Category Archives: Iran

Iran’s security forces reportedly open fire as thousands mourn Mahsa Amini

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Teargas also used against protesters gathered in home town of 22-year-old Kurdish woman, says rights group

Iranian security forces have clashed with protesters who had gathered in their thousands in Mahsa Amini’s home town to mark 40 days since her death, with reports that shots were fired.

“Security forces have shot teargas and opened fire on people in Zindan Square, Saqqez city,” Hengaw, a Norway-based group that monitors rights violations in Iran’s Kurdish regions, tweeted without specifying whether there were any dead or wounded. It said more than 50 civilians were injured by direct fire in cities across the region.

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Protesters defy crackdown at universities across Iran

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Tension mounts as ceremonies marking 40 days since Mahsa Amini’s death expected to take place on Wednesday

Students have protested at universities across Iran, defying a bloody crackdown as tensions mount on the eve of planned ceremonies marking 40 days since Mahsa Amini’s death.

“A student may die but will not accept humiliation,” demonstrators chanted at Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, in an online video verified by AFP.

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New Zealand couple detained in Iran for months leave the country

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Influencers Christopher Richwhite and Bridget Thackwray had disappeared after entering Iran in July and had been prevented from leaving

Two New Zealand social media influencers who were detained in Iran for almost four months have been released and have now left the country.

Social media influencers Christopher “Topher” Richwhite and Bridget Thackwray were undertaking a trip called Expedition Earth in which they aimed to travel across 90 countries in a Jeep. The two recorded their travels with near-daily vlogs and Instagram posts, and documented their border crossing into Iran from Turkey in early July.

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Iranian security forces fire teargas as girls clash with staff at Tehran school

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Unverified footage shows armed police firing at least one canister after staff attempted to inspect students’ phones

Iranian security forces fired teargas outside a girls’ school in Tehran when clashes broke out after staff attempted to inspect students’ mobile phones amid ongoing anti-government protests.

Iran’s Ministry of Education said several students were treated by emergency services for a drop in blood pressure, but denied that security forces had entered the school.

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Protest strikes in Iran reported as solidarity rallies held around world

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Iranian shopkeepers and factory workers said to be on strike as 80,000 protesters in Berlin hear calls for sanctions

Shopkeepers and factory workers reportedly went on strike in Iran on Saturday as women-led nationwide protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini entered a sixth week and solidarity rallies were held around the globe.

The death of 22-year-old Amini, after her arrest for allegedly breaching Iran’s strict dress code for women, has fuelled the biggest protests seen in the Islamic Republic for years.

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Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi reportedly under house arrest

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Reports say athlete who competed in South Korea not wearing headscarf pressured into ‘forced confession’

The Iranian climber who received a hero’s welcome on her return to Tehran after competing in South Korea without wearing a headscarf has reportedly been placed under house arrest.

Elnaz Rekabi competed last weekend in South Korea without wearing a headscarf, which is mandatory in Iran and a subject of nationwide protests after the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the country’s notorious morality police.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: US pledges ‘unwavering commitment’ to Ukraine and agrees to keep communication with Russia open

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Lloyd Austin and Sergei Shoigu had telephone conversation, agreeing to maintain lines of communication while also stressing support for Ukraine

Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv, has no casualties to report in his daily update, although he has posted to Telegram to say that at 6.50am this morning the “coast of the Kutsurub community” was struck.

A series of explosions have also been reported in Ukraine’s south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia.

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Almost 12,500 people arrested in Iran protest crackdown, says rights group

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Families struggle to contact relatives as opposition calls for movement to focus on plight of thousands in jail

Almost 12,500 people have been arrested and nearly 250 killed since the street protests began in Iran, according to a prominent human rights group, with thousands of anxious families struggling to make contact with loved ones who have gone missing and presumed to be in jail.

The news came as the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Maj Gen Hossein Salami, said security forces were close to snuffing out the remaining protests. He said: “Sedition is going through its last moments.”

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Iran protests: democracies have ‘moral obligation’ to help, Canada foreign minister says

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Mélanie Joly tells meeting of female foreign ministers that they must help ‘amplify the voices of women in Iran’

Canada’s foreign minister has said democracies have a “moral obligation” to help the “incredibly brave” women taking to the streets of Iran in protest, as she met other female foreign ministers to condemn the ongoing violence that has rocked the country for weeks.

“As women foreign ministers we have a responsibility to help amplify the voices of women in Iran,” Mélanie Joly told a gathering of 14 of her female counterparts, according to a readout of the event provided to the Guardian. “As women leaders from around the world, we can make a powerful statement of support for women’s rights in Iran, and by extension, women’s rights everywhere.”

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Iran provides ‘technical support’ for Russian drones killing civilians, says US

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Iranians brought trainers and technical support to Crimea to help Russians use drones ‘with better lethality’, White House says

Iran has significantly deepened its involvement in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by providing technical support for Russian pilots flying Iranian-made drones to bomb civilian targets, the White House has confirmed.

The national security council lead spokesperson, John Kirby, said on Thursday that it was the US’s understanding that the Iranian advisers were in Crimea to provide training and maintenance – but not to actually pilot the drones – after Russian forces experienced difficulties in operating the unmanned flying bombs.

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Schoolboy protester dies in Iran after reportedly being shot at close range

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Abolfazl Adinezadeh reportedly shot at from less than a metre away by security forces in city of Mashhad

A 17-year-old schoolboy has died in Iran’s second largest city, Mashhad, after reportedly being shot at close range by state forces during anti-government protests.

Abolfazl Adinezadeh’s death certificate showed that he died of liver and kidney damage caused by birdshot, according to a BBC Persian report. A doctor was cited as estimating the distance from which the teenager was shot on 8 October as less than 1 metre.

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Russia threatens to ‘reassess collaboration’ with UN chief over drone inspection

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Ambassador denies drones fired on Ukraine are supplied by Iran and calls UN investigation ‘illegitimate’

Russia has threatened that it will reassess cooperation with the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, if he sends United Nations experts to Ukraine to inspect drones that western powers say were made in Iran and used by Moscow in violation of a UN resolution.

Speaking after a closed-door UN security council meeting on Moscow’s use of drones, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, called on Guterres and his staff to “abstain from engaging in any illegitimate investigation”. He also threatened Russia would withdraw from the grain deal that has allowed Ukrainian grain to be transported out of Black Sea ports.

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Canada to host meeting on Iran protests for world’s female foreign ministers

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Canada’s foreign minister Melanie Joly said they will meet to discuss protests ignited by the death of Mahsa Amini

Canada is to host a virtual meeting of female foreign ministers to discuss Iran’s “brutal” crackdown on protests ignited by the death of a young woman who was detained by morality police for “improper” use of the hijab.

Canada’s foreign minister, Melanie Joly, said she and 14 others will meet virtually on Thursday to discuss the state of women’s and human rights in Iran, Joly’s office said, adding that it would give them an opportunity to coordinate efforts and discuss “ways to increase their collective support for the Iranian people”.

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Iranian climber who competed without hijab met by jubilant crowds in Tehran

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Elnaz Rekabi says she did not intend to compete without headscarf amid fears among public over how regime will react

The Iranian competitive climber Elnaz Rekabi has received a hero’s welcome on her return to Tehran after competing in South Korea without wearing a headscarf as required of female athletes from the Islamic Republic.

Video shared online showed large crowds at Imam Khomeini international airport terminal outside Tehran despite the 4am arrival time of Rekabi’s flight. People clapped and chanted the 33-year-old’s name and handed her flowers inside the terminal.

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EU plans to impose sanctions on Iran military leaders over drones

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Measures will also target firm that develops drones believed to have been used in Russia’s attacks on Ukraine

The EU plans to impose sanctions on three senior Iranian military commanders and the company that develops drones believed to have been used in Russia’s attacks on Ukraine.

The draft sanctions list, seen by the Guardian, is expected to be agreed within days, indicating EU ministers do not believe Iran’s denials that it has supplied Russia with the low-flying lethal weapons.

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Russia’s new Ukraine commander signals civilian evacuation from ‘tense’ Kherson

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Sergei Surovikin says Russia’s defence of occupied southern city ‘not easy’ as Ukraine introduces local news blackout

The new commander of Moscow’s army in Ukraine has announced that civilians were being “resettled” from the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, describing the military situation as “tense”.

“The enemy continually attempts to attack the positions of Russian troops,” Sergei Surovikin said in his first televised interview since being appointed earlier this month, adding that the situation was particularly difficult around the occupied southern city of Kherson.

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Iran agrees to supply missiles as well as drones to Russia

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Defence secretary Ben Wallace flies to Washington to discuss dangerous new phase in invasion of Ukraine

Iran has deepened its commitment to supplying arms for Russia’s assault on Ukraine by agreeing to provide a batch of medium-range missiles, as well as large numbers of cheap but effective drones, according to US and Iranian security officials.

The surface-to-surface missiles are designed to supplement the severely run-down stock of Russian missiles, as part of a bid to systematically destroy Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure ahead of a brutal winter.

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Iran protesters need same western support as Ukraine, say exiles

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Iranian opposition sign open letter calling for tougher measures over regime’s actions against protesters

A prominent group of Iranians in exile, human rights activists and families of dual-national political prisoners has called on the west to do more to help Iranians’ demands for freedom.

The EU, US and UK have imposed largely symbolic travel bans and asset freezes on a dozen security officials linked to a crackdown on people protesting in Iran after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in mid-September. The west has not broken off talks with the Iranian regime over the 2015 nuclear deal or downgraded diplomatic relations.

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Missing Iranian climber dropped headscarf by mistake, Instagram post claims

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Friends of Elnaz Rekabi have been unable to contact athlete since Sunday, while embassy says she returned home with rest of team

A female Iranian climber who competed in an international tournament without a hijab did so because her headscarf had dropped by mistake, a post on her Instagram account has claimed.

Footage of Elnaz Rekabi, 33, scaling a wall without her head covered during an international tournament went viral, coming amid big female-led demonstrations against Iran’s clerical rulers sparked by strict Islamic rules on women’s clothing.

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Iranian schoolgirl ‘beaten to death for refusing to sing’ pro-regime anthem

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Fresh protests ignited around Iran by 16-year-old Asra Panahi’s death after schoolgirls assaulted in raid on high school in Ardabil

Another schoolgirl has reportedly been killed by the Iranian security services after she was beaten in her classroom for refusing to sing a pro-regime song when her school was raided last week, sparking further protests across the country this weekend.

According to the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, 16-year-old Asra Panahi died after security forces raided the Shahed girls high school in Ardabil on 13 October and demanded a group of girls sing an anthem that praises Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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