Social and Political

Radiofarda -Iran’s Health Ministry spokesman on Friday said the number of COVID-19 cases is expected to increase in three provinces in the coming days as the total number of cases in the country rose to nearly 117,000. On Friday Dr. Kianoush Jahanpur announced 2,102 new cases. This is the first time in the past week that the number of new …

Radiofarda – Donald Trump recently said that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the Iran deal, “was such a disaster.” The United States exited the nuclear deal in May 2018, but is now insisting it never left the deal and can thus bring snapback sanctions into place and extend the arms embargo. This is part of the Maximum Pressure strategy. It wasdesigned …

RFL/RE – Iran’s longtime OPEC governor, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, has died from a brain hemorrhage two weeks after falling into a coma. The Iranian Oil Ministry’s Shana news agency reported on May 16 that Ardebili died in a Tehran hospital. He was 68. Ardebili served as Iran’s governor to the OPEC oil cartel for nearly 20 years, conducting negotiations with …

RFL/RE – Some nine years after Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) deployed military advisers and fighters to Syria to prop up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Israeli and U.S. officials have said Tehran is reducing its presence in Syria. Analysts told RFE/RL that amid the reports of a movement of forces, there are no indications Iran is …

Al-Monitor – A Pentagon report declares the Islamic State a “low-level insurgency” as the United States and Iraq prepare for strategic dialogue.  Iraqi security forces are seen during military operations to search for Islamic State militants in Anbar province, Iraq, Dec. 29, 2019. Photo by REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani. Week in Review @AlMonitor TOPICS COVERED Islamic State May 15, 2020 The latest quarterly …

Al-Arabia – Iran on Friday reported its highest number of new coronavirus infections in more than a month as it warned of clusters hitting new regions. Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said 2,102 new cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall number to 116,635.That figure is …

Radiofarda – A petition calling for a ban on overflights by foreign airlines in Iran’s airspace launched by families of victims who perished when a Ukrainian airliner was shot down over Tehran in January has sparked huge controversy among Iranian social media users. Hamed Esmaeiliyon a representative of victim families from Canada spearheads the petition drive. He lost his wife …

Radiofarda – The Chinese mission to the United Nations in New York on Thursday said the United States “has no longer a right to extend an arms embargo on Iran, let alone to trigger snapback”. “U.S. failed to meet its obligations under Resolution 2231 by withdrawing from JCPOA. It has no right to extend an arms embargo on Iran, let …

Radiofarda – In its newly released Global Maritime Advisory (GMA), the U.S. government has advised the world’s shipping lines to be vigilant about “Iran’s, North Korea’s and Syria’s deceptions”. The new advisory, prepared by the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the U.S. Coast Guard, and published on Thursday, …

Al-Arabia – Abolfazl Sarlak, a commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has been killed in Syria, Iranian state media reported. Iran’s state news agencies have given conflicting reports on how Sarlak was killed. The semi-official Mehr news agency said he was killed by an explosive trap set up by ISIS in eastern Aleppo on Sunday, while the semi-official …