Iran Focus
London, 27 Dec – The Shia denomination of Islam is Iran’s official religion. According to the 2018 United States International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Report, freedom for other religions in that country, such as Judaism, Bahai, Zoroastrian or different Muslim branches is increasingly restricted.
Religious freedom has continued to deteriorate during the past year in Iran, with the government targeting Baha’is and Christian converts in particular.
Iran Focus
London, 26 Dec – Sayyid Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi was one of the most powerful Mullahs in Iran and was thought to be the most likely candidate to succeed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.
Born in Najaf, Iraq to Iranian parents in August 1948, Shahroudi studied at a seminary to become a cleric. He was once detained by the Iraqi Ba’ath Party in 1974 but was then granted amnesty and allowed to continue his studies. According to Wikipedia, one of his teacher’s was Khomeini, the brutal regressive founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Iran Focus
London, 24 Dec – Analysts in Iran believe that soon chicken will disappear from the grocery basket of families in Iran.
While the price of a whole chicken is $1.3 per pound in the United States, the cost in Iran has gone up to almost $1.15. But the income of an average Iranian is many times less than a middle class American.
Iran Focus
London, 21 Dec – Over 150 Iranian Christians have been detained in the past month and arrests are expected to continue over the Christmas holiday.
Those arrested include Amir Taleipour, 39, and his wife Mahnaz Harati, 36, who were arrested in front of their 7-year-old daughter during a raid on their home in Mashhad. The couple has not been allowed to speak with relatives or lawyers since the arrest.
By Jubin Katiraie
Much Western media coverage on Iran focuses on the country’s nuclear programme or the factional warring amongst the mullahs that is wrongly classified as moderates vs. hardliners, but they often fail to report on the consistent protest movement in Iran.
In fact, barely a day in 2018 has passed without a workers’ strike or other anti-government protest. The Iranian people are furious at the disastrous state of the economy, which thanks to years of corruption and mismanagement was unable to withstand US sanctions, but they are angrier with the mullahs for the decades of repression and violence towards the Iranian people and the world at large.
Iran Focus
London, 20 Dec – Albania has expelled the Iranian ambassador and another diplomat for “damaging its national security”, according to a statement by the foreign ministry on Wednesday.
The Foreign Ministry did not identify the individuals by name, say when they had been expelled, or if they had left the country, but did explain that they had consulted other members of NATO in this decision.
Iran Focus
London, 20 Dec – The death of four six-year-old girls during a fire at a school in Zahedan, Iran, on December 18, has sent the nation into mourning.
The fire began after one student tripped over an oil heater whilst playing during a break and quickly spread throughout the school. Most of the 59 students were rescued by neighbours and school staff before firefighters arrived, but many students have been injured.
Iran Focus
London, 19 Dec – Since 1989 and the ascension of Ali Khamenei to Supreme Leader, Iran has followed a foreign policy doctrine of ‘West minus the US’, causing many political standoffs throughout the years.
Now, the doctrine is being put to the test once again as reimposed US sanctions are pushing Europe to choose between the US and Iran.
By Pooya Stone
Amnesty International has exposed the shocking scale of the 1988 Iranian massacre in a new report, which denounces the mass-murders as a crime against humanity, condemns the harassment of those seeking justice, and calls for those responsible to be held to account.
In the summer of 1988, 30,000 political prisoners, mainly members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), were executed by the Iranian Government on the fatwa of then-supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini.
Iran Focus
London, 19 Dec – Under extreme pressure from Washington, Iran continues to engage in cyber warfare rather than in direct military conflict with the United States and its allies. It retaliates with cyber weapons, that pose a threat to companies and organizations in the Middle East and beyond.
However, the malware tool Stuxnet, linked to the United States and Israel, is more powerful than Shamoon, used by Iran. Because defense is more difficult than offense, the United States is vulnerable to cyberattacks, but if its power were unleashed on Iran, it would be devastating.
