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

Iranwire – Many Iranians were surprised to see Mohammad Ali Hadi Najafabadi, a clergyman who no longer wears clerical garb, sitting among the defendants in the multi-billion dollar Bank Sarmayeh corruption case. Few knew that Iran’s former senior negotiator in the Iran-Contra Affair had since become a member of the bank’s board of directors. The first court hearing took place on May 14, …

RFL/RE – Under Ebrahim Raisi, the front-runner in Iran’s June 18 presidential election, Tehran’s tone toward the West could harden, though it will likely continue to seek a deal to revive the 2015 landmark nuclear deal, analysts say.While the president sets the tone on domestic issues and foreign policy, he is not the sole decision-maker on foreign policy matters. A …

gatestoneinstitute.org – The genuine power in Iran is made up of unelected, authoritarian, religious and fascist military elites who, for decades, have, frozen in place the revolutionary, theocratic ideology of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The nomination mechanism for presidential candidates is itself part of the fraudulent process. Past elections have either been rigged in favor the hardliners, as in today’s …

Iran-HRM – With the clerical regime paving the way for Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi, the preferred candidate of supreme leader Ali Khamenei, he runs virtually uncontested for president. Ali Khamenei appointed Ebrahim Raisi to head the Iranian regime’s judiciary on February 26, 2019. Raisi’s first two years as judiciary chief (2019-2021) have been marked by intensified repression and rights violations. Particularly women …

Iran-HRM – Saeed Masouri, the longest held political prisoner in Iran, sent an open letter from Raja’i Shahr Prison, reacting to the upcoming developments, including the clerical regime’s sham presidential election. Noting the increasing infighting within the regime, in part of the letter, Saeed Masouri wrote: “For years, this game spilt the blood of thousands of young Iranians in the …