The Vatican’s top diplomat cautioned against actions that would escalate conflict in the Middle East in a Monday morning phone call with Iran’s new president. Cardinal Pietro Parolin’s Aug. 12 conversation with President Masoud Pezeshkian was well-timed. Iran is widely believed to be preparing to attack Israel following the July 31 assassination of Hamas political Read more
The White House is not ruling out using Pope Francis as a means of making contact and negotiating with Iran’s government. The question of using Francis arose when a media outlet noted he has extensive contacts with the Iranian government in Tehran and that President Joe Biden has an excellent relationship with the pontiff. On Read more
Iran has sentenced three teenagers to have four fingers amputated each as a punishment for stealing. Hadi Rostami, Mehdi Sharafian and Mehdi Shahivand, whose exact ages are not known, were handed the punishment on Thursday after a failed attempt to appeal. They were originally tried on November 2 last year on four counts of robbery Read more
Bushra Alkhafaji and her daughter Nada are New Zealand citizens who arrived in Iran in February for an annual trip, with flights paid for by Bushra’s Iran-based daughters. On a short visit to Isfahan during the holiday, Iran announced inter-city travel restrictions so Bushra and Nada were separated from relatives and had to find temporary Read more
Support is growing for an Iranian human rights lawyer after she was sentenced to 38 years in prison for defending women who refused to wear headscarves. Nasrin Sotoudeh received the sentence — along with 148 lashes — last month on charges of encouraging prostitution and offering legal advice to women protesting the mandatory hijab. The Read more
Thousands of Iranians are converting to Christianity in Iran as Muslims are being criticised on social media for their religion’s oppressive rule. “There are signs that quite a few Iranians are now also disenchanted with Islam itself,” a recent opinion piece notes. “Often silently and covertly, they are abandoning their faith. Some opt for other Read more
Christian conversion is not for the fainthearted in Iran. It can be a crime leading to a decade in jail. The Iranian government uses the Internet to censor and monitor activists and to enforce official religious interpretations. Surveillance cameras watch Catholic churches. They’re looking for Muslims going into Christian churches, Iranian-born journalist Sohrab Ahmari says. Read more
There is a major role for faith-based groups to help create a nuclear weapon-free world, Nobel Prize winners said at a nuclear disarmament summit at the Vatican last week. They suggested faith groups could use their ability to mobilise people and public opinion, and lay out the moral and spiritual case for disarmament. The Nobel Read more
Let me tell you where I was when I learned about the Iran deal: I was leaving Treblinka. My wife and I have just returned from a journey to Poland for parents of United Synagogue Youth members. We visited Warsaw, Krakow, Lodz and Lublin — with pilgrimages to the concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek and Treblinka. We visited the Polin Museum of Read more
Committed to a negotiated settlement over the real possibility of armed conflict, six world powers and Iran have decided to give peace a chance. With much patience, persistence and hard work for over 20 months, the P5+1 Group (the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the Read more