In another sign that Iran may not keep all of the commitments it made as part of its nuclear deal with global powers, a group of Iranian lawmakers sent a letter to President Hassan Rouhani demanding that he not comply with the deal until all sanctions against Iran are lifted, Iran’s semi-official news agency...

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An Iranian actress who posted pictures of herself with her hair uncovered on Facebook and Instagram has fled to Dubai after being declared “immoral” by authorities in Iran, Yahoo! News reported Friday. Sadaf Taherian put the pictures of herself on her Facebook and Instagram pages in protest against strict laws...

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In a move to expand its air campaign, Russia carried out airstrikes in Syria’s southern province of Daraa Wednesday night, reportedly striking villages only 15 kilometers from the Israeli Golan Heights, according to reports. It’s the closest that Russian aircraft have been to the Israeli border. According to The Jerusalem...

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Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman who has long advocated for closer ties between Washington and Tehran, was arrested two weeks ago by the intelligence arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), The Wall Street Journal reported (Google link) Thursday. About two weeks ago, Siamak Namazi, the head of strategic...

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Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said that the Islamic Republic intends to send a “fleet of warships” to the Atlantic Ocean, The Times of Israel reported Thursday, citing Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency. “Our warships will soon berth at ports in the Atlantic Ocean,” Navy Commander Rear Admiral...

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Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations investigator of human rights in Iran, called the high rate of executions he monitors an “unprecedented assault on the right to life in Iran,” The New York Times reported Wednesday. His most striking criticism dwelled on what rights advocates have called Iran’s increasing rate of...

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Former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani admitted that the Islamic Republic had initially launched its nuclear program in order to have the option of developing nuclear weapons, according to a translation of an interview published Wednesday by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). As I have said, when we...

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The latest report issued by Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, highlights a variety of harsh punishments meted out by the Iranian regime, including executions, floggings, amputations, and even blinding, Benjamin Weinthal, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of...

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In an interview with the Iranian newspaper Etemad, former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani admitted that Tehran sought and received assistance in starting its illicit nuclear enrichment program from the notorious Pakistani nuclear bomb dealer A. Q. Khan, according to a translation published by the Foundation for Defense of...

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The Iranian government has jailed two prominent poets and sentenced them to 99 lashes each “for shaking hands with members of the opposite sex,” the Associated Press reported Tuesday. The sentences follow a pattern of arrests and convictions targeting activists, journalists and artists that has served as a grim backdrop to...

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