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

Al-Monitor – Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani, one of Iran’s most senior clerics, lashed out at the Islamic Republic’s softened policy at a moment of rapid Taliban advances and widespread atrocities in Afghanistan.   Such an approach, the ayatollah warned, “is a grave and irreparable mistake.” He cautioned the Iranian government not to trust a “terrorist” group “whose evil and murderous nature is no secret to the world.” Golpaygani called on both Iran and the international community to “act with …

Al-Monitor – A group of Iranian hackers used fake Facebook accounts to target US military personnel, as well as defense and aerospace workers, the social media company said Thursday.  The hacking group, known as Tortoiseshell, used Facebook and other social media platforms to engage with targets before infecting their devices with malware for espionage purposes. According to Facebook, a fake account would …

Al-Arabia – Iran is not prepared to resume negotiations on coming back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal until Iranian President-elect Ebrahim Raisi’s administration has begun, a diplomatic source said on Wednesday. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Iran had conveyed this to European officials acting as interlocutors in the indirect US-Iranian negotiations and that the …

Iranwire – Twitter storm today, under the hashtag of #StopHatePropaganda and running from 5pm to 7pm GMT, 930pm to 1130pm Tehran time, will draw global attention to a 40-year campaign of hate speech conducted by the Iranian government against the Baha’i community in Iran, the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority.  A statement by the Baha’i International Community (BIC) in Geneva, which represents the Baha’is at the …

Iranwire – In Search of Expediency, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s recently-published diaries covering the events of 1998, examines one of Iran’s most volatile periods of political crisis. Rafsanjani’s son and the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini both attended the launch of the 840-page publication, the 18th volume of the former president’s memoirs. As with previous editions, it has sparked debate and speculation, as well as confirmed details of some key …