This is the fourth and final piece in a series about the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
When we left off last time, the mullahs had stolen the 1979 Revolution from the MEK and the people of Iran and were instead using it to serve their own interests. Ruhollah Khomeini had returned from exile only to appoint Supreme Leader (essentially, naming himself king) and appoint the clergy to the government against the wishes of the Iranian People.
Iran Focus
London, 15 Feb – On 12th February 2008, Hezbollah lost Imad Mughniyeh – one of the terrorist group’s most ruthless military commanders. He was behind the 1983 US Marine barracks bombing in Beirut and the 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in which 29 civilians died and 242 were injured. He was also the mastermind behind the 1994 attack on the AMIA’s (Argentine Israelite Mutual Association) building in Buenos Aires.
He was killed in Damascus, Syria, just after attending an event held by Iranian patrons to mark the 29th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. When he got to his car, an explosive detonated – killing just Mughniyeh. It turns out that the spare tyre in his vehicle was replaced with an explosive that detonated as he approached it.
Iran Focus
London, 14 Feb – The Iran has unveiled a range of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles at this weekend’s military parades, despite a UN resolution against developing those missiles.
The nuclear-capable missile appears to be similar to North Korean technology, according to experts, and according to Iran it has radar-evading capability and can even strike Israel from Iranian territory.
As such, it looks like these missiles will further inflame tensions between Israel and Iran, given that the Iran fuels terrorist proxies on Israel’s borders and could easily supply the groups with these missiles as they do for the Houthis against Saudi Arabia.
Iran Focus
London, 14 Feb – A British charity worker imprisoned in Iran on bogus spying charges is being psychologically tortured by the authorities of Iran, according to campaigners.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been held in Iran for almost two years, is the victim of a “state-orchestrated campaign [of] psychological abuse” that meets United Nations criteria for torture, according to anti-torture charity Redress.
The charity have written to Professor Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture, on behalf of the Free Nazanin campaign with evidence that Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being tortured to coerce the British Government to negotiate a deal for her release (i.e. paying a ransom to Iran) or force her to confess to spying on behalf of the UK and provide information about others.
Iran Focus
London, 14 Feb – Iran is reportedly seeking to rewrite the “rules of the game” over Israel’s involvement in Syria, now that the Syrian Regime is largely taking over the country again and Syrian rebels are largely defeated.
You can see this from the Israeli fighter jet that was shot down in Syria last weekend, in relation to the downing of an Iranian drone in Israeli airspace and Israeli bombs dropped on terrorist targets in Syria.
Before the attack on the fighter jet, Israel had the expectation that its attacks on Iranian-Hezbollah weapons convoys and production facilities would not be met with a military response as either Syria or Hezbollah could afford a war with Israel.
In an earlier piece, we covered how the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and its president-elect Maryam Rajavi would improve the lives of Iranian women in 10 key areas ranging from employment to marriage to the legal system.
This piece will cover women’s participation in the political system in more detail.
In our earlier piece, we wrote that Maryam Rajavi believes that women should have equal rights to participate in the country’s political leadership, including the formulation and implementation of government policy, the holding of public office, and the ability to perform all public functions at all levels of government.
Iran Focus
London, 13 Feb – The government of Yemen has declared that it will confront the Iran-backed Houthi militias in front of European powers.
Mohammed Askar, Yemen’s Human Rights Minister, said that the first major focus for the government is tackling the false reports on human rights conditions in the conflict-filled country that are being spread by the Houthis, Iran , and their lobbyists.
Iran Focus
London, 13 Feb – Donald Trump is looking to fill the role of presidential envoy to Syria as part of the US’s new plan to secure and hold “open military presence” on the east of the Euphrates River.
Whoever is picked as the presidential envoy to Syria will have a tough job ahead in order to achieve peace in the county.
Iran Focus
London, 13 Feb – The Iranian Defense Ministry unveiled a new propulsion system for its military speedboats on February 12.
Brigadier General Qassem Taqizadeh, the deputy defence minister, told Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), that the system was incredibly advanced and has a horsepower of 1,800.
Iran Focus
London, 13 Feb – At the World Government Summit in Dubai, the American political scientist who forecast the “end of history,” Francis Fukuyama, said that Iran was heading toward a crisis caused by social tensions between generations within the country. “In Iran there has been a social revolution going on beneath the surface. There is a young population, well-educated women in particular, who do not correspond to the rural, conservative power structure that runs the country. It’s headed toward some kind of explosion and I’m not sure of the outcome, but it is not a stable situation,” he said.
