Muqtada Al-Sadr Refused to Meet Iran Regime Leader's Envoy to Iraq

By NCRI Staff

NCRI - On Tuesday, September 5, 2017. Muqtada Sadr, leader of Sadri current in Iraq, refused to meet with Hashemi Shahroudi, the envoy of Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime.

“The envoy of Khamenei carries a sectarian project that would cause loss and damage to Iraq,” Baghdad Press reported quoting Amir al-Kanani, a leader of the Sadr's current, in an explanation of the rejection to meet with envoy of Ali Khamenei to Iraq. "

Amir al-Kanani, a member of the Al-Ahrar faction, affiliated with Sadr's current in the parliament of Iraq, said in an interview: “Iran's interference in Iraqi political affairs is detrimental to Iraq’s national interests, and therefore Muqtada al-Sadr refused to accept Khamenei's emissary.”

He accused the Iranian regime of trying to foment internal conflicts and direct political currents to sectarian barricades and said: “Shahroudi's visit to Iraq is nothing but a supplementary project for a sectarian plan that Iran has provided six months ago. Iran proposed a “Shia House Unity” six months ago. Khamenei's emissary has not brought anything new to the Iraqi people.”

Al-Kanani stated: “Iran has no projects in favor of Iraq. The Iranian regime is seeking to create sectarian barracks in Iraq, based on a Shia sectarian bastion against which the bastions of Kurdish and Sunni ethnicity are formed. The Iraqis are fed up with the phases of sectarian projects and the losses they have inflicted, and they are not prepared to accept a new project in this regard.”

“Iran's interference is not in the interest of the Iraqi people who have decided to get rid of sectarian boundaries,” said Sadri's current member. “The Iraqi parliamentary election is an internal affair of the Iraqi people and has nothing to do with Iran.”

“If Iran is honest, it will propose plans for economic development and investment and the fight against terrorists in Iraq, not the sectarian project. So, it is unlikely that Muqtada Sadr will change his mind and accept Shahroudi,” he added.

Before Muqtada al-Sadr, Ayatollah Sistani also refused to meet Ayatollah Shahroudi, the emissary of Khamenei.

Iraqi news agencies, including “Al-Ghad Press”, quoting informed sources, reported that Sistani opposed the meeting with Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, head of the Iran regime’s Expediency Council, who is currently in Iraq.

The sources added: “Shahroudi called for a visit with Sistani during his trip to Najaf, but Sistani opposed and rejected this request.”

Shahroudi is said to have traveled to Iraq sent by Khamenei to unite the Iraqi Shiite political currents that secure the interests of the Iranian regime.

Iran: Uprising and general strike of the people of Baneh in protest at the killing of laborers+VIDEO & PHTOES

National Council of Resistance of Iran

Ms. Rajavi's call to the people of Kurdistan and throughout Iran to support and support the people of Baneh

On the morning of Tuesday, September 5th, the people of Baneh (western Iran) went on strike protesting the murder of two laborers by criminal Revolutionary Guards, and shut down their shops and the whole bazar. Also, this morning, thousands of the people of Baneh held a protest rally. The angry people went to the governorate from different parts of the city and threw rocks at the governor's building. They demanded the killing of laborers to be stopped.
Killing of laborers is a routine by the anti-human regime of mullahs. Yesterday, two laborers, Heydar Faraji, 21, and Qader Bahrami, 45, were killed with the direct shot by the regime's border guards. Qader Bahrami was married and had four children.
During today’s demonstrations, the repressive forces began to disperse the protesters by storming them and firing tear gas, but the people confronted them and neutralized the tear gas by burning tires.
The mullahs’ regime flew military helicopters over Baneh and attacked the people by bringing anti-riot criminal guards to the scene, but they were not able to prevent the anger of the people.
In the course of the demonstration, a number of people were injured and more were arrested. It is said that the criminal governor of Baneh has escaped from the anger of the people and has hidden in an unknown location.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi , President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, offered her condolences to the families of the laborers, saluted the people of Baneh and their brave demonstrations, and called on the courageous and freedom-loving people of Kurdistan and other Iranian cities to support the people of Baneh and the toiling laborers. The laborers are being killed by the Revolutionary Guards while according to the regime officials, Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards and other intelligence and security agencies of the clerical regime are the main controllers of smuggling in the country that, according to the regime authorities, amounts to $25 billion a year.
In a press conference in London on March 7, 2017, the Iranian Resistance unveiled 90 piers, i.e. about 45 percent of the country's total piers, used for large-scale smuggling, and are mainly at the disposal of the IRGC.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
September 5, 2017

 

End negotiations with the regime of Iran

Chamber of Commerce announced that the negotiation between Iran’s Central Bank with world’s mega banks has almost stopped.

IRAN, 06 September 2017-- An official of the Iranian regime’s Chamber of Commerce announced that the negotiation between Iran’s Central Bank with world’s mega banks has almost stopped.

Hossein Salimi, Board Member of the Iranian regime’s National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), said: “With the publication of some reports from Swift that some companies operating with Iran have been fined, these negotiations are slowing down and big European banks are worried about the resumption of bank sanctions against Iran and the imposition of US restrictions and fines.”

“Some of the comments and penalties imposed by SWIFT have made them so afraid such that the current Iranian banking talks with the world's major banks are almost halting,” state-run Mehr news agency reported on Monday, quoting Salimi.

Concerns about banking ties with the Iranian regime are not limited to European banks. Chinese banks also closed some of their Iranian customers’ accounts in August 2017.

According to the state-run ISNA news agency, “China has blocked Iranian accounts in ABC, ICBC and MERCHENT banks, and China has blocked Iranian accounts in an unprecedented measure.”

A report by the National Security and Policy Commission of the Iranian regime’s parliament, in August 2017, about the implementation of the nuclear deal between Iran and Western countries, referred to the concern of European big banks about cooperation with Iran, saying that only a few small European banks are willing to cooperate with Iran.

Police discover bomb-making lab in Paris suburb raid

French Police officers intervene at the site where they discovered explosives and bomb components in an apartment, in Villejuif, a suburb of Paris, on September 6, 2017

FRANCE 24, September 7, 2017-- French police investigating a suspected bomb factory near Paris found more ingredients on Thursday which could have been used to make the explosive device known as TATP. Three suspects have been arrested.

The ingredients were found during a search of an enclosed parking space belonging to the owner of the flat in the Parisian suburb of Villejuif where police found bomb-making materials the day before.

    French police officers walk as two people have been detained after a possible explosives laboratory

On Wednesday police located gas canisters and electrical wiring, along with similar ingredients required for the TATP explosive, commonly used by the Islamic State (IS) group.

Police believe the men were preparing attacks and had made calls to Syria, a minister said Thursday.

Anti-terror police launched raids following a tip-off from a worker at the building who has been praised for his “citizen’s reflex” for reporting suspicious activity.

The Paris daily Le Parisien reported that the workman was a plumber working to fix a recurrent leak.

He was outside the building when he spotted chemicals on a balcony of the flat, then saw a soldering iron and a hot plate through the window, the paper reported, quoting a source close to the probe.

Links to Spain cell?

Interior Minister Gérard Collomb said the men in custody two were arrested on Wednesday and a third overnight “were involved in terrorism”.

“We’ve seen that there were calls exchanged” with someone in the war zone in Syria, Collomb said on FranceInfo radio.

The men have denied they were preparing attacks, claiming they were planning a string of robberies in which the explosives would be used to blow up bank cash machines, Collomb said.

The arrests raised questions about whether the suspects might be linked to a jihadist cell in Spain which carried out two vehicle attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils last month.

Some of the extremists behind the violence in Spain mostly Moroccan nationals who were also preparing bombs made with TATP visited Paris on August 11 and 12, about a week before their deadly rampage.

“It is possible there were links but honestly I don’t know,” Collomb said.

The Spain attackers stayed in a hotel in the Parisian suburb of Malakoff a short drive from where the suspected bomb factory was discovered on Wednesday in Villejuif.

After buying a camera and leaving their hotel, Collomb said the Spain jihadists “spent a long time in front of the Eiffel Tower... We have it all from their phone data”.

France has been under a state of emergency since IS group gunmen launched a series of simultaneous raids on bars, the national stadium and the Bataclan concert hall in Paris in November 2015, leaving 130 people dead.

Since those atrocities and a truck attack in Nice in July 2016 that killed 86 people, France has suffered a string of smaller assaults mainly targeting security forces.

Iran: A 19-year-old girl commits suicide

A young teenage girl commits suicide (file photo)

Iran, Zabol, Sept. 7, 2017 - According to reports from inside Iran, a 19-year-old teenage girl identified as Miss Kothar Sargazi committed suicide on Thursday, September 7, 2017 using a pistol. She was pronounced dead at the scene. 
There is no information as to the motive behind this unfortunate action. But many of such attempts in Iran ruled by the suppressive mullahs are due to extreme suppression and/or deprivation and economic poverty. 
Iranian people have called this disastrous phenomenon, which stems from the rule of Velayat-e Faghih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist), as Suicide Tsunami. 
According to international statistics, Iran shares the highest number of suicides in the world 

Syrian opposition leader says U.N. mediation has failed

Former Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab talks in Cairo February 11, 2013

BEIRUT, Reuters, SEP. 7, 2017 - A prominent Syrian opposition leader said on Thursday U.N. mediation to end the country’s six-year conflict has failed and the revolution would continue.

Riyad Hijab, chairman of the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC), rejected comments by U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura that President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents must accept they have not won the war.

     Hijab, a former Syrian prime minister under Assad, called for a new U.N. 'approach on the Syrian issue”, without elaborating.

“De Mistura’s statements reflect the defeat of U.N. mediation,” Hijab wrote on Twitter. “The Syrian revolution continues,” he said. De Mistura had repeatedly made “un-studied” remarks on the conflict, he said.

Hijab, a former Syrian prime minister under Assad, called for a new a U.N. “approach on the Syrian issue”, without elaborating.

Assad has won a series of military victories but rebel groups still hold large parts of the northwest of the country and substantial enclaves in the southwest, in Homs province and near Damascus.

De Mistura said on Wednesday the opposition must be “unified and realistic” in accepting it had not won the war. He did not say Assad was victorious.

“Victory can only be if there is a sustainable political long-term solution,” de Mistura said, suggesting the conflict was almost over because many countries were involved principally to defeat Islamic State and a national ceasefire should follow.

The remarks come ahead of a round of Syria talks between Damascus allies Russia and Iran and opposition backer Turkey in Astana next week.

Several rounds of negotiations in Astana and a separate U.N.-sponsored track in Geneva between the government and the HNC have produced no visible progress on ending the war that broke out after a popular uprising in 2011.

Russia and Iran have stood by Assad. Some Western countries have softened their initial stance that he should leave power immediately, saying he could be part of a transitional period.

A Major Rally in London Call on the UK Government to Break Its Silence on the 1988 Massacre in Iran

Cross party members of the British parliament and political personalities joined the Anglo-Iranian communities from across the UK and called upon the British government to take the lead for the establishment of an independent committee to investigate mass executions of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988 and to bring those responsible to justice. They stressed the time has come to end impunity for Iranian officials who are responsible for serious human rights abuses in the country.

The call was made at a major rally in Trafalgar Square on Saturday, September 2, where participants and speakers urged the UK government to raise the issue at the upcoming session of the UN General Assembly and UN Human Rights session later in September.

The victims of this atrocity, known as one of the worst crimes in Iran’s modern history, were commemorated by an exhibition as well as street and music performances by Iranian renowned artists and musicians. Upon a fatwa by the first Supreme Leader, Khomeini in July 1988, more than 30,000 political prisoners, the overwhelming majority of whom were activists of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK), were executed in a few months and were buried in secret mass graves.

Representatives of Anglo-Iranian Associations and families of the victims of the 1988 massacre also delivered a letter with demands raised at the rally to the Prime Minister’s Office at Number 10 Downing Street.

Participants also expressed solidarity with some 20 political prisoners in Iran, who have been on hunger strike since July 30 in protest at the inhuman conditions and repressive measures against political prisoners and asked the FCO to condemn this inhuman treatment and act for their immediate release.

On August 31, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Ms Asma Jahangir, joined by two other UN Special Rapporteurs, expressed her concerns at the conditions of political prisoners on hunger strike in Iran, many of whom are in critical health because of prolonged hunger strike for their rights and their dignity.

The President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Mrs Maryam Rajavi, in a message to the rally said: “EU member states and the United States collaborated with the mullahs for years and helped them cover up their crime against humanity.”

“I urge the people of Europe to question their governments about their continued relations with a regime whose rule relies on genocide. Now, the mullahs’ deceptions have become transparent for the world. As if the massacred political prisoners and all the 120.000 executed martyrs have become an issue again. We urge the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to form an independent inquiry committee to investigate the 1988 massacre”, she added.

Mrs Rajavi emphasised the importance of putting human rights at the centre of any policy toward Iran and said, “European governments must at least make their trade and diplomatic relations with the Iranian regime contingent on an end to torture and executions. So long as the mullahs sense that they have a free hand in human rights violations in Iran, they will continue their warmongering and aggressions in the Middle East. And so long as the mullahs continue their belligerence in the region, global security and peace will be endangered including in Europe”.

Sir David Amess, Conservative MP and co-chairman of the British Committee for Iran Freedom (BCFIF), said, “29 years on from the massacre the perpetrators have still not answered for their crime. Many of them are instead holding senior and ministerial positions in Iran.

“The issue of Justice for the victims and holding the perpetrators of this atrocity responsible was and will be one of the main demands of the Iranian society and Iranian diaspora. I can confidently say that this demand has also a widespread, cross-party support in both Houses of Parliament, as 80 MPs signed a parliamentary motion on this issue that I tabled last year”, he added.

In her remarks, the Rt Hon. Theresa Villiers, Conservative MP and former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said, “The focus of the rally on Saturday is the mass killings which took place in 1988 … Thousands of political prisoners were executed without trial… I will continue to work with the British Iranian community in my constituency to highlight the issue of human rights abuses in Iran, and want more people to know what happened so those responsible can be brought to justice.”

Struan Stevenson, president of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA) and member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999-2014), criticised the decision by the EU Foreign Policy Chief to attend the inauguration of President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran in August.

“Mogherini’s presence at the ceremony delivered a massive PR scoop for Tehran’s turbaned tyrants. Rouhani has been hailed in the West as a moderate and a reformist, despite the fact that more than 3,500 people, including 80 women, have been executed during the four years he has been in office, catapulting Iran into pole position as the world’s number one state executioner per capita. 700 people have been executed so far this year, including women and teenagers”, he added.

Professor Mohamed al-Qubaty, Minister of Tourism of Yemen, said, “I understand your frustration over the impunity that the international community has provided the regime in Tehran. The same Iranian officials that executed 30,000 innocent people in prisons across Iran 29 years ago are now behind the chaos in Yemen by killing and supporting terrorism and Sectarian policy.”

Other speakers who addressed the rally included: Margaret Owen OBE, renowned international women’s rights activist, UK barrister and the Director of Widows for Peace through Democracy; Jeffery Forrest, lawyer and human rights activist; Mark Williams, former Liberal Democrat MP for Ceredigion (2005-2017); Dr Reza al-Reza; Dr Taghleb Alrahabi, Syrian surgeon and human rights activist; Roberto Weeden-Sanz, Director of the Youth Organisation, One Young World; Roger Lyons, former General Secretary of Amicus; and Sapan Maini-Thompson, Labour party and human rights activist.

The National Council Resistance of Iran – UK Office
02 September 2017

Iran Roads in Critical Conditions

By NCRI Staff

NCRI - An intercity bus carrying schoolgirls was overturned in Iran’s southern province of Fars on Friday, September 1, following which the state media reported on dozens of schoolgirls being killed or wounded.

“The number of casualties of the bus crash reaches 16”, said Iran’s head of Emergency’s Operations Department, adding “there are also 13 schoolgirls in critical conditions, so it’s possible that the death toll rises. 33 schoolgirls were wounded in the accident.” The schoolgirls were to participate in a conference of talented students in Shiraz, reported the Associated Press news agency, adding “with nearly 17000 annual deaths due to road accidents, Iran has one of the world’s worst traffic safety records. Many Iranians lose their lives each year due to road and traffic-related accidents, so that traffic accidents are one of the main causes of death in Iran.”

In addition to road fatalities, traffic injuries could also bring about heavy social, cultural, and economic damages.

“Road traffic accidents are the third cause of death in the country so that one Iranian dies every 33 minutes due to such accidents”, says Iraj Harirchi, regime’s Deputy Healthcare Minister.

Acknowledging Iran’s poor ranking with regard to traffic safety records, Harirchi added “the number of wounded in the country’s road accidents is 20 times higher than the number of deaths.”

According to state media, Iran is ranked eight regarding the traffic-related casualties, with only six African countries and one Asian one being in worse conditions.

“You’ll find few Iranians who have not lost a first or second degree relative in road accidents”, writes state-run Shahrvand news paper on April 13, 2015.

According to state-run Alef website, Iran’s poor traffic safety record has caused the World Bank to refer in its review to Iran’s road traffic accidents, describing it as critical. (State-run Alef website, July 6, 2015)

Unsafe roads and low quality vehicles are the main reasons behind Iran’s increased road accident fatalities.

Pointing to Iran’s lack of road maintenance and investment on improving road safety, Rouhani’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development ‘Abbas Akhundi’ says “very little investment has been made over the past ten years over road maintenance. That’s why more than 40 percent of the country’s roads are in poor conditions, while billions of dollars is needed to resurface all asphalt roads.”

With necessary measures disregarded during road construction, many of the country’s roads are non-standard, lacking enough capacity to meet high traffic density.

With the country’s major road construction companies belonging to regime officials, the only thing they care about is plundering national wealth and making more profits, while road quality is none of their concerns. So, many of the country’s roads are so poorly built that they totally wear out within two years after construction, thereby leading to road accidents.

Meanwhile, the country’s rural roads have much more problems compared to urban ones. Most rural side roads need leveling and sanding while the main rural roads need to be repaired and asphalted.
The conditions of rural roads in many parts of the country are so poor that it would be impossible to access them in such adverse weather conditions like heavy rain, storm, strong wind, or fog. As a result, these areas are disconnected in different seasons from main roads and big cities, leaving drivers passing through them totally stranded.

In the northern province of Gilan, for instance, with higher living standards compared to other provinces, the conditions of rural roads are so bad that regime’s chief of police in Gilan is forced to acknowledge that “non-standard roads is one of the problems in province’s rural areas.” (State-run IRNA news agency, July 16, 2017)

A big problem on roads is lack of adequate lighting. In addition to that, shortage or lack of road signs and non-luminosity of many of them, non-existing or faulty guardrails, using guardrails that lack absorption and deflection capability, lack of equipment that separates opposing flows of traffic, damaged asphalts, and flooded routes, are also among the problems that have made country’s roads unsafe. Nonetheless, the regime has done nothing regarding constructing new roads or improving the old ones, widening narrow roads, or installing proper signs on country’s roads and routes.

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Iranian regimes state sponsor terrorism

Dr. Ibrahim Al-Othaimin

Al Arabyia, 2 September 2017 - According to an English idiom “actions speak louder than words”, and despite Iran’s words of denial and evasion, it is still playing a key role in stoking the fuel of unrest in the region by continuing to finance terrorism.

Through money laundering operations worth billions of dollars run by fake companies across the Middle East, the Caucasus, South Korea, and the Caribbean, Iran has managed to circumvent the sanctions placed upon it and to spend billions of dollars on terrorist organizations in the region. Its support of armed militia in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and Gaza has turned the region into a hotbed of blood and destruction.

In 2016, for the third year in a row, the Basel AML Index, issued by the Basel Institute on Governance, ranked Iran as No. 1 in the world in terms of money laundering and terrorist financing, out of 149 countries surveyed. In September 2016, President Hassan Rohani’s government signed the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) agreement.

FATF is a pioneering organization which has been fighting the financing of money laundering and terrorism for the last 20 years, having been established by the G-7 Summit in Paris in 1989. The organization set a 12-month deadline for Iran to change its behavior and warned that if the terms of the resolution were violated, it would be placed on the list of countries that support terrorism.

“It is essential that the international community should take a firmer position to address Iranian terrorism and cut off the sources through which it is able to fund terrorist organizations”

Dr. Ibrahim Al-Othaimin

Military intervention

Heated debate between the government and the Revolutionary Guards is going on inside Iran following the signing of the agreement, as the Guards argue that it will destabilize their overseas activities that rely on money laundering for funding, as well as undermining the financing of Iran’s military intervention in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, and pro-Iranian militia around the world.

However, the government’s need to support its economy forced it to sign the agreement in a bid to lift the banking and remittance sanctions imposed on Iran. It also hoped that the signing of the agreement would pave the way to resuming the still-frozen remittances between Iranian banks and the international and regional financial institutions.

When the resolution targeted some transactions that were suspected to have been conducted by individuals close to the top hierarchy of the regime and institutions of the Revolutionary Guards in Iranian banks, leaders of the Revolutionary Guards worked on freezing and circumventing the resolution.

In July 2017, one year after signing the agreement, FATF issued a statement warning against financial dealings with Iran due to its continued involvement in money laundering to finance terrorism, and because it had not taken adequate measures to combat such activities. The statement called on member states to advise their financial institutions to scrutinize any transactions with Iran carefully.

It is essential that the international community should take a firmer position to address Iranian terrorism and cut off the sources through which it is able to fund terrorist organizations. Iran will not desist from money laundering and be financing terrorism unless the approach of its political system and its foreign policy pattern is changed.

According to reports from international organizations Iran’s illicit activities are still ongoing, and the country is still at the forefront of state sponsored terrorism.

Iran Human Rights Monitor, monthly report

The number of arrests registered in the month of August was at least 220 including 127 social arrests, 22 political arrests and 70 arrests on religious grounds.

Introduction 

Iran Human Rights Monitor, September 2, 2017 - August was marked with numerous cases of human rights abuses. In this report, we will draw your attention to a brief summary of these issues.
One of the main cases of human rights violations was the brutal and humiliating transfer of political prisoners of Gohardasht Prison to Hall 10 which has led to an ongoing hunger strike

The executions recorded by Iran Human Rights Monitor has reached at least 55 in the month of August.

They include four which were carried out in public, and two instances of mass executions involving groups of seven and 11.
The execution of a young man who was arrested as a child, Alireza Tajiki, attracted the attention of human rights communities.
At least 20 arbitrary murders by the state forces have been registered.
Border guards continued targeting porters resulted in the deaths of dozens of deprived porters. A fruit peddler was also killed in cold blood by the municipality agents as he was beaten and his head hit the ground.
Arbitrary shooting of religious minorities led to the death of a young Sunni man.

 Executions, Arbitrary murders, Deaths in Custody

The number of executions registered by Iran Human Rights Monitor in the month of August alone has surpassed 55. These figures do not include secret executions and the actual figures must be considerably higher.
Many of those transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for their deaths had their executions scheduled then postponed or stayed at the last minute on multiple occasions, adding to their torment.
Mehdi Bohlouli, who was only a child at the time of the crime was transferred to solitary confinement on August 14 in preparation of his execution along with seven others. It was the fourth time he had been taken for execution. His death sentence had been halted on previous scheduled dates before.

 

  Among the executed, six were under the age of 20 at the time of their arrests.

Alireza Tajiki who was just 15 at the time of his arrest was executed on August 10, 2017. He was sentenced to death in April 2013 after a criminal court in Fars Province , southern Iran, convicted him of murder and lavat-e be-onf (male on male rape). The trial was grossly unfair and relied primarily on “confessions” which Alireza Tajiki has said where extracted through torture, including severe beatings, floggings, and suspension by arms and feet.
The 55 executions include four which were carried out in public, and two instances of mass executions involving groups of seven and 11. Six executions were made public by the state media.
Seyed Jamal Mousavi, a Sunni Kurdish political prisoner, was executed on August 23 on the bogus charge of moharebe (enmity against God) for having contact with Sunni groups. He had endured nine years behind bars.

 Arbitrary murders

According to reports released by Iran Human Rights Monitor, at least 20 arbitrary murdrs were carried out this month.
Border guards continued targeting porters resulted in the deaths of dozens of deprived porters. Many of those killed or wounded are deprived porters under the age of 18.
On the night of August 20, security forces targeted and shot a Kurd porter. He was identified as 17-year-old Vahid Dolatkhah Janikanlo. According to an informed source, he was severely wounded and died at the hospital from the severity of his wounds.
 In yet another case on Saturday, August 12, a fruit peddler was killed in cold blood by the municipality agents as he was beaten and his head hit the ground, an eyewitness said. He had already accepted to pack his stuff and go home when the municipality agents arrived, but he was attacked, insulted and beaten by them and his head hit the ground while he was preventing them to confiscate his car, His brother explained in a video clip shared on social media.

       Arrests

 

The number of arrests registered in the month of August was at least 220 including 127 social arrests, 22 political arrests and 70 arrests on religious grounds.

 

   Inhumane treatment and cruel punishments

There were cases of physical torture and flogging in August.
The State Security Forces publicly flogging a man in Torbat-e Jam in in Khorasan Province for drinking liquor. Click here to watch the video clip.
A Baluchi prisoner had a row with a security guard during which the guard hit the man with a metal seal and broke his leg.

Prison Conditions

On July 30, the Warden of Rajaii Shahr Prison along with special execution guards known as Black Masks, attacked Hall 12 of Ward 4, beating prisoners there and damaging their belongings.
The prisoners were subsequently transferred to Hall 10 located in the maximum-security section used for detention of prisoners affiliated with ISIS and al-Qaeda.
More than 60 surveillance devices and 40 closed-circuit cameras have been installed in this hall. CCTV cameras have been installed even in toilets and bathrooms, denying the prisoners their minimum privacy rights.
All openings and windows have been covered and sealed with metal sheets.
At least 20 prisoners have gone on hunger strike, protesting this transfer and the inhuman conditions they have been forced to endure.
In an apparent attempt to punish the prisoners, some of the prisoners were transferred to solitary confinement with handcuffs and shackles.
Hunger striking prisoners include Saeid Shirzad, Khaled Hardani, Ebrahim Firouzi, Vahid Nasiri, Payam Shakiba, Majid Assadi, Reza Shahabi, Hamid Babaei, Mohammad Nazari, Hassan Sadeghi, Reza Akbari Monfared, Abolghasem Fuladvand, Mohammad Bannazadeh Amirkhizi, Shahin Zoghi, Arash Ghaziani, Saeid Masuri, Mohammad Ali Mansouri, Jafar Eghdami and Saeid Pourheydar.
Prisoners are in critical health conditions. Some of them can barely stand on their feet and repeatedly fainted during visitation. They also strongly shake due to weakness despite hot summer.
Some of the hunger strikers urgently need special medical care outside of the prison but the head of the prison is refusing to authorize their transfer to hospitals.
Despite an international wave of support for the demands of hunger striking political prisoners, Tehran’s prosecutor declared on August 22 that the judiciary will not “surrender” to the prisoners’ hunger strike.
The state-run Mehr news agency cited Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as saying, “We declare to some prisoners who have gone on hunger strike or launched other threats that such measures are doomed to fail. The Judiciary will not surrender to such affairs. The punishment of prisoners must be fully implemented. We are not supposed to be affected by some prisoners’ actions, including hunger strikes.”

Iran: A regime with no future

Ali Khamenei

By: Shahriar Kia (Political analyst) 

Alriadh Daily, 04 September 2017 - The cabinet ministers of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani received a confidence vote recently in this regime’s parliament. 16 out of 17 ministers were approved after many reports indicated Rouhani reviewed the list extensively with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

However, an evaluation of this slate of names proves this cabinet will render no alternations and represents the very impasse the entire regime is facing. The next four years will, in fact, be worse than the previous.

Foreign Affairs

Mohammad Javad Zarif has retained his post as foreign minister, considering his role in negotiating the nuclear agreement with the P5+1, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Despite Iran’s threats of relaunching its nuclear drive in the case of US President Donald Trump finding the regime in non-compliance with the JCPOA, Rouhani himself has gone the limits to explain the importance of this pact for Tehran.

“My first priority is to safeguard the JCPOA. The main role of our foreign minister is to stand alongside this deal,” he explained.

Although the deal is rightfully criticized for its loopholes and shortages, Iran understands very well how the current circumstances would be far worse.

While claiming the ability to kick-start 20% uranium enrichment in a matter of days, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization chief Ali Akbar Salehi made a complete U-turn in emphasizing Tehran’s willingness to stick to the deal in the case of Washington deciding to leave come October.

Such desperate remarks from Iran are made despite the US increasing the heat with new comprehensive sanctions specifically targeting the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). Further measures are seen following the Vienna visit by Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the UN, demanding Iran open its military sites to inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Pressures escalated on Iran as international experts such as former IAEA deputy Olli Heinonen and former IAEA inspector David Albright, alongside three other specialists issued a report explaining how the UN nuclear watchdog lacks the necessary tools to probe possible JCPOA violations by Iran.

These experts specifically referred to the highly controversial Parchin military complex located 30 kilometers southeast of Tehran. Iran only agreed to provide samples extracted by its own experts and continues to refuse access to foreign individuals.

Defense

The new Iranian defense minister is Amir Hatami. Rumors indicate Rouhani and Khamenei have chosen this member of Iran’s classic army due to their fear the IRGC being blacklisted as a terrorist entity.

It is worth noting, however, that Hatami joined the IRGC Basij paramilitary force at the age of 13 and has announced his utter loyalty to the IRGC Quds Force and its ringleader, Qassem Suleimani.

The solution Hatami provides to confront the regime’s slate of crises is focused mainly on developing Iran’s ballistic missile program.

“During this period we will expand our missile capabilities, especially ballistic and cruise missiles,” he explained recently.

This is another indication of a policy based on developing missile power, dispatching IRGC and Basij members abroad, and fueling foreign wars. This is a continuation of Tehran’s four-decade long policy of spilling its own turmoil abroad through lethal meddling.

Hatami also enjoys Rouhani’s complete blessing in providing full support for the IRGC.

“He is fully informed of the Defense Ministry and its agenda. My particular request is for an increase in developing particular weapons, especially missiles, considering their importance,” Rouhani explained in recent remarks.

Again, more of the same.

Economics

Iran’s regime is heavily dependent on oil exports revenues. Bijan Namdar Zangeneh has been called upon to continue his role as oil minister, remaining the longest running individual in this post.

A minister for 26 years there are questions over any meaningful development and changes for the better in the country’s oil and gas sector. Iran is now riddled with mismanaged oil wells, uncontrolled extractions and contracts with foreign companies that literally sell-off the Iranian people’s interests.

According to Rouhani’s own remarks, this regime is in desperate need of $200 billion of foreign investment for its oil and gas industry. Two years into the JCPOA, Iran has received only $12 billion in such deals.

The deal signed with France’s Total, valued at $4.8 billion, comes with numerous strings attached and is under the continued risk of US sanctions.

What needs comprehension is the fact that investing in Iran is an economic issue at a first glance, with countless political reservations. No foreign investor is willing to risk money in a country ruled by a regime known for its ongoing warmongering, exporting terrorism, and provoking confrontations throughout the Middle East and across the globe, such as its nuclear/ballistic missile collaboration with North Korea.

Conclusion

All those having their fingers crossed in Rouhani, being provided a second term by Khamenei, are already being disappointed. July witnessed over 100 executions and over 50 others have been sent to the gallows in August. This includes a 20-year-old man arrested at the age of 15 for his alleged crime. Another recent case involved a hanging on August 28th in a prison west of Tehran.

All foreign correspondents are realizing no change is foreseeable from within this regime. The main message of Rouhani’s new cabinet is this regime’s lack of any capacity for any meaningful modification or amendment.

Any entity lacking the ability to change and adapt has no future.