Iran Focus
London, 05 Apr – Officials in Iran are trying to ban the popular messaging application “Telegram”. It is a widely used chat application that has more than 20 million users in the country.
It was reported that the secretary of the Iranian High Council of Cyberspace (HCC) Hassan Firouzabadi has given his support for a full ban of the application. He said that the application’s recent Initial Coin Offering (ICO) has the potential to endanger the Iranian national currency.
Iran Focus
London, 05 Apr – The Governor of Hadramout in Yemen has denied allegations of secret prisons in his province and said that Iran and Qatar are making these claims for political reasons.
Major General Faraj Salmeen al-Bahsani said that human rights groups who visited the region had seen the prisons and commended the government on the conditions inside, which means that the prisons can’t be secret.
While on an official visit to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, he told Asharq Al-Awsat: “Iran and Qatar are promoting these allegations. We have very advanced facilities … and the groups hailed the services they offer.”
Iran Focus
London, 05 Apr – Iran, Russia, and Turkey sat down for a meeting about Syria’s future on April 4, but the US wasn’t there, despite its role supporting the rebels in the Syrian Civil War.
This creates a massive problem, because Iran, Russia, and Turkey, have very different interests in Syria and experts say that this looks more like a PR exercise than a serious effort to bring about peace.
Iran, for instance, is a long time supporter of Syrian Dictator Bashar al-Assad and has a vested interest in seeing him remain in power. They have two main reasons for this; thinking that quelling the Syrian people’s uprising will dampen the Iranian people’s desire for regime change and believing that they will be able to turn Syria into another Iranian vassal state in the Middle East.
By Jubin Katiraie
The mullahs’ regime became increasingly like a dictatorship following the rigged elections of 1980, when the mullahs stole power from the Iranian people and their democratic resistance forces the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
In June, five months after the election, the mullahs closed down the universities under the auspices of a “cultural revolution”, but in reality, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wanted to suppress a group that was more likely to rebel against the mullahs.
Iran Focus
London, 04 Apr – With the appointment of John Bolton as White House National Security Adviser — the ascension of a “hawk” — the nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), between Iran and world powers appears likely to end. Europe may determine whether the deal survives if US President Trump is prepared to accept a real fix, and if negotiations offer one.
Trump laid out three conditions that the Europeans must meet if the U.S. is to remain in the nuclear deal last January. If the Europeans do not agree to these demands by May 12th, he will impose powerful economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic. These demands include:
Iran Focus
London, 04 Apr – Many are calling for a quick, peaceful, resolution to the Yemeni Civil war, which should indicate that they are willing to work on a political solution, but the problem is that so far all we’ve heard is rhetoric.
The international community needs to find a solution that would guarantee the security of Yemen and its Gulf neighbours, but it has suggested nothing that is workable.
Before the Iran-backed Houthi rebels ever took control in Sana’a and forced the legitimate government to flee, Saudi Arabia sponsored internal negotiations to come up with a local solution in 2013. But this was literally shot down and triggered an armed response.
Iran Focus
London, 04 Apr – As the Iraqi people prepare for the May election, many in the country are increasingly worried about Iran’s growing influence and fear that the mullahs may be trying to use this election to strengthen their political hold on Baghdad.
Iran had united with Baghdad’s Shiite-led government to fight the so-called Islamic State, which is odd because Iran actually has close ties to the top-ranking ISIS members. But now that ISIS is almost gone, Iran’s interference in Iraq has become a divisive issue.
Iran Focus
London, 04 Apr – Iran’s lobby in the US are doing everything they can to smear new national security advisor John Bolton, from calling him crazy to a warmonger to an extremist.
The National Iranian American Council and its president Trita Parsi are working particularly hard to discredit Bolton and stop the US from pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal.
However, the national security advisor doesn’t need Congress’s approval and will be taking over on April 9 whether Parsi and the Iran Lobby like it or not. Also Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state nominee, is reportedly set for confirmation.
Iran Focus
London, 03 Apr – Maryam Akbari was arrested in December 2009 during street protests against that year’s widely disputed presidential election and charged with collaborating with the banned Mojahedin-e Khalgh organization (MEK, also known as PMOI).
One of the Iranian regime’s most notorious judges, sentenced Maryam Akbari Monfared to 15 years’ imprisonment. The political prisoner recently sent an open letter from the women’s ward of Evin Prison Rebuking Judge Salavati.
When Ms. Akbari’s husband inquired about her freedom, Judge Salavati responded, “Let me check out and see whether her name is on the amnesty list.”
Iran Focus
London, 03 Apr – European countries are now considering how to impose sanctions on Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), but this is too little, too late, according to Iranian-American political scientist Dr. Majid Rafizadeh.
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh wrote an op-ed on Arab News about the proposed sanctions that, if implemented, would be the first punitive action against Iran by the EU since the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was agreed between the P5+1 countries and Iran and sanctions were lifted.
He argued that whilst the sanctions were welcome, they were long overdue as Iran’s foreign policy had become far more “offensive and belligerent” since the nuclear agreement was reached in 2015.
