Social and Political

gatestoneinstitute.org – Iran’s currency, the rial, lost more than half its value so far just in 2020. Iran’s regime is currently running a $200 million budget deficit per week and it is estimated that if the pressure on Tehran continues, the deficit will hit roughly $10 billion by March 2021. This deficit will, in return, increase inflation and devalue the …

Radiofarda – A member of the Scientific Committee of Iran’s National Coronavirus Combat and Prevention Headquarters, Majid Mokhtari, says the COVID-19 pandemic is a “grave” issue that addition to quarantine may require “martial law.” Speaking on a TV program, Mokhtari also defended the proposal to close Tehran for two weeks. The Chief-Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Hossein Salami, …

Al-Arabia – Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif contracted and later recovered from coronavirus, a foreign ministry official said on Sunday. For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page. Zarif tested positive for coronavirus once and negative on two separate occasions after that, state news agency IRNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh as saying. Khatibzadeh did not say when Zarif …

VOA – Iran’s daily tally of coronavirus deaths hit a record high of 434 on Sunday, the Health Ministry announced, and the head of a top medical body said the actual toll was at least three times higher than the official count. The deaths, announced by Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari on state TV, take the official toll to 35,298 …

Radiofarda – A prominent Islamic Revolutionary turned dissident, Abolfazl Qadyani, says Iran’s political establishment is an “authoritarian regime” that has blocked all roads towards reforming the country. In a note published last Thursday on an exiled dissident website, Kalemeh, Qadyani asserted that the tyranny dominating Iran has brought the country to a standstill. Qadyani, who lives in Iran, also called …

The initial success of America’s recent economic policy was based on three factors: a substantial tax cut, energy independence, and a more level playing field in foreign trade…. Will there be a high tax scenario at a time the economy is grappling with the crippling effect of Covid-19? Will he stop or curtail fracking and lose the status of number …

Radiofarda – Weddings, wakes and conferences will be banned in the Iranian capital until further notice as the Middle East’s hardest-hit nation battles a third wave of COVID-19, police said on Saturday. President Hassan Rouhani meanwhile announced new restrictions that will take effect on Wednesday in 25 of Iran’s 31 provinces for 10 days. The official IRNA news agency said …

Iran-wire – Earlier this month, one of Iran’s most notorious puppet judges quietly passed away after contracting Covid-19. News surfaced that Hassan Zare Dehnavi, better known as Judge Haddad, had died on Wednesday, October 28. It prompted an outpouring of reaction from students, activists and others painfully affected by this judge’s rulings in the Revolutionary Courts during his lifetime. Beginning …

Iran-wire – In the eight months since the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran, many of the most bizarre pronouncements both about the virus and attempts to control it have come from Health Minister Saeed Namaki – especially when he is addressing either the Supreme Leader or the president of the Islamic Republic. Since late September the official daily death toll has …

Iran-HRM- A recent report from a social worker in Iran has shed more light on the abysmal conditions inside Iranian jails. The shocking report by Mr. Ali Mohammadzadeh who aids victims of addiction in prisons reveals new dimensions of the crimes committed years against inmates in the clerical regime’s dungeons, especially against death-row prisoners. Horror verdicts The report received Iran …