OIAC Brief on Iran, September 2nd 2014

With all of the back and forth between Congress and the White House on the Iranian nuclear deal, it is critically important for all involved in the debate – and all Americans – to remember with whom we are dealing when making deals with the Iranian regime.

This August marks the 26th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of tens of thousands of political prisoners by the Iranian regime in 1988. The shock and terror inflicted on the Iranian nation when this manifest case of crime against humanity, perpetrated in a spate of a few months, went unnoticed in the international sphere, and unresolved in the Iranian psyche. The legacy of this carnage has resulted in the survival of a despotic regime, and the stunted growth of a nation.

 Town Hall

 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.

Chicago Tribune 

By Tom Ridge and Howard Dean

Although one is tempted to put the disastrous rule of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the rearview mirror, we must study it and learn from his mistakes if Iraq’s new leadership – with no small measure of U.S. assistance – is to arrest the vicious cycle of sectarian and internecine violence gripping the country.

For years, the al-Maliki government pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war by exploiting sectarian divisions for political advantage. With the departure of American troops in 2011, al-Maliki, backed increasingly by Shiite Iran, adopted policies that alienated large segments of the population. Those policies paved the way for the rise of extremist, terrorist Sunni groups like Islamic State and eroded whatever allegiance to the government existed among the Sunni-dominated thin green line charged with protecting the people: Thousands of Iraqi soldiers fled without a fight as the Islamic State made shocking advances across Iraq this summer.

The Washington Post  

By Craig Whitlock 

If things weren’t already tense enough in the Middle East, a U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat got into an altercation Tuesday with an Iranian sailboat in the Persian Gulf, the Pentagon announced.

U.S. military officials said the trouble started when the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Monomoy, which regularly patrols international waters in the Gulf, approached an Iranian dhow, a traditional sailing vessel used by fisherman and traders. According to the U.S. account, the cutter dispatched a smaller boat with some folks on board, apparently to try to get closer to the dhow and possibly climb aboard.

By Michael B Kelley 

Business Insider

Ali Khedery, the longest continuously serving American official in Iraq (2003-09), recently sat down with Reza Akhlaghi of the Foreign Policy Association to discuss American policy in the Middle East.

The candid discussion highlights several mistakes the U.S. made in the 21st century and lays out some troubling potential scenarios for the future if circumstances continue to worsen.

“As the Middle East unravels, the U.S. and its allies will be the real losers because we won’t be able to contain these cancers of sectarian war and transnational jihad,” Khedery, who is now chairman and chief executive of the Dubai-based Dragoman Partners, told Akhlaghi. “Radicals will grow in strength on both sides, namely the Salafist ISIS and the Shia militias, eventually driving the entire region towards destabilization, inevitably threatening global energy supplies and the global economy.”

 OIAC

Iran: Rouhani’s confrontation with Khamenei’s faction escalates (following impeachment of Minister of Science)

On Wednesday August 20, following parliamentary vote of no-confidence and impeachment of Reza Faraji Dana, Minister of Science and Technology, Rouhani introduced him as vice president and appointed Mohammad Ali Najafi as the head of Ministry of Science in an apparent confrontation with Khamenei’s faction. Previously, Najafi was introduced as the Minister of Science and Technology when Rouhani first formed his cabinet in 2013 but he was disqualified by the parliament.

Iran has conducted “mechanical” tests on a new, advanced machine to refine uranium, a senior official was quoted as saying on Wednesday, a disclosure that may annoy Western states pushing Tehran to scale back its nuclear programme.

Iran’s development of new centrifuges to replace its current breakdown-prone model is watched closely by Western officials. It could allow the Islamic Republic to amass potential atomic bomb material much faster.

 AFP

August 22, 2014

Iran is ready to join international action against jihadists in Iraq provided the West lifts crippling sanctions, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday.

His comments followed a call by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Wednesday for all countries in the region, including Iran, to join the fight against Islamic State (IS) fighters who have seized swathes of Iraq as well as neighbouring Syria.

“If we agree to do something in Iraq, the other side of the negotiations should do something in return,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Zarif as saying.