Social and Political

VOA – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on his cabinet Wednesday to quickly adopt laws aimed at curbing so-called honor killings after a father was arrested this week for allegedly murdering his 13- or 14-year-old daughter. Reza Ashrafi was arrested for allegedly killing his daughter, Romina Ashrafi, with a farm sickle while she was sleeping after she fled her parents’ …

HRW- Afghans return to Afghanistan at the Islam Qala border with Iran, in the western Herat Province, February 20, 2019 © 2019 AP Photo/Rahmat Gul Almost a month after reports emerged of the alleged drowning by Iranian border authorities of Afghan migrants attempting to cross the border into Iran, efforts to uncover the truth have achieved little.At a May 26 meeting in Kabul, Iranian …

Al-Monitor – The Donald Trump administration today ended sanctions waivers that allowed foreign companies to do work at certain Iranian nuclear facilities. The move comes a mere two months after the administration had characterized the waivers as “restrictions” on Iran’s nuclear program. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States would end three of the remaining waivers — some of the last …

PayvanNews – Iran national skate team member Mohammad Nemati died of Coronavirus on Tuesday. He has died at the age of 20 in his hometown Mashhad. Mohammad Nemati(read coverage by Koolag magazine) Nemati won a gold medal in South Korea international competition in 2018.Nemati also was a member of Iran national team in the 18th edition of the Asian Roller Skating Championship …

Radiofarda – The interim chairman of Iran’s new parliament has characterized the new Iranian Majles as the “Supreme Leader’s Majles”, and the Islamic Republic’s leader Ali Khamenei in his message stressed the importance of his undefined theory of Jihadist Economy as a guideline for the new parliament. The new parliament is packed with conservative and hardliner loyal followers of Supreme …

Radiofarda -An alleged controversial letter has resurfaced after seventeen years in Iran and rekindled a heated debate over Tehran- Washington relations. The letter attributed to the Islamic Republic’s ex-President Mohammad Khatami and his close aides has been described as a “roadmap” for Iran-US rapprochement. Ali Baqeri (Bagheri) an ultraconservative ally of the country’s Supreme Leader who is currently the Secretary …

RFL/RE – Iran became one of the first coronavirus hot spots outside of China in March when thousands of Iranians began showing respiratory symptoms of COVID-19. Now Iranian doctors say they are seeing a surge of patients with gastrointestinal problems rather than respiratory symptoms. In fact, recent medical evidence from China and the United States also suggests there is a subset of …

CHRI — A new report released today by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) documents the extraordinary state violence that was used against protesters in Iran during the unrest that gripped the country in November 2019 and January 2020. The 66-page report, Gunning Them Down: State Violence against Protesters in Iran, provides dozens of firsthand accounts by eyewitnesses, families of …

gatestoneinstitute.org – There are five actions the Trump administration must take: (1) extending the UN arms embargo on Iran; (2) snapping back economic sanctions on Iran (they were originally loosened as part of the JCPOA); (3) shutting down the smuggling and trafficking networks of Hezbollah in the Americas; (4) stopping the Chinese-Iranian oil and gas pipeline developments through Pakistan; and …

Al-Monitor – In open defiance of the US “maximum pressure” policy, a second Iranian tanker has arrived in the Venezuelan port of El Palito. The tanker Forest was second in a flotilla of five, carrying a total of 1.5 million barrels of gasoline and other petrochemical products to the Latin American nation grappling with hyperinflation. The United States had earlier announced it was considering …