Social and Political

Iranwire – Furious anti-government protests continued in cities across Iran last night, almost two weeks after demonstrations first began over the water crisis in Khuzestan. In videos published from the city of Isfahan in central Iran, a large night-time crowd could be heard chanting “Isfahan, Khuzestan, Unity, Unity” while protesters tore down a banner depicting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Similar slogans were …

Iranwire – Former Iranian prison official Hamid Nouri is to stand trial on the charges of grave war crimes and murder in a Swedish court next month. Swedish public prosecutors Kristina Lindhoff Carleson and Martina Winslow have brought the case against the 60-year-old for his alleged part in the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners in Iran in the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq …

Iranwire – The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran has had heart disease for the best part of 25 years. The fact that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was diagnosed with this condition as far back as 1998 was only recently revealed in the latest instalment of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s memoirs. In his diary entry for May 30, 1998, which was …

VOA – When the civil war erupted in Syria a decade ago, some Middle East observers and climate scientists argued drought was one of the significant drivers of the conflict. Drought in the years preceding the war caused an agricultural collapse in parts of eastern and northern Syria, forcing rural families to migrate to cities in ever larger numbers and …

Al-Monitor – On their 12th day, the rallies that initially began in the Iranian oil-rich but underdeveloped province of Khuzestan attracted growing solidarity from across the country. Videos have gone viral of demonstrations in Tehran, Karaj, Kermanshah, Isfahan and Bushehr, where protesters have been chanting slogans against Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with calls for an end to the clerical ruling establishment. …

RFL/RE – Angry protests against water shortages and deteriorating economic conditions in Iran continued to expand, a day after demonstrators in Tehran made a rare display of open discontent with the country’s Islamic leadership. Late on July 26, protesters in the city of Karaj, the capital of Alborz Province, chanted “Death to the dictator,” the same slogan that was heard …

nufdiran.org – For nearly two weeks, there have been large demonstrations in the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan that began over severe shortages in water supplies and quickly escalated into anti-regime protests. Other cities and townships in Iran followed suit in support of protests in Khuzestan. This is the natural course of all protests in Iran under the Islamic Republic. …

Iranwire – Protesters amassed in Jomhouri Avenue in central Tehran on Monday to chant anti-government slogans including “Shame, Khamenei! Let go of this country” and “Mullahs get lost”. Iranians on social media reported that the group marching down the shopping street at noon was partly enraged by the blackouts that have blighted the capital and cities across Iran for two months now. The long …

Iranwire – Ten thousand hospital beds in the Iranian capital are now occupied by patients with severe Covid-19 after a surge in cases prompted by to the Delta variant, the deputy director for Tehran’s Coronavirus Taskforce has said. Nader Tavakoli told IRNA on Tuesday that hospital beds earmarked for the armed forces and social security recipients would be co-opted for use by …

Iranwire – IranWire understands that since last month, a major campaign has been underway to supply members of Lebanese Hezbollah with the Iranian-made CovIran-Barekat vaccine. This is happening while inside Iran, less than five percent of the population has received two doses of any brand of Covid-19 vaccine, while the country is grappling with a fifth wave of new infections …