Iran's foreign minister is a Twitter troll

Iran's foreign minister is a Twitter troll
by Tom Rogan | Nov 9, 2017, 11:14 AM Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Email this article Share on LinkedIn Print this articleOn Oct. 22, Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif claimed that the U.S. is stealing Iraq from its people. The next day, Zarif claimed that U.S. policy is driven by the arms trade and Iran's policy by the pursuit of mutual understanding. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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When he's not taking orders from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is trolling people on Twitter. Here's what he's been up to over the past couple of weeks.
On Oct. 22, Zarif claimed that the U.S. is stealing Iraq from its people. This is a popular Iranian claim, but one with a simple, sustaining purpose: to distract from Iran's effort to steal Iraqi and Lebanese democracy.

President Trump to Announce His Decision on Iran Nuclear Deal Next Week
10/5/2017 12:34:52 PM

President Donald Trump makes a statement at the White House in Washington, Oct. 2, 2017.
WASHINGTON —THE ASSOCIATED PRESS- OCT. 4, 2017- Officials say President Donald Trump is planning to deliver an Iran policy speech next week, and he is expected to say that the landmark 2015 nuclear deal is no longer in the U.S. national security interest.
U.S. officials say the White House has tentatively scheduled Trump's speech for Oct. 12 in Washington. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss planning for the event.
Trump faces an Oct. 15 deadline to notify Congress whether Iran is still complying with the nuclear accord and that the deal serves American interests.

Saudi Arabia says to buy S-400 defence system from Russia
10/5/2017 6:17:25 PM

Russia paraded its S-400 air defence system during the recent Victory Day rally in Moscow
MOSCOW (AFP) - 05 October 2017 - Saudi Arabia signed on Thursday preliminary agreements to buy S-400 air defence systems and receive 'cutting edge technologies' from Russia during King Salman's landmark visit to Moscow, the Saudi military industries firm said.
The agreement was announced as King Salman, who is on the first official trip to Russia by a Saudi monarch, and Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks at the Kremlin.

All Rohingya to be shifted to mega refugee camp: Bangladesh
10/5/2017 6:30:02 PM

More than 500,000 Muslim Rohingya have run from communal bloodshed in Myanmar in the last six weeks and numbers are again rising
COX'S BAZAR (BANGLADESH) (AFP) - 05 October 2017 - Bangladesh on Thursday announced it would build one of the world's biggest refugee camps to house all the 800,000-plus Rohingya Muslims who have sought asylum from violence in Myanmar.
The arrival of more than half a million Rohingya Muslims from Buddhist-dominated Myanmar since August 25 has put an immense strain on camps in Bangladesh where there are growing fears of a disease epidemic.

Iran nuclear negotiator gets 5 years for espionage
10/5/2017 12:16:45 PM

Negotiator on Iran nuke deal reportedly sentenced to prison
Fox News- Oct. 5- 2017- An Iranian negotiator who helped clinched the 2015 nuclear deal has been sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of espionage in Iran.
Abdolrasoul Dorri Esfahani, who has dual Iranian-Canadian citizenship, is known to be have been the member of Iran’s team of nuclear negotiators. He worked on a team focusing on ensuring economic sanctions were lifted against Iran as part of the deal.
'The conviction of a member of the nuclear negotiation team who has been arrested before and released on bail has been confirmed in the Tehran provincial appeals court,' an Iranian semi-official news agency reported Wednesday.

Saudi king slams Iranian interference in Middle East during visit to Russia
10/5/2017 6:48:58 PM

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabias King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud awaits a welcoming ceremony ahead of their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on Wednesday
Deutsche Welle- Oct. 5,2017-While Russia and Saudi Arabia agreed on an arms deal Thursday in Moscow Saudi King Salman insisted that Iran must stop meddling in Middle East affairs.
'We emphasize that the security and stability of the Gulf region and the Middle East is an urgent necessity for achieving stability and security in Yemen,' Salman said, as quoted by Russia’s Interfax news agency. 'This would demand that Iran give up interference with the internal affairs of the region, to give up actions destabilizing the situation in this region.'

Kazuo Ishiguro: Social worker turned Nobel Prize Winner for Literature
10/5/2017 6:23:14 PM

Kazuo Ishiguro, who was born in Japan, is one of Britains most successful yet lesser-known novelists
LONDON (AFP) - 05 October 2017 - Kazuo Ishiguro, the 62-year-old British writer of Japanese origin who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday, is one of the country's most successful, yet lesser-known, novelists.
A prodigious writer since the early 1980s, he has penned a series of acclaimed novels which have been translated into dozens of foreign languages but has remained more reclusive than some of his contemporary peers.

Trump's New Policy Will Focus on Iran's Meddlers
10/5/2017 9:59:45 AM

The centerpiece of Trumps new Iran strategy will be the designation of Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization
Designating the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization could put pressure on the regime.
By Eli Lake
Bloomberg, October 4, 2017 - After more than nine months in office, President Donald Trump finally has an Iran policy.
Last month before the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, Trump approved the long-awaited strategy to deal with Iran, according to administration officials. These officials tell me it will outline a new aggressive approach to countering Iranian threats all over the globe and endeavor to use the leverage of Trump's threats over the Iran nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, to spur U.S. allies to begin to address its flaws.

U.S. poised to lift sanctions on Sudan: U.S. official
10/5/2017 7:06:14 PM

Trump’s administration is expected to announce its decision as early as Friday
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - OCTOBER 5, 2017- The United States is preparing to lift long-standing economic sanctions against Sudan, citing improvement on human rights and progress on counter-terrorism, a U.S. official said on Thursday.
President Donald Trump’s administration is expected to announce its decision as early as Friday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Education Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran Congratulates All Education Staff on the International Teacher's Day
10/5/2017 7:23:29 PM

National Council of Resistance of Iran
While congratulating the noble teachers and education staff of Iran on the occasion of the International Teacher’s Day, the Education Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran praises the teachers’ struggle and emphasizes its decisive role in the popular struggle of the Iranian people to overthrow the anti-human clerical regime and establish democracy and freedom in Iran.
In the past year, like as the entire era of domination of the ruling dictatorship of the country, the county’s education staff have received nothing but increased repression and suppression, living in poverty, enduring all kinds of economic and social pressures, humiliation and insult. In the situation that the billion-dollar embezzlement of the regime's officials is one of the constant issues of the power struggle among the internal gangs of the regime, Iranian noble teachers with a salary of one million Tomans, one-fourth of the poverty line according to the regime, are suffering great pain for providing livelihoods for themselves and their families. This has forces them to resort to second and third jobs, which has a profound effect on decreasing the quality of education in the country.

Iran is not the Middle East’s North Korea — it is worse
10/5/2017 10:27:28 AM

Kim Jong-Un, Ali Khamenei and mushroom cloud
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh
Arab News, 4 October 2017 - Analogies have been made that the Iranian regime is the Middle East’s North Korea. Such an analogy fails to comprehensively characterize Tehran’s role in the region, as well as identify the differences between North Korea and Iran.
When it comes to their roles within their respective regions, the Iranian regime plays a much more destabilizing and destructive role than North Korea does.
Through its military forces, the Islamic Republic is actively engaged in intervening in the domestic affairs of other nations in the Middle East. For example, in Syria, Iranian leaders have admitted that their Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its elite branch, the Quds Force, are fighting on the ground alongside Bashar Assad’s forces. In addition, Iran is providing financial, weapons, advisory and intelligence assistance to the Syrian regime apparatus.

U.S. ENVOY HALEY SAYS TRUMP 'NOT HAPPY' WITH IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL Created: 20 September 2017
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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran vowed on Wednesday not to be the first nation to violate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he had made up his mind whether to abandon the accord but declined to disclose his decision.
Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly of world leaders, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani responded forcefully to Trump’s pugnacious speech on Tuesday by saying Iran would not be pushed around by a relative newcomer to the world stage.
But he also said Iran desired to preserve its accord with six world powers under which Tehran agreed to restrict its nuclear program for at least a decade in return for the loosening of economic sanctions that crippled its economy.
“I declare before you that the Islamic Republic of Iran will not be the first country to violate the agreement,” Rouhani said, adding that Iran would respond “decisively and resolutely” to a violation by any party.

TILLERSON HOPEFUL IRAN WILL NEGOTIATE CHANGES IN NUCLEAR DEAL - TOUGH MEETING AT U.N. Created: 21 September 2017
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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he is still hopeful that Iran will agree to negotiate changes sought by the United States in the 2015 nuclear deal, despite the Iranian president's rejection of new talks.In a news conference late on September 20 after meeting with other parties to the agreement at the United Nations, Tillerson for a second time singled out the deal's "sunset" clauses,
which end restrictions on Iranian nuclear activities, such as uranium enrichment, after 10 years in 2025. The restrictions were imposed in exchange for sanctions relief.
The press conference took place after a meeting on Wednesday at the United Nations among the original negotiators of the nuclear deal.

IRANIAN HYPOCRISY: SOLIDARITY WITH ROHINGYA, SUPPORT FOR ASSAD Created: 21 September 2017
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It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragically real
The idiom “pot calling the kettle black” was perfectly illustrated by Iran when the country’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke against the ongoing crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and urged the international community and the United Nations, in particular, to take swift action to end the crisis.
Despite the horrific and detestable treatment meted out to Rohingya Muslims by the Buddhist community in Myanmar, it was laughable to listen to Iran’s hypocritical self-righteousness in response.
While the foreign minister of Iran spoke against the oppression in Rohingya, he forgot to mention his country’s involvement in the genocide of Syrians. The Syrian Revolution against the Assad regime began in March 2011 and since then Iran has been at the fore front of supporting the Syrian dictator.

TRUMP HAS CREATED LEVERAGE AGAINST IRAN. NOW HE NEEDS A CLOSER. Created: 23 September 2017
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Bloomberg, September 22, 2017-- Supporters of the Iran nuclear deal are in panic mode.
Obama administration alumni are warning that President Donald Trump's threats to not certify Iranian compliance next month will unravel a bargain that makes the world safer. European leaders and Iranian envoys say the deal cannot be renegotiated. Quietly, many career State Department officials, according to administration sources, are trying to figure out a way to at least delay Trump's plan to throw the deal into turmoil.
The alarm is understandable. If Trump decertifies Iranian compliance with what is known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, then it will be up to Congress to vote to impose the crippling sanctions on Iran's banks and oil exports that President Barack Obama waived as part of the nuclear deal. If Congress does that, it really would blow up the nuclear deal.

IRAN REGIME'S VARIOUS BANDS TERRIFIED ABOUT THE FATE OF NUCLEAR AGREEMENT Created: 26 September 2017
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NCRI - On October 15, president Trump will report to the Congress about how Iranian regime has complied with the nuclear agreement, JCPOA.As the date approaches, worries of Iran regime’s different factions about the Fate of nuclear agreement rises.“The Americans are proposing a new negotiation, but what guarantees are there that the outcome of the new negotiation will not be proscribed or violated?
" Said Mohammad Nabi Habibi, head of the Islamic Coalition band, an ally of Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, responding to statements by US officials.
He then confirmed the positions of Hassan Rouhani and Javad Zarif in the United Nations and said: “We are positive about the current positions of the president and the foreign minister against the Americans...

IRAN REGIME WORRIED ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE NUCLEAR DEAL Created: 27 September 2017
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The future of the Iran nuclear deal is currently very uncertain. Many believe that the deal should be scrapped as it is one-sided and has too many concessions in favour of the Iranian regime. Only last week at the United Nations General Assembly, President Trump said that the nuclear deal was an “embarrassment” to the United States.
He has a deadline of 15th October to decide whether he will grant the Iranian regime compliance with the nuclear deal. If he does not certify Iran compliance, Congress with have sixty days to decide whether it will reapply crippling sanctions that were lifted as a result of the signing of the nuclear deal.
Reports indicate that the Iranian regime and its rival bands are getting very nervous about what the next steps are.
Mohammad Nabi Habibi, a close confidante of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and head of the Islamic Coalition band, said that the Trump administration is considering renegotiating the deal, but expressed concern about how that would be done. He said: “The Americans are proposing a new negotiation, but what guarantees are there that the outcome of the new negotiation will not be proscribed or violated?”

US PRESSES FOR MORE IRAN NUCLEAR INSPECTIONS Created: 28 September 2017
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The United States pressed Thursday for the International Atomic Energy Agency to carry out more nuclear inspections in Iran, warning that failure to do so would make the nuclear deal with Tehran "an empty promise."US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said that some countries were trying to shield Iran from more inspections by the IAEA, which is charged with verifying Tehran's compliance with the 2015 nuclear accord.
"Without inspections, the Iran deal is an empty promise," she said in a statement.
Haley's push for more inspections comes just 15 days before Trump must certify to the US Congress whether Iran is in compliance with the agreement.

BOB BLACKMAN MP: SECURING INTERNATIONAL INQUIRY INTO THE 1988 MASSACRE WILL WIN OVER THE IRANIAN PEOPLE Created: 29 September 2017
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against executions in Iran.
Earlier in September, the UN Secretary General sent the latest report of the Special Rapporteur on Iran’s human rights to the General Assembly for discussion. The August 14 report provides a detailed account of a series of serious abuses that were carried out by the Iranian authorities in the past year.
But this year's report is unique compared with previous reports because the Special Rapporteur highlights the massacre of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.

IRAN'S PEOPLE AND THE NUCLEAR DEAL Created: 30 September 2017
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Demonstrators shout slogans against Iranian President Hassan Rouhani near the United Nations headquarters in New York on September 19, 2017. / JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty ImagesDiscussions are continuing as we speak over the fate of the highly controversial Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Advocates and opponents are going the limits to present their case prior to the October 15th deadline when US President Donald Trump is due to determine the status of Iran’s compliance with the accord.
While this is a very important discussion, what unfortunately goes neglected is the status of the Iranian people who should be the first beneficiaries of such an accord that led to many sanctions being lifted from the Iranian regime.