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

RFL/RE – A London court has ordered Iran’s state-run Press TV to pay 338,000 pounds ($435,000) in libel damages to a member of the British Parliament. The court ruled the Iran TV channel had falsely accused Conservative lawmaker Nadhim Zahawi in a July 2015 report of facilitating oil trades for the Islamic State (IS) militant group with Israel and European …

VOA — Iran’s main pro-reform opposition leaders plan to speak out from their confinement under house arrest this month to publicly back President Hassan Rouhani for re-election, aides say, helping win over voters disillusioned with the slow pace of change. Rouhani was elected in a landslide in 2013 on promises to ease Iran’s international isolation and open up society. He …

CHRI – Presidential Hopeful Ebrahim Raisi Served on Committee That Ordered Executions of Thousands The executions of thousands of political prisoners in Iran in 1988 has received renewed attention due to the presidential election coming up on May 19, in which one of the candidates—Ebrahim Raisi—was a member of the committee that ordered the killings. The “Death Committee,” as it …

Al-monitor – Former Tehran Mayor and head of the Reformist Executives of Construction Party Gholam Hossein Karbaschi is under fire for doing what few of Iran’s active or former politicians or even journalists do: criticize Iran’s approach to the seven-year Syrian civil war. During an April 29 speech in Esfahan province in support of President Hassan Rouhani’s re-election campaign, Karbaschi said, “We too want peace …

Al-monitor  — Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and prominent Reformist lawmaker Mohammad Reza Aref have reached a consensus on setting up a committee to do preparatory work for what has been dubbed the National Dialogue Plan. The initiative has been discussed in recent months by members of the Hope (Omid) faction, a Reformist parliamentary bloc led by Aref. AUTHOR Ehsan Bodaghi As its running theme, …