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Iran Arrests Son of Cleric for Comparing Khamenei to the Pharaoh

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Iran Arrests Son of Cleric for Comparing Khamenei to the Pharaoh

Iran Focus

London, 07 Feb – Iran has arrested the son of a famous Shiite cleric in Qom for describing the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as “the pharaoh” during a lecture, according to Farsi-language news sites.

Hussein al-Shirazi, the son of Grand Ayatollah Sadiq al-Shirazi, was arrested on Monday morning for openly criticising the Iran’s practices and principle laws, according to the prosecutors of Qom’s clerics’ court on Shirazi’s arrest warrant, which was published by the microphone news site.

During the lecture, Shirazi compared the mullah’s rule to that of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, said that Iran was a tyrannical, religious dictatorship, and criticised Iran’s oppressive treatment of protesters, critics and dissidents.

A clip of this lecture was uploaded to YouTube a few weeks ago.

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France’s Foreign Minister Demands All Iranian Militia Exit Syria, Including Hezbollah

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France’s Foreign Minister Demands All Iranian Militia Exit Syria, Including Hezbollah

Iran Focus

London, 07 Feb – On February 7th, the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said that all Iranian militia, including Hezbollah, must leave Syria.

In a televised interview Le Drian was asked whether he wanted Turkish armed forces to withdraw from Syria. He replied that what he wanted was,“the withdrawal of all of those who ought not to be in Syria, including Iranian militia, including Hezbollah.”

According to Le Drian indications suggest that the Syrian regime is using toxic gas weapons against civilians, in its nearly seven-year civil war against rebel forces that has thrown the Middle East into turmoil.

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Iran Human Rights Abuses Soared in January

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Iran Human Rights Abuses Soared in January

Iran Focus

London, 07 Feb – Human rights abuses in Iran are plentiful, but this January has seen them soar as a result of the Iranian Regime’s crackdown on the protesters who called for regime change.

Iran Human Rights Monitor published a special report on the violations that the protesters were subjected to, but this article will do its best to cover both that and the unrelated human rights abuses.

Crackdown on protesters

Iran’s government started its crackdown with the first demonstrations, using tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds.

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Did Iran Just Reveal Smart Bombs?

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Did Iran Just Reveal Smart Bombs?

Iran Focus

London, 06 Feb – Iran announced that it had begun mass-producing a new weaponised drone that is capable of carrying ‘smart’ bombs, which are capable of precision strikes.

At an unveiling ceremony in Tehran on Monday, Iranian Defence Minister and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Amir Hatami said: “”Drone Mohajer 6, [is] equipped with the smart Qa’em precision-striking bombs and different electro-optical explorers and different warheads, can trace, intercept and destroy the target.”

Also in attendance at the ceremony was Commander of the IRGC Ground Force Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour.

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Iran Continues to Harass Religious Minorities

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Iran Continues to Harass Religious Minorities

Iran Focus

London, 06 Feb – Iran boasts of its respect for religious freedom and tolerance for religious minorities, while President Hassan Rouhani even promises equal rights, but political scientist Dr. Majid Rafizadeh assesses that this is just empty words on the part of a dictatorship that is pretending to be a democracy.

Indeed, there are countless reports from human rights organizations that document systematic violations of religious freedom, as well as persecution and discrimination against religious minorities.

The largest religious minority in Iran in Sunni Muslims (5-10% of the population) but their religious leaders are frequently the targets of Iran’s attacks, according to Dr. Majid Rafizadeh.

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The Truth Behind the MEK in Iraq: Part 2

Jubin Katiraie
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The Truth Behind the MEK in Iraq: Part 2

This is a continuation of a piece posted last week about the fate of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Iraq.

When we left off, the MEK had been granted protected persons status under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which means that they are officially recognized as people of concern by the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC). However, when US troops withdrew from Iraq in 2009, the responsibility for protecting the unarmed MEK fell to the Iraqi government.

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Iran: Dervishes Community Attacked by Security Forces

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Iran: Dervishes Community Attacked by Security Forces

Iran Focus

London, 06 Feb – On Sunday, security forces in Iran besieged the house of one of the most well-known leaders of Shiite Sufism. Noor Ali Tabandeh’s residence was quickly surrounded with his supporters who gathered peacefully to protest the injustice. This, however, led to clashes with the security forces who opposed their presence.

News about the incident spread quickly and before long videos and pictures were circulating on the internet and on social media applications.

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Iran’s Defence of Nuclear Deal Shows Its Real Intentions

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Iran’s Defence of Nuclear Deal Shows Its Real Intentions

Iran Focus

London, 05 Feb – In mid-January, Donald Trump set a final deadline for Congress (and the five other countries who signed the Iran nuclear deal) to come together and fix it. If the deal has not been amended by May, Trump warns that he will pull out of the deal.

In late January, Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif wrote an op-ed for the Financial Times to argue that the deal was necessary to worldwide security and that amendments to the deal, risked jeopardising that security.

To translate from the language of diplomacy, Zarif basically said that if the deal was changed, Iran would withdraw, restart its nuclear programme, and build nuclear weapons to threaten the world with. That’s basically a declaration of war, in a newspaper, that many took as a reason to not renegotiate the deal.

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Iranian Christian Coverts Seek Asylum in Uk to Avoid Death Penalty

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Iranian Christian Coverts Seek Asylum in Uk to Avoid Death Penalty

Iran Focus

London, 05 Feb – An asylum seeker who fled Iran, fearing that he would be killed by the theocratic rule for converting to Christianity, has said that if he returned to Iran, he and his family would certainly be murdered.

Daniel ( a pseudonym) explained that he fled to the UK after the Iranian authorities discovered that he had been practising Christianity in secret as part of underground Christian movement known as “house churches”.

He officially converted from Islam, when he was baptised at a Cardiff church two years ago.

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Iran: Parliamentarians Visit Notorious Evin Prison in Tehran

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Iran: Parliamentarians Visit Notorious Evin Prison in Tehran

Iran Focus

London, 05 Feb – On Tuesday 30th January 2018, just over a month after protests and anti-government demonstrations swept across Iran, a group of Iranian parliamentarians were permitted to visit the notorious Evin Prison in the nation’s capital city. The eleven members of Iranian Parliament were able to spend several hours there.

The news of this visit comes after the death of Khaled Qaisari. Qaisari was tortured to death in Kermanshah Prison in western Iran. This brings the total of deaths because of torture following the recent uprisings to at least twelve.

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