Iran Focus

London, 01 Feb – The widespread protests in Iran have largely dissipated after a violent crackdown by the Iranian authorities, but the underlying issues that caused the protests still exist, so we should be wary of seeing this as an end to the Iranian people’s uprising.

One of the issues raised by the protesters was Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism and regional warfare (i.e. Syria, Lebanon and Yemen) and the money spent on this rather than on programmes to benefit the Iranian people (i.e. healthcare, education, employment). In response, the Ruling system pulled back some of its security forces from Syria, in order to suppress the protests.

Iran Focus

London, 31 Jan – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has recently ordered that the Regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and its regular army must divest any commercial holdings not directly related to their mission.

At least, he did according to regime’s Defence Minister Amir Hatami. Many IRGC members have claimed that they’ve had no such orders, while also defending their control of at least one-third of the Iranian economy, and Khamenei’s office has not commented on the matter.

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?’