Social and Political

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 …

Iranwire – In a first incident of its kind even for the Islamic Republic, the US Department of Justice this week announced the foiling of a plot to kidnap an Iranian-born activist on American soil. Five people – four of them said to be Iranian intelligence agents – were indicted for their part in a plan to abduct Alinejad from New …

VOA – Protesters angry over water shortages marched through streets late Thursday in an oil-rich, restive province in southwestern Iran and police apparently fire weapons to disperse the crowds, online videos showed. It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone had been wounded or arrested in the protests across multiple cities in Khuzestan province, including its capital, Ahvaz. Iranian state media had …

barrons – Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi and US envoy Brett McGurk discussed Thursday the withdrawal of troops, his office said, one day after top Iraqi and Iranian security officials met. “Discussions took place about mechanisms for (US) combat troops’ withdrawal from Iraq, and moving forward to a new stage in strategic cooperation,” the Iraqi prime minister’s office said in …

Al-Monitor – Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani, one of Iran’s most senior clerics, lashed out at the Islamic Republic’s softened policy at a moment of rapid Taliban advances and widespread atrocities in Afghanistan.   Such an approach, the ayatollah warned, “is a grave and irreparable mistake.” He cautioned the Iranian government not to trust a “terrorist” group “whose evil and murderous nature is no secret to the world.” Golpaygani called on both Iran and the international community to “act with …

Al-Monitor – A group of Iranian hackers used fake Facebook accounts to target US military personnel, as well as defense and aerospace workers, the social media company said Thursday.  The hacking group, known as Tortoiseshell, used Facebook and other social media platforms to engage with targets before infecting their devices with malware for espionage purposes. According to Facebook, a fake account would …

Al-Arabia – Iran is not prepared to resume negotiations on coming back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal until Iranian President-elect Ebrahim Raisi’s administration has begun, a diplomatic source said on Wednesday. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Iran had conveyed this to European officials acting as interlocutors in the indirect US-Iranian negotiations and that the …

Iranwire – Twitter storm today, under the hashtag of #StopHatePropaganda and running from 5pm to 7pm GMT, 930pm to 1130pm Tehran time, will draw global attention to a 40-year campaign of hate speech conducted by the Iranian government against the Baha’i community in Iran, the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority.  A statement by the Baha’i International Community (BIC) in Geneva, which represents the Baha’is at the …

Iranwire – In Search of Expediency, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s recently-published diaries covering the events of 1998, examines one of Iran’s most volatile periods of political crisis. Rafsanjani’s son and the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini both attended the launch of the 840-page publication, the 18th volume of the former president’s memoirs. As with previous editions, it has sparked debate and speculation, as well as confirmed details of some key …

freebeacon.com – The State Department informed Congress late Tuesday that it would waive sanctions on Iran’s illicit oil trade so that the country can access frozen funds from South Korea and Japan, the same day the Department of Justice announced charges on an Iranian spy network that sought to kidnap an American. The waiver, signed by Secretary of State Antony …