Social and Political

VOA – Jared Kushner, the senior adviser to President Donald Trump, is calling on Iran to make peace with Washington as Trump predicts there will be a quick return to U.S.-Iran negotiations if he is re-elected in November. In a Tuesday interview for VOA program Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren, Kushner appealed to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to engage …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Mohammad Reza Haddadi, a juvenile offender imprisoned in Shiraz Central Prison (also known as Adel Abad) has spent 18 years on death row. Over the last week, there have been reports on social media that Mohammad Reza is due to be executed imminently, which his lawyer and family have denied. Hossein Ahmadi-Niaz, one of Mohammad …

Al-Monitor – Iran’s death toll from the novel coronavirus had passed the 20,000 mark and confirmed infections passed 302,000, Tehran announced Wednesday, as the government’s pandemic policies continue to spark public criticism. In a videoconference briefing, spokesperson for Iran’s Health Ministry Sima Sadat Laari said that transmission of the illness is at alarming levels in 26 out of 31 provinces. She also claimed virus has been found to be …

Al-Monitor – Nearly 10 days after he raised a series of rare corruption allegations, Iranian hard-line politician Parviz Fattah continues to face fury from across the political spectrum. Fattah is the director of the Foundation of the Oppressed, commonly known in Iran as Bonyad, one of the country’s wealthiest public institutions controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The organization was founded …

Radiofarda – The newly appointed spokesman for the Islamic Republic Foreign Ministry has dismissed the the U.S. accusation that Tehran has paid the Taliban in Afghanistan to kill American troops as “groundless allegations”. “The accusations leveled by the U.S. Secretary of State is sort of shifting the blame onto others and an attempt to divert public opinion of the Afghan …

Al-Arabia – Iran surpassed 20,000 confirmed deaths from the coronavirus on Wednesday, the health ministry said — the highest death toll for any Middle East country so far in the pandemic. The announcement came as the Islamic Republic, which has been struggling with both the region’s largest outbreak and the highest number of fatalities, went ahead with university entrance exams …

Radiofarda – President Hassan Rouhani complained about excessive criticism of his administration by the state television and said that “too much criticism will disappoint the nation.” He made the comment during a meeting with the chief and senior managers of Iran’s state broadcaster, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), on Monday August 17. Although IRIB Chief Ali Askari takes …

Radiofarda – Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister has told Radio Farda that Kyiv most of all seeks the truth about the downing of its airliner by Iran and monetary compensation is a secondary goal. In his new interview with Radio Farda Yevhen Yenin has emphasized that Ukraine’s primary goal is obtaining the whole truth behind downing UIA’s plane that killed all …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – According to a list obtained by IHR, 77 protesters detained during the November 2019 protests are currently detained at the Greater Tehran Penitentiary (Fashafuyeh). Of those, 70 have been sentenced to between 1-9 years in prison, three have been sentenced to death and one is awaiting a conviction of moharebeh (waging war against God) which …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Two months after the arrest of Sharmin Meymandinejad, the founder of the Imam Ali Popular-Student Relief Society (Imam Ali Society), the Ministry of Interior has set a 20-day deadline for the NGO to change its structure. A hundred civil society activists recently issued a statement protesting the “deterrent and narrow-minded treatment of NGOs” and called …