Social and Political

Radiofarda – Twenty-two years after the political “Chain Murders” in Iran, Pirouz Davani’s family is still waiting to hear about his whereabouts. His brother, Hossein Davani, says that no trace remains of his brother, who he says was murdered in the heat of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence’s project to kill dissidents in 1998. The writer, translator, and owner of …

RFL/RE – Iran and Afghanistan have officially inaugurated their first railway link, an achievement the two countries’ presidents said would help enhance trade across the region.The 130-kilometer line running from Khaf in northeastern Iran into Rosnak in the western Afghan province of Herat is seen as providing a crucial transport link for the landlocked country where decades of war have hindered …

RFL/RE – The ultraconservative former chief of Iran’s judiciary, Mohammad Yazdi, has died at the age of 89, the official IRNA state news agency reported. Yazdi, a student of Islamic republic founder Ruhollah Khomeini, died on December 9 due to “illnesses of the digestive system,” IRNA said. Yazdi was named to head the judicial authority in 1989, shortly after Supreme …

RFL/RE – In early December 2005, Nshan Topouzian, an ethnic Armenian bishop living in Iran, received an alarming tip-off. According to Iranian border guards, a demolition crew had arrived at the Armenian cemetery of Julfa, in the Azerbaijani exclave of Naxcivan. The Armenian cemetery of Julfa. This is one of several photographs of the ancient cemetery that were taken by …

Payvandnews – The Iranian Health Ministry has confirmed 10,223 COVID-19 infections and 295 deaths due to the respiratory disease in the past 24 hours. Health Ministry Spokesperson Sima Lari made the announcement on Wednesday, saying that the total coronavirus cases in the country have so far reached 1,072,620 with the death toll standing at 51,620. Funeral for a coronavirus victim …

Al-Arabia – A United Nations analysis of photos of four anti-tank guided missiles in Libya found that one “had characteristics consistent with the Iranian-produced Dehlavieh” missile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reported to the Security Council. However, he said in his biannual report – submitted to the council late Monday – that the UN secretariat was “unable to ascertain if this …

Radiofarda – In his new memoir, Barack Obama recalls a moment that shocked the world. In 2009, as protestors swarmed the streets of Iran’s capital, the clerical regime’s Basij militia shot and killed a young woman named Neda Agha Soltan. The 26-year-old philosophy student became a symbol of the uprising after a video of her final moments, her blood gushing on a Tehran street, went viral. In the …

iranwire.com – How each country has dealt with the coronavirus pandemic reflects on its government, and on where its priorities lie. In some societies, good management of Covid-19 has lent the state a level of popularity it did not enjoy before – whereas in others, such as Iran, the shortcomings of the political system have been laid bare for all …

RFL/RE – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is urging Iran to cease jailing members of the press for their work after a 72-year-old journalist began a three-year prison sentence over his coverage of protests last year. “Jailing an elderly journalist in the middle of a raging pandemic shows how much contempt the Iranian judiciary has for the press,” CPJ’s …

RFL/RE – The outgoing administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has stepped up its pressure on Iran by imposing sanctions on the country’s ambassador to Yemen’s Huthi rebels. The fresh sanctions, announced on December 8, target envoy Hassan Irlu as well as the Qom-based Al-Mustafa International University for recruiting members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force as …