Iran Focus
London, 24 Nov – Thousands have taken to the internet and social media to campaign for the release of a British charity worker falsely imprisoned in Iran, as media outlets began to report that she could face a second trial on new bogus propaganda charges as early as next month.
If convicted of these new ridiculous charges, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe could be sentenced to an additional five years in the notorious Evin prison, according to her husband Richard Ratcliffe.
Iran Focus
London, 23 Nov – A Kuwaiti daily newspaper has stood by a report that it published on Wednesday, November 22, in which it said that the Iranian Regime was interested in opening a secret dialogue with Saudi Arabia over tensions in the Middle East.
Al Jarida’s report noted that Mohammad Irani, director-general for the Middle East and North Africa at the Iranian foreign ministry, was sent to Tunisia, earlier this week, as a personal representative of Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif.
Irani’s was tasked with persuading his Tunisian counterpart, Khemaies Jhinaoui, to intervene in the dispute between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which would involve suggesting the possibility of behind-the-scenes talks between the two Middle Eastern countries to Saudi Arabia and potentially act as a mediator.
Iran Focus
London, 23 Nov – The head of the Iranian Navy has announced his plans to send ships to Mexico and South America, in his first speech since taking office.
Commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi promised that the Iranian flag would fly in the Gulf of Mexico and that Iranian boats in the Atlantic Ocean would soon be a routine occurrence, according to the state-run Tasnim news agency.
There was also an emphasis on new technologies, in his speech, that would help Iran to “dominate” the Atlantic Ocean and the waters close to Iran.
Iran Focus
London, 23 Nov – While the Thanksgiving holiday is unique to North America, many people around the world will share what they are thankful for via hastags on social media no matter what country they live in.
Those living under the Iranian Regime will not partake however. It’s not because, as some media outlets imply, they are opposed to American values (most love the democratic, secular governments of the West) but because they have little to be thankful for.
Iran Focus
London, 22 Nov – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) should be added to the United Kingdom’s list of proscribed terrorist groups, according to a motion tabled by UK Members of Parliament.
Early Day Motion 483, tabled on 31 October 2017, “calls on the Government to include the IRGC on the list of proscribed organisations, impose punitive measures against its officials and to work with allies to expel the IRGC from Syria, Iraq and the Middle East”.
Iran Focus
London, 22 Nov – There are currently 30 dual nationals detained in Iran on false charges of plotting the overthrow of the Iranian Regime or spying for a foreign power or whatever else the mullahs have chosen to tar them with. This is 30 too many.
Since the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers was signed in 2015, the number of dual nationals arrested in Iran has actually gone up, according to Reuters, meaning that the Regime’s bad behaviour was not solved by the deal.
The Iranian Regime has a long history of taking dual or foreign nationals hostage in order to demand a ransom (of money and/or weapons) from their home country.
Iran Focus
London, 22 Nov – Federal prosecutors have announced charges against an Iranian military hacker who broke into HBO’s computer network this summer in order to extort millions of dollars from the company.
The indictment, unsealed in New York on Tuesday, said that Behzad Mesri, “had worked on behalf of the Iranian military to conduct computer network attacks that targeted military systems, nuclear software systems, and Israeli infrastructure”.
Although the document doesn’t state that the Iranian Regime told Mesri to attack HBO, it should be made clear that he is deeply tied to the Regime and would be unlikely to attack such a prominent target without their permission. He is not a lone hacker working from his bedroom, but a highly trained operative who has much experience in hacking international targets for the mullahs.
Iran Focus
London, 22 Nov – When Donald Trump refused to “recertify” Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal back in October, he received a lot of criticism from the other signatories (Europe, Russia, China) politicians in his own country and even those in his own administration, who saw this as hastening Iran’s drive to develop nuclear weapons.
However, the nuclear pact wasn’t much of a deterrent in the first place. It only deferred Iran from legally developing nuclear weapons for a matter of years. Critically, the nuclear deal did not prevent Iran’s development of ballistic weapons, which they have been eagerly developing and testing since then, and used to threaten other countries in the Middle East, specifically US allies like Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Iran Focus
London, 21 Nov – Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned in a shock conference live from the Saudi Arabian capital, earlier this month, noting that he was unable to lead a government which was infiltrated by foreign agents who were plotting to assassinate him.
Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that is backed by the Iranian Regime, controls much of the Lebanese government to the extent that Hariri felt he could no longer stop them from their destabilising actions across the Middle East.
Hezbollah, as an Iran proxy, is involved is money laundering, drug trafficking and militia financing to destabilise the Middle East and prop up a violent sectarian system.
Iran Focus
London, 21 Nov – The Iranian Regime is meddling in the sovereign affairs of the other Middle Eastern states. Indeed from the constant news reports out of Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, it seems as if Iran is trying to build a new empire.
This is no new thing. Iran’s regional ambitions have been clear to those paying attention for quite some time. That’s why in 2014, after the fall of Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the Iranian Regime claimed control of four regional capitals (including Beirut, Damascus and Baghdad).
Since that time Iran’s chokehold on these cities has only tightened.
