Social and Political

Iranwire – Pakistan says it has recalled its ambassador from Iran after an Iranian air strike killed two children in the country’s southwest. Pakistan will also not allow Iran’s ambassador in Islamabad, who is visiting his home country, to return, Pakistani Foreign Office spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in a statement on January 17. “Last night’s unprovoked and blatant breach …

Iranwire – Four individuals accused of involvement in the killing of renowned Iranian cinematographer Dariush Mehrjui and his wife Vahideh Mohammadifar went on trial on January 17. The session at the First Branch of Alborz Criminal Court was open to the public, but journalists were not allowed to attend. Manoush Manouchehri, the lawyer of Mehrjui’s family, reportedly requested the death …

RFL/RE – Iran’s Beheshti University has declared that students with disciplinary records won’t be eligible for a program that facilitates access to higher education levels, a move seen as an attempt to silence student protesters from the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement. The prominent state-run school on January 15 announced the move involving the “exceptional talents quota” policy and said it reserves the …

VOA — Pakistan confirmed Tuesday that an Iranian cross-border attack had killed two “innocent children” in its southwestern Baluchistan province and warned Iran of “serious consequences.”The statement came just hours after Iran said it struck strongholds of a Sunni armed group, Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), allegedly sheltering on the Pakistani side of the nearly 900-kilometer border between the two …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – Akram Karimpour, a Kurdish man on death row for drug-related charges, was executed in Hamedan Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a Kurdish man was executed in Hamedan Central Prison on 16 January. His identity has been established as 37-year-old Akram Karimpour from Saqqez. Informed sources told Iran Human Rights that …

Iranwirw – Iraq has recalled its ambassador from Tehran and summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Baghdad in protest over deadly Iranian missile strikes on its semi-autonomous Kurdish region. The overnight attack was “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Republic of Iraq, strongly contradicts the principles of good neighborliness and international law, and threatens the security of the region,” the …

Iranwire – The US military says it seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weaponry from a ship bound for Yemen’s Houthi rebels in a raid last week. Navy SEALs conducted the January 9 raid in the Arabian Sea, with the commandos launching from the guided missile frigate USS Lewis B. Puller backed by drones and helicopters, the US military’s Central …

RFL/RE – Sweden’s Foreign Ministry says a Swedish national was detained in Iran, the third of its citizens to be held in custody in the Middle Eastern country. The ministry said on January 15 that the person in custody is in his 20s and has been held since “the early days of January.” It gave no further details. Tehran has …

VOA – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they attacked the spy headquarters of Israel in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, state media reported late on Monday, while the elite force said they also struck in Syria against the Islamic State. The strikes come amid concerns about the escalation of a conflict that has spread through the Middle East since the war between …

Al-Arabia – Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia will persist in targeting “Israeli ships” in the Red Sea as long as Israel continues its war in Gaza, Tehran’s top diplomat said on Monday. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, speaking at a press conference in Tehran alongside his Indian counterpart, said that stopping the “genocide” in Gaza was the only way to put an end to …