Oct. 15 – The US, the EU and Israel warned this week that they would take a tougher stance on Iran in the coming weeks if its government continued to stall talks aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.
Tehran has paused negotiations for the deal — which offers Iran relief from economic sanctions in return for compliance with restrictions on its nuclear program —and has yet to signal a specific time period to restart the discussions.
The US said it would now look at other options to address challenges posed by Iran, while Israel said it reserved the right to act “in any given way” if Iran produced a nuclear bomb.
Iran-backed political parties with links to proxy militia groups faced a crushing defeat in Iraq’s elections. The armed groups who are loyal to Iran’s regime — and who have been accused of killing at least 600 people during Iran’s 2019 protests — rejected the voting results calling them fabricated.
The largest number of seats in Iraq’s parliament went to Shi’ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s party, according to the latest results. Sadr opposes all foreign interference in Iraq, including Iran’s, and has openly criticised Tehran for its attempts to embed itself in Iraqi politics.
And journalists imprisoned in Iran have been subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, according to a report published by Reporters sans frontières (RSF).
An audio message from detained journalist Kayvan Behbahani received by Reporters Without Borders, described how he and several other journalists had been denied phone rights and family visitation rights as a punishment for defending press freedom and for criticizing the government’s handling of the Covid crisis.
Reporters Without Borders also said that imprisoned journalist Khosro Borjeni had been denied medical treatment despite collapsing several times. Iran sits near the bottom of the World Press Freedom Index, ranking 174th out of 180 countries for its stance on press freedom and how it treats its journalists.
