TIG Post

Tag: Iran

  • Iran provides assistance to Libya after devastated by flooding

    Iran provides assistance to Libya after devastated by flooding

    Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has proposed giving help to Libya after heavy rains and flooding caused many people to get hurt or killed.

    Mr Amir-Abdollahian wrote on the X website on Tuesday that Iran’s Red Crescent Society is ready to help Libya.

    The minister from Iran also said he was very sorry about the terrible event, and he sent sympathetic messages to the Libyan leaders, the Libyan people, and the families of the people who were hurt or killed.

    Iran and Libya recently decided to improve their relationship and have agreed to reopen their embassies.

    The two countries are friends, but Iran closed its office in Libya when people in Libya were fighting against their leader, Muammar Gaddafi, who has passed away.

    The new Libyan ambassador to Tehran, Ali Jumaa Hassan Fudail, met with Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran in early July to officially introduce himself.

  • Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr, other Saudi clubs to play in Iran after travel ban lifted

    Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr, other Saudi clubs to play in Iran after travel ban lifted

    Saudi Pro League clubs are set to travel to Iran for the Asian Champions League matches, marking a significant change in the competition format.

    The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced on Monday that games between teams from Saudi Arabia and Iran would now be played on a home-and-away basis, a departure from the neutral territory arrangement that had been in place since 2016.

    This development means that Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr will commence their Asian Champions League campaign at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium on September 19, where they will face Persepolis.

    Additionally, Al Hilal and Al Ittihad will also make trips to Iran during the group stage.

    The AFC said it “welcomes the historic move” as it reflects the commitment of Saudi Arabia and Iran “towards fostering closer ties between their respective footballing communities”.

    It allows “clubs to host matches on their home turf while visiting the respective away stadiums, creating a more engaging and exciting experience for the fans and players alike”.


    In addition to Al Nassr’s upcoming visit to Tehran in Group E later this month, Al Hilal, the club that recently acquired Brazil winger Neymar from Paris Saint-Germain, is slated to travel to Tehran to face Nassaji Mazandaran in Group D on October 3.

    The Saudi champions, Al Ittihad, which includes former Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, have been drawn to compete against Isfahan-based Sepahan in Group C.

    These two teams are scheduled to clash in Iran on October 2.

    Saudi Pro League teams have a rich history of success in the Asian club competition, with Al-Hilal securing the title four times and Al Ittihad claiming the championship in 2004 and 2005.

    On the other side, Iran’s Persepolis enjoys immense support and has played in front of crowds exceeding 100,000 at the Azadi Stadium, notably during the second leg of the 2018 Asian Champions League final when they faced Japan’s Kashima Antlers.

    The group stage is set to commence on September 18 and will run until December 13, with the knockout rounds beginning on February 12. The two-legged final is scheduled for May 11 and 18.

  • Iranian weightlifter banned after taking picture with an Israeli

    Iranian weightlifter banned after taking picture with an Israeli

    An Iranian weightlifter has been punished by Iran’s weightlifting federation for talking to and shaking hands with an Israeli participant at the World Masters Championship. The punishment is a lifetime ban.

    Mostafa Rajai came in second place and had his picture taken on a raised platform next to the Israeli athlete who won third place.

    Iran’s highest weightlifting organization has prohibited him from using any sports facilities in the country forever.

    The government of Iran does not allow their athletes to compete directly against athletes from Israel.

    So, Iranian athletes sometimes use different ways like losing on purpose or pretending to be hurt to not have to play matches.

    Rajai, who is 40 years old, was wearing his country’s flag and standing next to Maksim Svirsky from Israel on Saturday.

    The two people were at a competition for weightlifters who were not professional. The competition was held in Wieliczka, Poland and featured athletes who were considered legendary in the sport of weightlifting.

    Rajai was part of the Iranian national team in weightlifting. He also competed for Iran in the Asian Weightlifting Championships in Thailand in 2015.

    State news agency Irna said he did something that was against the rules of the Islamic Republic.

    The weightlifting federation in Iran fired the leader of their team, Hamid Salehinia, because of what happened at the contest.

    Iran’s highest religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has encouraged athletes to avoid shaking hands with Israeli competitors in order to win a medal in 2021.

    Some Iranians have left their country due to the ban and not wanting to tolerate the limitation.

    Chess prodigy Alireza Firouzja had to leave his country because he was not allowed to participate in the 2019 world championship due to worries that he would have to compete against an Israeli player.

  • Iran’s morality police reportedly resume headscarf patrols – State media

    Iran’s morality police reportedly resume headscarf patrols – State media

    State media claimed on Sunday that morality police in Iran will start patrols to ensure that women adhere to rigid Islamic dress standards, ten months after the death of a young lady in their care sparked widespread protests.

    Police will resume car and foot patrols around the nation starting on Sunday, according to Saeid Montazeralmahdi, a spokeswoman for Iran’s enforcement agency, Faraja, the state-run Fars news agency reported.

    Officers would first issue warnings to women who are disobeying before taking legal action against those who “insist on breaking the norms,” the officer stated.

    The morality police were cast into the international spotlight in September last year, when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died three days after being arrested by the force for wearing her hijab, or headscarf, incorrectly and taken to a “re-education” center.

    Her death sparked nationwide protests that rocked the country, posing one of the biggest domestic threats to Iran’s ruling clerical regime in more than a decade.

    Authorities responded violently to suppress the months-long movement, during which witnesses said the morality police had virtually disappeared from the streets of Tehran.

    Iran executed at least 582 people last year, a 75% increase on 2021, according to human rights groups who say the rise reflects an effort by Tehran to instill fear among anti-regime protesters.

    The morality police have access to power, arms and detention centers and control over “re-education centers,” Human Rights Watch told CNN last year. The group is sanctioned by the United States and the European Union.

    The centers act like detention facilities, where women – and sometimes men – are taken into custody for failing to comply with the state’s rules on modesty.

    Inside the facilities, detainees are given classes about Islam and the importance of the hijab, and are forced to sign a pledge to abide by the state’s clothing regulations before they are released.

  • Iran warned by all 31 NATO members for helping Russia

    Iran warned by all 31 NATO members for helping Russia

    Nato has warned Iran to quit supporting Russia’s military presence in Ukraine.

    The Middle Eastern nation has sent hundreds of drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), to Russia over the past year in order to terrorise Ukrainian citizens.

    Allies have urged Tehran to halt its military assistance to Russia because they are gravely concerned about the “malicious activities” occurring on their own soil.

    ‘We call upon Iran to cease its military support to Russia, in particular its transfer of uncrewed aerial vehicles, which have been used to attack critical infrastructure, causing widespread civilian casualties,’ the 31-member alliance said in a final declaration at a summit in Lithuania.

    Nato summit
    Allies are seriously concerned by the ‘malicious activities’ within their own territory (Picture: Rex)

    ‘We express our serious concern over Iran’s malicious activities in allied territory.’

    Relations between Tehran and Moscow have grown much closer since the start of the invasion.

    Russia wants drones and ballistic missiles, while in exchange Iran wants Russia’s investment and trade.

    In June, the White House warned the two countries’ military partnership appears to be deepening.

    ‘We are also concerned that Russia is working with Iran to produce Iranian UAVs from inside Russia,’ spokesperson John Kirby said in a statement.

    Citing newly declassified information, he added that Russia is receiving materials from Iran required to build a drone manufacturing plant that could open as early as next year.

    ‘We are releasing satellite imagery of the planned location of this manufacturing plant in Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone,’ Kirby said.

    The, UK, the US and the European Union in recent months all have issued rules designed to cut off the flow of drone components to Russia and Iran.

  • Anti-govt protests land Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi in jail

    Anti-govt protests land Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi in jail

    Toomaj Salehi, a 32-year-old Iranian rapper known for his support of anti-government protests, has reportedly been sentenced to six years and three months in prison.

    According to his lawyer, Roza Etemad-Ansari, Salehi was found guilty of “corruption on Earth,” but fortunately, he was spared from the death penalty. Iranian authorities have not made any official statements regarding the matter.

    Salehi’s arrest followed widespread protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who was detained for allegedly wearing an “improper” hijab. The specific details of Salehi’s charges and trial have not been disclosed in the available information.

    Ms Etemad-Ansari said her client had been cleared of “insulting the Supreme Leader”, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and “communicating with hostile governments”.

    This charge, known as one of the most severe offenses in the country, carries the possibility of a death sentence and has historically been used against dissidents by the Islamic Republic.

    Salehi spent months in solitary confinement at Dastgerd prison in central Iran before his sentencing.

    The court sessions were closed to the public, a practice that has drawn criticism from human rights groups. His lawyer confirmed that he was transferred to the general section of the prison after the sentencing, which was also confirmed by supporters running Salehi’s Instagram page.

    As one of the thousands of predominantly young Iranians who protested against the clerical establishment following the death of Mahsa Amini in September, Salehi shared clips of his songs in support of the movement.

    The protests have been met with a violent crackdown by security forces, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of demonstrators and the arrest of thousands. The authorities have portrayed the unrest as “riots” instigated by foreign agents.

  • Iran faces class action over downing of Ukrainian plane in 2020

    Iran faces class action over downing of Ukrainian plane in 2020

    Iran is currently facing legal action at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in relation to the tragic shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 in January 2020.

    Four countries—Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, and the UK—are pursuing legal recourse to seek damages on behalf of the families of the 176 individuals who lost their lives in the incident.

    The plane was struck by two missiles fired by an air defense unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards shortly after taking off from Tehran. Three days later, Iran acknowledged that it had mistakenly shot down the aircraft.

    The Revolutionary Guards’ Aerospace Force stated that an air defense unit had misidentified the Boeing 737-800 as a US missile.

    In April, an Iranian court sentenced ten members of the armed forces to prison terms. However, the verdicts were rejected by the families of the victims, who deemed them “meaningless and unacceptable.”

    The four nations – whose citizens or residents were killed in the incident – say in the application to the International Court of Justice that Iran “violated a series of obligations” under a convention on civil aviation by shooting down the jet.

    They accuse Iran of failing to take all practicable measures to prevent the downing of the plane, which happened during a time of high tension between Iran and the US.

    Iran however failed to conduct an impartial, transparent and fair criminal investigation and prosecution, the group says.

    The countries want the court to order that Iran publicly acknowledges its “internationally wrongful acts”, apologise to the families and provide assurances that it will not happen again.

    The application also asks the court to “order full reparation for all injury caused”, calling on Iran to return the missing belongings of the victims and to provide “full compensation” to the families.

    Lord Ahmad, the UK’s Middle East minister, said they were “committed to pursuing justice for the victims and their families”.

    In December 2022, the group jointly requested that Iran submit to binding arbitration, arguing the missiles that hit the flight were launched “unlawfully and intentionally”.

    At the time a spokesperson for Canada’s foreign affairs ministry told the BBC the Iranian government had six months to respond. This deadline has now passed, prompting the countries to move towards legal action.

  • Europeans in custody in Iran freed after prisoner swap

    Europeans in custody in Iran freed after prisoner swap

    Austrian officials have expressed their relief following the release of two Austrian-Iranian dual nationals who had been imprisoned in Iran for several years.

    Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb were freed as part of a prisoner swap arrangement that involved European nations and an Iranian diplomat.

    The detention of Ghaderi and Mossaheb had drawn international criticism. Additionally, Belgium confirmed the release of a Danish citizen as part of the swap.

    The trio is now flying into Belgium. Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg expressed his relief on Twitter, emphasizing the end of their arduous imprisonment, while Chancellor Karl Nehammer stated that their prolonged suffering has now come to an end.

    Kamran Ghaderi was arrested in Iran in 2016 on spying charges and was sentenced to ten years in prison, with his family asserting that his confession was coerced.

    Massud Mossaheb, believed to be in his 70s, was arrested in Tehran in 2019 and was sentenced for vague national security offenses, as noted by Amnesty International.

    Ghaderi spent 2,709 days in confinement, while Mossaheb spent 1,586 days.

    The Danish national released in the swap has not been identified.

    The earlier prisoner exchange between Belgium and Iran involved the release of Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele and Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi.

    Vandecasteele had spent 455 days in prison after being convicted of espionage and other charges, which he denied. Assadi, on the other hand, was convicted in Belgium in 2021 on terrorism charges related to a failed bomb plot in France and had been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

    The release of the Austrian-Iranian citizens was announced on Friday following mediation talks facilitated by Oman, which had also brokered the previous prisoner exchange.

    Austrian Foreign Minister Schallenberg described the day as “very emotional” after years of discreet diplomatic efforts and expressed gratitude to the Austrian embassy in Tehran, as well as his Belgian and Omani counterparts.

  • Iran criticized for executing three men over recent unrest

    Iran criticized for executing three men over recent unrest

    International watchdogs have denounced Iran after it murdered three more individuals in response to recent unrest that shook the nation.

    Per the judiciary news source Mizan News, Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi, and Saeed Yaqoubi were put to death in Isfahan on Friday. Three security personnel were killed in an incident that the three were accused of carrying out in Isfahan in November 2022 while there were anti-government demonstrations.

    The US State Department requested Iran to postpone the executions on Thursday, labelling the procedures “sham trials.”

    And Amnesty International said the men were “fast-tracked through Iran’s judicial system” without due process being observed.

    “These executions are meant to prolong the Islamic Republic’s rule and only a high political cost can stop more protester executions,” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of the non-governmental organization Iran Human Rights, wrote on Twitter.

    “Unless the Iranian authorities are met with serious consequences by the international community, hundreds of protester lives will be taken by their killing machine,” he said.

    Iran executed at least 582 people last year, a 75% increase on the previous year, according to human rights groups who say the rise reflects an effort by Tehran to “instill fear” among anti-regime protesters.

    It was the highest number of executions in the Islamic republic since 2015, according to a report released last month by the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the France-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) groups.

    More than half of the executions last year took place after the protests erupted in September.

    The US State Department condemned the latest planned executions of Kazemi, Mirhashemi and Yaqoubi on Thursday.

    “The execution of these men, after what have been widely regarded as sham trials, would be an affront to human rights and basic dignity in Iran and everywhere,” said State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel at a press briefing.

    “It is clear from this episode that the Iranian regime has learned nothing from the protests that began with another death, the death of Mahsa Amini in September of last year,” Patel added.

    The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, another NGO that monitors human rights violations in Iran, said on Twitter that the three men “had the minimal defense rights of an accused.” The group decried what it called an “unfathomable wave of executions in Iran.”

    Nationwide protests rocked Iran last fall, as decades of bitterness over the regime’s treatment of women and other issues boiled over after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the country’s so-called morality police.

    Authorities violently repressed the months-long movement, which had posed one of the biggest domestic threats to Iran’s ruling clerical regime in more than a decade.

  • Iranian commander given 13-year prison term for downing a Ukraine civilian jet

    Iranian commander given 13-year prison term for downing a Ukraine civilian jet

    According to Iran’s semi-official Mehr News, a Tehran court on Sunday found up to 10 Iranian military personnel guilty of taking part in the shooting down of Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 in 2020.

    However, the victims’ families have criticized the punishment as a “sham ruling” because they believe Iranian authorities have not brought any charges against those ultimately accountable for the catastrophe.

    The Tor M1 surface-to-air missile defense system commander who shot down the jet and killed all 176 persons on board was the main defendant in the trial. According to Mehr, the commander received a 13-year prison term.

    The Boeing 737 flight departed from Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran on January 8, 2020, and was headed to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv when it was hit by anti-aircraft missiles shortly after takeoff.

    Days after the downing, Iranian authorities admitted that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force shot the plane down by mistake after it was misidentified as a cruise missile by an air defense operator.

    In the Tehran court’s final verdict on Sunday, it said the passenger plane was shot down by “human error.” The commander fired missiles at the civilian aircraft twice, “contrary to the order of the command post and other instructions,” the court said, according to Mehr.

    The other defendants found guilty were personnel of the air defense post, Mehr reported.

    The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims, an international group seeking justice for those killed, released a statement on Sunday saying the victims’ families “never recognized the Islamic Regime’s court as a legitimate tribunal.”

    It claimed the tribunal had failed to prosecute the “main perpetrators” of the incident, instead prosecuting “ten low-ranking officers with total obscurity of their backgrounds and identities.”

    The association condemned the trial as a “sham ruling,” after court sessions were held in private, with victims’ families not present for hearings. More than 70 complainants from the families of victims had withdrawn their complaints before the sentencing was handed down and rejected the competence of the court, it said.

    The group considers the case still open, and is demanding the dispute be considered by the International Court of Justice.

    The passenger jet downing happened at a time of heightened tensions with the United States, hours after Iran launched ballistic missile strikes on a US base in Iraq – an act of retaliation for the US drone killing of Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.

    At the time thousands of anti-government protesters in Tehran took to the streets to denounce the crash, with some calling for the removal of Iran’s supreme leader and for the prosecution of those responsible.

    Of those killed in the crash, 138 were traveling to Canada, according to the CBC. Among the victims were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans and three Britons.

  • More arrest made for women who do not cover their hair in Iran

    More arrest made for women who do not cover their hair in Iran

    Iranian authorities have detained two women after they were beaten with yogurt, ostensibly for not covering their hair in public.

    In the viral video, a man approaches two female customers and starts conversing with them.

    He then furiously throws what looks to be a tub of yogurt over their heads after grabbing it from a shelf.

    According to Iran’s judiciary, the two women were imprisoned because it is against the law to display one’s hair in Iran.

    Also, the individual was detained for upsetting the peace, it said.

    The arrests come after months of demonstrations calling for an end to the requirement that women wear the hijab (headscarf).

    The footage shows the women in the shop, waiting to be served by a member of staff. A man who looks to be passing by then walks in to confront them.

    After he speaks, he repeatedly attacks them with yoghurt. The attacker is then pushed out of the shop by the shopkeeper.

    Arrest warrants were issued and the three were subsequently arrested, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.

    It added that “necessary notices” have been issued to the owner of the shop to ensure compliance with the law.

    Not wearing the hijab in public is illegal for women in Iran, however in big cities, many walk around without it despite the rules.

    Anger and frustration with the law have driven dissent in Iranian society.

    Protests spread across the Islamic Republic in September following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman detained by morality police in Tehran for allegedly wearing her hijab “improperly”.

    The protests widened, but they remained rooted in the issue of the hijab.

    Thousands have been arrested and four protesters have been executed since December. But the authorities show no sign of relenting.

    One hardline Iranian MP, Hossein Ali Haji Deligani, has issued an ultimatum to the judiciary to come up with measures to put a stop to the flouting of the rules within the next 48 hours.

    And on Saturday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reiterated that Iranian women should wear the hijab as a “religious necessity”.

    “Hijab is a legal matter and adherence to it is obligatory,” he said in quotes cited by AFP news agency.

  • Iran still strong on enforcing hijab rules

    Iran still strong on enforcing hijab rules

    Iranian authorities have made it clear that they are determined to make the headscarf a requirement for women.

    It happens following months of demonstrations calling for the prohibition to be lifted.

    an absolute A member of parliament in Iran has given the judiciary 48 hours to develop methods to stop women from disobeying the laws governing headscarves.

    The widespread protests that broke out in Iran in September have currently been largely put an end by force.

    But some women still disobey the laws requiring them to cover their heads in public. Videos and images shared online demonstrate the pervasiveness of rage and discontent with the restrictions in Iranian society.

    A video posted this week shows a man throwing a tub of yogurt in the face of an unveiled woman. His action was met with outrage by male and female bystanders.

    Protests swept across the Islamic Republic following the death in September of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman detained by morality police in Tehran for allegedly wearing her hijab “improperly”.

    Thousands have been arrested and four protesters have been executed since December. But the authorities show no sign of relenting.

    The interior ministry announced this week that there would be no retreat or tolerance on the issue. The statement said that the hijab remained an essential element of Islamic law and as such would remain one of the key principles of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

    The unyielding rhetoric echoed that of the head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, who recently said that women who do not wear the head covering would be prosecuted without mercy.

    Now, a hardline MP has said that legislative measures must be taken to enforce what he called the “divine decree” of the hijab.

    Hossein Ali Haji Deligani said that if the judiciary did not provide such action within the next 48 hours, then MPs would put in motion a bill to fill the legal vacuum.

    He said that it would be in line with a report by the parliamentary cultural commission on “chastity and the hijab”.

    The protests widened to encompass calls for a complete overhaul of the Islamic Republic – but it remained rooted in the issue of the hijab.

    The image of Mahsa Amini has remained the most potent symbol of the movement, which for a while was able to shake the foundations of the theocracy that has ruled Iran for more than 40 years.

  • Netflix reduces subscription prices in more than 30 countries

    Netflix reduces subscription prices in more than 30 countries

    Netflix recently reduced its subscription prices in more than 30 countries across Asia, Europe, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East.

    The streaming firm made this announcement on Thursday as it attempts to attract more subscribers amid various stiff competition and tight consumer budget.

    Netflix had in recent times reduced prices in India and some parts of South-East Asia following a decline in growth. However, Thursday’s decision only affects countries that account for a small fraction of its customer base.

    Subscription charges have been lowered in Yemen, Jordan, Libya, Iran, Kenya, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Venezuela, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, amongst others.

    The cuts apply to certain price plans, with subscription charges falling by half in some cases.

    The company did not name the UK or the US as countries where it had cut its prices.

    According to a statement from Netflix, it said “We’re always exploring ways to improve our members’ experience. We can confirm that we are updating the pricing of our plans in certain countries”

    The firm’s shares closed 3.4% lower in New York on Thursday after the Wall Street Journal first reported the story.

    Furthermore, the company has clamped down on subscribers sharing their login details and passwords. In some countries, Netflix introduced limits on password sharing, requiring customers to pay extra charges if they want friends and family to share their subscriptions.

    Netflix previously expanded password sharing in countries including Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain; the feature was previously piloted in Latin America. The users will no longer be able to share passwords, they can however transfer profiles.

    However, people using an account can now easily transfer a profile to a new account, which they have paid for; keeping their personalized recommendations, viewing history, My List, saved games, and more.

    Netflix reduces subscription prices in more than 30 countries
    (Image credit: TRE / JBKlutse Foundation)

    Also, members of a household can still easily watch Netflix on their personal devices or log into a new TV, like at a hotel or holiday rental. Aside from this, the users’ Standard or Premium plan in many countries (including Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain) can add an extra member sub-account for up to two people they don’t live with; each with a profile, personalized recommendations, login, and password — for an extra CAD$7.99 a month per person in Canada, NZD$7.99 in New Zealand, Euro 3.99 in Portugal, and Euro 5.99 in Spain.

    This news will come as a relief for Netflix users considering the high inflation rates around the world at the present time. Users can now enjoy watching  Netflix at a lower price.

  • Iran and Russia plan to link their banking systems. What could be their reasons?

    Iran and Russia plan to link their banking systems. What could be their reasons?

    The new governor of Iran’s central bank, Mohammadreza Farzin, declared last week that Iran and Russia have made significant progress towards connecting their banking infrastructures in the face of Western sanctions: “The financial channel between Iran and the world is being restored.”

    The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) claims that after years of effort, the two nations have connected Iran’s SEPAM national financial messaging service to Russia’s Financial Messaging System of the Bank of Russia. Russia has not yet responded (SPFS).

    The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SPFS) is the Russian equivalent of SWIFT, the international system for financial messaging and transfer, and its objective is to connect it with other significant powers like China and India.  It started developing SPFS when it was previously threatened with expulsion from SWIFT for annexing Crimea in 2014.

    The entirety of the Iranian banking system is cut off from SWIFT as a result of waves of US sanctions that started in 2018 when then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Talks to restore the nuclear accord remain deadlocked.

    But now, Iran says, all of its several dozen financial institutions can connect with Russian banks, in addition to more than 100 banks from 13 other – mostly Eurasian – countries that have access to SPFS.

    The announcement comes as Tehran and Moscow have increasingly grown closer in the past year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which triggered more Western sanctions against Russia. Iran has also been targeted for supplying Russia with drones, which it says were delivered before the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

    Advancing economic ties is central to the relationship, with bilateral trade growing to more than $4bn last year for the first time ever, according to Iranian and Russian officials.

    The Iranian government said last week that Russia, with $2.7bn, was by far the largest investor in the sanctioned Iranian economy in the first year since the August 2021 start of the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi.

    ‘The political will is there’

    To further expand economic relations, Iran and Russia needed a stronger banking link and now the missing technical infrastructure seems to be in place for that.

    Before the Ukraine war and the sanctions it brought on Moscow, Iran was more interested than Russia in structured banking cooperation, but now it seems Russia is pushing for it too, according to Hamidreza Azizi, a fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

    “In that sense, it seems that for the first time in the past decades, there is a strong will on both sides to enhance and institutionalise economic relations,” he told Al Jazeera. “So, the political will is certainly there.”

    However, Azizi said, at least in the short term, the Russian system will not turn into a viable alternative to SWIFT as it needs other big economies like China and India to join or even take the lead.

    “As both countries are still quite cautious with regard to their relationship with the West, this will take a long time, if at all, to materialise. It also depends, to a great extent, on the future of the global rivalry between Washington and Beijing,” he said.

    For Iran, simply linking its financial messaging system to Russia’s does not automatically strengthen banking relations because the banks connected to SPFS still need to decide if they want to work with Iranian customers and establish correspondent accounts with Iranian banks.

    “It’s like a person is in the telephone network and can connect to anyone, but you can only say there’s communication when it actually happens,” Mohsen Karimi, CBI’s deputy for international affairs, told the state-linked Tasnim agency last week.

    Azizi told Al Jazeera he doubts non-Russian banks connected to SPFS would take on the increased risk of having financial ties to Iran.

    “I even have doubts whether all Russian banks are equally interested in doing so, as some of them still have interests in Europe and elsewhere that could be in jeopardy if they work with Tehran,” he said.

    ‘Lack of liquidity’

    Tehran and Moscow are also pursuing to strengthen the use of their national currencies in trade to try to gradually weaken the impact of the US dollar and the euro on their economies.

    In July last year, the Russian rouble was officially added to the basket of currencies that are offered in NIMA, a state-run foreign exchange market for Iranian importers and exporters launched in 2018 and overseen by the central bank.

    Then-CBI chief Ali Salehabadi had said the rouble-rial market was launched with a deal worth 2 million roubles (about $28,300), also encouraging Iranian exporters to Russia to offer their roubles in the market.

    NIMA now maintains a fixed rate, artificially lower than the open market, in an effort to prevent further depreciation of the embattled Iranian currency that has recently seen new all-time lows amid protests and ongoing tensions with the West.

    Officials have not disclosed any data on the volume of rial-rouble deals in NIMA, or exactly how much of their overall bilateral trade is currently done in national currencies.

    Making it possible for banks to process cross-border payments does not mean that trade will automatically increase, as Russian and Iranian traders continue to face challenges, according to Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, CEO of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, an economic think tank.

    “There remains a lack of liquidity in the foreign exchange market for roubles and rials,” he told Al Jazeera.

    “The Russian and Iranian economies also lack basic compatibility. The two countries export and import the same goods, meaning that they are competitors in those few markets that remain open to engagement in sanctioned trade.”

    In this vein, Batmanghelidj said the announcement on the banking link is notable as it signals Russian and Iranian policymakers are working to overcome some of the technical barriers to increased trade, but it is not a “game-changer” by itself.

  • Iran’s Ayatollah Ali grants pardon to countless number of prisoners

    Iran’s Ayatollah Ali grants pardon to countless number of prisoners

    Some of the inmates freed from prison were detained during recent anti-government demonstrations.

    The supreme leader of Iran has commuted the sentences of “tens of thousands” of prisoners, including some who were detained during recent anti-government demonstrations, or pardoned them entirely.

    According to information released in state media reports, the pardons approved on Sunday by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had restrictions and would not apply to any of the numerous dual nationals detained in Iran.

    According to state news agency IRNA, those charged with “corruption on earth,” a serious offense for which some protesters were tried and four of whom were put to death, would also not receive pardons.

    Neither would it apply to those charged with “spying for foreign agencies” or those “affiliated with groups hostile to the Islamic Republic”.

    Iran was swept up by protests following the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police last September. The 22-year-old had been arrested for violating Islamic dress codes.

    Iranians from all walks of life took part in the demonstrations, marking one of the boldest challenges to Iran’s government since the 1979 revolution.

    ‘Indoctrination and propaganda’

    According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, about 20,000 people have been arrested in connection with the protests, which the authorities accused Iran’s “foreign enemies” of fomenting.

    Rights groups say more than 500 have been killed in the crackdown, including 70 minors. At least four people have been hanged, according to the Iranian judiciary. Iran has not offered a death toll for months.

    In a letter to Khamenei requesting the pardon, judiciary head Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei said: “During recent events, a number of people, especially young people, committed wrong actions and crimes as a result of the indoctrination and propaganda of the enemy.”

    Protests have slowed considerably since the hangings began.

    “Since the foreign enemies and anti-revolutionary currents’ plans have been foiled, many of these youth now regret their actions,” Ejei wrote.

    Khamenei approved the pardons in honour of the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Khamenei took on the post as the country’s political and religious leader in 1989.

    The Norway-based group Iran Human Rights said last week that at least 100 detained protesters faced possible death sentences.

    Amnesty International has criticised Iranian authorities for what it called “sham trials designed to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising that has rocked Iran”.

  • Iran accuses Israel of the Isfahan drone attack and threatens retaliation

    Iran accuses Israel of the Isfahan drone attack and threatens retaliation

    Iran has attributed a drone attack on a military facility in the city of Isfahan on Saturday to Israel.

    Findings showed that Israel “was responsible for this attempted act of aggression,” according to its ambassador to the UN.

    Iran reserves the right, according to him, “to respond resolutely to any threats or wrongdoings” by Israel.

    Iran claims the attack caused minor damage, but this has not been independently verified, and neither Israel nor Iran has admitted responsibility for the attack.

    The two countries are arch-foes and in recent years have been engaged in what has been described as a “shadow war” of unclaimed attacks on each other’s assets, infrastructure and nationals.

    Israel is mostly known to have carried out strikes on what it says are Iranian weapons transfers to militants in Lebanon and is also believed to have sabotaged Iran’s nuclear sites and killed Iranian nuclear scientists. Iran, which rejects Israel’s right to exist, has been accused by Israel of attacking and planning to attack Israeli and Jewish targets and people. Each side is also believed to have attacked the other’s shipping.

    In a letter to the UN secretary general, Iranian ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani accused Israel of “an attempt… to launch a terrorist attack against a workshop complex” belonging to Iran’s defence ministry. He did not specify what evidence Iran had for this.

    Mr Iravani said Iran reserved the right to respond “wherever and whenever deemed necessary.”

    The purpose of the attacked site is unclear, though reports suggest it could be connected to missile production.

    US media have quoted unnamed US officials as saying Israel carried out the attack, which Iran said involved three drones, on Saturday night at about 23:30 (20:00 GMT). Iran said one was destroyed by air defence systems and two were caught by “defence traps,” causing minor damage to a building and no casualties.

    If confirmed it would mark the first such known attack on a facility in Iran under the current Israeli government which came to power under Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of December.

    In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Mr Netanyahu said Israel had been “taking action against certain weapons development” in Iran, but neither confirmed nor denied it had attacked the site in Isfahan.

    “I never talk about specific operations… “And every time some explosion takes place in the Middle East, Israel is blamed or given responsibility—sometimes we are, sometimes we’re not,” he said.

  • Iran adds more European officials to its blacklists as tensions rise

    Iran adds more European officials to its blacklists as tensions rise

    Three organisations, 22 people, a think tank, and eight UK officials have all been blacklisted by the foreign ministry in Tehran.

    Iran has increased its sanctions against individuals and organisations from Europe for “supporting terrorism” and “fomenting unrest” inside Iran.

    On Wednesday, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs blacklisted three entities and 22 individuals from the European Union, as well as one entity and eight UK officials.

    The European Friends of Israel in the European Parliament, Radio J, and the Heberger construction company were singled out for “participation in the construction of factory equipment” for allegedly being used to produce chemical weapons used in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.

    It also blacklisted several members of the European Parliament, city officials, police and military commanders, and three executives of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which recently published a string of caricatures mocking Iranian leaders.

    Two Dutch far-right political leaders, Rasmus Paludan and Edwin Wagensveld, were sanctioned for “insulting the holy Quran”.

    In the United Kingdom, Tehran blacklisted the Henry Jackson Society think tank in addition to the prosecutor general, several senior current and former military and intelligence officials, and a prisons authority chief.

    The new measures are similar to several rounds of previous sanctions announced by Tehran, the latest of which came last month. They include entry bans into Iran and confiscation of any assets the targets may possess in the country.

    The measures were announced two days after the EU and UK hit dozens of Iranian officials and entities with sanctions.

    The EU, however, has said moving forward with a proposal to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp as a “terrorist” organisation faces legal challenges.

    Tehran has harshly condemned the proposal, which was one of several that were overwhelmingly ratified in a resolution by the European Parliament last week.

  • EU to increase sanctions as bloc clash with Iran over IRGC ‘terror’ tag

    EU to increase sanctions as bloc clash with Iran over IRGC ‘terror’ tag

    The chief of EU foreign policy says that the bloc won’t classify the IRGC as a ‘terrorist’ organization for now.

    The European Union will increase sanctions against Iranian officials thought to be involved in the nation’s ongoing crackdown on anti-government protesters, but it will hold off on designating Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a “terrorist” group until after additional legal procedures are finished.

    “Ministers adopted a new package of sanctions against Iran, targeting those driving the repression,” the EU Presidency said in a tweet on Monday. “The EU strongly condemns the brutal and disproportionate use of force by the Iranian authorities against peaceful protesters.”

    The decision saw 37 additional Iranian officials and entities placed on the sanctions list.

    However, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, had earlier told reporters that listing the IRGC could not happen until the designation had gone through a legal process first.

    “It is something that cannot be decided without a court, a court decision first. You cannot say I consider you a terrorist because I don’t like you,” Borrell said.

    In Iran, the government was adamant that any attempts to proscribe the IRGC were illegitimate.

    “Based on the United Nations Charter and international law, blacklisting this state entity would constitute a clear violation of the Charter,” Nasser Kanani, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, said, touting the IRGC as an organisation that significantly contributes to the security of Iran and the region.

    “Any violation of the IRGC would be a violation of Iran’s national security, and the repercussions would be directed at the violator,” Kanani added.

    The European Parliament last week overwhelmingly voted for a resolution that called for the IRGC to be proscribed, in addition to the imposition of sanctions on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi, among others.

    The resolution condemned Tehran’s response to the country’s protests, which began last September, the executions linked to the protests, and drone sales to Russia. It is not binding and needs to be approved by the European Council’s consensus mechanism before being enforced.

    In response, Iran’s parliament on Sunday tabled legislation to designate European armed forces as “terrorists”, which would be put to a vote if the bloc moves forward with its proposal.

    Speaking to state media on Sunday, foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian claimed that he was assured in phone calls with Borrell and his counterpart from Sweden, the current presidency of the bloc, that the EU would not push the proposal through.

    Iran has also warned that blacklisting the IRGC in its entirety would mean the death of stalled talks to restore the country’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, with Amirabdollahian saying on Sunday that he could not rule out an exit from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if that happens.

    The Iranian foreign minister also said on Monday that the United States has “constantly” sent messages in an effort to facilitate a return to the accord, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

    “The Americans found out sooner than the E3 [France, Germany and the United Kingdom] that there is nothing behind the riots in Iran. They sent a message sooner and insisted on returning to the JCPOA,” Amirabdollahian said, in line with Tehran’s repeated stance that the West has been behind the country’s unrest.

    The foreign minister’s comments come as Washington continues to publicly maintain that the talks are currently not a priority.

    The US, the EU and others have imposed waves of human rights sanctions on Iranian entities and individuals in recent months in support of the protests.

    The US unilaterally abandoned the JCPOA in 2018, imposing harsh sanctions. If restored, the deal would lift sanctions on Tehran while re-introducing strict limits on its nuclear programme.

  •    Iran’s currency hits record low   

       Iran’s currency hits record low   

    In the midst of rising tensions with the West and the turmoil roiling the nation, the value of the Iranian rial has fallen to an all-time record low.

    The US dollar crossed the 450,000-rial threshold on the open market for the first time on Sunday.

    Ali Salehabadi, a former governor of the Central Bank of Iran, was dismissed following a previous sharp devaluation of the rial in late December, when it plunged to more than 440,000 versus the dollar on the open market.

    In an effort to maintain price stability amid a 40% inflation rate, his successor, Mohammad Reza Farzin, had sworn to artificially maintain the currency’s rate against the dollar at 285,000 rials.

    “Today the central bank faces no limitations in terms of currency and gold reserves, and the main reason behind the currency fluctuations is media hype and psychological operations in the society,” Farzin said on Saturday.

    As the rial went into another freefall on Saturday, the central bank claimed that 300 million euros ($326m) of Iran’s money in Iraq had been received, despite US sanctions, and injected into the market.

    Central bank to raise exchange limit

    On Sunday, the central bank said it will soon raise the maximum amount of currency that can be sold to an individual annually from 2,000 euros ($2,176) to 5,000 euros ($5,439) in an apparent effort to show it has no shortage of currency.

    The cap was introduced after the US unilaterally abandoned the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers in 2018 and imposed harsh sanctions, triggering a new currency crisis in Iran.

    To combat currency devaluation, Iran’s police force has periodically announced the arrest of dozens of currency speculators in recent months.

    This week’s depreciation of the rial comes amid boiling tensions with the West, and as protests in Iran, that started in September last year – which Tehran accuses the West of orchestrating – have persisted.

    Earlier this week, the European Parliament overwhelmingly approved a resolution that calls for designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a “terrorist” organisation, and for sanctions on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Ebrahim Raisi and others.

  • Iran and South Korea summon each other’s envoys following a ‘enemy’ comment

    Iran and South Korea summon each other’s envoys following a ‘enemy’ comment

    Tehran is upset that South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol referred to Iran as an “enemy” of the United Arab Emirates.

    As a result of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol comparing Tehran to the threat posed by North Korea and the “enemy” of the United Arab Emirates, Tehran and Seoul have summoned their respective embassies.

    Yoon referred to the UAE as a “brother nation” of South Korea, citing the two countries’ expanding economic and military cooperation, while touring South Korean special forces stationed in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

    The threat that Iran is allegedly posing to the UAE was then contrasted by Yoon with the danger that North Korea’s nuclear weapons pose to South Korea.

    “The enemy of the UAE, its most-threatening nation, is Iran, and our enemy is North Korea,” Yoon said.

    Yoon’s remarks triggered a stiff response from Iran’s foreign ministry, which said it was investigating Yoon’s “interfering statements”.

    Iran’s deputy foreign minister on legal affairs, Reza Najafi, summoned the South Korean ambassador on Wednesday to protest against Yoon’s remarks, Iran’s official IRNA news agency said.

    Najafi also accused Seoul of pursuing an “unfriendly approach” towards Iran, and noted the issue of Iranian funds frozen in South Korean banks. Iran has repeatedly demanded that Seoul release some $7bn of its funds frozen under US sanctions

    On Thursday, South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong called in Iranian ambassador Saeed Badamchi Shabestari to explain Seoul’s stance “once again”, ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said in a briefing.

    “As we explained several times, [Yoon’s] reported comments were meant to encourage our troops serving their duties in the UAE, and had nothing to do with Iran’s foreign relations, including South Korea-Iran relations,” Lim said.

    “Our government’s will to develop relations with Iran remains unchanged,” he said.

    Yoon then compared the threat UAE supposedly faces from Iran to the threat South Korea faces from nuclear-armed North Korea.

    “The enemy of the UAE, its most-threatening nation, is Iran, and our enemy is North Korea,” Yoon said.

    Yoon’s remarks triggered a stiff response from Iran’s foreign ministry, which said it was investigating Yoon’s “interfering statements”.

    Iran’s deputy foreign minister on legal affairs, Reza Najafi, summoned the South Korean ambassador on Wednesday to protest against Yoon’s remarks, Iran’s official IRNA news agency said.

    Najafi also accused Seoul of pursuing an “unfriendly approach” towards Iran, and noted the issue of Iranian funds frozen in South Korean banks. Iran has repeatedly demanded that Seoul release some $7bn of its funds frozen under US sanctions.

    On Thursday, South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong called in Iranian ambassador Saeed Badamchi Shabestari to explain Seoul’s stance “once again”, ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said in a briefing.

    “As we explained several times, [Yoon’s] reported comments were meant to encourage our troops serving their duties in the UAE, and had nothing to do with Iran’s foreign relations, including South Korea-Iran relations,” Lim said.

    “Our government’s will to develop relations with Iran remains unchanged,” he said.

    According to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, the foreign ministry in Seoul had stressed that Yoon’s comments were “irrelevant” to Seoul-Tehran relations, and also urged Iran against “unnecessary overinterpretation”.

    Described by Yoon’s political opponents in South Korea as “diplomatically disastrous”, the spat comes as the UAE attempts to manage its relationship with Iran, which is an important business partner.

    The UAE is also home to about 3,500 American soldiers and has spent billions of dollars buying South Korean surface-to-air missile systems as a means to protect itself against aerial attacks. Those threats include long-range drone attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

    South Korea was once one of Iran’s biggest crude buyers in Asia and has now found itself squeezed by the tensions over Iran’s collapsed nuclear deal with world powers. Billions of dollars in Iranian funds remain frozen in South Korean banks after Washington reimposed sanctions on Tehran in 2018.

    Iran held a South Korean oil tanker for months in 2021 amid the dispute. Both sides have been in talks over ways to unfreeze the funds and resume the oil trade.

    According to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, the foreign ministry in Seoul had stressed that Yoon’s comments were “irrelevant” to Seoul-Tehran relations, and also urged Iran against “unnecessary overinterpretation”.

    Described by Yoon’s political opponents in South Korea as “diplomatically disastrous”, the spat comes as the UAE attempts to manage its relationship with Iran, which is an important business partner.

    The UAE is also home to about 3,500 American soldiers and has spent billions of dollars buying South Korean surface-to-air missile systems as a means to protect itself against aerial attacks. Those threats include long-range drone attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

    South Korea was once one of Iran’s biggest crude buyers in Asia and has now found itself squeezed by the tensions over Iran’s collapsed nuclear deal with world powers. Billions of dollars in Iranian funds remain frozen in South Korean banks after Washington reimposed sanctions on Tehran in 2018.

    Iran held a South Korean oil tanker for months in 2021 amid the dispute. Both sides have been in talks over ways to unfreeze the funds and resume the oil trade.

  • Iran executes a dual British-Iranian national, Alireza Akbari

    Iran executes a dual British-Iranian national, Alireza Akbari

    Alireza Akbari, a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Iran, was executed after receiving an Iranian death sentence.


    On Wednesday, Mr. Akbari’s family was requested to pay him a “final visit” at the prison, and according to his wife, he had been transferred to solitary confinement.

    The former Iranian deputy defence minister was detained in 2019 and found guilty of spying for the UK despite his denials.

    The execution, according to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, was “a callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime.”

    Iran’s rulers had “no respect for the human rights of their own people” Mr Sunak said, adding that his thoughts were “with Alireza’s friends and family”.

    UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the execution would “not stand unchallenged”.

    The Iranian judiciary’s official news outlet Mizan reported on Saturday that Alireza Akbari had been hanged, without specifying the date when the execution took place.

    The news came after Iran posted a video of Mr Akbari earlier this week showing what appeared to be forced confessions, and after the country’s intelligence ministry had described the British-Iranian as “one of the most important agents of the British intelligence service in Iran”.

    However BBC Persian broadcast an audio message on Wednesday from Mr Akbari in which he said he had been tortured and forced to confess on camera to crimes he did not commit.

    The United States had also joined calls for Iran not to execute Mr Akbari. US diplomat Vedant Patel said “his execution would be unconscionable” and condemned the charges against him as “politically motivated”.

    The UK Foreign Office has ben supporting Mr Akbari’s family and had repeatedly raised his case with Iranian authorities. It had requested urgent consular access, but Iran’s government does not recognise dual nationality for Iranians.

    ‘Tortured for 3,500 hours’

    In Mr Akbari’s audio message he said that he was living abroad a few years ago when he was invited to visit Iran at the request of a top Iranian diplomat who was involved in nuclear talks with world powers.

    Once there, he adds, he was accused of obtaining top secret intelligence from the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, “in exchange for a bottle of perfume and a shirt”.

    Mr Akbari alleged that he was “interrogated and tortured” by intelligence agents “for more than 3,500 hours”.

    “By using physiological and psychological methods, they broke my will, drove me to madness and forced me to do whatever they wanted,” he said. “By the force of gun and death threats they made me confess to false and corrupt claims.”

    He also accused Iran of seeking “to take revenge on the UK by executing me”.

    Hours after the audio message was broadcast, the Mizan news agency confirmed for the first time that Mr Akbari had been found guilty of espionage, and that the Supreme Court had rejected his appeal.

    Ties between the UK and Iran have deteriorated in recent months since the UK imposed sanctions on Iran’s morality police and other top security figures, in response to the country’s violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.

    Iran has arrested dozens of Iranians with dual nationality or foreign permanent residency in recent years, mostly on spying and national security charges.

    British-Iranian citizens Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were released and allowed to leave Iran last year after the UK settled a longstanding debt owed to Iran.

    However, at least two other British-Iranians remain in detention, including Morad Tahbaz, who also holds US citizenship.

    Source: BBC.com
  • Alireza Akbari: Iran executes British-Iranian dual national

    Alireza Akbari: Iran executes British-Iranian dual national

    British-Iranian dual national Alireza Akbari, who was sentenced to death in Iran, has been executed.

    Mr Akbari’s family had been asked to go to his prison for a “final visit” on Wednesday and his wife said he had been moved to solitary confinement.

    The ex-deputy Iranian defence minister was arrested in 2019 and convicted of spying for the UK, which he denied.

    UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the execution was a “callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime”.

    Iran’s rulers had “no respect for the human rights of their own people” Mr Sunak said, adding that his thoughts were “with Alireza’s friends and family”.

    UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the execution would “not stand unchallenged”.

    The Iranian judiciary’s official news outlet Mizan reported on Saturday that Alireza Akbari had been hanged, without specifying the date when the execution took place.

    The news came after Iran posted a video of Mr Akbari earlier this week showing what appeared to be forced confessions, and after the country’s intelligence ministry had described the British-Iranian as “one of the most important agents of the British intelligence service in Iran”.

    However BBC Persian broadcast an audio message on Wednesday from Mr Akbari in which he said he had been tortured and forced to confess on camera to crimes he did not commit.

    The United States had also joined calls for Iran not to execute Mr Akbari. US diplomat Vedant Patel said “his execution would be unconscionable” and condemned the charges against him as “politically motivated”.

    The UK Foreign Office has ben supporting Mr Akbari’s family and had repeatedly raised his case with Iranian authorities. It had requested urgent consular access, but Iran’s government does not recognise dual nationality for Iranians.

  • Talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia could restore relations, says Iran’s top diplomat

    Talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia could restore relations, says Iran’s top diplomat

    After years of tension, the Iranian foreign minister expresses optimism that diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia can be repaired through dialogue.

    Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian expressed optimism that talks between the two regional rivals could lead to the restoration of diplomatic ties between Riyadh and Tehran.

    In response to protesters attacking the Saudi embassy in Tehran after Riyadh executed Shia leader Nimr al-Nimr, Saudi Arabia severed ties with Iran in January 2016.

    Amir-Abdollahian expressed his optimism that “diplomatic missions or embassies in Tehran and Riyadh will reopen within the framework of dialogue that should continue between the two countries” at a news conference in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Friday.

    Amir-Abdollahian told a news conference in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Friday that he hoped “diplomatic missions or embassies in Tehran and Riyadh will reopen within the framework of dialogue that should continue between the two countries”.

    Iran and Saudi Arabia back opposing sides in several conflicts in the Middle East region, including in Syria and Yemen, where Tehran has supported the Houthi rebels.

    Since April 2021, Iraq has hosted five rounds of fence-mending meetings between the two sides, but the talks have stalled in recent months, and no meetings have been publicly announced since April 2022.

    Iran wields influence in political life in Lebanon and Iraq, where it also supports armed groups.

    On Friday, Amir-Abdollahian met with officials including his counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

    In a meeting with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, the pair discussed “possible threats arising from the formation of a government of corrupt people and extremists” in Israel, according to a statement from the Tehran-backed group.

    Israel in late December inaugurated the most right-wing government in its history, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    The move has sparked fears of heightened tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, and of a potential military escalation in the occupied West Bank, where daily raids and violence by the Israeli army are a common occurrence.

    ‘Dialogue’

    Abdollahian also hailed a potential rapprochement between Iranian ally Syria and Turkey, after their defence ministers met last month.

    Syria’s pro-government Al-Watan newspaper said Amir-Abdollahian would visit Damascus on Saturday.

    “We are happy with this dialogue that is taking place between Syria and Turkey,” Amir-Abdollahian said.

    “We believe that this dialogue should have positive repercussions benefitting these two countries.”

    Ankara had long backed rebels opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

    But after more than a decade of war that has seen Damascus claw back territory with Russian and Iranian support, ties between Syria and Turkey have begun to thaw.

    In late December, Syrian and Turkish defence ministers held landmark negotiations in Moscow – the first such meeting since 2011.

    Assad had said on Thursday that a Moscow-brokered rapprochement with Turkey should aim for “the end of occupation” by Ankara of parts of Syria.

    The defence ministers’ meeting is to be followed by talks between the three countries’ top diplomats, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday.

    The mooted reconciliation has alarmed Syrian opposition leaders and supporters who reside mostly in the northern parts of the war-torn country under Ankara’s indirect control.

    Source: Aljazeera.com

  • Iranian-British national executed for spying on Iran

    Iranian-British national executed for spying on Iran

    An Iranian-British national was executed by Iran’s Supreme Court after being accused of spying for the British government.

    According to Iran’s judicial news agency, Mizan Online, Alireza Akbari received the death penalty for “corruption on earth and for endangering the country’s internal and external security by passing on intelligence.”

    Iran’s intelligence ministry referred to the former defence ministry official as “one of the most significant infiltrators of the country’s sensitive and strategic centres.”

    According to Mizan, who cited a statement from the intelligence ministry, Akbari was made a “key spy” for MI6 by virtue of “the importance of his position” in the UK.

    On February 2, 2019, the official government newspaper Iran published an interview with Akbari, whom it identified as a “former deputy defence minister in the reformist government” of Mohammad Khatami, who served as Iranian president from 1997 to 2005.

    ‘Barbaric regime’

    The UK’s foreign minister, James Cleverly, called the planned execution “politically motivated” and demanded Akbari’s immediate release.

    “This is a politically motivated act by a barbaric regime that has total disregard for human life,” Cleverly wrote on Twitter.

    “We are supporting the family of Mr Akbari and have repeatedly raised his case with the Iranian authorities,” a British foreign office spokesperson said in a statement. “Our priority is securing his immediate release and we have reiterated our request for urgent consular access.”

    Iran has been rocked by protests triggered by the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, after she was arrested for violating Iran’s dress code for women.

    Eighteen people so far have reportedly been sentenced to death in connection with the protests. Of them, four were executed, setting off an international outcry, following expedited trials that the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said did not meet the minimum guarantees of a fair trial.

    ‘State-sanctioned killing’

    Iran is “weaponising” the death penalty, attempting to crush dissent by frightening the public with the execution of protesters, the UN said on Tuesday.

    “Criminal proceedings and the death penalty are being weaponised by the Iranian government to punish individuals participating in protests, and to strike fear into the population so as to stamp out dissent, in violation of international human rights law,” OHCHR said.

    “The weaponisation of criminal procedures to punish people for exercising their basic rights – such as those participating in or organising demonstrations – amounts to state-sanctioned killing,” Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.

    OHCHR spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the UN was against the imposition of the death penalty in all circumstances.

    “However, in these instances, what we have seen is a lack of due process; charges that are completely spurious and don’t make sense,” she told a news briefing.

    “These are charges of corruption on Earth and waging war against God, which are very vaguely worded.”

    She said there were also serious allegations of torture, mistreatment and humiliating treatment before the executions.

    “In such circumstances, these executions amount to an arbitrary deprivation of life,” Shamdasani said.

    Source: Aljazeera.com
  • Iran sentences the daughter of a former president to five years in prison

    Iran sentences the daughter of a former president to five years in prison

     The activist daughter of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been given a five-year jail term.

    The charges against Faezeh Hashemi were not specifically stated by the attorney. However, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency, Hashemi was charged with “propaganda against the system” by Tehran’s public prosecutor last year.

    She was detained in Tehran during protests after a young Kurdish woman died while in police custody, according to state media reports from September. The arrest was for “inciting riots.”

    Since the 1979 revolution, the demonstrations have presented one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s clerical leadership.

    “Following the arrest of Ms. Faezeh Hashemi, she was sentenced to five years in prison but the sentence is not final,” defence lawyer Neda Shams wrote on her Twitter account.

    In 2012, Faezeh Hashemi was sentenced to jail and banned from political activities for “anti state propaganda” dating back to the 2009 disputed presidential election.

    Her father died in 2017.

    Former president Rafsanjani’s pragmatic policies of economic liberalisation and better relations with the West attracted fierce supporters and equally fierce critics during his life. He was one of the founders of the Islamic Republic.

    Source: Aljazeera.com

  • Iran executions described as ‘state sanctioned killing’ – UN rights chief

    Iran executions described as ‘state sanctioned killing’ – UN rights chief

    The ‘weaponization’ of the death penalty to quell dissent has been denounced by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

    According to the UN human rights chief, the spate of death sentences issued in Iran after the start of civil unrest constitutes “state sanctioned killing,” with executions being used to terrorise the populace and quell dissent.

    Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement on Tuesday that “the weaponization of criminal procedures to punish people for exercising their basic rights – such as those who participate in or organise demonstrations – amounts to state sanctioned killing.”

    Such executions, he continued, were against international human rights law.

    On Saturday, Iran hanged two men convicted of killing a member of the security forces during nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody in September.

    The UN Human Rights office has received information that two further executions are imminent, the statement said.

    As part of the ongoing crackdown, Iranian activist Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, received a preliminary sentence of five years in prison for spreading “propaganda” and acts against national security, her lawyer, Neda Shams, said on Monday.

    Hashemi was arrested in the capital Tehran on September 27 for encouraging residents to demonstrate. The 60-year-old former lawmaker and women’s rights activist was charged with “collusion against national security, propaganda against the Islamic republic and disturbing public order by participating in illegal gatherings”, Shams said.

    Hashemi will be able to appeal the sentence.

    The Islamic Republic has been rocked by a wave of protests since Amini’s death. The 22-year-old had been arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.

    Iranian authorities said hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed and thousands arrested in connection with the protests, which they generally describe as “riots”.

    Despite months of popular unrest, authorities have signalled an increased crackdown since the start of the year, with police warning that women must wear headscarves even in cars. Iran’s judiciary on Tuesday ordered police to “firmly punish” people who violate the country’s hijab law.

    “Courts must sentence the violators, as well as fine them, to additional penalties such as exile, bans on practicing certain professions and closing workplaces,” Mehr news agency quoted the judiciary as saying.

    Executions spark international concern

    Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said on Monday that at least 109 protesters now in detention have been sentenced to death or face charges that can carry capital punishment.

    In an updated death toll, IHR said 481 protesters have been killed, including 64 minors, since the unrest began.

    The UN human rights chief’s statement is the latest reprimand from the international community.

    The White House on Monday condemned Saturday’s executions, saying the United States stood with other countries demanding a halt to the death sentences.

    “We condemn the executions of Mohammad Mehdi Karami & Mohammad Hosseini and the additional executions announced today,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan tweeted.

    “We join with partners around the world calling for an immediate cessation of these abuses. Iran will be held accountable.”

    Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly announced a new round of sanctions over Iran’s “brutal repression of brave Iranian voices.”

    The European Union and several European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway summoned Iranian diplomats in protest.

    On Monday, Pope Francis denounced recourse to the death penalty, saying it “only fuels the thirst for vengeance.”

    He stressed that everyone had a “right to life” and “demanded greater respect for the dignity of women.”

    Iran has blamed the unrest on hostile foreign forces, and the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Monday that authorities had been dealing “seriously and justly” with those implicated in the “riots.”

    Source: Aljazeera.com
  • Iranians demonstrate outside of prisons in an effort to stop executions

    Iranians demonstrate outside of prisons in an effort to stop executions

    Dozens of people showed up outside a prison in Iran  overnight amid reports that the government was getting ready to execute two more anti-government protesters.

    Videos of protesters yelling slogans in front of Karaj’s Rajai Shahr jail were posted online by opposition activists.

    At the gathering, the mother of Mohammad Ghobadlou—one of the two men facing execution—made a clemency request.

    On Saturday, two protesters were hanged, drawing condemnation from around the world.

    The UN human rights office deplored the “shocking” executions of Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, which it said followed “unfair trials based on forced confessions”.

    A Revolutionary Court found the men guilty of “corruption on Earth” over their alleged involvement in the killing of a member of the paramilitary Basij force in Karaj in November. Both denied the charge and said they were tortured.

    They were the third and fourth people to be executed in connection with the protests that erupted in September following the death in custody of a woman detained by morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab “improperly”.

    Authorities have portrayed them as “riots” and responded with lethal force.

    So far, at least 519 protesters and 68 security personnel have been killed in the unrest, according to the Human Rights Activists’ News Agency (HRANA).

    It says that another 19,290 protesters have been arrested and that 111 of them are believed to “under the impending threat of a death sentence”, having been convicted of, or charged with, capital offences.

    People gathered outside Rajai Shahr prison on Sunday night after activists warned that Mohammad Ghobadlou and Mohammad Boroughani had been transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for execution.

    Opposition activist collective 1500 Tasvir published videos showing a crowd chanting slogans warning authorities against proceeding with the executions. Shouts included “I will kill who has killed my brother”  and “This is the last warning. If you execute [them] there will be an uprising/revolt.”

    Ghobadlou’s mother, who has previously said her son has bipolar disorder, was filmed telling the crowd that 50 doctors had signed a petition calling on the judiciary chief to establish a committee to review her son’s mental health.

    “If he believed in God, he would have responded to these 50 doctors,” she said, asserting that her son is “ill”.

    She also claimed that the policeman who he is accused of killing was “martyred somewhere else”.

    1500 Tasvir also posted videos purportedly from the area around the prison in which gunshots could be heard.

    The activist collective declared later on Monday that the protest had stopped the executions “at least up to this moment”.

    The mother of Mohammad Ghobadlou appeals for clemency during a protest outside Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj, Iran (8 January 2023)
    Image caption,Mohammad Ghobadlou’s mother urged Iran’s judiciary chief to review evidence about his mental health problems

    Ghobadlou, 22, had his death sentence upheld by the Supreme Court on 24 December. He was convicted of “enmity against God” after being accused of driving into a group of policemen during a protest in Tehran in September, killing one of them and injuring others.

    He stood trial without his chosen lawyer, who said the prosecution had relied other flawed evidence. Amnesty International also said it was concerned that he was subjected to torture or ill-treatment in custody, citing a forensic report that pointed to bruising and injuries on his arm, elbow and shoulder blade.

    Mohammad Boroughani, 19, was tried alongside Ghobadlou and was also convicted of “enmity against God”.

    He was accused of allegedly wielding a machete, setting fire to a provincial government building and injuring a security officer. He was also accused of “encouraging” others to participate in protests via social media.

    Amnesty International said he was found guilty after proceedings that “bore no resemblance to a meaningful judicial trial”.

    In a separate development on Monday, the judiciary announced that a court in Isfahan had sentenced to death three people over an attack during protests in the city on 16 November in which three security personnel were shot dead.

    Saleh Mirbasheri Boltaqi, Majid Kazemi Sheikh-Shabani, and Saeed Yaqoubi Kordsofla were convicted of “enmity against God”.

    Two other defendants were sentenced to prison over their alleged involvement in the attack, including professional footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani. Nasr-Azadani, 26, was jailed for 16 years after being found guilty of three charges including “assisting in enmity against God”.

    Source: BBC.com

  • Iran protests: ‘No going back’ as unrest hits 100 days

    A hundred days after they began, the longest running anti-government protests in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution have shaken the regime, but at a heavy cost to the people.

    More than 500 protesters, including 69 children, have been killed, according to the Human Rights Activists’ News Agency (HRANA). Two protesters have been executed and at least 26 others face the same fate, after what Amnesty International calls “sham trials”.

    Although nationwide demonstrations have swept Iran before – once in 2017 lasting until early 2018, and another in November 2019 – the current protests are unique, as they involve people from across society and women are taking a lead role under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom”.

    Some Iranian celebrities have taken irrevocable steps to support protests, leading to their arrest or exile.

    Taraneh Alidoosti, a well-known Iranian actress, is being held in the notorious Evin prison after she condemned the execution of a young protester. Previously, she published a photo of herself without a mandatory headscarf, holding a sign with the protesters’ slogan.

    “I have worked with Taraneh on four films and now she is in prison for her rightful support of her fellow countrymen and her opposition to the unjust sentences being issued,” Asghar Farhadi, who directed Alidoosti in his Oscar-winning film The Salesman, wrote on Instagram.

    “If showing such support is a crime, then tens of millions of people of this land are criminals,” Mr Farhadi added.

    ‘Death threats’

    Another prominent Iranian actress who has left the country, Pegah Ahangarani, told BBC Persian: “Both sides have been radicalised, the regime in its crackdown and people in film industry in their response.

    “Iran cannot go back to pre-Mahsa Amini era,” referring to the Kurdish Iranian woman whose death in the custody of Iran’s morality police on 16 September sparked the protests.

    Hamid Farrokhnezhad, another well-known Iranian actor, moved to the US earlier this month and immediately called Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei a “dictator”, comparing him to Franco, Stalin and Mussolini.

    Woman at pro-Iranian protest rally in Mexico City (19/12/22)
    Image caption,”Women, Life, Freedom” has become the slogan of the protests

    Ali Karimi, one of Iran’s most celebrated former footballers, who was living in Dubai, also supported the protests. He said Iranian intelligence agents threatened to kill him, eventually leading him to move to the US.

    Karimi is now one of the most outspoken critics of the Iranian regime on his Instagram account, with more than 14 million followers.

    Another Iranian football icon, Ali Daei, had his jewellery shop and restaurant shut down by the Iranian judiciary after coming out in support of a nationwide strike.

    What also marks the current protests out from previous ones is the emerging use by demonstrators of petrol bombs.

    These have been used against bases of the Basij militia and Hawza, or religious schools for Shia Muslim clerics.

    Turban tossing

    Iran’s Generation Z has been at the forefront of these protests, defying strict religious rule and setting new trends such as burning headscarves.

    Another new trend among young protesters is so-called “turban tossing” – sneaking up behind Shia Muslim clerics, knocking their turban off and running away.

    A 16-year-old boy, Arshia Emamgholizadeh, was arrested in the north-western city of Tabriz last month, accused of “turban tossing”.

    He was held for 10 days before being released. Two days later, he committed suicide, something his family blames on his treatment in prison. During his detention, Arshia had been beaten with batons and given unknown pills, a source close to the family told BBC Persian.

    Iranian authorities have not only cracked down on protesters, but have also used the bodies of those who have died in custody or been killed as bargaining chips to silence the families of victims.

    Fearing such pressure, the brother of a killed protester stole his body from a morgue, driving around town for hours, a source told BBC Persian.

    Mehran Samak, 27, was shot in the head in the northern city of Bandar Anzali for honking his car’s horn in celebration of Iran’s elimination from the World Cup on 29 November.

    Another family say they found shocking signs of torture on the body of their 23-year-old son, Hamed Salahshoor, who died in custody when they exhumed his body after he was forcibly buried 18 miles (30km) away from their home town.

    Executions and torture

    So far, two men have been executed after being convicted of vaguely defined national security charges linked to the protests, in what human rights groups have condemned as gross miscarriages of justice.

    Many of those on death row have said they were tortured.

    The Kurdistan Human Rights Network, a non-governmental organisation, said a Kurdish-Iranian rapper, Saman Yasin, who was sentenced to death, attempted to commit suicide on Tuesday. The rights group has previously said Yasin was tortured while in detention. Iran’s Supreme Court upheld an appeal against his death sentence on Saturday and ordered him to be retried.

    In an audio file obtained by BBC Persian, a 26-year-old amateur bodybuilder, Sahand Noormohammadzadeh, alleges that he was subjected to several mock executions in prison.

    Sahand Noormohammadzadeh holds a medal he won for bodybuilding
    Image caption,Sahand Noormohammadzadeh, a bodybuilder, maintained his innocence at his trial last month

    Mr Noormohammadzadeh was sentenced to death in November after he was found guilty of “enmity against God” (defined under Iranian law as “creating public insecurity” with a weapon). He was accused of blocking traffic on a highway by tearing down railings during a protest in Tehran on 23 September, which he denied.

    BBC Persian has also obtained X-ray images that show three ribs of an imprisoned radiologist were broken, piercing his lung. Dr Hamid Ghare-Hasanlou was found guilty of “corruption on Earth”, a crime which carries death penalty.

    An informed source told Amnesty International that Dr Ghare-Hasanlou was subjected to torture and ill-treatment in order to extract a forced “confession”.

    Source: BBC

  • Iran protests: Activist Narges Mohammadi details ‘abuse’ of detained women

    A leading human rights activist in Iran has written from prison to give the BBC details of how women detained in recent anti-government protests are being sexually and physically abused.

    Narges Mohammadi said such assaults had become more common in recent protests.

    She is serving a lengthy sentence in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

    The protests were triggered by the death in custody in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, arrested for violating strict dress codes.

    She was detained by morality police in mid-September for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, “improperly”.

    More than 500 protesters, including 69 children, have been killed, while thousands of others have been arrested, human rights activists say. Dozens of Iranian security personnel are also reported to have been killed.

    Many of those arrested have allegedly been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in custody.

    Ms Mohammadi is deputy head of Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi’s Defenders of Human Rights Center. She has received several jail sentences since 2011 and is currently in prison for “spreading propaganda”.

    This year she was also included in the BBC’s 100 Women – a high profile list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world.

    ‘Hands and legs tied to hook’

    Ms Mohammadi says in her letter that some of the women arrested during the recent demonstrations were transferred to the women’s ward in Evin prison.

    That gave her a chance to hear shocking details of the abuse they suffered.

    She says that one well-known activist had her hands and legs tied to a hook above her head in the vehicle taking her to prison – and was then sexually assaulted by security officers.

    Narges Mohammadi - 2007 picture
    Image caption,Ms Mohammadi, pictured here in 2007, is serving a lengthy sentence in Evin prison

    Ms Mohammadi says she saw bruises and scars on her body.

    She says another woman who was arrested in the street was taken on a motorbike by two security officers – one in front and one behind – and was repeatedly assaulted.

    Iran’s state broadcaster has denied reports of security forces using rape and sexual abuse against female protesters.

    A report on 19 December said female prisoners were kept in facilities run by all-female staff, adding that claims of rape in the Western media were “rumours” and “baseless”.

    But Iran also continues to heavily repress domestic reporting of the protests, with one recent report suggesting it was now the third largest jailer of journalists in the world.

    Ms Mohammadi says that even though reporting abuse may lead to intimidation of the families of women in detention, she believes it’s necessary to expose what’s happening – in order to try to put a stop to it.

    “Not revealing these crimes would contribute to the continuation of application of this repressive methods against women,” she says.

    “Therefore, it seems that the assault on women activists, fighters, and protesters in Iran should be widely and powerfully reported at the global level.”

    She added that this was especially important given the pressure on civil society in Iran.

    “In the absence of powerful independent civil organisations, the attention and support of the media and international human rights organisations and global public opinion is essential,” she said.

    Ms Mohammadi ended the letter by expressing the belief that Iran’s “brave, resilient, lively and hopeful women” would attain victory.

    “Victory means establishing democracy, peace and human rights and ending tyranny,” she added.

  • Iran minister: Saudi Arabia look forward dialogue after Jordan meeting

    A sixth round of direct bilateral discussions that could take place at the level of foreign ministers has been postponed due to a number of factors.The Iranian foreign minister said after meeting his Saudi counterpart in Jordan that Saudi Arabia is open to having more conversations with Iran.Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian claimed in an Arabic tweet posted on Wednesday that he spoke on the sidelines of an Iraq-focused conference in Jordan on Tuesday with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud as well as other counterparts from the region and from France.

    “The Saudi minister assured me of his country’s readiness to continue dialogue with Iran,” he wrote.

    Amirabdollahian did not disclose more details, and Saudi officials have yet to comment publicly.

    The two regional rivals cut diplomatic ties in 2016 after a crowd stormed the Sunni-majority kingdom’s embassy in Tehran following the execution of a prominent Shia leader.

    Since April 2021, Iraq has hosted five rounds of direct talks between the two, the latest of which came in April this year. A sixth round has been anticipated for months, with speculation that it could for the first time happen at the level of foreign ministers, but there have been several roadblocks.

    For one, Iraq, which has mediated between the two sides, has been undergoing its own political turmoil, with current Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani coming into power in October following infighting that ultimately saw the Iran-backed Coalition Framework emerge on top.

    On the other hand, Iran has significantly intensified its rhetoric against Saudi Arabia, accusing it of bankrolling media channels that, according to Tehran, have “incited terrorism” during the country’s unrest since nation-wide protests began in mid-September.

    The apparent meeting between the foreign ministers in Jordan is a sign that neither side wants to shut the door to dialogue completely, but should not raise expectations for immediate tangible results either, according to Hamidreza Azizi, a fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

    “The renewed mutual suspicions and increased threat perceptions make a real breakthrough in diplomatic relations very unlikely,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that the empowerment of factions close to Iran in Iraq makes Baghdad’s role as mediator more difficult as well.

    “In such circumstances, the best outcome the two sides may achieve in the short term is to maintain a minimum of their diplomatic communication channels and try to manage the tensions. In that sense, I don’t think we should expect a new round of talks at the level of foreign ministers or any type of rapprochement.”

    In the longer term, Azizi said things would depend on the domestic situation in Iran and Tehran’s relations with the West.

    “At the moment, the Saudis seem to be comfortable with the fact that the Iranian government is under enormous pressure domestically and internationally and is in no rush to give any concessions for resuming normal relations with Tehran.”

    Azizi said a potential direct or indirect military assault by Iran on Saudi assets would signal a “game-changer” for bilateral and regional ties.

    Separately, in a speech on Tuesday, Esmaeil Qaani, the commander of the Quds Force, which is the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), suggested Saudi Arabia was an extension of US efforts in the region.

    “The main enemies are the criminal US and the Zionist regime [Israel],” he said. “The rest, like the criminal Saudi Arabia, are dregs and are not even worth being considered enemies.”

    Qaani delivered the remarks during an event held to mark the first anniversary of the death of Hassan Irloo, the country’s top envoy to war-torn Yemen, who died after contracting COVID-19. Tehran had accused Saudi authorities of refusing to cooperate in time to secure his air transfer, something which they denied.

    Tehran backs the Houthi rebels in the war in Yemen, while Riyadh backs the Yemeni government.

    Tehran and Baghdad, on the other hand, have also seen increased tensions in bilateral relations as the IRGC has launched multiple rounds of artillery, missile and drone attacks on northern Iraq since September, in an effort to target “secessionist terrorist” Kurdish groups based there.

    Iran accuses them of smuggling weapons into its territory with the aim of using them during the country’s unrest. Iraqi Prime Minister al-Sudani visited Tehran last month and met Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi to discuss the issue.

    Source: Aljazeera.com 

     

  • Iran kicked out UN commission on women

    Just months after joining a significant UN women’s rights group, member states of the UN have expelled Iran. The unusual turnabout occurs as Iran is alarmed by a protest movement that was started after a young woman died while in the care of the nation’s so-called “morality police”

    A resolution by the United States to “remove with immediate effect the Islamic Republic of Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women for the remainder of its 2022-2026 term” was approved by 29 members of the UN’s Economic and Social Council on Wednesday.

    8 member states participated in the vote, and 8 member states abstained

    Addressing the council on Wednesday, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that “women and activists have appealed to us, the United Nations, for support.”

    “They made their request to us loud and clear: remove Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women.”

    “The reason why is straightforward. The Commission is the premier UN body for promoting gender equality and empowering women. It cannot do its important work if it is being undermined from within. Iran’s membership at this moment is an ugly stain on the Commission’s credibility,” Thomas-Greenfield added.

    Iran condemned the US resolution, calling it an “illegal request” and said it weakens the rule of law in the United Nations.

    Iran’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations, Amir Saeed Irvani, said the resolution to remove Iran was built on “baseless claims and fabricated arguments using fake narratives,” according to state news agency IRNA on Wednesday.

    Iran had only just begun its four-year term on the 45-member Commission on the Status of Women – which was created to advocate for gender equality globally – after being elected to the body in April.

    In recent months, the country has been gripped by mass protests sparked by the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being detained in Tehran by a police unit that enforces strict dress codes for women, such as wearing the compulsory headscarf.

    Iran’s demonstrations, often led by women, have since coalesced around a range of grievances with the regime. Authorities have unleashed a deadly crackdown on demonstrators, with reports of forced detentions and physical abuse being used to target the country’s Kurdish minority group.

    ‘A journey of a thousand lies’

    Another representative from Iran’s delegation to the UN responded to the vote, saying, “My delegation condemns any politicization of women’s rights and rejects all accusations made in particular by the US and certain EU members.”

    She also described Iran’s “efforts to promote and protect women’s rights” driven by the country’s “rich culture and well-established constitution.”

    Iran is “a progressive society that takes into consideration the needs and listens to the voices of its women and girls eagerly and strives toward a better future for and with its women and girls,” she said.

    A UN report released in March 2021 described Iranian women and girls as treated like “second class citizens.” The report cited widespread child marriage involving girls between the ages of 10 and 14, weak protections against domestic violence, and lack of legal autonomy for women, among other issues.

    “Blatant discrimination exists in Iranian law and practice that must change. In several areas of their lives, including in marriage, divorce, employment, and culture, Iranian women are either restricted or need permission from their husbands or paternal guardians, depriving them of their autonomy and human dignity. These constructs are completely unacceptable and must be reformed now,” said the report’s author Javaid Rehman at the time.

    Following months of protests, Iran’s Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said in early December that the country’s parliament and judiciary were reviewing the law that requires women to wear a hijab in public, according to pro-reform outlet Entekhab.

    But there is no evidence of what, if any, changes could be forthcoming to the law, which came into effect after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

    Reacting to news of Iran’s removal from the body, Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch said it was a “welcome step,” but remained a “far cry” from true accountability.

    In a statement to CNN, Charbonneau added, “What’s needed is urgent coordinated pressure on Iran to end its campaign of violence, credible prosecutions of individuals who are directly responsible for these appalling violations of human rights, and an end to the severe discrimination against women.”

    Source: CNN.com 

  • Iran serves Belgian aid worker a 28 years prison sentence

    A bitter debate over a stalled prisoner exchange agreement between Tehran and Brussels has been sparked by Iran’s 28-year prison sentence for a Belgian aid worker.

    Belgian ministers informed the distressed family of 41-year-old Olivier Vandecasteele about the verdict late on Tuesday after speaking with Iran’s justice minister.

    “At the end of November we learned he would be sentenced in Iran to a prison term of 28 years for a series of fabricated crimes,” justice minister Vincent Van Quickenborne told parliament.

    Vandecasteele was arrested in February and is reportedly being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, in conditions Van Quickenborne described as “inhumane”.

    Belgium insists he is innocent, effectively held as a hostage in Tehran’s efforts to force Belgium to release an Iranian agent convicted of terrorism.

    Prisoner exchange programme

    The justice minister told the Belgian parliament’s justice committee, “Mr. Vandecasteele’s arrest is a direct consequence of the condemnation of the [Iranian] diplomat by our country.

    “Since the arrest of this person … the threat emanating from Iran has greatly increased,” he added.

    News of Vandecasteele’s sentence, which has not been publicly confirmed by Iranian authorities, has revived debate in Belgium over a prisoner exchange treaty with Iran.

    In the past, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo’s government has described this as the only option for a transfer.

    The treaty was signed with Iran earlier this year and, while not tailored explicitly for Vandecasteele, the justice minister confirmed that he would have been eligible for exchange.

    But last week, Belgium’s constitutional court suspended the implementation of treaty pending a final ruling on its legality within the next three months.

    Family ‘devastated’

    A spokesman for Vandecasteele’s family has said they are devastated by the sentence, underlining “There’s no Plan B.”

    “If there’s no solution he could stay in prison until 2050. He’ll be almost 70,” he said, urging Belgium to find a way to revive the prisoner exchange treaty.

    No details on the charges against Vandecasteele have been given by the Iranian authorities.

    Meanwhile, some Belgian opposition MPs and foreign policy experts have warned that the prisoner exchange treaty would only increase the threat posed by rogue regimes seeking to kidnap Belgian citizens as collateral.

    However, the Belgian government has no other option on how to free the aid worker.

     

  • Iran protests: 400 people face prison sentence following involvement in Tehran unrest

    400 people detained during anti-government protests have received prison sentences of up to 10 years from Tehran’s courts, a judiciary official reports.

    According to Tehran’s prosecutor general, 80 “rioters” received sentences between two and five years, while 160 received sentences of two years or less, according to the Mizan news agency.

    Without giving further details, Ali Alqasimehr added that another 70 people had been fined.

    It occurs a day after authorities hanged a second man who was found guilty of inciting riots.

    The judiciary announced on Monday morning that Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, had been executed in public in the north-eastern city of Mashhad.

    A Revolutionary Court convicted him less than two weeks ago of the charge of “enmity against God” after finding he had stabbed to death two members of the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force.

    Amnesty International said he was subjected to a sham trial and that the judiciary was “a tool of repression sending individuals to the gallows to spread fear and exacting revenge on protesters daring to stand up to the status quo”.

    Iran has been engulfed by protests against the country’s clerical establishment for almost three months.

    They erupted following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police in Tehran on 13 September for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, “improperly”.

    Authorities have portrayed the protests as foreign-backed “riots” and responded with lethal force.

    So far, at least 490 protesters, including 68 children and 62 security personnel have been killed during the unrest, according to the Human Rights Activists’ News Agency (HRANA).

    It has also reported the arrest of more than 18,200 people in connection with the protests, of whom 3,780 have been identified.

    Authorities have not revealed how many have been arrested nationwide.

    However, judiciary officials announced in early November that 1,024 people had been charged in connection with the protests in Tehran. They said the suspects were accused of “acts of sabotage”, including “assaulting or martyring security guards” and “setting fire to public property”.

    Last Thursday, authorities in Tehran executed a 23-year-old man convicted of “enmity against God” following what activists said was a grossly unfair trial. Mohsen Shekari was accused of stabbing and wounding a Basij member and blocking a street in the capital in September.

    After Majidreza Rahnavard was hanged on Monday, Amnesty International said it had identified at least 20 other people at risk of execution.

    According to the group, 11 individuals have been sentenced to death, three have undergone trials on capital charges and are either at risk of being sentenced to death or may have already been sentenced, and six may be awaiting or undergoing trial on capital charges.

    The final category includes 26-year-old professional footballer Amir Reza Nasr Azadani, who a judiciary official in Isfahan province said on Sunday had been charged with “baghi”, or “armed revolt”.

    Mr Nasr Azadani is accused of killing three security personnel in the city of Isfahan during protests on 16 November.

    On Monday night, the global football players’ union FIFPRO said it was “shocked and sickened” that he was facing a possible death sentence “after campaigning for women’s rights and basic freedom in his country”.

    The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

    Prominent former Iran national team player Ali Karimi, who has backed the protests, tweeted: “Do no execute Amir.”

    Another former member of the national team, Voria Ghafouri, was arrested last month but was later released on bail.

    Source: Aljazeera.com 

  • Majidreza Rahnavard: Iran carries out second execution over protests

    Iran says it has publicly hanged a 23-year-old in what is the second execution linked to the recent anti-government protests.

    Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged early on Monday in the city of Mashhad, the judiciary said.

    A court convicted him of “enmity against God” after finding he had stabbed to death two members of the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force.

    Rahnavard was hanged just 23 days after his arrest.

    Human rights groups have warned that protesters are being sentenced to death after sham trials with no due process.

    His mother was not told of the execution until after his death.

    His family were then given the name of a cemetery and a plot number. When they turned up, security agents were burying his body.

    Opposition activist collective 1500tasvir tweeted that the family were telephoned by an official at 07:00 local time and told: “We have killed your son and buried his body in Behesht-e Reza cemetery.”

    The judiciary’s Mizan news agency said Rahnavard was hanged “in the presence of a group of Mashhadi citizens” and posted several pre-dawn photographs reportedly showing the execution.

    In the images a man could be seen hanging from the cable in front of onlookers – it is not clear how many people attended the execution, or who they were.

    Rahnavard was denied a lawyer of his choice for his trial. The lawyer he was given did not put up a defence.

    Mizan had previously reported that he was accused of stabbing to death two members of the Basij on a street in Mashhad on 17 November. The Basij is a volunteer force often deployed by Iranian authorities to suppress dissent.

    Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Norway-based Iran Human Rights, said on Twitter that Rahnavard’s sentencing was based on “coerced confessions, after a grossly unfair process and a show trial”.

    “This crime must be met with serious consequences for the Islamic Republic,” he said, adding that there was a “serious risk of mass execution of protesters”.

    The women-led protests against Iran’s clerical establishment were sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police on 13 September for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, “improperly”.

    They have spread to 161 cities in all 31 provinces and are seen as one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.

    Iran’s leaders have portrayed the protests as “riots” instigated by the country’s foreign enemies. However, the overwhelming majority of protesters have been unarmed and peaceful.

    A video broadcast by state TV after his arrest on 19 November showed Rahnavard blindfolded and with his left arm in a cast. In the footage, he said he did not deny attacking the Basij members, but did not remember the details, because he had not been in the right state of mind.

    State TV also showed on Monday what it said was his subsequent “confession” before a Revolutionary Court.

    Activists say Iranian state media routinely broadcast false confessions by detainees that have been coerced through torture and other ill-treatment.

    Later on Monday, the EU sanctioned Iranian state TV and its director for broadcasting forced confessions. It also imposed sanctions on Iran’s army chief and regional commanders of the Revolutionary Guards over the repression of protesters.

    Iran has said it plans to sanction several German and British political figures who have denounced Tehran’s actions.

    The first execution of a protester took place last Thursday, triggering international condemnation. Mohsen Shekari, 23, was convicted of “enmity against God” after being found to have attacked a Basij member with a machete in Tehran.

    BBC Persian’s Kasra Naji says it is not clear whether the executions will help end the protests that have been sweeping the country or pour fuel on the fire.

    Mashhad was the scene of an anti-government demonstration on Sunday night, while people were heard chanting “Martyr of the country Majidreza Rahnavard” in a video apparently filmed at Rahnavard’s grave on Monday.

    So far, at least 488 protesters have been killed by security forces and 18,259 others have been detained, according to the Human Rights Activists’ News Agency (HRANA). It has also reported the deaths of 62 security personnel.

    Iran is second only to China in the number of executions carried out annually.

    Source: BBC

  • Iran carries out second execution in relation to protests

    Iran has carried out its second public execution in response to a nearly three-month wave of anti-government demonstrations.

    Majid Reza Rahnavard was hanged in Mashhad, according to the country’s judiciary.

    He was found guilty of stabbing and killing two security personnel.

    Last Thursday, the first execution linked to the protests took place, with Mohsen Shekari being hanged, prompting widespread condemnation.

    At the time, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly warned that the world could not “turn a blind eye to the abhorrent  violence committed by the Iranian regime against its own people.”

    The current protests are in response to the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by the country’s morality police in September and died in custody.

    She was held for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, “improperly”.

    The unrest, which began in the capital Tehran where Ms Amini died, has spread to some 160 cities in all of Iran’s 31 provinces.

    It is considered one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.

  • US says that Russia and Iran are heading toward a ‘full defense partnership’

    White House has reported that Russia and Iran are forming a full-fledged defense alliance to support Russia in its conflict with Ukraine.

    John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, claimed that Russia is once more looking to Iran to replenish the Russian military with drones and surface-to-surface missiles.

    “Russia is offering Iran an unprecedented level of military and technical support that is transforming their relationship into a fully-fledged defence partnership,” Mr Kirby said.

    “I think it’s important for us to be clear this partnership poses a threat not just to Ukraine, but to Iran’s neighbours in the region.”

    Concerns about new weapon sales to Russia come after Iran sold hundreds of attack drones to Russian over the summer.

    The Biden administration recently unveiled sanctions against Iranian firms and entities involved in the transfer of Iranian drones to Russia for use in Putin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

    In October, the White House accused Tehran of sending Iranian troops to Crimea to support Russian drone attacks on Ukraine’s power stations and other key infrastructure,

    The White House and British government said the relatively small number of Iranian personnel deployed to Crimea, a part of Ukraine unilaterally annexed by Russia in contravention of international law in 2014, were there to assist Russian troops in launching Iranian-made drones against Ukraine.

    “Supports flowing both ways,” said Mr Kirby.

    “Russia is seeking to collaborate with Iran on areas like weapons development and trade. As part of this collaboration, we are concerned that Russia intends to provide Iran with advanced military components.”

     

     

  • ‘Egregious’ human rights violations: Australia imposes sanctions on Russia and Iran in response

    In response to what it called “egregious” human rights violations, Australia has declared that it will impose targeted sanctions on Russia and Iran.

    In a statement, foreign minister Penny Wong said sanctions would be placed on 13 people and two organizations, including the Basij Resistance Force and Iran’s morality police, as well as six Iranians who took part in the suppression of the protests that began after Mahsa Amini, 22, died in custody in September.

    Human rights sanctions would also be placed on seven Russians involved in what the foreign minister claimed was an attempt to kill former opposition leader Alexei Navalny, according to Ms. Wong’s statement.

    In an opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald, Ms Wong said Seyed Sadegh Hosseini, whom she described as a senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is one of those who will be sanctioned.

    He was being listed for his alleged role in the “indiscriminate use of violence against protesters”.

    “The Iranian regime’s flagrant and widespread disregard for the human rights of its own people has appalled Australians, and the perpetrators must be held accountable,” Ms Wong wrote in the newspaper on Saturday.

     

     

     

  • Iran carries out first execution over anti-government protests

    Iran has announced the first execution of a protester convicted over the recent anti-government unrest.

    Mohsen Shekari was hanged on Thursday morning after being found guilty by a Revolutionary Court of “enmity against God”, state media reported.

    He was accused of being a “rioter” who blocked a main road in Tehran on 25 September and wounded a member of the paramilitary Basij force with a knife.

     

    An activist said he was convicted after a “show trial without any due process”.

    Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Norway-based Iran Human Rights, tweeted that executions of protesters would start to take place daily unless Iranian authorities faced “rapid practical consequences internationally”.

     

  • Iran carries out first execution over anti-government protests

    Iran has announced the first execution of a protester convicted over the recent anti-government unrest.

    Mohsen Shekari was hanged on Thursday morning after being found guilty by a Revolutionary Court of “enmity against God”, state media reported.

    He was accused of being a “rioter” who blocked a main road in Tehran on 25 September and wounded a member of the paramilitary Basij force with a knife.

    An activist said he was convicted after a “show trial without any due process”.

    Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Norway-based Iran Human Rights, tweeted that executions of protesters would start to take place daily unless Iranian authorities faced “rapid practical consequences internationally”.

    Iran’s judiciary has so far announced that 11 people have been sentenced to death in connection with the protests that began in mid-September after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, “improperly”.

    The women-led protests have spread to 160 cities in all 31 of the country’s provinces and are seen as one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.

    Iran’s leaders have portrayed them as “riots” instigated by the country’s foreign enemies and ordered security forces to “deal decisively” with them.

    So far, at least 475 protesters have been killed and 18,240 have been detained, according to the Human Rights Activists’ News Agency (HRANA). It has also reported the deaths of 61 security personnel.

    Source:BBC

  • Iran to disband morality police amid ongoing protests, says attorney general

    Iran’s morality police, which is tasked with enforcing the country’s Islamic dress code, is being disbanded, the country’s attorney general says.

    Mohammad Jafar Montazeri’s comments, yet to be confirmed by other agencies, were made at an event on Sunday.

    Iran has seen months of protests over the death of a young woman in custody.

    Mahsa Amini had been detained by the morality police for allegedly breaking strict rules on head coverings.

    Mr Montazeri was at a religious conference when he was asked if the morality police was being disbanded.

    “The morality police had nothing to do with the judiciary and have been shut down from where they were set up,” he said.

    Control of the force lies with the interior ministry and not with the judiciary.

    On Saturday, Mr Montazeri also told the Iranian parliament the law that requires women to wear hijabs would be looked at.

    Even if the morality police is shut down this does not mean the decades-old law will be changed.

    Women-led protests, labelled “riots” by the authorities, have swept Iran since 22-year-old Amini died in custody on 16 September, three days after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran.

    Her death was the catalyst for the unrest but it also follows discontent over poverty, unemployment, inequality, injustice and corruption.

    ‘A revolution is what we have’

    If confirmed, the scrapping of the morality police would be a concession but there are no guarantees it would be enough to halt the protests, which have seen demonstrators burn their head coverings.

    “Just because the government has decided to dismantle morality police it doesn’t mean the protests are ending,” one Iranian woman told the BBC World Service’s Newshour programme.

    “Even the government saying the hijab is a personal choice is not enough. People know Iran has no future with this government in power. We will see more people from different factions of Iranian society, moderate and traditional, coming out in support of women to get more of their rights back.”

    Another woman said: “We, the protesters, don’t care about no hijab no more. We’ve been going out without it for the past 70 days.

    “A revolution is what we have. Hijab was the start of it and we don’t want anything, anything less, but death for the dictator and a regime change.”

    Iran has had various forms of “morality police” since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but the latest version – known formally as the Gasht-e Ershad – is currently the main agency tasked enforcing Iran’s Islamic code of conduct.

    They began their patrols in 2006 to enforce the dress code which also requires women to wear long clothes and forbids shorts, ripped jeans and other clothes deemed immodest.

    Source: BBC

  • World Cup 2022: Iranian protesters celebrate football team’s elimination

    Iran’s anti-government protesters have been celebrating the national football team’s elimination from the World Cup after their 1-0 loss to the United States.

    On Tuesday night, videos showed people dancing in the streets and honking car horns in Tehran and other cities.

    Many Iranians refused to cheer on their national football team in Qatar, seeing it as a symbol of the Islamic Republic.

    The state-run media blamed hostile forces both inside and outside Iran for putting undue pressure on the players.

    In an apparent show of solidarity with the protesters, the players did not sing the national anthem before their first game, a 6-2 defeat by England.

    They did, however, sing during the Wales game, which they won 2-0, and during the politically charged match against the United States.

    Some protesters saw that as a betrayal of their cause even though there were reports that the team came under intense pressure from Iranian authorities.

    The unrest started 10 weeks ago following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman arrested by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the strict rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab.

    Authorities have responded to what they have portrayed as foreign-backed “riots” with a violent crackdown in which human rights activists say at least 450 people have been killed, including 60 children. More than 18,000 others are reported to have been arrested.

    A video posted online on Tuesday night appeared to show dozens of people celebrating the Iranian football team’s loss at a square in Mahsa Amini’s home city of Saqqez, in the country’s north-west. They can be heard cheering and waving headscarves before fireworks are set off.

    The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter
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    BBC Persian also received similar videos from several other cities in the predominantly Kurdish region, where dozens of protesters have reportedly been killed by security forces in recent weeks.

    Crowds were filmed dancing to music in Sanandaj, an epicentre of the unrest, while in Kermanshah and Marivan they were heard chanting “Woman, life, freedom” – one of the main slogans of the protests.

    In Tehran, students at Imam Sadiq University gathered outside a hall of residence and chanted “Death to the dishonourable” – an adjective protesters have used against security forces and which was shouted by fans inside the stadium during Iran’s match against England.

    The opposition activist collective 1500tasvir posted videos that it said showed security forces opening fire at protesters celebrating in the south-western city of Behbahan and beating a woman in Qazvin, near Tehran.

    There was also a confrontation between opponents and supporters of the government outside the Al Thumama Stadium in Qatar after Tuesday’s match.

    Danish journalist Rasmus Tantholdt filmed several men carrying Iranian flags shoving a man wearing a T-shirt saying “Woman, life, freedom” in English. A woman with him is then heard complaining that she attacked and asking for help to leave the stadium safely.

    The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter
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    Another video obtained by BBC Persian showed a male protester being violently arrested by security guards outside the stadium while shouting “Woman, life, freedom”.

    State-affiliated media in Iran meanwhile praised the national football team despite their failure to qualify for the World Cup’s knockout stages.

    The conservative Farhikhtegan newspaper said “we are proud of Iran”, while the Revolutionary Guards-linked daily Javan said the team had “won the real game: the game of uniting people’s hearts”.

    Keyhan, whose editor is appointed by the supreme leader, said the team had gone into the tournament under “the most unfair conditions”, with pressure from “mercenaries at home and abroad”.

    Before the match, the hard-line Tasnim news agency rejected a report by CNN, which cited an unnamed security source as saying that the Revolutionary Guards had threatened the families of the Iranian players with “imprisonment and torture” if they did not “behave”.

  • Ream salutes USA captain after Iran win

    During Tuesday’s important 1-0 World Cup victory over Iran, United States captain Tyler Adams praised his team’s cohesion, and defender Tim Ream praised the captain’s influence.

    At Al Thumama Stadium, Christian Pulisic scored the game-winning goal for the USA just before halftime, advancing them to the round of 16.

    Due to the two countries’ tense relationship, geopolitical issues dominated the build-up to the match. This was their first World Cup meeting since a match in France in 1998 that was labeled the “most politically charged game” in tournament history.

    Iran won the match 2-1 in Lyon, but this time, the USA crossed the finish line first. Gregg Berhalter’s team was significantly less effective after Pulisic was forced to leave the game at halftime due to a pelvic contusion that will be treated “day-to-day,” despite how much better they had been in the first half.

    Iran increased its pressure at the finish and twice in stoppage time came very close to winning, but the USA held out to schedule a match with the Netherlands.

    Their development highlights how far the USA have come in recent years given that they did not even make it to the last World Cup, and Adams’ remarks captured the positive energy surrounding the team.

    “For me, I have obviously dreamed of playing in a World Cup, and I didn’t know when that time would come,” he told reporters. “Obviously that has come now. I am very proud to be representing the US and this team.

    “The group we have in this locker room is superb, every day we show up and try and get better, and focus on getting better.

    “Tonight was one of those nights where you knew you could look to your left and look to your right and there was someone battling for you.”

    The USA have only ever been beyond the last 16 at a men’s World Cup once in its current format, back in 2002 when a Landon Donovan-inspired side reached the quarter-finals.

    Standing in the way of matching that accomplishment are the Netherlands, and the size of the task facing the USA is not lost on Adams, who rates the Oranje among the best in Qatar.

    “Obviously it is a big opportunity for us; an amazing game,” he said. “We have obviously played against good teams here already like England; the Netherlands could be another favourite to win the World Cup and they have done really well to navigate their way through the tournament so far.

    “They’ve some amazing players, we are going to have to be ready. For now, we will try to have some downtime and relax to regain our focus. Our coaches will obviously come up with a game plan to get us ready.”

    Adams’ performance was vital to the USA prevailing, with the Leeds United midfielder’s poise key to their first-half control and his tenacity important in disrupting an improved Iran after the break.

    His 84 touches, 62 completed passes and 12 recoveries were all highs for the match, while Adams also tallied the second-most tackle attempts (three) on the USA team, successfully taking back possession on each occasion.

    Ream, playing behind Adams at centre-back, saw his captain’s performance at close quarters and was grateful for his protection.

    “[Adams] makes everyone’s job a little bit easier. The amount of ground he covers, his energy, tenacity, work rate; it’s just incredible what he does on a football pitch.

    “As he grows the team grows, you could see that. It’s a pleasure to play behind him.”

    Of course, it was not the first time this week Adams has been under the spotlight.

    He faced up to some awkward questions in Monday’s pre-match press conference, with an Iranian journalist calling him out over his pronunciation of Iran.

    Suffice to say, Ream joined the chorus of praise for how Adams handled that particular situation.

    “I thought it was brilliant,” Ream said. “It is what it is, that’s the world we’re living in right now.

    “For him to handle it with the poise that he did, and the sincerity that he showed, I think was fantastic.”

     

  • World Cup 2022: Queiroz proud of Iran despite elimination

    Carlos Queiroz, the head coach of Iran, questioned the “disinformation” regarding threats made against his team and commended them for their efforts despite losing 1-0 to the United States and being ousted from the World Cup.

    Iran lost their final Group B match on Tuesday at Al Thumama Stadium thanks to a goal from Christian Pulisic in the first half.

    When they declined to sing the national anthem before their opening match in Qatar against England, Iran’s players participated in what appeared to be a show of solidarity with anti-government protestors in their own country.

    According to human rights organizations, more than 400 people have died as a result of Iran’s crackdown on protests, which started after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was imprisoned for refusing to wear the required hijab, passed away in police detention in September.

    Reports had claimed that the families of the players would be intimidated if they protested once again, but Queiroz responded firmly in his post-game press conference.

    “The world, in the current circumstances, is full of stupidities,” he said. “If you hear from an anonymous source, you convey the information and in the space of two hours, some stupidities become truth.

    “It’s disinformation, it’s a shame but it’s the truth. We have heard several stories about threats the players received.

    “But what I can state is that thanks to their work, thanks to the conversations we had, the players started smiling again and understood who they were playing for, their mission.

    “I’m very glad they were able to give a response on the field and give prestige to the shirt.”

    Iran have now failed to get past the opening group phase at each of their six World Cup appearances (18 games); only Scotland (23) have played more games at the tournament with all of them coming in the opening group phase.

    Queiroz was happy with his players’ efforts, though, adding: “I am very proud and I’m honoured to be a coach of this Iran squad, the players are fantastic.

    “I said before that earlier in my career, I coached many teams, and throughout my career, I’ve never seen players that gave so much and received so little in return.

    “They deserve all my respect and admiration. I’m incredibly proud of their efforts in training and in games, wearing the shirt of their country.”

  • USA vs Iran: Team USA can count on World Cup scorer Weah to shine

    Team USA is mounting one last-ditch effort to earn a spot in the Qatar World Cup knock-out stage.

    The squad will play a tense and critical game against Iran on group B’s final day on Tuesday (Nov. 29)

    The Stars and Stripes will count on Tim Weah the only scorer for the team in 2 matches.

    The 22-year-old is the son of George Weah, Liberia’s acting president and the only African player awarded the ballon d’Or prize.

    Together, they celebrated Weah Jr first’ goal in Qatar.

    “Just thank God, thank my family, thank my teammates for pushing me everyday. It’s a dream come true to score in the World Cup. Hopefully, I can provide more for the team”, he said during after the draw against Wales.

    USA versus Iran will take palce at Al Thumama Stadium on November 29 starting from10:00 p.m. local time.

    The last World Cup clash between the United States and Iran 24 years ago is considered one of the most politically charged matches in soccer history.

    In 1998, Iran won 2-1 in Lyon, a low point for the U.S. men’s team as Iranians celebrated in Tehran.

    Iran have three points, and a draw would take them into the round of 16 as long as Wales fail to beat England, ealier on Tuesday evening.

     

    Source: African News

  • Iran lodges protest with FIFA over US Soccer flag post

    Iranian football federation slams ‘unprofessional act’ as US football body uses modified flag in social media posts.

    Iran’s football federation says it has lodged a complaint to FIFA over the removal of the word “Allah” from the Islamic Republic’s flag on social media posts by its counterpart in the United States, ahead of an upcoming World Cup game between the two countries.

    “In an unprofessional act, the Instagram page of the US football federation removed the Allah symbol from the Iranian flag,” state news agency IRNA reported on Sunday.

    “The Iran Football Federation sent an email to FIFA to demand it issue a serious warning to the US federation,” it added.

    There was no immediate public response from world football’s governing body to the reported complaint, which came as the US prepares to face Iran in a decisive World Cup match on Tuesday — a fixture already burdened by the decades of enmity between the countries.

    The US and Iran cut diplomatic relations in 1980.

    Show of ‘support’ for Iran protests

    The United States Soccer Federation (USSF) said in a statement on Sunday morning it had decided to forego the official flag on social media accounts in a show of solidarity with the “women in Iran fighting for basic human rights” in the wake of the death of 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in police custody.
    The Islamic Republic’s flag consists of three horizontal bands in red, white and green with the word “Allah” appearing in stylised script in the middle.

    The Twitter account of the US men’s team displayed a banner with the squad’s matches in the group stage, with the Iranian flag only bearing its green, white and red colours. The same was seen in a post on its Facebook and Instagram accounts laying out the point totals so far in its group.

    By Sunday afternoon, the normal flag with the emblem had been restored in the Twitter banner, and the Facebook and Instagram posts with the altered flag had been removed.

    “We wanted to show our support for the women in Iran with our graphic for 24 hours,” the federation said.

    The United Nations says more than 300 people have been killed amid a crackdown on the protests which erupted in the wake of Amini’s death in September, and some 14,000 have been arrested, including children. Iran has accused the US and other foreign states of fomenting the demonstrations, without providing evidence.

     

    Eagerly awaited rematch

    Iran’s Tasnim news agency said on Twitter that the US team had “breached the FIFA charter, for which a 10-game suspension is the appropriate penalty”.

    The US team “should be kicked out” of the World Cup, it added.

    It is not expected that FIFA will take any such action.

    Meanwhile, the two nations’ prospects on the pitch at the World Cup remain finely posed.

    Iran’s dramatic 2-0 win over Wales and the US team’s tense goalless stalemate against England on Friday set up a tantalising final round of Group B matches.

    England, sitting top with four points, face the bottom side Wales, meaning the Iran-United States contest will decide which team goes through to the round of 16.

    The eagerly awaited meeting is a rematch of the 1998 World Cup group stage contest, dubbed the “mother of all games”, which Iran won 2-1. In a symbolic moment before that match at Lyon’s Stade Gerland, the Iranian players gave white roses, a symbol of peace in the country, to their American opponents.

    Source: Aljazeera.com 

     

  • Iran refuse UN probe into  protests

    As he decried the UN enquiry, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman wore a gas mask, a reference to Germany’s alleged supply of chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war.

    Iran has stated that it will not cooperate with a United Nations fact-finding mission investigating its response to ongoing anti-government demonstrations because the investigation is “political.”

    During a news conference on Monday, foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told reporters that Tehran will have “no form of cooperation with this political committee that has been framed as a fact-finding committee.”

    Last week, Iran announced it had formed a local fact-finding mission, comprised of representatives from the government, the judiciary, the parliament and others, to investigate “events, riots and unrest” during the past few weeks.

    According to Kanani, this constituted a “responsible” act by the Iranian state and refuted any need for a UN investigation.

    “[The UN investigation was] taking advantage of human rights mechanisms to exert political pressure on independent countries,” Kanani said.

    The UN Human Rights Council last week voted to establish a fact-finding mission to investigate potential abuses in Iran’s handling of anti-government demonstrations that have erupted across the country.

    The protests began after the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September, following her arrest by morality police for allegedly not adhering to the country’s mandatory dress code.

    Of the 47-member council, 25 voted in favour of a resolution that demands Tehran cooperate with the council’s special rapporteur on Iran, including by granting access to areas inside Iranian territory, such as locations where people have been arrested.

    There were 16 abstentions and six nations – Armenia, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Pakistan and Venezuela – voted against the measure.

    The UN has said more than 300 people have died during the protests and nearly 14,000 arrested. Other human rights organisations have provided higher figures, but Iran has not released any official tallies, apart from saying that more than 50 security personnel have been killed.

    Several people have received preliminary death sentences for participating in “riots”, according to the Iranian judiciary, while an official said the Iranian Supreme Court has begun hearing appeals for those sentenced to execution.

    In the past two weeks, protests have been most intense in Iran’s Kurdish-majority northwestern provinces, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirming it is “strengthening” its presence there.

    The elite forces also renewed its missile and drone attacks in neighbouring Iraq’s northern regions last week, which it has threatened to continue if Kurdish groups [can we name them?] based there are not disarmed.

    New Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani is expected in Tehran on Tuesday to meet with President Ebrahim Raisi and discuss the issue.

    Focus on Germany’s role

    Top Iranian officials have repeatedly accused the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Saudi Arabia of being behind the country’s unrest.

    In the past few weeks, Iran has particularly ramped up its rhetoric against Germany, as the European power has expressed repeated support for the protests in Iran.

    Along with Iceland, Germany presented the formal call for the formation of the special UN council meeting on Iran that led to the passage of the resolution.

    Iran’s foreign ministry on Monday summoned the German ambassador to Tehran for the second time since the start of the protests to condemn “interventionist and baseless” remarks by German officials and to denounce the UN meeting.

    During his news conference on Monday, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman carried a black gas mask and held the session with the mask on his podium.

    It was meant as a reminder of the use of chemical weapons by Saddam Hussein during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

    Tehran has long accused Germany of supplying Hussein with chemical weapons. Kanani said up to 80 percent of the chemical weapons used during the war were supplied by German companies.

    In its blacklisting of European individuals and entities in response to European Union sanctions last month, Tehran imposed sanctions on two German companies that it said were responsible for “delivering chemical gases and weapons” to Iraq during the war.

     

  • World Cup: Iran protestors engaged during match against Wales in the World Cup

    Fights broke out between protesters and pro-regime Iranians at the country’s second World Cup game on Friday in Qatar.

    Others reported they were screamed at and harassed, while several demonstrating supporters claimed their flags were taken away.

    Additionally, stadium security officers confiscated items including anti-government T-shirts and other items.

    Iran has had widespread protests since the passing of Mahsa Amini, 22, in September.

    Ms Amini was arrested in Tehran by the morality police for allegedly not covering her hair properly and died in police custody three days later. The demonstrations spread across the country with people demanding changes such as more freedoms or an overthrow of the state, and the government has responded with a deadly crackdown.

    On Friday – at Iran’s World Cup game against Wales – some protesters had Persian pre-revolutionary flags snatched from them by pro-government fans at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium.

    Insults were also reportedly hurled at some people wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the words “woman, life, freedom” – a phrase that has become a rallying cry among protesters against Iran’s authorities.

    One Iranian spectator alleged that Qatari police ordered her to wash off the names of protesters killed by Iran’s security forces from her arms and chest after pro-government fans complained.

    Another woman said she was prevented from wearing a T-shirt with Ms Amini’s face in the stadium.

    Women giving interviews to foreign press about the protests were also seen being harried by at least one group of men.

    Some used their mobiles to film the women who were also subjected to verbal attacks and the men loudly chanting: “The Islamic Republic of Iran”.

    The match itself, which Iran won 2-0 against Wales, saw Iranian players booed and whistled at as they sang the country’s national anthem before kick-off.

    At their earlier game against England on Monday, the players remained silent during the anthem in an apparent expression of support for anti-government protests.

    Some fans in the stadium wore hats with the name of a former Iranian football player, Voria Ghafouri, written on them.

    A critic of Iran’s government, he was arrested in Iran on Thursday and reportedly taken away by authorities after being accused of spreading propaganda.

    Capped 28 times for his country, Mr Ghafouri was part of Iran’s 2018 World Cup team and his absence from the 2022 squad surprised many.

    The Iranian-Kurdish player has been a high-profile voice defending Iranian Kurds within the country.

    Earlier this week, the UN Human Rights Council voted to set up a fact-finding mission to investigate the crackdown on the anti-government protests in Iran.

    The UN said Iran was in a “full-fledged” crisis and more than 300 people had been killed and 14,000 others arrested over the past nine weeks.

    Iran dismissed it as an arrogant political ploy.

     

  • Iran protests: Armed Met Police guard Iranian journalists facing death threats

    Armed police officers are stationed in a tree-lined business park in Chiswick, West London. Jankels, black, multi-role armoured vehicles, are stationed at regular intervals alongside Met Police armed response vehicles, which are fully crewed with armed officers inside.

    They are stationed at every entrance to the plate-glass structure that houses the offices of Iran International, an independent Farsi-language news channel that has enraged Iran’s regime.

    “This has to be the biggest armed police operation around a commercial building in this country that I can think of,” says a spokesman for Iran International.

    It is certainly reminiscent of Tony Blair’s deployment of armoured vehicles to Heathrow in February 2003 in response to a perceived terror threat.

    Founded in 2017 by a former BBC Persian journalist, Iran International broadcasts into Iran by satellite. It has been providing 24-hour rolling news coverage of the huge street protests that have engulfed Iran since the death in police custody of 22-year old Mahsa Amini, allegedly arrested for not wearing her hijab head covering correctly.

    Many of the protests have been calling for an end to the oppressive rule of the Islamic Republic.

    But instead of listening to people’s demands, the authorities in Iran have arrested thousands and accused Western nations and the free media they host of stirring up the protests and provoking unrest.

    So far, so familiar. That has been the refrain each time protests in Iran have erupted, but this time it’s different.

    Not only are the protests significantly more widespread, but the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, the real power behind the regime, has been targeting Iranian opposition journalists based in Britain.

    “Iran projects threat to the UK directly, through its aggressive intelligence services,” says Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, the UK security service.

    “At its sharpest, this includes ambitions to kidnap or even kill British or UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the regime. We have seen at least 10 such potential threats since January alone.”

    The Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has called on Iran to stop its intimidation of UK-based journalists. Iran has called the accusations “ridiculous”.

    Working closely with MI5, the Metropolitan Police has responded to the threats with a large show of force to protect the 100 or so employees of Iran International in Chiswick, some of whom have personally received death threats.

    “The Met Police have been outstanding”, the Iran International spokesman tells me as we sit in an office next to their newsroom. “Their response has been swift and effective.”

    So what form do these threats take exactly?

    Initially they were just text messages, sent to the mobile phones of journalists, often warning them that if they don’t stop their critical coverage of the regime then their families and relatives in Iran will suffer.

    That apparently has been going on for years, targeting not just Iran International but BBC Persian as well, to the point where Iran’s behaviour has been raised at the UN.

    But this year Iran has gone further.

    It seems that planning discussions of actual attacks have been intercepted by UK intelligence. There has also been hostile surveillance spotted outside both the offices of Iran International and the homes of some of its staff.

    “We’re talking here about low-grade Tier 3 operatives being hired and directed by Tier 1 operatives,” says the Iran International spokesman.

    “They are easily recruited from drug gangs or from the fringes of an Islamic centre.”

    The hostile surveillance has not always been that sophisticated, he says. One example he gives is of two men and a woman wheeling a pram up and down outside the building on a cold evening while taking photographs – at 11pm.

    “Who takes a baby in a pram for a walk at that time of night?”

    There have also been attempts to interfere, unsuccessfully, with Iran International’s satellite broadcasts, as well as the usual cyber activity.

    He shows me a text from an employee who has just been alerted to attempts to hack into his Twitter account. Then, abruptly, our meeting ends.

    “I’ve got two CTSAs (counter terrorism security advisers) coming in from the Met to discuss what more still needs to be done,” he tells me.

    “This problem is not going away.”

    Source: BBC.com 

  • World Cup 2022: Iran nets two late goals to beat Wales 2-0

    Iran defeated Wales 2-0 on Friday, November 25, taking a significant step toward the 2022 FIFA World Cup‘s knockout round.

    In the opening match of Group B at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the Asian nation suffered a heartbreaking 6-2 defeat to England.

    Iran started playing again today, eager to get a win to improve their chances of avoiding an early tournament exit.

    For the Asian nation’s benefit, players performed admirably today and even seized the lead in the 16th minute. Even though the goal would be disallowed for offside, the performance was outstanding considering how poorly Wales played.

    In the second half, both teams fought hard but it was Iran that had the last laugh after scoring two late goals.

    Wales had to finish the game with 10 men after goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey was shown the red card for fouling the last man in the 85th minute.

    In stoppage time, Ramin Rezaeian and Roozbeh Cheshmi both scored to steer Iran to a delightful 2-0 victory to amass the maximum three points.

    Iran must now prepare for a final Group B contest against the USA.

  • Southgate worried by England refereeing precedent

    Gareth Southgate is worried and demanded “clarity” after expressing concerns England could fall foul to refereeing decisions after a pre-World Cup briefing.

    FIFA referees committee chairman Pierluigi Collina used an example clip of Kalvin Phillips blocking an opponent at a free-kick to help create space for Harry Maguire to score in last year’s 5-0 win over Albania.

    The video was used to brief referees, competing nations and the media, on how to spot foul play from set-piece situations and seemingly worked against England in Monday’s 6-2 thrashing of Iran.

    Maguire appeared to be dragged down by Iran’s Rouzbeh Cheshmi in the opening stages, with the referee nor the VAR intervening, before John Stones conceded a late penalty for similar on Mehdi Taremi.

    Southgate admitted he fears England may fall on the wrong side of decisions after Collina’s briefing, citing concerns after a “definite penalty” on Maguire.

    “What worries me is we were used in an example in the referees’ video,” the England manager said.

    “What we were shown, the incident in the first half [with Maguire] would be a definite penalty.

    “Maybe there’s a shirt pull [for the Iran penalty] – we’ve got to be better on that – but I’m a bit worried we were the example shown.

    “Then to get a decision as happened in the first half, we need some clarification really as to how it’s going to be.”

    Southgate recalled the Football Association being able to discuss penalty decisions with match officials after England’s 2-1 win over Tunisia at Russia 2018.

    “It happened in Russia and we’ve got to have that dialogue with FIFA [again],” he added.

    “We want clarity. Otherwise, we don’t know where we stand. Goals are going in and we don’t know whether they stand or not. The bit that worries me is we were the example shown.”

    England face the United States in their next Group B game on Friday before a clash with Wales four days later.

    Source: Livescore