News Digest: Week of July 26

July 29, 2021

July 26:

Internet: Iran's Parliament tabled a controversial bill that would have limited access to the internet. Major digital business, including online retailers and video streaming services, had opposed the bill, Al Jazeera reported.

Nuclear: The French foreign ministry warned that Iran's continued breaches of the 2015 nuclear deal could "could compromise the very possibility of concluding the Vienna talks and restoring the [nuclear deal]." Iran previously said that the delay in returning to the talks was due to the transition period between outgoing President Hassan Rouhani and President-elect Ebrahim Raisi. 

 

 

July 27:

Health: Iran's new COVID-19 cases hit a record high for the second day in a row. Nearly 32,000 Iranians were infected on Monday and nearly 35,000 were infected on Tuesday, the health ministry reported. 

Espionage: Iranian counterintelligence claimed that it had dismantled a "network" of Mossad agents and seized a large cache of weapons at the western border, state-run Fars News Agency reported. The ministry said that the agents intended to use the weapons to “turn protests into riots” and for assassinations or other acts of sabotage.


 

July 28:

Diplomacy: The foreign ministry called on "all parties" in Tunisia to "show self-restraint" after President Kais Saied's decision to suspend Parliament for 30 days. “The Islamic Republic of Iran is closely pursuing the ongoing developments and incidents in Tunisia,” spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said. 

Nuclear: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed the United States for the delay in the Vienna talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. "They once violated the nuclear deal at no cost by exiting it," Khamenei said. "Now they explicitly say that they cannot give guarantees that it would not happen again."

Sports: The Iranian basketball team lost to the U.S. team, 120-66, at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The teams applauded each other's national anthems and shook hands before and after the game. "In general, I think people in different countries get along a whole lot better than their governments do," U.S. coach Gregg Popovich said.