Iran and the U.N. nuclear agency said on Friday a deal on uranium enrichment was still possible, but Iran said it wanted changes to the draft accord meant to allay Western fears over its nuclear program. World Western diplomats have said Iran has effectively turned down the proposal and the United States and major European [...]

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday voiced serious concerns about Iran’s links with terrorist organizations and said Tehran was partly to blame for instability in the region. Blair, now a Middle East peace envoy, made the remarks to a public inquiry into the Iraq war in London. He expressed concern over ties between [...]

Russia on Friday cautioned Iran against stepping up its uranium enrichment, in the latest sign of Moscow’s impatience with Tehran over its nuclear program. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Andrei Nesterenko, said that Moscow recognizes Tehran’s right to a peaceful nuclear program, but the world has “grave concerns” about Iran’s intentions, which Tehran should address. “The [...]

by Amil Imani Rape in prison is a cruel invasion of the helpless victim. In addition to its physical torment and transmission of sexual diseases, rape reduces the victim to a subhuman status—an object for the use of others to be discarded when no longer desired. Most civilized countries sternly guard against rapes and sexual [...]

by GOLAB P. in Tehran The annual Fajr Film Festival is the biggest cinematic event of the year. It was established two years after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The festival is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the Farabi Film Foundation, and usually held during the 10 days of Fajr in [...]

Nineteen-year-old Arash Rahmanipour was executed in Iran on January 28 after being convicted of waging war against God and attempting to overthrow the Iranian regime. The charges against Rahmanipour related to his alleged role in Iran’s postelection unrest. His father, Davoud Rahmanipour, told Radio Farda broadcaster Baktash Khamsehpour about what he called an unjust sentence [...]

Five human rights advocacy groups in five Western countries on Thursday launched a campaign to exert pressure on Iran to end what they described as a routine pattern of “arbitrary” and “inhumane” executions. The five participating groups in the “346 No Executions” campaign, including the Iranian Homosexual Human Rights Council, are based in the United [...]

The White House on Thursday strongly condemned the execution of two men in Iran arrested in connection with the country’s post-election unrest, saying it marked a new low in Tehran’s “ruthless crackdown” on peaceful dissent. Mohammadreza Ali-Zamani and Arash Rahmani-Pour were hanged this morning, in what is said to be the first executions related to [...]

Reporters Without Borders said on Thursday that two bloggers and human rights activists in Iran have been accused of “moharebeh” [waging war against God] – a charge which is punishable by death. Mehrdad Rahimi, who edits the Shahidayeshahr blog, and Kouhyar Goudarzi, who keeps his own blog, are both members of the “Committee of Human [...]