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Showing posts from October, 2021

The truth about the Iranian regime’s new president

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  By Sadegh Pashm-Foroush The day after the announcement of the results of Iran’s sham presidential election, Iranian regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei summoned the remaining members of the government of former regime president Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19. In his remarks to them—indirectly addressing new regime president Massoud Pezeshkian—he warned him and reminded him of the “model” of the president in the regime. The supreme leader repeatedly mentioned Raisi and said, “He is truly a model; we must all learn from him.” He then reiterated the concept of “heartfelt belief and practical commitment” to the regime, which Pezeshkian, like all the election candidates, had committed to. Khamenei stated, “Dear Raisi demonstrated as a model that one can possess these mental, heartfelt, and practical qualities as the president of a country and follow them in practice.” Of course, before the sham election, Pezeshkian repeatedly stated that he would continue Raisi...
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Iran: Injustice in courts and pervasive corruption

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 Author: Shamsi Saadati The judiciary of the Iranian regime in Qom province, central Iran, sentenced the father of three children to 40 lashes and ten months in prison for stealing three packets of cashew nuts. "Following the publication of a judge's verdict for the thief of three packages of cashew nuts and the severe sentence of ten months imprisonment and 40 lashes, the Fars news agency reporter followed up the case with relevant officials, realizing that report was true and not fake news," according to report wired on October 25 by the Fars news agency, an outlet linked to the Revolutionary Guards ( IRGC ). This cruel sentencing resulted in a major reaction of anger among the Iranian society and on social media. Many people have compared the tragic story of this poor man with Victor Hugo’s famous  Les Misérables .  The court sentence was issued at a time when trillions of rials from the Iranian people's property is being looted daily by regime officials and govern...
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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’s Raisi and His Administration Have No Claim to Legitimacy

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 Written by Mansoureh Galestan Ebrahim Raisi  was confirmed as the Iranian regime’s next president in June, in a process whereby Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had been consolidating power as he prepares himself as his regime copes with a surge of social unrest.   In January 2018, more than 100 Iranian cities and towns were hosts to demonstrations that called for regime change. In  November 2019 , the prior uprising’s slogans were re-popularized in a series of protests that spontaneously erupted across nearly 200 localities. About 1,500 participants in the latter uprising were fatally shot in a matter of days, and at least 12,000 were arrested, many of whom became targets of a months-long campaign of torture at the behest of a judiciary then led by Ebrahim Raisi.   Under the Iranian regime’s system of “velayat-e faqih,” or absolute clerical rule, no one may directly challenge policies or edicts expressed by the supreme leader...
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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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Tehran’s Nuclear Extortion Grow Worse as EU Refuses To Act

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 Written by Mohammad Sadat Khansari This month, the Iranian regime adopted a new delaying tactic as various Iranian officials began pushing for an entirely separate set of nuclear negotiations in  Brussels , ostensibly aimed at establishing conditions for the continuation of the Vienna talks that already went through six rounds before being stalled in June. What would be the ultimate result of these preliminary negotiations? Tehran aims to make a separation between the US and its European allies, and the Iranian regime’s mere request for such talks underscores its expectation that it can squeeze more concessions from the European Union than from a unified Western bloc. Unfortunately, the EU leadership has given the Iranian regime ample reason to maintain that expectation, with foreign policy chief Josep Borrell even going so far as to undermine efforts that member states took to hold Tehran accountable for its nuclear extortion. Early in 2020, Tehran declared it would no longe...
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Iran: Disruption at Gas Stations Revive Fear of Protests for Regime

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 Written by Mahmoud Hakamian Iran’s state media reported that a massive cyberattack disrupted the sale of gasoline on Tuesday, creating long queues at gas stations across the country and increasing public dissent. This incident came weeks before the anniversary of major Iran protests in  November 2019 . A billboard in Isfahan was filmed as asking the regime’s supreme leader Ali “Khamenei, where is our gasoline?” This incident, among increasing public dissatisfaction over the interruption and long queues, terrified regime officials. While there have been many speculations recently that Tehran is going to increase the fuel price, the regime’s Interior Minister,  Ahmad Vahidi , rushed to the scene and vehemently denied any attempt to raise the fuel price. Many energy experts in Iran had called the increasing of fuel price “inevitable” as the only solution for “increasing gasoline production capacity.” Yet, they have also warned about the social consequences of increasing fue...
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