For all of the latest Kurdish news, see these sources:
ANF English: https://anfenglishmobile.com/
Hawar News: https://www.hawarnews.com/en/
Rojava Information Center: https://rojavainformationcenter.com
Women Defend Rojava: http://womendefendrojava.net/en/
Rojhelat: http://rojhelat.info/en/
Rojava Centre for Strategic Studies
Komun Academy:
MA NEWS
http://mezopotamyaajansi22.com/en/NEWS
NEWS
- US sanctions Iranian groups for ‘attempted election interference’
- British-Australian academic held in Iran on spying charges moved to an unknown location
- U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Iran’s Oil Sector
- Iran starts building underground nuclear facility: IAEA
- Four Iranians who died crossing Channel were part of same family
- Iranian Confidence in Government Under 50% for First Time
- Iran shells border areas in Kurdistan Region
- Iran turns to bitcoin to fund imports
- Iranian opposition leader abducted in Turkey
- Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe avoids being returned to jail
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
- A new Iran deal is unlikely regardless of who wins in November
- Iran: Officials Admit to the Dire Economic Situation
- Future of Iranian regime threatened by divisions
- Wary of angering public, Iran has few ways to contain virus
- Under ‘Maximum Pressure’, Iran Turns To China And Russia
- Iran and the US: The Long and Arduous Diplomatic Road
- In Iran, at the Anniversary of November 2019 Uprising, Threats To the Regime Are Ever-Present
- Tehran Fears Its Domestic Resistance Movement
- Tehran rekindles Nagorno-Karabakh peacemaker role
- Recent Executions in Iran Reflect Broader Repression, While Justice Remains Delayed
NEWS
1. US sanctions Iranian groups for ‘attempted election interference’
22 Oct 2020 | Al Jazeera
The United States has sanctioned five Iranian groups that it says attempted to interfere in the upcoming presidential election between President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
2. British-Australian academic held in Iran on spying charges moved to an unknown location
26 Oct 2020 | The Times
A British-Australian academic held for more than two years in Iran on spying charges has been moved from the country’s notorious Qarchak prison to an unknown location.
3. U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Iran’s Oil Sector
26 Oct 2020 | New York Times
The Trump administration imposed sweeping economic sanctions against Iran’s oil sector on Monday as tensions between Washington and Tehran continue to escalate in the days leading up to the American presidential election.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/world/middleeast/trump-sanctions-iran-oil.html
4. Iran starts building underground nuclear facility: IAEA
27 Oct 2020 | Al Jazeera
Inspectors from the United Nations’ atomic watchdog have confirmed Iran has started building an underground centrifuge assembly plant after its previous one exploded in what Tehran called a sabotage attack, according to the agency’s head.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/27/iran-starts-building-underground-nuclear-facility-iaea
5. Four Iranians who died crossing Channel were part of same family
28 Oct 2020 | The Guardian
Four Iranian Kurds who died trying to cross the Channel in high winds were members of one family who paid smugglers thousands of euros after two failed attempts to reach Britain, the Guardian has been told.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/28/four-migrants-died-channel-part-same-iranian-family
6. Iranian Confidence in Government Under 50% for First Time
29 Oct 2020 | Gallup
Amid an economic crisis and a health crisis that has seen the country become the coronavirus’ epicenter in the Middle East, Iranians’ confidence in their national government has fallen below 50% for the first time since Gallup’s tracking began. In a Gallup World Poll conducted in August 2020, 47% of Iranians said they had confidence in their national government, while 50% said they did not.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/323231/iranian-confidence-government-first-time.aspx
7. Iran shells border areas in Kurdistan Region
29 Oct 2020 | Kurdistan24
Iranian artillery shelled a border town in the Kurdistan Region’s Erbil on Thursday, resulting in no civilian causalities, informed sources in the area told Kurdistan 24.
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/27a45194-3560-4afa-8886-e4e2c0e9c791
8. Iran turns to bitcoin to fund imports
30 Oct 2020 | Asia Times
Crippled by sanctions imposed by the US government, Iran has turned to cryptocurrency to fund imports. The Islamic republic has become the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin at a state level for value exchange, Trustnodes reports, citing a story issued by the official IRNA news agency.
https://asiatimes.com/2020/10/iran-to-use-bitcoin-to-fund-imports/
9. Iranian opposition leader abducted in Turkey
31 Oct 2020 | Rudaw
A leader of an Iranian opposition group was abducted in Turkey and handed over to Iran’s government on Friday, claims a spokesperson for the group. Habib Chaab, also known as Habib Asyud, vice-president of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Al Ahwaz, was detained in Turkey and handed over to Iran’s government’s intelligence services on Friday evening, according to a statement released by the movement on the same night.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/31102020
10. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe avoids being returned to jail
02 Nov 2020 | The Guardian
The detained British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has avoided being sent back to jail after after appearing in court to hear fresh charges of undermining the Iranian state.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/nov/02/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-avoids-being-returned-to-jail
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
1. A new Iran deal is unlikely regardless of who wins in November
24 Oct 2020 | Al Jazeera
The IRGC will likely play a more active political role in Iran, which means talks with the US are unlikely to resume.
2. Iran: Officials Admit to the Dire Economic Situation
25 Oct 2020 | Iran Focus
The economic situation of the Iranian people has deteriorated to the point that Iran’s leaders and state organizations have no choice but to acknowledge it. This condition is the cause of many social disorders such as addiction and suicide. https://www.iranfocus.com/en/economy/45390-iran-officials-admit-to-the-dire-economic-situation/
3. Future of Iranian regime threatened by divisions
25 Oct 2020 | Arab News
The divisions within the Iranian theocratic establishment appear to have reached an unprecedented level and are now endangering the sustainability of the political system.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1753911
4. Wary of angering public, Iran has few ways to contain virus
26 Oct 2020 | ABC News
As coronavirus infections reached new heights in Iran this month, overwhelming its hospitals and driving up its death toll, the country’s health minister gave a rare speech criticizing his own government’s refusal to enforce basic health measures.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/wary-angering-public-iran-ways-virus-73828988
5. Under ‘Maximum Pressure’, Iran Turns To China And Russia
29 Oct 2020 | Outlook India
As the Trump presidency slides into the sunset, a review of its approach to Iran reveals an unrelenting pursuit of economic sanctions, impelled by a visceral animosity for the Iranian leadership and its people, indeed, for the Iranian revolution itself.
6. Iran and the US: The Long and Arduous Diplomatic Road
30 Oct 2020 | The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)
Although a potential Biden presidency has been explicit about how it wishes to engage with Iran, its choices are far from straightforward.
https://rusi.org/commentary/iran-and-us-long-and-arduous-diplomatic-road
7. In Iran, at the Anniversary of November 2019 Uprising, Threats To the Regime Are Ever-Present
01 Nov 2020 | National Council of Resistance of Iran
In January 2018, Iran regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivered a speech in which he acknowledged that an organized Resistance movement was largely responsible for a then-ongoing anti-government uprising. Since then, he and other leading regime officials have issued a number of other warnings about the social influence of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI-MEK) – something they had spent decades demonizing campaign and fake news denying the very existence of.
8. Tehran Fears Its Domestic Resistance Movement
01 Nov 2020 | Iran News Update
Iranian state-run outlets are reporting a mixture of internal crises, social and economic, along with the stalemate of the regime in the global and international arena. In recent days, outlets of both factions of the government have reflected the blows received from the Iranian Resistance movements known as the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
https://irannewsupdate.com/news/iranian-opposition/tehran-fears-its-domestic-resistance-movement/
9. Tehran rekindles Nagorno-Karabakh peacemaker role
02 Nov 2020 | Asia Times
In the outpouring of commentaries on the new flareup between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the notion that history is repeating itself and we are witnessing a recurrence of the initial conflict of the early 1990s forms a dominant theme.
https://asiatimes.com/2020/11/tehran-rekindles-nagorno-karabakh-peacemaker-role/
10. Recent Executions in Iran Reflect Broader Repression, While Justice Remains Delayed
02 Nov 2020 | National Council of Resistance of Iran
On Thursday, the Iranian regime’s judiciary carried out four executions in just one prison, thereby reiterating its contempt for universal human rights principles. In another prison one day earlier, the judiciary finally hanged a prisoner who had previously been transferred to solitary confinement on at least two occasions as a form of mock execution.