Brief on Iran

Brief On Iran – Newsletter Jan 20th, 2015

by
by
Brief On Iran – Newsletter
Jan 20th, 2015

Public Execution Among Children

Iran Human Rights

The first public executions of 2015 were carried out in Shiraz this morning. There were several children among those watching the hangings.

 

Iran Human Rights, January 17, 2015: Two prisoners were hanged publicly in Shiraz (Southern Iran) today. According to the official website of the Iranian Judiciary the prisoners were identified as “S. M.” and “A. M.” and were charged with rape of a woman.

Tens of people and anti-riot police were present at the execution site. There were many several children among the spectators.

 

Iran Human Rights (IHR) has previously urged UN to ban public executions and other inhumane punishments.
  Iran- Human Rights (Women, Minorities, Ethnics)
  Secret Mass-Executions of Drug-Convicts in Kerman Prison (Southeastern Iran)

Iran Human Rights

Tens of prisoners have been executed in the past few months in the prison of Kerman (Southeastern Iran) and their executions have not been announced by the official media. Most of the prisoners have been convicted of drug-related charges. It is not known how long these executions have been going on but it is certain that the executions are not limited only to the past few months. Iran Human Rights (IHR) is investigating further details of the executions.

At least 33 prisoners have been executed in the prison of Kerman since August 2014, according to sources Iran Human Rights(IHR) has been in contact with. The prisoners have often been executed in groups of 6-8 at a time, according to these sources. Except for one prisoners who was charged with murder, all the other prisoners had been sentenced to death for drug-related charges.  No executions in the prison of Kerman has been reported by the official Iranian sources in this period.
  Iran- Terrorism Activities (Middle East)
OIAC

A Retrospective Look May Inform Future Decisions on AddressingIslamic Extremism.

On 7 January 2015, two masked gunmen, reportedly associated with Al-Qada in Yemen forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, France. They killed 12 people, including the editor Stéphane “Charb” Charbonnier, 7 other employees, and 2 National Police officers, and wounded 11 others. Charlie Hebdo had attracted attention for its controversial depictions of prophet Muhammad (the Muslim prophet).The attack by Islamic militants against defenseless civilians at the heart of a European capital was preceded by religious orders demanding death of the paper’s editors from self-proclaimed Islamist extremist leaders.

As we digest the tragic events in Paris, a fatwā issued by Iranian Ruhollah Khomeini on 14, February 1989; calling for assassination of British author Salman Rushdie looms large.  Rushdie too was singled out for his writings.  Iran even set a substantial reward for anyone who manages to assassinate Rushdie.

It bears noting that Iranian regime was and still remains the first to legitimize and empower such intolerant acts.  Tackling the complex Islamic extremism problem must as a matter of necessity include confronting Iran on its repeated and unfortunately tolerated transgressions across the globe.
The Telegraph

A prosecutor who has accused President Cristina Kirchner of covering up Iran’s alleged involvement in the country’s worst terrorist attack has been found dead in his Buenos Aires apartment – hours before he was due to present his findings.

Alberto Nisman was discovered lying dead in his bathroom in the early hours of Monday morning, with a handgun by his side. Initial reports suggested suicide.

The veteran prosecutor had spent the past two years compiling a 300-page case on the 1994 bombings of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association building (AMIA), which killed 85 people. Iran has long been suspected as being behind the bombings.

Mr Nisman has accused Mrs Kirchner and her foreign minister, Hector Timerman, of attempting to “erase” Iran’s role in the attack, in return for favourable oil deals.
Al Arabiya

Iran confirmed Monday that a general of its elite Revolutionary Guards died in an Israeli strike on Syria that also killed six members of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

“General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi and a number of fighters and Islamic Resistance (Hezbollah) forces were attacked by the Zionist regime’s helicopters,” said a statement on the Guards’ website.

“This brave general and some members of Hezbollah were martyred,” it said, adding that Allahdadi was in Syria “as an adviser helping the Syrian government to confront takfiri Salafist (Sunni extremist) terrorists”.

Shiite Iran is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s main regional ally in his war against the mainly Sunni rebels seeking to overthrow him.

A source close to Hezbollah earlier told AFP that six Iranian soldiers, including commanders, died alongside six of its own fighters in the attack, but the Guards made no mention of other losses.
 Iran- Nuclear Activities
Statement By OIAC

Don’t Let Iran’s Clerics off the Hook,The Fall in Oil Prices, and Sanctions have Terrified them.

Washington, DC, January 16, 2015 – As Congress decides on a soon-to-be-introduced Iran sanctions bill, Organization of Iranian-American Communities-US (OIAC-US) urges the responsible decision makers to avoid leniency towards Iran.

Apologists and those who would rather take a bad deal than to face the truth about Iran’s belligerency offer us many reasons to concede further, asking Congress to withhold action on additional sanctions.  They tell us that Iran would walk out of the talks, that more sanctions would adversely affect the Iranian people, and that America would lose a historic opportunity to mitigate a national security threat.

As desperate as they are, the clerics cannot afford to walk away from the talks. They are negotiating from a position of weakness.  The fall in oil prices and the sanctions have terrified the mullahs. They should not be let off the hook.

Despite the recent drop in oil revenues and the impact of the sanctions, the Iranian regime has increased the annual budget for its Revolutionary Guards Force by 50 percent,  a large portion of which is funding Tehran’s intervention in Iraq and Syria.

On Friday, a wide variety of news sources reported upon US President Barack Obama’s latest response to the prospects for new sanctions

legislation that is expected to come up for discussion on the floor of the Senate within a month’s time. Obama has
promised to veto any such measure on the basis that it will be seen as endangering negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, which are now scheduled to conclude on June 30, having missed two previous deadlines.

The veto promise comes in spite of publicity for several factors that may be seen as undermining the president’s commitment and his rationale for it. In the first place, several congresspersons have publicly stated that they believe the new sanctions legislation may have sufficient support to override a presidential veto. This may be partly attributable to the fact that the newly proposed Kirk-Menendez bill uses more moderate language than an earlier version of the same bill, thus appealing to a wider spectrum of Iran critics.

These demands are viewed by US lawmakers as wildly out of step with the basic aims of the negotiating process, and this helps to justify the perception that sanctions legislation and similar pressures are necessary to compel Iran to negotiate on more realistic terms. The proposed sanctions bill would not take immediate effect if passed, but would specify that new sanctions will be imposed immediately if Iran does not commit to a compromise agreement.
OIAC 
Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah, Foreign Minister of Kuwait, opposed the meddling of the Iranian regime in countries in the region and considered the Iranian regime’s nuclear program to be a matter of grave concern to them.

 Fars News Agency, affiliated with IRGC, reported on Monday, January 6, that during a visit from the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi from Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah, the foreign minister of this country, declared in an interview with Egyptian reporters that “Iran should describe the nature of its program to the International Atomic Energy Agency, especially since Kuwait is threatened by any nuclear radiation from Iran and is worried about pollution of Gulf waters.” He called on the international community to take note of the Iranian regime’s nuclear program and stated that Kuwait and other Gulf countries, as well as the United States, are concerned about the outcome of this program on Arab countries in the Gulf.

Twenty months ago, prior to the earthquake in Bushehr, there was an urgent meeting in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, where the Gulf states voiced their grave concern for the perils of nuclear radiation from the Bushehr nuclear plant and requested a quick dispatch of a group of IAEA experts to inspect the plant for possible damage and to ensure the plant’s safety.

Related Posts

Brief on Iran (BOI – 505)

Brief on Iran (BOI – 504)

Brief on Iran (BOI – 503)

Brief on Iran (BOI – 502)

Brief on Iran (BOI – 501)

Brief on Iran (BOI – 500)