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

RFL/RE – Kimia Alizadeh, Iran’s only female Olympic medalist, says she has permanently left the country, decrying what she called the “injustice” and “hypocrisy” of an Iranian political system that uses and humiliates athletes for political purposes. “Should I start with hello, goodbye, or condolences?” she wrote on Instagram on January 11.The 21-year-old Alizadeh, who won a bronze medal in taekwondo at …

RFL/RE – Pakistan’s foreign minister is set to hold talks with top Iranian officials in Tehran amid spiraling tensions in the region following the U.S. drone killing of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani. The January 12 visit by Shah Mehmood Qureshi follows protests two days earlier in the Pakistani city of Peshawar by hundreds of Shi’ite Muslims outraged by Soleimani’s …

RFL/RE – Iranian students have protested outside several universities for a second day amid mounting outrage over officials’ admission that an Iranian antiaircraft battery was responsible for downing a Ukrainian passenger jet. Videos circulating on social media on January 12 showed protesters gathering outside Beheshti University in Tehran, chanting “the students are vigilant and are fed up with that Ali” …

VOA – Iranian officials told the truth about the circumstances of a Ukrainian jetliner crash only after it became apparent that the evidence on the ground from the doomed flight would not allow the Iranians to continue to lie, according to a leading U.S. newspaper. The plane crashed Wednesday, but Iran did not reveal that it had shot down the …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Soleimani had his own network of lobbyists in many Arab countries and some Western democracies. Hundreds of Iranian and Arab militants have enrolled in Western universities with scholarships from the Quds Force. Soleimani, who loved making and publishing “selfies” showing himself close to battlegrounds in the Middle East, was never present anywhere near a battle but was always …