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More protests erupted in major Israeli cities Saturday, reigniting calls for the government to reach a hostage deal with Hamas. The protests were led by nonprofits such as the Hostages and Missing Families Forum as they recognized over 300 days since the hostages were taken on October 7th, 2023. The protesters marched outside the homes [...]

The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), an independent and non-profit organization dedicated to education, awareness and documentation of human rights violations in Kurdistan/Iran, released their July report that reflects some cases of human rights violations in Kurdistan and violations of the rights of Kurdish civilians in different regions and cities in Iran. According to the [...]

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei defended a 2020 law which prevented a return to the JCPOA nuclear agreement in a meeting with Iranian members of parliament on Sunday. Sunday’s parliamentary session was also attended by President-elect Masoud Pezeskhian, who is seen as a reformist. Although Pezeskhian had announced that he would work more closely with [...]

Iranian authorities arrested outspoken lawyer Mohsen Borhani for publicly criticizing how the government handled the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, Iranian media reported Sunday. Mahsa Amini was a 22-year-old whose arrest in 2022 by Iranian police for allegedly failing to wear her required hijab correctly and subsequent death in custody prompted massive [...]

The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei ordered the country’s judiciary not to refer to Western human rights principles in their decisions, in a Saturday speech during a meeting with the country’s Judiciary Chief and other senior judiciary officials. The Supreme Leader said that the principles are incorrect and described Western countries as hypocritical. The [...]

Iran’s Supreme Court overturned the death sentence imposed on dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi, his lawyer announced Saturday. The news was confirmed by Salehi’s lawyer, Amir Raisian, on X. Raisian said that, through this decision, the Iranian Supreme Court avoided an “irreparable judicial error”. Salehi had been detained since October 2022 for speaking out and participating [...]

In the aftermath of the recent rescue of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, an analysis of such extraction operations is warranted. To put this event in context, three things must be understood. First, hostage taking is a war crime. Second, hostage rescue is extremely logistically difficult. Third, the American public [...]

Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) published a report on Monday stating that some parliamentarians collaborated with foreign governments to engage in “foreign interference activities.” Evidence the NSICOP gathered suggests that these unnamed parliamentarians engaged in interference activities as “semi-witting or witting participants.” The report suggested that the parliamentarians engaged in foreign [...]

After a 15-hour search, the wreckage of a helicopter carrying Iran’s president and foreign minister was located by a Turkish drone, leaving a nation to grapple with an unexpected transition of power. Ebrahim Raisi was the eighth president of Iran to have been killed in the last year of his first term. When he ascended [...]

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday named a caretaker president and outlined constitutionally mandated succession plans following Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash. The helicopter carrying Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian  crashed in foggy conditions in northeastern Iran on Sunday, according to official state media. Search and rescue teams found [...]