Social and Political

RFL/RE – Three European powers said on December 14 that talks with Iran to revive the 2015 nuclear deal are “rapidly reaching the end of the road,” while Tehran accused Western powers of playing a “blame game.”The comments suggest talks between Iran and the remaining parties to the agreement — Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia – are nearing collapse …

Iranwire – Tens of thousands of Iranian teachers joined a third day of nationwide protests on Monday following a rallying call from trade unions. Security forces attacked some of those present in front of the parliament building in Tehran and at other locations such as Sari, Mazandaran. Videos posted on social media showed uniformed officers trying to arrest demonstrators, prompting …

Al-Monitor – In an interview with Iranian media, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani, spoke about the progress being made at the ongoing talks in Vienna. Speaking with IRNA, Bagheri said that the two fundamental issues in the Vienna talks are “what issues should be negotiated and the negotiations over those issues,” meaning that the parties in …

RFL/RE – Iran has accused Western parties to its 2015 nuclear deal of “persisting in their blame game,” after European diplomats involved in ongoing negotiations aimed at reviving the agreement said Tehran was putting forward new proposals that are “inconsistent” with the accord. During a visit to Indonesia on December 14, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United …

Iranwire – Religious-propaganda organizations under the control of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei raked in unprecedented public money in the already controversial 2021/22 budget, research by Iran Open Data has found. Friday prayers only resumed in Tehran on October 30, after a 20-month hiatus due to coronavirus. But despite the long off-period, and during a time in which the shuttering of businesses and …

Iranwire – A new article published in Ferdowsi University’s Quarterly Journal of Public Law Studies has appealed to Iranian law to pour cold water on the UK’s demands that Tehran free British-Iranian charity worker and hostage Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The study, entitled Legal Dimensions of British Diplomatic Support for Nazanin Zaghari, neglected to use the prisoner’s British second surname as it strived to show …

Iranwire – One of the accused in the assassination of Massoud Molavi Vardanjani, an Iranian ex-intelligence officer turned regime critic killed in Istanbul in November 2019, has been temporarily released pending trial by the Turkish authorities. A court in the capital has agreed to release Siavash Abazari Shalamzari and postponed the trial for three more months, until March 2022. Meanwhile the lawyer …

RFL/RE – Saudi Arabia and Iran have held a new round of talks aimed at mending badly strained ties, the Jordanian state news agency reported on December 13, as the Saudi envoy to the United Nations accused Tehran of playing “games” in its dialogue with Riyadh.Shi’ite-led Iran and Sunni-controlled Saudi Arabia are bitter rivals in the struggle for influence in …

Iranwire – In recent weeks, the Ministry of Education has been trumpeting the proportion of vaccinated school pupils: a reported, underwhelming 35 percent. Concurrently, health officials are warning that Covid-19 cases among both students and their teachers are rising, while fears abound over the new, highly transmissible Omicron variant. Between September and November all schools across Iran gradually reopened, even …

Iranwire – Kazem Mousavi, deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament’s Economic Committee, has said people trying to buy musical instruments in defiance of a ban on imports “can leave Iran”. Earlier this month Mehdi Mirasharfi, the head of Iran’s customs, musical instruments would no longer be imported into the country. Shortly afterward Gholam-Ali Ahankoob-Nejad, head of the Ahvaz Spectacle Manufacturers …