Iran Focus
London, 17 May – The United Nations is said to be investigating a shipment of electronic components from Turkey to Iran in 2017, which violated international sanctions.
In July 2017, inspectors in the United Arab Emirates checked a shipment that was headed to Iran and found the electronic parts, which are banned from being exported to Iran under the UN Security Council Resolution that enshrines the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran Focus
London, 17 May – One of the main problems of the deal, was that it did not include the nations of the Middle East who are most affected by Iran’s nuclear weapons programme as well as Iranian belligerence not mentioned in the deal, like their interference in the affairs of neighbouring states and their ballistic missiles programme.
This meant that Iran, a nation known as the leading state sponsor of terrorism, was stretched at the expense of key US allies, like Saudi Arabia.
Iran Focus
London, 16 May – Human Rights Watch has said that the Iranian judiciary should halt the execution of a member of the Gonabadi Dervish community and release all Dervish members who have been arbitrarily detained since February 2018.
On February 20, the Iranian authorities arrested over 300 Dervishes (by some counts as many as 430) after clashes between the Shia religious order and the Iranian police, during which Mohammad Sallas was accused of killing three police officers by driving a bus into a crowd of security officers.
Iran Focus
London, 16 May – One week after Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, citing numerous issues including that it did not stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the European signatories are scrambling to keep Iran in the deal.
British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have all agreed to abide by their obligations and keep the deal going, stating that it remains important for their “shared security”.
They’ve even called on the US not to take action that would prevent them from fulfilling their obligations.
Iran Focus
London, 15 May – The Assembly of Experts of the Leadership (AEL), also known as the Assembly of Experts (AoE), is the deliberative body empowered to designate and dismiss the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader and supervise his performance. The chairman of the influential body, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, has called upon President Hassan Rouhani to apologize to the people of Iran for not respecting conditions laid out by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for negotiating the nuclear deal.
He accused Rouhani in the statement for disregarding red lines set by Ali Khamenei for the government’s nuclear talks with the U.S. and world powers, and said that Rouhani should “present his apologies to the Iranian nation for the damage it has caused.”
Iran Focus
London, 15 May – A British charity worker who was wrongfully imprisoned in Iran on espionage charges is facing fresh charges from the mullahs, according to her husband.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was arrested two years ago after taking her baby daughter Gabriella to visit family in Iran, will be returning to court in the next week or two to face resurrected charges of spreading propaganda against the ruling system; a charge usually levied by Iran when they don’t have anything concrete to charge a person with.
Iran Focus
London, 15 May – The UK, France, and Germany all claim that they can continue with the Iran nuclear deal following Donald Trump’s withdrawal last week, but can they really?
According to Sandeep Gopalan on The Hill, past evidence suggests that would be “virtually impossible”; especially once Trump’s new sanctions are put into place.
On May 8, Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, otherwise known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), saying that it has failed to “prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb”.
Iran Focus
London, 15 May – On May 5, Iranian-American community leaders gathered in Washington DC for a convention to promote democracy and human rights in Iran.
The convention featured a speech from the President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) Maryam Rajavi, which most believe was a preview of the message that she will deliver at the Iran Freedom gathering on June 30 in front of 100,000 supporters of a Free Iran.
Iran Focus
London, 14 May – Iraq is currently facing many obstacles, including unemployment, ethnic conflict, and religious intolerance, but one important issue that needs to be immediately addressed is the extent of its illegal drug trade, and Iran’s role in it.
The Saudi television channel al-Arabiya reported in April 2017, that Hezbollah, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Iranian-linked elements of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) were smuggling drugs from Afghanistan through Iran, Iraq, and Turkey to Europe. The report alleged further that Italian law enforcement agencies had dismantled a nine-member Iraqi PMF cell working as part of a wider operation headed by IRGC general Gholamreza Baghbani.
Iran Focus
London, 14 May – The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has urged the international community to ramp up the pressure on Iran to respect the UN Charter, stop giving ballistic missiles to the Houthis in Yemen, and stop meddling in the affairs of Arab nation-states.
ON Sunday, GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif Al-Zayani said: “The GCC countries want a Middle East free from all weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons.”
Zayani noted that, despite Iran’s struggling economy, the mullah’s have ploughed their resources into destabilising the region, including supplying the Yemeni Houthis with weapons to use against Saudi Arabia.
