Social and Political

(HRW) – Iranian authorities should transparently investigate alleged government security forces’ use of excessive force in Sistan and Baluchistan province on February 22, 2021, Human Rights Watch said today. At least 10 Baluchi people were killed in the Saravan border area near Pakistan, local activists said.The Baluchi Activists Campaign, a website reporting on human rights violations in the area, reported that on …

Al-Monitor – Twitter has suspended hundreds of Iran-based accounts for allegedly manipulative behavior. Twitter removed 238 accounts operating from Iran as part of an investigation into influence operations targeting the 2020 US presidential elections, the social media giant said in a press release on Tuesday. The investigation began in October when Twitter removed around 130 Iranian accounts. The FBI told Twitter the accounts …

Al-Monitor – Angry protests continued to break out several cities across Sistan-Baluchistan province for the third day in a row. According to local activists, at least two more people were killed, bringing the overall death toll to 12. Those figures, however, have been denied by Iranian officials. The turmoil began in the city of Saravan earlier this week after members of …

Shabtabnews – In a open letter to the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy & Vice-President of the European Commission, Mr. Josep Borrell Fontelles, IOPHR highlighted “the astonishing inhumane actions of the Iranian regime against its own citizens, and asked for assistance in this matter. ” IOPHR in the letter pointed to the unfortunate unprecedented increase …

Shabtabnews – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) condemns in the strongest terms the deliberate medical malpractice at Iran’s notorious Evin Prison that caused the death of Behnam Mahjoubi, a 33 year-old Gonabadi Sufi activist. In 2019, Iran’s government killed the community’s spiritual leader, Noor Ali Tabandeh, by similar means and replaced him with a government loyalist. “Behnam Mahjoubi’s death is an abysmal …

WJS – Iran, Europe and many American progressives are pressuring the Biden administration to revive the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. Official groupthink has coalesced around a singularly misguided belief: The U.S. has so badly mistreated Iran in the past that it must engage and appease the Islamic Republic now. I understand …

FOXnews – Iranian refugee and former Trump official Ellie Cohanim slammed John Kerry on Wednesday, calling the former secretary of state’s backdoor meetings with Iran during Trump’s presidency “anti-American” and an attempt to undermine the administration’s foreign policy stances. Watch the latest video at foxnews.com During an appearance on “Fox and Friends,” the former State Department special envoy called the Biden administration’s talks with Iran to reenter the nuclear deal …

RFL/RE – Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny’s time as an Amnesty International “prisoner of conscience” was short-lived — but not because he was released from detention. Navalny received the designation on January 17 following his arrest at a Moscow airport by Russian authorities who said he had violated the terms of a suspended sentence stemming from a 2014 embezzlement conviction. …

Iranwire – Sisakht is a deprived city in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province. The people of the city are known for their hard work; they are people who have struggled with poverty and unemployment for years. Life was difficult even before the earthquake that shook the foundations of their homes on Wednesday, February 17, 2021. At 22:05, a 5.6-magnitude earthquake shook the city, and now, in …

Iranwire – Khuzestan province is still in a critical situation. Medics and provincial officials have petitioned the government for a two-week lockdown of the province, but they have not yet succeeded in convincing decision-makers that a total quarantine is desperately needed in this deprived part of Iran. In the past two weeks, the number of outpatients across the country has …