By Mehdi
It has been over 400 days since a group of nine environmental activists were arrested and charged with espionage in Iran. Now, one has died under suspicious circumstances in prison and eight are facing trumped-up national security charges, some of which result in the death penalty.
By Pooya Stone
Iranian operatives are compiling “target packages” as part of their planning for prospective future assassinations and terrorist attacks, according to more than half a dozen former U.S. intelligence officials.
The assembly of these detailed dossiers is common practice for intelligence services, but Iran is the only country that uses them to plan terrorist attacks, that could be carried out if overt hostilities were to break out between Washington and Tehran.
Iran Focus
London, 15 Mar – On Wednesday the United Nations issued a shocking announcement: Iran, seen as one of the top human rights abusers in the world, was awarded a seat on the United Nations committee that oversees complaints about the global abuse of women.
By Jubin Katiraie
A top Treasury Department official told a Congressional subcommittee on Tuesday that the US has been very clear with Europe about the “significant risks” of providing Iran with a special mechanism to facilitate trade.
US Treasury undersecretary Sigal Mandelker, the head of Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI), told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services that the government continues “to maximize economic pressure on Iran to combat its weapons proliferation, terrorism, and regionally destabilizing activities”.
By Mehdi
Iranian businesses that are sanctioned by the United States for links to the Revolutionary Guards Corps have been caught unloading shipments at Syria’s Latakia port, which is raising concerns that the dormant maritime trade route has been revived and could be used to smuggle weapons.
Iran Focus
London, 13 Mar – There are increased fears over the safety of Christians in Iran following the arrest of three more worshippers in Rasht, Gilan Province, during what activists describe as an “ongoing official campaign of repression” against the religious minority.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), an advocacy group, explained that some of those arrested for merely practising their faith are from the Church of Iran, one of the largest evangelical church movements.
By Pooya Stone
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is often portrayed as a reformist and a moderate by the western media, but his credentials have deteriorated during his two terms of office. He has presided over the execution of 4,000 people, many of them political prisoners and many of them women. These executions are often public. Iran has the highest rate of executions per-capita of any country in the world, and the UN has condemned the theocratic dictatorship that rules Iran no fewer than 65 times.
By Jubin Katiraie
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran criticised the country’s human rights record at the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, citing its crackdown on protesters and execution of children.
Javaid Rehman, who was presenting his first report to the UNHRC since he took office in July, explained that he saw “worrying patterns of intimidation, arrest, prosecution, and ill-treatment” against labour rights activists and human rights defenders, who took part in the nationwide uprising, but also against lawyers who defended their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
Iran Focus
London, 12 Mar – According to Iran’s 20-year development plan, the petrochemical industry will become the first-generation power sector in terms of the value of petrochemicals, and the production capacity of petrochemicals will reach $180 million by 2025, because Iran’s massive gas resources can be used to make low-cost petrochemical products.
By Mehdi
On March 6th Citrix was informed by the FBI that its systems had been breached by “international cyber criminals.” Last Friday, the company revealed that its internal network had been breached and the attackers may have stolen business documents.
Citrix has launched a forensic investigation and it has taken action to secure its network. So far, the investigation suggests that the business documents were accessed and downloaded, but has yet to determine exactly which documents might have been stolen.
