Social and Political

Al-Monitor – French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday again suggested Saudi Arabia and Israel should be involved in renewed international engagement with Iran over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Speaking during a virtual event hosted by the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank, Macron also offered his services as an “honest broker” to renewed talks, as the US administration of …

RFL/RE – French President Emmanuel Macron has renewed his call for dialogue with Russia despite what he called its “huge mistake” in jailing opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, and offered to be an “honest broker” in talks between the United States and Iran. Amid lasting tensions between the West and Russia, Macron has long pushed for a working relationship with Moscow …

Iranwire – Official figures in Iran reveal that 364 babies were born to girls under the age of 15 in the year 2020. In its latest report, the Statistical Center of Iran also recorded 17,823 births to mothers between the ages of 15 and 19 in the same period. The report also published figures for child marriages, stating that the …

Iranwire – A quarterly report by the Statistical Center of Iran has shown child marriage in Iran hit record heights last summer even as the overall rate of new marriages slowed.  In the three months from June 21 to September 21, an average of 100 children under the age of 15 were married off every 24 hours. The picture is …

VOA – The pro-democracy group Freedom House has released a report detailing how countries such as China, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, and Turkey systematically employ violence and intimidation against exiles and diasporas to silence dissent beyond their borders. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.

VOA – China, Russia, Turkey and Iran are some of the world’s authoritarian countries that have increasingly spread political repression abroad with little consequence, according to a report released Thursday. Freedom House, a Washington-based democracy advocacy group, identified authoritarian nations that have resorted to tactics in recent years to murder and intimidate critics living outside their borders.   Titled “Out of Sight, …

Amnesty – Iranian authorities must immediately halt any plans to execute four Baluchi and four Ahwazi Arab men amid an alarming rise in executions of ethnic minority prisoners in the past two months, Amnesty International said today. The international community, including UN human rights bodies and the EU must urgently intervene to save their lives. “The recent escalation in executions …

Al-Monitor – Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine is the first vaccine to arrive in Iran, as the country warns that a fourth wave of coronavirus is imminent. Head of the Iranian Health Ministry’s public relations office Kianoush Jahanpour had announced the imminent arrival of the vaccines to Iranian media ahead of time. Iranian media outlets were on the scene at Imam Khomeini …

During 1988-1998 there were a series of murders and disappearances in Iran involving certain Iranian intellectuals and dissidents, a majority of whom were critical of the new Islamic Republic. More than 80 individuals fell victim to these horrible crimes carried out by the Iranian government, these 80 individuals were writers, political activists, poets and ordinary citizens. The murders were committed …

RFL/RE – A diplomat has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a court in Belgium over a foiled bombing in the first trial of an Iranian official for suspected terrorism in the European Union since Iran’s 1979 revolution.Vienna-based diplomat Assadolah Assadi was found guilty on February 4 of attempted terrorism after a plot to bomb a rally of …