Social and Political

iranintl – Microsoft says an Iranian cyber espionage group is using a newly developed malware called FalseFont backdoor for intelligence gathering on defense industry companies worldwide. “Microsoft has observed the Iranian nation-state actor Peach Sandstorm attempting to deliver a newly developed backdoor named FalseFont to individuals working for organizations in the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) sector,” said Microsoft Threat Intelligence Unit, …

iranintl – Tehran’s academic policies have received widespread criticism after Iran was announced to be among the countries with the highest rate of retracted scientific papers. In a report published earlier in the month by Nature, considered by many as the world’s leading journal of science, Iran ranked seventh in the list of the countries with the highest retraction rates with …

VOA – An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said the Mediterranean Sea could be closed if the United States and its allies continued to commit “crimes” in Gaza, Iranian media reported on Saturday, without explaining how that would happen. Iran backs Hamas against Israel and it accuses the United States of backing what it calls Israeli crimes in Gaza, where weeks …

VOA – The United States on Friday accused Iran of close involvement in attacks on commercial ships by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, stepping up the tone as Washington considers tougher measures, including possible force. The White House publicly released U.S. intelligence as the Iranian-linked Yemeni insurgents persist with ship strikes they say are in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, …

gatestoneinstitute.org – If the Biden administration thought that by rescuing Iran’s economy, which had hit bottom, and removing the Houthis from the list of Foreign Terror Organizations would make both Iran into an ally, the generosity appears to have backfired. If the Iranian regime is allowed to advance to nuclear weapons capability, it will be on course finally to drive …

Iran-HRM – Urgent Call to Condemn Executions in Iran and Address the Human Rights Catastrophe in Delfan Yahya Ebrahimi, the representative of Delfan County in the regime’s parliament, stated in a video interview released on Wednesday, December 20, 2023: “Around one to two thousand young people from this county have been sentenced to death on charges of selling drugs,” and …

Amnesty – Reacting to alarming developments indicating that Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who has been arbitrarily detained in Iran since April 2016, is at grave risk of imminent retaliatory execution in the country, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Diana Eltahawy said: “Amid a sharp spike in executions in Iran since November, mounting evidence indicates …

iranintl – A member of the Energy Committee of the Iranian Parliament claimed that the cyber attack on Iran’s fuel supply system was carried out “from inside.” Parviz Mohammadnezhad Ghazimahalleh said on Thursday that the the attack which cut off 70% of the country’s petrol stations was a “physical” one. “They entered the system via a USB or a program from inside,” he added …

iranintl – As Iran’s domestic carmakers lose money due to sanctions, a technological gap and mismanagement, officials are promising to boost the electrical vehicle production. As Iran’s domestic carmakers lose money due to sanctions, a technological gap and mismanagement, officials are promising to boost the electrical vehicle production. The only avenue open to Iran is to make deals with Chinese …

RFL/RE – Ali Akbar Velayati, the senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has apparently criticized Russia’s position on the long-standing dispute over Iran’s sovereignty of three strategic islands in the Persian Gulf. Velayati, a former foreign minister of Iran and now a key international affairs adviser, expressed regret over the Russian Foreign Ministry’s stance, suggesting it undermines Moscow’s credibility …