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VOA – Iran has sentenced eight of its Baha’i citizens to prison terms and other punishments according to an informed source, in the latest example of the Islamist-ruled nation’s longstanding and internationally criticized policy of severely restricting the rights of its Baha’i religious minority. In a December 24 interview with VOA Persian from Iran, the source, who is familiar with …

RFL/RE – The head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society says the country will receive a shipment of coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer and BioNTech in three weeks. “According to arrangements made with a group of philanthropists in the U.S., 150,000 doses of [Pfizer] coronavirus vaccines are expected to enter the country,” Red Crescent Director Karim Hemmati told the semi-official Tasnim …

Iran-HRM – Three prisoners have died in Evin Prison in Tehran in the period between December 24 and 28. The three prisoners suffered from the COVID-19 but they had been abandoned by Evin dispensary officials without any medical treatment. On Monday, December 28, Amir Hossein Mottaghian died of COVID-19 in Ward 4 of Evin Prison. He fell down on the …

Al-Monitor – The United States has approved the overseas transfer of funds from an Iranian bank to pay for coronavirus vaccines, the regime’s central bank chief says. Sanctions are technically not supposed to affect medicine, and this will allow Tehran to avoid some of the corollary damage US restrictions on Iran’s financial institutions have caused when it comes to the Islamic Republic’s medical …

Al-Arabia – Five years after the Iran deal, many of the policy minds from the Obama era are headed back into government as US President elect Joe Biden prepares to step into the White House. They say they are ready to re-enter the Iran deal, but despite partisan polarization, they cannot be oblivious to failures of their old policy. Following …