Iran Focus
London, 15 August – European, Japanese, and South Korean banks have suspended their investment finance contracts with Iran, according to the Islamic Republic’s Investment Organization.
Saeid Khani Oushani, the General Director for Loans and International Institutions and Organizations, said that while China and Russia are still committed to their deals with Iran, banks in Europe, Japan, and South Korea have stopped all interaction with Iran.
Iran Focus
London, 15 August – A new UN report has expressed concern that ISIS and al-Qaeda’s global network poses a growing threat to the world, with ISIS having to 30,000 members roughly equally distributed between Syria and Iraq and al-Qaeda being much stronger in places.
The report by UN experts, which was being circulated on Monday, advised that despite the defeat of ISIS in Iraq and the majority of Syria; a covert version of the “core” of the militant group will survive in both countries, with significant support from terrorist sympathisers across the Middle East.
Iran Focus
London, 14 August – In remarks that were broadcast by state television, spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei discussed the dozens of arrests for financial crimes that occurred recently. “Sixty-seven suspects have been arrested, some of whom were released on bail, and more than 100 people including government employees and officials, as well as private employees and others have been given travel bans,” Ejei said.
In response to a proposal by the Islamic Republic’s Judiciary Sadegh Amoli Larijani to create new Islamic revolutionary courts that will impose maximum sentences on those “disrupting and corrupting the economy”, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was quoted by the media as saying that those accused of economic corruption must be punished “swiftly and justly.”
By Jubin Katiraie
The dictators in Iran are clearly concerned about their future. The main opposition – the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK) plays a large role in helping the people of Iran in their struggle for their rights. It is the only viable and organised alternative to the ruling clerical leadership that is destroying the country and plundering its wealth.
The Resistance movement has always had a significant following in Iran despite what officials may claim. Even back in the eighties, the Resistance movement was enough of a threat for the then Supreme Leader to order the executions of more than 30,000 political prisoners – mainly members of the PMOI / MEK and other dissidents. The incident has now become known as the 1988 massacre.
Iran Focus
London, 14 August – The Trump administration is keen to put an end to the Iran threat. Before even becoming president, Trump had criticised the weak Iran nuclear deal and said that he would scrap it. Although it took a while to do, Trump finally announced in May that the United States was exiting the one-sided deal. And since then the administration has been putting the Iranian regime under intense pressure.
It has been two years since the sanctions were lifted and now they have been re-applied. Iran had a real chance to get back into the global arena and Western companies certainly took the opportunity to make some money in Iran.
Iran Focus
London, 14 August – Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, delivered a speech on Monday 13th August. It was clear to see that he does not see any way out of the desperate situation.
For the past few weeks, the country’s national currency – the rial – has been sharply falling. The more its value decreases, it seems that the people’s anger increases. Protests have been continuing and the uprising and unrest is getting stronger.
The Supreme Leader has been silent over the past few weeks, but he finally broke it by trying to encourage and persuade the country’s leadership that the situation is not as desperate as it appears. He said: “They are propagating viciously that the country has reached a deadlock and it has no way out other than to seek refuge from this Satan or Great Satan. Whoever states that we have reached a deadlock, he is either ignorant or his words are treacherous.”
Iran Focus
London, 14 August – Isa Kalantari, head of Islamic Republic’s Department of Environment (DoE) and deputy President, warned his country’s leadership that the looming water crisis in Iran is “much more severe” than what has already been predicted. “There will be no water in Iran within less than fifty years.”
Previously, in an interview with the state-run Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA), Kalantari warned that more than 70% of Iran’s population is facing water shortage — the volume of consumption per person has passed the “critical” point.
Iran Focus
London, 13 August – It is not hard to see the cracks emerge in Iran’s so-called “Shiite crescent” across the Middle East. Iran has inserted itself into regional conflicts to prop up despotic dictatorships (Syria) or remove ISIS, while still supporting terrorism (Iraq) and that made Iran’s important ally to their regional partners, but now Bashar Assad has reclaimed Aleppo and ISIS has been more or less removed from Iraq, which makes Iran dispensable.
This breakup of the Crescent has been furthered by outside forces that want to limit Iran’s power in other countries, like Russia who struck a deal with Israel to keep Iranian forces away from the Syria-Israel border and is striking deals between Turkey and the Kurds to rebuild Syria.
Iran Focus
London, 13 August – Protesters in Iran have taken to the streets yet again to voice their anger at the government’s “widespread corruption, crippling inflation, and injustice”, which have caused the current crises in the country and reject the mullahs’ claims that the US is to blame for Iran’s economic woes.
Murad, an electrician from Tehran, bravely told the Daily Telegraph that Iranians are no longer “blaming the president of a foreign country” and are directing their anger solely at the government. He did not give his last name, due to the dangers associated with speaking to the foreign press.
Iran Focus
London, 13 August – U.S. President Trump has had Iran on his agenda since day one of his presidency. He spoke extensively about the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that he described as “the worst” and said that he would pull the United States out of it. It took some time, but he did. And he thoroughly explained his reasons for doing so. In May he said: “We cannot prevent an Iranian bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement. Therefore, I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.” He went on to speak about the many belligerent acts that Iran is involved with and pointed out that they were not addressed under the nuclear deal.
