Iran Focus
London, 30 Jul – Ken Blackwell, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, and senior fellow for Human Rights and Constitutional Governance at the Family Research Council, in Washington, D.C., said, in his July 30 article for Town Hall, that Islamic extremism in Iran is one of our main foreign policy challenges.
Iran Focus
London, 29 Jul – Struan Stevenson, the President of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA), wrote a piece for the Daily Caller criticising America’s resistance to get involved in the Syrian civil war.
Not only has this allowed Bashar al-Assad to slaughter his own people without fear of retribution but it’s also allowed Vladimir Putin and Iran to provide support for the Syrian dictator and increase their own power within the Middle-East, he argues.
Iran Focus
London, 29 Jul – Iran’s regime has tried to perpetrate the myth that there is no viable opposition to its rule, the opponents of the theocratic government say. Tehran has suggested that the Iranian Resistance, made up of groups like the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), does not have the support of the Iranian people.
This insinuates that the only choice for the West is to appease the dictatorship or declare a full-on war; which considering recent Western involvement in the Middle East is an unfavourable option.
Iran Focus
London, 28 Jul – Three retired U.S. generals and a retired U.S. Colonel have taken part in a round table discussion on the Iran’s role in the crises that have engulfed the Middle East.
The panelists were: Gen. James Conway, former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps; Air Force General Chuck Wald, former Deputy Commander of U.S. European Command; Brig. General David Phillips, former Chief of Military Police; and U.S. Army Col. Wesley Martin, the senior anti-terrorism officer in Iraq from 2003 to 2004 and the senior operations officer for detention operations in Iraq from 2005 to 2006.
Iran Focus
London, 28 Jul – Patrick J. Kennedy, a former U.S. Representative for Rhode Island, wrote a piece for Independent Journal Opinion in which he decried Iran’s crackdown on opposition forces following the success of the “Free Iran” rally in Paris.
Iran Focus
London, 28 Jul – Writing for The Diplomat on July 28, Struan Stevenson, former Member of the European Parliament and President of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA), argued that the West’s nuclear deal with Iran was in danger of collapse.
Iran Focus
28 Jul – The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has reported that Ms. Maryam Olangi has been arrested and sent to Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. On July 24, 2016, agents of the Intelligence Ministry summoned Ms. Olangi and her son to the Prosecutor’s Office. Ms. Olangi was arrested there. Information is not yet available on the fate of her son.
Iran Focus
28 Jul – At the Free Iran rally on July 9 in Paris, Ambassador Lincoln P. Bloomfield Jr. gave an interview to the ‘Alliance for Public Awareness – Iranian Communities in Europe’.
Ambassador Bloomfield was U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs from 2001-2005, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs (1992-1993), Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs (1991-1992), and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (1988-1989).
Iran Focus
London, 27 Jul – The husband of a framed British-Iranian political prisoner has slammed the UK government for their failure to ensure the safe release of his wife and child.
Richard Ratcliffe, who took to the petition site Change.org to demand the release of Nazanin, released a statement decrying the UK government for not even raising Nazanin’s case in the past three and a half months, despite national news attention and nearly 800,000 signatures on the petition. His parents tried to get the attention of their local MP; it took over 100 days.
Iran Focus
Tehran, 27 Jul – A group of women and girls was arrested for riding bicycles in Marivan, in Iran’s Kurdistan Province on July 26.
The women were stopped from participating in the sporting event by police who told them that a new national law made cycling in public “unlawful” for their gender.
