Category Archives: Iran

Iranian singer Mehdi Yarrahi given 74 lashes over protest song

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Lashes were part of agreement to end criminal case against Yarrahi over song against Iran’s strict dress code for women

Mehdi Yarrahi, a well-known Iranian protest singer who spoke out against the country’s strict dress code for women, has been given 74 lashes as part of an agreement to end a criminal case against him.

Yarrahi was initially convicted in January 2024 of acting unlawfully by releasing a protest song in September 2023 entitled Your Headscarf (Roo Sarito) on the first anniversary of the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising.

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Starmer welcomes Zelenskyy’s offer to work with Trump on Ukraine peace deal – as it happened

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PM says any deal must be ‘lasting and secure’ following fiery Trump-Zelenskyy meeting last week and UK weekend summit. This live blog is closed

Lisa O’Carroll is the Guardian’s acting Ireland correspondent.

Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s first minister, has described a decision to build thousands of lightweight missiles for Ukraine in a Belfast factory as “incredulous”.

I find it really incredulous that at a time when public services are being cut left, right and centre.

At a time when we have endured 14 years of austerity ... I think at a time like that, rather than buying weapons of war, I would rather see the money invested in public services.

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Iran’s vice-president and most prominent reformist resigns

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Mohammad Javad Zarif implies move was endorsed by supreme leader, as his exit sends stock market into a tailspin

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s most prominent reformist, has resigned from the government, saying he had been instructed to do so by an unnamed senior official.

He implied the move was endorsed by the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, although he did not name him in his resignation letter as he stepped down as vice-president for strategic affairs.

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British motorcycling couple detained in Iran charged with espionage

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Craig and Lindsay Foreman accused of entering country ‘under guise of tourists’

A British couple detained in Iran have been charged with espionage after travelling to the country as part of a round-the-world motorbike trip.

The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency said Craig and Lindsay Foreman, who are in their early 50s, had been charged after allegedly gathering information in different locations in the country.

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Netanyahu seeks to draw Trump into future attack on Iranian nuclear sites

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Israeli PM urges US to help ‘finish the job’ as Washington makes early maximalist demand over Tehran’s programme

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that, with Donald Trump’s support, his government will “finish the job” of neutralising the threat from Iran, amid US reports that Israel is considering airstrikes against Iranian nuclear sites in the coming few months.

Trump has said he would prefer to make a deal with Tehran, but also made clear that he was considering US military action if talks failed, and his administration has laid down an early maximalist demand: Iranian abandonment of its entire nuclear programme.

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UK must act more promptly over latest Iran detentions, says Richard Ratcliffe

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Husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe expresses concern for Craig and Lindsay Foreman who were held in January

The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has called on ministers to act “more promptly” than they did to help free his wife, after Iran detained a British couple on a motorcycle trip.

Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife was freed in 2022 after five years in a Tehran prison, expressed fears that the couple would now face the “brutal theatre” of court process to “get the government’s attention”.

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British couple held in Iran on ‘security’ grounds named

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Relatives of Craig and Lindsay Foreman say they are engaging with UK government about situation

A British couple who have been detained in Iran have been named by their family as Craig and Lindsay Foreman.

The couple, in their early 50s, had only planned on being in Iran for five days as part of a motorbike trip across the world.

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Two British nationals arrested in Iran on ‘security’ allegations, say state media

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Photo appears to show UK ambassador to Iran meeting pair, whose detention comes after tit-for-tat releases with Germany and Italy

Two British nationals have been arrested in Iran and given access to the UK ambassador, Hugo Shorter, according to reports.

State media published photographs purportedly showing Shorter meeting two British “national security” suspects at the general and revolutionary prosecutor’s office in Kerman province, about 500 miles south-east of Tehran.

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Donald Trump signals wish to hold talks with Iran over nuclear deal

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US president’s remarks will spark divisions within Iran over country’s nuclear ambitions and sanctions

Donald Trump has said he wants a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with Iran and denied he wanted to blow Iran to smithereens, describing such reports as “greatly exaggerated”.

But he said it was essential that Iran did not have a nuclear weapon, adding “we should start working on it immediately”. His remarks on his social media site, Truth Social represent the clearest sign that Trump is willing to hold talks with Iran to try to replace the nuclear deal signed in 2015, but from which Trump pulled the US out in 2018.

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Iran reformists urge concessions in attempt to reconnect to west

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Decision expected in next week that could allow country to rejoin international banking system

Iran’s reformists are pressing for the country to make concessions on financial transparency to allow it to reconnect to the global economic system and send a signal to the Trump White House that it is serious about renegotiating a new relationship with the west, including around its nuclear programme.

Tehran is expected in the next week to take decisions that would mean it would be taken off the blacklist of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the body that tackles money laundering and terrorist financing.

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Republican concerned for Pompeo after Trump pulls security detail amid Iran threats

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Former secretary of state has faced threats from Iran since since he took hard-line stances on the Islamic Republic

The Ohio Republican Mike Turner said on Sunday’s Face the Nation he is “very concerned” for former secretary of state Mike Pompeo after Donald Trump revoked his security detail earlier in the week.

Pompeo and his top aide, Brian Hook, who have faced threats from Iran since they took hard-line stances on the Islamic Republic during Trump’s first administration, were told of the loss of protection on Wednesday evening.

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Top Iranian politician appeals to Trump to restart nuclear deal negotiations

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Mohammad Javad Zarif says he hopes new Trump administration will be more serious, focused and realistic

A senior Iranian politician has appealed to Donald Trump to begin new negotiations with Tehran over its civil nuclear programme, saying: “I hope that this time around, [Trump 2.0] will be more serious, more focused, more realistic.”

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s vice-president for strategic affairs, pointed out that the returning US president had not reappointed figures from his first term such as the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton, who persuaded him in 2018 to quit the nuclear deal on the basis that withdrawal would lead to the regime’s collapse.

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Strike Houthis while Iran is weak, UN-backed Yemeni government urges west

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Tehran ‘massively weakened’ by reverses in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, says vice-president of Aden-based administration

The west should seize the opportunity to target the Tehran-backed Houthi leadership in Yemen while the Iranian government is weakened, the vice-president of the UN-backed government in Aden has said.

Aidarus al-Zoubaidi said that Iran’s reverses in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza had left the country “massively weakened”. “They have one remaining domain and that is Yemen,” Zoubaidi told the Guardian. “Now is the time to counter the Houthis and push them back into their position.”

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Two judges shot dead in Iran’s supreme court building, state media say

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Unnamed gunman killed Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghisseh before shooting himself, Mezan reports

Two judges have been killed in a shooting on Saturday at the supreme court building in Tehran, Iranian state media have reported.

“This morning, a gunman infiltrated the supreme court in a planned act of assassination of two brave and experienced judges. The two judges were martyred in the act,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported.

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Iran knows my son is innocent, says mother of French man held in Evin jail

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Olivier Grondeau was arrested in 2022 and has accused Iran of using him for ‘political blackmail’ against France

The mother of a French traveller detained in Iran for two years has said authorities “know he is innocent” but continue to hold him in the country’s notorious Evin prison.

Olivier Grondeau, 33, was arrested from his hotel room in Shiraz, in the south of Iran, on 12 October 2022, just weeks into the Woman, Life, Freedom anti-government protests that engulfed the country. The writer, poet and bookseller was in the country as part of a world tour.

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Islamist groups in Middle East will emerge from Gaza war weakened

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Hamas, Hezbollah and other militia are enfeebled – but Palestine is likely to stay at forefront of global politics

The ceasefire due to come into force on Sunday, barring a major last-minute problem, will cement massive and rapid changes across the Middle East and may seal a significant defeat for the Islamist militant groups that have been powerful actors in the region for years.

Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and assorted Shia Muslim militia in Iraq and Syria will all emerge from the conflict considerably weakened. Only the Houthis in Yemen are stronger – though this may not last. The Islamic State remains a shadow of its former self.

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UK should back tough Trump sanctions on Iran, report says

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Former top UK official believes intensifying economic pressure on Tehran would erode internal support for regime

The UK should back Donald Trump’s expected maximum economic sanctions against Iran as part of an effort to encourage nationals to end their support for the current regime in Tehran, Mark Sedwill, the former cabinet secretary, argues in a report published on Monday.

He writes: “It is not for the west, let alone the UK, to determine who rules Iran. That is for the Iranian people. But we can make clear that the right choice will bring benefits just as the wrong one will bring more of the same.”

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Italy releases Iranian man wanted by US over drone attack in Jordan

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Mohammad Abedini detained on US warrant three days before Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was arrested in Iran

Italy has released an Iranian citizen wanted by the US over a drone attack in Jordan that killed three Americans a year ago, after the Italian justice minister asked a court to revoke his arrest.

Mohammad Abedini has already returned to Iran, Iranian state TV said on Sunday afternoon.

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Italian journalist Cecilia Sala returns home after release from prison in Iran

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Sala, who had been held since 19 December, greeted by family members and Italian PM at Rome airport

Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist who was held in solitary confinement for almost three weeks in Iran, has returned home after being freed from prison.

A plane carrying the 29-year-old landed at Rome’s Ciampino airport on Wednesday afternoon, where she was greeted by family members and politicians including the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.

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Italy presses Iran for immediate release of journalist held in Tehran

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Foreign ministry summons ambassador as Cecilia Sala reportedly tells family she sleeps on floor of prison cell

Italy’s foreign ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador on Wednesday and urged the immediate release of an Italian journalist held in solitary confinement in Tehran.

Cecilia Sala, a 29-year-old freelance journalist for Il Foglio newspaper and a podcaster, reportedly spoke of the harsh conditions of her detainment in the notorious Evin prison, including having to sleep on the floor of her cell without a mattress.

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