Social and Political

Radiofarda – The spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Health, Sima Sadat Lari, criticized the holding of a religious celebration in Iran’s second-largest city, Mashhad, saying that having such a ceremony was “indeed a crime.” IRNA, the government’s official news agency, cited Lari as describing the religious festival on Tuesday, October 27, as “unbelievable.” She added, “After holding the ceremony, …

Iran-HRM -The Coroner’s Office issued a letter indicating that prisoner of conscience Behnam Mahjoubi who suffers from a panic disorder needs to be released because of his dire health condition. Having seen the letter, the prison’s doctor gave some tablets to Behnam Mahjoubi and told him: “Wait until Monday. If you are alive, we will send you to hospital. If …

CHRI – As part of a continuing campaign of harassment and manufactured prosecutions against the families of political prisoners and activists in Iran, Mehraveh Khandan, the 20-year-old daughter of imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, appeared in a court on October 26, 2020, in Tehran to defend herself against the charge of “insult and assault” toward a prison guard. She had been …

Al-Arabia – One person dies of COVID-19 every three minutes in Iran, state television said on Wednesday, as the health ministry reported a record daily toll of 415 fatalities. For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page. Parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf tweeted that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, the latest among dozens of officials to be infected. Non-essential businesses …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Swiss and German economic deals might be aiding Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program…. The Swiss firm Ceresola TLS reached an agreement [in 2010] with the Rahab Engineering Establishment in Iran to deliver tunneling technology as part of a subway project. This is precisely the type of heavy earth-moving equipment Iran’s rulers need to burrow away nuclear facilities underground, …

Radiofarda – Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has tested positive for coronavirus, he said in a tweet early Wednesday. “One of my office staff got infected with coronavirus, and I received my test result which was positive at midnight,” Ghalibaf wrote on Twitter. For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page. He added in the same tweet that …

Radiofarda – The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency said that Iran has begun construction of an underground centrifuge assembly plant near its nuclear facility at Natanz. International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi said in an October 28 interview in Berlin that the facility seems to be a replacement for one that exploded in July in what Tehran called a …

Radiofarda – In an open letter to world leaders and the United Nations Secretary-General, 74 Iranian political and civil activists wrote that the agreement between Iran and China “is a threat to world peace and stability.” Addressed to the leaders of the United States, India, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the UN secretary-general, the letter …

Radiofarda – The former Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Majlis parliament, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, says that Iranian government officials failing to “round up” protesters in November 2019 could have led the country toward unbridled chaos or a “velvet revolution.” In an interview published by the state-run Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA) on Monday, October 26, Bahonar expressed his satisfaction with …

Radiofarda – The trunk of a tree in Mashhad Mellat Park, on which a young artist had carved a portrait of the late legendary vocalist, Mohammad Reza Shajarian, has been cut down. A local journalist, Farzaneh Ebrahimzadeh, posted photos of the trunk on her Twitter account before and after being cut down. She tweeted, “the artist says he had created the piece …