Social and Political

CHRI – A directive “ratified” by Iran’s Guardian Council, imposing new requirements for candidates to qualify to run in Iran’s June 2021 presidential election, has once again revealed the unconstitutional practices of the powerful unelected body. Accountable only to the supreme leader, the council of six clerics and six jurists is constitutionally mandated to vet laws and elections for conformity with the state’s …

republicanleader.senate.gov –U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding Iran: “The attacks being directed at innocent Israeli citizens are coming from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Both those terrorist groups receive support from Iran. “The regime in Tehran is the most active state sponsor of terrorism in the world. The regime …

RFL/RE – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is urging Iran to stop its imprisonment and harassment of Kurdish journalists amid what human rights groups have denounced as a crackdown on members of the minority group. In a statement late on May 12, the New York-based media-freedom watchdog cited news reports and sources familiar with the cases as saying that Iranian authorities …

RFL/RE – The U.S. State Department has accused China of committing “genocide” against Muslim Uyghurs and other religious minorities in an annual report that also labeled Iran and Russia among the world’s worst offenders of religious freedom.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken used the release of the State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report on May 12 to name and shame the …

Iranwire – Yesterday Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s former president from 2005 to 2013, arrived flanked by his entourage and crowds of onlookers at the Ministry of Interior to register as a candidate in the country’s 13th presidential election. Just like his eight-year premiership, it was a headline-grabbing episode – particularly after some of his supporters scuffled with Ministry staff on not being …

Iranwire – In recent weeks, the phrase “coldest election” has been used repeatedly to describe Iran’s 2021 presidential election. This is because, as the June 18 election nears, there is no sign of an election mood: no politicians frantically vying for attention and support, no air of expectation. In fact, the main candidates have not even been announced. This unprecedented …

Al-Monitor – In his first address as the registration process for Iran’s presidential election kicked off, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei outlined desirable traits of the next administration in Iran. In the televised address, Khamenei clarified previous remarks he had made about the next administration being “young.” He said that he did not mean a Cabinet made up of people in …

foxbusiness –  Fifteen Republican senators have written a letter to three major business and financial groups warning them against engaging with Iranian businesses if the Biden administration lifts sanctions to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.  The letter sent Tuesday to the heads of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Financial Services Forum and Business Roundtable was co-signed by Sens. Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, Marco …

Al-Arabia – Iran is still the “greatest, single threat” to stability in the region, the top US general for the Middle East said Tuesday. “And they still pursue a wide variety of malign activities, both directly and through proxies, that threaten not only us but our friends and partners across the region,” head of US Central Command (CENTCOM) Gen. Frank …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Last year, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei admitted for the first time that his country was supplying the Palestinian terrorist groups with weapons….”Iran realized Palestinian fighters’ only problem was lack of access to weapons” — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Reuters, May 22, 2020. The [earlier] denial exposes the extent of Iran’s scheme to deceive the …