Iran Primer's Blog
Key Excerpts from Amnesty International Report
The following is an excerpt from Amnersty International's "State of Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa, January to mid-April 2011" report: The authorities maintained severe restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly. Sweeping controls on domestic and…
FACT SHEET: Holding Iran Accountable
The following is a State Department statement issued on May 19, 2011: President Obama remains committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and has successfully built an international coalition to hold Iran accountable on its illicit nuclear program. With our P5+1 partners, we…
Changes to Iranian Student Visas
The following is a statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: I am very pleased to announce a big step forward in the Obama Administration’s support of the Iranian people. Under our old visa policy, Iranian students and exchange visitors were eligible for visas that lasted…
Excerpt on Iran from President Obama’s Mideast Speech May 19, 2011
The United States opposes the use of violence and repression against the people of the region. We support a set of universal rights. Those rights include free speech; the freedom of peaceful assembly; freedom of religion; equality for men and women under the rule of law; and the right to…
State Department Testimony: Iran’s Growing Human Rights Abuses
The following is an excerpt on Iran’s human rights violations from a joint statement by Michael H. Posner, Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, and Philo L. Dibble, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, in testimony…
2011 Report: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
The following are excerpts from the annual report released April 28, 2011: The government of Iran continues to engage in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, including prolonged detention, torture, and executions based primarily or entirely upon the…
Report on Internet Freedom in Iran 2011
Freedom House Since the protests that followed the disputed presidential election of June 12, 2009, the Iranian authorities have waged an active campaign against internet freedom, employing extensive and sophisticated methods of control that go well beyond simple content filtering.…
Department of State’s Human Rights Report on Iran
The following is from the executive summary of the State Department issued its Human Rights Report for 2010: The government severely limited citizens' right to peacefully change their government through free and fair elections, and it continued a campaign of postelection violence and…
Statements on the Dec. 6-7 talks between Iran and the major powers
Iran and the world’s six major powers held talks in Geneva on Dec. 6 and 7. The only agreement was to hold a second round in Istanbul in January. These are major statements or comments by the delegations as widely reported in the press. . European Union foreign policy chief Lady Catherine…