Social and Political

Iranwire – In his first press conference after his electoral victory, Iran’s President-elect Ebrahim Raeesi had a clear message for the West: “The situation in Iran has changed.” This message was emphasized through both the tone and the substance of Raeesi’s responses to reporters’ questions, especially about his role in the mass executions of political dissidents of 1988, the allegations of crimes …

Iranwire – Ebrahim Raeesi is the first president-elect in Iran to have been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union before even entering office. The sanctions against Raeesi relate to his horrifying judicial record and violations of Iranians’ human rights over decades. Amongst other international crimes, he was a member of the Tehran “death panel” that in 1988 sent thousands …

amnesty.org – Responding to the Iranian authorities’ plans on 28 June to execute 20-year-old Hossein Shahbazi, who was convicted of a murder that took place when he was just 17 years old based, in part, on “confessions” obtained through torture, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, Diana Eltahawy, said: “Iran’s authorities must immediately …

Al-Monitor – Sitting before dozens of microphones in his first press conference since the election Friday, Iran’s President-elect Ebrahim Raisi fielded questions from domestic and international media. According to his responses, he intends to continue many of Hassan Rouhani’s foreign policies. In regard to the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Raisi said the current negotiating team …

Al-Monitor – Iran wants a guarantee from the United States that it will not leave the Iran nuclear agreement again. “The US must give a guarantee,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters on Monday, according to the semi-official Tasnim News Agency. The United States and Iran are currently participating in indirect talks in Vienna on a possible US return to the Iran nuclear …

RFL/RE – UN human rights experts have condemned the continued imprisonment of Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, whose health has “seriously deteriorated” since her arrest three years ago. Iranian authorities have failed to release Sotoudeh despite “many calls” to do so, and instead last year transferred the lawyer to another prison, “farther away from her family and under dire …

telegraph – The man who has won Iran’s rigged presidential election should be in prison, not power. Ebrahim Raisi was the youngest member of the 1988 Tehran death commission, accused of murdering 3,000 opposition prisoners. This did not come up in the presidential debates. Nearly 600 people registered to run; the all-powerful guardian council whittled it down to seven, three of whom …

RFL.RE – Iran’s atomic energy body says the country’s sole nuclear power plant has been temporarily shut down over a “technical fault.”“Following a technical fault at Bushehr power plant, and after a one-day notice to the Energy Ministry, the plant was temporarily shut down and taken off the power grid,” the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said on its website overnight.The agency added that …

Iranwire – The secretary-general of Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has welcomed the news that Iran’s next president will be ultra-conservative judge Ebrahim Raeesi. At the weekend, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ oldest proxy in the region told Raeesi his “election” had “renewed the hopes of the Iranian people and the people of the region who see you …

Iranwire – Even before Ebrahim Raeesi was declared the winner of Iran’s 13th presidential election, members of the reformist camp were shoring up their options. Shortly after the news came through, Hossein Marashi, a spokesman for the reformist Executives of Construction Party, talked about the need for “reorganization”. The journalist and activist Abbas Abdi had already said the bloc needed to …