Social and Political

iranwire.com – After two weeks of 70 percent of the city being locked down, the alert level in Tehran was downgraded from red to orange on Saturday, December 5. The change meant that traffic on thoroughfares and on city streets increased, mainly due to the fact that many businesses have been allowed to reopen since the capital is no longer …

RFL/RE – Britain, France, and Germany say Iran’s apparent plan to install additional advanced centrifuges at its main nuclear enrichment facility is “deeply worrying” and contrary to the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. “If Iran is serious about preserving a space for diplomacy, it must not implement these steps,” the three powers, dubbed the E3, said in a joint statement …

Iran-HRM – A group of political prisoners of ward 8, Evin Prison, published a statement pointing to the re-spread of coronavirus in the country and the prisons, warning about a potential death tsunami at prisons. The statement reads:“As we predicted, the coronavirus reached a new peak in fall dragging into death more people on daily basis; the reason: the authorities …

Al-Arabia – Any new nuclear deal with Iran must prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons, said the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Dr. Nayef al-Hajraf on Sunday. For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app. Al-Hajraf, who represents the six-member GCC, said Iran’s continues to destabilize the region and violate UN resolutions, …

iranwire.com – Shahindokht Molaverdi, President Hassan Rouhani’s former vice president for women and family affairs and his former aide in citizens affairs, has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison. The charges against her include “revealing classified information and documents with the aim of undermining national security,” “propaganda against the regime” and “promotion of corruption, prostitution and encouraging …

Iranwire.com – United States Congress is preparing new legislation to bring sanctions against the Badr Organization, one of the largest Iranian proxy militias in Iraq. The bill, a copy of which The Washington Free Beacon has had exclusive access to, claims that the organization was responsible for the deadly attacks that targeted Americans stationed in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Calls for the new …

Al-Arabia – Iran is sending its biggest fleet yet of tankers to Venezuela in defiance of US sanctions to help the isolated nation weather a crippling fuel shortage, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Some of the flotilla of about 10 Iranian vessels will also help export Venezuelan crude after discharging fuel, the people said, asking not to …

Al-Arabia – The recently assassinated Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was recorded saying he had been asked to produce “five warheads” for the Islamic Republic of Iran, according to reports by the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted in the Times of Israel. The recording was reportedly acquired by Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert after Israeli intelligence recruited an Iranian …

gatestoneinstitute.org – We may be proved wrong, but our guess is that Tehran will do nothing to raise the degree of tension even by one notch…. Khamenei promised “hard revenge” for Soleimani’s death but has vowed nothing but “prosecution and punishment” of perpetrators. His emphasis is on “the continuation” of Fakhrizadeh’s work. In other words, as long as our progress …

RF/RLE – Iran’s Supreme Court has said it will review the cases of three young men sentenced to death over links to anti-government protests in November 2019. “The case will be reviewed in another tribunal,” the court’s website said on December 5, without providing further details. The men were sentenced earlier in 2020, after being found guilty of “collusion to …