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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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Iran State Media: Poverty, Inflation, and Corruption Could Trigger Another Uprising

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  Written by   Mansoureh Galestan The Persian New Year of 1400 is about to end, while according to one state-run media,  Mardom Salari on  March 1, “It was a year full of suffering from coronavirus, unstable economy, high and constant inflation, rather than good days for the people.” Protests span across Iran by people from all walks of life who cannot make a living. The country’s economic crunch worsens due to the regime’s institutionalized corruption, ineptitude, and mismanagement. The situation has reached a point where even the tightly controlled state media acknowledge some aspects of people’s harsh life and how the regime creates and exacerbates crises. “Inflation above 40% and skyrocketing prices in all sectors, including housing, essential goods, healthcare, education, and cars, has caused the cost of the household basket to reach about 90 million rials. This number may have reached more than 120 million rials,” the paper added. Meanwhile, the minimum wage in...
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The growing disarray in Iran’s regime

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    By   Farid Mahoutchi Led by representatives of Iranian regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Friday Prayer speeches reflect the policy focus and directions of the Iranian regime. This week’s Friday Prayers were a manifestation of disarray and uncertainty among key domestic and foreign policy issues. Ahmad Khatami, Speaker of the Assembly of Experts and Friday Prayer Leader of Tehran, warns about disputes among Iranian regime officials over the much-disputed internet censorship bill Referring to the controversial  internet censorship bill , Ahmad Khatami, deputy-Speaker of the Assembly of Experts and the Friday Prayer leader of Tehran, said, “This plan is still being discussed. Why are you speaking critically? Why are we speaking with anger?” Khatami’s remarks reflect the general feeling of desperation and frustration among regime officials as they struggle to bridge the growing gaps among the elite on key policy issues. Internet censorship is just one of the many a...
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Why repressive measures won’t save Iran’s regime

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  By  Farid Mahoutchi   Recent months have seen an alarming increase in the number of executions in Iran, which was expected with the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, a man who is known in Iran as the “butcher” because of his pivotal role in the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988. According to Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights  in Iran, the clerical regime carried out at least 275 executions in 2021. At the same time, the number of deaths in Iran’s prisons has also increased. Authorities are imposing pressure on prisoners by denying them healthcare, depriving them of basic facilities, and more. Meanwhile, security forces have increased their repression of the population, arresting protesters, humiliating the youth in public, and destroying the homes of impoverished people and the makeshift shops of street vendors. More recently, the regime has resorted to arresting and prosecuting people who participated in the  No...
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Iran 1988 Massacre: Prisoners Were Beaten and Whipped for Refusing to Pray to a God They Claimed to Follow

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  Written by   Shamsi Saadati On Friday, February 18, the Court of Stockholm in Sweden held its 67thsession for  Hamid Noury , a prison deputy prosecutor who observed, assisted, and executed death sentences during the  massacre of political prisoners in 1988 in Iran . The witness, Mohammad Izadjou, testified that Hamid Noury and Davood Lashkari separated several prisoners from the queue before taking them to death row, where they would be immediately executed. The witness was arrested on January 16, 1983, at the age of 19. He was transferred to Ward 209 of the notorious Evin Prison. Once landed at Evin, he was tortured and interrogated. A practice that continued so long that his legs became infected, and they turned black up to his knees. After enduring solitary confinement and lengthy interrogations in October 1983, the witness was sentenced to eight years imprisonment by a so-called court in Evin Prison based on eight charges in the indictment. Among the charges ag...
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Tehran’s desperate efforts to release its terrorists and criminals

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  By   Farid Mahoutchi The state-run Fars News Agency reported on February 19 that regime foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian met with the foreign ministers of Belgium and Sweden on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. According to Fars, the key topic of discussion between Amirabdollahian and his Belgian counterpart was the status of  Assadollah Assadi , an Iranian diplomat terrorist who is sentenced to 20 years in prison for plotting to bomb the annual gathering of the Iranian Resistance in France in 2018, which if not thwarted at the last minute, would have caused thousands of casualties. On the same day, the website of the Iranian regime’s foreign ministry reported that Amirabdollahian spoke to the Swedish foreign minister about  Hamid Noury , a former torturer in Gohardasht Prison (Karaj) who was involved in the 1988 massacre of more than 30,000 political prisoners. Noury is currently standing trial in a Stockholm court, where many of his victims...
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Iran: Executions in Zahedan, Isfahan, Kermanshah, and Shiraz

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  Denied any medical care, three prisoners succumb to Coronavirus in Karaj Prison Last week, the clerical regime hanged four other prisoners in Zahedan, Isfahan, Kermanshah, and Shiraz. The regime executed Hamed Kheradmand, 35, in Zahedan Central Prison, February 19, Kazem Yousefi, 40, in Isfahan Central Prison on February 16, Mossayeb Faraji, 34 in Kermanshah’s Dizelabad Prison, and Mokhtar Valizadeh in Shiraz Adelabad Prison on February 13. Meanwhile, according to reports, three prisoners died due to Coronavirus in Karaj Central Prison because they were denied medical care and medicine. Currently, a large number of prisoners in Karaj prison are infected with Omicron, but prison authorities are refusing to provide them with any medical treatment. Wards 7 and 8 of the Prison have the highest number of infected prisoners. Despite suffering from sore throats, headaches, fever, and chills, they are deprived of any medical care, medicine, or even pain killers. Overpopulating the prison...
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Iran-China Deal Cannot Save the Mullahs

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Written by  Mehdi Oghbai After a great deal of fanfare about its “Look to the East” policy, the Iranian regime finalized its  25-year Cooperation Program with China  last month. Regime officials boasted about this program as a “win-win” agreement, but when the dust settled, it became evident that this disgraceful and unpatriotic agreement was much ado about nothing. Iran’s contemporary history is filled with despicable treaties signed by dictatorships, such as the Qajar dynasty’s “Treaty of Turkmenchay” with the Tzarist Russia. But Tehran’s recent agreement with China, auctioning national wealth to a foreign country, outdid all other unpatriotic deals by Qajar or Pahlavi dynasties. What is Iran’s China 25-year Cooperation Program? According to a New York Times in July 2020, the  Iran-China deal  would “vastly expand Chinese presence in banking, telecommunications, ports, railways and dozens of other projects. In exchange, China would receive a regular — and, acc...
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