By Jubin Katiraie
Mike Pompeo, the United States Secretary of State, has cautioned against allowing an arms embargo on Iran to expire in October 2020, tweeting that it was like a “#CountdownToTerror”.
This push to extend the embargo is part of the US’s ongoing maximum pressure campaign against Iran, designed to change Iran’s behaviour and implemented after the US left the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and began reimposing sanctions.
By Pooya Stone
An Iranian political prisoner has written an open letter calling out what he described as “legitimate and legal corruption” at Tehran’s Evin Prison.
In the letter, written on August 15, jailed blogger Soheil Arabi said that new limitations on prisoners, especially restricting their contact with the outside world, have been enforced since the new head of Evin Prison took over.
By Jubin Katiraie
The CEO of the Iran Khodro automaker was arrested in his office on Monday, hours are being fired.
It has not yet been announced why the Iranian authorities took these actions against Hashem Yekke Zare’e, who has led the company for the past seven years while also serving as the chair of Parsyan Bank’s board of directors, but it can be no coincidence that this move comes just days after accusations of large-scale corruption in Iran’s car industry.
By Pooya Stone
With the prime suspect in a major alleged corruption case linked the Central Bank of Iran mysteriously missing, people are wondering if the country’s Intelligence Ministry is involved.
For the past two days, Iranian media outlets have been reporting that Salar Aqakhani (Aghakhani), the prime suspect in a case involving $160 million and €20 million, and three of his associates have left Iran. The Sharq newspaper wrote on Wednesday that Aqakhani left Iran for Iraq in late March after selling his assets.
By Jubin Katiraie
In the 1980s, the Iranian authorities arrested the parents of human rights activist Ehsan Qaraee and, following a fatwa by then-supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini, murdered his father.
Qaraee is now raising awareness of the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, which Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have branded “crimes against humanity”, in order to get justice.
By Pooya Stone
Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, has said that there are increased restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, liberty, and a fair trial in Iran, in a report entitled Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was circulated to the UN General Assembly on August 16.
By Jubin Katiraie
For decades, Iranian women have been banned from entering sports stadiums because of the mullahs’ sexist laws, which have turned them into a key and visible battleground for the women of Iran against the misogynist mullahs.
Now, the World Football Federation (FIFA) has given the Iranian Federation until August 31 to determine whether women are to be allowed into sports stadiums. Dariush Mostafavi, head of the Football Federation’s Professional Licensing Appeals Committee, said that FIFA is “serious” that women should be able to enter sports stadiums in league games. This violation of FIFA’s non-discrimination principle could mean that the Iranian Federation is suspended and expelled from FIFA.
By Pooya Stone
A supposedly “reformist” political analyst said in Iran said that the ‘regime’ is at complete political dead end because the Iranian people “no longer cared about reformists and principlists”.
Sadegh Zibakalam, who was speaking on Tuesday at an event covered by the state-run IRNA News Agency, cited a chant denouncing both regime factions that became widespread at the start of the nationwide anti-government protests in December 2017 and told the crowd he was not at all happy about this outcome.
By Jubin Katiraie
The United Arab Emirates said that the Tuesday visit by the Yemeni Houthis to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is yet more proof of the terror cell’s allegiance to the mullahs.
UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, tweeted: “Houthi relations with Iran, for long in search for proper designation, is clearer following their leadership’s meeting with Ayatollah Khamenei. Stated in black and white in their statement of fealty the Houthis are a proxy and that is the correct terminology.”
