Brief on Iran

OIAC Brief on Iran, October 14th 2014

by OIAC
by OIAC
Brief On Iran 
October, 14/ 2014
  Iran- Human Rights (Women, Minorities, Ethnics)
OIAC News On Iran

The Iranian regime has secretly hanged at least six prisoners last week in three cities, according to reports received from Iran.

A group of four prisoners were hanged in southern city of Bandar-abbas on Tuesday (October 7, 2014), a report said.

Another prisoner was executed in the main prison in western city of Marivan on Thursday (October 9, 2014).

A man identified as Mohammad Reza Mazlomi, 28, from the southern city of Bam was hanged in the city’s prison after more than five years imprisonment.

Iran under the rule of the clerical dictatorship has the highest number of executions per capita in the world.
 Iran’s Human Rights Lectures

Frontpage Mag

Majid Rafezadeh

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has recently been lecturing the United States and the West on human rights, particularly through Twitter. Recently, the Ayatollah tweeted, “Based on global statistics, US gvt is the biggest violator of #HumanRights.” The Supreme Leader added, “Besides int’l crimes, it commits crimes against its ppl. #Ferguson.”

The Ayatollah talks about global statistics, but where are these numbers?  His claims could actually spur a real discussion if the Iranian government and Khamenei could cite his claim that the “US govt is the biggest violator of #HumanRights.”
 Iran Seeks to Expand Domestic Power

OIAC News on Iran

As domestic opposition to the regime runs high and the Iranian military and militias are spread thin amidst regional conflicts, Iran is making notable efforts to empower its hardline citizens and its domestic police forces to stave off protests and help the regime to hold onto power at home.

The existential threat to that domestic power may be making Iran anxious about any signs of instability, including signs of an imminent change of leadership. This may factor into the regime’s efforts to publicize a two and a half minute video showing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei walking after recovering from prostate surgery that was likely associated with cancer.
  Iran- Terrorism Activities (Middle East)
N.J. Star Ledger
Allen Tasslimi

There is a chorus of commentators advocating for the United States to embrace Iran as an ally in the conflict against Islamic State (IS) militants.

Iran, they argue, is a particularly strong regional power, with a 900-mile border with Iraq, where IS activity is mainly focused. And as a Shiite theocracy, there can be no doubt about Iran’s ideological opposition to IS.

All of these observations are accurate. But when considering whether to cooperate with Iran against the Islamic State, the question is whether the benefits of such cooperation outweigh the costs. They do not.

Foreign Relations Committee Chair Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) was spot-on in saying: “Iran is a regional instigator. It is a patron of the murderous Assad regime; it is a sponsor of the sectarian divisions inside of Iraq. It uses Iraq’s air space to send troops and men into Syria. Some of us are really concerned that first of all, their end purposes are not our end purposes. Secondly, some of us are concerned that negotiations with Iran are affected by, if to the extent they express any desire to be helpful.”
Collaboration with Iran’s Regime is Self-Defeating
Roll Call

As Iraq teeters on disintegration, some on Capitol Hill are floating the idea of collaborating with Iran in order to defeat the threat posed by the terror group Islamic State (ISIS). But, would this really serve American interests?

The suggestion is that the U.S. and Iran both regard ISIS as an enemy, and therefore are potential allies in the fight against it.

As dangerous as ISIS is, our would-be partners in Tehran present an even greater security threat to the region and America’s core interests. Confronting the immediate threat of ISIS would be counterproductive if it also empowers an even greater threat.

The policy’s advocates admit that collaboration with Iran and Syria would give these weakening regimes a longer lease on life. It could also prolong the atrocities in Syria.

ISIS needs to be dealt with. But not through forging a dangerous alliance with the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism.

In fact, the Iranian regime’s destructive meddling in Iraq and Syria created a breeding ground for violence and the rise of ISIS.

The Wall Street Journal

John McCain & Lindsey Graham

The airstrikes and other actions President Obama is taking against Islamic State deserve bipartisan support. They are beginning to degrade the terrorist group, also known as ISIS, but will not destroy it, for one reason above all: The administration still has no effective policy to remove Bashar Assad from power and end the conflict in Syria.

Administration officials have called their approach “ISIS first.” …..

The Hill

As the fight to neutralize, rollback and eventually eliminate the threat of the extremist group Islamic State rages on, the international community – in particular the West – should not forget that the policy in dealing with the extremist regime ruling Iran can have a crucial role in either seeing the campaign’s success – or its utter failure.

The Islamic State, a group also known as ISIS or ISIL, has in past months occupied swaths of Iraq and Syria and aims at establishing a Caliphate based on a twisted and violent interpretation of Islam. It strives to expand its borders, and through highly-publicize violent methods tries to intimidate the international community into recognizing its hegemony in the region.
 Iran- Nuclear Activities
BBC News

Mystery surrounds reports of an alleged explosion or fire at the secret Parchin military complex in Iran on Sunday.

Recent satellite photos analysed by experts from the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) suggests some damage at the site, giving additional credence to the reports.

Parchin, south of the capital Tehran, is the location of a facility where Iran is suspected of having conducted high-explosive tests related to the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

The global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has not had access to the site since 2005.

Parchin has long been suspected as a nuclear weapons research site

The facility is important because what may or may not have happened there is crucial to unravelling Iran’s past nuclear activities. And unravelling what may have happened in the past is central to resolving the outstanding issues surrounding its nuclear programme today.
Iran nuclear bomb probe will not be ‘endless’: IAEA
Reuters

(Reuters) – A U.N. nuclear agency investigation into suspected atomic bomb research by Iran will not be an “endless process”, its chief said on Monday, pressuring Tehran to step up cooperation with the long-stalled probe.

Three weeks after Iran failed to meet a deadline for providing requested information to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Director General Yukiya Amano said Tehran needed to do much more to address the IAEA’s concerns.

In line with the findings of a confidential IAEA report earlier this month, he said Iran had not carried out two of the five transparency steps it had agreed to implement by Aug. 25.

Lack of progress in the IAEA investigation could further complicate efforts by six world powers to negotiate a resolution to the wider, decade-old dispute with Iran over its nuclear work and persuade it to curb it in exchange for a gradual ending of sanctions.
Iran moved nuclear research body to dodge U.N. inspections: dissidents
Reuters

Reuters) – An exiled Iranian opposition group said on Wednesday that a facility in Tehran that the United States suspects is involved in nuclear weapons research has been moved to avoid detection by the United Nations atomic watchdog.

The dissident National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) exposed Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and a heavy water facility at Arak in 2002. But analysts say it has a mixed track record and a clear political agenda. Iran says allegations of nuclear bomb research are baseless and forged by its enemies.

Iran and six world powers are to meet in Vienna next week as part of efforts to end a protracted and volatile impasse over Tehran’s nuclear program, ahead of a Nov. 24 deadline for a comprehensive diplomatic settlement.

The Islamic Republic says its nuclear energy program is a peaceful project to generate electricity.

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