Social and Political

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 …

gatestoneinstitute.org – The globe’s most influential Muslim international forum, the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in a resolution drafted in March last year, in fact commended China’s efforts in its care of the country’s Muslims. The silence of the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia is, in part, explained by the at least $75 billion of investment deals reached in …

Al-Monitor – A group of hard-line lawmakers in Iran’s parliament have drafted legislation that would oblige the government of President Hassan Rouhani to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The “double-urgency” draft legislation has already been signed by 49 lawmakers. The departure, based on the text of the proposal, would take place …

Radiofarda – The daughter of a prominent imprisoned human rights advocate and internationally renowned lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was arrested on Monday and taken for interrogation was released the same day, her father said. An “Islamic Revolutionary Court” based at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, had summoned the twenty-year-old Mehraveh Khandan in what was a possible pressure tactic against her mother. …

Radiofarda – In an interview with the Associated Press on Monday, the Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi said he does not play the role of postman between the two diametrically opposed countries with close ties to Iraq. Al-Kadhimi who will be visiting the United States on August 20 to meet with President Donald Trump made the remark in response to …

Radiofarda – Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has praised former National Security Advisor John Bolton for being consistent in questioning the use of the “snapback” option by Washington to trigger UN sanctions against Iran. In an article in the Wall Street Journal published August 16, Bolton has said the Trump administrations determination to force the snapback option “Is not wroth …

Radiofarda – Iran’s Armed Forces General Command said in a statement on Monday that cyber-threats from “any government, group or person and at any level” will be “mightily reciprocated,” warning about cyber operations from foreign countries in “political, economic, social or cultural” areas, including elections. Iranian authorities have admitted on several occasions that the country’s online infrastructure had been targeted …

RFL/RE – Iran has reacted angrily to the United Arab Emirates’ decision to normalize ties with Israel, a move that could increase pressure on Tehran amid suggestions by U.S. and Israeli officials that other Persian Gulf states could follow suit. Iranian President Hassan Rohani blasted de facto U.A.E. leader Sheikh Muhammad bin Zayed’s reported pledge, which follows a de-escalation with …

VOA – The wife of a jailed Iranian dissident has criticized her nation’s Islamist rulers for ordering the couple’s son to go to prison for protesting the Iranian military’s January shoot-down of a Ukrainian passenger plane, saying the wrong people were being imprisoned for the incident.   Fatemeh Maleki announced in an August 11 Instagram post that authorities had summoned her son Ali Nourizad to report …