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RFL/RE – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he plans to meet with newly installed U.S. President Donald Trump soon to discuss what he sees as the dangers from Iran and its “cruel” government. By Iranian cartoonist Hadi Heidari In a message posted on his Facebook page on January 21, Netanyahu said, “I plan to speak soon with President Trump about …

Guardian – A British-Iranian woman sentenced to five years in jail in Iran on unspecific charges relating to national security has had her conviction upheld in the appeals court, according to judiciary officials. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the news agency’s charitable arm, appealed against her sentence earlier this month in what was her last …

RFL/RE – Turkey’s deputy prime minister said it is no longer “realistic” to insist on a solution to the Syrian conflict that excludes President Bashar al-Assad. Turkey, which is co-sponsoring Syrian peace talks with Russia that begin in Astana on January 23, has previously acknowledged that Assad remains an important actor in Syria. But Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek’s remarks …

RFL/RE – Iranian officials say hopes are fading for finding survivors in the rubble of a 17-story commercial building that collapsed in Tehran on January 19 and is thought to have killed at least 20 firefighters. Esmail Najjar, chief of the city’s emergency services, said on January 20 that it is very unlikely anyone will be pulled out alive from …

Amnesty – Elderly dissident Iranian cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Nekounam has been on hunger strike for 31 days in protest at his detention and the denial of specialized medical care by the authorities. After suffering from a stroke and heart attack while in detention, he is in extremely poor health and in urgent need of specialized medical care. View report …