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

Iranwire – Iran’s most prominent Sunni cleric again used his Friday sermon to preach religious tolerance and to criticize the policies of the country’s Shia leadership, amid popular calls for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. The ideologies of those “closed-minded individuals who hold positions of power” have “hindered progress and led to irrational decisions,” Molavi Abdulhamid, the Sunni Friday …

Iranwire – Iranian lawyers are challenging the authorities’ claim that removing hijab in public, including in private cars, is a “crime” that should be punished, amid heated debate over mandatory headscarf rules. All women in Iran must conceal their hair with a headscarf and wear loose fitting trousers under their coats while in public. But a growing number of women …

VOA —Iran’s president on Friday delivered an unprecedented speech to an annual pro-Palestinian rally in the Gaza Strip — a rare display of Iran’s importance to the Hamas militant group that rules the territory. Speaking virtually to hundreds of supporters of Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group gathered at a soccer stadium in Gaza City, Iran’s President Ebrahim …

Al-Monitor – Beijing hosted this month the first formal meeting of the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia in more than seven years. The diplomatic breakthrough is certainly welcome news and opens opportunities in the region. However, this deal rests on many recent unexpected geopolitical developments that have created shifting strategic perceptions and conditions for both Saudi Arabia and Iran to come …

Al-Monitor – Israel’s National Cyber Directorate announced Friday afternoon that it had identified and blocked several attacks on websites of Israeli banks. The directorate explained the attackers tried to overwhelm the sites and make them crash. “Thanks to the banks’ strong cyberdefenses, the websites continue to be live and operational, barring the occasional interruptions,” noted a statement by the directorate, explaining that the attacks …