Social and Political

VOA – Iran began construction on four more nuclear power plants in the country’s south, with expected total capacity of 5,000 megawatts, the official IRNA news agency reported Thursday. Iran seeks to produce 20,000 megawatts of nuclear energy by 2041. The country has one active nuclear power plant, a 1,000 megawatt plant that went online with help from Russia in …

VOA – U.S. forces are preparing to hit Iran-backed proxies across the Middle East with increased intensity in response to a drone attack on a base in Jordan that killed three U.S. soldiers and injured more than 40 others. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking to reporters for the first time since he was hospitalized January 1 for complications from …

iranintl – Iran’s IRGC has reduced the presence of its senior officers in Syria due to a spate of deadly Israeli strikes and will rely more on its militia proxies, Reuters quoted five sources as saying. The Guards have suffered one of their most bruising spells in Syria since arriving a decade ago to aid President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian war. …

iranintl – Iran’s exiled prince, Reza Pahlavi, says the region’s problems are a result of global appeasement with the Islamic Republic.  Pahlavi highlighted Tehran’s destabilizing activities through its regional proxies such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis and crackdown on dissent within Iran, calling on the world to support the revolutionary uprising of the Iranian people to end the regime.  “There is only …

iranintl – US lawmakers are pushing for stricter enforcement of Iran’s oil sanctions, adding to the growing pressure on the Biden administration following a deadly attack on a US base in Jordan. In a letter addressed to the President, more than 60 House members from both parties are calling for “immediate action” to prevent the Iranian regime from obtaining “additional …

Iranwire – Shops and businesses in the Iranian city of Semirom shut down on February 1 in a general strike protesting the transfer of two brothers on death row to solitary confinement.  Footage circulating online shows deserted streets and closed shops across the city, located in the central province of Isfahan, amid fear that Fazel and Mehran Bahramian could be …

RFL/RE – An Iranian man is being held for allegedly murdering his 17-year-old son over what he called the teenager’s “feminine” behavior and makeup, in a case that has put the plight of the Islamic nation’s LGBT community in the spotlight once again. According to the Rokna news agency, the father, distressed by his son’s conduct in the northwestern city …

RFL/RE – The United States has charged four Chinese nationals with illegally exporting dual-use U.S. electronic components to Iran over several years. The four individuals smuggled the technology via China and Hong Kong to entities affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL), the U.S. Justice Department said in a …

VOA – The Iranian government has traced this month’s twin suicide bombings in Kerman city to ethnic-Tajik fighters of the Islamic State Khorasan Province who, experts say, are “fairly small” in number but play “an important part” in the group’s military activities. The Afghanistan-based branch of the Islamic State (IS-K) claimed responsibility for the January 3 blasts that killed at …

Al-Arabia – Yemen’s Houthi militia fired “several” missiles at a US warship in the Red Sea, they said on Wednesday, hours after the US military reported shooting down a missile. “The naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces, with the help of God Almighty, fired several… naval missiles at the American destroyer USS Gravely in the Red Sea,” the Houthi statement …