Iran Focus
London, 31 Jan – At the end of last month, the people of Iran took to the streets in protest against the corrupt regime that has been putting its regional ambitions before the domestic needs of the country. The people initially protested against the economic problems that have worsened in recent weeks and months, but they soon turned into anti-government demonstrations and the people were calling for the Supreme Leader to leave Iran.
Iran Focus
London, 30 Jan – The Iranian Regime often uses a carrot and stick approach to foreign policy, promising minor reforms that mean very little, whilst threatening that major reforms would lead to instability in the Middle East.
This can be seen most recently in the disgusting visit of Alaeddin Boroujerdi, Chairman of the Iranian Committee for Foreign Policy and National Security, to the European Parliament on 23-24 January.
The European Parliament didn’t hold Boroujerdi to account over the Iranian Regime’s policies- most notably their human rights policies in the wake of an ongoing violent crackdown to anti-regime protests- and allowed him instead to spread Iranian propaganda and use the favoured ‘carrot & stick’ policy.
Iran Focus
London, 30 Jan – The European Union has been roundly criticised for allowing a member of the despicable mullahs’ regime to visit their Parliament during a violent crackdown on protesters in Iran. The MEPs failed to hold Alaeddin Boroujerdi, Chairman of the Iranian Committee for Foreign Policy and National Security, to account for the crackdown, the war in Syria, or any number of other problems during his two-day visit.
Instead, they allowed him to take control of the meeting, before bending over backwards to appease him, praise the Regime, and keep quiet about the issues that matter. But why would the EU do this?
Perhaps it’s time to revisit an op-ed written by Iranian-American political scientist Dr. Majid Rafizadeh in December 2016, called ‘Why is the EU defending Iran?’
Iran Focus
London, 30 Jan – What with the recent widespread anti-regime protests in Iran and the Trump administration’s ongoing debate about withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal, the Iran Lobby must be very worried indeed.
The mullahs, faced with a sceptical US government, have sent their American lobbyists into overdrive to criticise Donald Trump and defend the nuclear deal. The two public faces for this campaign of disinformation: Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council and Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former Iranian regime nuclear official who bizarrely took up a post at Princeton University as a Middle East security expert.
Iran Focus
London, 30 Jan – It is no secret that since it stole power in 1979, the Iranian Regime continually attempts to discredit the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) both domestically and globally.
There are numerous accounts, by both the MEK and various Western institutions, of Iran’s so-called Intelligence Ministry (MOIS) targeting the MEK’s reputation in a “long-running and sophisticated information campaign”, “coordinated and financed by the Iranian intelligence services” to discredit the MEK.
Iran Focus
London, 29 Jan – The US is seeking to bolster its case for United Nations action against Iran when envoys from the UN Security Council visit the US today to view pieces of weapons that Ambassador Nikki Haley says were given to the Houthis in Yemen by the Iranian Regime.
The Donald Trump administration spent most of 2017, lobbying for the Iranian Regime to be held to account at the UN and threatening to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal if “disastrous flaws” are not fixed.
The UN ambassadors will visit a military hangar at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling near Washington where last month Hayley presented remnants of the ballistic missile fired on Saudi Arabia by Yemen on November 4, which the Pentagon said is Iranian-made, among other weapons.
Iran Focus
London, 29 Jan – The Iranian Regime and its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) finally appear to have ended years of harassment of US Navy vessels in the Persian Gulf and this has been interpreted by some as recognition of a significant policy change in America.
The NY Post describes this as a “dangerous game of chicken” quashed by the “new cop on the beat” i.e. Donald Trump. Simply, it’s a case of ‘no more, Mr. Nice President’.
In years past, the armed Iranian “fast boats” would charge at US ships in a manner that the US Navy deemed “unsafe or unprofessional” at least two times a month. It was not only a clear sign of disrespect and a test of the US’s patience, but it also ran the very real risk of the US firing upon the Iranian boats and starting a war.
Iran Focus
London, 29 Jan – The widespread protests across Iran have now been suppressed by the Iranian Regime’s so-called security forces but it is far from over. As such, the international community should be wary of writing this off as an anomaly and preparing to condone the Regime again.
These anti-regime protests that so disturbed the Regime didn’t spring up out of nowhere. In fact, they are the continuation century-long struggle for democracy and freedom in Iran and it should be expected that the protests will occur again and again until democracy is realised in Iran.
Maryam Rajavi is the leader of the combined Iranian Resistance forces, which fight for freedom and democracy in Iran.
She is president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a broad coalition of resistance groups, with has the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) as its largest member, which serves as the government in exile for Iran.
Maryam Rajavi first joined the MEK in the early 1970s- not long after its founding- when they were fighting against the brutal regime of the Shah. Her family were also involved in the struggle against the Shah; her brother Mahmoud was also a member of the MEK and was held as a political prisoner during the Shah’s reign, while her sister Narges was tragically murdered by the Shah’s secret police (known as SAVAK) in 1975.
Iran Focus
London, 26 Jan – When Donald Trump took office in 2017, he promised to strengthen old US alliances and create new ones, but there was one quasi-alliance that he couldn’t wait to get rid of: Iran.
Trump’s key policies in the Middle East are to limit Iranian influence in the region and to renegotiate or scrap the Iran nuclear deal of 2015, but how is he achieving this?
The Nuclear Deal
A long-time critic of the deal, Trump promised to fix it or rip it up whilst on the campaign trail. During his time in office, his administration has repeatedly cited violations of the deal by the Iranian Regime, which culminated in Trump declaring the Regime non-compliant in October 2017. In January, Trump stated that if the flaws of the nuclear pact are not fixed by May, he will pull the US out of the deal altogether.
