Brief On Iran (BOI), Newsletter April 27th, 2015

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Brief On Iran – Newsletter
April 27th, 2015
  Iran- Human Rights (Women, Minorities, Ethnics)

The murderous mullahs fascism has sharply increased executions to delay its fallNCRI- Following the wave of executions in different cities in Iran, the anti-human clerical regime sent another 30 prisoners to the gallows from April 22 to April 26. Nine prisoners were collectively hanged on April 22 in Vakil Abad prison in Shiraz. On April 23, sixteen other prisoners in Bandar Abbas, Kerman and Jiroft were executed. On April 25 and 26, three prisoners in Rasht prison and two other prisoners were executed in the cities of Zanjan and Abhar.

As such, the number of executions over two weeks, April 13 to April 26, reaches 115. The real number of those executed is much more than this. According to some reports in recent weeks, a large number of prisoners have been executed secretly in Arak.

 Iran Human Rights 

Eight prisoners were hanged in Alborz province (west of Tehran) this morning, reported the Iranian state media.

According to the official website of the Judiciary in Alborz Province, the prisoners who were executed this morning were all convicted of drug-related charges.

Haji Reza Shah Karami, the prosecutor of the Revolution Court of Karaj said: These eight prisoners were involved in manufacturing and selling narcotic drugs such as crystal.

Non of the prisoners were identified by name.

According to reports by Iran Human Rights (IHR), at least 2052 prisoners have been executed between 2010 and 2014. Drug convicts are tried by the Revolution Courts behind the closed doors and many of the prisoners are sentenced to death based on the confessions they have given under torture.

  UN envoys hear graphic accounts of Syria chemical attacks
AFP – Yahoo News

Former US Marine Amir Hekmati has formally renounced the Iranian half of his dual American-Iranian citizenship, three and a half years after he was arrested and accused of spying while in Iran on a trip to visit his family.

The story was conveyed to the media via Hekmati’s sister Sarah, and via a letter dictated by phone to his mother and sent to the office of the US embassy in Pakistan, which handles affairs for visitors to Iran, in absence of direct diplomatic relations between the US and the Islamic Republic.

In his letter, Hekmati affirmed the interpretation of his imprisonment that has been advanced by many of his advocates in the US. Iran has never provided evidence to support its accusations of spying, which originally led to Hekmati being sentenced to death before that sentence was thrown out and replaced with a ten year prison term on the charge of cooperating with “hostile governments.”

“It has become very clear to me that those responsible view Iranian-Americans not as citizens or even human beings, but as bargaining chips and tools for propaganda,” Hekmati explained in his letter, as quoted by the Associated Press. “Considering how little value the Ministry of Intelligence places on my Iranian citizenship and passport, I, too, place little value on them and inform you, effectively that I formally renounce my Iranian citizenship and passport.”

  Iran- Terrorism Activities (Middle East)

 Iran’s Arabian Sea Ship Convoy Heads Home Before Meeting U.S. Navy And Allies


International Business Times
Christopher Harress

U.S. Navy

A convoy of Iranian ships allegedly on its way to deliver weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen has turned around in the Arabian Sea, and is headed back toward Iran, NBC reported Thursday. Ships from the U.S. Navy and allied navies, which were in the region enforcing a U.N. arms embargo on Yemen, had reported seeing the convoy early Thursdaymorning, moving toward the Gulf of Aden.U.S. ships, which arrived in the region Monday, were prepared to intercept the Iranian convoy in an attempt to prevent any weapons from reaching the Houthis.

 

Backed by a recently passed U.N. resolution on Yemen, the interception could have been undertaken by the U.S. or any of its coalition partners — Saudi Arabia, Egypt or the United Arab Emirates — that are patrolling the waters off Yemen.

   The Hill
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in an interview aired Sunday the threat from Islamic militants is greater than generally recognized.

“The world has not yet fully come to terms with either the scale of this radical Islamist problem or the need to deal with it,” Blair said in an interview with John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” radio show in New York.

The former leader of a key U.S. ally until leaving office in 2007 said that the international community needs to mobilize security measures and better work to promote education.

“[We] need to make sure that young people in many of these countries who have been educated to a close-minded view of the world instead get an education towards tolerance and respect for people of different faiths,” Blair said.

In one of the most recent displays of violence, a propaganda video released by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) earlier this week showed the group’s Libyan affiliates killing two different groups of captured Ethiopian Christians, apparently totaling 30 people.

   The New York Times

CAIRO – Secretary of State John Kerry has said that the United States knew Iran had been providing military support to the Houthi rebels in Yemen and that Washington “is not going to stand by while the region is destabilized.”

Mr. Kerry’s remarks, in an interview on Wednesday night with “PBS NewsHour,” appeared to be the most direct warning yet from Washington about Iranian support for the Houthi movement, which has allied with security forces loyal to a former leader and has taken control of Yemen’s capital, Sana.

The comments come as the United States hasincreased its provision of weapons, intelligence and logistical support for a Saudi-led campaign of airstrikes aimed at preventing the Houthis and their allies from dominating Yemen.

 Doctors describe suspected Syria chlorine attacks to UN Security Council members
Fox News

 

UNITED NATIONS –  U.N. Security Council members were moved to tears Thursday as the first eyewitness to the latest suspected chlorine attacks on civilians in Syria emerged from the country to give a graphic eyewitness account of dying children.

A Syrian doctor who treated victims from a half-dozen attacks over the past month, Mohamed Tennari, was helped out of the country by the United States, which arranged for the closed-door briefing.

He showed a video of a suspected chlorine attack March 16 in his town of Sarmin in Idlib province, with images of three children, ages 1 through 3, dying despite attempts to resuscitate them. The medical area was so cramped that one of the children was lying on top of their grandmother, who also died.

“Everyone smelled bleach-like odors” and heard the sound of helicopters, Tennari later told reporters after showing them the video. He said most of the victims were women and children.

The Huffington Post

 

WASHINGTON — Iranian representatives discouraged Houthi rebels from taking the Yemeni capital of Sanaa last year, according to American officials familiar with intelligence around the insurgent takeover.

The seizure of the capital in September came as a surprise to the international community, as Houthi rebels demonstrating outside Sanaa realized the city was abandoned and effectively unguarded. Despite Iran’s advice, the Houthis walked into the city and claimed it.

The newly disclosed information casts further doubt on claims that the rebels are a proxy group fighting on behalf of Iran, suggesting that the link between Iran and the Yemeni Shiite group may not be as strong as congressional hawks and foreign powers urging U.S. intervention in Yemen have asserted.

 Iran- Nuclear Activities

Euro News
Reihaneh Mazaheri

 

Iran is ready to return to nuclear enrichment “without any limitations” unless the West pursues a path of “co-operation” in concluding a deal and removing all sanctions, the country’s foreign minister told Euronews.

 

Speaking in an interview in Lisbon, Mohammed Javad Zarif warned against a gradual or phased end to the economic embargoes place on Tehran by the European Union, United Nations and United States.

“We can have the path of confrontation or we can have the path of co-operation, we cannot have a little bit of each,” he said.

  Timing of sanctions relief may be deal breaker as Iran talks resume
Reuters
Shadia Nasalla 

 

(Reuters) – The timing of sanctions relief is the main sticking point in nuclear talks that resumed on Wednesday with a meeting between delegates from Iran and the European Union.

Arriving in Vienna, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi reiterated Iran’s position: “All the economic sanctions should be lifted on the day that the deal is implemented,” Iranian news agency Tasnim reported.

The United States says the sanctions, imposed on Iran by countries concerned that its nuclear programme could be aimed at weapons development, would have to be phased out gradually.

 

 Billboards in Iran Say ‘Death to America,’ but Officials Say ‘Let’s Make a Deal’
The New Times
 

TEHRAN – Wearing business suits set off with sneakers, the American executives trailed a young guide along the narrow sidewalks of the capital of Iran, once branded by the United States as part of the “Axis of Evil.”
Their destination was one of Tehran’s most luxurious restaurants, where Iranian officials and business consultants greeted the visitors with open arms and the Pharrell Williams song “Happy” blasted from the sound system.
“Everybody loves us here,” said Ned Lamont, a digital services entrepreneur and former politician, holding a glass of carrot juice offered by one of his hosts.
Just as the Obama administration and Congress were wrangling over details of a nuclear agreement with Iran last week, the group of 24 executives were touring the country on a fact-finding mission.

Eli Lake

The Barack Obama administration has estimated for years that Iran was at most three months away from enriching enough nuclear fuel for an atomic bomb. But the administration only declassified this estimate at the beginning of the month, just in time for the White House to make the case for its Iran deal to Congress and the public.

Speaking to reporters and editors at our Washington bureau on Monday, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz acknowledged that the U.S. has assessed for several years that Iran has been two to three months away from producing enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon. When asked how long the administration has held this assessment, Moniz said: “Oh quite some time.” He added: “They are now, they are right now spinning, I mean enriching with 9,400 centrifuges out of their roughly 19,000. Plus all the . . . . R&D work. If you put that together it’s very, very little time to go forward. That’s the 2-3 months.”

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