Category Archives: Iran

Coldplay and Sting call for release of Toomaj Salehi, Iranian rapper sentenced to death

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Leading cultural figures including Margaret Atwood sign statement in support of rapper who criticised Iranian regime

More than 100 figures from the worlds of music, culture and human rights activism – including Coldplay and Sting – have signed a statement calling for the release of the Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi who has been sentenced to death in Iran after protesting in support of women’s rights.

The 33-year-old, who was a vocal supporter of the Women, Life, Freedom movement in Iran was sentenced to death by a court in the city of Isfahan on 24 April, according to his lawyer.

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‘Our culture is dying’: vulture shortage threatens Zoroastrian burial rites

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Inadvertent poisoning of scavengers across Indian subcontinent is forcing some communities to give up ancient custom

Traditional Zoroastrian burial rites are becoming increasingly impossible to perform because of the precipitous decline of vultures in India, Iran and Pakistan.

For millennia, Parsi communities have traditionally disposed of their dead in structures called dakhma, or “towers of silence”. These circular, elevated edifices are designed to prevent the soil, and the sacred elements of earth, fire and water, from being contaminated by corpses.

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David Cameron urges Hamas to agree to 40-day Gaza ceasefire deal

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Foreign secretary also calls on Arab states to accept that Hamas leaders responsible for 7 October attack must leave the territory

David Cameron has urged Hamas to agree to a deal for a sustained 40-day ceasefire in Gaza and the release of potentially thousands of hostages and prisoners.

The foreign secretary also challenged Arab states to accept that the Hamas military leadership responsible for the attack on 7 October must leave Gaza.

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Iran’s death sentence for rapper sparks protests and undermines criticism of US

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Regime’s effort to exploit US campus crackdown damaged by treatment of Toomaj Salehi

An Iranian court’s decision to pass the death sentence against Toomaj Salehi, a popular Iranian rapper and regime opponent, has led to international protests and damaged Iran’s fledgling efforts to exploit crackdowns on unrest in US university campuses over Gaza as an abuse of human rights.

Crowds gathered in the US, Europe and Canada on Sunday to support Salehi, while dozens of political prisoners in Iran’s Ghezel Hesar prison issued a statement condemning the death sentence, calling it “the culmination of gross human rights violations in Iran”. Salehi has also won the support of major US rappers, as well as human rights groups.

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Middle East crisis: Hamas ‘reviewing new Israeli ceasefire proposal’ – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our coverage of the Middle East crisis here

Three people have been killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday, including two members of Hezbollah, AFP reports, citing statements from the militant group and official media.

Hezbollah released statements mourning the deaths of two fighters from the villages of Kafr Kila and Khiam, saying they had been “martyred on the road to Jerusalem”.

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Oil price could exceed $100 a barrel if Middle East conflict worsens, World Bank warns

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Increase in cost of crude could drive inflation up and force central banks to keep interest rates high

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A serious escalation of tensions in the Middle East would push the price of oil above $100 (£80) a barrel and reverse the recent downward trend in global inflation, the World Bank has said.

The Washington-based institution said the recent fall in commodity prices had been levelling off even before the recent missile strikes by Iran and Israel – making interest rate decisions for central banks tougher.

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Lack of action on Iran could lead to more threats and attacks in UK, says journalist

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Dissidents and broadcasters feeling unsafe after stabbing of Pouria Zeraati in London call for ‘deterrent signal’

A former BBC journalist has said the UK government will “pay a heavy price” for its lack of action against the Iranian regime, which could lead to more “threats” and “operations” in Britain, after the stabbing of an Iranian journalist in London.

Sima Sabet, a former journalist at the BBC World Service and the dissident channel Iran International, said there would be more transnational repression unless the government issued a “deterrent signal” to the Iranian regime.

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Iranian women violently dragged from streets by police amid hijab crackdown

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Video evidence shows multiple arrests after regime launched new draconian campaign against women and girls

Harrowing first-hand accounts of women being dragged from the streets of Iran and detained by security services have emerged as human rights groups say country’s hijab rules have been brutally enforced since the country’s drone strikes on Israel on 13 April.

A new campaign, called Noor (“light” in Persian), was announced the same day the Iranian regime launched drone attacks against Israel, to crack down on “violations” of the country’s draconian hijab rules, which dictate that all women must cover their heads in public.

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Billionaire Jeff Yass linked to $16m in donations to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups

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The TikTok investor is also linked to funding challenges to progressive politicians and against Obama’s Iran nuclear deal

Top Republican donor and TikTok investor Jeff Yass is connected to over $16m in funding to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups that have advocated for a US war with Iran and other militaristic policies in the Middle East, according to an investigation by the Guardian and Responsible Statecraft.

Media reports on Yass, the billionaire co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, a trading and technology firm, have focused on his outsized role in the Republican party, to which he is now the largest political donor in the 2024 election cycle, contributing more than $46m thus far.

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EU ministers warned not to relax support for Ukraine amid requests for air defence aid

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Member states warned at meeting not to be complacent but ministers stop short of pledging Patriot missiles

EU ministers have been warned against “relaxing” support for Ukraine but stopped short of new pledges to supply air defence systems that Kyiv is urgently seeking to defend itself against relentless Russian bombardment.

The Ukrainian government has said it is running out of US-made Patriot air defence missiles as Russia intensifies attacks on infrastructure and cities.

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Middle East crisis: More than 200 bodies recovered from temporary mass graves in Nasser hospital, local authorities say – as it happened

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Residents return to site in search of bodies of loved ones following withdrawal of Israeli forces last month. This live blog is closed

Haaretz reports that Israeli security forces have arrested two people suspected of carrying out a car ramming in Jerusalem. Three people are reported to have been injured.

Aharon Haliva, who was the general in command of the IDF’s military intelligence directorate on 7 October, has resigned over the failure of Israel’s military to prevent the attack inside southern Israel by Hamas that day, according to Israeli media reports.

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Middle East crisis – as it happened: US denies carrying out airstrikes in Iraq after explosion at military base

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‘The United States has not conducted air strikes in Iraq today,’ the US military’s Central Command said

Paul Scruton, Lucy Swan, Iona Serrapica and Alex Olorenshaw have created a visual guide to Friday’s events in Iran via graphics, video and satellite images.

You can take a look at it here:

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Gaza death toll passes 34,000 as Israel and Iran missile strikes grab global attention

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Grim milestone comes as G7 leaders urge Netanyahu not to press ahead with Rafah invasion

The death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza climbed to more than 34,000 on Saturday, with the majority of victims women and children, including at least six killed by an overnight airstrike on a house in Rafah.

The latest grim milestone comes as hope of a ceasefire has dimmed, and global attention has shifted to the dangerous exchange of missile and drone strikes between Iran and Israel.

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Israel is fighting on four fronts – but the defeat may come at home

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The IDF is embroiled in simultaneous conflicts with Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran and in the West Bank – but hadn’t reckoned on the social and political divisions this would cause

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, described the conflict Israel was engaged in as a “multi-front war” earlier this month.

Israeli forces were fighting Hamas inside Gaza and engaged in daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah on the northern border with Lebanon. A low-level conflict, mainly consisting of airstrikes, was continuing with Iranian-backed forces in Syria. Israel had also been targeted – albeit ineffectively – by drones fired by the Houthis in Yemen.

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Gulf states’ response to Iran-Israel conflict may decide outcome of crisis

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Tit-for-tat attacks present Sunni monarchies with complicated choices over region’s future

Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel had, by the end of this week, become one of the most interpreted events in recent modern history. Then, in the early hours of Friday, came reports of Israel’s riposte. As in June 1914, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in a moment that ultimately led to the first world war, these shots were heard around the world, even if few can agree conclusively on what they portend.

By one de minimis account, Tehran was merely sending a performative warning shot with its attack last Saturday, almost taking its ballistic missiles out for a weekend test drive. The maximalist version is that this was a state-on-state assault designed to change the rules of the Middle East. By swarming Israel with so many projectiles, such an assessment goes, Iran was prepared to risk turning Israel into a mini-Dresden of 1945 and was only thwarted by Israeli strategic defences and, crucially, extraordinary cooperation between the US, Israel and Sunni Gulf allies.

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Diplomacy and drones: how Israel’s reported attack on Iran unfolded

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Country’s leaders took time to weigh response to Iran’s strike under gaze of allies urging restraint

Just before dawn on Friday the explosions of air defence systems woke Iranians across the historic city of Isfahan. The breaking news alerts that followed roused people around the world, to worry that the region had moved a step closer to full-blown conflict.

There was little doubt who had launched the attack, even before any details of what happened were clear. It came just days after an unprecedented barrage of Iranian drones and missiles were aimed directly at Israel, whose government had vowed it would respond.

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World leaders urge calm after Israeli drone strike on Iran ratchets up tension

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Tit-for-tat attacks have breached taboo of direct strikes on each other’s territory but Tehran has no ‘immediate’ plans to retaliate

World leaders urged calm on Friday after Israel conducted a pre-dawn drone sortie over Iran following a cycle of tit-for-tat attacks that crossed an important red line that has for decades held the Middle East back from a major regional conflict.

There were tentative hopes late on Friday that the apparent strike attempt against an airbase near the city of Isfahan was sufficiently limited to fend off the threat of a bigger Iranian response and an uncontrolled spiral of violence between a nuclear power and a state with the capacity to develop nuclear weapons quickly.

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Muted Iranian reaction to attack provides short-term wins for Netanyahu

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Israeli prime minister’s main concern is his political survival but a multi-front war is still a strong possibility

In the aftermath of Iran’s unprecedented salvo of missiles and drones fired directly at Israel at the weekend, Benny Gantz, a centrist member of the Israeli war cabinet, said the country would respond “in the place, time and manner it chooses”.

That turned out to be explosions in the central Iranian city of Isfahan on Friday morning. Although no Israeli official has claimed responsibility for what seem to have been drone strikes on a military installation, Tehran, which had launched its attack after an airstrike on its consulate in Damascus, has downplayed the incident.

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Australia ‘extremely concerned’ after Israeli airstrikes on Iran confirmed by US

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Acting foreign minister Katy Gallagher says government is worried about potential for ‘further escalation of conflict in the region’

The Australian government has urged all parties to “exercise restraint and step back” after the US confirmed Israel has launched retaliatory strikes on Iran, bringing the Middle East closer to a regional war.

Officials in Washington said Israeli forces were carrying out military operations against Iran but did not describe the character or scale of those operations. Iranian state media said that drones had been shot down over Isfahan province in the early hours, and showed live shots of morning traffic in Isfahan city after sunrise to show that the situation was calm.

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Middle East crisis live: Israel has carried out an attack on Iran, US officials say, after blasts reported near Isfahan

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US officials say military operation carried out, without giving further details; Iran state media says air defences fired and airspace closed in some areas

It’s 7:24am in Tehran and 6:54 In Tel Aviv. Let’s get a reminder of what we know so far:

US officials have confirmed that Israel has carried out military operations against Iran but did not describe those operations.

The Israeli military has told news agencies including Agence France-Presse and Associated Press: “We don’t have a comment at this time.”

Iran’s state media reported explosions in the central province of Isfahan Friday

Air defence systems over several Iranian cities were activated, state media reported, after the country’s official broadcaster said explosions were heard near the city of Isfahan.

Iran’s Fars news agency reported “three explosions” were heard near the Shekari army airbase in the north-west of Isfahan province, while Iran’s space agency spokesperson Hossein Dalirian said “several” drones had been “successfully shot down”.

Nuclear facilities in Isfahan were reported to be “completely secure”, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported, citing “reliable sources”.

Flights were suspended across swathes of Iran on Friday. “Iran’s air defence has been activated in the skies of several provinces of the country,” Tehran’s official IRNA news agency said.

Mehr news agency reported that “flights to Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz, and airports in the west, northwest and southwest have been suspended.”

Flight-tracking software showed commercial flights avoiding western Iran, including Isfahan, and skirting Tehran to the north and east.

There was no immediate comment from Dubai’s Emirates airline, which was operating several of the planes.

Blasts were also reported in southern Syria, according to a local activist group. “There were strikes on a Syrian army radar position,” said Rayan Maarouf, who runs the Suwayda24 anti-government website that covers news from Sweida province in the south, reports AFP.

Oil prices surged more than three per cent in early Asian trade on Friday after the reports of explosions.

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