Iran Focus
Tehran, 17 May – Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif poured praise on a Hezbollah commander who was killed in Damascus last week. Mustafa Badreddine, 55, died in a “huge explosion” near the Syrian capital. Speaking to state-run news agency IRNA Zarif said Badreddine was “was full of spirit and heroism in defending the righteous values of Islam and the combatant people of Lebanon”.
Iran Focus
Vienna, 17 May – Senior politicians from around the world met in Vienna on Tuesday, to discuss an end to Syria’s civil war.
The International Syria Support Group (ISSG) meeting, chaired by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, focused on how to end the bloodshed and provide immediate access for humanitarian aid into besieged communities.
Iran Focus
London, 17 May – Protests continue across Iran over the derisory treatment workers and students are facing from the Iranian government. From street painters to doctors, the whole spectrum of occupations are voicing their unhappiness.
Iran Focus
London, 16 May – An Iranian political prisoner is being refused hospital treatment by the authorities after suffering a suspected heart attack on Sunday.
Afshin Baymani, who is in his mid-forties, suffers from a serious heart condition that has been known about for many years. He is currently being held in Ward 4 of Hall 12 of the notorious Rajai-Shahr Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran.
By Hamid Yazdan Panah
A recent article in theNew York Times Magazine provided a candid look at the politics and rhetoric surrounding the Iran deal. The article featured an interview with Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for the Obama administration, and detailed how the Iran deal was sold to the American public. The remarks by Rhodes were not only surprisingly honest, but confirmed the charge made by many that the administration had misled the public with regard to the deal with Iran.
Iran Focus
London, 14 May – Mashhad was the scene of a large protest on Thursday as over 1000 people gathered to demand their money back in relation to an investment scam, the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has reported. The protesters were investors in large stock companies such as Padideh Shandiz, a company supposedly specialising in international tourism development with close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Iran Focus
London, 14 May – A high-ranking member of the Syrian opposition has said those fighting in Aleppo’s brutal ground war are mostly soldiers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and affiliated militias such as Hezbollah.
Iran Focus
London, 14 May – British MP David Jones has penned an opinion piece at politicshome.com calling the bombing of civilians in Aleppo ‘tantamount to a war crime’. Jones, the Conservative MP for Clwyd West in Wales, welcomed the extension of the ceasefire to include Aleppo and said international efforts should now focus on how to ensure the fragile pause holds.
Iran Focus
Tehran, 13 May – Retired teacher and political prisoner Mohammad-Amin Agoushi has been on a hunger strike since 24 April in Tabriz Central Prison, north-west Iran, in protest against systematic mistreatment, according to local reports.
