OIAC Brief on Iran, September 8th 2014

One of the executions was interrupted due to protests from the family of the prisoner, and carried out the next day.

Iran Human Rights, September 4, 2014: Two prisoners were hanged in the public in two differentIranian towns in the Mazanderan province (Northern Iran), reported the Iranian state media.

 NCRI

 CBN News 

A pastor in Iran has been arrested and imprisoned after security forces raided his home and confiscated Christian paraphernalia.

According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Pastor Matthias Haghnejad was arrested on July 5 for “Moharebeh,” or “crimes against God,” and faces the punishment of death.

“These charges constitute a worrying escalation of Iran’s campaign against Christians, adding a sinister new component to the regime’s appalling litany of religious freedom violations,” CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said.

CNN

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN)  

Sheik Jasim al-Kadhim, president of the Association of Nationalist and Independent Iraqi Tribes from the south, condemned what he called Iran’s meddling in Iraq by those affiliated with Quds Force, an arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The United States accuses the Quds Force of aiding Shiite militias in Iraq and has designated it as a terrorist group.

Al-Kadhim, speaking by phone Friday, said evicting the Iranian regime — in particular from the southern Iraqi provinces — is “the only solution and hopeful prospect for Iraq.”

Al-Kadhim’s comments represent another kink in the relationship between the two nations, who share the Shiite faith and whose friendliness toward each other has raised U.S. concerns.

Additionally, 300,000-plus Iraqi Shiites signed a petition calling for an end to what they call “Iranian terrorist interferences” and demanding the United Nations investigate the Islamic republic’s involvement in Iraq.

NCRI – Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird that secretly visited Iraq on Wednesday declared Canada would stand by the people of Iraq but rejected improving relations with the Iranian regime for countering ISIS (ISIL) in Iraq.

Baird, whose travel plans had been a closely guarded secret, is there to provide both moral and material support to Iraq, Ottawa Citizen reported.

“Baird was unwilling to cut neighbouring Iran any slack, despite that country’s stated opposition to ISIL’s advance and recent signals that it’s willing to work with the U.S. and its allies. Canada still lists Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism,” the report said.

The severity of the scourge of the Islamic State (IS) that plunged Iraq into chaos calls for urgent and concerted action by nations. This initiative must be accompanied by a particularly good policy to prevent the mistakes of the past and the deterioration of the situation.

However, the Iranian lobby pushes to promote the idea that the Islamic Republic could use its influence as a great neighbor to stabilize Iraq. They even suggest that concessions must be made to Tehran on the nuclear issue in exchange for its cooperation in the Iraq crisis. But according to some analysts in the Middle East and in the West, this would be the perfect advice for a new catastrophe in Iraq. Reviews are increasing in political circles in the region and in particular in Iraq that in fact one should proceed in the opposite direction: namely resolutely brushing aside the Iranian regime and its revolutionary guards from the game in Iraq and recognizing that Tehran is the heart of the problem, not the solution.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran has failed to address concerns about suspected atomic bomb research by an agreed deadline, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday, a setback to hopes for an end to an international stand-off over Tehran’s atomic activity.

 Reuters

Wed Sep 3, 2014

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Tehran would continue to bypass sanctions after the United States penalised a number of companies for violating sanctions imposed on Iran, mostly in connection with its nuclear programme.

On Friday, the United States imposed a fresh round of curbs on a number of Iranian and foreign companies, banks and airlines. The new measures came just over two weeks before talks between Iran and six world powers on Tehran’s nuclear programme resume in New York.