March, 2021

• 5 March

  UN Human Rights council condemns the Iranian Regime’s use of force against unarmed fuel couriers.

  

  Shabtabnews – In a twitter statement and a full report the UN Human Rights council strongly condemned the Iranian Regime’s recent use of force against unarmed Baluchi fuel couriers. 🇮🇷 #Iran: We condemn use of force violations in recent weeks by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and State security forces against unarmed fuel couriers & protesters belonging to the #Baluch …

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• 5 March

  US VP Harris assures Israel’s Netanyahu of ‘unwavering commitment’ amid Iran standoff

  

  Al-Arabia – US Vice President Kamala Harris emphasized the United States’ “unwavering commitment to Israel’s security,” in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, the White House said. She “underscored the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to the US-Israel partnership,” the statement read. For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app. “The …

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• 5 March

  Israel will defend itself if world fails to stall Iran’s nuclear plans: Benny Gantz

  

  Al-Arabia – Israel will not wait for the international community to stop Iran’s “nuclear escalation,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Thursday, adding that Tel Aviv was ready to act independently if needed. “Iranians are breaking everything that was agreed with them; they are bluffing in any aspect that one can think,” Gantz said in an interview with Fox News. For all the …

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• 5 March

  Jailed Belarusian, Iranian Exile, Slain Afghans Among U.S. ‘Women Of Courage’ Honorees

  

  Iranwire – The U.S. State Department will honor 14 “extraordinary” women from Belarus, Iran, and other countries who have demonstrated leadership, courage, resourcefulness, and a willingness to sacrifice for others. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host the annual International Women of Courage (IWOC) awards in a virtual ceremony on March 8 — International Women’s Day — to honor jailed …

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• 5 March

  Guards’ Journal Warns of Street Protests Gaining Potency

  

  Iranwire – The nationwide protests of January2018 and November2019 were arguably turning points in the history of street protests in Iran. Although they were brutally supressed, the ruling establishment is now deeply afraid of further demonstrations. Since then, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s state-sponsored think-tanks and study centers have offered various recommendations to officials on how to prevent a recurrence. The latest of …

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• 5 March

  IRAN: INTERNET SHUTDOWNS CURB PROTESTS AND CONCEAL HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN SISTAN AND BALUCHISTAN

  

  Amnesty – The near total Internet shutdowns began as protests got underway on Tuesday, 23 February 2021 after reports and videos surfaced indicating that the Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guards Corps had opened fire with live ammunition at a group of unarmed civilian fuel porters near the border city of Saravan in Sistan and Baluchistan province, killing at least 10 people …

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• 5 March

  Prisoner Hamed Mostafaei Executed in Arak

  

  Iran Human Rights (IHR) – IHR previously reported the execution of Ahmad Araji in Arak. New information reveals that another prisoner, Hamed Mostafaei, was also executed on drug-related charges in Arak Central Prison that day. Iran Human Rights had previously reported the execution of Ahmad Araji, who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) on murder charges on February 26, at Arak Central Prison. Newly obtained …

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• 5 March

  Prisoner Fatah Hosseini Executed in Noshahr Prison

  

  Iran Human Rights (IHR) –  A prisoner sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder has been executed in Noshahr Prison. According to Iran Human Rights, a male prisoner was executed in the early hours of March 2, in Arak Central Prison. The prisoner whose identity has been established as Fatah Hosseini, had been sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) on murder charges. According to informed sources, Fatah …

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• 5 March

  Ahmadreza Djalali: 100 Days of Solitary on Death Row

  

  Iran Human Rights (IHR) – Dr Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian scientist on death row in Evin Prison, has spent 100 days in solitary confinement, and only permitted one family visit in that period. According to Iran Human Rights, political prisoner, Ahmadreza Djalali was transferred to the solitary confinement cells of Ward 209, where he has been deprived of his basic …

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• 5 March

  Republicans challenge Biden’s Pentagon policy nominee on Iran

  

  Al-Monitor – Republican lawmakers on Thursday dug into Colin Kahl, President Joe Biden’s pick to become the Pentagon’s top policy official — a role akin to the defense secretary’s right-hand with responsibility in broad swaths of US national security policy. It was the second contentious nomination hearing in two days as Republicans jockey for leverage in opposition to the White House’s plans to reenter …

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• 4 March

  IAEA plans ‘technical’ meeting with Iran in early April on open issues

  

  Al-Arabia – The UN nuclear watchdog plans to start a “technical” dialogue with Iran aimed at advancing the process of obtaining explanations on outstanding issues such uranium particles found at old, undeclared sites, its chief said on Thursday. “I’m … aiming at having a far more clear understanding of this issue by the summer or before,” International Atomic Energy Agency …

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• 4 March

  Pakistan’s Baluchis Protest Iranian Treatment Of Ethnic Brethren After Border Shootings

  

  RFL/RE – Dozens of ethnic Baluch rights activists have staged a protest in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi to condemn the killing of their ethnic brethren by Iranian border guards last month. The protest comes amid reports of violent unrest and Internet blackouts in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province triggered after security forces killed cross-border fuel smugglers. Human Rights Watch last …

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• 4 March

  The Man who Exposed Iran and Hezbollah’s Clandestine Infiltration in Argentina

  

  Iranwire – Six years ago on January 18, 2015, the prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead in his apartment in Buenos Aires. The prosecutor was hours away from denouncing a criminal plan carried out by the then-national government which aimed to provide immunity to Iranians linked to Hezbollah, who stood accused of having planned and executed the bombing attack against …

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• 4 March

  Rouhani’s Government Shuts Down Charity Supporting Vulnerable Children

  

  Iranwire – The lawyer Saeed Dehghan has announced the dissolution of nationwide charity the Imam Ali Society by an Iranian court. The nonpartisan NGO, which was first set up in 1999 and whose full name is the Imam Ali’s Popular Students Relief Society, is one of the largest non-state-backed charities in Iran with more than 10,000 volunteers across the country. …

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• 4 March

  Iranian Imams are Obstacles for Women in Sports

  

  Iranwire – Following an attack on female Iranian mountaineers, a climbing association has issued a ban on female rock climbers but has done nothing to confront the perpetrator — a Friday prayers imam. On February 24, 2021, a video was released of the Friday Imam of Darcheh in Isfahan province lashing out at both male and female climbers training in Kuhe Sefid and describing their sport as “dirty work”. Soon after, the …

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• 4 March

  Israel Accuses Iran of Link to Oil Spill Off Its Shores

  

  VOA – Israel accused Iran on Wednesday of being linked to a recent oil spill off its shores that caused major ecological damage, calling the incident environmental terrorism. The spill was caused by an oil tanker that was carrying pirated cargo from Iran to Syria last month, Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel said. The vessel sailed through the Persian …

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• 4 March

  Iran sentences protesters to prison terms, hundreds of lashes

  

  Iran-HRM-A court in Iran confirmed prison sentences against three residents of a southwestern city who joined the nationwide protests in November 2019. The 102nd Branch of the Behbahan Criminal Court upheld the sentences of three protesters arrested during the November 2019 protests. The three protesters Sattar Afshinpour, Bahman Amini and Mohammad Tayebi were tried in absentia and the three men …

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• 4 March

  Arabs Warn Biden: We Do Not Want Another Obama

  

  gatestoneinstitute.org – The Biden administration, some Arab writers have said, “has adopted a policy of “antagonizing allies while appeasing enemies.” [Syrian journalist Abduljalil] Alsaeid said he believed that former Obama administration officials, who are now part of the Biden administration, are intentionally trying to damage US-Saudi relations. “The Obama wing inside the ruling Democratic Party accepts the Iranian regime and …

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• 4 March

  Report says US officials met with Yemen’s Houthis in bid to end war

  

  Al-Monitor – The Biden administration opened talks with Houthi rebel leaders late last month in a bid to end Yemen’s civil war, Reuters reported Wednesday. Timothy Lenderking, the lead US envoy on the Yemen crisis, met with Houthi chief negotiator Mohammed Abdul-Salam in Oman’s capital, Muscat, on Feb. 26. The meeting was the first time US officials under the new administration …

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• 4 March

  Will Iran’s Reformists ‘hire’ a candidate for presidency?

  

  Al-Monitor – The more radical sectors of Iran’s embattled Reform movement say past experience has taught them not to “hire a candidate” from outside their tribe for the June presidential election. The concept of “the hired candidate” made its way into Iran’s political discourse with the pro-Reform movement’s endorsement of Hassan Rouhani in 2013 and later for his reelection in 2017. …

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• 3 March

  Rockets Hit Iraq Air Base Hosting U.S. Troops Ahead Of Papal Visit

  

  RFL/RE – The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq says at least 10 rockets have been fired at a military base that hosts American and other coalition troops.The missiles struck the Ain Al-Asad Air Base in the western province of Anbar at 7:20 a.m. local time on March 3, spokesman Colonel Wayne Marotto said.The Iraqi military said the attack did not cause …

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• 3 March

  Young Political Prisoner’s Life Hangs in the Balance in Tehran

  

  Iranwire – News of the attempted suicide of Siamak Moghimi, a political prisoner being held in Greater Tehran Penitentiary (Fashafuyeh), has come to light in the past 48 hours. The 25-year-old had tried to end his own life at least six times before being incarcerated following the November 2019 protests. But despite his severe and worsening mental ill-health, the young man remains behind bars. The …

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• 3 March

  Violence Erupts on Afghan Border Over River Clearance

  

  Iranwire – At noon on March 1, Afghan and Iranian border forces exchanged fire in Nimrouz province, southwestern Afghanistan. The conflict flared up over clearing equipment being used in the Helmand River.  The river has always been a contentious issue in Afghanistan, where border provinces face severe water shortages. Iran fears new dams will block its supply of water from Afghanistan, and has …

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• 3 March

  Iranian political prisoner has been left to suffer after undergoing surgery

  

  Iran-HRM – Political prisoner Akbar Bagheri was harassed and tortured after undergoing surgery in a hospital with handcuffs.Since being returned to the Greater Tehran Penitentiary, he has been kept in a filthy place called ‘quarantine’. After two years of enduring pain and being denied medical treatment in prison, Akbar Bagheri was transferred to Loghman Hospital in Tehran on February 20, …

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• 3 March

  UN: Iran Committed Multiple Rights Violations in Downing of Ukrainian Jet and Aftermath

  

  CHRI – In a 45-page official letter to the government of Iran by Agnès Callamard, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and Javaid Rehman, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran on the shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in January 2020, the two UN …

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• 3 March

  Iran: Unlawful killings of destitute fuel porters must be independently investigated

  

  Amnesty – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards unlawfully used lethal force against unarmed fuel porters near the city of Saravan, in Sistan and Baluchestan province, on 22 February, flagrantly violating the absolute prohibition on the arbitrary deprivation of the right to life under international law, said Amnesty International today. Testimony from eyewitnesses and victims’ families, coupled with video footage geolocated and verified …

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• 3 March

  Iran says ‘time not ripe’ for negotiations with US

  

  AL- monitor – Spokesperson for the Iranian government Ali Rabiee has said the “time is not ripe” for the United States to join meetings over the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). At a virtual briefing in Tehran March 2, Rabiee referred to recent diplomatic gestures and proposals from the European signatories to the JCPOA as well as Washington’s declared …

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• 3 March

  US sanctions two Houthi military leaders after attacks on Saudi Arabia

  

  Al-Monitor – The United States has announced sanctions on two military leaders of Yemen’s Houthi rebel movement following a spate of attacks on neighboring Saudi Arabia. Mansur al-Saadi, the head of the Houthis’ naval forces, and Ahmad Ali Ahsan al-Hamzi, head of the rebels’ air force, were sanctioned on Tuesday for “procur[ing] weapons from Iran and oversee[ing] attacks threatening civilians and maritime infrastructure,” …

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• 2 March

  Lebanese Hezbollah Supporters Raise Iranian Flag in Response to Beirut Port Accusation

  

  Iranwire – On Sunday night, a group of Lebanese Hezbollah supporters marched on a southern suburb of Beirut to show their rejection of a speech made by the Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi, head of the Maronite Church in Lebanon. A video clip has been circulated on social media showing Hezbollah supporters raising Iranian and Hezbollah flags in the city, chanting slogans …

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• 2 March

  Official Report: Iran Could Use Cryptocurrencies to Avoid Sanctions

  

  Iranwire – The Iranian Presidential Center for StrategicStudies, a thinktank attached to President Rouhani’s office, has published a detailed report stressing the necessity for the regime to use cryptocurrencies to generate extra income. Extracting cryptocurrencies, the report states, could provide economic benefits to several different sectors of the country’s economy. It claims that if the government intervenes seriously it could generate US$2 million a day and …

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