Mattis will discuss Iran arms smuggling into Yemen on Oman trip 3/12/2018 5:08:21 AM

Mattis will discuss Iran arms smuggling into Yemen on Oman trip
3/12/2018 5:08:21 AM

Mattis emphasised past and ongoing international efforts to interject Iranian shipments to the Houthis French, Australian and US Navy forces in the area.
The National- 12 Mach 2018- US Defense Secretary James Mattis has arrived in Oman and will meet Sultan Qaboos on Monday, with the pair set to discuss a packed agenda that includes arms trafficking into Yemen, defence relations and counterterrorism.

On his first trip to Oman as Pentagon chief, Mr Mattis said in a gaggle with reporters on Sunday that he will “find out” from his Omani counterparts “how they assess any [arms] trafficking that’s going on at all [into Yemen].”

Asked by a reporter if Oman is either looking the other way or being complicit in providing weapons or allowing weapons to go through the porous border into Yemen, Mr Mattis said that the Omanis “have been on the record that they want to see this civil war stopped for obvious reasons.”

These reasons, Mr Mattis explained, entail counterterrorism and mutual security concerns. “I’m going there to listen, like I started off with, and find out how they assess any trafficking that’s going on at all. What is their assessment? What is their view of routes and that sort of thing?” Mr Mattis said.

He also emphasised past and ongoing international efforts to interject Iranian shipments to the Houthis by French, Australian and US Navy forces in the area.

“I will be going in to talk to the Sultan, who obviously has a keen role in all of this, because he’s got a border with this country. And so I need to go in and find out how they assess it”, he added.

The EU-funded organisation Conflict Armament Research (CAR) issued a report last Spring that points to Oman as a major route by land and sea for Iran to transfer arms to Houthis.

Iran Detains 35 Women Attempting to Attend Football Game

Iran Detains 35 Women Attempting to Attend Football Game02 March 2018

Iran Focus

London, 02 Mar - Iran has detained 35 women for attempting to attend a football match on Thursday, March 1.

The match, between Tehran teams Esteqlal and Persepolis at the Azadi (Freedom) stadium, was being attended by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, and Iranian Sport Minister Masoud Soltanifar, which is why women's rights activists called for female football fans to attend.

They believed that this protest against the sexist ban on women attending men’s football games, which has been in place since the mullahs took power in 1979, would have extra prominence with Infantino there and attract the FIFA chief’s attention to the issue.

Women’s rights activists stated that the ban was an infringement of women’s basic rights, mocked the hypocrisy of "naming a stadium freedom but banning half the population from entering", and said the protest was "the best chance to break the [39]-year-old taboo".

Iran’s Response

Seyyed Salman Samani, an Iranian interior ministry spokesman, said that these women were not arrested, but transferred to a "proper place" by police, temporarily held, and released after the match.

However, earlier reports said that two women were held.

When a journalist asked Soltanifar, who was stood next to Infantino, when women would be allowed to attend football matches, their live broadcast was immediately taken off the air.

Previous Incidences

This is far from the first time that Iran has prevented women from attending football matches, even with the eyes of the world on them.

Back in September 2017, women protested outside Azadi Stadium because they were not allowed in to see Iran's World Cup qualifier against Syria, despite having pre-ordered tickets.

One female football fan tweeted: "They did not let us in the stadium, took pictures and videos of us and threatened to arrest us. They then collected our tickets and took them away."

To add insult to injury, female Syrian football fans were allowed in. Some police officers who felt bad for the women, even recommended that the women carry a Syrian flag to try to enter.

These women’s tickets, which has been sold the previous week, were issued by mistake according to Iran's football federation, who offered to refund the tickets.

Portuguese Socialist MEP Ana Gomes' Support of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Portuguese Socialist MEP Ana Gomes' Support of the Islamic Republic of Iran03 March 2018



Iran Focus

London, 03 Mar - In a shocking speech at the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee’s February 22nd meeting in Brussels, Portuguese Socialist MEP Ana Gomes criticized the Iranian opposition.

“I met with relatives of the victims of a terrorist organization called MEK,” she said in the meeting. She added, “We cannot continue to allow some members of this parliament, possibly out of naiveté, to continue to abet some of the members of this organization.”

On twitter and social media, Ms. Gomes has been displaying photos of her Tehran visit — raising questions about how she was allowed to spend so much time with the “terror victims,” while her colleagues in the same European delegation were denied contact with lawyers and relatives of political prisoners.

In fact, MEP Lars Adaktusson told Swedish radio that during his pre-arranged meeting with the lawyer and mother of Swedish-Iranian doctor Ahmadreza Jalali, who is currently on death row, at their hotel in Tehran, “We were just beginning our conversation when two people from the regime’s security officials intervened and stopped the meeting.” Adaktusson added that the lawyer was forced to leave the hotel.

Ms Gomes accused other members of the European Parliament of “naiveté” for supporting the Iranian opposition. Yet, her claims are shocking because European and American courts rejected the terrorist designation of the Iranian opposition several years ago. The designation had originally been imposed by then US president Bill Clinton at the behest of Tehran; it was later removed by his wife, former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

The only state that currently calls MEK as terrorist is the Iranian government. Leaders of the regime have blamed the recent nationwide uprisings in Iran on the MEK, and called for the execution of those arrested as protest leaders.

Habilian Association, said to be an affiliate of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), published a report about the visit of European lawmakers. Habilian, said that its Secretary General, Mohammad Javad Hasheminejad, was the only non-parliamentarian speaker at a joint meeting between the visiting members of the European Parliament and Iranian MPs on February 14th, 2018.

Hasheminejad criticized the visits of Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi to the European Parliament. He held a separate meeting with Ana Gomes in which he “praised her brave stance against the MEK,” adding that “she welcomed Habilian’s proposals for more collaboration in future.”

Russia's Veto Against Iran's Supply of Weapons Is "The Rationale of a War Trader"

Terrorism

04 March 2018

 

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Iran Focus

London, 04 Mar - Russia vetoed the resolution put forth by The Security Council. The resolution would prevent Iran from providing the Houthis with weapons.

“I hope that GCC countries will deal seriously with this Russian decision. It is time to link our economic strength with our security interests, either by suspending our business deals, or by canceling them. What is important is that the international community should know that we will not accept what undermines our security,” writes Bahraini writer and journalist Sawsan Al Shaer in an article for Al Arabiya.

Cooperating with Russia to have a diversified security and prevent abuse of monopoly in our alliances were good decisions, and should be linked with trade agreements as well.

However, Al Shaer writes, “The world must take steps against countries like Iran for providing militias with weapons,” and Russia has a strong bias towards Iran that threatens the security of all the Gulf countries.

Iran fighting through its proxies, and by supplying weapons to its agents in Yemen. Supplying militias with weapons “makes it impossible for them to merge with the state, which in turn makes it impossible for these countries to have stability. The threat to its neighbors is also heightened because these militias cannot be brought under the ambit of international conventions and treaties. Therefore, the world must take steps against countries providing militias with weapons,” Al Shaer continues.

Although Houthis are not a regular army, the state in Yemen has been overtaken by Houthi militia, and so Yemen is threatened by a militia that contravenes any form of legitimacy. The internal conflicts of Yemen threaten the entire region. Iran is reported to supply the missiles the the Houthis launch at Saudi Arabia.

Al Shaer wonders how Russia can justify its veto, which totally violates security, and asks, “Is the veto Russia used to thwart condemnation of the Syrian regime, when it bombed al-Ghouta, not enough?”

Russia’s veto is completely against the GCC’s interests and security. Russia should be asked to clarify its position. It sells weapons to the GCC, even as it sells weapons through Iran to militias that are threats. It vetoes a move to prevent it from selling the weapons.

According to Al Shaer, “This is the rationale of a war trader and not of a state that builds international relations on a sound and sustainable premise.”

US Criticises Iran Over SyriaSyria

US Criticises Iran Over SyriaSyria 05 March 2018


Iran Focus

London, 05 Mar - The White House has condemned the Syrian slaughter inside Eastern Ghouta, saying in a statement released on Sunday that the Syria, which was backed by the Iran and Russia, are killing “innocent civilians under the false auspices of counterterrorism operations.”

Eastern Ghouta, an area held by the Syrian Resistance forces, has been under siege from the Syria since 2013 and daily bombardments for months now.

Over the past two weeks, over 600 civilians from the city have been killed; a huge percentage of the 400,000 residents. On top of that, the United Nations reports that 15,000 people have been forced to leave their homes since January, with the majority staying in shelters and basements around Ghouta.

Meanwhile deliveries of aid have been increasingly restricted, with the last one arriving to help 7,000 people on February 14 in Nashabiyah, an area now under Syria control.

The Axis forces, which is how the Iran describes itself, Russia, and Syria, accused the rebels of stopping civilians from leaving, but the Syrian Resistance explain that the Syria is trying to forcibly displace the population and called on Assad, Iran, and Russia to implement a full cease-fire adopted by the U.N. Security Council.

The Axis forces see these attacks as evidence that the Syria and Assad will emerge victorious from the seven-year civil war, in which the Syria has used chemical weapons continually against civilians in rebel-held areas.

Iran in Syria

Iran has been involved in the Syrian civil war since its start in 2011, desperately worried that if the Syrian dictatorship is allowed to fall, the Iranian one will be next. Thus, Iran has deployed its proxy forces, including the terrorist Hezbollah, to fight in Syria on Assad’s behalf.

Gonabadi Dervish Dies in Iranian Jail During Beating in Interrogation

Gonabadi Dervish Dies in Iranian Jail During Beating in Interrogation05 March 2018


Iran Focus
London, 05 Mar - A member of the Gonabadi dervishes (religious group) has died in prison in Iran, the latest of several suspicious deaths in custody in 2018.

The death of Mohammad Raji, who was arrested on Tuesday, February 20, was confirmed by his daughter Tayyebeh.

Tayyebeh reported on Sunday, March 4, that the Iranian authorities had told her that her father had fallen into a coma after being hit, but expressed doubts about the truthfulness of that statement.

She said that he was seriously injured and in a critical condition when his family saw him in detention. After that, the family never saw him again.

Tayyebeh said: “If my father had really gone into a coma, we were entitled to immediately be informed and allowed to visit him; that’s the least right a citizen expects to be respected by the authorities.”

The body of Raji, an Iran-Iraq war veteran who was suffering from conditions that arose from an Iraqi chemical attack, has not even been released to his family yet, which raises more suspicions.

Majzooban Nour, a dervish news website, reported earlier that Raji had died in police custody whilst being beaten during interrogation.

Tehran’s Public and Revolutionary Court Prosecutor-General, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, admitted that Raji died in custody, but denied any wrongdoing by the Iranian authorities.

Tayyebeh said that when her 22-year old brother went looking for their father after his arrest, he was also detained.

Protests

French FM Visits Iran to Talk Ballistic Missiles and Syria

French FM Visits Iran to Talk Ballistic Missiles and Syria05 March 2018


Iran Focus

London, 05 Mar - The French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, has arrived in Iran to talk with the country's president Hassan Rouhani, Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and the Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, according to Iranian state TV.

Talks are expected to focus on Iran’s involvement in the Syrian Civil war and Iran's ballistic missile program, which both Le Drian and French President Emmanuel Macron have criticized Iran's missile program in recent weeks, with Le Drian stating that Iran's ballistic missile capacity worried France “enormously".

In response to Iranian claims that their ballistic missile program is peaceful, Le Drian said: "Having such tools is not uniquely defensive, given the distance they can reach."

The French Foreign Ministry even issued a statement ahead of the trip, which said Le Drian would pursue "a frank and demanding dialogue with Iran".

Iran has dismissed Le Drian’s legitimate concerns, with Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, a spokesman for Iran's armed forces, saying that foreigners had no right to express a view on Iran’s defence.

However, recent evidence from the United Nations, which confirms what Saudi Arabia and the US had already said, shows that Iran has been allowing these ‘peaceful’ weapons to fall into the hand of the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen who fired a series of missiles at Saudi Arabia, in violation of two UN resolutions.

Syria

Macron also wants an accord to limit Iran’s regional meddling, including their warfare on behalf of the Bashar Assad in Syria, where many Iranian proxy groups are fighting.

Nuclear deal

This one-day trip is also seen as evidence of the balancing act that France and other European nations find themselves in, following Donald Trump’s promise to withdraw the US from the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal if major flaws aren’t fixed.

Despite French leaders’ criticism over the missile program, French companies, including oil giant Total SA, have entered into deals with Iranian companies. This complicates France’s ability to advocate for sanctions on Iran, but it is important for France to remember that the majority of the Iranian economy is controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, a paramilitary force that answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and so any additional investments are likely funding terrorism and human rights violations.

Iranian People's Tolerance Towards the Ruling Regime Is Running Out

Iranian People's Tolerance Towards the Ruling Regime Is Running Out
Monday, 05 March 2018 19:36


NCRI Staff

NCRI - You could barely find a single day on which state officials or media are not warning over Iranian people’s losing patience with the ruling regime.

Sadegh Zibakalam, a university lecturer close to Rouhani says “many say that it’s no use trying to put the regime right as the system is incapable of being improved. I keep being criticized and attacked by many, accusing me of attempting to prevent the regime from being collapsed.”

State-run EtemadOnline website on February 27, 2018, reports on the problems and sufferings of poverty-stricken people who are fed up with the regime, writing “today, my fellow citizens are cheerless. They’re discontent, tired and full of complaints. It looks like a witch has secretly cast a spell on them. What’s really under the skin of people’s hardships and behind the scenes of our endless tragic series? The officials need to roll out a new plan as soon as possible and rise up against people’s sources of difficulties and unrest. The officials have to believe that people are losing their patience.”

Hossein Raghfar, an economist close to Rouhani, acknowledges that the society is pregnant with events which are the result of policies that have stripped the country of its social assets and pushed the society towards an explosive state, saying “these are just part of consequences of structural adjustment policies that have driven the society to a point of disintegration.” (State-run Fararou website, February 26, 2018)

Meanwhile, Shahindokht Molaverdi, Hassan Rouhani’s Special Assistant, acknowledges in a different way the society’s explosive capacity and people’s hatred for the ruling regime, saying “the most important gap in our society today is the one between the government and people. We need to figure out how to use such discussions to reduce such gaps rather than causing them to grow even deeper.” (State-run Khabaronline website, February 27, 2018)

As could be seen, every regime official is worried about the society’s eruptive state and the ruling regime’s fate, while such recommendations like “devising a new plan”, “not to let people down” or “closing the gaps” only serve to prove the point.

Iran: Maryam Rajavi Commemorates Dr. Mosaddegh

Iran: Maryam Rajavi Commemorates Dr. Mosaddegh
Monday, 05 March 2018 18:55


NCRI Staff

NCRI - The President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi,, pledged to continue the fight for freedom in Iran in a speech marking the anniversary of the death of Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh, leader of Iran’s Nationalist Movement.

Mosaddegh, who died in March 1967, was a bold advocate for the rights of the Iranian people and Iranian national interests. His government not only represented an unwavering struggle for freedom and independence, but it was also free from corruption and tyranny. All in all, a far cry from the rulers of Iran today.

Indeed, when Ruhollah Khomeini took over as Supreme Leader, the mullahs reversed Mosaddegh’s good work; especially his nationalisation on Iran’s Oil Industry, which had ended Iran’s dependence on oil revenues.

After Khomeini stole power, he said: “Our path is not the path of oil… Oil nationalization is not an issue for us. It is wrong… to set Islam aside and praise someone who has nationalized the oil.”

He then squandered Iran’s oil and put it on sale.

Maryam Rajavi said: “Khomeini and his heirs resent Mosaddegh not only for his brilliant victory in nationalizing the oil, but for the valuable steps he took to put an end to despotism, corruption and poverty and bring democracy to the various realms of life in Iran. He threaded a road which was totally different from those of the Shah and Khomeini.”

Bahrain Says Raids Shut Down Militant Network Created by Iran and Arrests 116 Terrorists

Bahrain Says Raids Shut Down Militant Network Created by Iran and Arrests 116 Terrorists

Sunday, 04 March 2018




March 03, 2018. Authorities in the kingdom of Bahrain say they have arrested 116 members of an armed militant network that was established and supported by Iranian regime.

The Interior Ministry said the alleged militants planned to “target Bahraini officials, members of the security authorities, and vital oil installations with the objective of disturbing public security and harming the national economy.”

"Comprehensive investigations revealed the suspected terrorists were members of a network formed and supported by” Iran regime’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the ministry said in a statement.

It said 48 of those detained had received training in camps belonging to Iran's IRGC and its armed wings in Iraq and Lebanon.

It said the IRGC and its affiliates, the Shi’ite militias Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq in Iraq and Hizballah in Lebanon, supported and financed the organization.

The Interior Ministry said police also seized explosives and weapons in their raids, including automatic assault rifles, pistols, magnetic bombs, and grenades.

It did not say when the arrests had been ma

Strike and Clashes at Iran's Major Sugarcane Factory

Strike and Clashes at Iran's Major Sugarcane Factory
Sunday, 04 March 2018 16:25


Iran uprising Iran-No. 98

Workers from various sections of Haft-Tapeh Sugarcane Factory have gone on strike since Saturday morning, March 3, in protest against the failure to pay their salary and annual bonus, and the return of the corrupt managers to their previous posts. The factory's retired workers also participated in this protest move.

In their protest to the management’s inattention and not being responsible, the workers of the factory prevented company's major shareholders, Rostami and Seifouri, from leaving the premises and transferred them to the management building.

Following the talks between the workers and Rostami and Seifouri, they finally announced that they would only pay two million and five hundred thousand tomans out of 50 to 70 million tomans of their debt to the workers and they would pay the rest in November 2018. This answer, which had no meaning but to dodge the problem of the workers, made the workers furious who refused to accept it.

Subsequently, Seifouri tore up the 25-kilo sugar draft that was allocated to the workers. This move provoked the workers' anger further and they smashed the windows of the management building. It was followed by the intervention of repressive security forces who came to the site, and the said managers fled the building.

The catastrophic situation of the deprived workers of this massive industry is the direct result of the regime’s officials’ seizing control over sugarcane industry. Government clerics have been importing sugar instead of improving this industry, which was once one of the major sources for the country’s revenues. Consequently, the sugarcane industry workers, including the Haft-Tapeh sugarcane workers, have not received salaries for several months despite their hard work, and the overwhelming pressure

French Foreign Minister Says Iran Needs to Address Concerns Over Missile Program

French Foreign Minister Says Iran Needs to Address Concerns Over Missile Program
Sunday, 04 March 2018 16:32


Ahead of a visit to Tehran on Monday, France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Iran needed to address international concerns over its ballistic missile program or it risked new sanctions.

"There are programs for missiles that can travel several thousand kilometers, which are not compatible with UN Security Council resolutions and which exceed the needs of defending Iran's borders," Jean-Yves Le Drian told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

"If not tackled head on, this country risks new sanctions," he added.

The foreign ministry said in a statement that France also wants Iran to start contributing in a “positive” manner to resolving the crises in the Middle East.

“In this regard, the crisis in Syria and the humanitarian situation there will particularly be discussed, along with other regional issues where Iran is involved (such as Yemen, Libya and Iraq),” the ministry said.

The comments came the same day that Iran's armed forces spokesman said there could be no talks on the country's missile program without the West's destruction of its own nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

A Close Look At Iran's Budget

A Close Look At Iran's Budget


Heshmat Alavi , CONTRIBUTOR Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.


Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivers a speech to muslims leaders and scholars at a meeting in Hyderabad on February 15, 2018. The Iranian president in on a three-day official visit to India. / AFP PHOTO / NOAH SEELAM (NOAH SEELAM/AFP/Getty Images)

A country’s budget is the government’s fiscal plan for that state for a period of 12 months. All the country’s revenue and resources to provide credit are forecasted, placed alongside anticipated costs and expenses. The intention of this piece is to provide a much-needed close examination of Iran’s budget.

Iran’s next fiscal budget (from March 2018 to March 2019) is equal to around $350 billion. How is this money provided for? In general, Iran’s budget is funded through oil, taxes, increasing bonds and eliminating cash handouts or subsidies.

Oil, a natural resource belonging to the Iranian people, is currently being plundered by the ruling mullahs for foreign expenditures.
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New satellite photos show Iran establishing another base in Syria http://fxn.ws/2ovDz99
7:40 AM - Feb 28, 2018


New satellite photos show Iran establishing another base in Syria

The US Must Act on Iran's Human Rights

The US Must Act on Iran's Human Rights Abuses01 March 2018


Iran Focus
London, 01 Mar - The United Nations Human Rights Council has invited the Iranian Justice Minister Alireza Avayi to speak at its latest session, which began this week, and that sets a very low bar for human rights.

Avayi has been sanctioned by the European Union for many reasons, but the worst is his long record of human rights violations, including his role in the mass execution of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988.

The massacre, described as one of the worst crimes against humanity since World War II, was ordered in a fatwa by then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini.

Political prisoners, mainly members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), were hauled before death commissions, interrogated about their political affiliations, and then sentenced to death after a so-called trial that lasted less than five minutes.

They killed children, the elderly, those who had already been sentenced, those who had already served their sentence, those who were pregnant, and those who were ill. The mullahs showed no leniency.

Avayi, then a prosecutor for the Revolutionary Court in the city of Dezful, personally ordered the deaths of numerous political prisoners, but he was still appointed as Justice Minister in 2017 under the so-called moderate President Hassan Rouhani.

Alireza replaced Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who served on one of the death commissions. The fact that the two most recent Justice Ministers played a role in this massacres, shows that the current Regime endorses the massacre.

So should a man like Avayi address a body that is tasked with protecting the world against human rights abuses?

No, of course not. But the problem is the international community must come together to speak out against this.

No international body has even made Iran accountable for this crime and hardly any countries have spoken out either, despite the fact that the MEK leaked reports of the massacre to the West in 1988.

European MP ties to Islamic Republic of IranFriday

European MP ties to Islamic Republic of IranFriday, 2 March 2018, 3:29 pm
Article: David N Neumann
European MP ties to Islamic Republic of Iran

By David N. Neumann

After lashing out against opponents of the Islamic Republic of Iran in several parliamentary debates, a member of the European Parliament has admitted to doing the bidding of Tehran. In a meeting in Brussels, Portuguese socialist MEP Ana Gomes acknowledged that she had been instructed in Tehran to bash the Iranian opposition.

“I met with relatives of the victims of a terrorist organisation called MEK,” she said on her visit to Tehran in a meeting of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on 22 February 2018. After making a number of allegations about the Iranian opposition movement PMOI or MEK, she added: “We cannot continue to allow some members of this parliament, possibly out of naiveté, to continue to abet some of the members of this organization.”

Her claims are particularly surprising, given that competent European and American courts all rejected the terrorist designation of the Iranian opposition years ago. The label had originally been imposed at the behest of Tehran; the only state that currently calls MEK as terrorist is the Iranian government.

Top leaders of the Islamist regime have all blamed the recent nationwide uprisings in Iran on the MEK, while calling for the execution of those arrested as protest leaders.

Last week the Habilian Association, an affiliate of Iran’s notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), published a report about the visit of European lawmakers. Habilian, which claims to be “an NGO run by families of Iranian terror victims,” pointed to the speech of its Secretary General, Mohammad Javad Hasheminejad, as the only non-parliamentarian speaker at a joint meeting between the visiting members of the European Parliament and Iranian MPs on 14 February 2018.


During the meeting with the European delegation, Hasheminejad criticized the visits to the European Parliament of Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi. Later he held a separate meeting with Ana Gomes in which he “praised her brave stance against the MEK,” adding that “she welcomed Habilian’s proposals for more collaboration in future.” The report added that the MEP said that she had been accused by Iranian exiles of being on Tehran’s payroll.

Ms Gomes has been proudly promoting photos of her Tehran visit on twitter and social media, raising questions about how she was allowed to spend so much time cozying up to the “terror victims,” while her colleagues in the same European delegation were denied contact with lawyers and relatives of political prisoners. In fact, the lawyer and mother of Swedish-Iranian doctor Ahmadreza Jalali, who is currently on death row on baseless accusations of espionage, had come for a pre-arranged meeting with the MEPs at their hotel in Tehran. “We were just beginning our conversation when two people from the regime’s security officials intervened and stopped the meeting,” MEP Lars Adaktusson told Swedish radio on his meeting with Jalali’s relatives, adding that the lawyer was forced to leave the hotel.

Iran: The arrest of Ahvaz steelworkers, a desperate attempt to end strikes and labor protests

Iran: The arrest of Ahvaz steelworkers, a desperate attempt to end strikes and labor protests
3/3/2018 10:11:33 PM

Iranian Resistance condemns the arrest of the Ahvaz striking steel workers
Riyadh Daily, March 3, 2018 - The Iranian Resistance condemns the arrest of the Ahvaz steel striking workers and calls on the general public, especially the youth and workers of Khuzestan, to express solidarity with the strikers and to support families of the detainees, and calls on all international human rights and labor rights organizations to condemn suppressive and anti-labor policies of the clerical regime and to take action for the immediate and unconditional release of the detainees.
Thursday night, March 1, suppressive forces arrested at least 10 striking workers of Ahvaz steel during a raid on the homes of a number of them. This repressive action took place on the tenth day of the strike of more than 300 Ahvaz steelworkers and their daily gatherings in front of the governorate.
Following the upsurge in labor strikes, Khamenei on February 26, blamed these protests to the enemies and said: 'One of the basic tasks of our enemies is that they may be able to create a recession, lag in labor complexes, especially large complexes, to force workers to do this '.
On Friday, March 2, Ahvaz steel striking workers were planning to enter Ahvaz Friday prayer show to protest the detention of their colleagues, but policemen prevented them. The workers inevitably gathered in front of the Mosalla. The motorized units of the police force went immediately to disperse the workers. The workers chanted 'Friday Imam, listen, we are workers, not mobs'.
Abdolreza Mousavi, the owner of Ahvaz Steel, is a large-scale government plunderer and owner of the Zagros Airlines Company, Esteghlal Sports Club of Khuzestan and Great Dariush Hotel in Kish Island. He refuses to pay workers’ wages while he recently ordered the purchase of 28 Airbus planes (IRNA-June 22, 2017).
The anti-labor ruling clerical regime thinks foolishly that with these arrests, it can break the will of the workers who have resolved to take back four decades of their lost rights from this oppressive regime, and prevent its overthrow. The corrupt and bankrupt regime of the mullahs is the first and most important factor in the economic and livelihood problems of the people, and the situation worsens as long as it is in power. Abbas Akhundi

Video: Syrian Regime kills protester, injures many in Aleppo’s Tadef

Video: Syrian Regime kills protester, injures many in Aleppo’s Tadef

3/3/2018 9:22:02 PM


Hundreds of Syrians took to the streets in al-Bab city of Aleppo to protest against the Assad regime militia.

Orient Net, MARCH 3, 2018-- Hundreds of Syrians took on Friday (March 2) to the streets in the al-Bab city of Aleppo eastern countryside to protest against the Assad regime militia.

The protesters headed to their hometown, city of Tadef, chanting anti-regime slogans and claiming the city which they said is occupied by the regime forces.



At the western gate of Tadef, the regime militias used live ammunition to disperse the protesters, killing one and injuring dozens, a number of them in serious condition.

Tadef is 5 kilometers to the east of the al-Bab city which was freed from ISIS on February 23, 2017, by the Free Syrian Army backed by the Turkish Military.

Locals have not returned to Tadef because they say they fear the Assad regime’s reprisal and its compulsory conscription.

Iran’s Regime Is Moving From One Crisis to Another

Iran’s Regime Is Moving From One Crisis to Another
3/3/2018 10:23:10 PM

Iran displays missiles next to a large poster of the Supreme Leader Khamenei at Baharestan Square in Tehran, September 27, 2017
BY RAMIN JAHANBEGLOO
The level of trust the Iranian public has towards the regime has never been so low.
THE WIRE, March 3, 2018 - Early in February 2018, the Euromoney Iran Conference was held in Paris with the aim of bringing together Iranian bankers and industrial leaders with their international counterparts to discuss and debate the key issues around the country’s economy. Participating in the event, Iranian Central Bank governor Valiollah Seif underlined the possibility of Iran’s full cooperation with the international community to implement standards set forth by the Financial Action Task Force. However, some parties are now calling for the countermeasures to be re-imposed given Iran’s financing some radical Islamist (terrorist, according to international norms) groups around the globe.
In the meantime, in the past weeks, Iranian markets have been suffering from a major and unexpected devaluation of the rial on the free currency market. Though there is a continued inflationary pressure on the rial, the Central Bank of Iran has tried to manage the value of the national currency. Beyond all economic reasons, there is no doubt that Iran’s free market rates are also motivated by increased domestic political tensions in Iran, as well as threats by US President Donald Trump to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. Also, the arrest of 90 foreign exchange traders and the suspension of the activities of ten foreign exchange bureaus have not been of great help. At the end of the day, one of the main reasons for Iran’s economic difficulties is the military engagements of the country in the Middle East.
To everybody’s knowledge, since the start of the Syrian Civil War, Iran and Israel have confronted each other via the Lebanese Shia Hezbollah militia or a network of rebels financed by the Israeli government in southern Syria. On February 10, Israel destroyed an Iranian UAV that reportedly violated its airspace over the Golan Heights, and immediately after conducted airstrikes against the drone’s control system at the T4 Airbase in Eastern Homs Province, which is a joint military area for the Russo-Iranian Coalition.
The Israel Defence Forces characterised the escalation as “more than confrontation but less than war” and warned Iranians against “playing with fire”. The recent verbal and military escalation between Iran and Israel is mainly due to Iranian support for the Basher al-Assad regime. Iran has spent, up to now, $16 billion supporting the Assad regime and its partners. This is not counting the $6 billion that Iranian officials say Syria owes them for other forms of engagement.
This is, of course, a trifling matter for Iran in order to develop longer-lasting influence in Syria. As a matter of fact, the post-Saddam Hussein Iraq is already paying back to Iran the dividends of a similar strategy. Iranian trade with Iraq has jumped from $2.3 billion in 2008 to $6.2 billion in 2015. Count on its regional might, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are leading the efforts to open new markets for the Iranian businesses in Syria.
The classical question is whether Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Trump administration will make it against Iran’s expansive presence in Syria. No doubt, for Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump and their advisors, the time is now to act against Iran. This is what Lt Gen H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, said at a security conference in Munich. According to him, “What’s particularly concerning is that the network of proxies is becoming more and more capable as Iran seeds more and more” of its “destructive weapons into these networks.” But it looks like the US president is very careful not to fall into the same trap as many of its predecessors. This doesn’t mean that Trump will go soft on Iran because the goal for him and his advisors is to work with their allies in order to make Iran’s projection of power into the Arab world as difficult as possible. However, Iran’s future strategic and political success in the Middle East depends also partly on its domestic situation.
Less than two months after the December unrest in 80 different cities of Iran and the arrest of 5,000 people, Iranian authorities were, once again, confronted with a turning point for the future of Iran. The death last week of Iranian-Canadian professor and environmental activist Kavous Seyed Emami, which occurred in Iran’s notorious Evin prison days after he was incarcerated, may come to be seen as an element which can deepen the political crisis in Iran and increase the demand for regime change within and outside the country.

Chavez: To stop Syria’s horrors, halt Assad enablers

Chavez: To stop Syria’s horrors, halt Assad enablers
2/26/2018 8:58:07 PM

Linda Chavez is chair of the Center for Equal Opportunity and a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center


By: Linda Chavez
Boston Herald, February 26, 2018 - With the recent attack that killed 17 people at a school in Parkland, Fla., it is easy to miss the humanitarian crisis that occurred across the globe in Syria.
Last Tuesday, hundreds of civilians, including children, died when Syria’s government and its allies executed a direct strike on a rebel stronghold in eastern Ghouta — where Syrian forces used sarin in 2013, killing an estimated 1,500 people. The bloody faces of small children are all too familiar in this vicious war by Bashar Assad and his Iranian and Russian allies, who are intent on keeping him in power.
More than 5 million people have fled the regime. Another 6 million have been displaced within Syria. And hundreds of thousands of people have died in the civil war.
Though this carnage has drawn condemnation from the U.S., Europe and elsewhere, as long as Assad’s partners in crimes against humanity, Russia and Iran, continue to supply arms and fighters to the region, the killing will not stop.
The United Nations has been impotent to impose meaningful sanctions because Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has veto authority to stop them, which it has used seven times so far.
But what of Iran’s role? Why has the international community not done more to focus on Iran’s activities in the region? And more importantly, why are U.N. bodies inviting members of Iran’s government to participate in human rights councils at the very time Iran is helping Syria massacre civilians?
The U.N. Human Rights Council meets in Geneva this week, and one of the speakers scheduled to address the group is Iranian Justice Minister Alireza Avayi. That any official of the Iranian regime should address the council is appalling, but that this particular official should do so at this particular time is doubly so.
Iran’s human rights record is one of the worst in the world, a matter affirmed not just by independent human rights organizations but by the U.N.’s own reports. The latest report on human rights conditions in Iran, issued in August 2017, criticized the government for its abuses against its own people, including at least 247 executions — many for drug offenses — as well as floggings, binding, amputations and stoning, not to mention the routine abuse of women’s rights and those of religious and ethnic minorities.
But Avayi’s participation is particularly offensive given his personal history of egregious human rights violations.
Avayi was appointed by Iranian President Hasan Rouhani in August as the minister of justice for the Islamic Republic of Iran, but he has long been an arm of the mullahs who have ruled Iran for nearly 40 years. The European Union has accused Avayi of gross human rights abuses as head of the Tehran judiciary, responsible for arbitrary detentions, numerous executions and the violation of rights of prisoners.

Rewrite Iran Deal? Europeans Offer a Different Solution: A New Chapter

Rewrite Iran Deal? Europeans Offer a Different Solution: A New Chapter
2/26/2018 9:01:44 PM

President Trump with Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, and Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, the national security adviser,
By MARK LANDLER, DAVID E. SANGER and GARDINER HARRIS
WASHINGTON, New York Times, FEB. 26, 2018 — President Trump’s threat to rip up the Iran nuclear deal has touched off an urgent scramble in European capitals to preserve the agreement — not by rewriting it, but by creating a successor deal that would halt Iran’s ballistic missile program and make permanent the restrictions on its ability to produce nuclear fuel.
The State Department is trying to win European support for strict new terms that would essentially be presented to Iran as a fait accompli, with the threat of renewed sanctions if it fails to comply. The Iranians have so far dismissed the exercise as a backdoor effort to reopen the 2015 agreement, negotiated by Mr. Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.
The trans-Atlantic talks, which are being led by a low-key State Department official, Brian H. Hook, are fraught with risks — not least that Mr. Trump may reject whatever the Europeans offer him. He has called the agreement “the worst deal” ever and has demanded that Britain, France and Germany fix it by May 12 or he will pull the United States out.
Talking points that Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson recently circulated to American diplomats in Europe warned that “in the absence of a clear commitment from your side to address these issues, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal.”
The instructions, which were shown to The New York Times, stipulate that the Europeans agree to three key fixes: a commitment to renegotiate limits on missile testing by Iran; an assurance that inspectors have unfettered access to Iranian military bases; and an extension of the deal’s expiration dates to prevent Iran from resuming the production of nuclear fuel long after the current restrictions expire in 2030.
European diplomats said there was scope for an agreement on missiles and inspections, but not yet on the length of the deal. They argue that rewriting those terms would break the bargain they struck, not only with Iran but also with Russia and China, two other signatories. And breaching the deal, they say, would free Iran to pursue nuclear weapons again.
That is why, as the two sides prepare to meet again in Berlin next month, the Europeans are floating the concept of an add-on deal, which would extend rather than upend the existing deal. In Paris last week, they asked Mr. Hook to guarantee that if they agreed to an extension, Mr. Trump would promise not to tear up the accord on some other pretext.
Mr. Hook, a Republican lawyer who is the State Department’s director of policy planning, said he would bring the request back to Washington. European diplomats said they worry that Mr. Trump’s scorn for the deal runs so deep that he would find other reasons to pull out. Last month, he warned that the accord “is under continuous review, and our participation can be canceled by me as president at any time.”
Even if Mr. Trump did pledge to abide by the deal, it is far from clear that a successor deal would be endorsed by Russia or China, let alone the Iranians, who signaled in recent weeks that they are planning a new project — a fleet of nuclear-powered ships, fueled by Iranian-made reactors — that they say would justify resuming the production of nuclear fuel as the limits imposed by the deal expire over the next dozen years.
Still, the mere fact that the United States and Europe are trying to work out a compromise attests to the desire, on both sides, to find a solution that would satisfy Mr. Trump while not unraveling the deal.
The president’s national security team — Mr. Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and the national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster — has on three occasions talked him out of ripping up the deal. With each deadline to reimpose sanctions on Iran, that task gets harder.
There is an element of diplomatic legerdemain to the exercise, European diplomats acknowledge: How do you convince Mr. Trump that you have changed the deal without actually changing it?
“The supplemental deal is a diplomatic device that is being used to allow the Europeans to declare victory,” said Mark Dubowitz, a leading critic of the Iran deal who is nevertheless open to the idea.
“They can say they were able to keep the deal, remain steadfast to their commitment not to renegotiate it, but also to satisfy the U.S. and their own concerns that the length of the deal was too short,” said Mr. Dubowitz, the chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
By law, Mr. Trump must decide every 120 days whether to continue suspending longstanding American economic sanctions against Tehran, which the United States committed to lift as part of the deal. If he were to reimpose them, as he has threatened, that would effectively scuttle the deal.
Iran complains that Mr. Trump’s threats have already kept European banks from investing in major projects in Iran, denying it the benefits that were promised for giving up its enrichment program.