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US turned to Iran for help in Afghanistan

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US turned to Iran for help in Afghanistan
US turned to Iran for help in Afghanistan – Struggling to jump start Afghanistan’s fledgling economy, the United States reportedly turned to an unlikely country for help.

 

Even with strict sanctions on American companies doing business in Iran, the Pentagon established a special task force to seek out business relations with Afghanistan’s western neighbor, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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US turned to Iran for help in Afghanistan

The task force received special permission from the United States government to ask Iran to help establish Afghanistan’s first pharmaceutical company and in developing four mines, the journal reported.

Although talks ultimately failed, the olive branch to Iran shows the desperation of the American military to establish some sort of economy in Afghanistan having lost billions of dollars in 13 years of war there.

Even as the U.S. seemingly tries to garner a relationship with Iran, the country still strongly opposes Washington.

Tuesday marked the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Teheran. Thousands of Iranians took to the streets to chant “Down with America.”

Many in the crowd chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to Britain,” neither of which has an embassy here. Several protesters burned the American, Israeli and the British flag.

Over the weekend Iranian officials blasted the U.S. as well.

The United States remains “the great Satan” and Iran’s “number one enemy,” Iranian military and defense officials said in statements that also called for “the prosecution, trial, and punishment of the White House.

The inflammatory comments, released over the weekend by Iran’s Defense Ministry and the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), come as nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran reach a critical juncture.

“The U.S. is still the great Satan and the number one enemy of the (Islamic) revolution and the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation,” the IRGC said in an organizational statement released Saturday to Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency, which has close ties to the group.

 

Source: Fox News – US turned to Iran for help in Afghanistan

Iran fails to keep promises: Attack on Baha’i businesses rise

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Iran fails to keep promises: Attack on Baha’i businesses rise
Attack on Baha’i businesses rise – Iran has again failed to adequately address repeated calls by governments for greater respect for religious freedom and put an end to discrimination against religious minorities.

 

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Attack on Baha’i businesses

Around the time Iran’s UN representative was glossing over the issue of religious discrimination at a Human Rights Council session, a widespread, pre-planned, systematic attack against scores of Baha’i business owners was taking place in Kerman, Rafsanjan, and Jiroft. “This has brought further pain and hardship to countless families who are already suffering from the consequences of government policies aimed at nothing less than the economic strangulation of Iran’s Baha’i community,” says Bev Watson, director of the NZ Baha’i Office of External Affairs.

Ms Watson said the attack was blatantly contrary to the claim made by Iran’s United Nations representative that Baha’is enjoy all citizenship rights. “The closure in late October of no fewer than 79 Baha’i-owned shops because proprietors had stopped doing business to observe a Baha’i holy day violates the freedom of these Iranian citizens to practice their religion.”

There is also escalating concern over the 30 year plus official ban on Baha’is being allowed to attend university, work in the public sector or be gainfully employed in their own businesses.

Ms Watson noted that governments from every region have raised the issue of religious intolerance in Iran. Concern over the treatment of Baha’is, Christians, Sunni Muslims, and Sufis were frequently and specifically raised at UN human rights sessions, she said. “Governments have also repeatedly raised concern over evidence of widespread discrimination against women, the imprisonment of journalists and human rights defenders, and the excessive use of the death penalty, especially in the absence of legal due process.”

More than 100 governments made statements, submitted questions or offered recommendations to Iran at the UN’s recent Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

More than 100 Baha’is are currently in prison in Iran.

 

Source: Attack on Baha’i businesses rise

A Tragedy: In Iran, Someone Is Throwing Acid on Women

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A Tragedy: In Iran, Someone Is Throwing Acid on Women
A Tragedy: In Iran, Someone Is Throwing Acid on Women –  Tehran’s former police chief summed up best the Iranian establishment’s response to a spate of acid attacks by men on motorbikes that have left several women in Esfahan disfigured and one dead. “Highlighting the acid attack incident helps enemies to take advantage of the situation,” said Ahmad Reza Radan, who as police chief oversaw a crackdown on women that fall foul of the state-enforced Islamic dress code. “Exaggerating the acid attacks is worse than attacks themselves.”

 

Although several figures, including Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president, have called for the “harshest possible sentence” for the perpetrators, three weeks after the first attacks the people of Esfahan remain in the dark about who is responsible and whether they remain at large. Even the number of women attacked remains a mystery—media reports put the number between eight and twenty-five.

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Someone Is Throwing Acid on Women in Iran

Iran has responded to the attacks by seeking to arrest protesters in Tehran and Esfahan for action and five journalists at the Iranian Students News Agency, a newswire that gave the protests significant play, including photojournalist Arya Jafari, who was released on bail on November 3. Around 130 journalists signed an open letter appealing for his release.

Hardline media have labeled publications as “anti-revolutionary” that “make fuss” over the attacks as they provide ammunition for “foreign countries [the West]” to demonize Iran. Javan, a paper close to the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), called on the judiciary to intervene and deal with such outlets.

Meanwhile, speculation is at fever pitch in Iran about who was behind the attack. Prosecutors, policemen and clerics have variously blamed “madmen,” British spies, agents of the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) and the “sedition,” the opposition movement that sprung up in 2009 after the reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Authorities say that they have arrested over forty suspects, including several women, but have not pressed any charges. This week, one such suspect appeared on state-controlled television, back to the camera, alleging that he had been influenced by BBC Persia and Voice of America, the bêtes noires of the Islamic Republic.

In the absence of official explanation and contradictory official statements, many in the Islamic Republic believe the authorities are protecting guilty elements within the system. The finger has been pointed at the Basij force, a youth paramilitary force formed by the IRGC to fight Iraq in the 1980s, whose name has become a catch-all term for ideological zealot in the security services, prompting a sharp denial from the head of the force on November 30. This blind fear might not be completely misplaced—the shadowy rightist paramilitary group Ansar-e Hezbollah recently threatened direct action on what they describe as an onslaught by women on Islam.

“I have not left the house since I heard the news,” Taharah, a female taxi driver from Esfahan told the National Interest. “People say that some of the victims were taxi drivers so it is not worth the risk. My daughter still goes to university but now she wears a chador (full Iranian-style veil) because people think the men who threw the acid are Basij.”

The fact that the attacks took place as the Majles voted to approve articles of a bill on “enjoining virtue and prohibiting vice”, which protects vigilantes and paramilitary forces harassing people for practicing “un-Islamic behaviour” (“bad hijab,” etc.), has been used to support attacks by commentators on the government and by the government on foreign agents.

Hijab politics has returned as a hot issue, because social reformists are propping up the government, which has irked many hardliners in the clerical class, judiciary and the security services.

“From the early years of the revolution the red lines for what is considered bad hijab have receded further and further,” explains a politics professor from Tehran. “Many hardliners believe that the whole system rests on their ability to cover up a portion of women’s hair so they will put up a big fight for the last few inches of it.”

Acid attacks in Iran are relatively rare compared to many of its neighbors, particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2004, Ameneh Bahrami was blinded in both eyes after a man she rejected threw acid at her face.

 

Source: The National Interest – Someone Is Throwing Acid on Women

Iran General Said to Mastermind Iraq Ground War

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Iran General Said to Mastermind Iraq Ground War
Iran General Said to Mastermind Iraq Ground War – When Islamic State militants retreated from the embattled town of Jurf al-Sakher last week, the Iraqi military was quick to flaunt a rare victory. State television showed tanks and Humvees parading through the town and soldiers touring government buildings that the Sunni extremist group had occupied since August.

 

However, photos soon emerged on independent Iraqi news websites revealing a more discreet presence — the Iranian general Ghasem Soleimani, whose name has become synonymous with the handful of victories attributed to Iraqi ground forces. Local commanders said Lebanon’s Hezbollah Shiite militia group was also involved.

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Iranian general Ghasem Soleimani in Iraq

The U.S. has awkwardly found itself on the same side as Iran and Hezbollah in the war against the Islamic State group, which rampaged across much of northern and western Iraq in June. While U.S. military advisers have been coordinating coalition airstrikes from within heavily fortified bases, Soleimani and his commanders are on the front lines and would assume a key role in the retaking of major cities.

That could prove a major impediment to addressing the grievances of Iraq’s Sunni minority. Iran and Hezbollah are closely linked with Iraqi Shiite militias, which have also played a key role in driving IS out of the so-called Baghdad Belt of Sunni villages ringing the capital. The sectarian militias have long been implicated in brutality against Sunnis, and their advance could undermine efforts to knit the troubled country together.

Militia commanders told The Associated Press that dozens of advisers from Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard were on the front lines in Jurf al-Sakher. They said the advisers provided weapons training to some 7,000 Iraqi troops and militia fighters and coordinated with military commanders ahead of the operation.

One commander, who agreed to be identified only by his nickname, Abu Zeinab, said Soleimani began planning the Jurf al-Sakher operation three months ago. The cleared town, 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the capital, lies on a road often used by Shite pilgrims.

Iraqi military officials declined to discuss Soleimani’s presence in Jurf al-Sakher, or in previous victories where he is known to have played a commanding role. Those successes include halting the IS advance in the town of Amirli in August and the city of Samarra in June.

But senior figures with the Revolutionary Guard have publicly acknowledged Soleimani’s role in Iraq’s war with ISIS.

As for Hezbollah, it has openly joined Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces against mainly Sunni rebels — a decision that has fueled sectarian tensions in Lebanon. But Hezbollah has declined to comment on reports of its involvement in Iraq.

In July, officials in Lebanon said a Hezbollah commander was killed while on a “jihadi mission” in Iraq. Ibrahim Mohammed al-Haj was buried in Lebanon and his funeral attended by top Hezbollah officials. It was the first known Hezbollah death in Iraq since the lightning IS advance in June.

A Lebanese official close to the group said Hezbollah is known to have “a limited number of advisers” in Iraq who are not directly involved in fighting, and that al-Haj was one of them. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

 

Source: ABC News – Iran General Said to Mastermind Iraq Ground War

Iran and Turkey Trade Accusations Over Syria and ISIS

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Iran and Turkey Trade Accusations Over Syria and ISIS
Iran and Turkey Trade Accusations Over Syria and ISIS – A conflict of interests and differing regional stances are fueling a crisis between the Turkish and Iranian regimes. The two sides are now dealing with “the most violent” exchange of accusations since the war in Syria began, the Al-Khabar Press website reported.

 

Iran and Turkey back opposing actors in the Syrian civil war. Ankara calls for president Bashar al-Assad to step down and has been a main transit point for foreign fighters crossing into Syria to combat Syrian government forces. Meanwhile, Iran supports Assad both militarily and politically.

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Iran and Turkey Trade Accusations Over Syria and ISIS

On Tuesday, Tehran accused its neighbor Turkey of prolonging the raging war in the Middle East. An Iranian official accused Ankara of supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Al-Arab newspaper reported.

This is the first Iranian accusation of its kind against Turkey, which had previously considered the Iranian regime as an important potential ally since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the 2003 elections in Turkey.

The Iranian public attack comes as a response to Erdogan’s accusation that Tehran is igniting a sectarian civil war in the Middle East. He criticized Iran’s involvement in Iraq and Syria.

 

“When we have bilateral meetings with Iran, they agree on solving this issue together. When it comes to action, unfortunately, they have their own way of working.”

 

These mutual accusations coincide with the height of the crisis in the region and the military strikes that the United States and its Arab allies are conducting against ISIS in eastern Iraq and northern Syria. Tehran has blamed the West for the rise of ISIS, while Turkey has largely kept silent on the issue while giving support to the terror group.

In recent months it had seemed that relations between Iran and Turkey were improving when the presidents of the two countries held a historic exchange of visits. Now, it seems once again that relations between the Sunni Turks and the Shiite Iranians are deteriorating.

 

Source: The Tower – Iran and Turkey Trade Accusations Over Syria and ISIS

IRAN UNDER FIRE AT UN COUNCIL FOR GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

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IRAN UNDER FIRE AT UN COUNCIL FOR GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS
IRAN UNDER FIRE AT UN COUNCIL FOR GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS – At a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council, dozens of countries from five continents harshly criticized Iranian regime for gross violations of human rights in Iran in numerous cases.

 

On Friday October 31, the UN Human Rights Council on its Universal Periodic Review session reviewed the situation of human rights in Iran. At first, Mohammad Javad Larijani, secretary of human rights headquarters of Iranian regime’s Judiciary defended the situation of human rights in Iran and regime’s measures to protect human rights in the country. Then, representatives of dozens of countries across the world including the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Australia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Egypt, Uruguay, Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Argentina, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Bhutan, Bosnia, Brazil, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Chad, Chile, Finland, Germany, Costa Rica, Romania, Portugal, Poland, Paraguay, and Cyprus criticized the situation of human rights in Iran and called on the regime to fulfill its obligations under international treaties on human rights.

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IRAN UNDER FIRE AT UN COUNCIL FOR GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Interestingly, the sole country that defended the Iranian regime was representative of the Syrian regime who praised the human rights situation in Iran and asked Iran to continue “its efforts to expose negative impacts of terrorism and one-sided oppressive measures.”

In this meeting, Larijani defended execution of Reyhaneh Jabbari and said the execution was implemented according to the law. Ms. Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26-year old student and designer, was executed on October 25 after spending 7.5 years in prison on the charge of killing in self-defense a former intelligence agent who tried to insult her. The execution was carried out despite numerous calls by international human rights and women’s rights organizations on Iran to half the execution.

Each member states of the UN Human Rights Council emphasized on one topic due to a short time they were given to speak.

The representative of the U.S. said numerous reports of continued intimidation and harassment of religious minorities in Iran released; Journalists are detained or prevented from continuing their work. He called for release of Washington Post reporter, Jason Rezaiian, who was arrested in June in Iran.

Representative of Britain expressed deep concern regarding “increase in the number of executions in Iran in the past year,” and called for immediate halt in execution of juveniles.

Representative of Canada, while criticizing the human rights situation in Iran, noted the case of Reyhaneh Jabbari and expressed regret that the Islamic Republic does not respect the rule of law and due process.

Representatives of Australia and France also criticized the human rights situation in Iran and called for improvement of the human rights of Baha’is in Iran. They called on Iran to put a moratorium on death penalty, particularly execution of juveniles.

Representative of South Africa criticized the regime for violating religious minorities’ rights.

Representative of Sweden said human rights violations in Iran is serious. He pointed out discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities including Baha’is and called on Iranian regime to lift restrictions on internet and social networks and remove pressure on journalists and the press.

Representative of Switzerland expressed concern regarding executions in Iran particularly the case of Reyhaneh Jabbari and called for the release of all of those who were arrested for holding peaceful demonstration.

Representative of Uruguay called for elimination of death penalty.

Other countries called for cooperation of Iranian regime with international human rights mechanisms and called for moratorium on death penalty. They also called on Iran to stop execution of juveniles and demanded equal rights for ethnic and religious minorities.

 

Source: Iran Freedom – IRAN UNDER FIRE …

Iran regime president facilitates IRGC’s incursion into economy

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Iran regime president facilitates IRGC’s incursion into economy
Iran regime president facilitates IRGC’s incursion into economy – In early October 2014, a senior official of the Iranian regime stated that the major projects on the Kish Island (one of the most important islands in the northern Persian Gulf region) have been ceded to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) such as building airports and seaports among others.

 

Akbar Torkan, chief advisor to Hassan Rouhani and ‘Secretary of Free Zones Coordination Council’, in fact highlighted that Hassan Rouhani government’s economic policy is the continuation of Ahmadinejad’s work.
The extents of these relinquishments to the IRGC by Hassan Rouhani government is like giving a village with everything in it from one baron to another baron under a feudal system.

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Iran regime president facilitates IRGC’s incursion into economy

To this end, Torkan took along Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN), with him to when visiting Farvar Island near Kish Island.
Ali Fadavi said in Farvar Island: “We ask the IRGC to use its capacities to promote this Island.”
With these cedings, IRGC has become the most important employer in Iran and the biggest cartel in the Middle East with these relinquishments that are unchecked, unmonitored and without competitor.
For many years there has been no significant area of Iran’s economy where a major part of it or is its majority has not been taken over takeover by the IRGC. These areas consist of oil and gas, banking, telephone and telecommunication, mining, automobile manufacturing, tractor manufacturing, steel, cement, construction, dam, harbor and airport, food, import, market, $12 billion contraband market, etc.
In 2008, in the biggest deal in the history of Iranian stock market, fifty percent of Iran Telecommunication Company worth nearly eight billion dollars was sold to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
This transaction was made possible with a blatant government intervention in which a competing buyer was easily set aside for its ‘lack of security qualification’.
Oil and gas industry similarly is the target of invading Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
In past years, when the Turkish companies announced their withdrawal from Phase 3 of South Pars Oil and Gas development project (the most important Iranian gas field in the Persian Gulf where French Total also has some investment), this $7 billion project was given to IRGC’s major engineering arm Khatam al-Anbia also known as “GHORB” without any auction.
With the withdrawal of the British-Dutch Shell and Spanish Repsol from South Pars oil and gas field, this $5 billion project too was given to the IRGC without any auction, as well as 900-kilometer gas pipeline construction within Iran worth one billion and 300 million dollars and the construction of three oil pipeline worth $850 million.
The value of oil and gas contracts given to the IRGC was announced up to $25 billion at one point.
“Legal” support of the government in conjunction with the intimidation by the IRGC make these deals possible.
Such transactions, in addition to huge profits, wherever necessary, “deals” also with social and security problems.
For instance, whenever employers do not show firmness when facing successive demonstrations and strikes by workers at a firm, the IRGC buys all or most of the affected institutions and dismisses “incompetent” managers along with “troubling” employees altogether.
In 2009 the Iranian Revolutionary Guards took over ‘Kurdistan Tractor Manufacturing Compony’ with such method. Managing Director and other managers of the company were opposed to the IRGC’s domination of over their factory. But with IRGC’s warning they were forced to resign.
Most of economic activities of the IRGC are directed by a giant business-military organization called ‘ Khatam-al Anbiya Construction Headquarters’. This institution was created after the Iran-Iraq War by the order of the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei and is considered the largest contractor of government projects.
According to officials, this military-economic complex has so far done 4560 projects in Iran. Among them nearly 13 million development projects have been relinquished to this institution.
IRGC rigadier General Ebadullah Abdullahi, commander of Khatam-al Anbiya says that currently over 130,000 employees and 5000 contractors work with this camp.
Estimating IRGC’s share of the GDP seems impossible, but estiamates suggests one-third to two-thirds of GDP.
This giant complex is exempt of any tax, monitoring and accountability and is outside of annual budget bills. It is one of the largest funding resources for internal suppression, the production of nuclear weapons and the IRGC Qods Force activities in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon. It is estimated that the broad participation of the IRGC in civil war in Syria in the past three years has cost at least $ 50 billion for the Iranian economy.
One of the other effects of IRGC’s domination over Iranian economy has been prevention of growth of the private sector and the middle class, which can threaten the survival of the Iranian regime in its evolution process.
In addition, with this degree of involvement of IRGC in the economy, virtually it is the party to all European and Asian companies investing in the purchase of goods from that country or contracts in Iran. In this way the Iranian Revolutionary Guards controls Iran’s relations with foreign states and attempts to influence Western governments’ policies toward Iran by its front companies in Europe and America.
With the start of Hassan Rouhani’s presidency in August 2013, some predicted that economic activities of IRGC would be restricted. But one month after the beginning of his administration, Hassan Rouhani rescinded these predictions on September 16, 2013.
He told a gathering of the IRGC commanders: ‘Iranian Revolutionary Guards must carry part of the burden of the government. Iranian Revolutionary Guards is not a competitor to the private sector and must take on major projects.’ (IRNA, September 16, 2013)
The statements of Hassan Rouhani that have been implemented in the past year, does not only indicate the financial reliance of the government on IRGC. It expresses a profound truth: The government’s economic policy, anyway, follows the ideological interests of the regime. As a result, the economic priorities of the Iranian regime, is to cover the expenses of internal repression, nuclear program and dominance in the region, as long as this regime rules.

 

Source: Iran regime president facilitates IRGC’s incursion into economy

Iran jails British woman for attending men’s volleyball match

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Iran jails British woman for attending men’s volleyball match
Iran jails British woman for attending men’s volleyball match – An Iranian-British woman who took part in a demonstration in Tehran against a ban on women attending some men’s sporting events was jailed for a year for spreading anti-state propaganda, Iranian media said.

 

Ghoncheh Ghavami, 25, was first arrested on June 20 outside the city’s Azadi Stadium, where she and others were demanding that women be allowed in to watch a volleyball match between Iran and Italy, Later she was released on bail.

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Iran jails British woman for attending men’s volleyball match

In October She was arrested again and this week she charged by a Tehran court with activities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic. The semi-official ILNA news agency quoted her lawyer, Alireza Tabatabaie, on Saturday as saying her sentence may be cut due to previous good behavior.

Britain, which has no permanent diplomatic presence in Iran but has said it plans to reopen its embassy soon, said it had several worries about the way Ghavami had been treated and now reportedly sentenced to a jail term.

“We are concerned about reports that Ghoncheh Ghavami has been sentenced to 12 months in prison for ‘propaganda against the state’,” a spokesman from the Foreign Office in London said in a statement.

“We have concerns about the grounds for this prosecution, due process during the trial, and Miss Ghavami’s treatment whilst in custody.”

Iran does not recognize dual citizenship and treats dual nationals as Iranians.

Ghavami was released soon after her arrest in June but was re-arrested days later when she was called back to reclaim personal belongings that authorities had confiscated. In October, she went on a two-week hunger strike.

Iranian women in the Islamic Republic are banned from watching certain male sports events such as football and volleyball.

Tabatabaie said that, for “various reasons”, he had been unable to meet his client in the lead-up to Saturday’s hearing.

Ghavami’s detention came shortly before the arrest in July of another dual-nationality citizen, Jason Rezaian, an Iranian-American reporter for the Washington Post, who is being held without charge.

His mother and brother called last week for the 38-year-old’s release. “After 100 days it’s time for Iran to concede Jason’s innocence and release him,” Mary Breme Rezaian and Ali Rezaian wrote in a statement posted online on Thursday.

 

Source: Human Rights Obserbers – Iran jails British woman for attending men’s volleyball match

Baha’i family not allowed to bury their child

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Baha’i family not allowed to bury their child
Baha’i family not allowed to bury their child – The parents of a 12-year-old girl who passed away last week in the city of Tabriz have not been allowed to bury their daughter after authorities found out that the family belongs to the Baha’i community.

 

Mahna Samandari, who suffered from a form of paralysis that impaired the use of her hands, died a week ago.

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Baha’i family not allowed to bury their child

Since August 2011 the Baha’i community in Tabriz has not been allowed to bury their dead in their cemetery. The authorities have been urging them to bury their dead in a remote cemetery.

Earlier in August, the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) resumed its demolition of a Baha’i cemetery in Shiraz, Iran, after pausing for several months in the face of international pressure, the Baha’i International Community reported.

IRGC has removed human remains from the graves of some Baha’is in the cemetery, placing them in an open canal to make way for the construction of a new cultural and sports complex.

In this historic cemetery, established in the 1920s, 950 members of the Baha’i community have been buried. They include ten women who were executed by the Iranian regime in June 1983.

The Iranian Resistance condemned this heinous act as part of the trend in intensifying suppression and violation of human rights in Iran that, since the start of Hassan Rouhani’s presidency a year ago, has taken on an unprecedented scale with over 1000 executions.

 

Source: NCRI – Baha’i family not allowed to bury their child

Iran rejects UN human rights report as unfair

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Iran rejects UN human rights report as unfair
Iran rejects UN human rights report as unfair – Tehran, Oct 29 (IANS) The recent report by the UN rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran is unfair and politically motivated, the official IRNA news agency said on Wednesday quoting Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations.

 

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Iran rejects UN human rights report as unfair

The report ignores realities in the Islamic republic and echoes the political whims of certain countries, Xinhua cited Iran’s envoy as telling IRNA.

The claims were “repetitious and futile” he said, adding that the anti-Iran report was an indication of a “biased” look toward Iran.

Executions have risen and the condition of women has worsened in the Islamic republic, the UN investigator and special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, said in his latest address to the members of the UN General Assembly Monday.

Iran has dismissed several times the reports by the UN human rights institutions, saying that they did not reflect the realities in the country.

Source: IANS Live – Iran rejects UN human rights report as unfair

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