Book claims slain Iranian IRGC Commander Soleimani ordered killing of Yemen Saleh
Slain Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander Qassem Soleimani had ordered the killing of former Yemen president Ali Abdullah Saleh, according to a recently published book on Soleimani.
The book, titled “The Shadow Commander; Soleimani, the US, and Iran’s Global Ambitions,” is a biography of Soleimani by US-based Iranian journalist Arash Azizi.
In the book, Azizi wrote that Soleimani directly ordered the killing of Yemen’s slain ex-president Saleh, who was killed in 2017 by the Iran-backed Houthi militia after he turned against it.“Two members of the Quds Force involved in setting Iran’s Yemen policy told me this separately. Additionally, a source in the Houthi leadership said this was a request from Soleimani, which had been agreed to by the Houthis themselves,” Azizi said in an interview on his book with Beirut-based think tank the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center.“The circumstances described by them led me to believe the information was credible. It also sat right with what I knew about Soleimani and his decision-making style,” Azizi added. Soleimani, who headed the Quds Force, the overseas arms IRGC, was killed in a US airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport on January 3. He was considered the second most powerful figure in the Iranian regime after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.“Two members of the Quds Force involved in setting Iran’s Yemen policy told me this separately. Additionally, a source in the Houthi leadership said this was a request from Soleimani, which had been agreed to by the Houthis themselves,” Azizi said in an interview on his book with Beirut-based think tank the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center.“The circumstances described by them led me to believe the information was credible. It also sat right with what I knew about Soleimani and his decision-making style,” Azizi added.
Ex-IRGC Commander Underlines Iran’s Pending Revenge for US Assassination of Gen. Soleimani
Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council (EC) Mohsen Rezayee underlined his country’s resolve to retaliate the US assassination of former IRGC Quds Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, stressing that Tehran’s response will come in due time.
“Today the fighters for humanity, freedom, rightness, and justice are proud of General Soleimani and take lessons from him in their struggles,” Rezayee, the former commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, said on Sunday.
“The US should rest assured that our harsh revenge won’t be over until the day when we expel them from the region by means of our measures and plans,” he added.
Rezayee said that Iran’s harsh revenge started with the attack on Ein al-Assad base in Iraq and will continue, adding, “We are lurking to hit our blows to the Americans in proper conditions.”
In relevant remarks last Wednesday, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei once again underlined Iran’s resolve to punish all those who have perpetrated and masterminded the terror attack on General Soleimani but said Tehran’s response would not be confined to one direct military action.
“The unforgettable funeral ceremony of martyrs Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis (deputy commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces) in Iran and Iraq in which millions of people participated, and the commemoration ceremonies of these two martyrs, astonished the generals of the arrogant powers’ soft war and was the first strong slap across the face of the Americans.
Ayatollah Khamenei said at a meeting with organizers of the commemoration ceremonies to be held to mark General Soleimani’s assassination also attended by his family members in Tehran.
Ayatollah Khamenei referred to the missile attacks on the US base of Ein al-Assad in Iraq after General Soleimani’s martyrdom.
While dreaming of another era of appeasement, Iran’s regime received major blows within the past two weeks.
On Tuesday, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the United Kingdom’s House of Commons urged the British government to proscribe the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist entity and condemned human rights violations in Iran.
The Iranian Resistance has urged the European countries to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
The Foreign Affairs Committee’s report underlined that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, is “imperfect.”
In January, the UK Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab said all that’s left of the JCPOA is a “shell of an agreement.” This is indeed due to the regime’s ongoing breaches of its commitment under the terms of the JCPOA.
The regime quickly reacted to the Foreign Affairs Committee’s report. Hamid Baidinejad, the terrorist regime’s ambassador in London, called this report “biased” and based on the reports of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), calling the latter a terrorist movement.
Perhaps Baidinejad had forgotten that recently his fellow diplomat-terrorist, Assadollah Assadi, went on trial in Belgium for attempting to bomb the opposition rally in 2018 in Paris.
So why has the regime shown such a reaction to this report?
This Foreign Affairs Committee’s report, and its recommendation that the UK government proscribe the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) will have significant consequences for the regime.
If the UK government proscribes the IRGC as a terrorist entity, after it was designated as such by the United States in 2019, it would make the IRGC a leprous phenomenon.
The IRGC controls Iran’s economy and acts as the regime’s elite force of oppression and export of terrorism. Thus, it will be a significant blow to the regime.
House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Urges UK to Blacklist Iran’s IRGC as a Terrorist Organization
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the United Kingdom’s House of Commons in a new report urged the British government to designate the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.
It is high time for the UK government to proscribe the IRGC as terrorists, which is the demand of the Iranian people and their Resistance.
“We recommend proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in its entirety for its clear and enduring support for terrorists and non-state actors working to undermine stability in the region,” read the report.
“Numerous witnesses described the human rights violations perpetrated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), both against the Iranian people and as exporters of terrorism regionally and internationally,” the report added, referring to the IRGC’s human rights violations.
During the November 2019 uprising, the IRGC forced killed at least 1500 protesters. Many more protesters were arrested and are under torture.
The United States previously designated the IRGC in its entirety as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2019. While referring to this fact, the UK Foreign Affairs Committee urged the UK government to take the same action.
“We are satisfied that the actions of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp meet the criteria for prescription in the Terrorism Act 2000 and see prescription as a logical extension of the existing restrictions placed on members of the IRGC by the EU’s sanctions regime.
The IRGC’s philosophy and malign actions within Iran and across the region run counter to the interests of the UK and those of the Iranian people,” the Foreign Affairs Committee added.
Previously, 37 Members of Parliament, in an Early Day Motion, urged the UK government to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist entity, for its terrorist activities in the Middle East and abroad, and violating Iranian people’s human rights.
State-Run Media Reflect Iran Regime’s Fear of Opposition MEK
A glance at Iran’s state-run media shows the regime’s fear of another uprising and the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
They also acknowledge society’s restiveness and people’s economic crisis due to the regime’s mismanagement.
In a new report, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the United Kingdom’s House of Commons urged the British government to designate the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organization and condemned human rights violations in Iran.
The Iranian Resistance has urged the European countries to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
“In its biased report, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the UK House of Commons made accusations against Iran’s security agencies and called for action against the Islamic Republic,” wrote the state-run Etemad daily on Thursday.
“This report has been prepared in the presence of a very limited number of MPs with a completely hostile approach.
[The report is] based on the analysis and recommendations of the MEK in their latest attempt to influences future developments,” Etemad added, quoting Hamid Baeidinejad, the regime’s Ambassador in the UK.
Of course, Hamid Baeidinejad, and his boss Javad Zarif are the last people who should comment on the issue of terrorism, because their colleague Assdollah Assadi is being tried in Belgium on the charges of a terrorist plot in Paris. Iran’s regime foreign ministry, through its embassies, is the main facilitator of the regime’s terrorism in Europe. The Iranian Resistance has been defending the Iranian people’s rights and exposing the regime’s malign activities in the world. The MEK and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) presented the world with information about the regime’s nuclear weapon program and the subsequent danger it posed to the world community.
Ruhollah Zam, an Iranian journalist, and oppositionist was hanged at Evin Prison on December 12.
He had been found guilty of “spreading corruption on Earth,” a catch-all term used by Iran’s regime to convict those it targets for activities in the field of political activity and espionage.
Zam, who had been in captivity since October 2019, was the founder and director of a popular Telegram channel and forum called Amad News, which carried up-to-the-minute information on the demonstrations and protests that swept Iran in 2017 and 2018.
The channel, which had 1.4 million followers, provided details regarding upcoming protests, and about officials who were challenging the regime.
The reach and influence of Amad News appear to have led to the regime’s decision to target and eliminate Zam. The journalist had lived in Paris since 2011.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), according to the available evidence, put in motion a complex sting operation to lure Zam to Iraq, from where he was kidnapped and taken to Iran.
The full details regarding this operation have not yet emerged, but what is known, or suspected, is casting a pall over Iran’s dissidents and opposition communities in Europe because of what it reveals regarding the apparent extent of their penetration by the agencies of the Iranian regime, and regarding the extent of Tehran’s sway over Iraq. So what do we know about the process by which Ruhollah Zam was lured to Iraq and then taken to Iran? First, it is important to note that for an Iranian dissident to leave the (relative) safety of France for Iraq is in itself a rash act bordering on foolhardiness. Iraq today is, to a great extent, Iranian-occupied territory. In a manner reminiscent of the situation in Lebanon, Tehran’s reach extends deep into the structures of Iraqi governance and security. Powerful Shia militias such as the Badr organization exert influence within the Interior Ministry. Via the structures of the Popular Mobilization Units, IRGC bodies play an official security role.
Iran is building something new at an underground nuclear site
Iran has begun construction on a site at its underground nuclear facility at Fordo amid tensions with the U.S. over its atomic program, satellite photos obtained Friday by The Associated Press show. Iran has not publicly acknowledged any new construction at Fordo, whose discovery by the West in 2009 came in an earlier round of brinkmanship before world powers struck the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.
While the purpose of the building remains unclear, any work at Fordo likely will trigger new concern in the waning days of the Trump administration before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Already, Iran is building at its Natanz nuclear facility after a mysterious explosion in July there that Tehran described as a sabotage attack.
“Any changes at this site will be carefully watched as a sign of where Iran’s nuclear program is headed,” said Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies who studies Iran.
Iran Briefing | News Press Focus on Human Rights Violation by IRGC, Iran Human Rights
Iran has begun construction on a site at its underground nuclear facility at Fordo amid tensions with the U.S. over its atomic program, satellite photos obtained Friday by The Associated Press show. Iran has not publicly acknowledged any new construction at Fordo, whose discovery by the West in 2009 came in an earlier round of brinkmanship before world powers struck the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. While the purpose of the building remains unclear, any work at Fordo likely will trigger new concern in the waning days of the Trump administration before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Already, Iran is building at its Natanz nuclear facility after a mysterious explosion in July there that Tehran described as a sabotage attack. “Any changes at this site will be carefully watched as a sign of where Iran’s nuclear program is headed,” said Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies who studies Iran.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Are Clearly Terrorists, and So Is the Whole Regime
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the British House of Commons recently issued a report that recommended terrorists designation for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“The IRGC’s philosophy and malign actions within Iran and across the region run counter to the interests of the UK and those of the Iranian people,” the report said after noting that the hardline paramilitary organization satisfies “the criteria for prescription in the Terrorism Act 2000.”
It remains to be seen whether the government of the United Kingdom will act in accordance with this recommendation, though the blacklisting of the IRGC is certainly long overdue.
It was already overdue in 2019 when the United States took that step, extending the label of “Foreign Terrorist Organization” to the entire paramilitary where it had once been limited to the foreign special operations division known as the Quds Force.
That move was formally embraced by 37 British Members of Parliament, who urged the UK to follow suit, thereby helping to set the stage for the recent report.
The lawmakers’ statement placed roughly equal emphasis on the IRGC’s support of foreign terrorism and its suppression of pro-democratic dissent both at home and abroad.
It also took a broader view of the pressure that might be exerted on Iranian institutions, identifying the Ministry of Intelligence and Security as something that is equally deserving of terrorist designation.
There is no immediate sign that this is on the table, but real action against the IRGC could be a sign of assertive trends in Western policy toward the Iranian regime as a whole.
Citizens of Western nations and supporters of Middle Eastern democracy should eagerly look forward to that outcome, and they should push aggressively for policies that support it.
Iran: UK MPs Support the Foreign Affairs Committee Recommendation To Proscribe IRGC
The co-president of the International Committee of Parliamentarians for a Democratic Iran, Bob Blackman MP issued the following press release on Thursday, 17 December, following the House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee published its report, No prosperity without justice: the UK’s relationship with Iran.
MPs support the Foreign Affairs Committee recommendation to proscribe IRGC
The House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee published a report titled “No prosperity without justice: the UK’s relationship with Iran” on 16 December 2020.
The Foreign Affairs Committee states: “Iran’s malign regional actions challenge the values which underpin British foreign policy.
International cooperation, safeguarding human rights, and upholding the rule of law are all weakened by Tehran.”
The British Committee for Iran Freedom (BCFIF) and the International Committee of Parliamentarians for a Democratic Iran wholeheartedly endorse and commend the work done by our colleagues in the Foreign Affairs Committee and share their recommendations to the Government in dealing with Iran. The report asks that the UK government “recognize and address the threat posed to ordinary people by the Iranian state.” It also urges “proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in its entirety for its clear and enduring support for terrorists and non-state actors working to undermine stability in the region.” We entirely agree with this timely and important recommendation. The IRGC is the main body responsible for the bloody crackdown on peaceful demonstrations by the Iranian people in November 2019, as noted by the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran. In addition, for years it has been wreaking havoc throughout the Middle East, as a result of which tens of thousands of innocent citizens have died. Recalling that an Iranian diplomat was arrested in 2018.
Iran arrests father and brother of executed wrestler while cleaning grave
Iranian intelligence agents have arrested the brother and father of Navid Afkari, the champion Greco-Roman wrestler who was executed by the regime in September for his participation in a protest against the clerical system of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
“A source told IranWire that Hossein Afkari and his son Hamid were cleaning the area around Navid’s grave when they were detained on the morning of December 17 and taken to an undisclosed location,” the IranWire website reported Thursday.
The Iranian authoritiess did not provide a reason for the arrest of Hossein and Hamid.
The extrajudicial hanging of Navid garnered worldwide condemnation and sparked the campaign United for Navid. The regime claimed Navid had killed a regime security guard during the 2018 protests.
Iran Briefing | News Press Focus on Human Rights Violation by IRGC, Iran Human Rights
Iranian intelligence agents have arrested the brother and father of Navid Afkari, the champion Greco-Roman wrestler who was executed by the regime in September for his participation in a protest against the clerical system of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. “A source told IranWire that Hossein Afkari and his son Hamid were cleaning the area around Navid’s grave when they were detained on the morning of December 17 and taken to an undisclosed location,” the IranWire website reported Thursday. The Iranian authoritiess did not provide a reason for the arrest of Hossein and Hamid. The extrajudicial hanging of Navid garnered worldwide condemnation and sparked the campaign United for Navid. The regime claimed Navid had killed a regime security guard during the 2018 protests. “A source told IranWire that Hossein Afkari and his son Hamid were cleaning the area around Navid’s grave when they were detained on the morning of December 17 and taken to an undisclosed location,” the IranWire website reported Thursday. The Iranian authoritiess did not provide a reason for the arrest of Hossein and Hamid. The extrajudicial hanging of Navid garnered worldwide condemnation and sparked the campaign United for Navid. The regime claimed Navid had killed a regime security guard during the 2018 protests.
