Tag: Iran

At least 2 killed in Iran as security forces intensify crackdown over protests | CNN

[ad_1]

CNN
—

Iran’s security forces shot at protesters and used tear gas in the Kurdish cities of Sanandaj and Saqez in fresh protests on Saturday afternoon, as weeks of nationwide demonstrations gathered momentum.

In Sanandaj, security forces shot and killed a driver in his car, while in one of the schools in Saqqez, two teachers were injured, according to the Iranian human rights group Hengaw.

Another protester was shot in the abdomen by IRGC security forces and died, Hengaw said.

“Students in the schools in Sanandaj and Saqqez started the protests. Then government forces started an attack on one of the schools in Saqqez,” Azhin Sheikhi, from Hengaw told CNN on Saturday.

Widespread strikes are taking place in Saqez, Diwandareh, Mahabad, and Sanandaj, said Hengaw.

The Norway-registered Hengaw human rights organization has been monitoring human rights violations in Iran’s Kurdish region, where the protests began three weeks ago, following the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman, while in custody of the morality police. Saqez is also her hometown.

Meanwhile, protests also continued in other locations across the country on Saturday including Tehran, Karaj, Esfahan, Shiraz, Kerman, Mashhad, Tabriz and Rasht.

Speaking at Alzahra University, an all-girls institution in Tehran, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi commented on the latest riots across the country.

“The enemy thought that they could follow their desires inside the university, unaware that our students and professors were awake and would not allow the enemy’s false dreams to come true,” Raisi said according to a statement issued by his office.

Social media video showed protests at the same university with women chanting “Death to the oppressor, whether it be the Shah or the Supreme Leader.”

It was unclear if the protest took place while the president was at the university.

Video provided to US-funded Radio Farda also showed riot police beating up a young woman in Tehran.

Total death toll figures since protests kicked off vary from government, opposition groups, international rights organizations and local journalists.

An Iran-focused human rights group based in Norway, IranHR, tallied the number of deaths since the protests started across Iran at 154. Human Rights Watch said as of September 31, Iranian state affiliated media placed the number of deaths at 60.

CNN cannot independently verify the death toll – a precise figure is impossible for anyone outside the Iranian government to confirm – and different estimates have been given by opposition groups, international rights organizations and local journalists.

[ad_2]

Source link

October 8, 2022
Iran’s ‘women’s revolution’ could be a Berlin Wall moment | CNN Politics
[ad_1]
A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.

CNN
—

The Islamic regime in Iran has ruled for decades with fear and intimidation.

Outrage at the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22 year-old who died after being detained by Iran’s morality policy, allegedly for improperly wearing her hijab, ignited nationwide protests across the country that have gone on for weeks.

That Iranians are risking their lives and freedom to stand up to their government has sparked hope among many that change is coming. Read CNN’s latest report.

I talked on the phone to Masih Alinejad, an Iranian in exile in the US who works as a journalist and activist.

Key points:
She uses social media – 8 million followers on Instagram alone – to amplify and aid the protests inside Iran.

US authorities charged four Iranian nationals with trying to kidnap her last year.

To Alinejad, that women in Iran are removing their headscarves as an act of protest is equal to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

She sees solidarity with dissidents from other oil-rich autocracies like Russia and Venezuela, and has a stern message for feminists in the West.
Our conversation, edited for clarity and length, is below. I’ve also added some context and links in parentheses where appropriate.

WHAT MATTERS: This newsletter is not usually focused on Iran. Can you first just explain what’s happening?

ALINEJAD: Mahsa Amini was only 22 years old. … She came from Saqqez to Tehran for a vacation. Then she got arrested by the so-called morality police – because I call them the hijab police.

And for your audience, if they don’t know what morality police means, they’re a bunch of police walking in the streets, telling people whether their way of wearing hijab is proper or not.

Mahsa was arrested for wearing inappropriate hijab. So she was not unveiled.

(Here is a CNN report in which the Iranian police deny the allegation she was beaten.)

ALINEJAD: That created huge anger among Iranians. And that is why women across Iran first started to cut their hair. Then they took to the street and they started to burn their headscarves. And now, with men, shoulder to shoulder, across Iran they’re not only saying no to compulsory hijab, they are actually chanting against the dictator and they are saying we want an end to the Islamic Republic.

This is a revolution.

To me, this is a women’s revolution against a gender apartheid regime.

WHAT MATTERS: The Iranian government has tried to crack down on this. We see video that gets out of Iran of these protests. How have things changed in the weeks since Mahsa’s death?

ALINEJAD: From the beginning, the level of crackdown was so brutal. They opened fire, they really opened fire on teenagers, school leaders, university students, they opened fire on unarmed people.

Now some reports say more than 130 people have been killed. But it’s strongly believed the number is much more than this. Only in Zahedan on only one day, they opened fire on those who were praying. Who were praying. They killed more than 80 people in Zahedan.

(CNN has not verified all of these claims. Related CNN report: Iranian security forces beat, shot and detained students of elite Tehran university, witnesses say.

Amnesty International has reported on the killing of 66 in Zahedan along with other deaths recorded in other places.

Regarding death tolls: CNN cannot independently verify the death toll –  a precise figure is impossible for anyone outside the Iranian government to confirm – and different estimates have been given by opposition groups, international rights organizations and local journalists.)

ALINEJAD: The Iranian regime cut off the internet in some cities to prevent the rest of the world from getting to know about the crackdown, to get to learn about the number of people killed.

But again. That didn’t stop people. Actually, it changed the tone of the protesters. They became more angry. They were holding the names and photos of those who got killed and the major slogan was this: ‘We are ready to die, but we won’t live under humiliation.’

One of the young women whose name was Hadis Najafi, she was only 20 years old. She made a video of herself walking in the street and saying I’m joining the protests. In the future, if I see that Iran has changed, that change came, then I was proudly part of this demonstration. She got killed. There are many of them.

(CNN has reported that Najafi’s family said she was shot six times and never made it home from a protest. She was 23. There are reports of multiple young women killed. Here’s a CNN video report on Nika Shahkarami, whose family found her body at a morgue after not being able to find her for 10 days following an Instagram story of her burning her headscarf.)

Students filmed themselves burning their headscarves, but they got killed. But murdering and killing didn’t stop the protests. Instead they became more angry. Now schoolgirls came out, university professors came out, teachers came out and ask for a strike.

(Here’s a CNN report that explains the special significance of strikes in Iran.)

WHAT MATTERS: The flashpoint is one woman’s death that set off all of these protests. But it’s a movement that’s been building for months –

ALINEJAD: Don’t say for months. I don’t accept that. It has been building for years. Years of women pushing back the boundaries the anti-woman laws, especially compulsory hijab laws.

For years and years, these women that you see in the streets, they have been fighting back compulsory hijabs alone. Like lonely soldiers. I myself have published videos of women being beaten by morality police under the hashtag #mycameraismyweapon. I really want you to go and check this hashtag. Brave women filming themselves while being harassed by morality police and looking to the morality police and saying that you cannot tell me what to wear.

Slavery used to be legal. I’m not going to respect bad law in Iran.

This is being built up by women within the society practicing their civil disobedience in bravely saying no to forced hijab and the gender apartheid regime for years and years. That’s my opinion. Mahsa’s name became a symbol of resistance for women to take to the streets in large numbers. That’s the new thing.

WHAT MATTERS: How will this be transformed into permanent change? How will it evolve from here?

ALINEJAD: Look, this is not going to happen overnight. This is the beginning of an end. It takes time. It reminds me of the revolution 40 years ago. People were taking to the streets for like one month and were going back home and then coming back again. The national strike helped a lot. For me and millions of people, this is just the beginning to an end.

The compulsory hijab is not just a small piece of cloth for Iranians. It’s like the Berlin Wall. I keep saying that. If women can successfully tear this wall down, the Islamic Republic won’t exist.

Maybe in the West, people ignore me and they never take this seriously. But the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, he knows what I’m talking about. That’s why, just two days ago, he referred to my statement comparing the hijab to the Berlin Wall, saying that ‘she is an American agent and we have taken action against her.’

(Alinejad shared this video of Khamenei on Twitter, in which he refers to US political elements making the comparison to the Berlin Wall.)

ALINEJAD: But it’s not me. It’s millions of people who believe that compulsory hijab is like the main pillar of the religious dictatorship. It’s like the main pillar of the Islamic Republic.

That’s why I believe that now people are being fearless and clear that we want to break this weakest pillar of the Islamic Republic… I strongly believe that the biggest threat to the Islamic Republic are the women who are leading the revolution, who are facing guns and bullets and saying that we want an end for this gender apartheid regime.

WHAT MATTERS: In Iran, and we’ve seen this in Russia as well, social media is helping spread the word and is essential to organizing protests. Here in the US, it is often viewed as a threat to our democracy because that’s where misinformation is spread. I wonder if you had any thoughts on that dichotomy.

ALINEJAD: Let me be very clear with you. Right now, the tech companies are actually helping the Islamic Republic. First of all, Iranians are banned from using social media – Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are filtered. The leaders like Khamenei and other officials who ban 80 million people from using social media, they all have verified accounts. They have multiple accounts on social media. Basically, the Iranian regime cut off the Internet for its own people, but they’re being more than welcomed on social media to spread fake information, misinformation, disinformation.

(Accounts that appear to be associated with Khamenei are on Twitter and Instagram and have large followings. They are not verified by Instagram or Twitter. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Meta said this in an email: “Iranians use apps like Instagram to stay close to their loved ones, find information and shed light on important events – and we hope the Iranian authorities restore their access soon. In the meantime, our teams are following the situation closely, and are focused on only removing content that breaks our rules, while addressing any enforcement mistakes as quickly as possible.”)

WHAT MATTERS: The US government has tried to increase Iranian’s access to the internet. Is that working?

ALINEJAD: Oh, of course, this is phenomenal. But we need more. We need more.

The thing is, at the same time, the US government, we’re pleased that they’re providing internet access for Iranians. This is good. We appreciate that.

But at the same time, the US government is focused on getting a deal from this regime, the same regime.

They condemn the brutality, they condemn the Iranian government for killings, but at the same time, they try to give money, billions of dollars, to the same murderers. And I don’t understand this contradiction.

(The US government could give Iran’s government access to billions of dollars of frozen Iranian funds if it re-joins an agreement whereby Iran can sell oil in exchange for abandoning nuclear weapons capability. Recent talks, however, have not gone well. Read more.)

ALINEJAD: Many people in the streets are now risking their lives and want an end for the same regime. They aren’t asking for US government to go there and save them at all. They’re brave enough to do it themselves. But they’re really clearly asking the US government not to save the Iranian regime. …

People believe that the money goes to the benefit of the people. It doesn’t go to the people. The money goes to Syria, Lebanon, to Hamas, Hezbollah, to terrorist organizations.

For millions of Iranians now, this is the moment they want the US government to ask its allies, the European countries, to recall their ambassadors and to cut their ties with the murders until the day that they are sure that the Iranian regime is stopped killing its own people.

(CNN isn’t able to confirm that all the money goes to terrorist organizations or that none of it goes to Iranian people. Iran does fund terror groups outside its borders, according to the US government, and its own Islamic Revolutionary Guard is a terror group, according to the US government.)

WHAT MATTERS: I want to talk about another dichotomy you’ve pointed out. You wrote in The Washington Post that feminists all over the world need to pay attention and take to the streets.

ALINEJAD: You cannot call yourself a feminist in the West, in America, and not take action on one of the most important feminist revolutions, in Iran.

By saying that, I don’t mean that I want the feminists to just appear on TV and cut their hair to show their solidarity.

I want, especially the female politicians, to cut their ties … and instead take to the streets to show their solidarity with the women of Iran. When the Women’s March happened here in America, like every single feminist around the world showed solidarity. I was part of the Women’s March in New York. The main slogan was ‘my body my choice.’

But at the same time I’m witnessing that when it comes to Iran and Afghanistan, it seems that my body my choice is not as important as it is in the West.

(Here Alinejad said women representing Western governments who meet with Iranian and Afghan officials should refrain from wearing headscarves.)

WHAT MATTERS: You took part this week in an Oslo Freedom Forum event in New York with other dissidents from Russia and Venezuela. Those are two places that are repressive, and they’re also funded largely by oil. The US wants more oil on the market. I just wondered if you had any larger comments to make on this question?

ALINEJAD: This is what’s missing here. The dictators are more united than our freedom fighters.

Let me give you an example. Just two months ago, (Vladimir) Putin went to Iran. (Nicolás) Maduro from Venezuela went to Iran … from China to Russia to Venezuela to Nicaragua, everywhere. The leaders from autocracies and dictatorships are united. They’re helping each other. They’re supporting each other to oppress protests taking place in each country. But we the freedom fighters, we the opposition to these dictators must be united as well, because when we fight against autocracy or dictatorship on our own, we’re not going to be successful.

(Alinejad said she has talked to dissidents from Russia and Venezuela about calling a World Liberty Congress for opposition and activist leaders.)

ALINEJAD: If we don’t get united to end dictatorship, then the dictators will get united to end democracy. We’re not fighting just for ourselves. I’m not fighting just for Iran. Garry Kasparov is not fighting for just Russia. Leopoldo Lopez is not fighting just for Venezuela. We are fighting for democracy. We’re trying to protect the rest of the world from these dictators.

(Our conversation continued from here and Alinejad argued the “United Nations is useless.” It’s true the United Nations prioritizes inclusion of most countries over action. And it is awkward at best that Iran sits on the UN’s Commission on Women’s Rights and Russia sits on the Security Council.)

ALINEJAD: We need to have our own alternative United Nations, where all the good people get united, not the bad guys. Now the bad guys are winning because they’re helping each other. So this is the time that all the good people who care for freedom and democracy get united and have their own society.
[ad_2]

Source link
October 7, 2022
Disputing Iran’s version, mom says teen was beaten to death

[ad_1]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The mother of a 16-year-old Iranian girl has disputed official claims that her daughter fell to her death from a high building, saying the teen was killed by blows to the head as part of the crackdown on anti-hijab protests roiling the country.

Nasreen Shakarami also said authorities kept her daughter Nika’s death a secret for nine days and then snatched the body from a morgue to bury her in a remote area, against the family’s wishes. The bereaved mother spoke in a video message Thursday to Radio Farda, the Persian-language arm of the U.S.-funded station Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Nika Shakarami has become the latest icon of the protests, seen as the gravest threat to Iran’s ruling elites in years. Attempts by authorities in recent days to portray the teen’s death as an accident could signal concern that the incident is fueling further anger against the government.

The protests, which enter their fourth week Saturday, were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police. They had detained Amini for alleged violations of the country’s strict Islamic dress code.

Young women have often been leading the protests, tearing off and defiantly waving their headscarves as they call for toppling the government.

The protests quickly spread to communities across Iran and have been met by a harsh government crackdown, including beatings, arrests and killings of demonstrators, as well as internet disruptions.

Human rights groups estimate that dozens of protesters have been killed over the past three weeks. On Thursday, the London-based group Amnesty International published its findings about what appears to be the single deadliest incident so far — in the city of Zahedan on Sept. 30.

The report said Iranian security forces killed at least 66 people, including children, and wounded hundreds, after firing live rounds at protesters, bystanders and worshippers in a violent crackdown that day. Iranian authorities claimed the Zahedan violence involved unnamed separatists. More than a dozen people have been killed since then in the area, the report said.

Meanwhile, Nika Shakarami’s mother pushed back against attempts by officials to frame her daughter’s death as an accident.

In her video message, she said that the forensics report showed that Nika had died from repeated blows to the head.

Nika’s body was intact, but some of her teeth, bones in her face and part of the back of her skull were broken, she said. “The damage was to her head,” she said. “Her body was intact, arms and legs.”

Earlier this week, Iran’s police chief, Gen. Hossein Ashtari, claimed that the teen had gone to a building “and fell from the upper floor at a time of gatherings.” He said that “the fall from that height led to her death.”

Nasreen Shakarami said her daughter left her home in Tehran in the afternoon of Sept. 19 to join anti-hijab protests. She said she was in touch by phone with Nika several times in the next few hours, pleading with her to come home. They last spoke before midnight. “Then Nika’s mobile was off, after she and her friends were shouting names of forces while they were fleeing,” she said.

The following morning, the family searched for Nika at police stations and prisons, but had no word of her whereabouts for nine days. Authorities finally handed over the body on the 10th day and the family headed to the city of Khoramabad for burial, she said. Authorities repeatedly demanded to take possession of the body, which was in the meantime stored in the Khoramabad morgue.

On the day of the planned funeral the family learned that the body had been snatched from the morgue and was taken to a remote village for burial, under heavy security, Nasreen Shakarami said.

Since the confirmation of her death, Nika has emerged as another icon of the protests, alongside Amini. A photo of Nika, wearing a black T-shirt and sporting a stylish two-tone bob haircut and eyeliner, has been widely circulated on social media.

Authorities arrested Nasreen Shakarami’s brother and sister. The sister, Atash, later said on Iranian TV that her niece fell from a high building.

Nika’s mother said she believes her siblings had been pressured to echo the official version.

Iran has a long history of broadcasting forced confessions.

Also Friday, the official IRNA news agency quoted the coroner’s office saying examinations found that Mahsa Amini died of cerebral hypoxia — in which oxygen supply to the brain decreases. It said she suffered multiple organ failure but “her death was not led by blunt force trauma to the head, organs and vital parts of the body.”

It said Amini suffered heart arrhythmia, hypotension and loss of consciousness before been taken to a hospital.

Amini’s family rejected the coroner’s report, because authorities had failed to consult with medical specialists as requested by the family, BBC Persian reported. Mahsa Amini’s father has previously said her corpse showed clear signs of being bruised and beaten.

[ad_2]

Source link

October 7, 2022
American citizen Baquer Namazi leaves Iran after being held for more than six years | CNN Politics

[ad_1]

CNN
—

Baquer Namazi, an elderly American wrongfully detained in Iran, is on his way out of the country for surgery in the United Arab Emirates, his family said in a statement on Wednesday.

Namazi, 85, has been detained in Iran for more than six years and is traveling to the Cleveland Clinic in the Abu Dhabi to clear out a severe blockage to his left internal carotid artery (ICA), which puts him at very high risk for a stroke, the statement said. He will transit through Oman on his way to Abu Dhabi.

“It is impossible to articulate and describe sufficiently how I am feeling. I am just so grateful that after so long, I will shortly be able to embrace my father again,” Babak Namazi, Baquer Namazi’s son, said in a statement. “In recent years, I thought this day would never happen. It is impossible to thank all those who helped make this happen.”

IRNA posted a video allegedly showing Namazi boarding a flight with a man dressed in traditional Omani attire. In the video, Namazi was struggling to climb the stairs.

Namazi, who was detained for six years by Iran, was facing health problems and developed further medical issues over the course of his detainment, law firm Perseus Strategies, which represents the family, said in a statement last month.

“Today is a good day for the Namazi family, but the work is far from over. We now need the United States and Iran to act expeditiously to reach an agreement that will finally bring all of the American hostages home,” Jared Genser, the managing director of Perseus Strategies and the family’s lawyer, said in a statement.

The US State Department welcomed the reports.

“We welcome reports that U.S. citizen Baquer Namazi has left Iran, and his son Siamak has been granted furlough from prison,” said State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel. “Out of respect for the family’s privacy, we will not go into any further details. We request that the media also respect their privacy. We are deeply grateful to all of the countries and organizations that have helped our wrongfully detained citizens.”

Namazi was lured to Iran by the government under the false premise that he would be able to see his son, Siamak, who had been detained there at the time. Namazi was instead immediately taken into custody in February 2016.

Siamak Namazi was blocked from leaving Iran after visiting in July 2015. He underwent months of interrogations before being arrested in October 2015.

This story has been updated with additional information.

[ad_2]

Source link

October 5, 2022
Iran’s supreme leader breaks silence on protests, blames US

[ad_1]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded publicly on Monday to the biggest protests in Iran in years, breaking weeks of silence to condemn what he called “rioting” and accuse the United States and Israel of planning the protests.

The unrest, ignited by the death of a young woman in the custody of Iran’s morality police, is flaring up across the country for a third week despite government efforts to crack down.

On Monday, Iran shuttered its top technology university following an hours-long standoff between students and the police that turned the prestigious institution into the latest flashpoint of protests and ended with hundreds of young people arrested.

Speaking to a cadre of police students in Tehran, Khamenei said he was “deeply heartbroken” by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody, calling it a “tragic incident.” However, he lambasted the protests as a foreign plot to destabilize Iran, echoing authorities’ previous comments.

“This rioting was planned,” he said. “These riots and insecurities were designed by America and the Zionist regime, and their employees.”

Meanwhile, Sharif University of Technology in Tehran announced that only doctoral students would be allowed on campus until further notice following hours of turmoil Sunday, when witnesses said antigovernment protesters clashed with pro-establishment students.

The witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the police kept hundreds of students holed up on campus and fired rounds of tear gas to disperse the demonstrations. The student association said plainclothes officers surrounded the school from all sides as protests roiled the campus after nightfall and detained at least 300 students.

Plainclothes officers beat a professor and several university employees, the association added.

The state-run IRNA news agency sought to downplay the violent standoff, reporting a “protest gathering” took place without causing casualties. But it also said police released 30 students from detention, acknowledging many had been caught in the dragnet by mistake as they tried to go home.

The crackdown sparked backlash on Monday at home and abroad.

“Suppose we beat and arrest, is this the solution?” asked a column in the Jomhouri Eslami daily, a hard-line Iranian newspaper. “Is this productive?”

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock condemned the “the regime’s brute force” at Sharif University as “an expression of sheer fear at the power of education and freedom.”

“The courage of Iranians is incredible,” she said.

U.S. President Joe Biden said he remains “gravely concerned about reports of the intensifying violent crackdown on peaceful protestors in Iran, including students and women, who are demanding their equal rights and basic human dignity.”

“The United States stands with Iranian women and all the citizens of Iran who are inspiring the world with their bravery,” Biden said in a statement.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters: “It is absolutely essential to show maximum restraint, maximum containment, when dealing (with) demonstrations all over the world, and the same is valid, obviously, for Iran.”

Iran’s latest protest movement, which has produced some of the nation’s most widespread unrest in years, emerged as a response to Amini’s death after her arrest for allegedly violating the country’s strict Islamic dress code. It has since grown into an open challenge to the Iranian leadership, with women burning their state-mandated headscarves and chants of “Death to the dictator,” echoing from streets and balconies after dark.

The demonstrations have tapped a deep well of grievances in Iran, including the country’s social restrictions, political repression and ailing economy strangled by American sanctions. The unrest has continued in Tehran and far-flung provinces even as authorities have disrupted internet access and blocked social media apps.

Protests also have spread across the Middle East and to Europe and North America. Thousands poured into the streets of Los Angeles to show solidarity. Police scuffled with protesters outside Iranian embassies in London and Athens. Crowds chanted “Woman! Life! Freedom!” in Paris.

In his remarks on Monday, Khamenei condemned scenes of protesters ripping off their hijabs and setting fire to mosques, banks and police cars as “actions that are not normal, that are unnatural.” He warned that “those who foment unrest to sabotage the Islamic Republic deserve harsh prosecution and punishment.”

Security forces have responded with tear gas, metal pellets and in some cases live fire, according to rights groups and widely shared footage, although the scope of the crackdown remains unclear.

Iran’s state TV has reported the death toll from violent clashes between protesters and security officers could be as high as 41. Rights groups have given higher death counts, with London-based Amnesty International saying it has identified 52 victims.

An untold number of people have been apprehended, with local officials reporting at least 1,500 arrests. Security forces have picked up artists who have voiced support for the protests and dozens of journalists. Most recently Sunday, authorities arrested Alborz Nezami, a reporter at an economic newspaper in Tehran.

Iran’s intelligence ministry said nine foreigners have been detained over the protests. A 30-year-old Italian traveler named Alessia Piperno called her parents on Sunday to say she had been arrested, her father Alberto Piperno told Italian news agency ANSA.

“We are very worried,” he said. “The situation isn’t going well.”

Most of the protesters appear to be under 25, according to witnesses — Iranians who have grown up knowing little but global isolation and severe Western sanctions linked to Iran’s nuclear program. Talks to revive the landmark 2015 nuclear deal have stalled for months, fueling discontent as Iran’s currency declines in value and prices soar.

A Tehran-based university teacher, Shahindokht Kharazmi, said the new generation has come up with unpredictable ways to defy authorities.

“The (young protesters) have learned the strategy from video games and play to win,” Kharazmi told the pro-reform Etemad newspaper. “There is no such thing as defeat for them.”

As the new academic year began this week, students at universities in major cities across Iran gathered in protest, according to videos widely shared on social media, clapping, chanting slogans against the government and waving their headscarves.

The eruption of student anger has worried the Islamic Republic since at least 1999, when security forces and supporters of hard-line clerics attacked students protesting media restrictions. That wave of student protests under former reformist President Mohammad Khatami touched off the worst street battles since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

“Don’t call it a protest, it’s a revolution now,” shouted students at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, as women set their hijabs alight.

“Students are awake, they hate the leadership!” chanted crowds at the University of Mazandaran in the country’s north.

Riot police have been out in force, patrolling streets near universities on motorbikes.

[ad_2]

Source link

October 4, 2022
Iran’s supreme leader breaks silence on protests, blames US

[ad_1]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded publicly on Monday to the biggest protests in Iran in years, breaking weeks of silence to condemn what he called “rioting” and accuse the United States and Israel of planning the protests.

The unrest, ignited by the death of a young woman in the custody of Iran’s morality police, is flaring up across the country for a third week despite government efforts to crack down.

On Monday, Iran shuttered its top technology university following an hours-long standoff between students and the police that turned the prestigious institution into the latest flashpoint of protests and ended with hundreds of young people arrested.

Speaking to a cadre of police students in Tehran, Khamenei said he was “deeply heartbroken” by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody, calling it a “tragic incident.” However, he lambasted the protests as a foreign plot to destabilize Iran, echoing authorities’ previous comments.

“This rioting was planned,” he said. “These riots and insecurities were designed by America and the Zionist regime, and their employees.”

Meanwhile, Sharif University of Technology in Tehran announced that only doctoral students would be allowed on campus until further notice following hours of turmoil Sunday, when witnesses said antigovernment protesters clashed with pro-establishment students.

The witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the police kept hundreds of students holed up on campus and fired rounds of tear gas to disperse the demonstrations. The student association said plainclothes officers surrounded the school from all sides as protests roiled the campus after nightfall and detained at least 300 students.

Plainclothes officers beat a professor and several university employees, the association added.

The state-run IRNA news agency sought to downplay the violent standoff, reporting a “protest gathering” took place without causing casualties. But it also said police released 30 students from detention, acknowledging many had been caught in the dragnet by mistake as they tried to go home.

The crackdown sparked backlash on Monday at home and abroad.

“Suppose we beat and arrest, is this the solution?” asked a column in the Jomhouri Eslami daily, a hard-line Iranian newspaper. “Is this productive?”

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock condemned the “the regime’s brute force” at Sharif University as “an expression of sheer fear at the power of education and freedom.”

“The courage of Iranians is incredible,” she said.

Iran’s latest protest movement, which has produced some of the nation’s most widespread unrest in years, emerged as a response to Amini’s death after her arrest for allegedly violating the country’s strict Islamic dress code. It has since grown into an open challenge to the Iranian leadership, with women burning their state-mandated headscarves and chants of “Death to the dictator,” echoing from streets and balconies after dark.

The demonstrations have tapped a deep well of grievances in Iran, including the country’s social restrictions, political repression and ailing economy strangled by American sanctions. The unrest has continued in Tehran and far-flung provinces even as authorities have disrupted internet access and blocked social media apps.

Protests also have spread across the Middle East and to Europe and North America. Thousands poured into the streets of Los Angeles to show solidarity. Police scuffled with protesters outside Iranian embassies in London and Athens. Crowds chanted “Woman! Life! Freedom!” in Paris.

In his remarks on Monday, Khamenei condemned scenes of protesters ripping off their hijabs and setting fire to mosques, banks and police cars as “actions that are not normal, that are unnatural.” He warned that “those who foment unrest to sabotage the Islamic Republic deserve harsh prosecution and punishment.”

Security forces have responded with tear gas, metal pellets and in some cases live fire, according to rights groups and widely shared footage, although the scope of the crackdown remains unclear.

Iran’s state TV has reported the death toll from violent clashes between protesters and security officers could be as high as 41. Rights groups have given higher death counts, with London-based Amnesty International saying it has identified 52 victims.

An untold number of people have been apprehended, with local officials reporting at least 1,500 arrests. Security forces have picked up artists who have voiced support for the protests and dozens of journalists. Most recently Sunday, authorities arrested Alborz Nezami, a reporter at an economic newspaper in Tehran.

Iran’s intelligence ministry said nine foreigners have been detained over the protests. A 30-year-old Italian traveler named Alessia Piperno called her parents on Sunday to say she had been arrested, her father Alberto Piperno told Italian news agency ANSA.

“We are very worried,” he said. “The situation isn’t going well.”

Most of the protesters appear to be under 25, according to witnesses — Iranians who have grown up knowing little but global isolation and severe Western sanctions linked to Iran’s nuclear program. Talks to revive the landmark 2015 nuclear deal have stalled for months, fueling discontent as Iran’s currency declines in value and prices soar.

A Tehran-based university teacher, Shahindokht Kharazmi, said the new generation has come up with unpredictable ways to defy authorities.

“The (young protesters) have learned the strategy from video games and play to win,” Kharazmi told the pro-reform Etemad newspaper. “There is no such thing as defeat for them.”

As the new academic year began this week, students at universities in major cities across Iran gathered in protest, according to videos widely shared on social media, clapping, chanting slogans against the government and waving their headscarves.

The eruption of student anger has worried the Islamic Republic since at least 1999, when security forces and supporters of hard-line clerics attacked students protesting media restrictions. That wave of student protests under former reformist President Mohammad Khatami touched off the worst street battles since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

“Don’t call it a protest, it’s a revolution now,” shouted students at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, as women set their hijabs alight.

“Students are awake, they hate the leadership!” chanted crowds at the University of Mazandaran in the country’s north.

Riot police have been out in force, patrolling streets near universities on motorbikes.

[ad_2]

Source link

October 3, 2022
UN says detained Iranian-American was allowed to leave Iran

[ad_1]

UNITED NATIONS — An 85-year-old Iranian-American who formerly worked for the U.N. children’s agency and was detained in Iran in 2016 has been permitted to leave the country for medical treatment abroad, the United Nations said Saturday.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced the departure of Baquer Namazi and said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was grateful he could leave following the U.N. chief’s appeals to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

Dujarric said the secretary-general was also pleased that Namazi’s son, Siamak Namazi, had been released from detention.

An international human rights lawyer handling their case, Jared Genser, tweeted Saturday: “I am delighted to confirm for the first time in seven years that Siamak #Namazi is spending a night at home with his parents in Tehran. Baquer Namazi’s travel ban has been lifted. We won’t rest until they return to the U.S. & their long nightmare has ended.”

Namazi, a former UNICEF representative, was detained in 2016 when he traveled to Tehran to see his son, a businessman arrested in Iran months earlier. Both Namazis were sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran on what the United States and United Nations say were trumped-up spying charges.

Baquer Namazi was granted medical furlough in 2018 and his sentence was subsequently commuted to time served, but Iranian authorities had not permitted him to leave the country. Last October, he underwent surgery in Iran to clear a blockage in an artery to the brain that his family and supporters described as life-threatening.

Siamak Namazi had remained jailed in Iran’s notorious Evin prison.

Dujarric said the U.N. “will continue to engage with the Iranian authorities on a range of important issues, including the regional situation, sustainable development and the promotion and protection of human rights.”

The State Department said it was gratified to learn of Iran’s actions but added that “our efforts are far from over.”

“We remain committed and determined to securing the freedom of all Americans unjustly detained in Iran and elsewhere. They should be reunited with their loved ones as soon as possible,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.

[ad_2]

Source link

October 1, 2022
Iran temporarily frees U.S. citizen from prison, allows another to leave the country for medical treatment

[ad_1]

Siamak Namazi, an American citizen detained in Iran, has been released on a one week furlough from the country’s Evin prison, a lawyer for Namazi told CBS News on Saturday. And his father, Baquer Namazi, who is also detained in Iran, was told he could leave the country for medical treatment.

Jared Genser, the family’s pro-bono counsel, said that Siamak is spending a night at home with his parents in Tehran for the first time in seven years.

“While these are critical first steps, we will not rest until the Namazis can all return to the United States and their long nightmare has finally come to an end,” Genser said in a release. He also confirmed that the travel ban on Baquer Namazi had also been lifted.

The elder Namazi is scheduled to have surgery in Tehran. The United Nations announced the release in a statement Saturday afternoon, and described it as being intended for medical treatment abroad.

Baquer is a former U.N. official, and he was detained in 2016 after trying to help his son, who had been arrested there the previous year.

During his time in Evin, Siamak has been beaten, Tased, and forced to watch distressing footage, including some that shows his father in captivity, according to his lawyers. He has also repeatedly requested to visit his father, and he has been denied every time, his family said.

Last year, Baquer’s lawyers appealed to the U.N. to help free the then-84-year-old because he was in need of immediate surgery. Throughout his time in prison, Baquer has been hospitalized several times and been diagnosed with various illnesses, including adult-onset epilepsy.

Baquer’s son, Babak Namazi, revealed last year that the Iranian judiciary had closed his father’s case and commuted his sentence to time served in early 2020 because of his deteriorating health. However, Iranian authorities have continued to arbitrarily deny him a passport to otherwise allow him to leave the country, effectively keeping him captive.

Siamak and Baquer are considered by the U.S. to be wrongfully detained.

Trending News

Margaret Brennan

Margaret Brennan is moderator of CBS News’ “Face The Nation” and CBS News’ senior foreign affairs correspondent based in Washington, D.C.

[ad_2]

Source link

October 1, 2022
American citizen held in Iran for more than six years released to seek medical treatment, UN spokesperson says | CNN Politics

[ad_1]

CNN
—

An elderly American wrongfully held in Iran for more than six years has been permitted to leave the country “to seek medical treatment abroad,” according to a statement from UN Secretary General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.

Baquer Namazi, 85, was released from detention, along with his son Siamak Namazi, Dujarric said.

The conditions of what appears to be a temporary release for both father and son are unclear at this time.

Baquer Namazi was facing health problems and developed further medical issues over the course of his six-year detainment, law firm Perseus Strategies, which represents the family, said in a statement last month.

Jared Genser, the Namazis’ attorney, said in a statement Saturday that “Baquer Namazi’s travel ban has been lifted and that, for the first time in seven years, Siamak Namazi is at home with his parents in Tehran. While these are critical first steps, we will not rest until the Namazis can all return to the United States and their long nightmare has finally come to an end.”

Siamak Namazi was blocked from leaving Iran after visiting in July 2015 and underwent months of interrogations before being arrested in October 2015. His father was lured to Iran under the false premise that he would be able to see his son. He was instead immediately taken into custody at that time, in February 2016.

US efforts to free the Namazis, as well as two other wrongfully detained Americans – Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz – have failed to yield results. The State Department has said these conversations are being pursued separately from negotiations over the Iran nuclear deal, which have also yet to reach a breakthrough.

[ad_2]

Source link

October 1, 2022
19 killed, including 4 elite Guard members, in Iran attack

[ad_1]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An attack by armed separatists on a police station in a southeastern city killed 19 people, including four members of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported Saturday.

The assailants in Friday’s attack hid among worshippers near a mosque in the city of Zahedan and attacked the nearby police station, according to the report.

IRNA quoted Hossein Modaresi, the provincial governor, as saying 19 people were killed. The outlet said 32 Guard members, including volunteer Basiji forces, were also wounded in the clashes.

It was not immediately clear if the attack was related to nationwide antigovernment protests gripping Iran after the death in police custody of a young Iranian woman.

Sistan and Baluchestan province borders Afghanistan and Pakistan and has seen previous attacks on security forces by ethnic Baluchi separatists, although Saturday’s Tasnim report did not identify a separatist group allegedly involved in the attack.

IRNA on Saturday identified the dead as Hamidreza Hashemi, a Revolutionary Guard colonel; Mohammad Amin Azarshokr, a Guard member; Mohamad Amin Arefi, a Basiji, or volunteer force with the IRG; and Saeed Borhan Rigi, also a Basiji.

Tasnim and other state-linked Iranian news outlets reported Friday that the head of the Guard’s intelligence department, Seyyed Ali Mousavi, was shot during the attack and later died.

It is not unusual for IRG members to be present at police bases around the country.

Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets over the last two weeks to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by the morality police in the capital of Tehran for allegedly wearing her mandatory Islamic headscarf too loosely.

The protesters have vented their anger over the treatment of women and wider repression in the Islamic Republic. The nationwide demonstrations rapidly escalated into calls for the overthrow of the clerical establishment that has ruled Iran since its 1979 Islamic revolution.

The protests have drawn supporters from various ethnic groups, including Kurdish opposition movements in the northwest that operate along the border with neighboring Iraq. Amini was an Iranian Kurd and the protests first erupted in Kurdish areas.

Iranian state TV has reported that at least 41 protesters and police have been killed since the demonstrations began Sept. 17. An Associated Press count of official statements by authorities tallied at least 14 dead, with more than 1,500 demonstrators arrested.

Also on Friday, Iran said it had arrested nine foreigners linked to the protests, which authorities have blamed on hostile foreign entities, without providing evidence.

It has been difficult to gauge the extent of the protests, particularly outside of Tehran. Iranian media have only sporadically covered the demonstrations.

Witnesses said scattered protests involving dozens of demonstrators took place Saturday around a university in downtown Tehran. Riot police dispersed the protesters, who chanted “death to dictator.” Some witnesses said police fired teargas.

Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, meanwhile, reminded Iran’s armed forces of their duty to people’s lives and rights, the foreign-based opposition Telegram channel Kaleme reported.

Mousavi’s Green Movement challenged Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election in unrest at a level unseen since its 1979 Islamic Revolution before being crushed by authorities.

“Obviously your capability that was awarded to you is for defending people, not suppression people, defending oppressed, not serving powerful people and oppressors,” he said.

[ad_2]

Source link

October 1, 2022
Amnesty: Iran ordered forces to ‘severely confront’ protests

[ad_1]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Leaked government documents show that Iran ordered its security forces to “severely confront” antigovernment demonstrations that broke out earlier this month, Amnesty International said Friday.

The London-based rights group said security forces have killed at least 52 people since protests over the death of a woman detained by the morality police began nearly two weeks ago, including by firing live ammunition into crowds and beating protesters with batons.

It says security forces have also beaten and groped female protesters who remove their headscarves to protest the treatment of women by Iran’s theocracy.

The state-run IRNA news agency meanwhile reported renewed violence in the city of Zahedan, near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan. It said gunmen opened fire and hurled firebombs at a police station, setting off a battle with police.

It said police and passersby were wounded, without elaborating, and did not say whether the violence was related to the antigovernment protests. The region has seen previous attacks on security forces claimed by militant and separatist groups.

Videos circulating on social media showed gunfire and a police vehicle on fire. Others showed crowds chanting against the government. Video from elsewhere in Iran showed protests in Ahvaz, in the southwest, and Ardabil in the northwest.

The death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was detained for allegedly wearing the mandatory Islamic headscarf too loosely, has triggered an outpouring of anger at Iran’s ruling clerics.

Her family says they were told she was beaten to death in custody. Police say the 22-year-old Amini died of a heart attack and deny mistreating her, and Iranian officials say her death is under investigation.

Iran’s leaders accuse hostile foreign entities of seizing on her death to foment unrest against the Islamic Republic and portray the protesters as rioters, saying a number of security forces have been killed.

Amnesty said it obtained a leaked copy of an official document saying that the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces ordered commanders on Sept. 21 to “severely confront troublemakers and anti-revolutionaries.” The rights group says the use of lethal force escalated later that evening, with at least 34 people killed that night alone.

It said another leaked document shows that, two days later, the commander in Mazandran province ordered security forces to “confront mercilessly, going as far as causing deaths, any unrest by rioters and anti-Revolutionaries,” referring to those opposed to Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, which brought the clerics to power.

“The Iranian authorities knowingly decided to harm or kill people who took to the streets to express their anger at decades of repression and injustice,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

“Amid an epidemic of systemic impunity that has long prevailed in Iran, dozens of men, women and children have been unlawfully killed in the latest round of bloodshed.”

Amnesty did not say how it acquired the documents. There was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities.

Iranian state TV has reported that at least 41 protesters and police have been killed since the demonstrations began Sept. 17. An Associated Press count of official statements by authorities tallied at least 14 dead, with more than 1,500 demonstrators arrested.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday that at least 28 reporters have been arrested.

Iranian authorities have severely restricted internet access and blocked access to Instagram and WhatsApp, popular social media applications that are also used by the protesters to organize and share information.

That makes it difficult to gauge the extent of the protests, particularly outside the capital, Tehran. Iranian media have only sporadically covered the demonstrations.

Iranians have long used virtual private networks and proxies to get around the government’s internet restrictions. Shervin Hajipour, an amateur singer in Iran, recently posted a song on Instagram based on tweets about Amini that received more than 40 million views in less than 48 hours before it was taken down.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 30, 2022
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi: The 60 Minutes Interview

[ad_1]

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi: The 60 Minutes Interview – CBS News

Watch CBS News

In an interview recorded last Tuesday, Lesley Stahl spoke with Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, about a possible nuclear deal with the U.S., the sanctions against him and his country.

Be the first to know

Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 29, 2022
Kurdish officials: Death toll climbs in Iranian drone attack

[ad_1]

KOYA, Iraq — An Iranian drone bombing campaign targeting the bases of an Iranian-Kurdish opposition group in northern Iraq on Wednesday killed at least nine people and wounded 32 others, the Kurdish Regional Government’s Health Ministry said.

The strikes took place as demonstrations continued to engulf the Islamic Republic after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who was detained by the Iranian morality police.

Iran’s attacks targeted Koya, some 65 kilometers (35 miles) east of Irbil, said Soran Nuri, a member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan. The group, known by the acronym KDPI, is a leftist armed opposition force banned in Iran.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in a statement said the attacks “impacted the Iranian refugee settlements” in Koya, and that refugees and other civilians were among the casualties.

Iraq’s Foreign Ministry and the Kurdistan Regional Government have condemned the strikes.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency and broadcaster said the country’s Revolutionary Guard targeted bases of a separatist group in the north of Iraq with “precision missiles” and “suicide drones.”

Gen. Hasan Hasanzadeh of the Revolutionary Guard said 185 Basijis, a volunteer force, were injured by “machete and knife” in the unrest, state-run IRNA news agency reported Wednesday. Hasanzadeh also said rioters broke the skull of one of the Basij members. He added that five Basijis are hospitalized in intensive care.

The Iranian drone strikes targeted a military camp, homes, offices and other areas around Koya, Nuri said. Nuri described the attack as ongoing.

Iraq’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said the government in Baghdad was expected to summon the Iranian ambassador to deliver a diplomatic complaint over the strikes.

In Baghdad, four Katyusha rockets landed in the capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Wednesday as legislators gathered in parliament.

The zone, home to the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, is a frequent target of rocket and drone attacks that the United States blames on Iran-backed Iraqi militia groups.

The Iraqi military earlier said in a statement that one rocket landed near parliament, another near the parliament’s guesthouse, and a third at a junction near the Judicial Council. Two security officials told the AP that the fourth rocket also landed near parliament.

Iraqi state news reported four security officers were wounded.

The office of Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, in a statement said security forces were pursuing the assailants who fired the rockets, and asked protesters to remain peaceful.

Cellphone footage circulating on social media showed smoke billowing from a carpark near the parliament building.

Following the first series of strikes in northern Iraq, Iran then shelled seven positions in Koya’s stronghold in Qala, a KDPI official told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity in order to speak publicly. The Qala area includes the party’s politburo.

An Associated Press journalist saw ambulances racing through Koya after the strikes. Smoke rose from the site of one apparent strike as security forces closed off the area.

Meanwhile, security forces lobbed tear gas and fired rubber bullets at protesting Iranian Kurds in Sulimaniyah.

On Saturday and Monday, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard unleashed a wave of drone and artillery strikes targeting Kurdish positions.

The attacks appear to be a response to the ongoing protests roiling Iran over the death of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who was detained by the nation’s morality police.

The U.S. Department of State called the Iranian attacks an “unjustified violation of Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“We are also aware of reports of civilian casualties and deplore any loss of life caused by today’s attacks,” said spokesperson Ned Price in a statement. “Moreover, we further condemn comments from the government of Iran threatening additional attacks against Iraq.”

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq said in a tweet that the country cannot be treated as “the region’s “backyard” where neighbors routinely, and with impunity, violate its sovereignty.”

“Rocket diplomacy is a reckless act with devastating consequences,” the U.N. agency said.

Meanwhile, Britain’s State Minister for the Middle East said the attacks “demonstrate a repeated pattern of Iranian destabilizing activity in the region,” while the German Foreign Ministry and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also condemned Iran for the strikes.

The U.N. secretary-general called on Iran early Wednesday to refrain from using “unnecessary or disproportionate force” against protesters as unrest over a young woman’s death in police custody spread across the country.

Antonio Guterres said through a spokesman that authorities should swiftly conduct an impartial investigation of Amini’s death, which has sparked unrest across Iran’s provinces and the capital of Tehran.

“We are increasingly concerned about reports of rising fatalities, including women and children, related to the protests,” U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric in a statement. “We underline the need for prompt, impartial and effective investigation into Ms. Mahsa Amini’s death by an independent competent authority.”

Protests have spread across at least 46 cities, towns and villages in Iran. State TV reported that at least 41 protesters and police have been killed since the demonstrations began Sept. 17.

An Associated Press count of official statements by authorities tallied at least 14 dead, with more than 1,500 demonstrators arrested.

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard in a statement called for an international investigation over the deaths of protesters.

“Dozens of people, including children, have been killed so far and hundreds injured,” the statement read. “The voices of the courageous people of Iran desperately crying out for international support must not be ignored.”

The human rights organization added that it has documented cases of Iranian security forces sexually assaulting women protesters.

Meanwhile, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it documented the arrests of at least 23 journalists as the clashes between security forces and protesters heated up.

CPJ in a Wednesday statement called on Iranian authorities to “immediately” release arrested journalists who covered Amini’s death and protests.

Dujarric added that Guterres stressed the need to respect human rights, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association during the meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on September 22nd.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 28, 2022
US allows tech firms to boost internet access in Iran

[ad_1]

WASHINGTON (AP) — American tech firms will be allowed to expand their business in Iran, where most internet access has been cut off in response to anti-government protests, the Treasury Department said Friday.

Iran has been cracking down on demonstrators protesting the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of its morality police. Iranian state TV suggests that as many as 26 protesters and police have been killed since violence erupted over the weekend.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the move will help counter the government’s surveillance efforts.

“It is clear that the Iranian government is afraid of its own people,” Blinken said in an emailed statement. “Mahsa Amini is senselessly, tragically dead, and now the government is violently suppressing peaceful protesters rightly angry about her loss.”

The morality police detained Amini last week, saying she didn’t properly cover her hair with the Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab. Amini collapsed at a police station and died three days later.

U.S. sanctions were imposed Thursday on the morality police and leaders of other law enforcement agencies.

The Treasury Department said an updated general license issued Friday authorizes tech firms to offer more social media and collaboration platforms, video conferencing and cloud-based services.

The updated license also removes the condition that communications be “personal,” which Treasury said was burdening companies with the need to verify the purpose of the communications.

“As courageous Iranians take to the streets to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, the United States is redoubling its support for the free flow of information to the Iranian people,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement.

“With these changes, we are helping the Iranian people be better equipped to counter the government’s efforts to surveil and censor them.”

The United Nations has called for an investigation into Amini’s death.

Amir Rashidi, an exiled Iranian who is director of internet security and digital rights at Miaan Group, said lifting restrictions will help Iranians bypass censorship.

“Also it’s going to provide Iranians with safety and security,” he said. “When you can have your data outside the country Iranian security services cannot unlawfully access your data because your data is protected by international law outside Iran.”

In 2014, Treasury’s sanctions arm issued a license authorizing exports of software and services to Iran that would allow the free exchange of communication over the internet, with the intent to foster the free flow of information to Iranian citizens.

Even so, U.S. firms have been reluctant to do business in Iran, due to fears of violating existing sanctions and other laws that impose penalties.

On Monday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that his satellite internet firm Starlink would seek permission to operate in Iran. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said it was up to Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to decide on Starlink’s next steps.

The White House said the move, along with a recent increase in sanctions, does not affect the administration’s plans to reenter the Iran nuclear deal.

“We have concerns, we do, with Iran,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, but pursuing the Iran deal “is the best way for us to address the nuclear problem.”

___

Associated Press writer Frank Bajak contributed to this report from Boston.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 26, 2022
Pro-government rallies held in Iran amid mass protests

[ad_1]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian counterprotesters gathered across the country on Friday in a show of support for authorities after nearly a week of anti-government protests and unrest over the death of a young woman who was being held by the morality police.

Thousands attended a rally in the capital, Tehran, where they waved Iranian flags, and similar demonstrations were held in other cities. The government claimed the demonstrations of support were spontaneous. Similar rallies have been held during past periods of widespread protests.

The pro-government demonstrators chanted against America and Israel, according to state media, reflecting the official line that blames the latest unrest on hostile foreign countries.

State TV suggested late on Friday that the death toll from this week’s unrest could be as high as 35, raising an earlier estimate of 26. Anti-government protesters and security forces have clashed in several major cities in the most severe political violence since 2019, when rights groups say hundreds were killed amid demonstrations against a hike in state-controlled gasoline prices.

Iran has also disrupted internet access and tightened restrictions on popular platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, which can be used to organize rallies.

In response, the U.S. Treasury Department said it would allow American tech firms to expand their business in Iran to boost internet access for the Iranian people. Iran is under heavy U.S. and international sanctions.

A state TV newswoman said late Friday that 35 protesters and policemen had been killed since the protests erupted last Saturday after the funeral of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, without elaborating. She said official statistics would be released later, but authorities have not provided a full accounting of deaths and injuries during past unrest.

A tally by The Associated Press, based on statements from state-run and semiofficial media, shows that at least 11 people have been killed. Most recently, the deputy governor of Qazvin, Abolhasan Kabiri, said that a citizen and paramilitary officer had been killed there.

The crisis unfolding in Iran began as a public outpouring of anger over the the death of Amini, a young woman who was arrested by the morality police in Tehran last week for allegedly wearing her Islamic headscarf too loosely. The police said she died of a heart attack and was not mistreated, but her family has cast doubt on that account.

Amini’s death has sparked sharp condemnation from Western countries and the United Nations. Iranians across at least 13 cities from the capital, Tehran, to Amini’s northwest Kurdish hometown of Saqez have poured into the streets, voicing pent-up anger over social and political repression.

“The death has tapped into broader antigovernment sentiment in the Islamic Republic and especially the frustration of women,” wrote political risk firm Eurasia Group. It noted that Iran’s hard-liners have intensified their crackdown on women’s clothing over the past year since former judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi became president.

“The prospect of the leadership offering concessions to Iranian women is minimal,” it said. “In the cold calculus of Iranian leaders, the protests have likely gone far enough and a more forceful response is required to quell the unrest.”

Raisi condemned the protests as he arrived back in Iran after addressing the United Nations General Assembly earlier this week.

“We have announced many times that if anyone has a fair comment, we will listen to it. But anarchy? Disturbing national security? The security of people? No one will succumb to this,” he said.

Videos on social media show protesters in Tehran torching a police car and confronting officers. Others show gunfire ringing out as protesters bolt from riot police, shouting: “They are shooting at people! Oh my God, they’re killing people!”

In the northwestern city of Neyshabur, protesters cheered over an overturned police car. Footage from Tehran and Mashhad shows women waving their obligatory headscarves, known as hijab, in the air like flags while chanting, “Freedom!”

Separately, hackers have targeted a number of government websites in recent days, taking some of them down at least briefly. On Friday, hackers interrupted Iran’s Channel 3 on a popular streaming website and played videos in support of the protests. Normal programming was restored a couple of minutes later.

The protests have grown into an open challenge to the theocracy established after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The chants have been scathing, with some chanting “Death to the dictator!” and “Mullahs must be gone!”

Local officials have announced the arrest of dozens of protesters. Hasan Hosseinpour, deputy police chief in the northern Gilan province, reported 211 people detained there on Thursday. The government of the western Hamadan province said 58 demonstrators had been arrested.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday that at least 10 reporters have been arrested since the start of the protests, many of them during late night raids on their homes by security forces who did not identify themselves.

London-based watchdog Amnesty International has accused security forces of beating protesters with batons and firing metal pellets at close range. Videos show police and paramilitary officers using live fire, tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators.

Iran has grappled with waves of protests in the recent past, mainly over a long-running economic crisis exacerbated by American sanctions linked to its nuclear program. In November 2019, the country saw the deadliest violence since the revolution, as protests erupted over gas price hikes.

Economic hardship remains a major source of anger today as the prices of basic necessities soar and the Iranian currency declines in value.

The Biden administration and European allies have been working to revive the 2015 nuclear accord, in which Iran curbed its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, but the talks have stalled for months.

The Eurasia Group said the protests make any immediate return to the agreement less likely, as Iran’s government will be more hesitant to make concessions at a time of domestic unrest and the United States will be reluctant to sign a deal as Iran violently cracks down on dissent.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 23, 2022
ICYMI: A look back at Sunday’s 60 Minutes

[ad_1]

Thanks for reading CBS NEWS.

Create your free account or log in
for more features.

Please enter email address to continue

Please enter valid email address to continue

[ad_2]

Source link

September 19, 2022
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi says he cannot trust Americans, calls sanctions “tyrannical”

[ad_1]

The United States first placed financial sanctions on Iran back in 1979, during the hostage crisis. For nearly four decades the U.S. State Department has designated Iran one of the world’s leading state sponsors of terrorism.

But the Obama administration, along with five other countries, agreed to billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for Iran’s agreement to dismantle much of its nuclear program and open its facilities to extensive international inspection.

The Trump administration, distrusting Tehran, pulled out of the deal and stepped up crushing economic pressure.

That’s where Ebrahim Raisi found himself when he was elected president a year ago. Last month, Iran and the 61-year-old hardliner were on the verge of striking a new deal, but then Iran submitted demands that sent the nuclear talks into a stalemate.

We met President Raisi Tuesday at the presidential compound in Tehran for his first interview with a western reporter. I was told how to dress, not to sit before he did, and not to interrupt him. We were given one hour for the interview.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi meets 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl

Lesley Stahl: Can we start with the negotiations on the nuclear deal. Do you want to- have that deal renewed? Because you know, there are some American officials who are beginning to think that you don’t.

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): If it’s a good deal and fair deal, we would be serious about reaching an agreement. It needs to be lasting. There needs to be guarantees. If there were a guarantee, then the Americans could not withdraw from the deal.

Lesley Stahl: But you can pull out of the deal I mean, just as well as we could pull out of the deal.

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): You see, the Americans broke their promises. They did it unilaterally. They said that, “I am out of the deal.” Now making promises is becoming meaningless.

Lesley Stahl: Are you saying that you cannot trust the Americans?

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): We cannot trust the Americans because of the behavior that we have already seen from them. That is why if there is no guarantee, there is no trust.

The U.S. Says the West can’t trust Iran. For instance, when it claims its nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes.

Lesley Stahl: As far as we can tell you don’t use it for, ya know, things that can help your citizens, like electricity. You say you want it for peaceful reasons. Like what?

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): Like in medicine, agriculture, oil, gas.

In terms of “peaceful purposes,” one available figure – from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA – is that only 1.8% of the country’s electricity is generated by nuclear power.

Lesley Stahl: There seems to be some evidence that you had been working, at least before, toward a bomb, a bomb, a weapon, and that you might be doing that again.

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): We have responded to these claims several times. They are baseless. The Islamic Republic of Iran has said many times that possessing nuclear weapons has no place in our doctrine.

However, the U.S. intelligence community has assessed “with high confidence” that Iran did attempt to develop a nuclear bomb in the past.

And then there are the American citizens being detained in Tehran, three of whom were born in Iran.

Lesley Stahl: If there is a deal– would you agree to release the four Americans who are being held here? Could that be part of it?

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): There are Iranian nationals also imprisoned inside the U.S. These people are only in there because they simply tried to circumvent sanctions. And the Americans, we have told them that we can talk to them about this. It can be conducted separately from the nuclear talks. It can be done between the two countries. It is a humanitarian issue. This can be negotiated.

Lesley Stahl: You’re off to New York. You’re going to speak at the United Nations. You know, President Biden is gonna be there. Are you open to a meeting with President Biden? A face-to-face?

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): No. I don’t think that such a meeting would happen. I don’t believe having a meeting or a talk with him will be beneficial.

Lesley Stahl: What do you think the difference is, from your perspective, between the Trump administration and the Biden administration?

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): The new administration in the U.S., they claim that they are different from the Trump administration. They have said it in their messages to us. But we haven’t witnessed any changes in reality.

His major grievance againist President Biden is that he has maintained the sanctions on Iran that President Trump imposed.

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): The sanctions are very tyrannical. This is a tyranny against the people of Iran. It is important to us to have the sanctions lifted.

The sanctions thrust Iran into a two-year recession, mainly because oil exports from refineries like this one, fell overnight from 2.8 million barrels a day to about 200,000. Businesses have been cut off from international banking. With inflation today in Iran at over 40%, virtually everything is more expensive.

A boy in one of Tehran’s bazaars talks with correspondent Lesley Stahl

And yet, we found traffic here as clogged as in New York. And as we saw, Tehran’s bazaars are teeming with shoppers. The ones we met were friendly to us.

Boy: How are you?

Lesley Stahl: Oh, i’m good. How are you?

Boy: Fantastic. And you?

Lesley Stahl: Good. Do you study English in school?

Boy: No!

One reason for the bustling commerce is something the president calls the “resistance economy” in which businesses are encouraged to make more of the things themselves that they used to import: so, home made blue jeans.

Lesley Stahl: Do you know where these are made?

Merchant: In Iran.

Lesley Stahl: In Iran?

Merchant: In our country.

Also made in Iran: washing machines, refrigerators, TVs. They also have their own verison of Uber Eats called Snapp! Food.

Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest civilizations, dating back to 4000 B.C. It’s where the foundations of algebra and chemistry were developed.

Today, while there’s attention to religious tradition in the Islamic Republic, it’s one of the most westernized countries in the Middle East, with a well-educated population.

A mall in Iran

This mall could be anywhere in America, with an ice-skating rink, a food court with hot dogs and burgers, and the least expected – sexy window displays. And yet President Raisi just signed a decree making women who don’t dress modestly subject to arrest.

A young woman died Friday after the morality police took her into custody for violating the rules on head coverings. Eyewitnesses say they saw her being beaten while in a police van. President Raisi’s office says he ordered an investigation.

Sayyid Ebrahim Raisi descends from the Prophet Muhammad, as his black turban signifies, according to Shiite Muslim tradition. He’s a hard-line, conservative cleric like his mentor, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

Lesley Stahl: I want to ask you about your own record. There is a personal sanction against you. You took part in a commission that was responsible for executing up to 5,000 political dissidents. They were hanged or shot by firing squad. I want to ask if you regret that action.

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): What kind of proof can you offer for this? These are just allegations and claims made by members of a terrorist group.

Lesley Stahl: You’re saying that that was not true? And that the–

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): Anybody who commits a crime in Iran stands trial in official courts of law and they receive punishments for what they did. They were assassinating people. And what happened to them was exactly proportionate to what they did.

But the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Raisi personally for human rights violations over this and Amnesty International called it a crime against humanity.

The president was feisty with us, sprinkling his answers with a predictable antipathy toward Israel and Jewish people.

The supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, was scathing when he tweeted on the same subject in English in 2018:

“Israel is a malignant, cancerous tumor… that has to be removed and eradicated.”

Lesley Stahl: Do you believe the Holocaust happened? That 6 million Jews were slaughtered?

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): Look… Historical events should be investigated by researchers and historians. There are some signs that it happened. If so, they should allow it to be investigated and researched.

Lesley Stahl: So you’re not sure, I’m getting that you’re not sure. What about Israel’s right to exist?

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): You see, the people of Palestine are the reality. This is the right of the people of Palestine who were forced to leave their houses and motherland. The Americans are supporting this false regime there to take root and to be established there.

Lesley Stahl: You know that Morocco, Bahrain, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates have all recognized Israel– and have relations with Israel. And it is said that Saudi Arabia is also talking directly with Israel. And I wonder if you want to comment on that.

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): If a state shakes hands with the Zionist regime, then they are also an accomplice to their crimes. And they are stabbing the very idea of Palestine in the back.

Lesley Stahl: You have vowed revenge on the U.S. government for the killing of your General Soleimani.

More than two years ago, the U.S. killed General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike. A revered military hero in Iran, he masterminded deadly attacks on American forces throughout the region for years. The supreme leader has called for retaliation.

Lesley Stahl: Are you intending to retaliate by assassinating officials from the Trump administration?

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): What the then American government did, by the direct order of Trump himself, to assassinate Mr. Qassem Soleimani, this was a heinous crime. We want justice to be served. We are not going to forget about this.

Lesley Stahl: I’m wondering what you mean by “justice.” Does it mean an eye for an eye? There was this assassination, now we’re gonna have you know, an answer assassination?

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): That’s the type of the actions that the Americans and Zionist regimes are doing in the world, we are not going to carry out the same actions.

And yet, the U.S. Department of Justice has charged a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard with just that, plotting to assassinate John Bolton, President Trump’s former national security adviser.

As he prepares for his trip to the U.N., President Raisi is defiant. His message: no concessions in the nuclear deal, Iran will not back down and it can survive the sanctions, which he says could well backfire against the united states.

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): Yes, they can create restrictions and problems for us and difficulties. But there’s a number of countries that are being sanctioned. By doing this, they are bringing them closer together, making them more united. And this will render American sanctions ineffective.

Lesley Stahl: Right, Chinese, Russians, Iranians getting closer.

President Ebrahim Raisi (translation): This approach won’t work.

As we ended what seemed to be a cordial conversataion, we were surprised when a member of Raisi’s staff reached up and blocked one of our cameramen from shooting our goodbyes.

Another one of our cameramen’s phone was confiscated and held by President Raisi’s security team for two and a half hours.

Produced by Richard Bonin. Associate producer, Mirella Brussani and Collette Richards. Field producer, Seyed Rahim Bathaei. Broadcast associates, Eliza Costas and Wren Woodson. Edited by Peter M. Berman.

Trending News

Lesley Stahl

One of America’s most recognized and experienced broadcast journalists, Lesley Stahl has been a 60 Minutes correspondent since 1991.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 18, 2022
The Washington Outsider, Wesam Basindowah’s NGO Coalition Reveal Houthi Land Mine Disaster in Yemen During UNHRC Session

[ad_1]

Press Release
–

Jun 24, 2022

GENEVA, June 24, 2022 (Newswire.com)
–
On the sidelines of the 50th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Dr. Wesam Basindowah’s Yemen Coalition of Independent Women, with co-organizer The Washington Outsider, whose Editor-in-Chief Irina Tsukerman participated in the seminar, and along with other international human rights organizations, revealed the humanitarian disaster in Yemen unleashed by the widespread use of land mines by the Iran-backed Houthis.

Irina Tsukerman started the discussion by explaining that the Houthis are considered some of the most prolific offensive land mine users in the world, having planted between a million and a half and over 2 million land mines all over the country from the Northern provinces to the borders with Saudi Arabia since the civil broke out with the start of the Houthi uprising in 2014. As other participants also noted, many of these land mines are illegal anti-personnel land mines planted in civilian areas, disguised as rocks, toys, or other civilian objects which maximizes the number of civilian casualties in violation of international laws, and complicates the demining process.

Tsukerman had interviewed demining experts from MASAM, a civilian project with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, which had removed hundreds of thousands of mines since 2018. From the start of the war, KSA has contributed approximately $20 billion to humanitarian aid in Yemen.

Tsukerman explained that Houthis fought numerous wars with Yemen’s government before the current civil war and grew in sophistication thanks to training from Iran’s and Hezbullah’s military advisers. Iran, Tsukerman asserted, views Yemen as a gateway to Saudi Arabia; controlling the Two Holy Mosques is at the epicenter of the Islamic Republic’s goal to export the Islamic Revolution, becoming the only recognized religious authority. The land mines would help clear the way.

The land mines progressed from old Soviet mines and locally made simple IEDs to sophisticated technology imported from Iran or developed on the ground, similar to ordnances recovered after use by Iran’s proxies in Iraq, Bahrain, and Lebanon. Since the start of the current war over 9000 Yemenis were reported killed from IED blasts with hundreds injured each year. Even if the war comes to an end, due to lack of cooperation from the Houthis in mapping the land mine sites, the humanitarian disaster may persist for decades, Tsukerman added.

The panel recommended sanctioning Houthis, increasing international demining cooperation, building more hospitals and artificial limb centers in remote areas, providing psychological care and rehabilitation for victims, especially for children, providing safety training for volunteers, disrupting Iran’s efforts in providing land mine materials, providing safe passage and humanitarian assistance to communities where facilities have become inaccessible, and increasing coordination among demining groups.

Media Contact: Irina Tsukerman
917-755-5977

Source: The Washington Outsider

[ad_2]

Source link

June 24, 2022
The Washington Outsider’s Irina Tsukerman Moderates UNHRC 50th Panel: Yemen Coalition of Independent Women Exposes Houthi Abuses as Regional and Global Security Risks

[ad_1]

Press Release
–

Jun 21, 2022

GENEVA, June 21, 2022 (Newswire.com)
–
Gathering on the sidelines of the 50th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the Yemen Coalition of Independent Women and its partner organizations, including The Washington Outsider, addressed the nexus between the human rights violations by the Iran-backed Houthi militias (Ansar Allah) in Yemen and the security risks to the region and the international community. At the June 17 symposium on human rights abuses in Yemen, Senior Director for Countering Extremism Dr. Hans Jacob Schindler discussed the Houthi threats to regional and global security by the use of ballistic missiles against Yemen’s residential areas and displacement camps, and attacks on economic infrastructure and vital installations in Saudi Arabia and UAE.

Addressing Iran’s arming, training, funding, and political support for Ansar Allah and the Houthi connections to other Iranian proxies in the region, Dr. Schindler confirmed that the Houthis had received material support and training from Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, and that Yemen had become a testing ground for Iran and Hezbollah. Dr. Schindler asserted that the Houthis represented a real threat to international navigation in the Red Sea by transforming public ports into operational centers through which international shipping lines, commercial and humanitarian vessels were targeted, booby-trapped, and pirated.

In the June 19th seminar on Houthi violations against media freedom, Irina Tsukerman, who moderated the panel, stated that Houthis use cyberspace to raise funds and to block anti-Houthi websites, and to spy on citizens. She added that the Houthis used communications and information technology and infrastructure they controlled to support military operations. The Houthi punished the Yemeni people and cut off internet service in 2018 from 80% of the area of Yemen. The Houthi control of the main internet provider in the country gave them information monopoly and frustrated resistance. Tsukerman stressed that Houthi control of the internet isolates the Yemeni population from the rest of the world, citing the importance of helping Yemen restore internet access and end militia control as a necessary priority to end the war.

Keith Boyfield, Senior Fellow at the Euro-Gulf Information Centre, addressed the potential environmental disaster resulting from the ticking time bomb of the trapped FSO Safer oil carrier near the Hodeidah port. He also spoke of child soldier recruitment and hate indoctrination, which prolongs the conflict, creating generations of dedicated fighters.

The seminar also discussed the impact of the arbitrary detentions, torture, and assaults on journalists, the bans of media outlets, and the hacking and cell phone searches and seizures, as well as the impact on information flow about security and on digital rights in Yemen.

Media contact: Irina Tsukerman

sicat222@gmail.com

Source: The Washington Outsider

[ad_2]

Source link

June 21, 2022
House Intel leaders, on Middle East trip, say countries seek stronger US role to counter China | CNN Politics

[ad_1]

CNN
—

The leaders of the House Intelligence Committee, who are on a congressional trip to the Middle East, say countries in the region are seeking an increased role for the United States to counter the growing influence of China.

House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, and ranking Democrat Jim Himes of Connecticut spoke to CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” in a joint interview that aired Sunday as the pair were in Israel, as part of a visit that also took them to Jordan and Egypt.

“They did all cite … China’s increased influence in the area as a need for the United States to step up its influence,” Turner said. “So everyone is watching this very closely and seeing this as an opportunity for the United States to not only play a greater role for security but also a greater role in keeping China at bay.”

Himes concurred, saying the three countries “view the US alliance as indispensable.”

China’s growing role in the Middle East of late has alarmed Washington. In March, Beijing mediated a landmark agreement between archfoes Iran and Saudi Arabia that could help significantly ease regional tensions. Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the US has become strained in recent years, while China’s standing has risen.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy cautioned Israel in a speech before the Knesset last week to be wary of Chinese investment in the country.

“While the [Chinese Communist Party] may disguise itself as promoters of innovation, and, true, they act like seeds, we must not allow them to steal our technology,” the California Republican said.

Analysts, however, have said that the Middle East is unlikely to become an arena for the US-Chinese rivalry, given Beijing’s economy-oriented focus and its aversion to playing regional politics.

Washington and Beijing have had tumultuous relations over the past year. Tensions soared following a visit to Taiwan last summer by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, and after a Chinese surveillance balloon traversed the US, leading US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to call off a planned visit to China.

US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said last week that the United States was “ready to talk” to China and expressed hope that Beijing would “meet us halfway on this.”

In his interview with Tapper, Turner declined to comment on the domestic turmoil over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial overhaul, saying, “Our focus, largely, being from the Intelligence Committee, were on the relations between the United States and Israel and how we can help strengthen the security situation in the area.”

Iran remains a concern for Netanyahu, both Intelligence leaders said.

“With Iran so brutally abusing its own people, I think the prospect for negotiation is arguably further away than ever before,” Himes said when asked about Iran’s nuclear program. “We’re in a little bit of a fix right now because we don’t have a lot of leverage.”

Turner said Netanyahu had made clear in their meeting that he thinks Iran can be deterred.

“If they do believe that there will be military action against them, a surgical-type strike that would diminish their ability to pursue nuclear weapons, that that could have a chilling effect and could stall their programming. And he doesn’t want that opportunity to be missed,” the Ohio Republican said.

Efforts to try to restore the Iran nuclear agreement remain halted, and Tehran continues to breach the restrictions set out by the deal.

A top US Defense official warned earlier this year that Iran’s ability to build a nuclear bomb was accelerating. The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has reported that uranium particles enriched to near bomb-grade levels were found in January at an Iranian nuclear facility.

[ad_2]

Source link

April 12, 2021