Earlier this week, we heard about the case of an 11-year-old boy who died from suicide because he was unable to attend his school’s online learning due to not having an internet-enabled device.
Mohammad Mousavizadeh’s death is tragic and has deeply affected all who knew him in Bushehr, southwest Iran.
His mother, who works cleaning houses and cannot afford more than the basics, said: “We had a problem for two or three months. My son did not have a proper phone. The mobile phone he had was faulty. We did not have a good life. We were living in a rental home with an ailing husband. I have a few other children. Mohammad needed a mobile phone because the one we had did not work properly. He could not send audio or take photos with it. He did not say anything. His teacher asked him to send an audio file or send an image. We told his teacher what was going on. His teacher told him to go and tell (your problem to) your father, not me. This is our story.”
This is not the only sad case of a young person dying because they couldn’t access education.
A 14-year-old boy from Kermanshah, known only as Mani, died after falling down a mountain as he tried to escape security guards. He’d been working as a border porter, carrying heavy loads across treacherous mountain paths, to earn money to buy a smartphone so that he could continue his education. Porters are often pursued by the border agents.
Being unable to continue education during the pandemic because of a lack of appropriate resources is frankly commonplace and worst of all completely avoidable. Not only could the government have controlled the spread by instituting a proper lockdown from the start and paid non-essential workers to stay home, but they could also provide smartphones or laptops for every student forced to learn online and without the family, budget to buy one themselves.
The government even claimed that they would provide smartphones and internet for free to students, but they haven’t done so in the past seven months and the reality is that 36% of boys will probably have to drop out of school because of poverty.
As poverty is so widespread in Iran, tragically deaths from suicide in children are becoming increasingly common. Earlier this year, we heard the story of Armin, 12, whose family could not afford the hospital bills after his mother lost her fight with cancer, even with him working as a garbage sorter.
This poverty is not caused because of any fault of the people, but rather the system, with people barely able to make ends meet working three jobs. All while Iran wastes money on terrorism and warmongering.
According to new information revealed by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the Iranian regime has continued to pursue the development of nuclear weapons while lying to the world that it has stopped all nuclear activities. In a press conference held in Washington, D.C., on Friday, the deputy director of NCRI-U.S. Representative Office Alireza Jafarzadeh presented documents that show the Iranian government has recently constructed a center to continue its work on nuclear weapons. “Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (Sazman-e Pazhouheshhaye Novin-e Defa’i), known by its Persian acronym SPND, is the institution within the Ministry of Defense pursuing this project. The Ministry of Defense is heavily controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” he said.
Jafarzadeh also revealed that the SPND continued its activities following the JCPOA and even expanded its facilities. Brig. Gen. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Mahabadi continues to remain the head of this organ as well as other personnel.
Based on details provided by the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), the new facility is located in the Sorkheh Hesar region, a suburb of the capital Tehran. This site is north of Khujir complex, where the IRGC manufacture and assemble ballistic missiles. This center is also south of the command headquarters of the Aerospace Organization of the Ministry of Defense and the Mechanical Industries of the Aerospace Organization (known as Mahallati Industries).
For many years, Iranian authorities have continued to intensify their provocative nuclear projects. They claim that these controversial activities are peaceful and scientific. However, they did not explain why they covered them until the NCRI exposed their facilities in 2001.
Since the time, the NCRI representatives in the U.S., France, and the UK revealed more details over military aspects of nuclear activities. Furthermore, the ayatollahs did not suspend their nuclear ambitions even when the country fell into severe economic troubles.
They continued these activities while the country is struggling with the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East, with the number of fatalities soaring in recent months. Regarding the ayatollahs’ destructive role in the region and across the globe, it is much hard to believe that Iranian authorities’ claims are sincere.
Instead, their collaboration with North Korea and their tireless efforts to advance ballistic missile technology raise questions about the real purposes of Iran’s nuclear programs.
In this context, the NCRI, which sounded alarms about the military aspects of Tehran’s nuclear projects, believes that the ayatollahs aim to achieve nuclear weapons. The opposition reckons that the authoritarian regime sees an atomic bomb as a deterrent to ensure its ruling system.
Moreover, nuclear weapons enable the ayatollahs to blackmail the international community based on the policy carried out during the whole Islamic Republic’s history.
The world was optimistic about ceasing the Iranian government’s nuclear threats through the Iran 2015 nuclear deal, formally Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). However, the latest revelation of the NCRI showed that the JCPOA not only did not stop Tehran’s nuclear ambitions but also gave unreasonable reliefs to improve its controversial programs.
The recent revelation underlines the imperative of a firm policy against the Iranian government’s suspicious efforts. The international community must inspect all secret dimensions of Tehran’s nuclear projects. In such circumstances, the world must push the ayatollahs to spend the country’s national resources on improving health facilities, not atomic ambitions.
Once upon a time, nuclear weapons were the main threat to global peace and security. In fear of starting another world war, the international community adopted many resolutions and instructions, deterring nuclear weapons production and proliferation.
Today, many states—other than a handful of authoritarian regimes such as North Korea and Iran—have been convinced that nuclear weapons are not the path to progress. Furthermore, the Soviet Union’s collapse despite its massive nuclear arsenal showed that military power would not necessarily bring public trust.
Nowadays, global peace and stability are threatened by authoritarians who cling to any means to achieve their goals. Their goal is to remain in power indefinitely and curb any opposition.
Iran’s ayatollahs are considered a good instance in this context. In the past few years alone, they suppressed any movement and cry to “stabilize” their rule. They responded to the people’s economic grievances with excessive violence.
Since late 2017, Iran witness several nationwide protests and strikes, which immediately engulfed many cities across the country. Authorities quickly grasped that this continuation and speedy expansion will go to destroy their harrowing suppression very soon. On the other hand, these elements showed an organized movement is behind the protests.
In this regard, they intended to quell any protest and objection with harsh means. Moreover, they pursued to terrify society from further upheavals and revolts. In this respect, in January 2018, interrogators tortured protesters to death. Statistics indicate that the ayatollahs murdered 50 protesters, 25 of whom died under torture.
In November 2019, state security forces (SSF) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) killed at least 1,500 peaceful protesters who raised their voice against gasoline price hikes. They targeted defenseless demonstrators with heavy machineguns, snipers, armored vehicles, and even helicopters.
Furthermore, oppressive forces detained over 12,000 protesters and exposed them to torture and other ill-treatment to confess to what they had not committed. Afterward, judicial authorities sentenced many protesters to long-term prison and even the death penalty based on torture-tainted confessions.
However, this was not the entire story. The ayatollahs resorted to terrorism to remove the opposition, nipping any protest in the bud. In this respect, they launched several terror plots against dissidents on European soil.
The Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI), as the most crucial opposition group, was the main target for Tehran. Iranian authorities activated their sleeper cells to attack the MEK members and supporters. These cells, however, were under the direction of Iran’s embassies and senior diplomats.
In March 2018, Iranian ambassador to Albania Gholamhossein Mohammad Nia and his deputy Mostafa Rudaki were personally involved in a terror plot against the MEK celebration marking the new Persian year, Nowruz. Albanian authorities detained and expelled the hired terrorists.
Later, in December 2018, Albania expelled Mohammad Nia and Rudaki for disturbing the country’s national security. Authorities also expelled several other terrorists who disguised themselves as diplomats from Albania.
Assadollah Assadi, the third secretary of the Iranian embassy in Austria, was one of these masterminds. He was the chief of Tehran’s intelligence station in Europe. He has recruited three persons to bomb the annual gathering of the Iranian coalition opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in June 2018.
According to European authorities, Assadi used diplomatic coverage to transfer and deliver explosive material and a detonation device to operators in Luxemburg. In a joint operation, law enforcement detained Assadi nearly to Germany-Austria borders.
Assadi was later extradited to Belgium to be tried along with his squad. Recently, the Iranian jailed diplomat threatened Belgian police about the unknown groups’ reactions if the Belgian court identifies him as guilty. “Armed groups in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Iran, were interested in the outcome of his case and would be ‘watching from the sidelines to see if Belgium would support them or not,’” according to the minutes of interrogation.
These facts flagrantly reveal the necessity of adopting a firm approach against the Iranian government’s terrorism. They show that Western states can no longer turn a blind eye to the destructive role of the IRGC and the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).
For many years, the NCRI and MEK have called on democratic states to shut down Tehran’s embassies and condition their relations to stop executions and terror activities. European leaders’ negligence and their eagerness for economic privileges put their citizens’ lives at risk while today, an Iranian diplomat dares to threaten the police in jail.
These provocative remarks prompted UK lawmakers from the House of Commons and House of Lords, as well as Irish politicians, to urge European leaders to list the IRGC and MOIS as terror entities. In an online conference hosted by the NCRI-UK Representative Office, they also highlighted the imperative of support for the Iranian people and their organized resistance movement against Iran’s cruel rule.
“Iranian regime foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was responsible for a bombing attempt against the Free Iran rally of the NCRI. The conspirators, including Assadollah Assadi, a regime diplomat, is now on trial in Belgium. It is the first time that a regime diplomat is directly involved in a terrorist attempt,” said former Scottish MEP Struan Stevenson.
“These are not the only terror plots that bear the fingerprint of Zarif. Another regime terrorist was caught in Denmark; two others were expelled from the Netherlands. They have operated in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Turkey,” he added.
“We should close all of Iran’s embassies and expel all their diplomats. Regime leaders should be indicted for crimes against humanity and brought to trial by criminal courts. The EU and UN must stop its appeasement of the mullahs’ regime,” Stevenson concluded.
Additionally, the NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi called on UK lawmakers and Irish politicians to pressure their governments to designate the IRGC and MOIS as terrorist groups, shut down Tehran’s embassies, and expel their agents from European soil.
At the event, many lawmakers expressed their concerns over the Iranian government’s terror activities in Europe and demanded the UK government to respond forcefully.
“There is a clear case to designate the IRGC as a terrorist entity and the UK must do so,” said Theresa Villiers MP.
Toby Perkins MP also described the “designation of IRGC and MOIS as terrorist entities” as a necessary step. “The UK must abandon the policy of appeasement and back the opposition,” Perkins added.
“We must proscribe the IRGC in its entirety as a terrorist organization. The regime’s terrorism has reached Europe and the time to act is now. I urge our government to proscribe the IRGC, implement a pressure policy, and encourage our European allies to do so as well,” Bob Blackman MP joined his colleagues as saying.
Sir Alan Meale announced his regret over Europe turning “a blind eye to the regime’s terrorism and acquiesced to the regime.”
“Relations with Iran must be contingent to the end of executions and the release of political prisoners. Iranian diplomats who facilitate terrorism must be expelled,” Former Conservative MEP Anthea McIntyre told the event.
“[Iranian authorities] will interpret any appeasement from Western governments as a sign of weakness. The only approach is to exclude the regime from the world community,” said Steve McCabe MP.
“It’s high time for the regime to be held to account for its terrorism. Under no circumstances must European authorities accept the regime to intervene in the procedures of the court,” Lord Alton of Liverpool added.
On Wednesday morning, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that this coming Sunday, October 18, the “cruel arms embargo would be removed,” adding they will be able to “sell weapons to everyone we wish” and “buy weapons from anyone we wish.”
Rouhani’s remarks prompted severe concerns among those familiar with the Iranian government’s malign behavior in the Middle East region and across the globe.
As the world’s leading state-sponsor of terrorism, Tehran is behind many terror activities against foreign citizens in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.
“It’s hard to find a conflict or terror group in the Middle East that does not have Iran’s fingerprints all over it,” said the U.S. ambassador to the then-United Nations Nikki Haley back in December 2017.
Recently, Bahraini and Saudi authorities managed to disband Iran-backed terror squads and discover warehouses filled with huge amounts of ammunition and weapons.
Since the ayatollahs took power in Iran, they built up their foreign policy based on expansionism. They reckoned that they must “export the revolution,” preserving it from decaying.
Based on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) statute, one of its “divine mission” is protecting the Islamic Republic and Revolution’s “ideological frontiers.” In this context, they have relentlessly trained, armed, and dispatched extremist forces in other countries.
For instance, Iranian soldiers put their feet on the ground in Bosnia and Herzegovina just six months after the Balkan war. Intelligence reports say that the number of IRGC fighters in Bosnia and Herzegovina reached 3000-4000 men.
Furthermore, Tehran spent $200 million to fund Bosnian Islamic groups. However, the IRGC was pursuing another goal.
“Iranian forces participated in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina just for the sake of establishing a European copy of the Hezbollah in Lebanon,” said IRGC defector Saeed Kazemi.
In Iraq, Iranian authorities also stored significant amounts of weapons and ammunition in different cities. Between 2003 to 2009, the U.S.-led coalition troops in Iraq frequently discovered and impounded Iranian weapons stockpiled in safe houses and workplaces.
“I can tell you there is no question that they were doing this. I firmly believe that Iran bears responsibility because their training and equipping of the Iraqi militia groups was the major factor in sustaining the sectarian violence that swept Iraq in 2006 and 2007. And to me that makes Iran directly responsible for the death of hundreds of coalition forces and thousands of Iraqis,” said Gen. George Casey, former Commander of Coalition in Iraq, on June 30, 2018.
The facts above, along with many other evidence and documents, underscore the imperative of the extension of the UN arms embargo and other sanctions on the Iranian government. In this respect, several American experts attended a webinar hosted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)- U.S. representative office on October 14.
Panelists, including former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Amb. Eric Edelman, director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies Dr. James Jay Carafano, the JINSA Director of Foreign Policy Jonathan Ruhe, and former US Arms Control chief Amb. Robert Joseph highlighted the sanctions and economic pressures as a practical path to deteriorate Tehran’s atrocities.
However, they mentioned the importance of supporting the Iranian people’s desire for fundamental changes. “Sanctions are a clearly important element of a successful policy toward Iran. But sanctions alone are not going to be enough to get the right outcome… We must help the opposition to the regime,” said Amb. Edelman.
“U.S. officials recognize it’s not punishing the people. There are humanitarian exemptions… Most Iranian citizens understand that ‘They’re not being punished by the United States and the international community—they’re being punished by the regime,’” said Dr. Carafano.
“The JINSA’s ultimate goal is what we call “regime collapse.” This is primarily between the regime and the people,’” said Director Ruhe.
“We must support the democratic opposition inside and outside Iran. Regime change must and will come from within. While apologists try to spin that the current regime is the only alternative to chaos, the ten-point plan of the NCRI provides a pathway to democracy and stability,” said Amb. Joseph.
The Iranian authorities are using an experienced drug-trafficking mafia to turn young imprisoned protesters into drug addicts, in a systematic plan to discredit protesters and scare others away from fighting for Iran’s freedom, according to Iran Human Rights Monitor.
In their recent article on the subject, Iran HRM uses the case of a 30-year-old athlete and protester Jamil Ghahremani.
He was arrested on December 1, 2019, for involvement in the November 2019 protests and eventually sentenced to five years in prison for “acting against national security”. In prison, he confronted guards who were mistreating detained protesters, but then they beat him and took him out of the ward.
A few days later he was returned to the ward, but inmates said he was unable to talk, while his family reported that when they visited him, he was mostly wanting to sleep and that his speech did not make sense. When he recovered sometime later, he said he’d been injected with an unknown substance and that prison staff gave him addictive pills instead of tranquilizers.
Apparently, the Great Tehran Penitentiary warden has hired a number of people to make young prisoners, especially protesters, addicted. There are now 40 protesters from the November protests that are addicted to narcotic drugs as a result of prison staff, all from hotbeds of protest, including Islamshahr, Shahriar, Roudehen, and Andisheh.
The same thing happened to protesters arrested during 2017 and 2018, who are detained on GTP’s Ward 1. These inmates will find it hard to find a book or a newspaper to read, but drugs are freely available.
An inmate detained on drugs charges, Vahid Safari, has been hired by the GTP warden as a guard, in charge of monitoring the inmates and giving them drugs. Released prisoners have said that he targets inmates under heavy pressure and tells them that the drugs will make it easier to live under these dire conditions.
Iran HRM urged the United Nations to dispatch a fact-finding mission to Iran’s prisons to meet with political prisoners and detained protesters so that the Iranian Judiciary is held accountable for these crimes.
In March, GTP political prisoner Soheil Arabi wrote that coronavirus and drugs pose a grave threat to those arrested during the November 2019 protests and detained in the GTP.
He wrote: “Criticism and protest must not be responded by bullets and jail sentences. Do not erase the question. Instead of building prisons, create jobs, and solve the problems of young people. The lives of dozens of young men in jail are in danger. The coronavirus and drug salesmen are waiting in the wings for those arrested in November 2019. Do not forget those arrested in November 2019!”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has expressed grave concern over human rights defenders, lawyers and political prisoners detained in Iranian prisons and has now urged the relevant authorities to release them because of the coronavirus pandemic that is tearing through Iran and its prisons.
Iran is the worst affected Middle East country when it comes to coronavirus, with over 122,000 deaths as of writing, but this is even worse when it comes to the prisons because they are horrendously overcrowded and unsanitary, even at the best of times.
Now, prisons are seeing water shortages, a lack of cleaning products for the people or their surroundings, almost no personal protective equipment or coronavirus tests, dire medical care, and quarantine wards that are just separated by cell bars rather than walls.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the Iranian judiciary announced that it would release 120,000 inmates – something that has largely been abandoned – but this did not include those sentenced for “national security” offenses, which political prisoners are. Essentially, arbitrarily detained protesters and dissidents are risking death in prison.
Bachelet said: “Under international human rights law, States are responsible for the well-being, as well as the physical and mental health, of everyone in their care, including everyone deprived of their liberty. People detained solely for their political views or other forms of activism in support of human rights should not be imprisoned at all, and such prisoners, should certainly not be treated more harshly or placed at greater risk.”
She cited the case of human rights lawyer and women’s rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh—given 30 years in prison for representing female protesters—who has protested her continued imprisonment with two hunger strikes. The second ended in September due to her deteriorating health and a heart condition that requires specialized treatment.
Bachelet said: “I am very concerned that Nasrin Sotoudeh’s life is at risk. Once again, I urge the authorities to immediately release her and grant her the possibility of recuperating at home before undergoing the medical treatment of her choice. Over the years, she has been a persistent and courageous advocate for the rights of her fellow Iranians, and it is time for the Government to cease violating her own rights because of the efforts she has made on behalf of others.”
She urged the regime to unconditionally release all human rights defenders, lawyers, political prisoners, peaceful protesters, and anyone detained for exercising their rights.
Last winter, as the novel coronavirus ominously engulfed the world, it severely affected the countries’ economic sectors. Imports and exports were one of the sectors that drastically deteriorated.
For many years, Iran was the foremost exporter of pistachio due to its proper nature and climate. However, the infectious disease stopped pistachio exports.
This year, at the time of pistachio harvest, the pistachios of last year are still in storage and are rotting away. The pistachio of this year is suffering from the same fate as the previous ones.
In this way, pistachio farmers, especially in Kerman province, inevitably see their crops and livelihoods in danger of destruction. In the meantime, the government of Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani is only giving statistics and is not intervening to save the harvest.
The Kerman pistachio harvest began in an area equivalent to 34,440 hectares of fertile pistachio orchards in the first half of September. It will continue until the end of October.
According to the state-run Mehr News Agency, 200,000 tons of pistachio products will enter the market by the end of October this year. Meanwhile, the export of Iranian pistachios has stopped since February of last year.
Currently, the pistachios collected from last year and stored in Kerman pistachio warehouses are rotting away. The pistachio of this year has now been added to it, and this issue has become one of the major problems of agriculture in Kerman province.
While the pistachio crop in warehouses is rotting, the life of Kermani pistachio farmers is also in danger of destruction, and the government is not doing anything for them.
On October 9, Mehr quoted a Kermani pistachio activist as saying: “The cost of harvesting and labor has risen sharply, and the price of pesticides and fertilizers is rising. Meanwhile, farmers do not know what to do. Officials announce the production and harvest of the product! This is what the farmers know too.”
And they do all this process. The question is, what do the authorities do for the farmer? We have been shouting for eight months, we cannot export the product. Tell us what you have done to export the product in these few months? At least tell what you did for it, then you are facing closed doors,” the activist added.
Stopping exports does not only include pistachios
Stopping exports is not exclusive to pistachios. Other Iranian goods, including handmade carpets, thanks to the regime’s warmongering and the ensuing global sanctions and of course the corruption of the government’s officials, is now affecting the livelihood of millions of Iranians.
Following the beheading of Romina Ashrafi, 14, by her own father and a spate of honour killings earlier this year, which sparked righteous indignation from the Iranian and global community, President Hassan Rouhani announced that relevant proposed bills would be expedited and passed.
The problem is that these bills only sound good, they don’t do good.
For example, the bill on Provision of Security to Women (PSW) passed to Rouhani’s administration in September 2019, was stripped of the limited content it contained about supporting women with officials admitting at the time that it “unlikely” to produce “a positive outcome”.
The Bill to Protect Children and Adolescents – passed on June 7 after 11 years of delays – doesn’t address any policies or laws that harm children and juveniles in Iran. It failed to allocate a budget to support child labourers, child widows or families living in poverty, to raise the marriage age of girls to anything above 13, or increase the age of criminal accountability for girls from nine.
The bill, first proposed in 2009, has been stripped of any power it had through subsequent amendments and long delays. It will not protect children even if it is enforced, although there is no real chance of that.
For one thing, it contains a passage on punishments taken directly from the original Penal Code, which leads us to believe that inflicting “physical, psychological, social, moral, security or educational” harm on a child was already illegal but the government wasn’t doing anything.
For another, it requires the Ministry of Education to report children who have not enrolled in school or who have dropped out, but as education is not compulsory or free, what good would this do? Turns out, they’re planning to make school compulsory, even though the Director of the Department of Education in Kermanshah admitted that the Education Ministry doesn’t have the budget to make it free, so this would further impoverish the Iranian people and increase deprivation for the children.
The bill also contains wording suggesting that the exploitation of child labourers would be penalized, but is this really true when many state-linked institutions benefit from child labour?
Worse still, in Article 9, there are horrific exemptions for parents who commit crimes against their children, like Ashrafi’s father, will only be sentenced to a maximum of five years. Five years for the murder of a child, while anti-establishment protesters are often given excessive punishments such as long-term imprisonment, severe fines, lashes, etc.
This bill is likely to do more harm than good to Iranian children. Do not applaud it. A fundamental change in Iran’s political structure, which certainly begins from the tarmac, is the only way to protect children.
Forty-one years ago, in February 1979, Iran was taken hostage by fundamental clerics led by Ruhollah Khomeini, who later became the first supreme leader of the Islamic Republic. Earlier, the Iranian people had taken to the streets, pursuing the overthrow of the monarchic dictatorship.
They managed to topple Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi after paying a heavy price and many being killed by security forces. However, they were once again trapped in the clutches of a cruel dictatorship, religious fascism. Under the ayatollahs’ rule, many ordinary people fell victim to the state’s mismanagement and horrible policies.
“Preserving the [Islamic] State, is the foremost necessity,” Khomeini frequently reiterated, paving the path for unbelievable crimes under the pretext of religion. In this respect, the ayatollahs founded the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as the leading oppressive and aggressive apparatus.
On September 21, speaking to the TV Channel Five, Senior IRGC Spokesperson Abolfazl Shekarchi explained that “defending the ideologic frontiers of the Islamic Republic and the Islamic Revolution” is “the ‘natural mission’ of the IRGC.” In fact, this terrorist organization is the ayatollahs’ main instrument to preserve their rule.
In addition to taking hostage the Iranian people’s fate, the theocracy ruling Iran has terrorized other nations—either in the Middle East or across the globe—as an element of power. As his first act of terrorism, Khomeini ordered his loyalists to take over the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979.
The current supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, attended the scene and played a crucial role in provoking thugs, who had named themselves “Students followers of the line of the Imam [Khomeini].” Khamenei, however, was not the only incumbent regime official who was involved in the hostage-taking crisis.
Many members of the so-called reformist faction, who have taken the highest positions in President Hassan Rouhani’s administration, were involved in the incident. Despite their “reformist” or “moderate” titles, they have never expressed regret for raiding and occupying a foreign embassy, which caused enormous disadvantage for the people.
Mohammad Ali Jafari, former IRGC commander-in-chief, praises the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran
Instead, several authorities still defend and justify the terrorist act. “Had it not been for the American embassy hostage-taking, our revolution would not last for over 40 years and the revolution would be annihilated in the first decade,” Mohammad Ali Aziz Jafari, former IRGC commander-in-chief and current chief of Baghiatallah base, said in November 2018. Baghiatallah base is an IRGC subsidiary responsible for implementing and justifying Khamenei’s cultural and social decrees.
Massoumeh Ebtekar, deputy president and spokesperson of U.S. embassy’s hostage-takers in 1979
Aside from Jafari, several so-called reformists played a pivotal role in the 1979 hostage-taking crisis. Massoumeh Ebtekar, Deputy President in the administrations of Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Khatami, was the spokesperson for the hostage-takers.
At the time, Ebtekar explicitly announced that she is ready to personally put a gun to the head of one of the hostages and kill him.
Iran's regime can always count on @CNN to push its talking points. Today it gave VP Masoumeh Ebtekar 16 mins to portray the terrorist Soleimani as the victim.@camanpour didn't mention that her guest was Spox for 1979 US Embassy hostage takers Compare Ebtekar's remarks now & then pic.twitter.com/qa7GwMHT6z
Hamid Abutalebi, a political advisor to the president, was also among the hostage-takers. For 15 years, he worked as the Iranian regime’s ambassador to several European states, including Italy, Belgium, Australia, and the European Union. In 1993, he was personally involved in the assassination of Mohammad Hossein Naghdi, representative of the Iranian coalition opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Rome.
Hamid Abutalebi, former ambassador, advisor to President and one of the implements of the 1979 U.S. embassy hostage-taking in Tehran
In 2014, Rouhani nominated him as the Iranian representative to the United Nations in New York. However, the U.S. administration refused to grant him a visa due to his roles in the 1979 hostage-taking of the U.S. embassy and the Naghdi assassination.
Hossein Dehqan, former Defense Minister and one of the implements of the 1979 U.S. embassy hostage-taking in Tehran
The Defense Minister in Rouhani’s first administration, Hossein Dehghan, was also among “Students follower of the line of the Imam.” Following the release of American hostages, Dehghan joined the IRGC. From 1982 to 1984, he was in Beirut, playing a crucial role in shaping Lebanese Hezbollah. According to U.S. media, Dehghan was one of the masterminds of bombing the U.S. embassy and U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut in the 1980s.
Ezzatollah Zarghami, former chief of Iranian state-run TV and one of the implements of the 1979 U.S. embassy hostage-taking in Tehran
Ezzatollah Zarghami, head of Iran’s propaganda apparatus (IRIB) between 2004 and 2014, was another player in the 1979 hostage-taking. He also has strong ties with the supreme leader, and because of his role in censorship and oppressive measures, he is considered one of Khamenei’s confidants.
Throughout its four-decade history, the Iranian government has tried to gain political and economic leverage through abductions. Previously, a former IRGC commander Hassan Abbasi pointed out to kidnapping foreign nationals as a profitable business for the IRGC. “Look at how the IRGC generates funds. The IRGC detains a spy like Jason Rezaian. The U.S. pleads for him to be released,” he described the kidnapping as a pressure card in February 2020.
Abbasi added that in response to the U.S.’s requests to release the hostages, “we say: No, you have to pay for him. Our government gets paid $1.7 billion to hand over this spy. Thus, by detaining just one spy, the IRGC earns the equivalent of the $1-2 billion it was supposed to receive from the government budget,” Abbasi added.
In this context, the Iranian government has a dark history. For instance, on July 19, 1982, Iran-backed forces abducted the president of American University David S. Dodge in Beirut. Kidnappers transferred him to Tehran. He was supposed to be a part of the captive swap between Iran and Israel.
“Several of Lebanese Shiite forces kidnapped American David Dodge. ‘This hostage must be swapped with [then-IRGC commander in Syria] Haj Ahmad Motevasselian,’ they announced,” said Motevasselian’s successor Mansour Kouchak-Mohseni on July 7, 2012.
Furthermore, in his book, “I narrate for the history,” an IRGC founder and IRGC Minister (1982-89) Mohsen Rafighdoost revealed damning details about the IRGC’s extraterritorial and blackmailing operations. He explained how he received the decree to assassinate the Shah’s last prime minister Shahpour Bakhtiar and how he formed a squad to carry out the assassination in Paris.
Afterward, he recounted that the IRGC operation failed, and French security forces detained the Lebanese-led operative team. Anis al-Naqqash, as the head of the terror squad, was sentenced to several years in prison. However, his cohorts in Lebanon attacked the French embassy in Beirut and kidnapped four diplomats. Moreover, Lebanese terrorists hijacked a civil plane to subdue the French government.
“I was in prison in France… One day, someone came to me from the French Foreign Ministry … I asked, what do you want? He/she said we don’t know whether our hostages are alive or not?” Naqqash said in a televised interview on February 11, 2017.
Naqqash explained how the Iranian government blackmailed France, forcing the French to pay $1 million in ransom and expel Iranian Resistance leader Massoud Rajavi from France. “The first condition is that one million dollars must return to Iran. He/she said OK, and what is the next demand? I told him/her expel Massoud Rajavi [the Iranian opposition leader] from France,” Naqqash added.
Additionally, Iranian authorities time and again kidnapped dissidents in Turkey and Iraq. Members and supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) were the first victims of the Iranian government’s abductions.
The ayatollahs also kidnapped U.S. and British citizens and military forces in Iraq and even in international waters. They also took hostage dozens of foreign and dual nationalities who had traveled to Iran, accusing them of “espionage.” Tehran sought to gain political leverage through these operations.
As the latest hostage-taking mission, Iranian authorities detained Franco-Iranian academician Fariba Adelkhah to compel the French government to release their detained diplomat Assadollah Assadi on behalf of the European Union. Assadi was directly involved in a bomb plot that targeted the NCRI’s annual gathering in France in 2018. However, as the Iranian government loses its grip on the country, foreign states no longer buy into the blackmailing of Tehran’s mullahs and adopt firmer decisions.
In this respect, the NCRI and its president-elect Maryam Rajavi has frequently called on the international community to take practical and effective actions to counter the ayatollahs’ terrorism and warmongering abroad. Rajavi demanded the U.S. and EU governments to compel the Iranian government to respect the people’s human rights, abolish the death penalties, and free all political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, and protesters unconditionally.
She also called on the civilized world to recognize the Iranian people and their organized Resistance’s struggle to get free of the hostage-taking government of clerics and preserve their national assets to counter the novel coronavirus, not to kill innocent people and build nuclear weapons.
Under the rule of Iran’s Velayat-e-Faqih (supreme religious rule), which has dominated the fate of a nation for forty years, its basic principle is to disregard human knowledge and experience. The petrified mullahs in alliance with its brokers and intermediaries of the traditional markets and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) have deprived the Iranian nation of growth and prosperity and by dominating all the facilities, wealth, and rich resources of this land, they have begun to impoverish the main owners of this wealth and plunder the people out of their latest properties.
Many years ago, the Iranian middle class was a major part of Iranian society. This class had a hand in production, art, trade, science had a relatively reasonable leadership in the society, and it could, while maintaining its standard of living, extend it to a large section of society and reproduce itself.
Like other countries, this process could have led the lower and poorer sections of society to a more prosperous life, but with the actions of Iran’s government, not only did the middle class not grow and expand, it was drawn to the poorer sections of society.
Abbas Argon, a member of the regime’s chamber of commerce in Tehran, says the recent decision by members of parliament to provide food aid to 60 million people is a clear sign of the spread of poverty and misery in Iran. He said:
“In the current situation and with the current inflation rate, people’s baskets are getting smaller. If a person had received a salary of 4 million Tomans until the last two years, that is, he had an income of $1000. If now, taking into account the 20% increase in salaries, if it has reached five million tomans, this figure is close to $250, which means that in the last two years, the purchasing power of the people has become a quarter.” (ILNA, 9 October)
Of course, these calculations can be flawed and are not showing the painful realities of the majority of Iranian life being destroyed. The simple and clear reason for this is the calculation of the exchange rate in the market, which has various types that have practically made the exchange rate of other goods and commodities dependent on it and in practice has caused it chaos.
The rising rate of inflation on a daily basis and, worse, the high cost of goods and services necessary for survival in Iran, has in practice erased the meaning of the hypothetical lines of relative and absolute poverty and below and above it.
For several days now, the usual calculations to meet the basic needs of life show that a family of four must have an income of at least 10 million tomans per month in order not to fall from its current status to lower levels.
But how many Iranians are able to have such an income? Workers whose wage situation of two or three million tomans is known to be at the bottom of the valley of the poverty line, while they are bargaining with their neighborhood baker for bread and are forced to make and credit for it. This situation has provided a new indicator of the international definition of the poverty line.
It is said that in absolute poverty, a person cannot provide the basic necessities of life, such as shelter and food. Do kidney sales fit into this definition?
It is said that in relative poverty, the problem is the loss of living standards and the lack of minimum welfare. Has not a large part of Iran’s middle class lost this index today?
Argon, a member of the chamber of commerce in Tehran, admitted: “With such practices, our middle class will move to the poor and the poor will be in absolute poverty so that they will not be able to provide the necessities of life such as food and clothing.”
When the presidents of great countries and prominent personalities and international officials speak of the richness of Iranian culture and civilization, the question arises that why in the current period of time there is no trace of that glory and prosperity in the people’s lives?
Why has a nation with the highest reserves of expensive minerals, oil, and gas and four seasons of favorable climate and nature been drawn into such darkness? Where has the income and product of all these resources gone and who has looted it?
Farshad Momeni, a government expert admitted: “Only in terms of the continuous weakening of the value of the national currency and the bankruptcy in the allocation of foreign exchange resources and the consequent turmoil in the country’s economic management system, once $330 billion and once $250 billion of strategic foreign exchange reserves have been destroyed. I wish that the whole tragedy was just this destruction. (Darayan daily, 10 October)
The class situation in Iran can now be seen in the streets of Iran, along with the Lavasan palaces and the garbage collecting children.
Pedram Soltani, former vice-president of Iran’s chamber of commerce, said: “During these years, the coercive sum of the country’s economy is a losing sum. In recent years, the country’s economic growth rate has been negative consecutively, and this negative growth has reached significant numbers of four, six, and seven percent.”
“The winners of this situation are groups close to the centers of power and decision-making, whether, in times of recession, inflation, or prosperity, they always benefit. The wealth of the country is in their hands, and this wealth can be expanded in any closed and opaque economy wherever it is twisted.”
And about the rest, which constitutes the majority of the people, he said: “Also, those whose business is not profitable are in debt, they have borrowed to solve their problems, but this debt has also been accumulated on their previous debts. The wage earners and the unemployed are also a significant number and are the breadwinners of the household, and perhaps nearly 60 million of our population of 80 million.” (Tejarat news 10 October)
