Social and Political

Iranwire – More than a week has passed since Iranian health officials declared a “fifth wave” of coronavirus infections was under way in the country. In seven days, the number of Iranian cities on “red alert” for high levels of transmission has jumped from 120 to 169. On Thursday, July 15, the officially-recorded number of coronavirus fatalities in a 24-hour period passed …

Iranwire – Women have been disproportionately affected by Iran’s economic crisis, with more women out of work than at any time over the last six years, a new report by Iran’s government statistics agency confirms. The 2021 report, entitled “Half of the Labor Market Missing as Iran’s Economy Begins Recovery” and published on July 14, assesses Iran’s recovery following the …

Iranwire – “The memory of a community is not only made of photos, testimonies and documents, books and artwork; it is also made up of places of witness, walls impregnated with people and events; through irreplaceable areas where memory and imagination can evoke pieces of living history …” Eliahu Toker, “Their names and their faces”, Milá Editions, AMIA, 1995 On …

Iranwire – The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has again begun recruiting Afghan migrants and refugees to be sent to Lebanon for military training, IranWire’s sources have said. The Islamic Republic has a long track record of training proxy forces, from Iranians to Iraqis to Afghans, at military bases in the Beqaa Governorate to the northeast. In the past few …

Al-Monitor – Four reasons Raisi would sign onto the JCPOA Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, with less than three weeks remaining in office, has handed over diplomacy on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran nuclear deal, to his successor, former Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi, who takes office on Aug. 3. It was the outcome both Rouhani and US President Joe Biden almost certainly …

Al-Monitor – Israel’s former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged former US President Donald Trump to launch military strikes against Iran during Trump’s final days in office, The New Yorker reported Thursday. Netanyahu’s prompting came as Trump repeatedly asked senior advisers about options to strike Iran in retaliation for small-scale attacks on US troops in the region. The inquiries triggered significant concern among senior officials, …

thedispatch.com – Europe’s willingness to accommodate the Islamic Republic continues, and cold geopolitical and economic calculations go far to explain the motivations of its leaders.    European officials seem eager to buttress the regime’s position while turning a blind eye toward the Iranian democracy movement, even in the wake of the election of Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner involved in the execution of thousands …

Al-Arabia – A network of alleged Iranian intelligence operatives charged by US prosecutors with plotting to kidnap prominent Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad had targeted at least four other activists in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, according to the prosecutors. US prosecutors charged four Iranians, alleged to be intelligence operatives for Tehran, with plotting to kidnap Alinejad, …

Al-Arabia – The recent plot to kidnap Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad has reopened the case of Iran’s targeting of opposition members and dissidents living abroad. Alinejad said on Wednesday that she was shocked by an Iranian plot to kidnap her from her New York home, as Tehran stiffly denied the allegations contained in a US Justice Department indictment. For the …

RFL/RE – Masih Alinejad’s harsh criticism of Iran’s clerical establishment, her campaign against the compulsory hijab, and efforts to highlight Tehran’s rights abuses, have angered Iranian officials who have tried to silence her through intimidation, smearing her name, and pressuring her family. But an alleged plot to kidnap Alinejad — an activist and journalist who hosts a weekly television show …