The eight candidates cleared by Iran’s vetting council to run for president are gathering for a televised debate. According to Iranian media, the debate will focus on the country’s economy, foreign policy, and Iran’s talks with world powers over the country’s disputed nuclear program. LIVE BLOG: RFE/RL’s Golnaz Esfandiari follows the debate (from around […]
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Iranian Activists Welcome U.S. Lifting Of Sanctions On Communications Tools
The lifting of U.S. sanctions on the export to Iran of communication tools has been welcomed by activists and groups who had pushed for such a move and argued that the sanctions end up hurting ordinary Iranians, not the regime. On May 30, the U.S. Treasury and the State Department said they were removing […]
Iranian Presidential Candidates Accuse State TV of Censorship, Unethical Behavior
Iranian presidential candidate and former top nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani has accused the country’s state-controlled broadcaster of unethical behavior and lies. He voiced the criticism on May 27 during his first television interview as a candidate with Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), during which he defended his past performance as nuclear negotiator and […]
Five Years Imprisonment For Mahmoud Beheshti The Former Spokesperson Of Iran Teachers Union
Recently retired former spokesperson of Iran Teachers Union, Mahmoud Beheshti, who is currently out on 150 Million Tomans bail announced: “Yesterday Judge Salavati (head of Tehran Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court) handed down my sentence as follows: Four years imprisonment on charges of assembly and collusion against national security, one year on charges […]
Canada freezes trade with Iran over nuclear program, human rights
Canada will freeze all remaining trade with Iran to protest the Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and its human rights record, Foreign Minister John Baird said on Wednesday. Canada, which has had increasingly poor relations with Iran for more than a decade, had already imposed a series of trade sanctions. In 2012, bilateral trade was worth […]
Prisoner resumes hunger strike over election
Mehdi Khazali, the Iranian political prisoner who had ended his hunger strike following the announcement that Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani has registered as a presidential candidate, has resumed his hunger strike. The Neday-e Sabz Azadi website reports that Khazali is once again refusing food after the Guardian Council disqualified the moderate cleric Ayatollah Rafsanjani from […]
Iranian minister warns against foreign journalists
Mohammad Hosseiny, the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, has called for more serious supervision by security and supervisory bodies over the entry of foreign reporters for coverage of the presidential election. Hosseiny said in addition to the 120 press bureaus already active in Iran many more applications for press permits have been made […]
Former prosecutor accused in deaths calls himself “victim”
Saeed Mortazavi, the chief suspect in the case of detainee deaths at Kahrizak Prison, has once again expressed discontent with the proceedings brought against him and maintained that he is the victim of political machinations. The former Tehran Prosecutor says the court dealing with his case lacks competence to handle the file, adding that […]
Iranian elected president of international rights body
Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Karim Lahiji has been elected president of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), succeeding Souhayr Belhassen, who served as FIDH chief for six years. The report on the FIDH website indicates that Lahiji, who previously served as FIDH vice president and president of the League of Defence […]
Student Activist Forcefully Arrested to Serve Prison Sentence
Security forces stormed the home of Ashkan Zahabian, a former Mashhad University student and member of the Daftar Tahkim Vahdat Student Organization General Council, arrested him, and transferred him to Babol’s Mati Kola Prison on May 27, a source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. According to the source, the security […]