Iran Executes Two More Men in Connection with Protests

FILE PHOTO:  A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
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Iran Executes Two More Men in Connection with Protests

FILE PHOTO:  A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Iran executed two men on Saturday for killing a paramilitary force member during unprecedented protests sparked by the death in custody of a young woman.

The latest hangings double the number of executions to four over the protests, which escalated into calls for an end to Iran's clerical regime, AFP said.

Two men were put to death in December, sparking global outrage and new Western sanctions against Iran.

Judicial news agency Mizan Online on Saturday reported "Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, the main perpetrators of the crime that led to the martyrdom of Ruhollah Ajamian, were hanged this morning."

The court of first instance had sentenced the two men to death in early December, it said.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence of capital punishment, accusing them of killing Ajamian on November 3.

The victim belonged to the Basij militia -- linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps -- who died in Karaj, west of Tehran.

Prosecutors previously said the 27-year-old was stripped naked and killed by a group of mourners who had been paying tribute to a slain protester, Hadis Najafi.

The hangings come in defiance of a campaign by international rights groups for the lives of the two men to be spared.

Amnesty International had decried the "fast-tracked unfair group trial" of the two men which it said bore no "resemblance to a meaningful judicial proceeding".

Mohammad Mehdi Karami's father had told Iranian media that a family lawyer had not been able to access his son's case file.

Karami was 22, according to Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR). Hosseini's age was not immediately clear.

Authorities have arrested thousands of people in the wave of demonstrations that began with the September death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22.

The Iranian Kurdish woman had been arrested by morality police for allegedly breaching the regime's strict dress code for women.

The courts have sentenced 14 people to death over the demonstrations, according to an AFP count based on official information.

- Fears for others -
Four have now been executed, two others have had their sentences confirmed by the Supreme Court, six are awaiting new trials and two others can appeal.

Dozens of other protesters face charges punishable by death, IHR said in late December.

The latest executions were the first linked to the protests in almost a month.

On December 12 Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged publicly from a crane. He had been sentenced to death by a court in the city of Mashhad for killing two members of the security forces with a knife, and wounding four other people, Mizan reported.

Rahnavard's execution came despite the widespread international anger sparked by the first announced execution four days earlier.

Mohsen Shekari, also 23, was executed on charges of wounding a member of the security forces.

In late December the US Treasury Department sanctioned Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, saying he was responsible for human rights abuses including torture and death-penalty trials of protesters.

The Treasury said the case of Shekari bore "little resemblance to a meaningful trial".

On December 12 new European Union sanctions targeted Iranian officials including hardline cleric Seyed Ahmad Khatami. He was included on the list for inciting violence against protesters, including demanding the death penalty. 



US Vice President Vance Heads to Armenia, Azerbaijan to Push Peace, Trade

US Vice President JD Vance speaks during the Critical Minerals Ministerial at the State Department in Washington, DC, US, February 4, 2026. (Reuters)
US Vice President JD Vance speaks during the Critical Minerals Ministerial at the State Department in Washington, DC, US, February 4, 2026. (Reuters)
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US Vice President Vance Heads to Armenia, Azerbaijan to Push Peace, Trade

US Vice President JD Vance speaks during the Critical Minerals Ministerial at the State Department in Washington, DC, US, February 4, 2026. (Reuters)
US Vice President JD Vance speaks during the Critical Minerals Ministerial at the State Department in Washington, DC, US, February 4, 2026. (Reuters)

US Vice President JD Vance will visit Armenia and Azerbaijan this week to push a Washington-brokered peace agreement that could transform energy and trade routes in the strategic South Caucasus region.

His two-day trip to Armenia, which begins later on Monday, comes just six months after the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders signed an agreement at the White House seen as the first step towards peace after nearly 40 years of war.

Vance, the first US vice president to visit Armenia, is seeking to advance the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), a proposed 43-kilometre (27-mile) corridor that would run across southern Armenia and give Azerbaijan a direct route to its exclave ‌of Nakhchivan ‌and in turn to Türkiye, Baku's close ally.

"Vance's visit should ‌serve ⁠to reaffirm the ‌US's commitment to seeing the Trump Route through," said Joshua Kucera, a senior South Caucasus analyst at Crisis Group.

"In a region like the Caucasus, even a small amount of attention from the US can make a significant impact."

The Armenian government said on Monday that Vance would hold talks with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and that both men would then make statements, without elaborating.

Vance will then visit Azerbaijan on Wednesday and Thursday, the White House has said.

Under the agreement signed last year, ⁠a private US firm, the TRIPP Development Company, has been granted exclusive rights to develop the proposed corridor, with Yerevan ‌retaining full sovereignty over its borders, customs, taxation and security.

The ‍route would better connect Asia to Europe ‍while - crucially for Washington - bypassing Russia and Iran at a time when Western countries are ‍keen on diversifying energy and trade routes away from Russia due to its war in Ukraine.

Russia has traditionally viewed the South Caucasus as part of its sphere of influence but has seen its clout there diminish as it is distracted by the war in Ukraine.

Securing US access to supplies of critical minerals is also likely to be a key focus of Vance's visit.

TRIPP could prove a key transit corridor for the vast mineral wealth of ⁠Central Asia - including uranium, copper, gold and rare earths - to Western markets.

CLOSED BORDERS, BITTER RIVALS

In Soviet times the South Caucasus was criss-crossed by railways and oil pipelines until a series of wars beginning in the 1980s disrupted energy routes and shuttered the border between Armenia and Türkiye, Azerbaijan's key regional ally.

Armenia and Azerbaijan were locked in bitter conflict for nearly four decades, primarily over the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized part of Azerbaijan that broke away from Baku's control as the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought two wars over Karabakh before Baku finally took it back in 2023. Karabakh's entire ethnic Armenian population of around 100,000 people fled to Armenia. The two neighbors have made progress in recent months on normalizing relations, including restarting ‌some energy shipments.

But major hurdles remain to full and lasting peace, including a demand by Azerbaijan that Armenia change its constitution to remove what Baku says contains implicit claims on Azerbaijani territory.


Adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader to Visit Oman on Tuesday

FILED - 06 February 2009, Bavaria, Munich: Ali Larijani, then chairman of the Iranian parliament, speaks at the 45th Munich Security Conference in Munich. Photo: Andreas Gebert/dpa
FILED - 06 February 2009, Bavaria, Munich: Ali Larijani, then chairman of the Iranian parliament, speaks at the 45th Munich Security Conference in Munich. Photo: Andreas Gebert/dpa
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Adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader to Visit Oman on Tuesday

FILED - 06 February 2009, Bavaria, Munich: Ali Larijani, then chairman of the Iranian parliament, speaks at the 45th Munich Security Conference in Munich. Photo: Andreas Gebert/dpa
FILED - 06 February 2009, Bavaria, Munich: Ali Larijani, then chairman of the Iranian parliament, speaks at the 45th Munich Security Conference in Munich. Photo: Andreas Gebert/dpa

Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, will visit Oman accompanied by a delegation on Tuesday, the ‌semi-official Tasnim news ‌agency reported ‌on ⁠Monday.

American and ‌Iranian diplomats held indirect talks in Oman last week, aimed at reviving diplomacy amid a US ⁠naval buildup near Iran and ‌Tehran's vows ‍of a ‍harsh response if ‍attacked.

"During this trip, (Larijani) will meet with high-ranking officials of the Sultanate of Oman and discuss the latest regional ⁠and international developments and bilateral cooperation at various levels," Tasnim said.

The date and venue of the next round of talks are yet to be announced.


Russia’s Lavrov Sees No ‘Bright Future’ for Economic Ties with US

06 February 2026, Russia, Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gives a press conference following a meeting with Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Chairperson-in-Office Ignazio Cassis, head of Switzerland's Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Federal Councilor of the Swiss Confederation, and OSCE Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioglu at the Russian Foreign Ministry's Reception House. (Sofya Sandurskaya/TASS via ZUMA Press/dpa)
06 February 2026, Russia, Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gives a press conference following a meeting with Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Chairperson-in-Office Ignazio Cassis, head of Switzerland's Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Federal Councilor of the Swiss Confederation, and OSCE Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioglu at the Russian Foreign Ministry's Reception House. (Sofya Sandurskaya/TASS via ZUMA Press/dpa)
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Russia’s Lavrov Sees No ‘Bright Future’ for Economic Ties with US

06 February 2026, Russia, Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gives a press conference following a meeting with Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Chairperson-in-Office Ignazio Cassis, head of Switzerland's Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Federal Councilor of the Swiss Confederation, and OSCE Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioglu at the Russian Foreign Ministry's Reception House. (Sofya Sandurskaya/TASS via ZUMA Press/dpa)
06 February 2026, Russia, Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gives a press conference following a meeting with Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Chairperson-in-Office Ignazio Cassis, head of Switzerland's Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Federal Councilor of the Swiss Confederation, and OSCE Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioglu at the Russian Foreign Ministry's Reception House. (Sofya Sandurskaya/TASS via ZUMA Press/dpa)

Russia remains open for cooperation with the United States but is not hopeful about economic ties despite Washington's ongoing efforts to end the Ukraine war, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on Monday.

Speaking to Russia-based media outlet TV BRICS, ‌Lavrov cited what ‌he called the ‌United ⁠States' declared ‌aim of "economic dominance".

"We also don't see any bright future in the economic sphere," Lavrov said.

Russian officials, including envoy Kirill Dmitriev, have previously spoken of the prospects for a major restoration ⁠of economic relations with the United States as ‌part of any eventual Ukraine ‍peace settlement.

But although ‍President Donald Trump has also ‍spoken of reviving economic cooperation with Moscow and has hosted his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on US soil since returning to the White House, he has imposed further onerous sanctions on Russia's vital ⁠energy sector.

Lavrov also cited Trump's hostility to the BRICS bloc, which includes Russia, China, India, Brazil and other major developing economies.

"The Americans themselves create artificial obstacles along this path (towards BRICS integration)," he said.

"We are simply forced to seek additional, protected ways to develop our financial, economic, logistical and ‌other projects with the BRICS countries."