Iran Focus

London, 28 March – Domestic unrest has reached unprecedented levels in Iran, to the point where the totalitarian leader Ali Khamenei is strengthening his position on his policies of persecution, power projection, and terror by appointing hard-liner loyalists to critical positions in state institutions to ensure that they remain faithful to the “principles” of the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

In fact, Khamenei recently appointed Ebrahim Raisi to head Iran’s judiciary. Raisi ran against, and lost to, Hassan Rouhani in the presidential elections of 2018. His loss was largely due to the fact that Raisi is known to the Iranian people as a violator of human rights. He played a leading role in “the summer of blood” — the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners.

Iran Focus

London, 28 March – On Nowruz, the first day of the Persian new year as well as the vernal equinox, the Supreme Leader’s annual address focused on foreign policy, and a call for Iran to develop its non-oil economy.

This speech, delivered in Mashhad, is believed to carry more significance than any other. This year, it offered little hope regarding the country’s economic suffering.

Because of its Zoroastrian roots, the clerical orthodoxy is historically hostile to the Nowruz festival. Ruhollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republic’s founding leader, never so much as used the word “Nowruz” in his annual address.

Iran Focus

London, 26 Mar – The Hamburg Regional Court banned weekly German Magazine Der Spiegel from spreading lies about the Iranian opposition last week.

This decision was reached following the injunction application made by the German representative office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) after Der Spiegel published a defamatory article in February about the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and its members in their settlement in Albania.

Iran Focus

London, 25 Mar – On Sunday, the United States made a strategic port deal with Oman that will provide the US military with better access to the Gulf region and reduce the need to send ships through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, according to US officials.

This is important because, in the wake of the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement and imposing sanctions on Iran’s oil, Iran threatened to shut off the Strait of Hormuz, which is just off Iran’s coast. Given that 20% of the world’s oil supply travels through the waterway, this could mean huge delays or shortages as tankers find an alternative route, which would only increase oil prices.