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Al-Arabia – Iranian lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that labels all US military forces as terrorists, state TV reported, a day after Washington ratcheted up pressure on Tehran by announcing that no country would any longer be exempt from US sanctions if it continues to buy Iranian oil. The bill is a step further from the one last …

Al-Arabia – Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil has been accused of engaging in widespread acts of corruption, including receiving Iranian funds as payment for providing a “Christian cover” for Hezbollah. The charges leveled by former justice minister Ashraf Rifi, who was also the general director of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces from 2005 to 2013, are certain to inflame political …

VOA – Oil prices reached a six-month high Tuesday after the Trump administration announced it would no longer exempt countries from U.S. sanctions, if they continue to buy Iranian crude oil, a move aimed at imposing a complete oil embargo on Iran. Waivers granted to eight countries, including big Iranian crude importers China, India, Japan, Turkey and South Korea, are …

CHRI – Lawyers representing workers’ rights activists Esmail Bakhshi and Sepideh Qoliyan say the two are being held unlawfully now that their two-month detention orders have expired. “[Bakhshi’s] detention order ended on March 21 without an extension, which makes his detention a violation of Article 242 of the Criminal Procedures Regulations,” Bakhshi’s lawyer, Farzaneh Zilabi, told the Telegram app channel of the Haft Tappeh sugar mill …

CHRI – Some Internet Users in Iran Warned of Prosecution for Accessing Blacklisted Websites In 2019, Iranian media outlets began reporting on the sudden appearance of branch offices of a “Prosecutor General’s Cyber Division Rapid Reaction Center,” a new state agency that appears to be tasked with monitoring and censoring online content and activities. The center reportedly has offices in …