A U.S.-Iran four-point plan brokered by French President Emmanuel Macron stalled this week after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani indicated that he would only move forward with the plan if U.S. President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Iran.
According to a report by Politico Europe, which broke the news about the plan’s existence, the U.S. and Iranian presidents had agreed on the deal, which was seen as a precursor to establishing negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. Rouhani confirmed Politico’s report of a plan during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Protesters in the Kordmir Village of Chardangeh, Iran, were attacked by Iranian security forces for protesting against a 14-year-old landfill in the village. Iran Human Rights Monitor (IHRM) said that the protests had been going on for 17 days when Iran’s State Security Force’s Special Unit decided to intervene. Officials fired plastic bullets on the protesting women in the village. Eyewitnesses told IHRM that many women were injured by officials during the protests and some passed out after being beaten. Once the protest was stopped, new rubbish was dumped into the Chahardangeh landfill.
An Iranian court sentenced the brother of President Hassan Rouhani to five years in prison on corruption charges. Hossein Fereydoun was charged in May. Supporters of the President say that the arrest and charge were politically motivated. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said Fereydoun could face further charges in another case, but did not offer any more details.
Gholamhossein Esmaili also confirmed that Iranian courts had sentenced one man to death for spying for the U.S. and jailed two others for 10 years for the same offence. A fourth person was given a prison term of six years for spying for Britain.
- Iran is looking to Syria for commercial opportunities. A contract to build a 540 megawatts gas-fired power station in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia was announced.
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- A new prisoners alliance co-founded by Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of detained dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, raised concerns at this year’s United Nations General Assembly around the Iranian government’s practice of using prisoners as diplomatic leverage.
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- Kayhan London interviewed Dr. Nader Zahedi, the deputy Secretary General of the Constitutionalist Party of Iran (Liberal Democrat) on the political challenges facing Iran today.
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- The Iranian government passed a law which allows Iranian women married to foreign nationals to pass their Iranian citizenship on to their children.
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