Secretary Pompeo Eyes New Iranian Revolution
Why Pompeo’s visit to Tirana matters to Tehran
New Jersey Globe, May 19, 2022, by Robert Torricelli
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s embrace of the Iranian resistance at Camp Ashraf in Albania this week may add the final chapter to the story of a new Iranian Revolution. The pieces are finally in place.
Decades of abuse, torture, and authoritarianism followed the 1979 Iranian Revolution. A combination of self-interest and benign neglect by the international community conspired to allow the regime in Tehran to construct the world’s leading source of state-sponsored terror almost unabated.
It all started to come undone when the United States withdrew from the JCPOA nuclear accords. The casting of a blind eye toward the Argentine AMIA attack, Khobar towers bombing, and the USS Cole hadn’t been enough. The sanctions regime tightened, and Iranian isolation was almost complete. Read More
Iran Used Secret U.N. Records to Evade Nuclear Probes
Internal IAEA documents, obtained by Iranian intelligence, were sent to top officials amid an investigation into a suspected past nuclear-weapons program
The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 2022
Iran secured access to secret United Nations atomic agency reports almost two decades ago and circulated the documents among top officials who prepared cover stories and falsified a record to conceal suspected past work on nuclear weapons, according to Middle East intelligence officials and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The International Atomic Energy Agency documents and accompanying Persian-language Iranian records reveal some of the tactics Tehran used with the agency, which is tasked with monitoring compliance with nuclear nonproliferation treaties and the later 2015 nuclear deal. Read More
Biden made final decision to keep Iran’s IRGC on terrorist list
The president relayed his commitment to Israel’s prime minister
Politico, May 24, 2022
President Joe Biden has finalized his decision to keep Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on a terrorist blacklist, according to a senior Western official, further complicating international efforts to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Another person familiar with the matter said Biden conveyed his decision during an April 24 phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, adding that the decision was conveyed as absolutely final and that the window for Iranian concessions had closed.
Bennett later confirmed the contents of his conversation with Biden last month in a tweet. “I welcome the decision by the US Administration to keep Iran’s IRGC on the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list — which is where it belongs,” he added. Read More
Treasury Targets Oil Smuggling Network Generating Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for Qods Force and Hizballah
Treasury.gov, May 25, 2022
WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating an international oil smuggling and money laundering network led by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) officials that has facilitated the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil for both the IRGC-QF and Hizballah. This oil smuggling network, led by U.S.-designated IRGC-QF official Behnam Shahriyari and former IRGC-QF official Rostam Ghasemi and backed by senior levels of the Russian Federation government and state-run economic organs, has acted as a critical element of Iran’s oil revenue generation, as well as its support for proxy militant groups that continue to perpetuate conflict and suffering throughout the region. Read More
Amnesty Highlights Rise In ‘State-Sanctioned’ Executions; Iran Among Worst Offenders
Radio Farda, May 24, 2022
Last year saw a “worrying rise” in global executions in 2021 amid an easing in pandemic restrictions, Amnesty International has said, with Iran recording its highest number of state-sanctioned killings since 2017.
The global number of executions saw a 20 percent increase over 2020, with Iran accounting for most of the rise.
The global totals do not include executions in China, which Amnesty believes to be in the thousands, North Korea, and Vietnam.
Out of the total of 579 executions carried out across 18 countries last year, Iran executed at least 314 people, up from 246 in 2020 and the highest total in four years, Amnesty said in its Death Sentences And Executions 2021 Report. Read More
Not Heard Elsewhere
News From Inside Iran
Compiled by NCRI
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Iran building collapse kills 14 as mayor and others detained
AP, May 25, 2022
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Rescuers dug through debris Tuesday of a building collapse in southwestern Iran that killed at least 14 people, fearful that many more could still be trapped beneath the rubble as authorities arrested the city’s mayor in a widening probe of the disaster. The collapse Monday of an under-construction 10-story tower at the Metropol Building exposed its cement blocks and steel beams while also underscoring an ongoing crisis in Iranian construction projects that has seen other disasters in this earthquake-prone nation. Read more
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