Iran Focus
Paris, 26 Jul – Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, condemned the terrorist attack on a church in northern France and the murder of its elderly priest.
In a statement on July 26, she called this atrocity, “barbaric” and “cowardly”, and described it as being “in diametric contrast to the teachings of all major religions and humane values.”
Iran Focus
London, 25 Jul – The UK released a Human Rights Priority Country update report in which the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that in the last six months the human rights situation in Iran has only gotten worse.
The report based on the period January to June 2016 was published on July 21.
It states: “In many respects, the situation has worsened, despite President Rouhani pledging to improve the rights and freedoms of the citizens of Iran when he was elected.”
Iran Focus
Tehran, 25 Jul – Iranian officials arrested 150 young people for attending a mixed-gender birthday party in Islamshahr, near Tehran.
In a statement given to the regime-affiliated news agency, Tasnim, on July 25, Colonel Mohsen Khancherli, the regime’s police commander for the west of Tehran Province, said: “After we obtained a report about a mixed-gender party in a garden in the vicinity of Islamshahr in the west of Tehran Province, an operation was carried out by the police and another organization, leading to the arrest of dozens of boys and girls.”
Iran Focus
London, 25 Jul – Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir made a speech highlighting Iran’s sponsorship of terrorist organisations at an event about terrorism held by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brussels on 21 July.
Al-Jubeir’s statement, broadcast on Al-Arabiya, was made in response to comments from the Iranian Consul General that Saudi Arabia had sent terrorists to Iran and stated: “Iran did not say anything that is based in fact”.
Iran Focus
London, 25 Jul – The authorities in Iran destroyed 100,000 satellite dishes and receivers as part of a crackdown against the banned devices.
State media agency, Basij News, reported that the destruction ceremony took place on Sunday, June 24, in the presence of General Mohammad Reza Naghdi, head of the Iranian regime’s Basij militia.
Naghdi warned of the terrible impact that satellite television has on society’s morals.
Iran Focus
24 Jul – Authorities in Iran have arrested at least 50 young men and women who attended a mixed-gender party.
“Families must be more vigilant regarding their children to make sure they do not end up in such circumstances”, says Mojtaba Vahedi, the head of the judiciary in Damavand, east of Tehran.
A report on Friday, July 22, by the state-run Tasnim news agency said more than 50 young men and women were arrested at a party that was organized via social networking.
Iran Focus
London, 22 Jul – Reuters reported on Thursday that the Kingdom of Bahrain has uncovered and dismantled an Iranian-linked cell plotting attacks on its territory. Five suspects were arresting after bomb-making materials, guns, and knives were discovered in their homes.
According to a statement by Bahrain’s interior ministry, the five men had received military training in Iran and Iraq. On Friday, The Asharq Al-Awsat reported that they men were members of a terrorist cell linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Iraqi Hezbollah, who received intensive training in terrorist activities at the camps. They were captured two weeks ago by Bahraini Security Forces in a preemptive strike.
Iran Focus
London, 22 Jul – In an article written on June 29 by Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, and published on the Focus Online website two weeks prior to the court hearings that faced two Iranians in Germany, the former German Justice Minister talked about the issue of Iran’s espionage against the Iranian Resistance, in particular against members of the main opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK).
Iran Focus
London, 22 Jul – Michael J. Totten writes in World Affairs: In 1997, US President Bill Clinton added Iran’s People’s Mujahadeen (Mujahideen Khalq in Persian, or MEK) to the list of designated foreign terrorist organizations, and in 2012 his wife Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took them off. One of them erred and erred badly.
He points out that the MEK fought hard against the Shah Reza Pahlavi before and during the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Afterward, when the Islamist faction led by Ayatollah Khomeini emerged the strong horse in the ensuing struggle for power, they fought the new government alongside Iran’s leftist movements and lost.
By Hamid Yazdan Panah
Each year the Iranian resistance holds a massive convention in Paris calling for democratic change in Iran. The event draws tens of thousands of participants, more than a hundred elected officials and dignitaries from various countries, and brings together a multitude of political groups and factions. This year things felt a little different, as the event not only garnered significant attention worldwide, but also reflected the steady and deliberate pace at which the Iranian resistance continues to sustain its movement.
