“Salute, commander,” goes the song. “I’m a child, but the life of my family and I, all belongs to you.” In a music video published on Iranian media, thousands of young boys and veiled girls are seen singing in unison to a live performance of the song. Some are seen crying, and others are wearing military uniforms while holding posters of former Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a United States airstrike in 2020.

Critics decried the song as an attempt to indoctrinate children and instill in them loyalty for the Islamic Republic.

The mental health facilities act like detention centers, said Hossein Raeesi, an Iranian human rights lawyer and adjunct professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, adding that within the establishments, psychologists and social workers are following a strict government agenda and aren’t allowed to work independently with the children.

“They don’t provide psychological and psychosocial support for the kids,” Raeesi told, but rather “brainwash” them and often intimidate or threaten them. “They come out worse than when they entered.”

While the official did not say how many students have been detained so far, experts say that a large number of children are at risk as the protests have heavy youth participation.

Sepehri Far of Human Rights Watch said authorities are finding it difficult to police underage demonstrators. While it is easy to criminalize adult protesters, violent crackdowns against children risk full-blown anger throughout the country, she added.

Rear Adm. Ali Fadavi, the deputy commander of the IRGC, placed the average age of those arrested in “recent riots” at 15 years old, reported the state news agency IRNA on October 5. The commander attributed the phenomenon to “neglect of education.”

Rights groups say the crackdown on children has been brutal, with the government responding to child protesters with arrests and even violence.

Between September 20 and September 30, rights watchdog Amnesty International documented the killing of at least 23 children, it said last week, sounding the alarm about an already violent crackdown that is now targeting children.

According to Amnesty, “most of the boys were killed by security forces unlawfully firing live ammunition at them,” and “three girls and a boy died after fatal beatings by security forces.”

“Two boys died after being shot with metal pellets at close range,” it added.

The watchdog said it has so far recorded the deaths of 144 men, women and children killed by Iran’s security forces between September 19 and October 3. Overall, 16% of deaths are children, said Amnesty, adding that the real number of total deaths is estimated to be higher.

On Sunday, video obtained by CNN from the pro-reform activist outlet IranWire showed high school students in Tehran’s Narmak area protesting and chanting “Death to the dictator.” On Friday and Saturday, high school girls were seen taking off their headscarves and protesting in the cities of Ardabil and Sanandaj, video obtained by CNN showed.

Iran also witnessed protests in October by high school students in the northern city of Rasht, as well as in Ghaleh Hassan Khan, a town east of Tehran, according to video obtained by CNN.

The United Nation’s children agency UNICEF has also called for the protection of children and adolescents amid Iran’s protests.

“The Iranian authorities’ unrelenting brutal crackdown on what many in Iran consider an ongoing popular uprising against the Islamic Republic system has involved an all-out attack on child protesters,” Nassim Papayianni, Amnesty International’s senior campaigner on Iran, told CNN.

After years of enforced ideological education, authorities are now faced with a generation that is particularly defiant, said Sepehri Far. “It’s a generation standing up to them.”

The digest

OPEC+ members endorse output cut after US coercion claim

OPEC+ member states lined up on Sunday to endorse the steep production cut agreed this month after the White House accused Riyadh of coercing some other nations into supporting the move, Reuters reported. The kingdom’s Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman said the October 5 decision to reduce output by 2 million barrels per day – taken despite oil markets being tight – was unanimous and based on economic factors. His comments were backed by ministers of several OPEC+ member states, including the United Arab Emirates.

Palestinian Authority PM makes rare appearance in militant stronghold of Jenin

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh made a rare appearance in the West Bank refugee camp in Jenin – a militant stronghold where the Palestinian Authority has little control – on Sunday to show support for Palestinians, including militants, killed by the Israeli military.

UN refugee agency ‘deeply distressed’ by reports of nearly 100 naked migrants at Greece-Turkey border

The United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR on Sunday said it was “deeply distressed” by reports of nearly 100 naked migrants at the border between Greece and Turkey. “We condemn such cruel and degrading treatment and call for a full investigation into this incident,” said the agency on Twitter.

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Pompeo Vows to Stop U.N. From Lifting Iranian Arms Embargo

Mike Pompeo

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday said the Trump administration will not permit the United Nations to lift a ban on Iran’s purchase of advanced military technology later this year.

“We’re not going to let that happen,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department.

Pompeo said the United States is laying the groundwork to stop U.N. member nations—primarily Russia and China—from lifting an international arms embargo on Iran that is set to expire under the terms of the landmark nuclear deal.

While President Donald Trump removed the United States from the nuclear accord, the administration maintains that it still has sufficient leverage at the U.N. to stop the arms embargo from lifting. If these efforts fail, the Trump administration could petition the U.N. Security Council for what is known as snapback, the reimposition of all global sanctions on Iran that were lifted as part of the nuclear deal signed during the Obama administration.

“The failures of the Iran nuclear deal are legion. One of them is now upon us,” Pompeo said. “It’s now just several months out where China, Russia, other countries from around the world can all sell significant conventional weapons systems to the Iranians in October of this year. This isn’t far off. This isn’t some fantasy by conservatives. This is a reality.”

Pompeo said it is clear Iran will immediately move to purchase a range of advanced military equipment once the embargo is lifted. Russia and China, which have sold Iran military equipment in the past, have the most to gain if the embargo is removed, he said.

“Does anybody think that the nation that today is conducting terror campaigns by Lebanese Hezbollah or Iraqi Shia movements or firing military missiles into the air ought to be permitted to purchase conventional weapons systems in just a few months?” Pompeo asked. “I think the world realizes that’s a mistake.”

U.S. officials are currently working to convince their European counterparts the arms embargo remains critical to stopping Iran’s terrorism enterprise.

“We’re urging our E3 partners (France, Germany, and Italy) to take action, which is within their capacity to do,” Pompeo said. “We’ll go—we’ll work with the U.N. Security Council to extend that prohibition on those arms sales. And then in the event we can’t get anyone else to act, the United States is evaluating every possibility about how we might do that.”

While some nations have argued the United States has no right to sway the arms embargo debate since it abandoned the nuclear accord, Pompeo made clear the State Department rejects this view.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, which codified the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—including the restrictions on the arms embargo and its subsequent expiration date—does not bar the United States from taking action.

“We don’t have to declare ourselves a participant,” Pompeo said.

“It’s unambiguous and the rights that accrue to participants in the U.N. Security Council resolution are fully available to all those participants,” he said. “We’re going to—we are going to make sure that come October of this year, the Iranians aren’t able to buy conventional weapons that they would be given what President Obama and Vice President Biden delivered to the world in that terrible deal.”

Adam Kredo – APRIL 29, 2020 4:15 PM

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Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said Kataib Hezbollah is the only such militia group known to have conducted “an indirect fire attack on this scale against U.S. coalition forces in Iraq,” referring to a rocket attack late last year on a military base in Kirkuk that killed a U.S. contractor and nearly led to an all-out war between Washington and Tehran.

Wednesday’s attack came from an improvised truck launcher that fired off 30 Katyusha rockets, 18 of which landed on Camp Taji, a base just north of Baghdad that houses U.S. and coalition forces. None of the incoming rockets was shot down by any air defense system, a U.S. official said.

The U.S. is moving air and ballistic missile defense systems into Iraq to protect against a potential Iranian attack following the escalation in January, McKenzie told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

The U.S. service members who were killed on Wednesday were one soldier and one airman, the official said. Additionally, one coalition member was killed in the attack, and 12 others were wounded.

Following the attack, reports emerged of airstrikes on  Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps positions on Abu Kamal near the border between Iraq and Syria. However, the U.S. official said those strikes were not conducted by the United States. It is possible the Israeli military carried out the strikes.

One former Trump administration official said it is likely Wednesday’s attack was conducted with the “knowledge and support of the IRGC.”

“Although some stated they believed the killing of [Iranian Gen. Qassem] Solemani would prevent further attacks, many more believed it would not and that this is the start of their response,” the former official said.

The Pentagon is likely preparing options to present to the president for a response, ranging from direct attacks against the militia group that carried out the rocket strike, targeting IRGC operatives in Iraq or Syria, and perhaps even direct attacks on Iranian military in Iran. The military may also be considering “covert actions,” which could help reduce the chances of escalation.

The post IRGC Implicated On The Rocket Attack Killed Two American Troops One British in Iraq appeared first on APADANA MEDIA.

This blacklisting by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force is expected to take place Friday and come after European governments decided to join the U.S., according to American and allied officials.

The post FATF SET TO SANCTION ISLAMIC REPUBLIC appeared first on APADANA MEDIA.

▪ For four decades, the mullahs have successfully practiced their “do-and-deny” tactic thanks to the indulgence, not to say cowardice, of Western leaders and the pathetic anti-Americanism of some Western pseudo-intellectuals.

▪ Western anti-American intellectuals who become apologists for the mullahs are victims of their inability to conceive of a situation in which, while America may be bad, its adversary may be worse.

▪ Then we had America versus the Third Reich. Later, America vs. the Soviet Empire, vs. the Vietcong and Khmer Rouge, vs. the Afghan Taliban, vs. Saddam Hussein. In every case, even if America was not the shining city on the hill, its adversary at the time was much worse.

▪ Apologists for the Islamic Republic do not do it a service. By endorsing its illusions and shielding it against deserved criticism, they encourage its worst tendencies — tendencies that could cost Iran and the region more than they imagine.

For four decades, Iran’s mullahs have successfully practiced their “do-and-deny” tactic thanks to the indulgence, not to say cowardice, of Western leaders and the pathetic anti-Americanism of some Western pseudo-intellectuals. Pictured: Iran’s “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (left) and President Hassan Rouhani. (Image source: khamenei.ir)

How to take credit for a mischief you have committed but do not wish to own up to?

This is the dilemma Tehran apologists face when discussing the latest shenanigans in the region, including missile and drone attacks on Saudi oil installations.

On the one hand they want to take credit for the attacks and cast the Khomeinist regime as a mighty power capable of giving as good as it takes in a duel against the American “Great Satan.” They try to cast Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as the little Tom Thumb taking on Donald Trump as the giant of the folk tale.

On the other hand, they try to cast Iran as an innocent victim, highlight the sufferings of babies supposedly left without powdered milk and old women running out of medication.

Wrapping up that theme is the claim that the Islamic Republic has done absolutely nothing that merits sanctions, and that the latest attacks were the work of Yemeni Houthis, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iraq’s PMF or even the army of djinns commanded by Zaafar al-Jinni from the 1001 Nights.

This double narrative is not limited to Tehran’s propagandists; it is also adopted by some Western commentators who, for reasons of their own, think that in any conflict between the United State and an adversary, the United States should automatically get the blame.

In the past couple of weeks, Iran’s state-controlled media have made ample use of op-eds and TV shows in which the “Blame America First” crowd celebrate the recent attacks on tankers and oil installations as Tehran’s legitimate response to American “pressures.”

The daily Kayhan, expressing the views of “Supreme Guide” Khamenei, devotes front page space to comments by Fareed Zakaria, a “Muslim American” TV anchor who claims that the Islamic Republic by “disrupting navigation, downing an American drone, the activation of surrogate forces and recent attacks on Saudi oil installations” has rendered Trump’s policy ineffective.

Kayhan also reports comments by Richard Haas, a former U.S. State Department official, who insists that Trump’s policy has failed and that Iran has shown its capacity to hit back where it hurts.

Raja News, run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), runs an interview with Reuel Marc Gerecht from Foreign Policy magazine, in which Gerecht calls Khamenei “the most successful Middle Eastern leader since World War II.”

Gerecht claims that with recent attacks on tankers and oil installations, Tehran “raises the middle finger at the United States. And two, it hits the Saudis, whom they [Iranians] loathe.”

Another IRGC site, Fars News, runs a similar analysis, this time from the Crisis Group, a Brussels-based research outfit funded by the American financier George Soros.

The official agency IRNA cites a CNN interview with Mohammad Javad Zarif, in which the Iranian Foreign Minister says “the olive branch” is on the table but warns that more tension is possible, implying that the latest attacks were at least inspired by Tehran.

Tehran’s Iranian-born apologists in the West also play the “we-did-it-but-we-didn’t-do-it” game. Persian-language radio and TV programs run by US, British and French governments host real or imagined experts who claim that while the attacks came in retaliation to Trump’s “maximum pressure,” the Islamic Republic knew nothing of them.

A former Khomeinist minister, based in London, attacks those who had depicted the structural weaknesses of Iran’s defenses by boasting about “the exactitude and effectiveness of the recent attacks on Saudi oil installations.”

A BBC Persian TV commentator says that in a recent airport encounter with Iranian travelers returning home, he joined them in cheering the recent attacks but then told them with a wink that “we shouldn’t let the world know that we did it!”

The history of taking credit for terrorist operations while denying involvement in them is as old as the Iranian Revolution itself.

In 1978, Khomeinist operators set an Abadan Cinema on fire and caused the death of over 400 people. The Supreme Leader, then in France, instantly blamed the Shah’s secret service SAVAK. It was not until 2003 that the Islamic Republic admitted that the fire had been the work of Khomeinist revolutionaries who had not realized that the emergency exits were all blocked.

In November 1979, when “students” raided the US Embassy in Tehran and seized its diplomats as hostages, Khomeini claimed that he knew nothing of it, but sent a special emissary supposedly to run the show.

Once he had realized that the Americans would do nothing, he claimed the embassy raid as “Manifest Victory” (“Fatah al-Mobin” in Arabic) and a sign that his brand of religion was to conquer the world.

That was the start of hostage-taking as a feature of Khomeinist diplomacy. For two decades, Tehran organized the capture of over 100 hostages from 22 countries, mostly Western. All the time, however, Tehran denied any involvement in hostage-taking operations but negotiated the release of the captives in exchange for money and arms.

More than two dozen attacks on foreign embassies in Tehran and the brief capture and beating up of numerous foreign diplomats in the past four decades have been blamed on “rogue elements” who were later honored and promoted within the regime. Of the 60 “students” who initiated the first hostage-taking operation, 40 rose to high positions including Vice President, cabinet minister, governor, IRGC general and ambassador.

Iranian agents killed 117 dissidents in 13 European countries, plus Turkey and Dubai, always taking credit and denying involvement.

For four decades, the mullahs have successfully practiced their “do-and-deny” tactic thanks to the indulgence, not to say cowardice, of Western leaders and the pathetic anti-Americanism of some Western pseudo-intellectuals.

Those Western leaders fell victim to the illusion expressed by President George H. W. Bush in his ridiculous phrase “goodwill begets goodwill”!

Western anti-American intellectuals who become apologists for the mullahs are victims of their inability to conceive of a situation in which, while America may be bad, its adversary may be worse.

Stalin signed his pact with Hitler because the Soviet Communist Party regarded “Imperialist” America as “arch enemy.” Some Western intellectuals hailed the pact for the same reason.

Then we had America versus the Third Reich. Later, America vs. the Soviet Empire, vs. the Vietcong and Khmer Rouge, vs. the Afghan Taliban, vs. Saddam Hussein. In every case, even if America was not the shining city on the hill, its adversary at the time was much worse.

Apologists for the Islamic Republic do not do it a service. By endorsing its illusions and shielding it against deserved criticism, they encourage its worst tendencies — tendencies that could cost Iran and the region more than they imagine.

The post Tehran’s ‘We Did, We Didn’t’ Game by Amir Taheri appeared first on APADANA MEDIA.

Trump has in recent weeks shown openness to entertaining President Emmanuel Macron’s plan, according to four sources with knowledge of Trump’s conversations with the French leader. Two of those sources said that State Department officials, including Secretary Mike Pompeo, are also open to weighing the French proposal, which would effectively ease the economic sanctions regime that the Trump administration has applied on Tehran for more than a year.

The deal put forth by France would compensate Iran for oil sales disrupted by American sanctions. A large portion of Iran’s economy relies on cash from oil sales. Most of that money is frozen in bank accounts across the globe. The $15 billion credit line would be guaranteed by Iranian oil. In exchange for the cash, Iran would have to come back into compliance with the nuclear accord it signed with the world’s major powers in 2015. Tehran would also have to agree not to threaten the security of the Persian Gulf or to impede maritime navigation in the area. Lastly, Tehran would have to commit to regional Middle East talks in the future.

While Trump has been skeptical of helping Iran without preconditions, In public, the president has in public at least hinted at an openness to considering Macron’s pitch for placating the Iranian government—a move intended to help bring the Iranians to the negotiating table and to rescue the nuclear agreement that Trump and his former national security adviser John Bolton worked so hard to torpedo.

At the G7 meeting in Biarritz, France last month, Trump told reporters that Iran might need a “short-term letter of credit or loan” that could “get them over a very rough patch.”

Iranian Prime Minister Javad Zarif made a surprise appearance that meeting. To Robert Malley, who worked on Iran policy during the Obama administration, that visit indicated that “Trump must have signaled openness to Macron’s idea, otherwise Zarif would not have flown to Biarritz at the last minute.” “Clearly, Trump responded to Macron in a way that gave the French president a reason to invite Zarif and Zarif a reason to come,” he said.

The French proposal would require the Trump administration to issue waivers on Iranian sanctions. That would be a major departure from the Trump administration’s so-called “maximum pressure” campaign to exact financial punishments on the regime in Tehran. Ironically, during his time in office, President Barack Obama followed a not-dissimilar approach to bring the Iranians to the negotiating table, throttling Iran’s economy with sanctions before pledging relief for talks. The negotiations resulted in the Iran nuke deal that President Trump called “rotten”—and pulled the U.S. out of during his first term.

Trump’s flirtations with—if not outright enthusiasm toward chummily sitting down with foreign dictators and America’s geopolitical foes are largely driven by his desire for historic photo ops and to be seen as the dealmaker-in-chief. It’s a desire so strong that it can motivate him to upturn years worth of his own administration’s policymaking and messaging.

And while President Trump has not agreed to anything yet, he did signal a willingness to cooperate on such a proposal at various times throughout the last month, including while at the G7 meeting in Biarritz, France, according to four sources with knowledge of the president’s conversations about the deal.

Several sources told The Daily Beast that foreign officials are expecting Trump to either agree to cooperate on the French deal or to offer to ease some sanctions on Tehran. Meanwhile, President Trump is also considering meeting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September.

“I do believe they’d like to make a deal. If they do, that’s great. And if they don’t, that’s great too,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “But they have tremendous financial difficulty, and the sanctions are getting tougher and tougher.” When asked if he would ease sanctions against Iran in order to get a meeting with Iran Trump simply said: “We’ll see what happens. I think Iran has a tremendous, tremendous potential.”

Spokespeople for the State Department, White House, and Treasury did not provide comment for this story. A spokesperson for the National Security Council simply referred The Daily Beast to Trump’s Wednesday comments on Iran. Bolton didn’t comment on Wednesday, either.

Trump’s willingness to discuss the credit line with the French, the Iranians and also Japanese President Shinzo Abe frustrated Bolton who had for months had urged Trump against softening his hard line against the regime in Tehran.

Bolton, who vociferously opposed the Macron proposal, departed the Trump administration on explicitly and mutually bad terms on Tuesday. On his way out of door, Trump and senior administration officials went out of their way to keep publicly insisting he was fired, as Bolton kept messaging various news outlets that Trump couldn’t fire him because he quit. The former national security adviser and lifelong hawk had ruffled so many feathers and made so many enemies in the building that his senior colleagues had repeatedly tried to snitch him out to Trump for allegedly leaking to the media.

On Tuesday afternoon, Bolton messaged The Daily Beast to say that allegations about him being a leaker were “flatly incorrect.”

At a press briefing held shortly after Bolton’s exit on Tuesday, neither Secretary of State Mike Pompeo nor Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin showed much sympathy for Bolton’s falling star in Trumpworld. “There were many times Ambassador Bolton and I disagreed,” Pompeo told reporters. “That’s to be sure, but that’s true with a lot of people with whom I interact.”

According to those who know Pompeo well, the secretary’s public statement was a glaring understatement.

“By the end he viewed [Bolton] as an arsonist hell bent on setting fire to anyone’s agenda that didn’t align with his own—including the president’s,” said a source close to Pompeo who’s discussed Bolton with the secretary in recent weeks. Pompeo “believes him to be among the most self-centered people he’s ever worked with. A talented guy, no doubt, but not someone who was willing to subordinate his ego to the president’s foreign-policy agenda.”

Whether or not the president follows through with supporting Macron is unclear, as Trump is known to consider or temporarily back high-profile domestic or foreign policy initiatives, only to quickly backtrack or about-face.

The post Flirting With $15 Billion Bailout for Islamic Republic or Mauling the Mullahs appeared first on APADANA MEDIA.

▪ Both President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair told me at different times that they had identified “men with whom we can work” in Tehran and that the key to success was getting rid of Khamenei and his “hardliners.”

▪ [W]hether we like it or not, it is Khamenei, and not Rafsanjani, Khatami or Rouhani, who set the tune in the Islamic Republic.

▪ Thus if Trump, or anyone else, wish to make a deal with the present regime in Tehran, the man they should talk to is Khamenei, not Rouhani, an actor playing the president.

▪ [T]he two are, in fact, just one creature in two disguises, a witch bent on doing mischief.

▪ Trump has been warned!

If President Donald Trump, or anyone else, wish to make a deal with the present regime in Tehran, the man they should talk to is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (left), not Hassan Rouhani (right), an actor playing the president.

For a few hours last weekend, political circles in Tehran were seized with speculative fever regarding a possible meeting between US President Donald Trump and the Islamic Republic’s President Hassan Rouhani. Trump had announced in Biarritz, where the G7’s farcical summit was held, that he would be prepared to meet the Iranian mullah and believed that could happen soon. For his part, Rouhani went on TV to declare readiness to meet “anyone”, with no ifs and buts.

One “reformist” analyst phoned me in the middle of night Paris time to “inform” me that, with help from Trump, his faction was about to win a decisive victory over the “hardline” faction led by Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei.

In his narrative, Rouhani would meet Trump in September when both are to attend the United Nations’ General Assembly in New York. They would establish a “roadmap” leading to an agreement incorporating the Obama “nuke deal” plus additional demands by Trump. That, in turn, would lead to a lifting of US sanctions, saving the Iranian economy from a meltdown.

The “miracle” would coincide with the next general election in Iran and a secure landslide victory for “reformists”. That, in turn, would enable them to press for Khamenei’s retirement and replacement by Rouhani, while Muhammad-Javad Zarif, the “heroic” foreign minister, throws his hat, since he has no turban, into the ring for the presidency. With Khamenei and his “Russophile” faction eliminated, the “New York Boys” would put Iran on a new trajectory as the United States’ key partner in the Middle East.

What was remarkable in that narrative was how stale it was.

Weeks after the mullahs seized power, the Carter administration in Washington identified Mehdi Bazargan, Khomeini’s first prime minister, as “the man with whom we can work.”

After he was kicked out, attention was turned to more ephemeral figures such as Ayatollah Muhammad Beheshti, Abol-Hasaan Banisadr and Sadeq Ghotbzadeh who were supposed to lead Iran out of its revolutionary phase into normality, whatever that meant.

With Ayatollah Khomeini, supposedly too old to last long, these were the men who would shape Iran’s Thermidor, emerging from the reign of terror. Fariba Adelkhah, then a young researcher in Paris and later an ardent apologist for the Islamic Republic, even wrote a book bearing the title “Iranian Thermidor”. (She is now a hostage in Tehran held by the very men she had so passionately defended in the French media.)

Over the years, we heard similar analyses from the Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani faction in the 1980s, the Muhammad Khatami circle in the1990, and the Larijani brothers in 2004. Both President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair told me at different times that they had identified “men with whom we can work” in Tehran and that the key to success was getting rid of Khamenei and his “hardliners.”

At one point, the Reagan administration saw Rafsanjani, a wily mullah-cum-businessman, as the Iranian version of Deng Xiaoping. Tony Blair, no doubt under Jack Straw’s influence, saw Khatami, a middling mullah and a wannabe intellectual, as the “Iranian Gorbachev”.

As early as 2004, both the British and the French saw Rouhani as the man capable of delivering what Rafsanjani and Khatami had promised but failed to deliver. The horse on which John Kerry put his bet was Muhammad-Javad Zarif, whose team of “New York Boys” provided Rouhani with a “liberal” varnish.

Western analysts and their imitators inside Iran missed two crucial points.

The first was that, like most revolutionary regimes, the Khomeinist outfit had no mechanism for reform in the direction desired by the Iranian middle classes and the Western powers. Thus, even if its leaders tried to introduce reforms they would be doomed to failure. Lenin tried that in the 1920s with his New Economic Policy (NEP) that, instead of liberalizing the Soviet system, produced Josef Stalin. Mao Zedong’s reform project, known as “The 100 Flowers,” morphed into the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, millions of deaths and further hardening of the Communist regime. Khomeini himself attempted a similar move with his 8-Points reform project in 1981, leading to mass executions in 1988. In the Islamic Republic, the number of executions and political prisoners has always risen under “reformist” presidents such as Khatami and Rouhani.

The second point Western powers ignore is that Iranians today are divided into two broad camps, obviously with subdivisions within each camp. One camp consists of those, perhaps even a majority today, who are disillusioned with the Islamic Revolution and seek ways of closing its chapter as soon as possible. The idea of “change within the regime” appeals to some among them but has never offered a credible political platform from which to attempt a seizure of power within the regime.

In the second camp, we find all those who, for different reasons, are still committed to the Khomeinist Revolution. In that camp the “hardliners” have been and, I believe remain, in a majority. Thus, whether we like it or not, it is Khamenei, and not Rafsanjani, Khatami or Rouhani, who set the tune in the Islamic Republic. In fact, each time Western powers made a deal with the Islamic Republic it was ultimately with Khomeini and, after him, Khamenei. It was Khomeini who drunk the “poison chalice” by ending the war with Iraq, not Rafsanjani who played “strongman” at the time.

The Obama “nuke deal” started with negotiations that Khamenei ordered before Rouhani became president. The result, the JCPOA (Barjam in Persian), was adopted after Khamenei gave his tacit consent.

Thus if Trump, or anyone else, wish to make a deal with the present regime in Tehran, the man they should talk to is Khamenei, not Rouhani, an actor playing the president. On Tuesday, that fact was demonstrated by Khamenei ordering Rouhani to eat humble pie and publicly recant on his boast about a summit with Trump.

The “hardline vs. moderate” comedy played in Tehran reminds me of the French Opera Buffa in which two seductive girls adopt opposite profiles. “No-no-Nanette” always says no to admirers but she ends up in bed with all of them. In contrast, “Yes-yes Yolanda” offers tantalizing “yes” but never goes the whole way. In the end, we find out that the two are, in fact, just one creature in two disguises, a witch bent on doing mischief.

Trump has been warned!

Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987. He is the Chairman of Gatestone Europe.

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Days after the US warned again, that anyone dealing with the  oil tanker released by Gibraltar would face sanctions, Islamic Republic  said on Monday that it had sold the crude oil cargo the now notorious tanker. Islamic Republic  doesn’t know where the tanker is headed now, Mullah media quoted Ali Rabiee, a spokesman for the  Mullahs, as saying on Monday.

Grace 1, under her new name Adrian Darya 1, left Gibraltar more than a week ago after the government of Gibraltar said it is unable to seek an Order of the Supreme Court of Gibraltar to provide the restraining assistance that the U.S. had required to keep the tanker detained.

Adrian Darya 1 was traveling south of Greece last week, before signaling on Saturday that she could be bound for the Turkish port of Mersin while the U.S. continued to warn that it would go after everyone touching the tanker or the oil aboard.

On Sunday, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton tweeted: “All hands on deck in the campaign to stop Islamic Republic from funding terror, destabilizing the globe, and breaking international sanctions. The illicit oil heading to Turkey on the Adrian Darya 1 must not be allowed off-loaded in port or at sea.”

According to Refinitiv Eikon shipping data carried by Reuters, the Adrian Darya 1—west of the island of Crete in the Mediterranean as of Monday- was no longer reported as bound for Turkey.

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Division for Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea

The Office of Legal Affairs

Room DC2-0450, United Nations

New York, NY 10017, US

Dear International Community:

Whereas numerous letters and petitions from Iranians from inside and out side Iran have been issued regarding Iran’s Caspian Sea, the international community has remained regrettably seemingly silent. Iranians are deeply concerned about mischievous Islamic Republic Occupied Iran behavior that has continued to dwindle Iran’s natural resources with catastrophic consequences of more than 50% of Iranians living under poverty line with some resorting to graves as homes.

Since August 11,2018, Iranians through various media have vehemently voiced contest to the recent treaty orchestrated by the Russian government; without any Iranians’ consents and signed behind closed doors with the occupying regime relinquishing most of Iran’s Caspian Sea right to Russia.  Many have emphasized this treaty was signed absent any legitimate Iranian representative While the nation is under severe duress due to forty year failure policies of occupying regime’s  Shi’a expansionism.  The Islamic Republic has  created ecological and environmental disasters for Iranians by allowing illegal oil drilling’s by Russia from the  Caspian basin with the most pollution dumping into the sea from Russians industrial escapades without any accountability. the occupying regime has never protected Iran’s interests due to their ideological mission for  global theocracy and innate lack of National Territorial concept to act on behalf of Iranians. Islamic Republic Occupied Iran explicit foregoing of iran’s territorial integrity to Russia while Iranians Rights could have  been very well protected under international treaties and specifically under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a violation of Iranians basic access to human Rights to their natural resources.

According to Rajab Safarov, an advisor to Russia’s special Caspian Sea working group, it was The Islamic Republic Occupying Regime that offered to reduce Iran’s share from 50 percent to 10 Percent whereby only the Russian Navy will sail the Caspian Sea. Iranians , emphatically implore the international community to hear their outcry regarding their basic human rights access to their resources and are Nation without Representation in any such treaties. Declaring  the Islamic Republic Leaders and its illegitimate Parliament subject to treason and Human Rights violations must be considered due to many lives impacted by their criminal activities.

Legal solution has been proposed on prior letters and petitions to establish grounds to enforce Iran’s true Constitution 1906 and its reforms of 1963 (the White Revolution) and empower Iranians to preserve  Iran’s territorial integrity and prevent another global catastrophe.

With Respect,

Signatories:

Marjaneh Rouhani, MD, Political Activist, USA

Nahid Shahin, Political Activist, Canada

Shabnam Assadollahi, Former child prisoner in Iran, Human Rights Activist, Freelance, Canada

Mahboubeh Hosseinpour, Political Activist, USA

Soheila Kamali, Political Activist, England

Moj Banks, PharmD, USA

Mina Rezvani, Political Activist, USA

Rozita Manteghi, Women’s Rights Activist, France

Shokouh Ershadi, Human Rights Activist, Journalist, Sweden

Pari Askari, Political Activist, Journalist, Holland

Sima Tajdini, Human Rights Activist, Canada

Roxanne Ganji, Political Activist, Journalist, USA

Pouran Giti Behi, Political Activist, USA

Sara Basti, Ploitical Activist, Germany

Faranak Azad, Political Activist, USA

Rouya Abdi, Political Activist, Journalist, Germany

Sara Safiri, Political Activist, England

Maliheh Rouzbeh, Women’s Rights Activist, USA

Fatemeh Minayee, Women’s Rights Activist, USA

Firouzeh Ghaffarpour, Political Activist, USA

Fariba Majdnia, Women’s Rights Activist, Denmark

Zahra Aziz, Human Rights, Activist, Germany

Mehnoush Bakhtiari, Author and Human Rights Activist, Sweden

Sefideh Sami, Women’s Rights Activist, Norway

Vida Tehrani, Women’s Rights Activist, Sweden

Rozita Ras, Political Activist, UK

Tatiana Mahmoudi, Child Educator, Canada

Masoumeh Alavi

Delnavaz Jahankhah

Soheila Flatoun

Soudabeh Tadj

Laleh Bani-Saeid,

Mahnaz Ganjali, Political Activist, Author and Journalist, USA

Golnaz Soroush, Political Activist, Australia

Mahnaz Abbaspour, Canada

Sara Arjand, Political Activist, Germany

Fariba Shirvani, Political Activist, France

Shamsi Famil, Political Activist, USA

Donya Azad, Political Activist, Holland

Faranak Mah, Political Activist, USA

Parisima Pashayie Raad- Nelson, Political Activist, Canada

Parvaneh Tavali, Political Activist, USA

Satggin Jalali, Political Activist, USA

Fariba Mansourian, Political Activist, France

Maryam Hemmati, Political Activist, Canada

Kendra Malczyk, Human Rights Activist, USA

Dr Hooshang Lahooti – Principal Scientist and Lecturer, Sydney Medical School, Nepean Campus, the University of Sydney, Australia

Javid Javan, PhD, Political Activist, USA

Nik Jafarzadeh , Political Activist, Germany

.Sia Ayrom Houston TX

Ahmad Mostafalou, MD, Political Activist, Canada

Babak Heravi, Political Activist, Multi-Media, USA

Kaveh Taheri, Turkey-based Iranian journalist and former political prisoner in Iran

Farnoosh Aghili, Turkey

Fereydon Abdollahyan, Political activist, Human Rights activist, UK

Arash H. Hourmaznia, Human rights advocate, Netherlands

Maj. Mostafa Arab,PhD

Kamran Alford

Reza jayez

Shahriar Hashemi Beverly Hills, California, USA

Reza Rafati

Slater Bakhtavar, Attorney, Foreign policy analyst, Political activist

Poupak Pournazari, Canada

Ali kimiai, Political activist, USA

Vahid Abazari, UK

Saeed Ahmadi, Political activist, USA

Farah Sanei, Deutschland

Fardosht Amirpanahi

Firooz Behseresht

Parviz Khazaei,  member of Amnesty International Liechtenstein and Switzerland

Dr. Abbas Akrami, Political Prisoner and Political Activist, Iran

Ali Rafei, Political Prisoner and Political Activist, Dubai

Ali Shahabi, Political Activist

Nooshin Khajeh

Farhad Zibabeen

Ahmad Mardani

Khosro Sheyda, Musician and Producer London, UK

Alfred Abramian, Political Activist, Sydney, Australia

Siavash Harart

Ahmad Namdari

Naser Diako

Amir Shafiy,  Director of CSC company management consultant,UK

Bahram Kondori, Political Activist, USA

Kaveh Khosromehr, Political Analyst, Europe

Mehrang Moradi, political Activist/Business man USA

Gary Izad Panah, Paltical Activist USA

Shahryar Hashemi_political Activist/Business Man USA

Siavash Azari, Political Activist, Journalist USA

Cyrus Falatoon, Political Activist, Production Engineer USA

Alireza Vafaei, University Lecturer, Australia

Sharar konourTabrizi, Political Activist Cyprus

Anna S

Afahin Payravi

Saied Moradi

Fateh Slaehi Raz

Kaveh Khosromehr, Political Analyst, Europe

Mehrang Moradi, political Activist, Businessman USA

Gary Izad Panah, Political Activist USA

Shahryar Hashemi, political Activist, Businessman USA

Siavash Azari, Political Activist, Journalist USA

Cyrus Falatoon, Political Activist, Production Engineer USA

Ali Mohseni , PhD

Sonya Mohseni,  PhD

Nathan Mohseni, MD

Hossein Tasbaz

Nazanin Danesh

Reza Jayez

Ramin

Matt Behi

To add your name to this letter, please visit apadanamedia.organd simply put your name in the comment box. Thank you!

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This report includes the most recent designations that were announced on January 24, 2019 pursuant to E.O. 13553: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force; the Fatemiyoun Division; and the Zaynabiyoun Brigade. This report also includes the designation of Ghavamin Bank, announced on November 5, 2018, pursuant to E.O. 13553. Finally, the report includes the designation of Ayandeh Bank, also on November 5, 2018, pursuant to E.O. 13846.

The Departments of State and the Treasury continue to seek new targets, and Treasury will designate those persons determined to meet the relevant criteria as information becomes available.

The individuals designated to date under E.O. 13553 are:

• Abdollah Araghi, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Ground Forces Deputy Commander;
• Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, Prosecutor General of Tehran;
• Hassan Firouzabadi, senior military advisor to the Supreme Leader, former Chairman of Iran’s Joint Chiefs of Staff;
• Mohammad Ali Jafari, Commander of the IRGC;
• Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam, former Commander of the Law Enforcement Forces;
• Sadeq Mahsouli, former Minister of Welfare and Social Security, former Minister of the Interior and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces for Law Enforcement;
• Qolam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, Judiciary Spokesman, former Prosecutor-General of Iran, former Minister of Intelligence;
• Saeed Mortazavi, former head of Iranian Anti-Smuggling Task Force, former Prosecutor-General of Tehran;
• Heydar Moslehi, former Minister of Intelligence;
• Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, former Minister of the Interior and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces for Law Enforcement;
• Mohammad Reza Naqdi, former Commander of the Basij Guard Corps (IRGC);
• Ahmad-Reza Radan, former Deputy Chief of Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces, Senior Iranian Law Enforcement Official;
• Hossein Taeb, Deputy Commander of the IRGC, Commander of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, former Commander of the Basij Forces;
• Asghar Mir-Hejazi, Intelligence advisor to the Supreme Leader;
• Sohrab Soleimani, Supervisor of the Office of the Deputy for Security and Law Enforcement of the State Prisons Organization, former Director General of the Tehran Prisons Organization;
• Sadegh Amoli Larijani, Head of Iran’s Judiciary;
• Gholamreza Ziaei, Director of Rajaee Shahr Prison;
• Abdholhamid Mohtasham, founding member of Ansar-e Hizballah;
• Hossein Allahkaram, cofounder and leader of Ansar-e Hizballah; and
• Hamid Ostad, founder of Mashhad branch of Ansar-e Hizballah.

The entities designated to date under E.O. 13553 are:

• The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps;
• The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force;
• The Basij Resistance Force;
• Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran;
• The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security;
• Abyssec;
• Tehran Prisons Organization;
• Rajaee Shahr Prison;
• Ansar-e Hizballah;
• Evin Prison;
• The Fatemiyoun Division;
• The Zaynabiyoun Brigade; and
• Ghavamin Bank.

The individuals that were designated under Section 2 or Section 3 of E.O. 13628 are:

• Ali Fazli, Deputy Commander of the Basij;
• Rasool Jalili, Sharif University of Technology, member of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace;
• Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam, former Commander of the Law Enforcement Forces;
• Reza Taghipour, former Minister of Communications and Information Technology;
• Ezzatollah Zarghami, former Director of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, member of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace;
• Morteza Tamaddon, former Governor-General of Tehran Province;
• Abolhassan Firouzabadi, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace;
• Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, Secretary of the Committee to Determine Instances of Criminal Content; and
• Abdulali Ali-Asgari, Director General of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.

The entities that were designated under Section 2 or Section 3 of E.O. 13628 are:

• Amn Afzar Gostar-e Sharif;
• Center to Investigate Organized Crime;
• Iranian Communications Regulatory Authority;
• Iran Electronic Industries;
• Iranian Cyber Police;
• Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting;
• Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance;
• PeykAsa;
• Press Supervisory Board;
• Committee to Determine Instances of Criminal Content;
• Ofogh Saberin Engineering Development Company;
• Douran Software Technologies;
• Supreme Council of Cyberspace; and
• The National Cyberspace Center.

The entities designated to date under Section 7 of E.O. 13846 are:

• Ayandeh Bank.

The Secretary of State will continue to exercise the functions delegated to him, including submitting updated lists to the appropriate congressional committees as required by CISADA Sections 105(b)(2), 105A(b)(4), and 105B(b)(2).

The post Report to Congress List of Persons Who Are Responsible for or Complicit in Certain Human Rights Abuses in Iran appeared first on APADANA MEDIA.