London, 18 Aug – Iran will sign a contract with Russia next week to buy four S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, the Iranian Defence Minister said on Tuesday, bringing Tehran closer to acquiring an advanced air defence capability.
Russian state arms producer Almaz-Antey in June said it would supply Iran with a modernized version of the S-300, among the world’s most capable air defence systems, once a commercial agreement was reached, according to Reuters.
Iran Focus
London, 14 Aug – Revelations of Iran’s nuclear sites by the main opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), alerted the world to Tehran’s clandestine nuclear weapons programme and has prevented the regime thus far from obtaining a nuclear weapon, writes Alireza Jafarzadeh, the deputy director of the Washington office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
Sir David Amess is the Conservative MP for Southend West in the House of Commons and co-chair of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom (BPCIF). He writes for the Business Insider and is of the opinion that the nuclear deal is a weak deal. It is a step backward with respect to the type of concessions the west could have gotten from Tehran if they had stuck to our guns.
Iran Focus
London, 12 Aug – At least eight Iranian Christians were beaten and arrested last Friday in the Iranian city of Karaj while gathering for a prayer ceremony in a house church, the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran said on Wednesday.
“The Iranian regime’s armed plainclothes agents raided the house church, insulted and beat the worshipers, and confiscated their books and pamphlets before transferring them to a van to be taken to a prison, according to the eyewitnesses”, the NCRI reported on its website.
While the world congratulates itself over the Iran deal, the situation on ground is hardly worthy of celebration. According to the state-run daily Shahrara on Saturday (August 8), poverty is pushing Iranian people to the limit. The paepr published an account of a man, identified as M., who was attempting to sell his eye in the city of Mashhad.
The story is heart wrenching. M. had scribbled on a neighborhood wall: “Eye for sale,” under which he had written his contact number.
London, 12 Aug – The alarming recent rise in executions in Iran, especially during the weeks following the nuclear deal between Iran and world’s six major powers, is a matter of great concern, writes Alex Carlile, a United Kingdom member of the House of Lords.
“According to reliable reports from Iran, the regime’s authorities have carried out more than 60 executions, some of them through public hangings, in addition to barbaric punishments such as amputation of limbs and eye gouging, in various Iranian cities since the nuclear deal was announced on 14 July 2015”, Lord Carlile of Berriew CBE QC wrote in PoliticsHome on Wednesday.
Iran Focus
London, 9 Aug – Iran on Sunday hanged a Kurdish dissident in a prison in Tabriz, northwest Iran, without giving prior notice to his family, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said.
Sirvan Nezhavi had been charged with ‘Moharebeh’, or ‘waging war on God’, for membership in a Kurdish group opposed to the regime.
By Hamid Yazdan Panah
The regime in Iran has a long history of distorting truth, particularly in regards to its human rights record. Whether it’s Javad Zarif’s despicable claim that “We do not jail people for their opinions.” Or Ahmadinejad’s bold face lie that, “There are no political prisoners in Iran.” Or his comment about the 2009 elections stating, “The presidential election was the freest election around the globe. This regime has a tried and true method of distorting the truth in order to avoid any responsibility for their own atrocities. The latest target of these ridiculous lies is UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Ahmad Shaheed.
Iran Focus
London, 7 Aug – Retired US General Hugh Shelton, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says that despite the Obama administration’s attempts to reach a deal with Iran to curb its nuclear programme, the Tehran regime simply cannot be expected to show moderation. He argues in the Miami Herald on Friday that the only long-term solution to Iran’s nuclear aspirations, meddling in regional affairs and human-rights abuses, is a totally new system of governance based on democracy and secularism:
Iran Focus
Geneva, 5 Aug – The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday expressed alarm at the imposition of the death penalty on Mohammad Ali Taheri, an Iranian writer and founder of a spiritual movement, and he urged authorities in Iran to “immediately impose a moratorium on all executions”.
Taheri was sentenced to death on Saturday by the Revolutionary Court on a charge of Fesad fel Arz (corruption on earth).
