Iran

Human Rights Watch (Beirut) – Iran’s judicial authorities are violating fair trial standards in the case of eight environmentalists who have been detained for over a year, Human Rights Watch said today. Authorities should immediately open an impartial and transparent investigation into the torture allegations the accused have raised during the trial. On January 30, […]

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Iran: ‘If US attacks us, Tel Aviv is Toast;’ Israel: ‘You do that and Iran is Toast’

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Aftab reports that the head of the political bureau of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, and a liaison to clerical Leader Ali Khamenei, Brig.-Gen. Yadollah Javani, gave a speech Monday in which he said that Iran has nothing to fear from the United States. He also said that that last […]

Iran

How Iran’s Islamic Revolution is still Shaping the Middle East

AFP

By Kay Armin Serjoie and Marc Jourdier | – Tehran (AFP) – The victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran was an earthquake that upended the political order in the Middle East, and the aftershocks are still being felt 40 years later. When Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ousted the shah’s last government in February […]

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Iran’s Khamenei: ‘Death to America’ means US Rulers, not American Public

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The clerical Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, said Friday on the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, that Iran has good relations with all the countries of the world. He observed that he does not urge breaking relations with any European country. “The slogan ‘Death to America,’” he said, […]

Iran

Iran Politics a “Powderkeg” of Corruption and Repression as Revolution Turns 40

AFP

By Kay Armin Serjoie and Eric Randolph Tehran (AFP) – Iran’s main political parties are on rocky ground as the Islamic Republic marks its 40th birthday, with reformists in disarray and conservatives seeking a new identity. Even though key reformist leaders have been forcibly sidelined, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former reformist vice-president in the 1990s, […]

Donald Trump

Trump to Keep Troops in Iraq as Spies on Iran, but determined to withdraw From Syria, Afghanistan

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump spoke on foreign policy Sunday on “Face The Nation,” further explaining his thinking on US troops in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. He seems to have made it clear that the US troop presence in Iraq is not, as advertised, to help Baghdad mop up ISIL remnants but rather to […]

Feminism

Paradoxes of Women and Iran’s Islamic Republic: More Education but a hundred Glass Ceilings

AFP

By Amir Havasi and Eric Randolph | – Tehran (AFP) – Saba was just 25 when she left her design job in New York to work on a project renovating an art gallery back in her hometown Tehran. Within months, she won three more contracts to do up galleries and the lobby of an apartment […]

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Turkey, NATO ally, Rejects US “Coup Attempt” in Venezuela

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It is no surprise that Iran should be supporting the Venezuelan government of Maduro, given that both typically take anti-imperialist stands. What is astonishing is that NATO member Turkey has piled on the criticism, along with the Turkish press. It is s sign of US-Turkish relations being at their nadir. […]

Iran

Facebook takes Down Vast Iran-Led Manipulation Campaign

Glenn Chapman

San Francisco (AFP) – Facebook said Thursday it took down hundreds of accounts from Iran that were part of a vast manipulation campaign operating in more than 20 countries. The world’s biggest social network said it removed 783 pages, groups and accounts “for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior tied to Iran.” The pages were part […]