Iran Focus

London, 12 Jan – On Wednesday, just ahead of a meeting between several European leaders and Iranian leaders in Brussels, people took to the streets to protest. The meeting, to be held the next day is with regards to the Iran nuclear deal.

Representing Iran was foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The meeting comes just a day before the United States President Donald Trump was due to make a decision about reimposing oil sanctions that were lifted as one of the terms of the nuclear deal.

Iran Focus

London, 11 Jan – Today in Brussels, a delegation of EU foreign ministers and the EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini met with their counterpart in the Iranian Regime, Javad Zarif, to discuss the future of the 2015 nuclear deal.

This meeting, which was called over the Regime’s fears that Donald Trump would soon pull the US out of the seven-nation agreement, coincided with the beginning of the third week of widespread anti-regime protests in Iran that have been met with severe human rights abuses by the ruling mullahs in clear violation of international human rights accords.

Iran Focus

London, 10 Jan – On the thirteenth day of the uprising, Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei acknowledged the continuation of the uprising. His tone seemed to underscore the fact that the Iranian Resistance and the PMOI/MEK are the alternative to his regime.

Iran Focus

London, 10 Jan – The US House of Representatives overwhelming voted in favour of a resolution, on Tuesday, supporting the Iranian people’s right to freedom of expression in the widespread protests and condemning the Regime’s violent crackdown.

The 415-2 vote comes after almost two weeks on anti-regime protests in which at least 50 people have been killed and 3,700 imprisoned and potentially facing the death penalty.

Republican Representative Ed Royce, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “With the passage of this resolution, we state that America stands with the Iranian people.”

Iran Focus

London, 10 Jan – The US Defense Secretary James Mattis has stated that the White House does not have any issues with the Iranian people, only with the Regime.

He also stated that the people of Iran clearly also have issues with the Regime, citing the widespread protests that broke out in the final days of 2017 as proof.

He said: “I think it’s very important that we stand up and say that we understand the Iranian people. Our beef, if we have one, is not with the Iranian people. It is specifically the same regime that the Iranian people, clearly, are fed up with as well.”

by Jubin Katiraie

As the protests in Iran began, some compared them to those that occurred in 2009. However, these protests differ in in their message. The cause for the 2009 protests was a rift within the regime. Now, the people are demanding an end to the regime. On the streets this week slogans against velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule) and against the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as President, Hassan Rouhani were heard.

In her article for the Wall Street Journal, Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an Iranian opposition coalition based in Paris, writes that, “This dispels the myth, still harbored by some governments, that Iranians distinguish between moderates and hard-liners in Tehran. It also undercuts flawed arguments depicting a stable regime.”