Iran

Centre for Human Rights in Iran | Trans. & Ed. Global Voices Online An estimated 4,000 prisoners currently on death row in Iran for drug-related crimes could have their death sentences revoked, following a judicial order based on the country’s newly amended drug trafficking law. The order, issued by Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani on January […]

Iran

Rouhani: Iran won’t allow unfair pressure on Qatar

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that his country does not accept “unjustified and unfair pressure” exerted on the Qatari people and government. Rouhani made the remarks as he welcomed Qatar’s Parliament Speaker, Ahmed al-Hamoud, in Tehran, the Iranian official news agency reported. “Iran and Qatar have been and […]

Iran

Iran says planned US-backed force inside Syria would fan war

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday a new US-backed, 30,000-strong force inside Syria constituted a breach of international law and Syrian sovereignty, joining Syria, Turkey and Russia in a vehement rebuke of the plan. On Sunday, the US-led coalition said it was working with its Syrian militia allies, […]

Donald Trump

Not falling for Phony Sympathy: Iranians on all sides oppose Trump’s policies

contributors

By Reese Erlich | (48hills.com) | – – During a recent reporting trip to Iran, I interviewed almost two dozen people at random in both rich and poor neighborhoods of Tehran. All the middle and upper-middle class people I spoke with said the government of President Hassan Rouhani had made economic progress, although not as […]

Iran

How Iran’s Bread Riots turned anti-Systemic & what it means for the Future

contributors

Shahram Akbarzadeh | (Informed Comment) | – – Iran started 2018 with protest rallies and anti-riot police in many cities across the country. Public protests against the regime caught many observers by surprise, just as the 2011 Arab Spring had done. But displays of public anger in Iran are not new. Throughout 2017, Iran witnessed […]

Featured

Nearly a year after Trump bombed Syria, al-Assad and Russia extend control

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Syrian war limps along at the margins. It is over where it matters but continues in key demographic pockets. The two most significant are East Ghouta near the al-Assad-held capital of Damascus and the province of Idlib in the northwest of the country. East Ghouta […]

Environment

EVs are Better: Iranian oil tanker in East China Sea could burn for a month

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – The stricken Iranian oil tanker in the East China Sea could burn for as long as one month, South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries told Reuters on Wednesday, as the blaze raged for a fourth day following a collision with a freight ship. Dozens of rescue boats battled […]

Donald Trump

Iran’s Khamenei: Trump Unbalanced, Playing Crazy Games, but Iran policy will Fail

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iran’s clerical leader, Ali Khamenei, gave a speech in Qom on Tuesday, in which he warned Donald Trump that his “crazy games” would not go without a response. Western news outlets such as the NYT tried to represent this speech as a threat, and some outlets […]

Featured

Iran’s Khamenei blames Early English Learning for Unrest, Bans Classes

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iran’s government has apparently discovered the real reason for the protests that swept its small towns and working class neighborhoods during the past couple of weeks. English was being taught to third graders in some schools. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the clerical Leader of the country, has […]