Category Archives: Iran

Iran president rules out meeting with Biden, saying it won’t be beneficial

Posted on by

Ebrahim Raisi says he sees no ‘changes in reality’ from Trump administration as hopes to revive nuclear talks dampen

Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, has ruled out a meeting with Joe Biden on the margins of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) this week, saying he saw no “changes in reality” from the Trump administration.

Raisi underlined the firm position of his government and dampened hopes that a week of summitry at UNGA in New York might yield any progress in negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. Washington has rejected the latest Iranian bargaining positive as “not constructive”, and most observers believe there will be no breakthroughs at least until after the US congressional elections in November.

Continue reading...

Mahsa Amini: dozens injured in Iran protests after death in custody

Posted on by

Amini, 22, reportedly beaten by morality police in Tehran for not complying with hijab regulations

More than 30 Iranians were injured, some seriously, while taking to the streets to protest after the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman three days after she was arrested and reportedly beaten by morality police in Tehran.

The circumstances of Mahsa Amini’s death on Friday are hotly contested, but her family denied official reports that she suffered from epilepsy and instead claimed she was beaten by police.

Continue reading...

Protests in Iran at death of Kurdish woman after arrest by morality police

Posted on by

Despite warnings, hundreds of people have reportedly gathered in Mahsa Amini’s home town of Saqqez for her burial

A series of protests have broken out in Iran after the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, who died in hospital on 16 September, three days after she was arrested and reportedly beaten by morality police in Tehran.

Demonstrators initially gathered outside Kasra hospital in Tehran, where Amini was being treated. Human rights groups reported that security forces deployed pepper spray against protesters and that several were arrested.

Continue reading...

Iranian woman dies ‘after being beaten by morality police’ over hijab law

Posted on by

Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurd, dies after ‘violent arrest’ for infringing hijab rules amid Iranian crackdown on women’s dress

A 22-year-old woman has died in an Iranian hospital days after being detained by the regime’s morality police for allegedly not complying with the country’s hijab regulations.

Mahsa Amini was travelling with her family from Iran’s western province of Kurdistan to the capital, Tehran, to visit relatives when she was reportedly arrested for failing to meet the country’s strict rules on women’s dress.

Continue reading...

‘Our lives are destroyed’: families take fight for truth of flight 752 to ICC

Posted on by

Exclusive: grieving relatives allege war crime and crime against humanity over January 2020 downing of aircraft

When Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 was shot down over Tehran by Iranian anti-aircraft missiles in January 2020, killing all 176 people on board, it was just the beginning of the ordeal for the victims’ families.

In the 32 months since, they have faced obstruction and hostility from the Iranian authorities, which initially sought to deny their forces were responsible. When bodies were finally returned, they were often mixed with the remains of other victims, the personal effects of the dead were looted, and in some instances their funerals were commandeered by the Tehran regime for propaganda purposes. Grieving relatives have been assaulted, harassed and threatened.

Continue reading...

Trump feared assassination by Iran as revenge for Suleimani death, book says

Posted on by

Revelation about former president’s concern reported in new book The Divider by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser

In December 2020, Donald Trump told friends he was afraid Iran would try to assassinate him in revenge for the death of Qassem Suleimani, an Iranian general killed in a US drone strike nearly a year before.

The startling news is reported in a new book by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, a husband-and-wife team who write for the New York Times and the New Yorker.

Continue reading...

Folio from ‘world masterpiece’ illuminated manuscript goes up for auction

Posted on by

Section of the Shah Tahmasp Shahnameh is expected to fetch between £4m and £6m at auction next month

A folio from the Shah Tahmasp Shahnameh, one of the “finest illustrated manuscripts in existence” according to Sotheby’s, is expected to fetch between £4m and £6m at auction next month.

The Shahnameh, also known as the Book of Kings, is an epic poem containing 50,000 rhyming couplets, telling the history of Persia’s rulers. It was written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between 977 and 1010.

Continue reading...

Israel warns over Iran uranium capability with nuclear talks at halt

Posted on by

As IAEA board meets, Israel says Iran will be able to produce enough material for three warheads in weeks

Tensions around a breakdown in talks between Iran and the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme escalated on Monday when Israel’s defence minister, Benny Gantz, claimed that Iran would be able to produce enough enriched uranium to make three nuclear warheads within a few weeks.

Gantz also revealed a map detailing 10 facilities in Syria allegedly being used to arm Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah. He said the facilities represented a threat to Israel’s security.

Continue reading...

US trio jailed by Iran and accused of espionage sue former captors

Posted on by

Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal held for more than a year after being stopped while hiking along Iraqi border in 2009

Three Americans who were jailed by Iran for more than a year and accused of being spies while hiking along the border with Iraq are suing their former captors, hoping to persuade a judge to award them damages for the torture they say they endured.

The lawsuit being pursued by Sarah Shourd, her ex-husband and fellow journalist Shane Bauer, and their friend Josh Fattal is being overseen by federal judge Richard Leon in Washington, who in 2019 ordered Iran to pay Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian $180m for imprisoning him for more than a year on false espionage charges.

Continue reading...

Iran condemns two women to death for ‘corruption’ over LGBTQ+ media links

Posted on by

Outcry over show trial, which follows Zahra Seddiqi Hamedani talking to BBC about abuse of gay people in Iran’s Kurdish region

Two women have been condemned to death in Iran because of their links to the LGBTQ+ community on social media, human rights groups have reported.

Zahra Seddiqi Hamedani, 31, and Elham Choubdar, 24, were found guilty of a number of charges by a court in Urmia, in the Iranian province of West Azerbaijan, on 1 September but the details of their sentences only emerged this week.

Continue reading...

Housekeeper to Israel’s defence minister jailed for offering to spy on his employer

Posted on by

Omri Goren Gorochovsky admitted contacting Black Shadow hacking collective linked to Iran

A housekeeper who worked for Israel’s defence minister has been jailed for offering to spy on his employer for an Iran-linked hacking group.

Omri Goren Gorochovsky, a resident of the central city of Lod, was sentenced to three years in prison by an Israeli court on Tuesday after being found guilty of attempting to pass on information to an enemy entity. Initial espionage charges were dropped under a plea deal.

Continue reading...

Iranian authorities plan to use facial recognition to enforce new hijab law

Posted on by

Government says it will use technology on public transport in crackdown on women’s dress

The Iranian government is planning to use facial recognition technology on public transport to identify women who are not complying with a strict new law on wearing the hijab, as the regime continues its increasingly punitive crackdown on women’s dress.

The secretary of Iran’s Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice, Mohammad Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, announced in a recent interview that the government was planning to use surveillance technology against women in public places following a new decree signed by the country’s hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, on restricting women’s clothing.

Continue reading...

Iran forced to return US sail drones seized at sea for second time

Posted on by

US defence official says Iranian navy warship had pulled two sail drones out of water and covered them with tarps

The US has for the second time this week compelled Iran to release US military sail drones that it tried to seize at sea, according to officials.

The US military has not officially commented on the incident. But a US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested the Iranians had sought to secretly seize the drones.

Continue reading...

Iran nuclear deal: US dismisses latest move from Tehran as ‘not constructive’

Posted on by

US state department rejects what Iran characterised as a bid to ‘finalise the negotiations’ in latest efforts to agree a deal

Hopes of a rapid conclusion to negotiations on a revived nuclear deal with Iran have receded after the US quickly rejected the latest Iranian proposal as “not constructive”.

Washington’s rapid reaction to the Iranian text, which had been delivered shortly before 3am on Friday Tehran time, directly contradicted Tehran’s claims that its proposals presented “a constructive approach” aimed at “finalising the negotiations”.

Continue reading...

US navy intervenes after Iran seizes American sea drone

Posted on by

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard tried to tow away an unmanned vessel in the Persian Gulf but the fifth fleet secured its release

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized an American sea drone in the Persian Gulf and tried to tow it away, only releasing the unmanned vessel when a US navy warship and helicopter approached, according to US officials.

The incident on Tuesday marks the first time the navy’s Middle East-based fifth fleet’s new drone taskforce has been targeted by Iran.

Continue reading...

Iraqi cleric tells loyalists to return to their homes after fighting in Baghdad

Posted on by

Death toll rises during violent clashes between rival Shia groups after Muqtada al-Sadr resigns from politics

Explainer: why are Shia groups fighting each other in Iraq?

Supporters of the powerful Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have heeded his call to return to their homes after a day of clashes that left at least 30 people dead, wounded hundreds and sparked fears of a wider conflict within the country’s Shia population.

Raising hopes that the immediate crisis would ebb, Sadr on Tuesday called for the Iraqi army to retake control of Baghdad’s green zone, which had been the scene of the fiercest fighting between Sadrist members and pro-Iranian militias. Shortly after noon, the city’s streets were rapidly emptying, as Iraq’s prime minister praised a stand-down that many observers believe helped avert a descent into protracted violence.

Continue reading...

US says clashes with Iran-backed militias won’t affect Tehran nuclear talks

Posted on by

Nuclear negotiations under way, as US-led mission against the Islamic State exchanges fire with armed groups in Syria and Iraq

US-led forces and Iran-backed militias exchanged fire for the second day in a row, but the Biden administration said the fighting would not affect nuclear negotiations with Tehran.

US Central Command said the two bases, Conoco and Green Village, used for the US-led mission against the Islamic State (IS) had come under rocket attack on Wednesday evening, but there were no serious injuries. The US struck back with attack helicopters, killing “two or three suspected Iran-backed militants conducting one of the attacks” and destroying vehicles.

Continue reading...

Anoosheh Ashoori: London Marathon dream of Iran detainee nears reality

Posted on by

British-Iranian who set goal while at notorious Evin prison says he wants ‘something good to come out of all that pain’

Serving a minimum 10-year sentence in Iran’s notorious Evin prison on spying charges, Anoosheh Ashoori, a 68-year-old British-Iranian retired engineer, knew he must find purpose if he was to avoid insanity.

He pledged that one day, when he was released, he would run the London Marathon. It was an ambitious dream, especially for a man who was not very fit and or expecting to be freed before the age of 73.

Continue reading...

US carries out Syria airstrikes in reprisal attack on Iran-backed militia

Posted on by

US military says strikes on Deir Ez-Zor were needed to ‘protect and defend US personnel’ after drone attacks on its forces

The US military has said it has carried out airstrikes in areas of eastern Syria used by Iran-backed militias.

The US military’s Central Command spokesperson, Colonel Joe Buccino, said in a statement on Wednesday: “Today’s strikes were necessary to protect and defend US personnel”, and were in response to an attack on 15 August targeting US forces.

Continue reading...

Arrests and TV confessions as Iran cracks down on women’s ‘improper’ clothing

Posted on by

Protests follow appearance of ‘tortured’ writer on state television, while human rights group warn forced confessions on the rise as hijab laws hardened

There were protests and condemnation last week after an Iranian woman who was arrested for defying newly hardened hijab laws appeared on state television to give what observers claimed was a forced confession as a result of torture.

Sepideh Rashno, 28, was arrested in July soon after footage of her being harassed on a bus over “improper clothing”, was circulated online.

Continue reading...