The head of Iran’s Parliament is reportedly inviting “moderate and prominent reformists” to take part in the parliamentary election next March, Iranian media report. The Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) cited an “informed source” saying Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani has had a secret meeting with a reformist member of the current Parliament to discussed issues [...]

Iran and Iraq will discuss with the Red Cross the future of an outlawed armed Iranian opposition group living in Iraq, visiting Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Tuesday. “We have proposed the formation of a joint committee between Iran, Iraq and the (International Committee of the) Red Cross to resolve the issue of [...]

The Iranian Parliament voted to reject Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s choice for sports minister today, the latest chapter in the dispute between the legislative body and the presidency. Parliament voted 137 to 87 against Hamid Sajjadi, with 23 abstentions. Some MPs cited Sajjadi’s lack of a concrete agenda for the ministry and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial letter of [...]

Upon completion of his one year prison sentence and on the third day of a hunger strike launched with 11 other political prisoners protesting the killings of Haleh Sahabi and Hoda Saber,  Emadeddin Baghi, prominent journalist, human rights activist and founder of the Association for the Defense of Prisoners, transferred to Evin prison on December [...]

Eleven companies, including Iran’s state-sponsored shipping line, were indicted in New York City today for allegedly conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions on trade with Iran by duping major U.S. banks in order to funnel more than $60 million through the Manhattan banks. “The defendants falsified the records of banks,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, [...]

University classes will be separated based on gender starting in September, the Iranian Parliament’s Education and Research commission announced. Khabar-on-line reports that commission member Ali Karimi Firouzjayi said: “The science minister has announced that during the summer, when universities are closed, there will be a plan to determine how much gender separation the universities can [...]

The Islamic Association of Iranian Physicians has called on 12 political prisoners to end their hunger strike. Kaleme opposition website quotes an association statement, saying: “Your determination to go on hunger strike in protest is commendable, in view of what happened to your peer and martyred inmate, Hoda Saber; however, we cannot keep silent regarding [...]

Iranian jounalist Farid Salavati, who was arrested last week after reporting on a gang rape in Khomeini Shahr, was released today. Iran Green Voice website reports that Salavati was arrested on June 12 and was being interrogated over the past week. Two weeks ago in Khomeini Shahr, near the central Iranian city of Esfahan, a [...]

Nearly 70 journalists were forced into exile over the past 12 months, with more than half coming from Iran and Cuba, according to a new survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Iran, which has waged a two-year-long crackdown on the independent press, and Cuba, which freed journalists from prison only to force them to leave their [...]

June 19: The Iranian-Kurdish asylum seeker Rahim Rostami, who was deported from Norway in February2011 and imprisoned upon arrival to Iran, has been released on bail. According to sources Iran Human Rights (IHR) has been in contact with, Rahim Rostami has been charged with “Contact with alien countries and propaganda against the nation’s security”. The sources have [...]