Social and Political

Al-Monitor – The United States has announced sanctions on two military leaders of Yemen’s Houthi rebel movement following a spate of attacks on neighboring Saudi Arabia. Mansur al-Saadi, the head of the Houthis’ naval forces, and Ahmad Ali Ahsan al-Hamzi, head of the rebels’ air force, were sanctioned on Tuesday for “procur[ing] weapons from Iran and oversee[ing] attacks threatening civilians and maritime infrastructure,” …

Iranwire – On Sunday night, a group of Lebanese Hezbollah supporters marched on a southern suburb of Beirut to show their rejection of a speech made by the Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi, head of the Maronite Church in Lebanon. A video clip has been circulated on social media showing Hezbollah supporters raising Iranian and Hezbollah flags in the city, chanting slogans …

VOA – U.S. President Joe Biden’s quick January repeal of his predecessor’s travel ban on Iran has not yet revived Iranian arrivals to the United States, but it has reignited a debate about which Iranians the U.S. should allow to enter and whether existing methods for vetting them are effective.  Biden repealed former President Donald Trump’s travel ban on Iran and 12 …

Iran-HRM – Iranian authorities on Sunday executed four political prisoners from Iran’s Ahvazi Arab minority. The political prisoners, Naser Khafajian, Ali Khasraji, Hossein Silawi and Jasem Heidary were executed at Sepidar prison of Ahvaz, capital of Khuzestan Province. Ahvaz Intelligence Ministry agents contacted the families, instructing them to the Ahvaz’s Chaharshir Square. Intelligence agents blindfolded the families and transferred them …

CHRI —The killing by state security forces of some two dozen protesters in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan Province since unrest broke out in the area on February 22, 2021—and the intermittent shutdown of the internet to conceal news of those killings—continues the trend of excessive and lethal state force used against demonstrators in the Islamic Republic. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard …

gatestoneinstitute.org – The national security law not only carries sentences of up to life in prison, it also gives China jurisdiction to prosecute in mainland China violations of the law that took place in Hong Kong. It is now doing just that with 12 Hong Kong activists who attempted to flee to Taiwan by boat in August and were arrested …

Al-Monitor – The latest news over the nuclear crisis between Iran and the United States is that Iran has rejected an offer to meet with American negotiators. The European offer to hold direct US-Iran talks to settle the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations plus Germany is not the last opportunity for all …

Al-Monitor – The US Defense Department released aerial surveillance video of a ballistic missile attack launched by Iran early last year on an Iraqi military base used by American personnel. The footage, first aired by CBS News on Sunday, shows a barrage of more than one-ton missiles smashing into maintenance and dining facilities at Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq. …

ABC — Iran‘s Alpine ski coach, Samira Zargari, couldn’t join her team for the world championships in Italy last week. The reason? Her husband barred her from leaving the country. The reaction on social media was swift, and many Iranians vented their fury by demanding the government change the law to give women back their right to travel internationally, along with …

gatestoneinstitute.org – In the latest example of Iran’s increasingly reckless approach to the nuclear issue, the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has threatened to increase uranium enrichment to 60 percent, just below the 90 percent threshold required to produce weapons grade material. Thus, while IAEA director general Rafael Grossi claimed the talks had been a success, the IAEA now …