Social and Political

Radiofarda – The United States pledged to continue a withdrawal of its troops from Iraq, the two countries said on June 11 in a joint statement. The pledge came after the two countries held a strategic dialogue and after Iraqi lawmakers demanded that U.S. forces withdraw in the wake of a U.S. drone strike in January that killed a top …

Reuters -Cruise missiles used in several attacks on oil facilities and an international airport in Saudi Arabia last year were of “Iranian origin,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council in a report seen by Reuters on Thursday. Guterres also said several items in U.S. seizures of weapons and related materiel in November 2019 and February 2020 were “of …

RFL/RE – Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has filed a complaint with Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor against an Iranian judge whom the Paris-based media freedom watchdog accuses of being responsible for the “arrest and torture” of at least 20 journalists in 2013. In a Twitter post on June 11, RSF’s Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said that Gholamreza Mansouri was currently in Germany.“The prosecutor must …

RFL/RE – As a corpse sticks out from the back of a blazing car on a road in central Iran, a badly burned young Afghan who escaped the flames stumbles along the road.“Give me some water, I’m burning!” the migrant screams in pain.The harrowing minute-long video, which went viral on social media, shows a gruesome scene in which Iranian police are …

Iran-HRM – The International Labor Organization has declared June 12 as the World Day Against Child Labour to raise awareness and work to prevent child labor. The COVID-19 pandemic and the regime’s mismanagement of handling the crisis, have had a huge impact on people’s lives and livelihoods. The crisis has pushed a significant number of children into child labour in Iran. Already, there are …

Al-Monitor – Iran’s president said the country is looking to reopen under certain health guidelines.  Iranians wear protective face masks, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as they drive with the metro, in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2020.  Photo by WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Ali Khara via REUTERS. President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran will seek to reopen …

PayvandNews – Iran’s minister of transportation says an initial deal has been reached with the neighboring Iraq to build a long highway that would ease traffic across the border and would help boost trade between the two neighboring countries. Mohammad Eslami said on Wednesday that the 354-kilometer highway would connect the city of Mehran on the western Iranian border to …

Shabtabnews – On December 3rd, 2011, the Islamic Republic ordered its ‘cyber army’ to hunt, steal, and decrypt classified manufacturing blueprints of the Sentinel RQ-170 American spy drone. As result of which, for years later it boasted its prowess in successfully “reverse engineering” the manufacture of American drones. The  Sentinel RQ-170, which was built by Lockheed Martin and used by …

Radiofarda – Iranian media have reported that an oil worker in the oil-rich Khuzestan Province hanged himself on Wednesday after his repeated appeals to the contractor to pay his overdue wages failed. According to media and social media reports Omran Roshani-Moghadam who worked as a security guard at F19 oil well of Yadavaran oil field hanged himself at the site …

(AP) — Iraqi militia factions expected the usual cash handout when the new head of Iran’s expeditionary Quds Force made his first visit to Baghdad earlier this year, succeeding the slain Gen. Qassim Soleimani. Instead, to their disappointment, Esmail Ghaani brought them silver rings. For his second visit, Ghaani had to apply for a visa, something unheard of in Soleimani’s …