Social and Political

Iranwire – The private phone numbers and other details of more than 200 Iranians in the UK have been shared in a data breach involving the Iranian regime’s official cultural outpost in London. The Islamic Centre of England (ICE) was established in a former bingo hall in the British capital in 1998, by a personal envoy of Ali Khamenei. It works to promote …

Al-Monitor – The new deputy commander of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened Israel on Thursday following a rare missile strike against the Jewish state that Israel blamed on the Syrian military.  Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Fallahzadeh said, “The occupier Zionist regime should know that the resistance groups are stationed all over the planet next to their bases …

Al-Monitor – Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based advocacy organization, joined a growing chorus of Iranians to urge the release of veteran journalist and documentary filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad. “He is ailing and deprived from the right to treatment. His life is in danger,” read a post on the organization’s official Persian Twitter account. The statement accused Iranian authorities of “arbitrarily” imprisoning the …

Al-Arabia – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) released drone footage of a US aircraft carrier said to be in the Gulf and a clip of a “suicide drone test flight,” Press TV reported on Wednesday, at a time when the Vienna-based talks between world powers to revive the 2015 nuclear deal are underway. The IRGC “released strikingly precise and …

RFL/RE – The announced withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan will grant Iran one of its biggest wishes and lead to the departure of all foreign forces, which Tehran has long blamed for insecurity in the region. Analysts say the pullout of U.S.-led NATO forces from Afghanistan could potentially give Iran more room to maneuver within its war-torn neighbor, with …

RFL/RE – An independent, bipartisan advisory body has reiterated its call for the U.S. State Department to add Russia to its register of the world’s “worst violators” of religious freedom, a blacklist that already includes Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and six other countries.The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), created by Congress to make recommendations about global religious freedom, …

Iranwire – The second round of indirect talks between Iran and the United States on the possible revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has just drawn to a close, and the parties have returned home to consult with their respective governments. Meanwhile, a tweet from Abbas Araghchi, the head of the Iranian delegation during this round of …

VOA – Serious differences persist between the United States and Iran over how they might resume compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal despite making some progress in their latest indirect talks in Vienna, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday. The talks were likely to require several rounds, their outcome remained uncertain, and they were not near conclusion, the …

Al-monitor – Hot take on Vienna … and the other Iran talks: Rouhani notes 60-70% progress in Vienna. Let’s start in Vienna, where talks are underway for the return of both the United States and Iran to compliance with Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The details are trickling out and the messages are mixed, but the headline (cutting through the daily pressers and remarks, on …

unwatch.org – UN Watch is calling on U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield and EU states to condemn the UN’s election of Iran to a 4-year term on its Commission on the Status of Women, the “principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.” The vote yesterday by the UN’s Economic and Social Council, reported first by UN Watch, …