By Jubin Katiraie
In the run-up to the Warsaw Conference on international policy toward the Middle East, which is expected to focus very strongly on the various ways that the Iranian Regime destabilises the region, the mullahs have ramped up their disinformation campaign against their opposition, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
Why is the Iranian Regime doing this?
Iran Focus
London, 12 Feb – It has been 40 years since the Islamic Revolution. It started off as a time of hope for the people, but it quickly turned into something that was going to negatively impact the people for many years to come.
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary, U.S. President Donald Trump posted a message on Twitter with a photo of a protester. The image included the caption: “40 years of corruption. 40 years of repression. 40 years of terror. The regime in Iran has produced only #40YearsofFailure. The long-suffering Iranian people deserve a much brighter future.”
Iran Focus
London, 11 Feb – The head of US South Command has issued a warning about the Iranian regime’s attempts to destabilise South America, including Venezuela, through its Hezbollah proxy and the threat this poses to the US and the West in general.
In a written statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Admiral Craig Faller said: “Iran has deepened its anti-U.S. Spanish language media coverage and has exported its state support for terrorism into our hemisphere…As the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world, Iran’s activities in the region are also concerning.”
By Jubin Katiraie
Thousands of Iranians took to the streets in Paris on 8 February 2018. They marched through the streets chanting messages against the Iranian regime.
Most importantly, they made calls to the international community to stop appeasing the regime and to hold Tehran accountable for its many crimes and abuses of power.
Iran Focus
London, 9 Feb – An Iranian-Swedish doctor on death row in Iran, accused of collaborating with a hostile government, is suffering from major health conditions and is on the brink of death, according to his wife.
Vida Mehran Nia, speaking from her home in Sweden, explained that her husband, Ahmad Reza Jalali, recently had surgery to repair a hernia, but the operation was botched and now Jalali is suffering from anaemia and has lost a lot of weight.
Jalali, who is being held in Tehran’s Evin prison, was arrested in April 2016 after flying in to attend a conference at the University of Tehran on disaster medicine, his speciality.
Iran Focus
London, 7 Feb – In January, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Iran had conducted a satellite launch despite being urged not to by the United States. The rocket containing the Payam satellite did not succeed in its mission because, according to the country’s Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, it did not gather enough speed.
Mike Pompeo said at the time that Iran is shamelessly disregarding the UN Security Resolution that bans it from participating in activities related to ballistic missiles that are capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.
Iran Focus
London, 7 Feb – Iranian judiciary chief Sadeq Larijani said that the Iranian regime will not accept the new European initiative for trade – INSTEX – because one of the requirements is that Iran must adopt the conventions of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and end its missile programme.
Larijani, who is also head of the regime’s Expediency Council, said: “These insulting conditions will never be accepted by the Islamic republic and we should not accept them. Our government officials should take into notice that we must not succumb to whatever they wish to only to gain a small stream of water.”
By Jubin Katiraie
German authorities arrested an Afghan-German dual national for spying on behalf of an Iranian intelligence agency last January.
German authorities also arrested four individuals and the mastermind of a plot to set off explosives at a large gathering organized near Paris by the Iranian opposition.
High-ranking Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi was extradited to face charges in Belgium along with the operatives to whom he had provided the explosives.
Iran Focus
London, 6 Feb – While the Iranian regime denies the use of torture, reports confirm its use. Numerous instances of torture and human rights abuses were reported by the Iran Human Rights Monitor for the month of January.
Following a labor activist’s Instagram post alleging that he was tortured while in the custody of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry, human rights activists have been publishing reports about detainees being tortured during interrogations under the Farsi hashtag of “I was tortured too”.
Iran Focus
London, 6 Feb – Iran’s Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani claimed that there are no political prisoners in Iran, during a meeting with Judiciary officials in Tehran on Monday.
Iran plans to pardon 50,000 prisoners to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, but the Regime has faced growing calls to free political prisoners, so Larijani claimed that there were none.
