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Friday’s Iran Mini Report – August 24, 2018

Friday's Iran Mini Report - August 24, 2018

• Google Blocks Accounts in ‘Influence Operation’ Linked to Iran

Google said Thursday it blocked YouTube channels and other accounts over a misinformation campaign linked to Iran, on the heels of similar moves by Facebook and Twitter.

Google said that working with the cybersecurity firm FireEye, it linked the accounts to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting as part of an effort dating to at least January 2017.

• US Lawmakers Urge Iran Expulsion from SWIFT Banking Network

Republican lawmakers are calling for Iran to be expelled from the main financial system that oversees international bank transfers, as the Trump administration steadily re-imposes sanctions on the country following the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

SWIFT is short for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. It is based in Belgium, but its board includes executives from U.S. banks and federal law gives the administration authority to act against Iran’s central bank and other banks covered by terrorism and money laundering sanctions.

• British Airways, Air France halting flights to Iran from next month

British Airways and Air France said on Thursday they would halt flights to Iran from September for business reasons, months after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would re-impose sanctions on Tehran.

British Airways said it was suspending its London to Tehran service “as the operation is currently not commercially viable”

Air France will stop flights from Paris to Tehran from Sept. 18 because of “the line’s weak performance,” an airline spokesman said.

“As the number of business customers flying to Iran has fallen, the connection is not profitable anymore,” the spokesman said.

• Ban on women’s entrance to sports stadiums remains in force

Ban on women’s entrance to sports stadiums in Iran continues to remain in force. Mullah Nasser Makarem Shirazi underscored his fatwa banning the presence of women in Iran’s stadiums.

Officially, women are banned from entering stadiums and watching men’s games in Iran. Despite occasional maneuverings by the regime to fend off social reactions to the ban on women’s entrance to stadiums and also for foreign consumptions, the clerical regime has always stressed on the ban on women’s entrance to sports stadiums.

• Iranian Sunnis Say Police Blocked Eid Prayers in Four Tehran Districts

Iran’s minority Sunni Muslims say authorities of the Shiite-majority nation have prevented some Sunnis from holding communal prayers in the capital, Tehran, to mark the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.

Iran’s main Sunni news site, Sunni Online, published a Thursday report saying Tehran police blocked Sunni prayers in the four above-mentioned districts by deploying at the entrances of the prayer centers and dispersing worshippers. Such centers often are in homes of Sunnis or in large rooms of other buildings.