By Pooya Stone
An Iranian court has sentenced writer and satirist Keyomars Marzban to 11 years in prison after convicting him of charges including cooperation with the US, state media reported.
Marzban had been facing charges of “assembly and collusion against national security, cooperation with a hostile state, spreading propaganda against the system, and insulting sanctities and officials,” IRNA quoted his lawyer as saying.
By Jubin Katiraie
There were at least six protests held across Iran on Saturday by people from various subsections of the Iranian population, including defrauded car buyers, disabled people, and Iranian workers, in the cities of Tehran, Arak, Ahwaz and Rasht.
In the northern city of Rasht, a group of defrauded investors of the Adineh Complex gathered in the city’s prayer centre to demand the return of their stolen savings. They said that, despite the pre-sale of the complex, the construction was still not completed.
By Pooya Stone
An Iranian oil tanker in the middle of a row between the United States and Iran is no longer headed towards Turkey, according to shipping data from Refinitiv Eikon on Monday, having changed its destination to Turkey over the weekend.
Initially, the ship, which is filled with US-sanctioned Iranian oil, was headed to Kalamata port in southern Greece, but Greece said it would not offer any facilities to the vessel in fear of what the US might do.
By Jubin Katiraie
An Iranian student activist and journalist has been sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison and 147 lashes for her role in peaceful protests on International Labour Day.
Marzieh Amiri’s sentence, of which six years is the minimum amount of time she will serve, was handed down in her trial in Tehran on August 13, which was presided over by the notorious judge, Mohammad Moghiseh.
By Pooya Stone
The leader of the Iranian opposition Maryam Rajavi urged the leaders of the G7 the seven biggest economies in the world who met in France over the weekend, to recognise the threat that Iran’s clerical regime poses to global peace and security.
On Sunday, the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance tweeted her call to the G7 leaders in the French city of Biarritz.
By Pooya Stone
The United States warned Iran it is taking Tehran’s threats seriously and will hold it accountable if it compromises the safety of any American citizen.
The comments came in a tweet from US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus on Saturday, after Iran announced sanctions against American Mark Dubowitz and his think tank – the Foundation for Defense of Democracies – for what it called “US economic terrorism”.
By Jubin Katiraie
Iran threatened on Saturday to take action against The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank, which it said was pushing for economic pressure against it.
The official Iranian announcement on FDD included a reference to actions by the country’s “security institutions,” drawing strong condemnation from current and former U.S. government officials. It also specifically targeted organization’s CEO, Mark Dubowitz.
By Pooya Stone
The Israeli military Saturday said it foiled an imminent large-scale attack by Iranian forces and Shiite militia on targets in northern Israel, with a series of airstrikes on Iranian targets near the Syrian capital Damascus.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed responsibility for the airstrikes, saying it was necessary to thwart multiple attacks by what it called killer, or kamikaze, drones, of a kind not previously used by Iranian forces against Israel.
By Jubin Katiraie
Sixteen years after the invasion of Iraq, the United States finally seems to understand Iran’s disturbing objectives in its neighbouring state. While U.S President Donald Trump withdrew from the disastrous 2015 Iran nuclear deal, maybe it is time for the EU to take the same path. After the capturing of the Iranian “Grace-1” oil tanker by Gibraltar for violating EU sanctions on Syria, in a contra move Iran seized a British-flagged oil tanker the “Stena Impero”. The “Grace-1” was released but Iran is still holding the “Stena Impero”.
By Pooya Stone
The US Department of State has published highlights of its Iran policy over the past week in a fact sheet summarizing 19-23 August.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo highlighted Iran’s threats to Middle East peace and security in an address to the United Nations Security Council on 20 August 2019.
