March 22 – The Islamic Republic in Iran faced a backlash this week following the announcement of the state as the new chair for the United Nations Conference on Disarmament.
The position rotates among member states while the conference itself runs from January to September.
The confirmation of the Islamic Republic’s new role was condemned by human rights activists and US lawmakers, following the regime’s failure to comply with the UN atomic watchdog’s rules, and damning UN reports about the state’s human rights record.
Prominent Iranian Rapper Toomaj Salehi went on trial for charges which included “encouraging acts of violence” online and “spreading lies,” according to his lawyer Amir Raisian.
Salehi, who is currently in prison, gave his testimony through a live video feed. He denied all the charges during the hearing.
Salehi was first arrested in October 2022 after making public statements supporting nationwide anti-government protests and has written several songs criticizing the government.
And the UK Foreign Office updated its travel advice to British citizens thinking about going to Iran following what it called an increased threat from terrorism in the country, in a post on X.
Current travel advice on the government website advises against all travel to Iran, with British and British-Iranian dual nationals at “significant risk of arbitrary arrest, questioning or detention.”
The site also warns that holding a British passport could be enough for the Iranian authorities to detain individuals for questioning and could lead to months or years in prison.
