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

gatestoneinstitute.org – The end of First World War left the Kurds in an even worse situation than before. President Woodrow Wilson’s promise of “self-determination” was soon forgotten, leaving behind the dream of independence on the Kurdish side and the fear of Kurdish secession in the Ottoman camp as reconstituted as the Turkish Republic under Mustafa Kemal pasha (Ataturk). The best …

Radiofarda – A prominent Iraqi blogger resurfaced Friday a day after he was seized by masked gunmen, his father said, as Amnesty International denounced a “climate of fear” in the country after protests and deadly violence. Shujaa al-Khafaji’s family said armed men had snatched him from his home on Thursday without identifying themselves or showing an arrest warrant. Khafaji’s Facebook …

Radiofarda – A hard-line lawmaker in Tehran has taken back his comment about limiting IAEA inspectors’ access to Iranian nuclear establishments after British newspaper the Guardian quoted him as saying so on October 16. The speaker of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Committee, Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, had said earlier that Iran was going to limit UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Organization’s …

Radiofarda – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has denied the Iranian state-run TV report that it assisted the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) intelligence agents in arresting the Paris-based director of an “anti-Iranian” website, Ruhollah Zam. Speaking with Radio Farda on October 18, KRG spokesman Jutyar Adil said, “Zam has never been in Iraqi Kurdistan to be arrested there.” The …

Radiofarda – Hossein Fereidoun, the younger brother and confidant of President Hassan Rouhani was jailed on Wednesday October 16 after the Court of Appeal in Tehran sentenced him to five years in jail on the first of October. Fereidoun was no ordinary man. He was Rouhani’s special assistant. People still remember his pictures next to his brother during the election campaigns, and …