Social and Political

Radiofarda – Two members of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce have said that the “good news” Rouhani on Wednesday said should be expected “if approved” by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is a hint at the possible approval of the bills that allow Iran to join the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). “There are rumors that the economic breakthrough that the President …

RFL/RE – U.S. President Donald Trump says his administration will watch closely for possible interference in the November presidential election by Russia, China, and Iran.But he said he believes the last thing that any of the three countries would want is for him to win.“We are going to watch all of them. We have to be very careful,” Trump said …

VOA – Tensions between Israel and Iran have been rising quickly in recent days as Israeli forces face off with Iranian-backed militants across the Jewish state’s borders with Lebanon and Syria. This week, those tensions spiked further when several fighters – including militants – were killed when unidentified warplanes attacked a Syrian base near the Iraqi border. Linda Gradstein reports …

Iran-HRM – Four Christian converts were sentenced to a total of 13 years in prison. They were Ramin Hassanpour, Hadi Rahimi, Cathrine Sajjadpour, and Sakineh Behjati. All of them were from Rasht, the capital of Gilan Province. Ramin Hassanpour was sentenced to five years in prison, and his wife, Cathrine (Saeedeh) Sajjadpour, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. Moslem (Hadi) …

gatestoneinstitute.org – The deal is a clear win for China; the $400 billion will be invested over 25 years, which is a small amount of money for the second-largest economy in the world. China will also have full authority over Iran’s islands, gain access to Iran’s oil at a highly discounted rate and increase its influence and presence in almost …

Al-Monitor – Google took action against Iranian government accounts for coordinated activity, the tech giant announced Wednesday. The move follows similar actions by Facebook and coincides with Twitter rolling out labels for select government accounts on its platform. Google announced it terminated 16 YouTube accounts in April that were allegedly linked to the Iranian state-sponsored International Union of Virtual Media network. …

Shabtabnews – In a recent statement IOPHR condemns the execution of Mostafa Salehi whose only crime was to take part in the December 2016/ January 2017 peaceful protest against the 300% increase in the price of gasoline in Esfahan province.  The statement also states that “Mr. Salehi was charged with murder, after his arrest in order to justify his execution! …

Radiofarda – A London-based Internet expert on Thursday said that a text message from the State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program which some Iranians have received is likely to put their lives in danger. Russian media reported that Russian citizens also received similar messages on Thursday. Nariman Gharib has published screenshots of the message received by some Iranians recently that …

Radiofarda – The spokesman for the Islamic Republic’s judiciary announced on August 6, that Judge Gholamreza Mansouri who died in Romania in suspicious circumstances in June was buried in Mashhad. Only four days earlier, the former Judge’s brother had announced that his family was able to identify the body. The spokesman, Gholam Hossein Esmaeili has not specified whether Mansouri’s family …

Radiofarda – Ukraine expects to receive full information from Iran about the circumstances in which Iranian forces shot down an airliner in January, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Wednesday, August 5. The report should respect all international standards, Kuleba reminded Zarif. The ministers also discussed the results of the first round of negotiations on …