• Iran protests continued on Sunday in more cities
Protests renewed in Tehran and several Iranian cities on Sunday evening, marking the sixth consecutive day of protests against the regime’s policies while some violent clashes erupted between Protesters and security forces in some cities.
Protesters in Enghelab Street, in the center of Tehran, were chanting “Death to the Dictator.” A video showed security forces attack Protesters while some young men burnt trash bins to obstruct the security forces’ advance.
Violent clashes also erupted between Protesters and riot police in the park of Tehran’s theatre, and according to some reports, there were violent clashes between Protesters and riot police in Qom and Karaj.
Activists said the government shut down cellular services and cut off the internet in both cities, Qom and Karaj, to prevent citizens from publishing photos of protests and clashes.
Meanwhile, in Kazerun, in the Fars Province, hundreds of people protested in the city centre and chanted anti-regime slogans.
• Pompeo: Sanctions to be enforced until Iran ‘behaves like a normal country’
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed Sunday that the United States would “enforce the sanctions” it is reimposing after President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear pact.
As of 0401 GMT Tuesday, the Iran government can no longer buy US banknotes and broad sanctions will be slapped on Iranian industries, including its rug exports.
• Karaj, Iran: Repressive forces kill a young man; arrest a number of protesters
On Friday, August 3, a young man from Karaj, Reza Otadi, was shot dead by regime forces during the demonstrations in the city, a large number of protesters were also arrested.
On Saturday night, August 4, the Revolutionary Guards’ Fars News Agency said: “During last night riots in Karaj, one person was shot dead by unknown individuals, and 20 others were arrested. According to field observations of Fars news reporters, leaders of the riot were mostly selected from women this time.”
• Fourteenth Day of Strike by Truck Drivers in Cities Across Iran
The second round of strikes by truck drivers which began on July 23rd in different cities of Iran, continued on its fourteenth day today on Sunday, August 5, 2018.
The nationwide truck drivers’ strike resumed its initial strike as drivers refused to load cargo in order to protest the government’s failure to handle their demands over high costs of spare parts, retirement insurance, high commission fees and other demands.
The strike of truck drivers, which began on July 23rd, has spread to more than 140 cities and 31 provinces of Iran.
• Homa Soltani, 30, suffered a heart stroke and died on August 3, 2018.
Homa was one of the two daughters of prominent Iranian human rights lawyer, Abdol-Fattah Soltani, who has been incarcerated for the past seven years for defending innocent victims of the clerical regime. He has been granted a temporary leave to be with his family at this time of great grief.
Soltani represented political prisoners and defended several controversial cases including the case of murdered Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi. After being arrested a couple of times in 2005 and 2009, Soltani received a 13-year prison sentence in 2011 and was banned for an additional 20 years from practicing law. Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience and called him “one of the bravest human rights defenders in Iran.”
• Eight girls got wounded in fire at a welfare center in Mashhad
Eight girls got wounded in a fire which broke out at midnight on Thursday, August 2, 2018, at a welfare center in Mashhad, capital of Razavi Khorasan Province, northeastern Iran.
Hamdireza Yousefpour, director of the Welfare Organization in Razavi Khorasan Province, said eight girls who live in one of the dormitories of the Welfare Organization’s Crisis Center in Mashhad got wounded in the fire that broke out in their dormitory, also burning three of the rooms. (The state-run ISNA news agency – August 3, 2018)
This is not the first the time that lack of safety standards in public places and negligence of responsible authorities have inflicted casualties and damages on young women.
• Girls under 10 got married in southwestern Iranian province
Girls under 10 got married in the southwestern Iranian province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad over the past Iranian year.
Ali Mohammad Taghavi, general director of the National Statistics Registration Office in this province, announced that nine girls under 10 years of age had gotten married in the Iranian year 1396 (March 2017- March 2018) in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province.
• Iran holds ex-central bank deputy for alleged economic crimes
Iran has arrested seven people including a former deputy central bank governor and five foreign exchange dealers for alleged economic crimes, the judiciary said on Sunday as the country prepares to face a return of US sanctions.
Washington will first reimpose sanctions on Iran.s purchase of US dollars, its trade in gold and precious metals and its dealings with metals, coal and industrial-related software.
The United States has told countries they must halt imports of Iranian oil from early November or face US financial measures.