Al-Zahra University in Bushehr will pursue legal action, says its president, in a move labelled ‘absurd’ by human rights lawyers
A group of Iranian students have been threatened with prosecution after a video of them dancing after their graduation emerged on social media this week.
In the now viral video, a group of about 11 female students from Al-Zahra University in the coastal city of Bushehr, in south-west Iran, were seen dancing and riding a motorcycle.
Continue reading...Martin Griffiths lamented ‘the unconscionable prospect of further escalation in Gaza, where no one is safe and there is nowhere safe to go’
Iran on Saturday again threatened retaliation for the deaths of seven Revolutionary Guards in a strike on Damascus, with the army chief saying his country’s enemies will “regret” the killings, reports AFP.
Tehran has vowed to avenge Monday’s airstrike on the Syrian capital it blamed on its arch-enemy Israel, which has not commented.
Continue reading...While the US flounders in a conflict it did not foresee, emerging powers see a chance for new voices to join the top table
Not long ago a picture circulated from inside Gaza showing smoke billowing from the explosion of a US-supplied bomb, and discernible in the background was the outline of eight black parachutes dropping US aid in precisely the same neighbourhood. It was suggested that the picture would make an ideal cover for any book about the confused world disorder that the six-month war in Gaza have spawned – a disorder that as yet has no dominant player, value system or functioning institutions.
The great powers compete, coexist or confront one another across the region but none, least of all at the UN, is able to impose its version of order any longer. “Forget talk of unipolarity or multipolarity,” the journalist Gregg Carlstrom recently wrote in Foreign Affairs. “The Middle East is nonpolar. No one is in charge.”
Continue reading...Pouria Zeraati said he is back on the airwaves with Iran International, a dissident broadcaster based in the UK
An Iranian journalist who was stabbed outside his London home last week has returned to work, saying the “show must go on”.
Pouria Zeraati was knifed in the leg by a group of three unknown assailants as he approached his car in Wimbledon on 29 March.
Continue reading...IRGC statement names two generals as Mohammad Reza Zahedi and deputy Sardar Haji Rahimi. Airstrike in Syrian capital reportedly carried out by Israel
Hossein Akbari, the Iranian ambassador in Syria, has said Tehran “will reciprocate when we want” to what he described as the “extreme brutality” of the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
Posting to social media, Akbari wrote:
With extreme brutality, contrary to all international conventions, they targeted my place of residence and the consular section of the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran; We will reciprocate when we want.
Continue reading...Iran vows revenge after seven people killed, including several diplomats and Mohammad Reza Zahedi of Revolutionary Guards
Iran has vowed revenge after Israeli war planes destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing at least seven people, including a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds force.
Iran’s leaders in Tehran described the targeting of a diplomatic mission late on Monday as unprecedented and promised a harsh response.
Continue reading...Met police say investigation into stabbing of Iranian journalist near home in Wimbledon is being led by counter-terrorism officers
Iran’s most senior diplomat in Britain has denied claims that the Iranian government was behind a knife attack on a TV presenter in London amid growing fears over threats to dissidents.
The country’s charge d’affaires, Mehdi Hosseini Matin, said Iran “denies any link” to the stabbing of Pouria Zeraati, 36, a presenter at Iran International, outside his home in Wimbledon on Friday. He is in a stable condition and was looking forward to being discharged from hospital soon.
Continue reading...Spokesperson tells Today programme that UK-based broadcaster has been under ‘heavy threat for last 18 months’
Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards have been targeting the broadcaster Iran International, a spokesperson for the channel said after a leading journalist was stabbed in London.
The Persian-language news television channel that employed Pouria Zeraati, who was attacked outside his London home, had received an increased level of threats beforehand, Adam Baillie told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on Saturday.
Continue reading...Calls during Yemen briefing come as missile believed to have been launched by Houthis strikes a vessel off Aden
The US and UK have called for a UN maritime inspectorate to do more to prevent Iranian missiles reaching Houthi-controlled ports in the west of Yemen.
The calls during a UN security council briefing on the crisis in Yemen came as a missile believed to have been launched by Yemen’s Houthi militia struck a vessel off the southern city of Aden – but caused no damage – and US forces fired missiles on to Hodeidah international airport.
Guardian Newsroom: The unfolding crisis in the Middle East
Continue reading...The double Oscar winner’s film A Hero won the grand prix at Cannes in 2021 but was the subject of an alleged copyright infringement brought by a former student
Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has been cleared of charges of plagiarism over his film A Hero brought by one of his students, the agency representing him said on Wednesday.
The film, about a prisoner in the Iranian city of Shiraz, won the grand prix at the Cannes film festival in 2021.
Continue reading...Warnings that war in Gaza and Iran’s lack of cooperation on its nuclear programme are strengthening hand of hardliners
There are growing fears among diplomats in the US and Europe that Iran’s largely unmonitored nuclear programme and the destabilisation caused by the Gaza conflict are strengthening the hand of Iranian factions that back the development of nuclear weapons.
The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, has reiterated in recent days that his country is pursuing a civilian nuclear programme for now.
Continue reading...Fact-finding mission concludes regime murdered, imprisoned, tortured and raped those who protested the death of Mahsa Amini
The Iranian regime’s human rights violations during its brutal suppression of protests in 2022 amount to crimes against humanity, a UN fact-finding mission (FFM) has said.
Established by the UN human rights council in November 2022 – two months after the Woman, Life, Freedom protests swept the country in response to the death in custody of Mahsa Amini – the FFM has released a report concluding the regime carried out widespread and sustained human rights violations against its own people, which broke international laws and specifically targeted women and girls.
Continue reading...Conservatives expected to remain firmly in charge after parts of media claim ‘election boycott campaign’ has failed
The turnout in Iran’s parliamentary elections appears to have dropped to 41%, a record low, but according to the official figures, not quite to the levels of mass abstention that some surveys had predicted.
Polls closed at midnight on Friday, six hours later than planned due to what officials claimed was a second surge in polls in the evening, but Tehran’s middle class stayed away, fewer than 24% of the 8 million eligible to vote bothering to do so.
Continue reading...Extending polling hours fails to boost turnout beyond previous low from 2020 election, strengthening claims people are rejecting the regime by staying at home
Polling closed in Iran’s parliamentary elections on Friday night, with officials claiming the nationwide turnout was a record low of 40.6%.
After 10 hours of voting, turnout had stood at only 27%, and in Tehran it was just 12% after eight hours, before the polls were unexpectedly kept open for an extra two hours.
Continue reading...Shervin Hajipour sentenced for ‘inciting and provoking people to riot to disturb national security’
An Iranian pop singer whose song became an anthem during mass protests more than a year ago has been sentenced to at least three years in prison.
Shervin Hajipour, 26, wrote and published Baraye during nationwide demonstrations triggered by Mahsa Amini’s death in custody in September 2022.
Continue reading...Turnout of 38.5% or less predicted despite moves to make voting easier and allow more candidates
A majority of Iran’s angry and disillusioned electorate are predicted to stay away from parliamentary elections on Friday, viewing the process as a masquerade of democracy intended to give legitimacy to a regime that has failed to deliver on living standards, the environment and personal freedom.
In repeated speeches, the ageing supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has urged those planning to boycott the vote that it is their patriotic and Islamic duty to elect a new four-year term parliament – the 12th since the 1979 revolution – and an 88-seat “assembly of experts” that will choose his successor in the event of him dying during its eight-year term of office.
Continue reading...Exclusive: work by researchers from western universities and counterparts at Sharif University considered potentially ‘very dangerous’ by experts
Academics in the UK, Australia and the US collaborated on research related to drone technology with an Iranian university that is under international financial sanctions and known for its close ties to the military, the Guardian can reveal.
The collaborative research was described by one security expert as having direct military applications, while another called it potentially “very dangerous”. Iranian-made drones have been responsible for a number of deadly attacks in the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts, and their development is known to be a top priority for the government in Tehran.
Continue reading...Safa Aeli was charged with taking part in protests that erupted following death of 22-year-old after her arrest for allegedly flouting strict dress rules for women
The uncle of Mahsa Amini, the young Iranian-Kurdish woman whose death in custody sparked months of protests, has been sentenced to more than five years in jail for his criticism of the government in 2022, rights groups have said.
Safa Aeli, 30, was sentenced to five years and four months in prison by the revolutionary court in the family’s home town of Saqez in north-western Iran, the Norway-based Hengaw group and US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said.
Continue reading...Militants fired missiles at Greek-owned ship, says US military, in strike that raises questions over who Houthis are trying to target
Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen have carried out their first attack in the Red Sea in six days, firing at an Iran-bound grain cargo ship, the US military has said, in a strike that raises questions about the group’s targeting.
The lull in attacks on ships which the Houthis claim are linked to Israel has led to claims that US and UK strikes against the group have successfully neutralised its capabilities or that potential targets have been deterred from entering the Red Sea.
Continue reading...Escalation of conflict causing tensions within community and fears about war spreading to Iran
Iranians living in the UK have described deep divisions in the community since the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.
The deadly attack by Hamas in Israel on 7 October and the subsequent bombardment of Gaza have led to tense conversations among British Iranians, they say.
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