AFP: Rebel fighters will execute dozens of Iranians they kidnapped in August unless Syria’s army withdraws from the embattled Eastern Ghuta area of Damascus province, a rebel commander said on Friday.

Reuters: Lawmakers in the Congress are looking at ways to expand economic sanctions on Iran, measures that have helped push the country’s currency into free fall but have not yet pressured Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.

Reuters: The European Union has begun discussing the possibility of a broad trade embargo against Iran, moving beyond the web of energy, business and financial restrictions imposed so far, in an effort to pressure Tehran not to build nuclear weapons.

Reuters: Iran will defeat an enemy “conspiracy” against its foreign currency and gold markets, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday, following violent protests that forced the closure of Tehran’s grand bazaar.

Bloomberg: An Iranian supertanker is heading to South Korea with a cargo of oil, according to shipping data, as the Islamic republic uses state-owned tankers to make deliveries in response to sanctions over its nuclear program.

AP: The government-appointed body that oversees Voice of America is accusing Iran of jamming radio and television programming into the Middle East and eastern Europe amid protests in Iran over the Iranian currency crisis.

AP: Iran deployed riot police at key Tehran intersections on Thursday, after tensions flared over the nation’s plunging currency in the most widespread display of anger linked to the country’s sanctions-hit economy.

Reuters: The European Union is poised to ban imports of Iranian gas as part of a set of new measures to ratchet up pressure on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear programme, diplomats said on Thursday.

Bloomberg: Iran’s freefalling currency is turning meat into a luxury, sparking overnight price surges and spurring shoppers to stockpile goods.