Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 4 – A series of changes expected at the top echelons of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards command will have far-reaching consequences for the country’s military strategy and posture, according to an informed official in the Iranian capital. Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, the Commandant General of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), has presented his plans to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the reshuffle in the IRGC high command, and most of the changes are expected to be announced this month, the official, who requested anonymity, said.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 04 – A number of journalists and human rights defenders have been arrested in towns and cities in western Iran, according to human rights activists in the Iranian capital. Mahmoud Salehi, the spokesman for the Organisational Committee to Establish Trade Unions, was arrested in the early hours of Thursday.

Iran Focus: Paris, Aug. 4 – The Iranian opposition group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), denied that it had any role in the assassination of a hard-line judge in Tehran.
“The People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran categorically
denies this false allegation”, a spokesman for the MeK told
the Persian-language satellite television channel, Simaye
Azadi.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 04 – Iran’s semi-official daily Jomhouri Islami on Thursday acknowledged yesterday’s violent clashes in the Kurdish town of Saqqez, northwest Iran, where at least 11 people were reportedly killed after police opened fire on protestors from both the ground and military helicopters in the air.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 04 – A prominent women’s rights activist in Iranian Kurdistan was arrested during a gathering organised in protest against the murder of a young Kurd by Iran’s State Security Forces, a Persian-language website reported.