Social and Political

iranintl – President Joe Biden issued a veiled threat to Iran on Friday, hours after the US and Britain struck at dozens of Iran-backed Houthi sites in Yemen. The strike on Houthis Thursday night came after the group shrugged off all warnings and demands to stop attacking vessels in the Red Sea. There were more strikes Friday night, albeit on …

iranintl – Seven years after her father’s death, a former Iranian president’s daughter reveals she was warned about his assassination due to leadership concerns after Khamenei. Two Iran-Iraq war veterans showed up at the university where Fatemeh Hashemi was teaching. They warned her that there were those who wanted to kill her father, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and kill …

iranintl – Canada is about to deport a former high-ranking Iranian government official as part of efforts to ban senior regime figures from seeking refugee status there. Appearing before an immigration panel on Thursday, Majid Iranmanesh, who was a director general at Iran’s Vice-Presidency for Science and Technology, asked the court to allow him to leave the country voluntarily without a …

Iranwire – The Iranian authorities’ “brutal repression” of peaceful dissent continues unabated one year after nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death in September 2022, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says. The authorities have also “consolidated their efforts to increase punitive measures” against women who refuse to wear the mandatory headscarf in public spaces, the New York-based group said in a statement on …

VOA – A Danish appeals court Friday upheld the sentences of three members of an Iranian separatist group convicted of promoting terror in Iran and gathering information for an unnamed Saudi intelligence service. The three had been convicted and sentenced in a lower court in 2022 to six, seven and eight years in prison, respectively. They will be expelled from …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Because of the apparent lack of oversight from world leaders, especially the United States, the rising provision of ballistic missiles by Iran to non-state actors –including terrorist and militia groups, as well as rogue states — now presents a significant source of concern for global security. The regime continues to hide behind its proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah and the …

iranintl -Former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has voiced his concern regarding the potential for an “extremely” low turnout in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Rouhani criticized the government for discouraging a majority of eligible voters from going to the polls in the 2020 parliamentary elections. In that election, the hardliner-dominated Guardian Council ruthlessly barred nearly all the reformist and moderate candidates from …

iranintl – Following widespread criticism of Iran’s security failure that led to the deadly blasts last week, the intelligence ministry released further details on the incident. In its second statement after two explosions hit a memorial ceremony for slain Revolutionary Guard commander Qasem Soleimani near his grave on January 3, the Islamic Republic’s intelligence ministry said Thursday that 35 people have been arrested across …

Iranwire – The Iranian government has condemned the United States and United Kingdom for military strikes on Yemen, warning that such attacks will only increase insecurity in the Middle East. Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that the strikes on Iran-backed Houthi rebel military targets in response to their attacks on ships in the Red Sea “are a clear violation …

Iranwire – In a coordinated operation on January 9, agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence raided the homes of several Baha’i families in Tabriz, marking a fresh escalation in the government’s pressure campaign against the religious minority. IranWire obtained a report detailing the raids, which targeted at least six Baha’i households. Agents confiscated religious texts, photos, and personal belongings, including …