Social and Political

VOA — Civil servants in one of Iran’s most powerful sectors, the judiciary, held rare demonstrations on Sunday against the government’s refusal to increase their pay. Ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi, who assumed his post in August, had proposed a salary hike in the last weeks of his previous job as judicial chief. But the new government which he leads changed its …

Al-Arabia – Iran has been exporting thousands of weapons from a single port to Yemen and elsewhere, according to a draft UN Security Council report obtained by the Wall Street Journal. The confidential UN report details how thousands of rocket launchers, machine guns, sniper rifles and other weapons seized in the Arabian Sea by the US Navy were smuggled along …

RFL/RE – The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan sent its foreign minister to Iran on January 8 to discuss Afghan refugees and a growing economic crisis. “The visit aims at discussions on political, economic, transit and refugee issues between Afghanistan and Iran,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said on Twitter. The visit aims at discussions on political, economic, transit and …

RFL/RE – After completing a five-year sentence in 1987, Mehrzad Dashtbani was summoned to the “freedom room,” an in-house court at Iran’s Gohardasht Prison that decided if an inmate could be freed. But instead of securing his release papers from the facility located outside the capital, Tehran, Dashtbani’s visit earned him a personal beating from a prison official known only …

gatestoneinstitute.org – The whispering in Moscow is that Putin will try to tempt Biden with a number of promises. These include persuading the Islamic Republic in Iran to re-endorse the Obama “nuclear deal”, which President Donald Trump denounced as a sham. Tehran’s acceptance of a new version presented by the US would give Biden his first diplomatic victory. In exchange …

Iranwire – January 8, 2020 marks the two-year anniversary of a tragedy Iranians will never forget. On this date, shortly after 6am, the IRGC shot a passenger plane – Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 – out of the skies over Tehran with two missiles 30 seconds apart. The plane had taken off from Imam Khomeini International Airport just minutes earlier. All …

CHRI – The death of Iranian poet Baktash Abtin today in Tehran after contracting COVID-19 in Evin Prison is the result of the Iranian judiciary chief’s inhumane treatment of prisoners and the government’s refusal to hold responsible officials accountable. Abtin, who died after being put into an induced coma while hospitalized, is the second known political prisoner to die in Iran in …

Al-Monitor – This week Iran commemorated the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 3 US drone strike which killed Iranian Revolutionary Guards Commander (IRGC) Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), in Baghdad, with speeches, threats and rockets targeting US bases in Iraq. Gen. Esmail Ghaani, Soleimani’s replacement, vowed retaliation, saying “We will get revenge that …

Al-Arabia – US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley on Friday met with Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the International Organizations in Vienna to discuss the latest developments in talks to revive a nuclear deal between Tehran and Western powers. According to Al Arabiya, Prince Abdullah bin Khalid Al-Saud convened with Malley after separate meetings with French and Russian officials in the days …

Al-Arabia – The Arab Coalition said on Saturday that Iran-back Houthi militia in Yemen deliberately targeted the civilian communications infrastructure in southern Saudi Arabia on Friday evening. According to an Al Arabiya/AlHadath correspondent, the Houthi militia tried for the third time to target civilian communications with explosive-laden drones. The Houthis attempts coincide with strikes by the Arab Coalition that inflicted …