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

gatestoneinstitute.org – Iran’s covert disinformation operations concerning COVID-19 are not only aimed at inciting hatred toward the US; they are also, it seems, aimed at negatively impacting the international community’s efforts to fight the virus. Whenever social media accounts or websites linked to the Iranian regime’s disinformation campaigns are exposed and removed, the Islamic Republic seems to find other outlets …

Al-Monitor – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed Iran’s recent launch of a military satellite into orbit during a phone call today with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian. The call came after Pompeo issued a strong statement over last week’s launch, using it to start a full-court diplomatic press urging the United Nations to extend an arms embargo on Iran that …

AP — Israeli warplanes flying over Lebanon fired missiles toward areas near Damascus early Monday, killing three civilians, the Syrian military and state media said while a war monitoring group said four Iran-backed fighters were also killed. The military said Syrian air defenses shot down some of the missiles in the attack, which happened around dawn. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory …

Radiofarda – A senior Iranian Health Ministry official says the coronavirus epidemic in Iran has still not reached its peak, meaning the number of infections and deaths are still on the rise. Nevertheless, in what has been described by Presidential adviser Hesamoddin Ashna as “one of the most difficult meetings on the situation of the outbreak,” President Hassan Rouhani explained …

Radiofarda – A court of appeals has upheld a one-year jail sentence for a novelist for publishing a novel in France two years ago to avoid censorship in Iran, and publishing articles in a Netherlands-based website. According to an announcement by his brother, the Revolutionary Court of Tehran that passed the one-year jail sentence, had also found the novelist Hamid …