By Jubin Katiraie

The CEO of the Iran Khodro automaker was arrested in his office on Monday, hours are being fired.

It has not yet been announced why the Iranian authorities took these actions against Hashem Yekke Zare’e, who has led the company for the past seven years while also serving as the chair of Parsyan Bank's board of directors, but it can be no coincidence that this move comes just days after accusations of large-scale corruption in Iran’s car industry.

By Pooya Stone

With the prime suspect in a major alleged corruption case linked the Central Bank of Iran mysteriously missing, people are wondering if the country's Intelligence Ministry is involved.

For the past two days, Iranian media outlets have been reporting that Salar Aqakhani (Aghakhani), the prime suspect in a case involving $160 million and €20 million, and three of his associates have left Iran. The Sharq newspaper wrote on Wednesday that Aqakhani left Iran for Iraq in late March after selling his assets.

By Jubin Katiraie

In the 1980s, the Iranian authorities arrested the parents of human rights activist Ehsan Qaraee and, following a fatwa by then-supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini, murdered his father.

Qaraee is now raising awareness of the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, which Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have branded “crimes against humanity”, in order to get justice.

By Pooya Stone

Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, has said that there are increased restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, liberty, and a fair trial in Iran, in a report entitled Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was circulated to the UN General Assembly on August 16.

By Jubin Katiraie

For decades, Iranian women have been banned from entering sports stadiums because of the mullahs’ sexist laws, which have turned them into a key and visible battleground for the women of Iran against the misogynist mullahs.

Now, the World Football Federation (FIFA) has given the Iranian Federation until August 31 to determine whether women are to be allowed into sports stadiums. Dariush Mostafavi, head of the Football Federation’s Professional Licensing Appeals Committee, said that FIFA is “serious” that women should be able to enter sports stadiums in league games. This violation of FIFA’s non-discrimination principle could mean that the Iranian Federation is suspended and expelled from FIFA.

By Pooya Stone

A supposedly “reformist” political analyst said in Iran said that the ‘regime’ is at complete political dead end because the Iranian people “no longer cared about reformists and principlists”.

Sadegh Zibakalam, who was speaking on Tuesday at an event covered by the state-run IRNA News Agency, cited a chant denouncing both regime factions that became widespread at the start of the nationwide anti-government protests in December 2017 and told the crowd he was not at all happy about this outcome.

By Jubin Katiraie

The United Arab Emirates said that the Tuesday visit by the Yemeni Houthis to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is yet more proof of the terror cell’s allegiance to the mullahs.

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, tweeted: “Houthi relations with Iran, for long in search for proper designation, is clearer following their leadership’s meeting with Ayatollah Khamenei. Stated in black and white in their statement of fealty the Houthis are a proxy and that is the correct terminology.”

By Pooya Stone

Fourteen workers from the Haft Tapeh Sugarcane Industrial complex in Khuzestan province, Iran, stood trial on Wednesday for attending a one-hour protest on May 9, where they demanded their most basic rights, according to the independent labour union of the complex.

By Jubin Katiraie

On Tuesday, August 13, a young Iranian Ahvazi youth named Saeed Ebadi, from the Malachi area south of Ahvaz, hanged himself from a tree because of poverty and unemployment and dropping out of school.

According to other news, two young sisters in Tehran committed suicide three days later due to poverty and unemployment and severe economic pressure that forced even their 75-year-old father to work.

By Pooya Stone

In the first three months of the current Iranian year, the price of potatoes and onions has increased by more than 500 percent compared to the same period last year.

Statistics on the average price of crops and the cost of agricultural services during this spring shows that prices of onions, potatoes and tomatoes had the highest increase compared to the previous year, according to the state-run ISNA news agency, which quoted a report by the Iran’s statistic center. It said the average price of potatoes are about 36120 rials and onions 37130 rials, and tomatoes 22240 rials, which increased by 527.9, 539.2, and 221.6 percent respectively, compared to the same season last year.

By Jubin Katiraie

Amnesty International is urging people all over the world to protest the torture of a critically ill cancer patient and political prisoner being held in Iran’s Raja’i Shahr prison.

Arash Sadeghi, a human right defender, is being tortured by the Iranian authorities because they are purposefully denying him access to cancer treatment and causing severe pain and suffering. His right arm has become swollen, paralysed, and lost all sensation because of a serious post-operation infection that the authorities left untreated. He is also being denied critical bone marrow tests to see if his cancer has spread. In short, his life is being put at risk.

By Pooya Stone

Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile reached 370 kilograms on Tuesday, according to a statement by Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

Speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony to mark the construction of a research centre on separation and development of the applications of stable isotopes at Fordow nuclear facility in Qom, Kamalvandi said: "We are producing [enriched uranium] with a good capacity and our stockpile is 60 to 70 kilograms above the 300 kg [JCPOA limit] and this amount is growing fast."

By Jubin Katiraie

Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with the representative of the Iranian-backed Yemen-based Houthi militia, Mohammed Abdul Salam, on Tuesday in Tehran, according to Khamenei’s official website.

During the meeting, he pledged that Iran would continue to support the Houthis, who ousted the internationally recognised government in 2014 and brought about a civil war that has killed tens of thousands and brought Yemen to the brink of famine.

By Pooya Stone

The Iranian authorities have hanged seven prisoners in two prisons in the past week.

On Saturday, August 10, two prisoners were hanged in the central prison of Mashhad, according to a report on Sunday by the state-run Khorasan daily. The paper did not provide the victims’ names, but said that a full report would be published in the coming days.

By Jubin Katiraie

Four Iranian political prisoners remain on hunger strike in Urmia prison in northwest Iran protesting their vile treatment at the hands of the Iranian authorities.

Mostafa Sabzi, Ghader Salimi, Bashir Pirmavaneh and Rahmi Tourgout are all now suffering from deteriorating health, particularly severely low blood pressure and significant weight loss.

By Jubin Katiraie

In a message on Twitter, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on the international community to increase pressure on Iran. He warned that the UN arms embargo on Iran is soon to expire.

The message read: “The clock is ticking. Time remaining before the UN arms embargo on Iran expires and Qasem Soleimani’s travel ban ends. We urge our allies and partners to increase the pressure on the Iranian regime until it stops its destabilizing behavior.”