Iran Events
Third day of Iran truckers’ nationwide strike in Tehran & other cities
The new round of the truck drivers’ strike entered its third consecutive day on Wednesday.
To this day a total of 85 cities in 25 provinces have joined this strike.
Truck drivers in various parts of Tehran and the cities of Isfahan, Najaf Abad, Karaj, Bandar Abbas, Saveh, Khaf, Zanjan, Semnan, Shahroud, Shiraz, Farrokhshah, Kermanshah, Kerman, Zahedan, Malayer, Khorramshahr, Khorramabad, Bojnurd, Yazd, Port Khomeini, Shahr-e Kord, Khur Mousa, Abdulkhan and dozens of other cities have truck drivers on strike.
Iran Prevents Public Commemoration At Grave Of Celebrated Poet Shamlou
Iranian security forces have prevented devotees of fans of late poet Ahmad Shamlou, who pushed for greater freedoms and had some of his work banned under successive governments, from marking the 18th anniversary of his death.
Dozens of supporters of Shamlou attempted to hold a commemoration ceremony by his grave at a cemetery in the city or Karaj, west of Tehran, on July 24.
But security forces shut the gates of the cemetery in order to prevent any gathering at Shamlou’s grave, a member of Iran’s Writers Association who attempted to attend the event said.
Shamlou, who wrote poems describing an atmosphere of fear and repression following the 1979 revolution that brought the shah down and led to Islamic rule, is considered by many to have been Iran’s most influential contemporary poet.
Some of his work was banned in Iran under the secular rule of the Western-backed shah.
Iran Student Associations Protest Harsh Sentencing of Activists
Dozens of student associations in Iran have criticized the recent verdicts against students and have warned that they won’t allow “the totalitarian forces to target freedom and liberty again”.
In a statement 68 student associations wrote that the current situation in Iran was creating a “myriad [of] dissatisfaction among people” and warned that “authoritarian rhetoric toward justification has directed the country to a precarious route”.
The statement advised that the “totalitarian elements” had not only failed to address the demands of students in a previous statement issued by 63 associations, but had actually increased their harassment of student activists.
Saudis Halt Oil Shipments In Red Sea After Attack By Iran-Backed Huthis
Saudi Arabia announced it was temporarily halting all oil shipments through a strategic Red Sea shipping lane after an attack on two big oil tankers by Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said in a statement on July 25 that the Huthis attacked the two Saudi tankers carrying about two million barrels of oil each in the Red Sea, with one sustaining “minimal damage.”
He said any oil spill caused by the missile strikes could have caused “catastrophic environmental damage.”
Saudi Arabia accuses regional rival Iran of supplying the missiles used by the Huthis, something that Tehran and the Shi’ite rebel group both deny.
Judge Tells Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe That She’ll Remain Imprisoned Until UK Pays Debt to Iran
A judge in Tehran has admitted that Iranian British dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe will not be released from prison until Iran receives payment for an old debt owed by Britain.
“Judge Abbasi has confirmed what we have been suspecting for some time,” the charity worker’s husband Richard Radcliffe told the Center for Human Right in Iran (CHRI) on July 24, 2018. “His statements confirm that Nazanin is being held in prison as a bargaining chip. But to express it so bluntly is shocking to us.”
“I believe Nazanin when she says she cannot take it anymore,” he added.
“On Saturday, 21 July, the Iranian judge in charge of parole and early releases confirmed to Nazanin that she will not be released temporarily, given parole, or shown clemency on humanitarian grounds until the UK government’s debt is repaid to Iran,” said a statement by the Free Nazanin Campaign on July 23, 2018.
Judge Abbasi [first name unknown], who is in charge of judicial affairs at Evin Prison, made the statement during a court session with Zaghari-Ratcliffe on July 21 while denying her request for temporary release to see her daughter on her fourth birthday.
