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Showing posts from October, 2021

Iran regime’s defiance increases tensions with Israel

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  By Dr. Majid Rafizadeh Rising tensions between the Iranian regime and Israel have the potential to spiral into a wider conflict if not adequately addressed. There are several reasons for the heightened tensions. First of all, although the Iranian regime attempts to distract attention from the direct involvement of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria, Tehran continues to increase its military influence there and use its proxies against Israeli targets. Israel last month carried out an airstrike in Syria on a location where Iranian officials were meeting. Iranian leaders were reportedly meeting to discuss developments regarding their country’s drone and ballistic missile capabilities in Syria. The attack occurred on the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the Iranian government for an attack on a vessel owned by an Israeli in the Arabian Gulf. He said: “Last week, Iran attacked an oil tanker … and harmed the international freedom of navigation....
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Anniversary of 2019 Iran Protests: Regime Officials and Media Warn of Another Uprising.

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 Written by Shamsi Saadati November 15 marks the anniversary of the major Iran protests in  November 2019 . After three years, the regime is still visibly afraid of a restive society and haunted by the bitter nightmare of those protests. On Tuesday, a massive cyberattack disrupted the sale of gasoline. A digital traffic sign in Isfahan read “Khamenei, where is our fuel?” referring to the regime’s supreme leader and ultimate authority, Ali Khamenei. The major Iran protests in November 2019 erupted following a sudden fuel price hike. These protests soon turned into a nationwide uprising, with people chanting slogans against the entire regime. Khamenei ordered his Revolutionary Guards ( IRGC ) to “do whatever it takes to end it,” as Reuters reported later. The IRGC forces killed over 1500 protesters in a matter of days. While the regime has tried to downplay or cover this crime, Iran’s restive society has not forgotten what happened during those horrific days of November 2019. In...
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Iran: Hamid Noury’s Trial and World Community’s Obligations

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 Written by Amir Taghati In August, the former Iranian prison official Hamid Noury officially went on trial in Stockholm. The proceedings are not expected to conclude until April, by which time the court will have heard from dozens of former Iranian political prisoners who witnessed Noury’s actions at Gohardasht Prison both before and during a massacre of political prisoners that has claimed  30,000 lives  nationwide during the summer of 1988.   Noury was arrested in 2019 after arriving in Sweden for a planned visit. The underlying warrant was issued on the basis of a principle known as universal jurisdiction, which allows for any nation to unilaterally enforce serious violations of international law, even when the crime in question took place far beyond its borders.   The regime has long attempted to justify the massacre through reference to Operation Eternal Light, an offensive carried out by the Peop...
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Ex-political Prisoner’s Testimony Sheds Light on New Levels of Resistance and the Mullahs’ Brutality During Iran’s 1988 Massacre

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 Written by Mahmoud Hakamian The shocking testimonies of Ali Zolfaghari, a former Iranian political prisoner during the ongoing trial of  Hamdi Noury , an Iranian prison official in the 1980s, shed light on new aspects of the 1988 massacre. Zolfaghari’s testimony revealed how Iran’s resistant youths defended their idea of a free and democratic Iran and sacrificed their lives for these ideals.   It is worth noting that Noury is on trial in Sweden for his role in the  1988 massacre  of over 30,000 political prisoners.   Zolfaghari was arrested in 1981 while he was only 17 years old and spent twelve years in prison. On October 20, He shared what he witnessed in Iranian prisons and the 1988 massacre during Hamid Noury’s trial in Sweden. According to many legal scholars, the 1988 massacre was the greatest crime against humanity in the 20th century and a genocide. The majority of the 1988 massacre’s victims were member...
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Ongoing Executions Fuel Concerns Over Abysmal State of Human Rights in Iran

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 Written by Amir Taghati Three more prisoners were executed in Iran on Monday, contributing to a much larger pattern of multiple executions being carried out on the same day, often in the same prison. Iran under the mullahs’ regime has long maintained the world’s highest rate of executions per capita. Estimates for the total number of executions in all categories are somewhat varied on account of the Iranian regime judiciary’s well-known secrecy in such matters. While some executions are publicly announced, many others are revealed to international human rights defenders only through the efforts of Iranian activists, including those being held as political prisoners. Based in part on their disclosures, the latest three executions pushed the total for 2021 to more than 240 individuals, or possibly near to 300. The number of executions in 2021 has already surpassed the total for 2020, with more than two months to go until the end of the year. The gap between those two totals will wid...
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Iran’s Increasing Execution Rate Fuels Calls for International Actions

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 Written by Mansoureh Galestan In the second week of October alone, at least 16 executions were carried out in Iran. With more than two months left until the end of 2021, Iran under the mullahs’ regime has already exceeded estimates of the total number of executions in the previous year. According to Iran Human Rights Monitor, at least 255 executions were carried out in 2020, while the estimated total for 2021 stood at 286 on Monday, following three executions that day.   Iran under the clerical regime has long maintained its status as the country with the highest annual rate of executions per  capita . In terms of raw numbers, only China with its population of over one billion carries out more state-sanctioned killings each year. Iran is also one of only a few countries in the world to routinely issue death sentences for persons who were under the age of 18 at the time of their alleged crimes. This practice is unequivocally banned under internati...
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Iran’s Economy Worsening in Light of Increasing Monopolization

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 Written by Amir Taghati Iran has been going through its worst economic situation in the last century. The new administration of Ebrahim Raisi has been promising to resolve Iran’s economic crises. The question is whether this government, handpicked by the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is able to solve Iran’s complex intertwined problems or not?   “An issue that has very much worried people is the expansion of  monopolies  within our country’s economy which is evident in Raisi’s government,” the state-run Jahan-e Sanat wrote on October 19, hinting at increasing corruption.   “In other words, instead of making our economic environment more competitive, we are witnessing the rise of monopolies, which has greatly worried economic actors about their future,” the daily added.   Iran’s economy has long been monopolized by Khamenei and the  Revolutionary Guards  (IRGC). But, Raisi’s administration is full of IRGC commanders and Khamenei’...
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