Iran Focus
London, 02 Mar – Iran’s activities in Latin America are a threat to the US’ role in the West. Iran is trying to replace the US as the power ally of the countries in Latin America.
Iran’s belligerence and quest for hegemony in the Middle East is well-covered. It is no secret and Iran barely makes an effort to cover up its activities. However, this cannot be said for its activities in Latin America which, although they have been going on for many years, are relatively under the radar.
Iran Focus
London, 02 Mar – Earlier this week, the Financial Action Task Force met in Paris. One of the items on the agenda was to discuss whether Iran’s banking system is clean. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is the global standard setting body for anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT).
For more than two decades, the United States Treasury Department has attempted to trace how banks in Iran are being used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to fund militias and terror groups.
The FATF called on Iran to address the “remaining action items” in full.
Iran Focus
London, 01 Mar – Reports indicate that Iran has built and set up a military base just outside the Syrian capital. It is being used to store its missiles that are reportedly able to strike Israel.
The base, with brand new hangars, is located eight miles from Damascus. ImageSat International has satellite images showing the structure.
Intelligence experts have said that the base is being operated by the special operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – the Quds Force. There are apparently a couple of hangars that contain short-range and medium-range missiles.
Iran Focus
London, 01 Mar – An Iranian hacking group that has previously conducted surveillance on the Iranian people for the Regime is now setting its sights on other places in the Middle East, according to a new report from Symantec.
The cybersecurity firm reports that in 2017 the group, known as Chafer, had been targeting airlines, aircraft services, telecom firms, and technology companies serving the air and sea transport sectors in Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran Focus
London, 01 Mar – Sweden recently granted citizenship to a disaster medicine expert currently on death row in Iran, with the hopes that it will allow the Swedish Foreign Ministry to intervene in the case and get the doctor released.
Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali, who taught at the Karolinska Institute of Medicine in Stockholm and worked in the research department of the Free University Brussels (VUB), visited Iran for a medical conference in 2016, where he was arrested and charged with spying for Israel. In October 2017, he was tried and sentenced to death.
Djalali’s wife Vida Mehrannia explained that decision to grant him Swedish citizenship gives her hope that he will be released.
Iran Focus
London, 01 Mar – The United Nations Human Rights Council has invited the Iranian Justice Minister Alireza Avayi to speak at its latest session, which began this week, and that sets a very low bar for human rights.
Avayi has been sanctioned by the European Union for many reasons, but the worst is his long record of human rights violations, including his role in the mass execution of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988.
The massacre, described as one of the worst crimes against humanity since World War II, was ordered in a fatwa by then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini.
Iran Focus
London, 01 Mar – Jean-Yves Le Drian, the Foreign Minister of France, said that Iran’s ballistic missile program is a grave concern to his country and he wants to ensure that it is not going to become an issue that will threaten Iran’s neighbours. He said that there is a huge risk factor surrounding the country’s missile program and he wants to ensure that steps are taken to counter it.
“There is a risk, and everything possible needs to be done to avoid this risk and take the necessary measures so that this ballistic threat is not such for all regional actors.”
Speaking in Moscow with Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, Le Drian said yesterday that the security in the whole of the Middle East risks being undermined.
Iran Focus
London, 01 Mar – General Joseph Votel, the United States’ top general who is in charge of the US Central Command, has said that Iran has been increasing its investments in terrorist and militant groups across the whole of the Middle East in the few years since the nuclear deal took effect.
Speaking to lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee, General Votel said: “What it took 20 years for Iran to do in Lebanon with the Lebanese Hezbollah, they’re attempting to do in about five years with the Houthis in Yemen. They’re accelerating their pace and their ability to do this.”
Iran Focus
London, 01 Mar – Protests organised by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) have taken place because of the attendance and participation of Iran’s minister of justice at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Seyyed Alireza Avaei was formerly a prosecutor in Iran and is notorious for his role in the arbitrary execution of thousands of political opponents.
He also was in charge of the 2009 trials that caused international outrage because those on trial were anti-government protesters. Some of this outrage came from the United Nations itself.
Iran Focus
London, 28 Feb – In recent days, women have been brutalized and arrested by the regime’s forces as they protest wearing the compulsory veil.
These actions are vehemently condemned by Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in an article published on February 27th, 2018.
Calling on Iran’s youth, and the sisterhood of women, The NCRI Women’s Committee are pleading that the Revolutionary Guard and the regime’s security forces not be allowed to apprehend the protesting women.
