Newsaholic

  The United States (U.S.) officials have spoken with Omani counterparts to look into the potential of resuming mediated nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran. According to a report, Israeli officials have accused the officials of wanting a temporary agreement that would permit the Islamic Republic of Iran to keep enriching uranium. A report in Axios was published almost nine months after indirect talks to revive the historic 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the international community failed, with the United States claiming that the talks to revive the deal were no longer a high priority. Joe Biden, the President of the United States, was looking for a diplomatic solution to the matter. Reportedly, Biden’s top official in Iran said that the US wanted to revive the talks, which Israel alleges constitutes a military threat. Robert Malley, United States Special Representative for Iran, said, “We hope that we can resolve this through diplomatic means, and w...

  Azerbaijan, a landlocked country in eastern Transcaucasia, arrested at least nine of its nationals, alleging that they were linked to Iranian secret services. Officials in Azerbaijan accused the arrested people of plotting a coup and assassinations. The interior ministry, security service and the office of the prosecutor general of Azerbaijan said that the arrested people "were working for Iranian secret services.” Azerbaijan's law enforcement forces arrested them on Tuesday. The statement by the interior ministry named nine people. The statement also revealed that several other people had been arrested over a fresh coup plot. According to the statement, those people were plotting a "violent overthrow of the government and the assassinations of prominent personalities and senior officials.” Last month, officials in Azerbaijan arrested six Azerbaijani nationals in a different case related to Iran. The authorities accused those people of being "recruited by I...

Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has said that his country’s principal stance is to maintain “constructive cooperation” with the United Nations (UN) Human Rights system despite facing political pressure from the United States (US). Nasser Kanaani said that Iran continues to take part in efforts to advocate human rights across the world. His comments came in response to an inquiry from IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency) about the appointment of Iran's UN ambassador Ali Bahraini to the chair of the UN Human Rights Council 2023 Social Forum. Vaclav Balek, the president of the Human Rights Council, announced that Iranian ambassador Ali Bahraini will serve as chair of the Geneva Human Rights Forum in 2023. Later on, UN Watch launched a petition to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to cancel the appointment of Ali Bahraini. The UN Watch also urged United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken to condemn the a...

  Iran is pressuring Hamas (and maybe also Hezbollah) to react forcefully in the wake of the escalation in Gaza in order to exact revenge on Israel for its operation against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. This is a part of Iran's persistent strategy to include Israel in a campaign that spans many theaters while keeping itself out of a current direct conflict. As it gets closer to Saudi Arabia and Syria, Iran is breaking all the commitments it signed: it violates human rights in Iran and the Ukraine, backs Russia in its conflict with Ukraine, and finances terrorist groups in Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria, among other places. However, there are still those in the EU and the United States. I have written several times in the past on the folly of a flawed and incomplete nuclear agreement (dubbed "less for less," when it is actually "much more for much less"). Although an agreement would at worst afford the West a few weeks or months' delay before Iran a...

  According to Iran's judiciary, two persons who had been found guilty of blasphemy were put to death. According to the judiciary's Mizan news agency, Youssef Mehrdad and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare were executed on Monday after being found guilty of insulting Islam and the Prophet. The judiciary said that Mr. Mehrdad, a resident of Ardabil City, was the principal administrator of at least 15 organizations "in the field of anti-Islamism, promoting atheism, and insulting holy things" and served as the leader of an "anti-Islamic" online community. According to the judiciary, Mr. Zare directed internet atheist advocacy groups. It claimed that the men's internet activity was conducted using Iranian and French phone numbers. Except for China, Iran is the country that executes the most people. Last year, there were 75% more executions in Iran. Since December, it has executed four individuals by hanging for taking part in an anti-government protest movement spa...

  According to the court, Iran killed Swedish-born dissident Habib Chaab on Saturday for "terrorism". The judiciary's Mizan Online website stated that Habib Chaab, also known as Habib Asyud, the leader of the terrorist organization Harakat Al-Nidal, has been put to death this morning, on Saturday. Notably, Chaab was arrested and detained in Iran in October 2020 after going missing while visiting Turkiye and being tried in Tehran. He was given the death penalty on December 6 after being found guilty of "corruption on earth" for leading a rebel organization. Moreover, the decision has been criticized by Stockholm as "inhumane." Mizan Online claims that Chaab was the leader of Harakat Al-Nidal, also known as the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, which Iran labels a "terrorist group" and accuses of planning assaults in southwest Khuzestan. Furthermore, a sizable Arab minority resides in the oil-rich region, and its resid...

  Mohammad Reza Gharaei Ashtiani, the Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is set to visit the Republic of India this week for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Defense Ministers' Meeting. Iraj Elahi, the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Republic of India, has confirmed the meeting. He also noted the importance of the growing defence relations between Iran and India. While attending the Iran Army Day celebrations in New Delhi, the capital of India, Elahi said, "The defence relations between Iran and India are going through a growing process in the framework of the comprehensive relations between the two countries. I also hope that with the visit of the Honorable Minister of Defense of the Islamic Republic of Iran to India...the defence relations between the two countries will be further developed and strengthened in a dynamic bilateral and multilateral format." Iran's defence minister is set t...

  The Foreign Ministers of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran held a phone call to mark the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. They also agreed to meet “soon” to start the process of re-opening embassies and consulates in the two countries. Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, called Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran, to congratulate him on the occasion of Ramadan. The Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement posted on Twitter, "The two ministers agreed to hold a bilateral meeting soon in order to pave the way for the reopening of embassies and consulates between the two countries.” According to the Saudi state news agency SPA (Saudi Press Agency), the Iranian foreign minister expressed Iran's readiness to strengthen relations with Saudi Arabia. Earlier this month, the two countries agreed to revive their relations after years of hostility. The deal to revive...

  Following an agreement to reestablish diplomatic ties, investments by Saudi Arabia in Iran might occur "quite soon," according to Mohammed Al Jadaan, the country's finance minister. Despite years of negotiations between the two nations in Iraq and Oman, a pact to heal relations was publicly mediated by China last Friday. “There are numerous chances in Iran for Saudi investments. As long as the conditions of any agreement are upheld, we don't see any obstacles,” Mr. Al Jadaan remarked on Wednesday at the Financial Sector Conference in Riyadh. The government of Saudi Arabia said last week that the country's GDP had risen to more than $1 trillion, setting new records amid a rise in oil prices. International trade restrictions have harmed Iran's economy for decades; they were only momentarily lifted as part of a deal between Tehran and foreign powers to rein down its nuclear programme. Yet, as the nation's oil minister Javad Owji noted earlier thi...

  The recent news of Iran's acknowledgment that it has enriched uranium to 84% has raised significant concerns among the international community. The announcement is a significant increase from their previous levels and a clear violation of international norms, which has prompted many to question the true intentions of Iran's nuclear program. Iran's nuclear program has long been a contentious issue, with many countries accusing Iran of using it to develop nuclear weapons. Iran, however, has maintained that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes, such as generating electricity and medical research. The recent admission of enriching uranium to 84% is a clear indication that Iran is moving closer to developing nuclear weapons. This level of enrichment is well beyond what is required for peaceful purposes and is a significant step toward developing a nuclear bomb. The international community has responded swiftly to this news, with many countries calling on Iran t...

  Female journalists in Iran have been targeted by security forces since anti-government protests began in September, activist groups say. Figures vary, but at least 17 have been arrested, an international group for press freedom says. Another puts the number about three times that or more. Iran has been gripped by some of the biggest protests it has seen since the Islamic Republic was founded in 1979. Nearly 20,000 people are estimated to have been detained since September. More than 520 protesters have been killed by security forces in that time, according to the Iranian Human Rights Activists' News Agency (Hrana). The most recent arrest of a female journalist was that of Elnaz Mohammadi, who works for the "reformist" newspaper Hammihan. She was released on bail on Sunday. Ms Mohammadi is the twin sister of Elaheh Mohammadi, who works for the same newspaper and was arrested on 29 September last year. She was detained for her reporting on the funeral of Mahsa Amini, the...

  The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has said he will need to go to Tehran very soon to restore his inspectorate’s ability to monitor Iran’s nuclear programme. Rafael Grossi also said that Iran should not have carried out recent unilateral changes at the Fordow nuclear plant, which will require increased inspections. The modifications, discovered by the IAEA and reported to the board of governors last month, involved an undeclared change to the interconnection between two machines enriching advanced uranium.  Speaking at Chatham House in London, he said: “There has been a modification that should have been reported. You cannot go back and right this wrong. The thing is that, of course, with this  modification, the facility has new capabilities so we have to inspect more.”  His remarks suggest Grossi was not convinced by the Iranian explanation that the changes at the plant had been due to a human error and had been corrected. But he insisted he wante...

  Since the United Nations-backed ceasefire ended in October of last year, Iran has increased its weaponry smuggling to the Houthi group, according to Muammar Al-Eryani, Yemen's minister of information, culture, and tourism. The minister cited a recent operation in which US and French forces worked together to stop an Iranian shipment of weapons that was travelling through the Gulf of Oman to Yemen. According to prior reports, the ship was en route to the Houthi militia with 3,000 assault rifles, 20 anti-tank missiles, and over 500,000 rounds of ammo. The US said in a statement that the operation was one of four significant interdictions over the previous two months that stopped the entry of more than 5,000 weapons and 1.6 million rounds of ammunition into Yemen. Al-Eryani argued that Iran's role in undermining efforts by the international community to put an end to the war in Yemen and bring about peace has been made clear by the Yemeni security forces' seizure of ...

  The UN's nuclear watchdog has expressed concern over Iran's continuing breaches of a 2015 agreement with world powers, accusing   Tehran   of significantly changing designs at a key nuclear plant. Details of a visit by an  International Atomic Energy Agency  delegation to Iran were revealed in an unreleased report seen by Reuters on Wednesday. Rafael Grossi, the IAEA chief, “is concerned that Iran has implemented a substantial change in the design information” at the  Fordow nuclear plant  without informing the agency in advance, the report said. Two IR-6 uranium enrichment cascades were interconnected in a manner “substantially different” from what Iranian officials had declared to the IAEA, it added. The IAEA has been at an impasse for months with Tehran, which has refused to yield to member state's urges to explain traces of highly-enriched uranium at undeclared sites. In November, it announced it would increase its stockpile of uranium and insta...

   A  young Kurdish Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini died after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly. Protests have rocked the country ever since. Initially centered on demands to abolish the compulsory hijab and disband the   morality police , the popular movement has in recent months broadened its scope to seek minority rights and, in some cases, independent states for Kurdish, Baloch, Azeri, and Arab groups in Iran. Amini’s death gave a common platform to these minorities’ long-festering grievances and led some Iranian opposition groups to call for regime change that could give way to a post-Islamic Republic Iran. In heavily Kurdish regions of Iran, there have been  armed confrontations  between Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Kurdish separatist groups. Tehran has  targeted Kurdish separatist bases  in neighboring Iraq and accused these groups of seeking to secede from Iran. Th...

  Iran imposed sanctions Wednesday on 34 individuals and entities from the European Union and Britain in reaction to similar measures they have taken over Tehran's response to months-long protests. Tehran's move comes two days after the EU and Britain placed another round of sanctions on the Islamic republic, which has been rocked by protests since the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini. Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died in police custody after being arrested for allegedly breaching the country's strict dress code for women. The sanctions imposed by Tehran include the blocking of accounts and transactions in Iran's banks and the "prohibition of visa issuance and entry" to Iran, the foreign ministry said. Iran accuses the people and organizations of "supporting terrorism and terrorist groups, instigating and encouragement to terrorist acts and violence against Iranian people." It also accuses them of "interference in the domestic affairs of ...

Thousands of people took to the streets of Brussels on Sunday to protest against the detention in Iran of Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, who was  sentenced to 40 years in prison  on charges including spying. The Belgian government has said the charges are fake. "His life is in danger, contribute to his freedom," "#Free Olivier Vandecasteele," read banners held by protesters who included Vandecasteele's family, friends and colleagues.    After Vandecasteele was sentenced last month, Belgium's justice minister   said   the Belgian had been imprisoned "for a fabricated series of crimes" and had been sentenced as retribution for a 20-year jail term Belgian courts imposed on an Iranian diplomat in 2021. Belgium's constitutional court will next month hold a hearing on the legality of a Belgian prisoner exchange treaty with Iran. Belgian media has suggested this could lead to a prisoner swap between the two countries involving the Iranian ...