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reportedly saw a massive blast on the afternoon caused by a fire at a cellophane factory. Videos of a black plume of smoke billowing across the city were uploaded.
On July 2, a blaze ignited at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility but there were no casualties and the site was operating as normal, Iranian officials said. They said the fire was not related to one of the primary buildings but to an “industrial shed” at some distance from them, according to local reports. Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) in the central province of Isfahan is Iran’s main uranium enrichment site. It is one of several Iranian facilities monitored by the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
Some experts did not rule out the possibility of sabotage given the importance of the Natanz nuclear site. “Considering that this so-called incident happened just a few days after the explosion near the Parchin military base, the possibility of a sabotage cannot be ruled out,” a former Iranian nuclear official told Reuters.
2.5​ ​Iran backtracks on protesters’ death sentences
A court in Iran has agreed to review the death sentences handed down to three alleged participants in last year’s November riots, a lawyer for one of the accused told RIA Novosti on July 19.
"Yes, today we were informed that [the verdict)] will be examined again. The country's Supreme Court agreed to consider our appeal. The execution of the verdict has been suspended," the lawyer, Babak Paknia, reportedly said by telephone to the news agency.
Previously, a spokesman for the country's judiciary, Qolamhossein Esmaili, announced the death sentences. However, after intense pressure exerted both in Iran and from abroad, the judiciary changed course.
US President Donald Trump is among those who has called for the three men not to be executed. In tweets put out in English and Persian, Trump has berated the Islamic Republic for its record on capital punishment.
The protests were sparked after the authorities suddenly announced a decision to raise fuel prices and introduce quotas for gasoline. Some demonstrations were peaceful, but some escalated into riots that saw many instances of property, including banks, set on fire.
The US State Department has since claimed that more than a thousand people were killed in the unrest at the hands of the authorities, but Tehran has rejected this claim. The Iranian authorities lately stated that 220 people were thought to have died amid the riots.
Internet activity in the country of 84mn wa​s ​entirely disconnected during the unrest​, ​in a move unprecedented for its scale and partly designed, according to officials, to stop agitators based outside Iran fanning the flames of the street trouble with fake information. Iran turned to nationwide ‘internal internet’ provision to keep some essential services functioning.
8​ IRAN Country Report August 2020 www.intellinews.com