UN RASSEMBLEMENT POUR UN "IRAN LIBRE" AFIN DE DONNER LA PAROLE À CEUX QUI SOUFFRENT EN IRAN

Le 9 juillet, je rejoindrai un grand nombre de mes compatriotes iraniens en exil et leurs partisans internationaux au rassemblement annuel pour " un Iran libre" à Paris, au Bourget. Le Conseil national de la Résistance iranienne (CNRI) tient ce genre d'événements depuis plus de dix ans.

Inutile de dire que c'est un événement international majeur portant sur une question de premier plan. Mais pour moi, c'est aussi très personnel. En esprit, je serai avec une foule beaucoup plus grande. Nous serons rejoints par un nombre incalculable d'Iraniens vivant encore sous le joug du régime théocratique et qui prendront le risque de représailles en regardant le rassemblement sur les chaînes tv satellites interdites.

Comment je le sais ? Après ce rassemblement, j'aurai eu l’occasion de voir cet événement des deux côtés du mur idéologique qui sépare la République islamique de la plupart du reste du monde. Ces dernières années, je faisais partie des Iraniens qui soutiennent le CNRI et son groupe principal, les Moudjahidine du peuple d'Iran (OMPI), depuis un endroit silencieux à l'intérieur du pays. J'ai mis ma sécurité et ma liberté à risque, comme beaucoup de mes amis, pour poursuivre les activités des groupes locaux. J'ai passé cinq ans en prison de 2009 à 2014 et j'ai subi des tortures physiques et psychologiques pour mon soutien à l'OMPI. Je me suis enfui d'Iran à l'âge de 29 ans l'an dernier.

Malgré la répression agressive du régime dont j'ai été témoin, je n'ai jamais perdu l'espoir que ce système de domination reigieuses finira par s'effondrer. Les images du rassemblement du CNRI avec quelque 100.000 Iraniens et leurs partisans internationaux appelant à un "Iran libre" ont renforcé cet espoir. Pour nous, les militants, ce jour-là a toujours été une occasion spéciale. J'ai même suivi les messages de l'événement en prison.

Depuis les manifestations nationales de 2009 jusqu'aux défis que lancent quotidiennement les Iraniens, il a toujours été clair à mes yeux que l'écrasante majorité de la population fait cause commune avec le réseau militant auquel je me consacre. De son côté, le CNRI à l'étranger a déployé des activités indiquant clairement que notre leadership en exil a fait de grands progrès pour obtenir les soutiens qui vont catapulter notre cause vers la victoire.

Je me réjouis de pouvoir contribuer à cet effort cette année. Les décideurs mondiaux ont pris progressivement conscience de la nécessité urgente d'un changement de régime en Iran, et maintenant je vais être en mesure de plaider personnellement cette cause devant un public international. Si la chance est avec moi, mon histoire et celles des autres qui ont fui récemment d'Iran atteindront les oreilles de la plupart des politiciens et des experts américains et européens de premier plan qui seront présents.

En tout état de cause, je sais qu'ils ont déjà compris un message plus général : la modération dans le gouvernement iranien n'est pas réaliste. La liberté et la démocratie en Iran ne peuvent être garanties que par un changement de régime. Je suis convaincu que les rangs de ces partisans occidentaux vont continuer à grossir tandis que l'image de la répression en Iran et de l'ingérence régionale de ce régime deviennent plus apparentes.

L'événement de cette année aura lieu presque exactement un an après l'accord nucléaire entre l'Iran et les P5 + 1. Ainsi, ce sera une occasion pour les décideurs occidentaux d'évaluer l'impact du plan global d'action et la stratégie générale de complaisance. Les politiciens participant à l'événement savent déjà que cette stratégie présente de graves insuffisances.

Certains en Occident semblent persister dans leur optimisme sur les perspectives de l'Iran sous la présidence d’Hassan Rohani. Ma présence et celle d'autres militants va sûrement aider à faire comprendre que les conditions à l'intérieur de l'Iran n’offrent aucune tendance à la modération. La répression dans le pays et l'agression des pays étrangers se poursuivent sans relâche sous Rohani. La première continue à envoyer les dissidents iraniens, les militants et les artistes en prison ou à les forcer à quitter le pays. La seconde contribue à attise la crise des réfugiés, avec le soutien indéfectible du pouvoir iranien au dictateur syrien Bachar al-Assad.

Je sais par expérience combien l'événement du 9 juillet sera émouvant pour les dissidents et les militants iraniens à l'intérieur du pays. Il est important que les gouvernements occidentaux soient attentifs à son message. Ce message résonnera depuis Paris et dans la majorité silencieuse des Iraniens de l'intérieur : "un Iran libre."

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Congress is rightfully concerned over possible Boeing-Iran deal

Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives from the Republican Party have joined a chorus of colleagues raising major concerns over a provisional agreement between Boeing and Iran involving a multi-billion dollar purchase of a hundred commercial airliners. Lawmakers on the Hill are sounding alarm bells over possible significant national security repercussions in this regard.

U.S. companies must not play a role in “weaponizing” the regime ruling in Iran is the core of a strong joint statement made recently by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL), a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

“We strongly oppose the potential sale of military-fungible products to terrorism’s central supplier,” the two lawmakers wrote in a damning June 16th letter to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, citing the major implications of such a deal. The U.S. State Department has in fresh reports -- most recently on June 2nd -- once again designated Iran as “the foremost state sponsor of terrorism” and emphasized Tehran’s support of terrorism has not diminished at all.

If this deal receives a green light, it would represent a major contract and breakthrough between a U.S. firm and Iran following nuclear “implementation day” back in January when sanctions began to ease on the regime in return for the mullahs curbing a controversial and clandestine nuclear program engulfed in major suspicions of involving a drive to obtain nuclear weapons.

“In light of recent reports that a deal is imminent, we seek information to assist the U.S. Congress in determining the national security implications of a potential sale of Boeing aircraft to Iran," Hensarling and Roskam continued in their strongly-worded letter.

Iran is also claiming to be on track to a parallel purchase from Airbus, Boeing’s European rival, according to various news reports. The Washington Times, however, raised doubts over Iran boasting success in this regard.

“The Airbus deal to sell more than 100 planes to the Iranians made headlines in January but ‘still hasn’t been finalized. And one of the reasons is that Airbus has had a terribly difficult time finding a private financial institution to bank the deal,’” The Times wrote, citing Eric Lorber, a former attorney in the U.S. Treasury Department’s office of foreign assets control.

“The risks associated with doing business with Iran haven’t changed,” The Times went on to quote Chip Poncy, former head of the Treasury’s office of strategic policy for terrorist financing and financial crimes through 2013.

Despite all this, U.S. president Barack Obama, continuing his so-far failed appeasement policy vis-à-vis Iran, is strongly backing the possibility of a lucrative Boeing-Iran deal. This has only fueled growing concerns over Iran’s nature of remaining a significant “source of funds and banking services” for leading terrorist groups wreaking havoc across the globe.

While Obama may be lobbying for the deal, a potential kink will definitely stem from outstanding U.S. sanctions that continue to cast a heavy shadow on Iran and ban the use and access to the U.S. dollar for any party possibly interested in doing trade with Tehran. If such sanctions remain intact, as seems to be the case up to this point, any thinkable Boeing-Iran deal will be forced to seek non-U.S. financing. This is one hurdle Iran simply cannot surpass, and Boeing will suffer huge losses in such a challenging endeavor.

Boeing has been asked to respond by July 1st to ten serious questions raised by U.S. lawmakers. Members of Congress are currently dissatisfied, saying the Chicago-based plane manufacturer is refusing to relieve the concerns raised by lawmakers over their ongoing discussions with Iran. This will naturally not play well in Washington and place even more obstacles before the Obama administration in its promotion of the deal.

Hensarling and Roskam continued in further concerns over the arrangement, saying Iran’s “commercial aviation sector has been deeply involved in supporting hostile actors.”

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) has sought to target the Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Mahan Airline in Iran, describing the company as a “terrorist airline or airways.”

"[Iran’s] largest commercial airline is the number-one state sponsor of terrorism," The Hill cited Senator Cornyn saying. "This airline has repeatedly played a role in exporting Iran's terrorism."

Saudi Arabia took a similar approach in banning Mahan from using its airspace, Bloomberg reported on May 25th.

Iran’s military, especially the Revolutionary Guards and its terrorist-designated extraterritorial wing, the Quds Force, are known to frequently dispatch troops, send weapons and even rocket and missiles across the globe by way of commercial airliners. This notorious effort has procured the arms needed for groups such as the Lebanese Hizb’allah and the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad in Syria that has leveled his own country for over five years now, leading to over 400,000 deaths, according to some estimates, scores more injured and the largest refugee crisis since World War II. This onslaught has rendered millions displaced inside the country and seeking refuge abroad, with no end in sight. With the international community failing to respond, Iran has successfully developed and cemented deep-seated terror across the region, leaving barely any room for optimism.

Iran is looking to modernize its aging fleet by replacing a gigantic number of 400 planes. As far-fetched as the extent of this effort remains considering Iran’s disastrous economic conditions three years into the tenure of the so-called moderate President Hassan Rouhani, such an initiative will most definitely further fuel Iran’s support for international terrorism and boost the mullahs’ effort to continue inflicting mayhem in conflicts plaguing the Middle East, from Iraq to Syria, Yemen, and beyond.

At a time when the Obama administration is continuously failing to rise to the occasion against such deeply hazardous enterprises, the efforts of Congress might by the last chance to spearhead the incorporation of a vital, universal concept to halt Tehran’s dangerous campaign aimed at solidifying its means of spreading absolute terrorism, ushering in growing extremism and Islamic fundamentalism

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Iran Nuclear Deal— Regional Instability, Unknown Compliance, and the Way Forward by Raymond Tanter

Agreed to on July 14, 2015, we are fast approaching the first year anniversary of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the world powers. The next couple of weeks are an ideal time to evaluate what changes have occurred in the interim.

Regional Instability

According to Matthew McGinnis, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, about a year after the nuclear deal with Iran, it is embroiled in several major regional conflicts. Two are “hot” ones: against opposition and Islamist groups in Syria and Islamic State in Iraq. The more are “colder” ones: a regional feud with Saudi Arabia and efforts against Israel in southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights, which are shaped by the Syrian Civil War.

On Apr. 3, 2016, United Arab Emirates Ambassador Yousef al Otaiba stated in the Wall Street Journal that, “One Year after the Iran Nuclear Deal—don’t be fooled. The Iran we have long known—hostile, expansionist, violent—is alive and well.” On June 29, he was on a panel I attended in Washington and elaborated on the argument in the WSJ. In October, November and in early March, Tehran conducted ballistic-missile tests in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.


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Regarding March fighting in Yemen, the French navy seized a large cache of weapons en route from Iran to the Houthis in rebellion against the UN-backed legitimate government. In late February, Australia intercepted a ship off the coast of Oman with thousands of rocket-propelled grenades. In December, Tehran fired rockets dangerously close to a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz, a few weeks before detaining a group of American sailors.

Unknown Compliance

What about an International Atomic Energy Agency May 27, 2016 report on Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal? Seeing the best in the nuclear agreement requires ignoring the obvious weaknesses in the IAEA report, which does not even specify how much low-enriched uranium the Islamic Republic has stockpiled, how many centrifuges are running at the Natanz enrichment site or whether enrichment activities have actually stopped at Fordow. That’s because under the terms of the nuclear deal, Iran only needs to demonstrate minimum openness. The head of the UN watchdog nuclear agency says that although Iran seems to be adhering to the letter of the deal, “his inspectors are stretched thin by the task of monitoring compliance across a country the size of Alaska.”

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Congress is rightfully concerned over possible Boeing-Iran deal

Congress is rightfully concerned over possible Boeing-Iran deal
Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives from the Republican Party have joined a chorus of colleagues raising major concerns over a provisional agreement between Boeing and Iran involving a multi-billion dollar purchase of a hundred commercial airliners. Lawmakers on the Hill are sounding alarm bells over possible significant national security repercussions in this regard.

U.S. companies must not play a role in “weaponizing” the regime ruling in Iran is the core of a strong joint statement made recently by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL), a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

“We strongly oppose the potential sale of military-fungible products to terrorism’s central supplier,” the two lawmakers wrote in a damning June 16th letter to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, citing the major implications of such a deal. The U.S. State Department has in fresh reports -- most recently on June 2nd -- once again designated Iran as “the foremost state sponsor of terrorism” and emphasized Tehran’s support of terrorism has not diminished at all.

If this deal receives a green light, it would represent a major contract and breakthrough between a U.S. firm and Iran following nuclear “implementation day” back in January when sanctions began to ease on the regime in return for the mullahs curbing a controversial and clandestine nuclear program engulfed in major suspicions of involving a drive to obtain nuclear weapons.

“In light of recent reports that a deal is imminent, we seek information to assist the U.S. Congress in determining the national security implications of a potential sale of Boeing aircraft to Iran," Hensarling and Roskam continued in their strongly-worded letter.

Iran is also claiming to be on track to a parallel purchase from Airbus, Boeing’s European rival, according to various news reports. The Washington Times, however, raised doubts over Iran boasting success in this regard.

“The Airbus deal to sell more than 100 planes to the Iranians made headlines in January but ‘still hasn’t been finalized. And one of the reasons is that Airbus has had a terribly difficult time finding a private financial institution to bank the deal,’” The Times wrote, citing Eric Lorber, a former attorney in the U.S. Treasury Department’s office of foreign assets control.

“The risks associated with doing business with Iran haven’t changed,” The Times went on to quote Chip Poncy, former head of the Treasury’s office of strategic policy for terrorist financing and financial crimes through 2013.

Despite all this, U.S. president Barack Obama, continuing his so-far failed appeasement policy vis-à-vis Iran, is strongly backing the possibility of a lucrative Boeing-Iran deal. This has only fueled growing concerns over Iran’s nature of remaining a significant “source of funds and banking services” for leading terrorist groups wreaking havoc across the globe.

While Obama may be lobbying for the deal, a potential kink will definitely stem from outstanding U.S. sanctions that continue to cast a heavy shadow on Iran and ban the use and access to the U.S. dollar for any party possibly interested in doing trade with Tehran. If such sanctions remain intact, as seems to be the case up to this point, any thinkable Boeing-Iran deal will be forced to seek non-U.S. financing. This is one hurdle Iran simply cannot surpass, and Boeing will suffer huge losses in such a challenging endeavor.

Boeing has been asked to respond by July 1st to ten serious questions raised by U.S. lawmakers. Members of Congress are currently dissatisfied, saying the Chicago-based plane manufacturer is refusing to relieve the concerns raised by lawmakers over their ongoing discussions with Iran. This will naturally not play well in Washington and place even more obstacles before the Obama administration in its promotion of the deal.

Hensarling and Roskam continued in further concerns over the arrangement, saying Iran’s “commercial aviation sector has been deeply involved in supporting hostile actors.”

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) has sought to target the Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Mahan Airline in Iran, describing the company as a “terrorist airline or airways.”

"[Iran’s] largest commercial airline is the number-one state sponsor of terrorism," The Hill cited Senator Cornyn saying. "This airline has repeatedly played a role in exporting Iran's terrorism."

Saudi Arabia took a similar approach in banning Mahan from using its airspace, Bloomberg reported on May 25th.

Iran’s military, especially the Revolutionary Guards and its terrorist-designated extraterritorial wing, the Quds Force, are known to frequently dispatch troops, send weapons and even rocket and missiles across the globe by way of commercial airliners. This notorious effort has procured the arms needed for groups such as the Lebanese Hizb’allah and the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad in Syria that has leveled his own country for over five years now, leading to over 400,000 deaths, according to some estimates, scores more injured and the largest refugee crisis since World War II. This onslaught has rendered millions displaced inside the country and seeking refuge abroad, with no end in sight. With the international community failing to respond, Iran has successfully developed and cemented deep-seated terror across the region, leaving barely any room for optimism.

Iran is looking to modernize its aging fleet by replacing a gigantic number of 400 planes. As far-fetched as the extent of this effort remains considering Iran’s disastrous economic conditions three years into the tenure of the so-called moderate President Hassan Rouhani, such an initiative will most definitely further fuel Iran’s support for international terrorism and boost the mullahs’ effort to continue inflicting mayhem in conflicts plaguing the Middle East, from Iraq to Syria, Yemen, and beyond.

At a time when the Obama administration is continuously failing to rise to the occasion against such deeply hazardous enterprises, the efforts of Congress might by the last chance to spearhead the incorporation of a vital, universal concept to halt Tehran’s dangerous campaign aimed at solidifying its means of spreading absolute terrorism, ushering in growing extremism and Islamic fundamentalism.

Read More

Marian Harkin MEP supports Maryam Rajavi’s 10-point plan for Iran

NCRI - Marian Harkin, an Irish Member of the European Parliament, has expressed her concerns over human rights abuses in Iran via a video released earlier this month.

Marian Harkin MEP said: “Discrimination and criminal repression against ethnic and religious minorities, arrests of critics and systematic censorship still exists [in Iran].”

Harkin was one of the 270 MEPs to sign a letter insisting that the EU condition their negotiations with Iran on improvements to the dire human rights situation.

Harkin, a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, cited the rising number of executions in Iran as a major concern; the UN calculates that Iran’s execution rate is the highest in 25 years.

She said that she approved of the “progressive” ten-point plan laid out by Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which calls for the abolition of the death penalty and for equality between men and women.

Then she spoke about the grand gathering in Paris on July 9, for all members and supporters of the Iranian Resistance. It will be attended by world leaders, policy makers, journalists and religious leaders.

She said: “I would urge as many people as possible to attend that event.”

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NCRI’s Perviz Khazaii: West must make any trade ties with Iran regime conditional on improvements in human rights

 

Despite hope by some in the West that Hassan Rouhani’s presidency would herald an era of moderation and reform in Iran, there have been over 2,400 executions in Iran in just under three years that he has been in office, writes Perviz Khazaii, the representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Nordic countries.

Writing in The Diplomat on Wednesday, Mr. Khazaii said:

“Victims include political dissidents, most notably the activists of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran. In a report on March 10, 2016, Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Iran, said that executions in Iran had surged to nearly 1,000 in 2015, the highest level in more than a quarter-century. The number of executions in 2015 was roughly double the number executed in 2010 and 10 times as many as were executed in 2005. Amnesty International underscored in its annual report that Iran has the highest number of executions per capita.

This trend continues. The Iranian regime carried out at least 21 hangings in a 48-hour period in the second week of May.

Iran is likely the biggest executor of juvenile offenders. And executions of ethnic and religious minorities have increased dramatically.

Meanwhile, those who are not put to death may be subject to other cruel punishments. Last August, a prisoner in Mashhad had his right hand and left foot amputated as others were forced to watch.

Violent punishments are not confined to Iran’s prisons, either. For instance, in October 2014, gangs affiliated with the regime carried out acid attacks on at least 25 Iranian women and girls who were regarded as being improperly veiled or otherwise in violation of religious norms.

This sort of enforcement of the regime’s ruling ideology has also motivated a massive, ongoing crackdown on activists, writers, bloggers, and artists. This has helped Iran to secure its title as the largest jailer of journalists in the Middle East.

In short, the human rights situation is deteriorating at a fast pace.

Tehran’s nefarious conduct is not limited by the country’s borders. Day by day, Iran is expanding its involvement in the Syrian civil war. It is now evident that if it were not for the Iranian regime’s all-out support for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, he would have been overthrown long ago. The Iranian regime is thus the main cause of continuing carnage in Syria.

The Revolutionary Guards have now dispatched a conglomerate of more than 70,000 troops on the ground, consisting of 10,000 notorious Quds Force members, and tens of thousands of foot-soldiers and mercenaries from Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Pakistan. Tehran is so caught in the Syrian quagmire that a brigade of Iran’s regular army was recently dispatched to Syria as well.

On May 13 Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif heaped praise on the notorious terror group Hezbollah’s top military commander in Syria, who died in a Damascus explosion.

‘I express my condolences on the martyrdom of the great holy fighter Mustafa Badreddine who was full of spirit and heroism in defending the righteous values of Islam and the combatant people of Lebanon,’ Zarif said in a message to Hezbollah leaders. This followed Zarif’s previous acts such as laying a wreath at the grave of Imad Mughniyah, the former military commander and head of the terror apparatus of Hezbollah, in 2014. Heaping such praises on notorious international terrorists clearly shows that Zarif regards terrorism as a state tool.

I am no stranger to diplomatic relations. I was one of three senior Iranian diplomats who resigned from our ambassadorships in protest against an unbridled wave of executions in Iran in the early 1980s and joined the National Council of Resistance of Iran, led by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi. Doing so came at great personal cost. Two of us were gunned down in broad daylight in Geneva and in Rome by terrorists dispatched from Tehran, the first in 1990 and the second in 1993. I am the sole survivor.

Despite the persistent danger, I remain active in the NCRI to this day. On July 9, I will travel to Paris to take part in the organization’s ‘Free Iran’ rally, which is expected to draw tens of thousands of people, comprised not only of Iranian exiles but also their supporters from the governments and activist communities of their many host countries to highlight Tehran’s nefarious conduct at home and abroad, calling for a new policy that sides with the Iranian people and their desire for freedom.

Recent Western policies that flirt with appeasement and neglect human rights, putting trade agreements and expanded relations ahead of such issues is totally unacceptable. Human life and safety cannot be made subordinate to short term economic interests.

It is high time for Western countries to take a stance on the dreadful human rights situation in Iran and make any improvement of relations with Tehran and any trade ties conditional upon improvement of the human rights situation in Iran, including an immediate halt to executions in that country.”

Perviz Khazaii is the former Ambassador of Iran in Sweden and Norway and the representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Nordic countries.

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British politicians debate the human rights situation in Iran

NCRI - The United Kingdom’s House of Commons held a debate on Tuesday, June 28, on the human rights situation in Iran. The British Parliamentarians discussed the lack of progress on the matter since last year’s nuclear deal.

Dr Matthew Offord, the Conservative MP for Hendon, said: “I regretted Her Majesty’s Government’s decision to decouple Iran’s human rights abuses and support for terrorism from the nuclear negotiations. I believe that that was a lost opportunity, and that doing so sent the wrong message to Iran.”

In fact, the suppression of free speech and political dissidence has risen with a wave of arrests of human rights activists, union leaders, opposition supporters and journalists. They were held on bogus national security claims and some still remain in prison, where they are subject to torture.

The MPs discussed the fate of political prisoners like Jafar Azmizadeh, who has been on hunger strike for more than two months, Narges Mohammadi, who has been denied access to her medication, and Saleh Kohandel, who has been tortured and at times kept in solitary confinement over the past nine years simply for supporting the main Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK).

The execution rate in Iran has also increased rapidly during the course of Hassan Rouhani’s presidency, the MPs pointed out. An estimated 2,400 people (including women and minors) have been executed by the regime in just three years; in 2015 alone, the UN estimates that there were almost 1,000 people put to death by the state.

Mike Freer, the Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green, said: “Many of us were encouraged to support the lifting of sanctions in order to see a thaw in the repression of the regime. Given the acceleration in the use of the death penalty, the continued persecution of women and minorities, and the crushing of the opposition…we have been duped.”

Sir Roger Gale, Conservative MP for North Thanet, said that the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the People’s Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) ought to receive international support in their campaign to overthrow the regime.

The MPs quoted Amnesty International’s former deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa programme, Said Boumedouha, who said that the “staggering execution toll” painted a “sinister” picture of the state and accused them of carrying out “premeditated, judicially-sanctioned killings on a mass scale.”

Boumedouha made that speech in July 2015, but the MPs said that nothing much had changed in the time since the nuclear deal was passed.

In fact, it’s highly suspected that the money raised through the nuclear deal will fund the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), who were designated as a terrorist organisation by the U.S.

Margaret Ferrier and Dr Philippa Whitford, the SNP MPs from Rutherglen and Hamilton West, and Central Ayrshire, respectively, reminded the Parliament of the harsh realities for women and girls in Iran; women can be lashed for not wearing the hijab correctly, women can be denied food, accommodation or money if they do not perform marital duties and girls as young as nine can be forced into marriage with full-grown adult men.

Dr. Offord rejects the idea that human rights abuses are the result of hardliners as it implies that Rouhani is unable to stop them.

He said: “Neither Rouhani nor his Government have ever publicly condemned and distanced themselves from executions and the use of public hanging. On the contrary, Rouhani has explicitly supported the use of the death penalty. “

A Free Iran rally will be held on July 9, in Paris, attended by politicians, world leaders and the supporters of the Iranian opposition PMOI.

Mr Mark Williams, a Liberal Democrat MP from Ceredigion in Wales said that he, like Dr. Offord, has "attended the annual gatherings in Paris sponsored by the National Council of Resistance of Iran."

"At those meetings there are always many opportunities to talk to Iranian exiles from around the world. Perhaps 100,000 people go to those gatherings whose families have direct experience of human rights violations. All too often they have been denied the opportunity to communicate with family at home in Iran, for fear of repercussions; and, indeed, we meet people who have experienced persecution themselves."

"Our approach to Iran should include an active and direct dialogue with opposition groups committed to democratic change and the most basic human rights that should be common to any civilised society. ... People understand that the PMOI and Madam [Maryam] Rajavi are fighters for democratic change. That is what she has said, and it is reinforced by the 10-point programme we have heard about," he added.

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Hendon MP to discuss Iran’s human rights policy at House of Commons

A NEW initiative on Iran policy will be discussed by MP’s at the House of Commons.

Hendon MP Matthew Offord will join UK MPs from both the Houses of Parliament and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) for a conference tomorrow (June 30).

They will present a set of specific recommendations to the UK government.

These recommendations include addressing the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran, Tehran's continued destabilising role in the region and its sponsor of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism, especially in the post-nuclear deal era.
http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/14587800.Hendon_MP_to_discuss_Iran___s_human_rights_policy_at_House_of_Commons/

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Time to Act on Iran’s Human Rights Abuses

Throughout the three years of Hassan Rouhani’s presidency, some in the West have maintained hope that it would herald an era of moderation and reform in Iran. Subsequent to the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1, this sentiment was further accentuated by the same people.  This is an opportune time to fact check.

There have been over 2,400 executions in Iran in just under three years. Victims include political dissidents, most notably the activists of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran. In a report on March 10, 2016, Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Iran, said that executions in Iran had surged to nearly 1,000 in 2015, the highest level in more than a quarter-century. The number of executions in 2015 was roughly double the number executed in 2010 and 10 times as many as were executed in 2005. Amnesty International underscored in its annual report that Iran has the highest number of executions per capita.

This trend continues. The Iranian regime carried out at least 21 hangings in a 48-hour period in the second week of May.

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Iran is likely the biggest executor of juvenile offenders. And executions of ethnic and religious minorities have increased dramatically.

Meanwhile, those who are not put to death may be subject to other cruel punishments. Last August, a prisoner in Mashhad had his right hand and left foot amputated as others were forced to watch.

Violent punishments are not confined to Iran’s prisons, either. For instance, in October 2014, gangs affiliated with the regime carried out acid attacks on at least 25 Iranian women and girls who were regarded as being improperly veiled or otherwise in violation of religious norms.

This sort of enforcement of the regime’s ruling ideology has also motivated a massive, ongoing crackdown on activists, writers, bloggers, and artists. This has helped Iran to secure its title as the largest jailer of journalists in the Middle East.

In short, the human rights situation is deteriorating at a fast pace.

Tehran’s nefarious conduct is not limited by the country’s borders. Day by day, Iran is expanding its involvement in the Syrian civil war. It is now evident that if it were not for the Iranian regime’s all-out support for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, he would have been overthrown long ago. The Iranian regime is thus the main cause of continuing carnage in Syria.

The Revolutionary Guards have now dispatched a conglomerate of more than 70,000 troops on the ground, consisting of 10,000 notorious Quds Force members, and tens of thousands of foot-soldiers and mercenaries from Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Pakistan. Tehran is so caught in the Syrian quagmire that a brigade of Iran’s regular army was recently dispatched to Syria as well.

On May 13 Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif heaped praise on the notorious terror group Hezbollah’s top military commander in Syria, who died in a Damascus explosion.

“I express my condolences on the martyrdom of the great holy fighter Mustafa Badreddine who was full of spirit and heroism in defending the righteous values of Islam and the combatant people of Lebanon,” Zarif said in a message to Hezbollah leaders. This followed Zarif’s previous acts such as laying a wreath at the grave of Imad Mughniyah, the former military commander and head of the terror apparatus of Hezbollah, in 2014. Heaping such praises on notorious international terrorists clearly shows that Zarif regards terrorism as a state tool.

I am no stranger to diplomatic relations. I was one of three senior Iranian diplomats who resigned from our ambassadorships in protest against an unbridled wave of executions in Iran in the early 1980s and joined the National Council of Resistance of Iran, led by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi. Doing so came at great personal cost. Two of us were gunned down in broad daylight in Geneva and in Rome by terrorists dispatched from Tehran, the first in 1990 and the second in 1993. I am the sole survivor.

Despite the persistent danger, I remain active in the NCRI to this day. On July 9, I will travel to Paris to take part in the organization’s “Free Iran” rally, which is expected to draw tens of thousands of people, comprised not only of Iranian exiles but also their supporters from the governments and activist communities of their many host countries to highlight Tehran’s nefarious conduct at home and abroad, calling for a new policy that sides with the Iranian people and their desire for freedom.

Recent Western policies that flirt with appeasement and neglect human rights, putting trade agreements and expanded relations ahead of such issues is totally unacceptable. Human life and safety cannot be made subordinate to short term economic interests.

It is high time for Western countries to take a stance on the dreadful human rights situation in Iran and make any improvement of relations with Tehran and any trade ties conditional upon improvement of the human rights situation in Iran, including an immediate halt to executions in that country.

Perviz Khazaii is the former Ambassador of Iran in Sweden and Norway and the representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Nordic countries.

http://thediplomat.com/2016/06/time-to-act-on-irans-human-rights-abuses/

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Congress is rightfully concerned over possible Boeing-Iran deal

Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives from the Republican Party have joined a chorus of colleagues raising major concerns over a provisional agreement between Boeing and Iran involving a multi-billion dollar purchase of a hundred commercial airliners. Lawmakers on the Hill are sounding alarm bells over possible significant national security repercussions in this regard.

U.S. companies must not play a role in “weaponizing” the regime ruling in Iran is the core of a strong joint statement made recently by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL), a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

“We strongly oppose the potential sale of military-fungible products to terrorism’s central supplier,” the two lawmakers wrote in a damning June 16th letter to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, citing the major implications of such a deal. The U.S. State Department has in fresh reports -- most recently on June 2nd -- once again designated Iran as “the foremost state sponsor of terrorism” and emphasized Tehran’s support of terrorism has not diminished at all.

If this deal receives a green light, it would represent a major contract and breakthrough between a U.S. firm and Iran following nuclear “implementation day” back in January when sanctions began to ease on the regime in return for the mullahs curbing a controversial and clandestine nuclear program engulfed in major suspicions of involving a drive to obtain nuclear weapons.

“In light of recent reports that a deal is imminent, we seek information to assist the U.S. Congress in determining the national security implications of a potential sale of Boeing aircraft to Iran," Hensarling and Roskam continued in their strongly-worded letter.

Iran is also claiming to be on track to a parallel purchase from Airbus, Boeing’s European rival, according to various news reports. The Washington Times, however, raised doubts over Iran boasting success in this regard.

“The Airbus deal to sell more than 100 planes to the Iranians made headlines in January but ‘still hasn’t been finalized. And one of the reasons is that Airbus has had a terribly difficult time finding a private financial institution to bank the deal,’” The Times wrote, citing Eric Lorber, a former attorney in the U.S. Treasury Department’s office of foreign assets control.

“The risks associated with doing business with Iran haven’t changed,” The Times went on to quote Chip Poncy, former head of the Treasury’s office of strategic policy for terrorist financing and financial crimes through 2013.

Despite all this, U.S. president Barack Obama, continuing his so-far failed appeasement policy vis-à-vis Iran, is strongly backing the possibility of a lucrative Boeing-Iran deal. This has only fueled growing concerns over Iran’s nature of remaining a significant “source of funds and banking services” for leading terrorist groups wreaking havoc across the globe.

While Obama may be lobbying for the deal, a potential kink will definitely stem from outstanding U.S. sanctions that continue to cast a heavy shadow on Iran and ban the use and access to the U.S. dollar for any party possibly interested in doing trade with Tehran. If such sanctions remain intact, as seems to be the case up to this point, any thinkable Boeing-Iran deal will be forced to seek non-U.S. financing. This is one hurdle Iran simply cannot surpass, and Boeing will suffer huge losses in such a challenging endeavor.

Boeing has been asked to respond by July 1st to ten serious questions raised by U.S. lawmakers. Members of Congress are currently dissatisfied, saying the Chicago-based plane manufacturer is refusing to relieve the concerns raised by lawmakers over their ongoing discussions with Iran. This will naturally not play well in Washington and place even more obstacles before the Obama administration in its promotion of the deal.

Hensarling and Roskam continued in further concerns over the arrangement, saying Iran’s “commercial aviation sector has been deeply involved in supporting hostile actors.”

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) has sought to target the Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Mahan Airline in Iran, describing the company as a “terrorist airline or airways.”

"[Iran’s] largest commercial airline is the number-one state sponsor of terrorism," The Hill cited Senator Cornyn saying. "This airline has repeatedly played a role in exporting Iran's terrorism."

Saudi Arabia took a similar approach in banning Mahan from using its airspace, Bloomberg reported on May 25th.

Iran’s military, especially the Revolutionary Guards and its terrorist-designated extraterritorial wing, the Quds Force, are known to frequently dispatch troops, send weapons and even rocket and missiles across the globe by way of commercial airliners. This notorious effort has procured the arms needed for groups such as the Lebanese Hizb’allah and the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad in Syria that has leveled his own country for over five years now, leading to over 400,000 deaths, according to some estimates, scores more injured and the largest refugee crisis since World War II. This onslaught has rendered millions displaced inside the country and seeking refuge abroad, with no end in sight. With the international community failing to respond, Iran has successfully developed and cemented deep-seated terror across the region, leaving barely any room for optimism.

Iran is looking to modernize its aging fleet by replacing a gigantic number of 400 planes. As far-fetched as the extent of this effort remains considering Iran’s disastrous economic conditions three years into the tenure of the so-called moderate President Hassan Rouhani, such an initiative will most definitely further fuel Iran’s support for international terrorism and boost the mullahs’ effort to continue inflicting mayhem in conflicts plaguing the Middle East, from Iraq to Syria, Yemen, and beyond.

At a time when the Obama administration is continuously failing to rise to the occasion against such deeply hazardous enterprises, the efforts of Congress might by the last chance to spearhead the incorporation of a vital, universal concept to halt Tehran’s dangerous campaign aimed at solidifying its means of spreading absolute terrorism, ushering in growing extremism and Islamic fundamentalism

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Iran: Female Kurdish student under torture

 she was released on December 29, 2015.

Afsaneh Bayazidi, a student from Boukan (Iranian Kurdistan), has been detained under torture in the Intelligence Department's prison in Orumiyeh.

After two months of having no information on her whereabouts, Ms. Bayazidi's mother was informed on the phone on June 17, 2016, that her daughter is held in Orumiyeh's detention center without undergoing any trial.

Ms. Bayazidi was arrested at home on April 24, 2016, by security forces who did not show any warrants, but ransacked the house and impounded her possessions.

Ms. Bayazidi had been previously arrested in October 2015 by the IRGC Intelligence on the charge of spreading propaganda against the government and insulting the mullahs' supreme leader. She was later sentenced to two years in prison, but a review court suspended her detention sentence and

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Political prisoner writes to UN about abuses in Iran

NCRI - Iranian political prisoner, Hassan Sadeqi, who is currently behind bars in Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr) Prison in Karaj, north-west of the Iranian capital, has written an open letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council protesting the authorities’ refusal to allow him to visit his wife imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.

The following is the text of his letter:

To the UN Human Rights Council,

I, Hassan Sadeqi, a political prisoner of Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr) Prison in Karaj, write this letter to talk about my current condition. As I was schedulled to visit my wife imprisoned in Evin Prison, one of the prison guards, named Mohammadreza Shojai, arbitrarily prohibited my visitation with my wife. When I asked about the reason he said that there is a court order prohibiting you from visiting your family. I asked him to show me the court order which has been issued for me and he refused to show it, saying that he is not permitted to do so. I asked him how is it possible that a court order is issued for me while I am not permitted to know about its content.

However he was explicitly lying and there was no such court order, the judicial structure is so ignorant and abusive that a low-ranking official could have arbitrarily imposed punishment and harassment to the prisoners.

It is worth noting that my wife and I are sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment individually since we were charged with supporting the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran [PMOI or MEK]. The only hope for our children is their monthly visitation with us. In such circumstances, the political prisoners are not allowed to make phone calls. Although my children and I were accorded with the basic rights of human life for ourselves to have at least a phone call, by all means, they arrested my son because of making the effort to contact us and now we have all been prohibited from visitations.

Indeed, the pressures and the violation of rights stem from a corrupt hierarchy, repression and systematic tortures that go on in prison. Torturing and harassing prisoners have become the norm. As a political prisoner whose basic rights have been violated; I want you to tell us what to do in the current situation when no justice exists.

Hassan Sadeqi

Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr) Prison, Karaj

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Iran: Call for urgent action to save the lives of political prisoners on hunger strike

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLjg2ljUDdXEJn72l9gda7-DfmF9lmg8Y2&v=b09wgYsUDug

The Iranian resistance calls on all international human rights organizations especially the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, the Rapporteur on the right to life and the Rapporteur of the working group on arbitrary arrests to take immediate and effective action to address the situation of political prisoners especially the political prisoner on hunger strike Jafar Azimzadeh who is in critical condition.

The religious fascism ruling Iran not only does not respond to the justified demands of political prisoners, but has increased pressure on them, and with trumped up charges and various obstacles is trying to further harass and torture them.

Political prisoner Jafar Azimzadeh, who is workers’ rights activist, became unconscious on Monday morning, June 27, on the sixtieth day of a hunger strike. He remains in critical condition. His blood pressure and heart rate have dropped dramatically and he is faced with severe headaches. On Saturday, June 25, the doctor said after his visit that this striking prisoner’s physical weakness will reach to the point of no return soon. Mr. Azimzadeh went on hunger strike to protest against "the violation of the fundamental rights of teachers and workers" and their "false trial and imprisonment" and charges of "acting against national security" against labor activists and teachers. But Tehran’s criminal prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, has sent him a message saying we are ready to pay the price of you dying due to hunger strike.

The physical condition of 30-year-old political prisoner Alireza Golipour, who suffers from cancer and serious lung infection, in the fifteenth day of his hunger strike is very critical. Despite his deteriorating condition, the executioners beat him a few days ago in order to take a forced confession and apology such that he had heavy nose bleeding. He has also suffered serious lesions as a result of torture and severe blows pounded to his chest area, where he has had lung operation, by the henchmen.

Political prisoner Shahram Pour Mansouri, who has been on hunger strike for 21 days to protest his continued detention and not being released, suffers from severe low blood pressure, weight loss, heart issues and chest pain. He was arrested in 2000 while he was only 17. He has spent 16 years in detention and according to the regime’s own court order was supposed to be released on August 21, 2015. Mardani, the head henchman of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, instead of responding to this young prisoner’s rightful demand, has told him even at the cost of his life, he would not do anything for him.

Mohammad Abdollahi, a political prisoner in Urumiyeh central prison who has been on hunger strike since 28 days ago, is in dire condition. Despite his condition, the henchmen have transferred him to solitary confinement since 20 days ago. Following his arrest on March 18, 2011, he was heavily tortured and persecuted and has been condemned to death on the charge of “Moharebeh” (waging war against God).

Political prisoner Ayoub Assadi, a resident of Kamyaran, is on hunger strike since June 6 to protest the denial of medical care. He was arrested in 2011 in a village near Sanandaj and was sentenced to 20 years in prison and exile in Kashmar. He suffers from asthma, lumbar disc and intestinal problems.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
June 27, 2016

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José Bové MEP declares support for Iranian Resistance led by Maryam Rajavi

NCRI – José Bové, a prominent Member of the European Parliament from France, has declared his solidarity with the major “Free Iran” gathering that is to take place in Paris on July 9.

In a video message, aired by the Iranian opposition satellite channel Simay-e Azadi, Mr. Bové said that while the French president, François Hollande, last week welcomed the Iranian regime’s foreign minister, 270 Members of the European Parliament “of all political persuasions signed a statement with a clear message condemning the mullahs and supporting democracy and reiterating that we should not be dealing with this dictatorship.”

“How can we today accept a regime that imprisons, prosecutes and executes thousands of women, journalists, union activists, and youths? The people are forced to keep silent. How can we accept that our democratic and secular country deals and trade with such regimes?”

“That is why I protest today. I ask all supporters of Maryam Rajavi and the Iranian Resistance to participate in the major gathering held on July 9 to support a democratic and secular Iran.”

“Today, more than ever, the world needs a democracy which is transparent and secular, and that is why I am supporting the Iranian Resistance,” he added.

The major gathering of Iranians and their international supporters in Paris on July 9, which will be attended by hundreds of senior political dignitaries, parliamentarians, human rights and women's rights activists and religious leaders from the United States, Europe, and Islamic countries, will bring together international support for the cause of democracy and freedom in Iran.

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'Free Iran' rally to give voice to those still suffering in the Islamic Republic

On July 9, I will be joining a large number of my fellow Iranian expatriates and their international supporters at the annual “Free Iran” rally in Paris. The National Council of Resistance of Iran has been hosting such events for over 10 years.

Needless to say, it is a significant international event regarding an important international issue. But for me it is very personal. In spirit, I will be with a much larger crowd. We will be joined by a countless Iranians still living under the thumb of the theocratic regime, who will risk reprisals to watch the proceedings on banned satellite television channels.

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How do I know? After this year’s rally, I will have seen the event from both sides of the ideological wall that separates the Islamic Republic from most of the rest of the world. In past years, I was among those Iranians who supported the NCRI and its main constituent group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), from a silent place inside the country. I put my safety and freedom at risk, as did many of my colleagues, to carry on the groups’ local activism. I spent five years in jail from 2009 to 2014 and suffered extensive physical and psychological torture for my support for the PMOI.  I fled Iran at the age of 29 last year.
Despite the aggressive repression that I witnessed from the regime, I never lost hope that the system of clerical rule would collapse in time. Images of the NCRI gathering, with some 100,000 Iranians and their international supporters chanting for a |”Free Iran” went a long way toward reinforcing that hope. For us activists, that day was always a special occasion. I even followed the messages of the event in prison.

From the 2009 national protests to the everyday defiance that native Iranians exhibit, it was always clear to me that the overwhelming majority of the population held common cause with the activist network to which I had dedicated my efforts. Meanwhile, the NCRI’s activities abroad made it clear that our exiled leadership was making great strides in securing the types of foreign support that would catapult our cause toward success.

I look forward to being able to contribute to that effort this year. Global policymakers have been steadily waking up to the dire need for regime change in Iran, and now I will be able to personally make that case to an international audience. If I am fortunate, my story and that of other recent escapees from the Islamic Republic will reach the ears of many of the prominent American and European politicians and experts who attend.

In any event, I know the broader message is already clear to them: Moderation by the Iranian government is not a realistic possibility. Freedom and democracy can only be secured through regime change. I am confident that the ranks of those Western supporters will continue to swell as the picture of Iranian repression and regional interference grows ever clearer.
'Free Iran' rally to give voice to those still suffering in the Islamic Republic
This year’s event will take place almost exactly a year since the conclusion of the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1. Thus, it will be an opportunity for Western policymakers to evaluate the impact of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the general strategy of conciliation. Those policymakers attending the event already know that strategy is severely lacking.

Some in the West apparently persist in their optimism about Iran’s prospects under the presidency of Hassan Rouhani. My presence and that of a number of my fellow activists will surely help to drive home the fact that conditions inside Iran have shown no trend toward moderation. Domestic repression and foreign aggression both remain relentless under Rouhani. The former continues to send Iranian dissidents, activists, and artists either to jail or force them out of the country. And the latter contributes to the escalating refugee crisis, thanks to Iran’s unwavering support for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

I know firsthand how moving the July 9 event will be for Iranian dissidents and activists back home. It is important that governments in the West heed its message. That same message is resonating from Paris and from the silent majority of Iranians back home: “Free Iran.”



http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/285186-free-iran-rally-to-give-voice-to-those-still-suffering-in

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Iran: Prospects for change one year after the nuclear agreement

NCRI - Contrary to earlier assessments, a year after the nuclear deal between the P5+1 countries and the clerical regime, Tehran’s belligerence in the region has become more widespread, the human rights situation in Iran has deteriorated and the regime has become ever more closed and introverted.

Some facts are telling:

The human rights situation in Iran is worsening, and 2015 witnessed the highest number of executions in the past 25 years.
While Islamic extremism and the terrorism emanating from it recognize no borders and bounds, the Iranian regime is institutionally sowing discord in the region especially in Syria and is continuing to export Islamic fundamentalism.
Tehran continues to test ballistic missiles in flagrant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
The harsh economic and social situation inside Iran has not improved, and protests by various strata of society have increased.
The infighting among the ruling factions have reached unprecedented levels and intensity.
Following the selection of Ahmad Jannati, 90 - who already headed the Guardian Council and is a staunch loyalist of the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei - as the head of the Assembly of Experts, he now heads two key bodies, which shows that elections under this regime are meaningless and the regime’s choices are evermore limited.
The big question is what is the direction of the turbulent situation in Iran and where is Iran heading? The outcome of these developments and the future of the Iranian regime will have a huge strategic impact on the entire region - a fact that has triggered serious debate in the West.

A major gathering of Iranians and their international supporters, which will be attended by hundreds of senior political dignitaries, parliamentarians, human rights and women's rights activists and religious leaders from the United States, Europe, and Islamic countries, is scheduled to address this and other pertinent questions and to offer solutions.

Paris (Bourget), July 9, 2016
"All for Freedom"
Our message: Regime Change



Watch a 3-minute clip about this year's event with highlights from a similar event last year:

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Iran: Décisions pénales d’exécuter trois prisonniers politiques appartenant à la minorité arabe; appel à sauver leurs vies

Le pouvoir judiciaire du fascisme religieux au pouvoir en Iran a condamné à mort trois jeunes prisonniers politiques originaires d’Ahwaz (au sud de l’Iran). Les noms de ces prisonniers, qui font partie de la minorité arabe, sont Qais Obaidavi, 25 ans titulaire d’un Bachelor en Droits, son frère de 20 ans Ahmad Obaidavi, et leur cousin Sajjad Obaidavi, également étudiant en droits. Ils sont condamnés pour le soi-disant crime de « Moharebeh (inimité contre Dieu) » et « corruption sur la terre ».

Afin d’amplifier le climat de terreur, surtout parmi la minorité arabe, le régime inhumain des mollahs a annoncé en avance que ces prisonniers seront pendus en public. Depuis leur arrestation, ces prisonniers ont été torturés et placés en isolement.

Dans la crainte de la réaction de la population d’Hamidiyeh face à cette décision pénale, le régime des mollahs a forcé les familles de ces prisonniers à abandonner leurs maisons dans la ville d’Hamidiyeh.

La Résistance iranienne appelle l’ONU et les organes internationaux de défense des droits de l’Homme à sanctionner ces décisions inhumaines et à prendre des mesures immédiates pour sauver les vies de ces prisonniers politiques. Les relations économiques et politiques avec ce régime devraient être conditionnées à l’amélioration des droits de l’Homme en Iran, surtout l’arrêt des exécutions. Par ailleurs, au milieu du nombre grandissant des exécutions, toute coopération et assistance au fascisme religieux au pouvoir en Iran n’a d’autre signification que de l’encourager à continuer les violations flagrantes et systématiques des droits de l’Homme en Iran.

Secrétariat du Conseil National de la Résistance iranienne

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Sir David Amess (membre du parlement) : l'Iran devrait avoir honte du bilan de ses exécutions

CNRI - Le politicien britannique Sir David Amess a exprimé son soutien au prochain rassemblement "Iran libre" et a appelé ses collègues à travers l'Europe à en faire de même. M. Amess, membre de la Chambre des communes du Royaume-Uni, a déclaré dans un message vidéo qu'il espèrait que le rassemblement montrerait aux dissidents iraniens qu'ils (et leur cause) ont le soutien des pays démocratiques.

Le rassemblement, prévu pour le 9 juillet à Paris, constitue une opportunité pour les partisans de la Résistance iranienne de mettre en exergue la "tyrannie" du régime, et d'exhorter la communauté internationale à en prendre connaissance.

M. Amess rejète l'idée que le régime de Hassan Rohani soit modéré, en rappelant que la situation des droits de l'Homme s'est empirée depuis que Rohani a pris ses fonctions. Il a affirmé que le régime iranien devrait avoir honte de leur bilan en termes d'exécutions.

M. Amess a déclaré: "le rassemblement (...) constitue un message fort à l'attention du peuple iranien opprimé, qui montre que leurs revendications légitimes pour la liberté et les droits de l'Homme ont le soutien d'un grand nombre de mes collègues parlementaires à la Chambre des Lords et des Communes. Et cela signifie aussi que la communauté internationale soutient leurs aspirations démocratiques et qu'elle est prête à se tenir avec chacun d'entre vous dans cette lutte pour obtenir ces droits".

Le rassemblement soutient le programme politique de Mme Maryam Radjavi, présidente élue du Conseil national de la Résistance iranienne (CNRI). Son programme en dix points pour un Iran libre et démocratique, qui comprend la fin du régime théocratique, génère un énorme soutien d'Iraniens et de la communauté mondiale.

M. Amess, député conservateur, a déclaré: "nous allons une fois de plus affirmer notre important soutien pour un Iran libre et démocratique parmi les Iraniens. Et montrer qu'il existe un soutien international important pour les aspirations démocratiques du peuple".

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Azadeh Hosseini - part 5 - Hamideh Rdanjbar - part 8

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Couverture TV de Reuters aux manifestations de Paris pour dénoncer la visite du MAE du régime iranien

Couverture TV de Reuters aux manifestations de Paris pour dénoncer la visite du MAE du régime iranien
CNRI - Reuters Television a diffusé des images de la manifestation qui s'est tenue mercredi pour dénoncer la visite du ministre des Affaires étrangères du régime iranien Javad Zarif en France.
Reuters TV a interviewé Shahin Gobadi de la commission des affaires étrangères du Conseil national de la Résistance iranienne (CNRI) qui a déclaré : "les Iraniens sont ici pour préciser que Javad Zarif ne fait que représenter une théocratie impitoyable qui est le principal bourreau en Iran et le principal financier du terrorisme international. C'est aussi le régime qui soutient Bachar al-Assad" dans son carnage contre le peuple syrien.
Les partisans du Conseil national de la Résistance iranienne (CNRI) et l'Organisation des Moudjahidines du peuple iranien (OMPI) ont protesté contre les exécutions massives et arbitraires en Iran et contre l'ingérence constante des mollahs en Syrie.

De faux affichage d'exécutions et d'emprisonnement ont été installés.

Les Iraniens scandaient que Zarif est représente un régime terroriste, qui viole systématiquement les droits de l'Homme. Ils ont défilé et piétiné des photos du guide suprême des mollahs Ali Khamenei et du président Hassan Rohani.

Les représentants des associations franco- iraniennes et des organisations des droits de l'Homme ont participé au rassemblement sur la Place du Panthéon à Paris, alors que Zarif se trouvait dans la capitale française.

Parmi les francophones du rassemblement figuraient le gouverneur Yves Bonnet, ancien directeur du service de sécurité interne DST française ; Pierre Bercis, président d'honneur du groupe de défense des droits français Nouveaux Droits de l'Homme ; et Emmanuel Poilane, président de France Libertés-Fondation Danielle Mitterrand.

Malgré l'accord nucléaire signé entre des puissances mondiales et le régime iranien, le gouvernement de Rohani continue de torturer et d'emprisonner des gens. L'Iran reste le premier État bourreau par habitant. Le régime des mollahs est aussi le principal bailleur du régime de Bachar al-Assad, qui massacre quotidiennement le peuple syrien.

Zarif est le représentant et l'instrument du guide suprême des mollahs Ali Khamenei dans son agenda extrémiste.

Les participants du rassemblement se sont joints aux 270 membres du Parlement européen qui a appelé la semaine dernière les pays de l'UE, dont la France, à conditionner la poursuite des relations avec le régime iranien, à l'arrêt des exécutions. Les manifestants ont également exhorté la communauté internationale à mettre un terme à l'ingérence par des Pasdaran du régime iranien en Syrie.

Ils ont également déclaré leur soutien au grand rassemblement "Iran libre", qui se tiendra à Paris le 9 juillet.

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Iran: Common sale of newborn infants

Homeless women who sleep in cardboard boxes in the streets go to hospitals in central or southern Tehran for delivering their babies.
Once their babies are born, they sell them between 1 to 2 hundred thousand toumans.
This was reported by Fatemeh Daneshvar, member of Tehran's City Council. She said the price of these babies vary from 500 thousand to one million toumans. If the baby is addicted, they are sold cheaper and if they are healthy, they are sold at a higher price.
Daneshvar pointed out that another phenomenon is also on the rise in Tehran and that is the pregnancy of girls who run away from their homes in other cities. When they get pregnant, their babies are sold at a higher price.
Daneshvar stressed that they have monitored five hospitals for eight months and they have found out that 150 addicted babies were born just in these five hospitals, and it must be concluded that the actual number of babies born while addicted, should be considered much higher.

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My sister Gity was 24 when she was executed in Iran

The second and third sequel in the Al Arabiya TV program “Hellish Era” was devoted to an interview with Mr. Behzad Naziri, member of NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee. He talks about the martyrdom of his sister itei and his escape from regime’s prison and the arrest of his father.

Al Arabiya: Behzad has kept a few pictures of him and his sister Giti who was executed 40 days before the arrest of Behzad at age 24. Despite the passage of 30 years and his escape from Iran, the hardship in the prison and the sadness in his eyes looking at his sister are still with him. The story of revolution in Iran, before all else, is the story of Behzad and Guity.

Behzad Naziri: Khomeini began taking away the freedoms that were gained in the revolution. For example, women were very active in the Iranian revolution. We two were supporters of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) at the time.

When the Iran-Iraq war began, my sister was sent as a reporter to the scenes and even to the war front. She prepared video clips and even held photo exhibitions in Tehran of the condition of the people who were hurt by the war. She was culturally very active and loved music. She was a poet. In February 1982, she was taken to the renowned Evin Prison. I was still a reporter at the time and when my sister was in prison I accompanied French reporters in various activities. Five weeks after the arrest of my sister, I too was arrested. I was arrested on 25 June 1982. My sister was executed in May 1982.

Forty days after the execution of my sister, when my mother was psychologically disturbed due to the execution of her daughter who was only 24, an arrest warrant was issued for me and I was arrested by the revolutionary guards and subsequently transferred to Evin Prison. Just five weeks earlier, I had been to this prison but as a reporter along with a team from a TV station.

I knew at that time that my sister, along with thousands of other prisoners were behind closed the doors and we could not see them. I saw one of the tortures that I had read about in the books.

There was this prisoner by the name of Shams-ed-din Moqadasi. I could not see him as I was blindfolded; I just asked his name. He said that he had been forced to drink a lot of water such that his stomach had bulged out. Then the revolutionary guards stepped on his stomach with their boots so that the water would come out while he was close to suffocation.

I escaped Khomeini’s prison after three years. They were relocating me for a medical treatment where they had to temporarily bring me out of the prison and I escaped. The Iranian regime arrested my father as a hostage. I quickly left Iran with the assistance of the resistance network and the PMOI. I went to Karachi in Pakistan via the Sistan and Baluchistan border.

Al Arabiya: Behzad Naziri was arrested in Tehran in 1982 when he was working for the Agence France Presse. He tries his best to tell the story of others and not his. He feels that they are the ones that can tell the story and thi reopens his wounds at every moment.

Behzad Naziri: It was in 1982 that the regime decided to showcase some prisoners for the reporters. At the time in France there were many stories of atrocities, massacres, executions and tortures in Iran’s prisons. The National Council of Resistance was established in Paris and Mr. Rajavi was in France. PMOI was very active in disclosing the atrocities of Khomeini.


Regime wanted to conduct a show for the reporters and portray as if nothing is happening inside Evin Prison; that everything is normal. So as a group of reporters from the French TV channel TF1 (TFone ) and Agence France Presse (AFP) we went to Evin Prison in February 1982. They showed us to halls in Evin Prison where we conducted interviews.


Someone by the name of Lajevardi, who later became known as the “butcher of Evin” and one of Khomeini’s most brutal and bloodthirsty elements was playing the role of prosecutor at that time. We interviewed him and he said: “Here, everything is normal. Prisoners come here for a period and receive training.” He showed us a group of young men whom he said were prisoners.

On page 953 of this book [of 20,000 Iranian martyrs] there is a picture of my sister in the Iran-Iraq war front. She was a reporter and was sent there with a group of people from Iranian National TV to prepare reports. Here is another picture of her, Guity Naziri at age 24. As you see, it is just one picture among many. Here there are pictures of just the employees of various departments and government organizations or NGOs. In this book I can see the pictures of many who were my friends who were with me in prison.

This is of course just 20,000 of the 120,000 that were executed by this regime during those years. This is my friend Mahmoud Bani Naj’jarian. Many of them were buried in unknown graves.

Here is Khomeini’s fatwa that says the PMOI, all its members and supporters, are Mohareb (enemy of God) and condemned to death. With this fatwa 30,000 were executed.

Of the 120,000 that were executed in those years, the names and particulars of 20,000 of them were gathered by PMOI’s social network. They are from various strata of the society. I will show this to you, including a picture of my sister, as well as many of my cellmates. One of them was a lawyer, another a student, another a former military man, one was a track and field champion, another was a simple laborer, one was a merchant from bazaar. They were all my cellmates.

I still remember all their names. These are glimpses of the crimes of those years and I am still carrying the scars of that on my body and in my heart. It is still new. My scars will heal only when the perpetrators of these crimes face justice.

Many of my cellmates never came out of the prison and were executed in the 1988 massacre when Khomeini slaughtered 30,000 PMOI members. Many were my friends, many of my friends.

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