Iran

„If Hillary Clinton had won, there was also widespread expectation that her administration would have increased pressure on Iran due to what many Clinton advisers saw as Iran’s increasingly provocative and aggressive behavior outside the nuclear realm. Some senior Democrats, including incoming Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y), also support new measures on Iran. But the Clinton team was…

„Iran has exceeded a soft limit on sensitive material set under its nuclear deal with major powers, the U.N. atomic watchdog said on Wednesday, hours after Donald Trump – who has strongly criticized the agreement – won the U.S. presidential election. It is the second time Tehran has surpassed the 130 metric tonne threshold for heavy water, a material used…

„Observing the 37th anniversary of the taking of hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave a blistering anti-American speech, Wednesday, with one major exception: the Ayatollah used a relatively positive tone for Donald Trump. (…) Although for many Americans, Khamenei’s words may appear as straightforward recitation of Trump’s words,…

„Elite fighters from Iran are being sent to infiltrate Europe and the United States, a military leader in the Middle East state has reportedly said. Salar Abnoush, a senior figure in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) claims military personnel will be operating ‚very soon‘, thwarting plots against the Islamic Republic. He told state-controlled media: ‚The whole world should know…

[caption id="attachment_13504" align="alignleft" width="300"] Präsident Rohani und der Kommandant der Auslandseinheit der iranischen Revolutionsgarden Qassem Soleimani[/caption] „Mit der Offensive von Haschid Schaabi, einer Dachorganisation von rund 40 kleineren schiitischen Milizen, rückt so auch wieder ein Spieler im Nahen Osten in den Blick, der zwar von westlichen Experten, Fachpolitikern und Geheimdiensten immer aufmerksam beobachtet wurde, in der öffentlichen Debatte aber eher…

„Ace shooter Heena Sidhu has pulled out of the Asian Airgun Shooting Championship to be held in Tehran in December this year. Heena, the reigning title holder, has withdrawn her name because of Iran’s insistence on female contestants adhering to the dress code which makes wearing of ‘hijab’ mandatory for women participants. ‚Forcing tourists or foreign guests to wear »hijab«…

„Since European diplomatic outreach toward Iran began under German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel in 1992, European authorities have promised that they would tie human rights advocacy to trade. Simply put, Kinkel and his colleagues and successors argued, diplomatic ties would work better than coercion to bring Iran back into the circle of normal, responsible states. (…) Austrian Deputy Parliamentary Speaker…

„Fast 1000 mal wurde im letzten Jahr im Iran die Todesstrafe vollstreckt, häufig durch Erhängen in der Öffentlichkeit. Hingerichtet wird aber auch in Kinderbüchern. Menschenrechtsaktivisten sind alarmiert. Der Hund war ein Verräter, ein Komplize des Wolfes. Deswegen musste er hingerichtet werden: durch den Strang. Genauso erging es in einer anderen Geschichte der Katze; sie war ein besiegter Feind. Es sind…

„You probably haven’t heard of Karlheinz Kopf. He’s one of three Austrian politicians currently sharing that country’s presidency following the departure of the previous incumbent in July. Kopf just returned to Vienna from Iran, where he distinguished himself by calling on the United States to ditch those sanctions against the Tehran regime that have remained in place since the Iran…

„Every year for the past 34 years, Iran’s Education Evaluation Organization has refused young members of Iran’s Baha’i minority admittance to Iran’s institutions of higher education. For at least the past 20 years, the organization’s excuse has been that applicants have filed an „incomplete dossier.“ This year, it is clear that at least 129 of those rejected after successfully passing…

„A month after President Barack Obama’s historic 2013 phone call to Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, his former secretary of state privately warned that the so-called moderate only won the election because Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Revolutionary Guard Corps allowed it. According to a speech transcript made public this weekend by WikiLeaks, Hillary Clinton on October 28, 2013, told…

„Seit vier Jahren kämpft Amnesty für Sekaanwand. Damals war sie als Mörderin ihres Ehemannes verurteilt worden, mit dem sie im Alter von 15 Jahren verheiratet worden war. Im Iran gelten Mädchen und Buben ab der Pubertät als volljährig, die von Gerichten bei Mädchen pauschal ab neun Jahren als gegeben angenommen wird. Es geht aber nicht allein um ein Todesurteil gegen…

„The Syrian government, Russia, and Iran (SRI) are trying the change the demographic makeup of Syria.  They aim to depopulate Syria of the Arab Sunnis, which, before the Arab Spring was the largest religio-ethnic group in Syria. They mostly inhabited a very fertile strip of land between Aleppo in the north, down to Damascus, and then southward to the Jordanian…

„Kurdistan Region – Iran may have used ‚chemical weapons‘ against 12 Kurdish guerrilla fighters killed on October 4 in clashes between Iranian security forces and the East Kurdistan Defence Forces (YRK) in western Iran, the group claimed on Tuesday adding that they will seek revenge for the deaths. ‚The enemy with the intensive use of its air and ground forces…

„Iranian paramilitary forces arrested dozens of Kurdish activists on Friday amid continuing anti-government protests. The demonstrations broke out last Tuesday in Iran’s restive Kurdish region. Hundreds of angry Kurds took to the streets in the cities of Mariwan and Mahabad to condemn ‚suppression by the Iranian authorities.‘ The protests have now spread to other cities, including Sanandaj, the capital of…