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Showing posts from December, 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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Iranian officials terrified by growing role of the MEK in nationwide protests

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   By Mahmoud Hakamian  On December 30, 2009, the annual religious Ashura ceremony turned into a nationwide rally against the Iranian regime. People called resisted the brutal onslaught of security forces and called for the overthrow of the mullahs’ rule. The regime only managed to smother the protests through brutal repression and by opening fire on unarmed protesters. Twelve years later, regime officials are still terrified of the 2009 protests, their continued reverberation in the Iranian society, and the growing role of the MEK in organizing and leading protests. On the anniversary of the protests, the regime held anti-demonstration ceremonies, in which several regime officials weighed in on the significance of the demonstrations and the ongoing movement for the overthrow of the regime. Ahmad Khatami, member of the Assembly of Experts, said, “During the eight months of sedition, there were two fronts… The [MEK] was on one front and did whatever they could in eight mon...
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Activists Hope for Challenges to Iran Regime’s Impunity, Following a Year of Escalating Abuses

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 Written by Mansoureh Galestan Symbolically, 2021 was another devastating year for human rights in Iran. The month of August saw the formal inauguration of Ebrahim Raisi as the nation’s president, following his appointment two months earlier through a tightly controlled and sham electoral process that the vast majority of Iran’s eligible voters refused to participate in. That electoral boycott was accompanied by an array of public protests which called attention to Raisi’s personal history of human rights violations. These were unsurprisingly met by violet repression, which also followed a number of other protests that were held throughout the year with a focus on various specific issues of concern. When Raisi was confirmed as president in June, Amnesty International issued a statement calling it a “grim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran,” and suggesting that Raisi should have been subjected to investigation for “the crimes against humanity of murder, enforced disappear...
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National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) Holds Biennial Session

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  Written by  Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) The National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ) held its biennial session in Paris on December 27 and 28, 2021. Mrs.  Maryam Rajavi , the NCRI’s President-elect, presided over the session. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, flights cancellations, and other protective restrictions imposed to prevent the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, NCRI’s members in various countries and Ashraf 3 1  in Albania attended the session virtually. On the first day of the meeting, a number of supporters and allies of the NCRI were present as observers, and some of them also spoke. In her opening remarks at the NCRI session, Mrs. Rajavi said the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei installed Ebrahim Raisi, the henchman of the 1988 massacre, 2  as president (in 2021) and subsequently intensified repression, arrests, executions, and pressure on political prisoners. However, despite extreme challenges a...
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Iran: Without Shelter, People Sleep in Buses

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  Written by  Mansoureh Galestan They have to change the bus every 45 minutes. This is how they spend their nights, sleeping on buses while enduring sub-zero temperatures,” Iran’s state media reported on December 29, acknowledging the tragedy of people sleeping on buses. The citizenry’s increasing poverty has left Iranians with no choice but to take extreme measures to survive. This includes  grave-dwellers  and  trash collectors , people  renting rooftops , slum-dwellers, women living in holes and canals, and now people sleeping in public transportation buses(BRT). “Sleeping on BRTs is their only choice, and a seat on the bus is their cheap castle in the capital. But this cheap house costs them between 3.5 to 7.5 million rials (20-30 USD) per month. They are employed, but their menial jobs prevent them from renting a room,” wrote the state-run Tejarat news on December 29. “It’s 23:45 [local time], and the temperature is three degrees Celsius. They come to ...
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Iran’s Ban on Cryptocurrency Mining Unlikely To Stave off Energy Shortages, Protests

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  Written by Shahriar Kia It was widely reported on Tuesday that Iranian authorities had imposed a ban on cryptocurrency mining until through March 6, in an effort to prevent energy shortages throughout the winter. It is the second such ban to be imposed this year, though questions continue to swirl about the extent of the prior ban’s enforcement, given that many of the entities responsible for both licensed and unlicensed cryptocurrency mining operations are linked to the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The prior ban was imposed in the wake of large-scale protests over power cuts during the summer. The protests resulted in serious and sometimes fatal clashes between Iranian citizens and regime authorities, and helped to fuel concerns in Tehran regarding the ongoing influence of nationwide uprisings in January 2018 and November 2019. The latest ban was presumably motivated in large part by concerns over the potential for further unrest should Iranians find thems...
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As Vienna Talks Enter Eighth Session, Iranian Regime Demands Still Show Signs of Escalating

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  Written by Aladdin Touran Negotiations to restore the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) entered their eighth session on Monday, as skepticism about their prospects continued to grow. The seventh session began on November 29 following a gap of more than five months and continued through the first week of December with little, if any, progress. In fact, officials from the United States, Britain, France, and Germany all indicated that Iran’s posture in those talks had actually undermined earlier progress by backtracking on points that had supposedly been agreed to over the course of six sessions between April and June. As well as brazenly demanding that those earlier agreements should be, the Iranian regime’s negotiators also hardened Tehran’s core position. Even under its previous, so-called moderate president, Tehran insisted that US sanctions should be lifted in their entirety before any restrictions were re-imposed on the Iranian nuclear program. Now, under the administ...
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