By Jubin Katiraie
Iranian security forces have detained three citizens in Oshnavieh, west of Iran, and transferred them to an unknown location.
The detainees are Issa Rashozdeh from Dasht-e Bill city, and Himan Bayazidi and Rahim Ashadi from Oshnavieh.
By Pooya Stone
On Tuesday, June 25, Iran’s police arrested an Iranian citizen, who immolated himself at the entrance of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.
According to the ICT Ministry, the victim was identified as a private contractor in a branch of the ministry, and he committed self-immolation for not receiving his demands after entering the main door of the ministry’s headquarters.
By Jubin Katiraie
At the beginning of the week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took to social media to criticise the United States. In a message on Twitter, the Iranian Foreign Minister said that it is in the United States’ interests, and those of the rest of the world, to remove its forces from the Persian Gulf. He added: “But it’s now clear that the #B Team is not concerned with US interests—they despise diplomacy, and thirst for war.”
By Pooya Stone
One state-run newspaper in Iran is reporting that 30% of Iranians live in “squalid” rented homes, while 2.5 million homes are left empty.
Vatan-e Emrooz wrote that 26.6 million Iranians live in these awful conditions, but the situation will not improve because there is no competition in the market as the owner of the uninhabited houses either refuse to rent their homes or will only rent them at an outrageous price that almost no one can afford.
London, 27 June – Iran is planning to strike Western targets via terror cells that it is setting up in Africa, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reports. The network of cells has been ordered by the head of the extra territorial Quds Force, a branch of the notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The head, Qassem Suleimani, is responsible for a number of unconventional warfare activities that are carried out outside Iran. He also oversees a number of intelligence activities across the world.
By Jubin Katiraie
The Trump administration is working to persuade allies that the ongoing tensions in the Middle East are a global challenge that requires global diplomacy, according to the new acting US defence chief Mark Esper on Tuesday, and “not [just] Iran versus the United States”.
Esper, who is meeting with NATO defence ministers in Brussels, told reporters that he wants to help create a broader coalition to deter Iran’s malign behaviour and compel Iranian officials to come back to the negotiating table for a new nuclear deal.
By Pooya Stone
A representative for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said on Wednesday that Tehran would speed up its enrichment of uranium on Thursday after a deadline they gave to European countries to protect them from US sanctions is due to expire, according to the IRIB news agency.
By Jubin Katiraie
The Iranian Judiciary has sentence Tehran University student Laila Hassanzadeh to 30 months in prison. During the January 2018 major anti-government protests, security forces arrested Hassanzadeh for participating in protests on the Tehran University campus. She was temporarily released on bail after a few weeks.
By Pooya Stone
The latest monthly report by the European Commission indicates a significant decline in bilateral trade between the EU’s 28 Member States and Iran in the first four months of the current year.
The report comes while on May 8, 2019, Tehran gave a 60-day window to the signatories of the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions (JCPOA), to provision the economic interests of Iran according to the deal. Specifically, Iran had demanded the EU establish the financial and trade instrument with Iran, known as INSTEX.
By Jubin Katiraie
United States Senator Ted Cruz (Republican) proposed a bill on Monday to seize the hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen Iranian bank accounts and use the money to pay for the American military drone that was shot down by Iran on Thursday.
The Texas Senator’s legislation would first require the Donald Trump administration to assess the cost of the drone, which is thought to be between $120 million and $220 million.
