Social and Political

Al-Arabia – The United States will designate the Iran-backed Houthi militia as a terrorist organization, and three of its leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an official statement on Monday. “The Department of State will notify Congress of my intent to designate Ansarallah – sometimes referred to as the Houthis – as a …

A-Arabia – Reviving Iran’s nuclear deal must happen within the coming weeks, UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday after Tehran resumed 20 percent uranium enrichment and its parliament threatened to reduce access for inspectors in February. “It is clear that we don’t have many months ahead of us. We have rather weeks,” Grossi said in an interview …

Iranwire – A top South Korean diplomat was in Iran on January 10 to negotiate the release of a vessel and its crew seized by Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf amid a deepening financial dispute.South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun met with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araqchi, to discuss the seizure by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) …

RFL/RE – A Cuban state-run research institute says it has signed a deal with Iran’s Pasteur Institute to test the Caribbean state’s most advanced COVID-19 vaccine candidate in Iran. The Finlay Vaccine Institute’s (IFV) January 9 announcement came one day after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banned any import of U.S.- or U.K.-produced vaccines, which he called “untrustworthy,” to …

Iranwire – Two days after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei banned the purchase of American and British vaccines, the heads of the three branches of the Medical Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran, along with the chairman of the Assembly of Scientific Associations, appealed to President Hassan Rouhani to ensure the vaccines are procured immediately. They urged him not to …

Iranwire – On January 8, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei banned the import of United States and United Kingdom Covid-19 vaccines, making the announcement during a live, televised speech. The reason for the ban, he said, was that the two countries were not “trustworthy”. This decree means that vaccines that could save Iranians from infection and death are now forbidden from being …

Iranwire – In a televised speech on Friday, January 8, the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei banned American and British coronavirus vaccines from Iran and claimed:“They wish to test a vaccine on other nations to see if it works or not.” “I have said this to the officials, and I am now announcing this publicly,” he said. “If the Americans had been …

Iran-HRM – The Revolutionary Court of Dezful has sentenced three young men to a total of 40 years in prison for participating in protests over a rise in gasoline prices in November 2019. The three protesters Ra’d Hamdani, 23, Ghasi Khasraji, 19, and Sajjad Dabat, 20, were arrested in the November 2019 nationwide protests by intelligence agents in Shush county, …

gatestoneinstitute.org – There is eager anticipation among many of Washington’s foes that Mr Biden’s inauguration will result in the new president adopting a less confrontational tone with the outside world than his predecessor. China’s communist rulers, for example, are hopeful that Mr Biden will engage in the kind of meaningless trade deals so beloved of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Because Fardid knew no German, his knowledge of Heidegger was based on scanty reading and misreading of French or Persian translations. Fardid’s understanding of Heidegger could be summed up in two erroneous beliefs: society’s need for order and the need for an unimpeachable leader to impose that order. He also claimed a visceral hatred of Marxism in all …