Mostafa Tajzadeh and Behzad Nabavi were summoned to court to face new charges. Both men were arrested shortly after the June 2009 Presidential elections. Tajzadeh, a former Minister of Interior and prominent critic of the regime, was sentenced to six years in prison. Nabavi, a former Deputy Majlis Speaker, was given a five-year term.
Source: Iran Daily Brief
Shahnaz Sagvand, the wife of labor rights activist Ali Nejati, board member of the Haft-Tappeh Sugar Cane Workers’ Union, has been summoned to appear in court again. Shahnaz was put on trial several months ago as part of the crackdown on labor rights activists, and accused of anti-regime propaganda and false publication, but she was acquitted. The new charges against her are still unclear.
Source: Iran Daily Brief
The U.S. Senate unanimously approved new economic sanctions Friday aimed at further crippling Iran’s energy, shipping and port sectors, a year after Congress passed tough restrictions against Tehran.
The amendment, tacked onto a sweeping defense spending bill being debated by the chamber, passed 94-0 and should sail through the House of Representatives.
Senator Robert Menendez introduced the measure out of concern that Iran was pressing ahead with its nuclear weapons drive despite earlier sanctions that had been hailed as the toughest-ever against the Islamic republic.
“Yes, our sanctions are having a significant impact, but Iran continues their work to develop nuclear weapons,” said Menendez, a Democrat.
He cited last week’s report by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran continues to defy the United Nations and world community by refusing to slow uranium enrichment, denying access to inspectors and conducting live tests of conventional explosives that could be used to detonate a nuclear weapon.
“By passing these additional measures ending sales to and transactions with Iranian sectors that support proliferation — energy, shipping, ship-building and port sectors as well as with anyone on our specially designed national list — we will send a message to Iran that they can’t just try to wait us out.”
The vote came on the same day a defiant Iran denied it was pursuing nuclear weapons and threatened to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which aims to stop the spread of atomic weapons.
Meanwhile, the P5+1 powers — the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany — said after a meeting in Brussels last week that they want talks with Iran “as soon as possible.” This may happen as early as December.
Building on the U.S. sanctions passed last year, the new amendment would designate Iran’s energy, port, shipping and ship-building sectors as “entities of proliferation” because they “support and fund Iran’s proliferation activities.”
Under the new rules, the United States would sanction anyone selling or supplying certain commodities to Iran — including graphite, aluminum, steel, and some industrial software — that are relevant to the country’s ship-building and nuclear sectors.
Despite tough U.S. and European sanctions, Tehran has been able to bypass certain restrictions by accepting payment in forms like gold for certain exports.
The Menendez amendment targets such circumventions by seeking to prevent Iran’s central bank from receiving payment in precious metals.
The sanctions would also designate the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting and its president as “human rights abusers” for airing forced televised confessions and show trials.
Senator John McCain offered his blunt assessment of the need for expanded sanctions to counter Iran’s intentions.
“The screws need to be tightened,” the Republican told the Senate before the vote. “The centrifuges are still spinning in Tehran.”
McCain said the new sanctions “can — I emphasize can — lead to a way to prevent a conflagration in the Middle East.”
AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby in Washington, praised the amendment as a way to “significantly ratchet up pressure on Iran,” and pointed to earlier sanctions which have led to an 80-percent loss in the value of Iran’s currency and a 50-percent slash in the country’s oil exports.
But the National Iranian American Council saw the new sanctions as a dangerous step toward “a military endgame” and one that would “undercut their aspirations for democracy and human rights.”
“Unbending sanctions do not buttress negotiations, they make diplomacy impossible and war inevitable,” said NIAC Policy Director Jamal Abdi.
The defense spending bill would have to be reconciled with the House version passed in July, and the Republican-led House has been highly supportive of previous Menendez sanctions legislation against Iran.
Source: Alarabiya
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said on Thursday that his inspectors in Tehran are enduring pressure but he failed to indicate what kind of duress they might be under, saying the situation was not easily explained.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has its inspectors in Iran monitoring the Iranian nuclear program. The West has fears that Islamic Republic authorities might be aspiring to nuclear weapons, but Iran has continuously stressed that it has no intention of developing nuclear weapons and that its nuclear program is peaceful.
Israel has made several overtures that it would attack Iran to make sure it does not achieve the capability to build nuclear weapons.
Iran’s nuclear envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, was quoted as saying today that an attack on Iran could lead to Iran’s withdrawal from the Non-proliferation Treaty.
Iran has maintained that as an NPT signatory, it has a right to enrich uranium to produce fuel for its nuclear reactor.
The U.S. and the EU have called for an end to Iran’s uranium enrichment activities and have imposed severe sanctions on Iran to make it more amenable to their demands.
Soltanieh said: “There is a possibility that the (Iranian) Parliament forces the government to stop the (UN nuclear) agency inspections or, in an even worse scenario, withdraw from the NPT.”
While the IAEA has not found any evidence that might indicate that Iran is pursuing nuclear arms, Amano has held to the position that it cannot guarantee that Iran’s nuclear program has no military component.
The IAEA wants to inspect Iran’s Parchin military base, but Iran has so far denied the request, saying Parchin is not connected with its nuclear program. Iran has said that letting foreign inspectors visit a military base may not be in the interests of the country.
Source: Radiozamaneh
Omid Behroozi was arrested 15 months ago. As a result of sharp blows he sustained during his arrest and failure to receive appropriate treatment, he suffered from head and neck problems and became deaf in his left ear.
Source: Iran Daily Brief
Iran is increasingly worried about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regime’s fate and is distraught that the regime is not taking recommendations from the Islamic republic to keep its power, an Iranian report obtained by a Western diplomatic source said.
Iranian forces in Syria are increasingly burdened due to the Syrian regime leaders not following their advices as the situation in the conflict-torn country becomes more chaotic, the report, which was obtained by an embassy of a Western country in Tehran, said.
The report, however, did not mention details explaining the Iranian recommendations given to the Syrian regime.
But the report revealed that Tehran was disappointed by the corruption within the Syrian armed forces as large amounts of Iranian funds were transferred to personal bank accounts of senior Syrian officers.
The report stated that Iran will continue its support for President Assad until Iran’s presidential elections on June 2013.
Tehran mulls the possibility of a civil war breaking out in Syria post-Assad regime collapse, which can later destabilize Iran itself before the presidential elections.
In conclusion, the report said Iran decided not to increase its support for Syria due to the deteriorating economic situation in the Islamic republic and Assad regime’s unlikely survival in the long term.
“Iran is trying to find other solutions so that Hezbollah would be able to get Iran’s support even after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime,” the report said, adding “Iran is now establishing some connections with Syrian opposition’s figures without the knowledge of the Syrian regime as it doesn’t want to give the impression that it has abandoned Assad regime.”
The report says Iran believes the Syrian regime’s collapse is inevitable without the Islamic republic’s support.
Source: Alarabiya
Neighboring mosque expropriated part of Tuba N.’s house in Isfahan, and she was killed for taking the case to court, Times of Israel told.
57-year-old Jewish woman was brutally stabbed to death and her body mutilated on Monday by Muslim attackers in the Iranian city of Isfahan, in what her family says was a religiously motivated crime related to a property dispute, Menashe Amir, an expert on Iranian Jewry who spoke with the victim’s family, has told The Times of Israel.
Tuba N., whose family requested not to reveal her last name, was murdered by her Muslim neighbors, who had harassed her family for years in an attempt to drive them from their home and confiscate the property for the adjoining mosque.
“The religious radicals even expropriated part of the house and attached it to the mosque’s courtyard,” Amir said. “The Jewish family appealed to the courts with the help of a local attorney” to seek redress for the conflict, “despite the threats to their lives.”
On Monday, while her husband was in Tehran attending to business matters, “thugs broke into her home, tied up her two sisters who were living with her, and repeatedly stabbed her to death.” Afterward, her attackers allegedly butchered her body and cut off her hands, a sister who witnessed the event told her relatives in the US, who conveyed the information to Amir.
Iranian authorities were said to have not returned the woman’s dismembered body to her family and have tried to cover up the case.
The Times of Israel could not independently verify the report.
According to Amir, members of the dwindling community fear future bloodshed against Jews in the wake of Tuba’s murder.
Isfahan, Iran’s third-largest city, with a population of over 1.5 million, was home to 1,200 of Iran’s 25,000 Jews as of 2009. Since then, Jewish numbers in the Islamic Republic have declined. A government census published earlier this year indicated there were a mere 8,756 Jews left in Iran, and Amir told The Times of Israel that Isfahan was now home to fewer than 100 families.
Human rights activists report that the health of Dr. Asadollah Asadi, who is in the tenth day of his hunger strike, has deteriorated. Following the refusals of the prison manager to approve leave for medical treatment, he began an unlimited hunger strike. Human rights activists have expressed concern for his life. Political prisoner Dr. Asadollah Asaid, a young physician from Tabriz, was arrested 29 months ago in Tabriz, transferred to Tehran and held in solitary confinement for one month. Now he is being held in Wing 350 of Evin Prison. His health is health is very poor due to physical and emotional torture and his being held in isolation. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment on charges of cooperation with hostile governments and membership in the Popular Muslim Party.
Source: Iran Daily Brief
Omid Dehdarzadeh was previously arrested and put on trial for “acting against national security.” He was given a six-month suspended sentence and also sentenced to 75 lashes for “insulting government officials.”
Source: Iran Daily Brief
The UN nuclear watchdog has acknowledged one of its former computer servers had been hacked.
Contact details for more than 100 experts working for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) appeared on November 25 on a hacker website, Parastoo, which is Farsi for the swallow bird.
In the posting, the hacker group called for the experts whose details were divulged to sign a petition calling for an “open” IAEA investigation into Israel’s nuclear program.
The message also contained a threat to publish more personal information if the killing of Iranians linked to the country’s nuclear program continues.
An IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said the UN agency was taking “all possible steps” to ensure its computer systems and data were protected.
Israel is believed to possess nuclear weapons, although it neither confirms or denies this. Israel accuses Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
Source: RFERL
