Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.

Iranwire – A 20-year-old woman from a hard-up family was strangled to death by her husband at their home in Tehran on Monday, Iranian state news agencies report. The man later confessed to the crime, revealing that they were close relatives who had been married as children, and said he killed her out of frustration at her asking for things …

Iranwire – A campaign by Iranian authorities to uproot the Baha’i community in Shiraz took a dark step forward, earlier in June, when Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced 26 Baha’is to a combined total of 85 years in prison. Each individual was sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to five years. Travel bans and orders to report …

Al-Monitor – For several families of Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad, a virtual meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday did little to reassure them that the administration is making the safe return of their loved ones a priority.  Participants who spoke with Al-Monitor described an at times tense video call with Blinken on Wednesday, with …

Al-Monitor – Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Tehran was hoping that talks with major world powers over the revival of the Iran nuclear deal “would reach the point of an agreement in a near future,” as he stood next to his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, at a joint press conference in Tehran June 23. The Iranian minister, however, conditioned such progress …

Al-Arabia – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) appointed a new head for its intelligence arm on Thursday, following a series of assassinations and mysterious deaths of Iranian military personnel. Brig. Gen. Mohammad Kazemi is the new head of the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization, state media quoted the IRGC’s spokesman Ramezan Sharif as saying. Kazemi replaces Hossein Taeb, a powerful cleric …