UPDATE: 01:30 PM CEST
13 young men and women arrested for “having fun” in a Tehran café
The state security forces arrested 13 young men and women for what they called “having fun and drinking alcohol” in a restaurant cafe in Tehran.
The state-run Rokna news agency reported today that the state security forces surrounded the restaurant in Tehranpars district at 10 pm Thursday, and arrested 13 young men and women who were drinking “alcohol” and smoking hookah, along with the owners of the cafe.
UPDATE: 09:00 AM CEST
Iran: Coronavirus Death Toll in 533 Cities Surpasses 242,000
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) announced on Friday, April 2, 20121, that the Coronavirus death toll in 533 cities across Iran had reached 242,000. The number of victims in Tehran has reached 55,871, Isfahan 15,755, Khorasan Razavi 15,625, Khuzestan 14,249, Mazandaran 10,320, East Azerbaijan 9,643, Gilan 8,481, Golestan 6,235, Alborz 5,993, Hamedan 5,543, Semnan 4,205, North Khorasan 3,653, Ardabil 3,002, Hormozgan 2,705, Zanjan 2,615, Bushehr 2,444, South Khorasan 2,351, and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari 1,945.
#Iran Coronavirus Update
More than 242,000 people have died of the novel #coronavirus in 533 cities checkered across all of Iran's 31 provinces, according to the Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK.
Full Reporthttps://t.co/i8Ax2HpVLe pic.twitter.com/MajYVSF4eb
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 2, 2021
No news of detained SE Iran protesters, one month after arrest
More than a month after the protests in Saravan over the killing of Baluch fuel traders, the fate of at least 16 Baluch citizens arrested and their families are worried about their conditions.
Some of those arrested have been taken to the detention centers in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan Province, while the whereabouts of a number of the detainees are still unknown.
Iranian official: November 2019 protest were “the most bitter” security incident
Hossein Zolfaghari, Security Deputy of the Iranian regime’s Interior Minister, acknowledged regime’s worries about the repeat of nationwide protests in Iran and called the November 2019 protests the toughest year security-wise.
“Ensuring the security of the country is a round-the-clock job and knows no holidays or non-holidays. However, sometimes some events occur that affect those involved in the security of our establishment,” Zolfaghari said in remarks that were published by the official IRNA news agency on Thursday.
Afkari brothers banned from phone calls, in solitary for 7 months
Vahid and Habib Afkari, brothers of executed wrestling champion and protester Navid Afkari have been imprisoned in Shiraz’s Adel Abad Prison in southwestern Iran for seven months.
According to a report by the Human Rights News Agency, the brothers have been kept in the “Ebrat” or “Cautionary” section, since September 2020, when Navid was executed. The Ebrat Section is also known as the “closed off” section where inmates are not allowed to communicate with the outside world.
Destruction of Iran’s Agricultural Lands Looms
After the destruction of Iranian forests, it is now the turn of the national and agricultural lands. The regime’s new policy has paved the way of the destruction of these lands. According to official statistics, the comparison of 2019 statistics with the statistics of 1956 shows that over the past six decades, more than 1.5 million hectares of Iran’s forests have been eliminated.
This broad destruction of the forests is continuing. According to the research of Tehran’s University, every second in Iran, 360 square meters are destroyed from the surface of the forests and pastures of the country. In this way, if the destruction process continues at its current pace, in 2081 there will not be a trace of Iranian forests.
Why the world needs a comprehensive Iran policy
There’s growing concern among politicians about the Iranian regime’s provocative behavior and its continued disregard for its commitments under the nuclear accord. But there’s little consensus on how to address it. And past attempts at addressing Iran’s nuclear program through concessions and disregard for its other malign behavior have failed. And this is why there’s not much appetite for a swift return to the 2015 accord that put a temporary cap on Iran’s nuclear program.
“Iran’s nuclear escalations and its burgeoning ballistic missiles program are major threats. But much more troubling is Iran’s ballistic behavior,” American political scientist Walid Phares writes in a column in Modern Diplomacy on March 31.
Iran news in brief, April 3, 2021
