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

Al-Arabia – French leader Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani to avoid an escalation of tensions after Washington blacklisted Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. In a telephone conversation, Macron urged Rouhani to “avoid any escalation or destabilization of the region,” the French presidency said in a statement. President Donald Trump called the unit — …

RFL/RE – U.S. President Donald Trump has spoken with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a telephone call that the White House says focused on Riyadh’s role in Middle East stability, maintaining pressure on Iran, and the importance of human rights issues. The White House said Trump and the crown prince discussed ways of “maintaining maximum pressure against …

RFL/RE – The number of known judicial executions around the world declined by nearly one-third in 2018 compared to 2017, reaching the lowest level in at least a decade, Amnesty International says in its annual report on death sentences and executions.Belarus was among a handful of countries that defied the trend, the human rights group said in the report released …

Radiofarda – The World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released new reports, saying Iran’s GDP growth is worse than what they had predicted in their last forecasts. The World Bank says Iran’s GDP would shrink 3.8% in 2019 and IMF predicts even a worse forecast; 6% contraction. World Bank’s new forecast is 0.2% less than its latest …

One day after the United States designated the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei described the measure as “trickery, deceit and maliciousness”. In a meeting with a group of IRGC personnel Khamenei said, “Americans imagine they are doing trickery against the IRGC, the revolution and Iran, but these deceits will not …