mother and her young child sleep on a night bus as it weaves through the empty streets of the Iranian capital, Tehran. The pair are among a growing number of Iranians who are resorting to sleeping in public buses out of economic desperation. Photos of the mother and daughter have gone viral on social media, serving …