Iran Focus
London, 03 Mar – In a shocking speech at the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee’s February 22nd meeting in Brussels, Portuguese Socialist MEP Ana Gomes criticized the Iranian opposition.
“I met with relatives of the victims of a terrorist organization called MEK,” she said in the meeting. She added, “We cannot continue to allow some members of this parliament, possibly out of naiveté, to continue to abet some of the members of this organization.”
Iran Focus
London, 02 Mar – The Free Trade Union of Workers of Iran announced the arrest of more than 10 workers from the National Iranian Steel Industrial Group in Ahvaz.
According to the workers’ organization, these workers were arrested on Thursday night March 1 after the security forces attacked their homes. The arrest order was issued by the regime’s Attorney General’s Office in Ahvaz.
Those arrested include Farhad Akbarian, Morteza Akbarian, Meysam Ali Ghanavati, Amin Momenpour, Hossein Nisi, Baqer Delphi, Taghi Hassanzadeh, Hadi Afravi and Mehdi Adelzadeh, according to the report.
Iran Focus
London, 02 Mar – Iran has detained 35 women for attempting to attend a football match on Thursday, March 1.
The match, between Tehran teams Esteqlal and Persepolis at the Azadi (Freedom) stadium, was being attended by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, and Iranian Sport Minister Masoud Soltanifar, which is why women’s rights activists called for female football fans to attend.
They believed that this protest against the sexist ban on women attending men’s football games, which has been in place since the mullahs took power in 1979, would have extra prominence with Infantino there and attract the FIFA chief’s attention to the issue.
Iran Focus
London, 02 Mar – An Iranian MP on the Parliamentary Committee for National Security and Foreign Policy is drafting a bill to separate the powers of the Intelligence Ministry and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Intelligence Organization.
On February 26, Mostafa Kavakebian told the semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA): “In my opinion, under the law, the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization is considered an agency that enforces judicial orders. At the same time, we have always believed that the legal authority in charge of espionage operations is the Intelligence Ministry and its decisions are also carried out by the Judiciary. So, naturally, there has to be a separation of responsibilities between these two security organizations.”
Iran Focus
London, 02 Mar – Iran’s activities in Latin America are a threat to the US’ role in the West. Iran is trying to replace the US as the power ally of the countries in Latin America.
Iran’s belligerence and quest for hegemony in the Middle East is well-covered. It is no secret and Iran barely makes an effort to cover up its activities. However, this cannot be said for its activities in Latin America which, although they have been going on for many years, are relatively under the radar.
Iran Focus
London, 02 Mar – Earlier this week, the Financial Action Task Force met in Paris. One of the items on the agenda was to discuss whether Iran’s banking system is clean. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is the global standard setting body for anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT).
For more than two decades, the United States Treasury Department has attempted to trace how banks in Iran are being used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to fund militias and terror groups.
The FATF called on Iran to address the “remaining action items” in full.
Iran Focus
London, 01 Mar – Reports indicate that Iran has built and set up a military base just outside the Syrian capital. It is being used to store its missiles that are reportedly able to strike Israel.
The base, with brand new hangars, is located eight miles from Damascus. ImageSat International has satellite images showing the structure.
Intelligence experts have said that the base is being operated by the special operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – the Quds Force. There are apparently a couple of hangars that contain short-range and medium-range missiles.
Iran Focus
London, 01 Mar – An Iranian hacking group that has previously conducted surveillance on the Iranian people for the Regime is now setting its sights on other places in the Middle East, according to a new report from Symantec.
The cybersecurity firm reports that in 2017 the group, known as Chafer, had been targeting airlines, aircraft services, telecom firms, and technology companies serving the air and sea transport sectors in Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran Focus
London, 01 Mar – Sweden recently granted citizenship to a disaster medicine expert currently on death row in Iran, with the hopes that it will allow the Swedish Foreign Ministry to intervene in the case and get the doctor released.
Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali, who taught at the Karolinska Institute of Medicine in Stockholm and worked in the research department of the Free University Brussels (VUB), visited Iran for a medical conference in 2016, where he was arrested and charged with spying for Israel. In October 2017, he was tried and sentenced to death.
Djalali’s wife Vida Mehrannia explained that decision to grant him Swedish citizenship gives her hope that he will be released.
Iran Focus
London, 01 Mar – The United Nations Human Rights Council has invited the Iranian Justice Minister Alireza Avayi to speak at its latest session, which began this week, and that sets a very low bar for human rights.
Avayi has been sanctioned by the European Union for many reasons, but the worst is his long record of human rights violations, including his role in the mass execution of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988.
The massacre, described as one of the worst crimes against humanity since World War II, was ordered in a fatwa by then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini.
