By Pooya Stone
The Iranian authorities have hanged seven prisoners in two prisons in the past week.
On Saturday, August 10, two prisoners were hanged in the central prison of Mashhad, according to a report on Sunday by the state-run Khorasan daily. The paper did not provide the victims’ names, but said that a full report would be published in the coming days.
By Jubin Katiraie
Four Iranian political prisoners remain on hunger strike in Urmia prison in northwest Iran protesting their vile treatment at the hands of the Iranian authorities.
Mostafa Sabzi, Ghader Salimi, Bashir Pirmavaneh and Rahmi Tourgout are all now suffering from deteriorating health, particularly severely low blood pressure and significant weight loss.
By Jubin Katiraie
In a message on Twitter, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on the international community to increase pressure on Iran. He warned that the UN arms embargo on Iran is soon to expire.
The message read: “The clock is ticking. Time remaining before the UN arms embargo on Iran expires and Qasem Soleimani’s travel ban ends. We urge our allies and partners to increase the pressure on the Iranian regime until it stops its destabilizing behavior.”
By Pooya Stone
German exports to Iran have fallen by nearly 50% in the first half of 2019, according to data released Monday.
This suggests that German businesses have been cutting ties to Iran in order to avoid any potential trouble with the United States after Washington reimposed sanctions on the Gulf country last year.
By Pooya Stone
Britain has sent warship HMS Kent to the Gulf to join a United States-led maritime security mission to protect commercial shipping vessels in the region as tensions between the West and Iran continue to rise.
This comes after Iran seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz last month, accusing it of violating maritime law. Iran likely made this move in retaliation to the July 4 seizure of an Iranian vessel off the coast of Gibraltar by British marines, who suspected it of smuggling oil to Syria.
By Jubin Katiraie
The United States has reiterated that the Iranian government is “the world’s leading state sponsor of terror” and called on the international community to come together to ensure that agreements restricting the “regime’s” malign behaviour are not allowed to expire.
By Pooya Stone
At least two people have been killed and four others injured after armed guards at an Iranian army air force base in Mazendran province in northern Iran opened fire on local people who were protesting the attempted confiscation of their lands.
The Fars news agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), reported that the clash began over land ownership in the Mahmoud Abad region, before describing the protesters as “hired” and “hoodlums”.
By Jubin Katiraie
An Iranian opposition group has revealed a network of terrorist training camps in Iran that are being run by the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force.
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), fears that the IRGC Quds Force are training proxies to launch operations in Europe and the US as tensions between Iran and the West flare-up over the nuclear deal and the tanker war in the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian proxies attacked five tankers and a cargo ship.
By Pooya Stone
Seven Iranians charged with robbery have been sentenced to vicious corporal punishments, like hand amputation, finger amputation, and flogging.
The 8th Branch of the Tehran Criminal Court sentenced Ali, the head of the gang, to hand amputation, and Shahin, his accomplice, to the amputation of four fingers on his right hand, according to the state-run Khorasan daily.
By Jubin Katiraie
US sanctions on Iran have caused major Iranian oil buyer India to switch to exports from Venezuela and America, despite a long-term trade relationship with Iran.
Iran has previously accounted for roughly 17% of India’s total crude imports, worth $11.1 billion between 2017-2018, because of India’s rising energy consumption and falling domestic oil output. But this fluctuated greatly depending on US-Iran relations.
