Iran Focus
London, 19 Jan – A bipartisan group of former US officials have urged the Trump Administration to be tough on the Iranian Regime and begin a dialogue with their organised democratic resistance.
They wrote a three-page letter to the incoming President, asking him to begin talks with the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (PMOI/MEK).
Iran Focus
London, 18 Jan – The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) is pleading with Iran, not to execute a man convicted as a child.
Sajad Sanjari was just 15 when an Iranian court sentenced him to death for the fatal stabbing of a man in 2012.
Iran Focus
London, 18 Jan – On the anniversary of the implementation of the nuclear deal, the state-run Iranian newspapers slammed President Rouhani and his government for agreeing to such a ‘damaging’ deal.
The paper even claimed that no sanctions had been lifted, but in fact, more had been imposed.
Iran Focus
London, 18 Jan – After nearly six years of civil war, with thousands dead and tens of thousands wounded, a ceasefire has been reached between the Syrian Government and the armed Resistance Forces. It was agreed upon by Turkey, Syria and Russia but Iran, a key Bashar al-Assad ally was not involved in the peace negotiations, presumably because it had no interest in peace.
Heshmat Alavi, a human rights campaigner, noted that this ceasefire, which is still unstable, must be respected by the international community if it is to provide long-term peace.
Iran Focus
London, 18 Jan – A bill has been introduced to Congress directing the US State Department to determine whether the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) should be added to the list of terrorist groups.
The bill, introduced to Congress on January 10, accuses the IRGC of funding and training “terrorist proxies” abroad, posing a threat to US allies in the Middle East and putting US national security at risk.
Iran Focus
London, 18 Jan – A new bill has just been introduced to Congress which could effectively kill the deal between, Iran, Airbus and Boeing, and provide a test for the Trump Administration on the future of the Iranian nuclear deal.
The bill, introduced on Friday by Peter Roskam, a Republican member of the House, asks for the incoming Director of National Intelligence to launch an investigation into the Iranian airlines to find out if they are associated with the country’s Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps or any other foreign terrorist organisations.
Iran Focus
London, 17 Jan – London, 18 Jan – Problems related to Iran are not limited to weaknesses in West’s nuclear deal with Tehran, but also extend to the persistent extraterritorial belligerence of the theocratic state and to its egregious conduct at home, argues Majid Sadeghpour of the Organization of Iranian American Communities in the U.S.
Iran Focus
London, 17 Jan – Obama’s policy on the middle east has left Iran and Hezbollah, two terrorist entities, stronger than ever before, according to a Beirut-based journalist.
Martin Jay, wrote: “Confusion is a word that easily springs to mind when many in this part of the world talk about Obama’s legacy in the Middle East. But it wasn’t just his own policies that seemed incoherent with one another, but also his own idea of how the Middle East saw him – Obama could not decide on the Machiavelli conundrum of whether it is better to be feared or loved.”
Iran Focus
London, 16 Jan – More than 20 former senior bipartisan government officials have written a letter to urge the incoming administration to work with the Iranian Resistance in order to get rid of the mullah’s regime.
They encourage Donald Trump to work with the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which calls for free and fair elections, freedom of religion and gender equality.
