Social and Political

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Dr Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian scientist on death row in Evin Prison, has spent 100 days in solitary confinement, and only permitted one family visit in that period. According to Iran Human Rights, political prisoner, Ahmadreza Djalali was transferred to the solitary confinement cells of Ward 209, where he has been deprived of his basic …

Al-Monitor – Republican lawmakers on Thursday dug into Colin Kahl, President Joe Biden’s pick to become the Pentagon’s top policy official — a role akin to the defense secretary’s right-hand with responsibility in broad swaths of US national security policy. It was the second contentious nomination hearing in two days as Republicans jockey for leverage in opposition to the White House’s plans to reenter …

Al-Arabia – The UN nuclear watchdog plans to start a “technical” dialogue with Iran aimed at advancing the process of obtaining explanations on outstanding issues such uranium particles found at old, undeclared sites, its chief said on Thursday. “I’m … aiming at having a far more clear understanding of this issue by the summer or before,” International Atomic Energy Agency …

RFL/RE – Dozens of ethnic Baluch rights activists have staged a protest in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi to condemn the killing of their ethnic brethren by Iranian border guards last month. The protest comes amid reports of violent unrest and Internet blackouts in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province triggered after security forces killed cross-border fuel smugglers. Human Rights Watch last …

Iranwire – Six years ago on January 18, 2015, the prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead in his apartment in Buenos Aires. The prosecutor was hours away from denouncing a criminal plan carried out by the then-national government which aimed to provide immunity to Iranians linked to Hezbollah, who stood accused of having planned and executed the bombing attack against …

Iranwire – The lawyer Saeed Dehghan has announced the dissolution of nationwide charity the Imam Ali Society by an Iranian court. The nonpartisan NGO, which was first set up in 1999 and whose full name is the Imam Ali’s Popular Students Relief Society, is one of the largest non-state-backed charities in Iran with more than 10,000 volunteers across the country. …

Iranwire – Following an attack on female Iranian mountaineers, a climbing association has issued a ban on female rock climbers but has done nothing to confront the perpetrator — a Friday prayers imam. On February 24, 2021, a video was released of the Friday Imam of Darcheh in Isfahan province lashing out at both male and female climbers training in Kuhe Sefid and describing their sport as “dirty work”. Soon after, the …

VOA – Israel accused Iran on Wednesday of being linked to a recent oil spill off its shores that caused major ecological damage, calling the incident environmental terrorism. The spill was caused by an oil tanker that was carrying pirated cargo from Iran to Syria last month, Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel said. The vessel sailed through the Persian …

Iran-HRM-A court in Iran confirmed prison sentences against three residents of a southwestern city who joined the nationwide protests in November 2019. The 102nd Branch of the Behbahan Criminal Court upheld the sentences of three protesters arrested during the November 2019 protests. The three protesters Sattar Afshinpour, Bahman Amini and Mohammad Tayebi were tried in absentia and the three men …

gatestoneinstitute.org – The Biden administration, some Arab writers have said, “has adopted a policy of “antagonizing allies while appeasing enemies.” [Syrian journalist Abduljalil] Alsaeid said he believed that former Obama administration officials, who are now part of the Biden administration, are intentionally trying to damage US-Saudi relations. “The Obama wing inside the ruling Democratic Party accepts the Iranian regime and …