Worries Mount over Sanctions’ Ripple Effect
WASHINGTON, Jul 8, 2010 (IPS) - Although the United States and its allies insist that the latest round of U.N. sanctions against Iran targets high-level government officials rather than the general population, interviews with a number of analysts, activists and journalists in Tehran reveal a growing concern over the impact on the country’s middle class.
“The government will use the oil money to prevent pressure on the lower classes, but the main pressure will be on the middle class, the majority of whom are anti-government,” a former governmental official told IPS on the condition of anonymity. Read more
July 9, 2010 1 Comment
Iran Pressured to Open Doors to U.N. Rights Investigators
GENEVA, Jun 11 (IPS) - The Iranian government rejected charges that it has violated human rights and freedom of speech and assembly before a session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva Thursday - the same day that the Iranian opposition’s request to hold a peaceful protest was denied by authorities.
Although Tehran insists there is a standing invitation for U.N. special human rights rapporteurs to visit, none have gained access to the country since 2005. ”We would like see the Iranians actually follow through with concrete action on their commitment to allow special rapporteurs, as well as the [U.N.] high commissioner’s office, to enter Iran and do full investigations of the human rights situation,” Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the U.S. representative to the Council, told IPS. Read more
June 17, 2010 2 Comments
Anniversary Preview: Tehran Gets the Jitters
June 10, 2010 | 10:29pm, the Daily Beast
Tension is building in Tehran ahead of Saturday’s anniversary of the Iranian protests. Omid Memarian talks to people in the Iranian capital.
In advance of the one-year anniversary of Iran’s disputed elections on Saturday, the government has sent security forces into the streets of Tehran to prevent another popular uprising. Already, plainclothes police and students have clashed violently, and the government has warned against further protest rallies. Confrontations with women over how to dress, and the execution of five dissidents last month have contributed to tensions in the capital.
When students gathered at the Azad University recently, chanting slogans such as “death to the dictator,” and protesting recent arrests, plainclothes officers swiftly cracked down on the demonstrators, who were beaten, according to reports by people who were there.
“It seems that as we get closer to the anniversary of last year’s elections… confrontations and threats intensify.”
A few days later, the police commander of greater Tehran, General Hossein Sajedinia, told an official news agency that police forces would not hesitate to confront illegal demonstrations.
Read more
June 10, 2010 1 Comment
Iran’s Hanging Judge
Jun 9 2010, Institute for War and Peace Reporting- Abolghasem Salavat, dubbed “Judge of Death”, and two colleagues have presided over most political trials since last year’s unrest.A decision to show clemency to 81 of the people detained in the unrest that followed last year’s presidential election in Iran has once again shone the spotlight on the country’s judicial and penal systems.
On June 2, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved a recommendation by the head of the judiciary. Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, to release some of the 81 under amnesty and reduce the sentences of the rest. Read more
June 9, 2010 1 Comment
Divisions Sharpen as Iran Girds for Renewed Protests
BERKELEY, California, Jun 7, 2010 (IPS) - A week before the first anniversary of Iran’s contested presidential elections, the disruption of a speech by the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini during a memorial service for the founder of the Islamic Republic on Jun. 4 has once more publicly exposed the rift within the top level of Iran’s leadership.
According to the government, two million Basij militia members and supporters from all over the country were mobilised to come to Tehran to participate in last week’s ceremonies marking the 21st anniversary of Khomeini’s death.
However, many believe the rallies were in fact intended to intimidate the opposition protesters expected to take to the streets on Jun. 12, a year after the polls in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner and the government waged a bloody crackdown in which hundreds were arrested and jailed. Read more
June 7, 2010 2 Comments
WSJ: IRAN IS ABUSING THREE MORE AMERICAN HOSTAGES
The Wall Street Journal, April 3 2010- As the three Americans detained in Iran near the end of their eighth month in captivity, it has become increasingly clear that their case, like those of so many other prisoners in Iran, is not legal but political and a matter of human rights.
Since Sarah Shourd, 31, Shane Bauer, 27, and Josh Fattal, 27, were arrested by Iranian authorities who claimed they illegally crossed the border from neighboring Iraq last July, the three Americans have been almost completely cut off from the outside world. Swiss Ambassador Livia Leu Agosti, whose embassy represents U.S. interests in Iran, was able to visit the trio twice, but the last time was in late October. It was not until March 9—more than seven months after their arrests—that the three were permitted to call their families for the first time. Read more
April 21, 2010 1 Comment
Can Iran’s Opposition Find Montazeri Replacement?
IWPR Institute (Mianeh)- The death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s most outspoken critic late last month came as a blow to the opposition movement in Iran. But the void left by the loss of Grand Ayatollah Ali Montazeri may yet galvanise other senior Shia clerics into vocal criticism of the regime, thus shifting the equation in the opposition’s favour.
Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died on December at the age of 87, effectively served as both spiritual leader and unifying force for Iran’s reform-minded opposition. Uniquely, he enjoyed popularity among secular activists and the intellectual elite as well as the devout. Read more
January 9, 2010 1 Comment
Q&A: Attack on Karrubi Was a “Coordinated Effort”
BERKELEY, California, Jan 8 (IPS) - Hussein Karrubi, the son of Iranian opposition figure Mehdi Karrubi, whose car was struck by two bullets on Thursday in Qazvin, a city near Tehran, tells IPS the Islamic Republic is trying to silence and intimidate his father. Many analysts believe that the escalating attacks by security forces on opposition figures could push the popular protests, which have been ongoing since the disputed Jun. 12 elections, to a new level. Read more
January 9, 2010 2 Comments
IRAN: Revolutionary Guards Tighten Economic Hold
BERKELEY, California, Dec 29 (IPS) - News that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps is withdrawing a billion dollars from the country’s Foreign Reserve Fund in order to complete Phases 15 and 16 of the gigantic South Pars gas project has generated concern among Iranian analysts, who believe the move reveals the military organisation’s excessive power over Iran’s economy.
In view of looming sanctions from the United States and the United Nations Security Council over Iran’s nuclear programme, the IRGC’s control over the country’s sensitive oil, and gas and nuclear industries could provoke a serious crisis, they warn. Read more
December 29, 2009 2 Comments
Q&A: “The Government Took My Sister Hostage”
BERKELEY, California, Dec 31 (IPS) - The Iranian government has intensified its pressure on political and human rights activists since the harsh crackdown on protesters on the holy day of Ashura, arresting major political figures and even their family members, including Noushin Ebadi, the sister of Noble Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi.
Even the Shah, before the 1979 Revolution, was hesitant to use violence against demonstrators during the religious ceremonies on Ashura, the day that the grandson of the seventh-century Prophet Muhammad and the third Imam of Shiite Muslims was killed. Read more
December 29, 2009 Leave a Comment
How to Help the Three American “Hikers” Come Home Soon
HuffPo-The Iranian government has announced that they will try the three American citizens who strayed across an unmarked border into Iran in late July. But the question remains how can the U.S. government help free them? And what should the families do to make this perplexing story be over?
Considering similar patterns in the past, it’s almost clear that the three young adventurists are not spies. In fact, if the Iranian authorities had any evidence in this regards, they would have presented it months ago in a public trial to embarrass the U.S. government; something they thrive on.
At this time the families are facing two scenarios. Read more
December 16, 2009 1 Comment
Iran’s protest movement has entered a new phase
The DailyStar-Last week, six months after Iran’s June 12 presidential elections, thousands of students protested against the government in universities across Iran – a strong signal that Iran’s domestic crisis is far from over, and moreover, entering a new phase.
Six months ago, the major focus of the hundreds of thousands of protesters who marched the streets of Tehran was to show their anger and dissatisfaction with the election results, which many believed were rigged and resulted in not only Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election, but also beliefs that this pre-planned coup was orchestrated with the support of the Revolutionary Guards, the para-military Basij, and the military intelligence.
Read more
December 16, 2009 Leave a Comment
“A Death in Tehran” And the Most Influential Video of the Year
HuffPo- After watching Frontline World’s “A Death in Tehran” documentary, I can say, undoubtedly, that if we want to pick one picture or short video of 2009, in terms of impact and influence, it’s the video that documented the moment Neda, a 27-year-old Iranian, was shot during the post elections unrest on the streets of Tehran last June; a video that penetrated layers of censorship and unmasked a government. The documentary beautifully exposes the Iranian government’s fierce but failed endeavors to manipulate the truth. Read more
November 26, 2009 2 Comments
Iran’s Leaders Battle Over Khomeini’s Legacy
TIME, By Robert Baer and Omid Memarian- Are the wheels coming off the Iranian regime bus? On July 26, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fired the country’s Intelligence Minister, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie, a man who customarily reported directly to the Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, rather than to the President. The move came a day after Khamenei had forced Ahmadinejad to drop Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie as his candidate for Vice President. But in an act of flagrant defiance of Khamenei, Ahmadinejad appointed Mashaie as his chief of staff. All this suggests that a political brawl is raging within the corridors of power, the likes of which the world has not seen since Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini died in 1989.
July 28, 2009 Leave a Comment
A coup Manual: What We should Know About Iran’s Election?
HuffPo- The foreign media and western states are confused and puzzled as to how to interpret the Iranian election on June 12th. Over the past few days I’ve been speaking with many journalists in Tehran who normally go there for one or two weeks on assignment. Many of them, initially, believed that Ahmadinejad’s declared re-election was similar in nature to his first term election in 2005. Meaning that he had successfully mobilized his base of poor people and conservatives and that the reformists and Iranian middle class had, once again, lost the election. But recent development tells us that this is not the real story.
So, what are the sources of confusion? What went wrong and why are people angry and un-accepting of the results? Here are some essential questions that one might ask in order to fully understand the issues at hand: Read more
June 16, 2009 2 Comments
