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

RFL/RE – U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan will visit Israel this week for discussions likely to be dominated by a perceived threat from Iran amid U.S. concerns that the time Tehran would need to develop a nuclear weapon has become “unacceptably short.”Sullivan will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to “reaffirm the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security and consult …

Iranwire – The Iranian ambassador to Yemen has died of Covid-19, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. Saeed Khatibzadeh described the death of Hassan Irloo, a former senior member of the IRGC, as a “martyrdom”, adding he was an Iran-Iraq war-era chemical weapons survivor. Irloo was reportedly flown in an Iraqi-owned plane from the Yemeni capital of …

Iranwire – Media activist Hossein Razzaq has been summoned to the intelligence office in the city of Amol, Mazandaran province, and forced to close his popular Clubhouse room. For the last six months Razzaq and fellow activist Vida Rabbani have hosted regular chats in a room called Azadi Square for Iranians to discuss daily social and political events in their …

Iranwire – The outlook of any future revival of the JCPOA remains opaque. In the meantime, the Islamic Republic is in desperate need of oil revenues. Officials from different arms of government and industry have been drafted in to help maintain a shady, mostly secret set of mechanisms for the ongoing sale of Iranian oil. When these covert activities occasionally …

Iranwire – Article 18, an organization promoting religious freedom in Iran with a focus on the Christian community, published news of a remarkable ruling by the Supreme Court in late November. The court found that nine Christian converts serving five-year prison sentences should not have been charged with “conspiracy against national security” for their role in setting up and managing house churches …