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By INU Staff
INU - Last week, Iran launched several ballistic missiles into Syria, with ISIS being the apparent target. Not long after this incident, a US fighter aircraft shot down a Syrian jet. The following day, a US jet shot an Iran-made drone that was heading towards a US-backed rebel outpost from the sky in southern Syria.
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Iran Focus
London, 22 Jun - Forty-Six US Congressmen and women have sponsored a resolution which calls on the US Government and its allies across the world to publically condemn the 1988 massacre of Iranian political prisoners and calls on the UN to launch an investigation into this crime against humanity.
Unlike much in Congress nowadays, Resolution 188 (officially titled: The condemnation of the Iranian government for the massacre of political prisoners in 1988 and the invitation to call for justice for the victims) receives wide bipartisan support.
The main victims of the massacre were members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK), an anti-fundamentalist group who espoused equal rights, a secular government and a ban on the death penalty, whom the Regime wanted to exterminate because the opposition was becoming too strong.
The resolution stipulates that those responsible for the brutal massacre of the MEK should be held to account for their roles. None of them have ever been punished for this slaughter, not even under the supposed moderate Hassan Rouhani; who interestingly cannot account for his whereabouts during the massacre.
Last year, the Iranian Resistance, which includes the MEK as its largest group, revealed the names of 59 current Regime officials who were involved in the massacre of the MEK, including “Justice” Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi. Head of the Supreme Disciplinary Court for Judges Hossein-Ali Nayyeri, and Ebrahim Raisi, a member of the Assembly of Experts and 2017 presidential candidate.
Some of the co-sponsors include:
• Michael McCaul (Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee)
• Ed Royce (Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee)
• Eliot Engel (ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee)
• Pete Sessions (the Chair of House Rules Committee)http://bit.ly/2sIPxgz
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Iran Focus
London, 22 Jun - The Iranian Resistance group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) held a press conference in Washington on Tuesday, to expose the real threat of the Iranian Regime’s ballistic weapons programme.
It appears that in the wake of the nuclear deal, which severely limited the research and development of nuclear weapons in Iran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to focus on their ballistic missiles instead.
Members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the largest faction within the NCRI, revealed 42 sites related to the production, testing, and launching of ballistic missiles.
Alireza Jafarzadeh, Deputy Director of the NCRI’s US office, said: “A dozen of these sites were revealed for the very first time. Among the 42 sites, 15 are part of the regime’s missile manufacturing network. These 15 centres include several factories related to a missile industry group and together form a web of dozens of missile production facilities.”
Four of these sites (Semnan, eastern Tehran, Lar, south-central Iran, Khorramabad, western Iran and Karaj, western Tehran) were highlighted by the MEK sources as particularly important.
Only two of these are officially recognised by the Iranian Regime indicating that, as when the MEK revealed Iran’s nuclear programme, the Regime is trying to hide their intentions.
The Regime has claimed that they are building and launching missiles, as they did in Syria on Sunday, in order to defeat ISIS but Jafarzadeh rebuffed that.
He said: “The primary reason for launching these missiles was in no way ISIS.”
The Regime has also been working with North Korea on the missiles and missile sites and it is worrying that they could easily combine the ballistic missiles with nuclear weapons once the nuclear deal runs out in less than 10 years.http://bit.ly/2t1opw9
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The findings show the first full picture of the missile program of the Iranian regime, which is very extensive and costly |
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As the international community watched to see who would be pulled out of the ballot box in Iran’s Presidential election last month, many Iranians refused to participate in the process, seeing no real prospect for change in their country and not wanting to encourage the perception of legitimacy for the existing government.
Despite state media propaganda of a high turnout (which the regime has claimed at each of its sham polls), this time the online social sphere was full of images of empty voting stations and posters on walls calling for a boycott. The organized boycott was led by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), the principle opposition group to the Ayatollahs’ regime.
The country’s leading opposition group has continued to attract support throughout the past three decades, even after regime authorities attempted to destroy the group in the midst of a massacre of political prisoners, which killed 30,000 in the summer of 1988. It has also continued to accumulate supporters and organize activist demonstrations in the four years since Rouhani took office on promises of greater civil rights and less restrictions on cultural activities and free expression.
The undiminished appeal of the PMOI is indicative of how little has changed in the wake of Rouhani’s election. As a matter of fact, some conditions inside the country have only grown worse, with the Rouhani administration overseeing approximately 3,000 executions and an enhanced crackdown on activists, journalists, dual nationals, and many other sectors. The administration’s true feelings about human rights issues were made clear the moment Rouhani chose Mostafa Pourmohammadi as his Justice Minister: a man who had served as one of the four judges on the “death commission” that determined whom to hang in 1988.http://bit.ly/2rSdvni
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Acting as a major wake up call for Iran, the US Senate on Thursday sent a strong message to the mullahs through a bill fit to place new sanctions targeting Tehran’s ballistic missile program, its support for regional and global terrorism and human rights violations.
Experts have noted the powerful nature of these new measures and analysts close to the Iranian regime have dubbed this measure as the “mother of all sanctions.”
Foad Izadi, a Tehran University assistant professor, in a recent interview with state TV reflected on the depth of this advantage and described the nuclear sanctions as child’s play in comparison.
When we place these new sanctions alongside US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s support for regime change in Iran through peaceful steps and Members of Congress calling for blacklisting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization, we find the mullahs on the receiving end of very commanding signal.
The 98-2 vote has approved a sleek text that abides by the Iran nuclear deal. These sanctions, technically considered secondary, are in compliance with the nuclear deal due to the very characteristics of Iran’s missile program being excluded from the so-called “landmark” agreement that has failed to provide anything to boast about for the Iranian people. This was yet another concession provided by the Obama administration to Tehran, and the mullahs are seeking to capitalize by operating hand in hand.http://bit.ly/2sfDiJF
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By Jubin Katiraie
It is sometimes now that many US officials have been talking about Iran and the actions that US must take towards Iran. In a hearing in the congress, the Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, in response to a question about the US policy towards Iran said: “Well our Iranian policy is under development. It’s not yet been delivered to the president, but I would tell you that we certainly recognize Iran’s continued destabilizing presence in the region, their payment of foreign fighters, their export of militia forces in Syria, in Iraq, in Yemen, their support for Hezbollah. And we are taking action to respond to Iran’s hegemony. Additional sanctions actions have been put in place against individuals and others.”
“We continually review the merits both from the standpoint of diplomatic but also international consequences of designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in its entirety as a terrorist organization,” he added. “As you know, we have designated the Quds [Force]. Our policy towards Iran is to push back on this hegemony, contain their ability to develop obviously nuclear weapons, and to work toward support of those elements inside of Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of that government. Those elements are there, certainly as we know.”
The fact is that for years Iranian people have been seeking for a regime change, but the brutal internal suppression, and international and especially US policy of appeasement towards Iran have been the main obstacles to reach this goal.
Contrary to many other countries, in Iran a democratic and organized opposition exists. The Mujahedin-e-Khalq or the MEK has been struggling with this regime for over thirty eight years. Since June 20, 1981 Iranian regime has executed over 120000, mostly members and supporters of the MEK. Only in summer of 1988 over 30000 political prisoners, majority of them from the MEK, were massacred. During this massacre the death committee was going to the prisons and asking the prisoners if they are still supporting the MEK, and if the answer was yes, they would immediately be hanged.
In addition to the massacre of MEK supports, Iranian regime created an atmosphere of fear and terror in the society. The terror atmosphere was such that whoever had any connection of any kind with the MEK they would be arrested and tortured. Even using the name of MEK was prohibited. Any call or communication with MEK members in camps Ashraf and Liberty in Iraq by their family members was considered a crime and many MEK family members were arrested and tortured just because they called to talk to their loved ones.
Despite all the carnage, pressures and suppression, the MEK continued its struggle against the regime. After transfer of MEK members from Iraq to Albania, they focused their activities inside Iran. During the sham Presidential elections, supporters of the MEK posted pictures and posters of Maryam Rajavi, the President elect of NCRI, in the public places in many Iranian cities. The extent of these activities was such that the regime was terrified and compelled to react and cover the activities in their media.
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Iran: Rouhani's Second Term Will Not Improve Social or Economic Crises |
Iran Focus
London, 20 May - The corrupt Iranian system is weaker than it has ever been following the sham presidential election. Internal disputes prove that the regime is divided and is beyond repair.
The President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, said that a second term for Hassan Rouhani will not bring any change to Iran. The regime will continue to supress the people and its failure at resolving the social problems in the country will become more and more evident.
Mrs. Rajavi said: “Crisis has precipitated at the leadership level of the religious fascism and would continue until the downfall of the regime of the velayat-e faqih (absolute rule of clergy).”
She also said that discontent is growing in the country and more and more people are standing up and speaking out against the leadership. This was evident over the past few days when dissidents risked imprisonment, arrest, torture and even execution to display posters across the country urging people to abstain from voting in the sham elections. They also called for the overthrow of the regime.
Mrs. Rajavi said that Supreme Leader Khamenei feels that the only way the country’s crises can be dealt with is through medieval measures that have no place in society today. Also, the fact that he was unable to manipulate the results of the election so that Raisi won is a major blow to his authority.
As a result of this election campaign, even more public attention was drawn to the horrific 1988 massacre in which more than 30,000 political prisoners were executed. Raisi had a major role in this massacre and the fact that he was very close to becoming the president of the country is proof that Iran rules with fear and violence.
During the election campaign, the chosen candidates admitted that the Iranian ruling system has a very small amount of public support – only 4 percent of the population supports it.
Rouhani’s presidency in the past 4 years was rife with poverty, suppression, injustice and thousands of executions. Although the nuclear deal freed up a huge amount of money for the country, most of it was plundered on the spread of terrorism, funding wars in the region and security expenses.
In February this year, Rouhani admitted that the Iranian proxies’ presence in Syria and Iraq was used as leverage to get Iran what it wanted from the nuclear deal. He said that if Iran was not present in these countries they “would not have had any security in order to be able to conduct the negotiations so well”.http://bit.ly/2qa2cG7
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