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EU imposes sanctions on Iranian authorities, companies

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EU imposes sanctions on Iranian authorities, companies

 

The European Union has announced sanctions against 39 Iranian officials and 141 companies.

AFP reports that at a meeting in Brussels today, EU countries could not reach a consensus regarding sanctions on Iran’s oil and gas sector, announcing that further talks on the matter will be pursued.

Greece and Italy, major buyers of Iranian oil, had previously expressed their opposition to oil sanctions.

The EU announced that the newly blacklisted individuals and companies are linked to Iran’s nuclear program, and the move is in response to the recent report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which raised the possibility that Iran’s nuclear program has a military aspect.

Britain has already announced unilateral sanctions on Iranian banks, and the U.S. has mounted further sanctions against Iran’s petrochemical industry.

Russia has spoken against any new sanctions on Iran, emphasizing that diplomatic talks would be more effective in enlisting Iran’s full cooperation with the international community regarding its nuclear program.

Iran has repeatedly denied having any military ambitions around its nuclear program.

 

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Press Release: Reza Shahabi’s Condition Alarming

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Press Release: Reza Shahabi’s Condition Alarming

 

HRANA News Agency – The administrative office of Human Rights Activists in Iran has issued a press release to express concerns over Reza Shahabi’s condition in prison after this political prisoner began his hunger strike, and the news of his deteriorating health was reported.

Human Rights Activists in Iran has requested that the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations to pay immediate attention to this prisoner of conscience. Demanding immediate and unconditional release of the labor activist Reza Shahabi, this organization has also reminded the government of Iran that the freedom to form and participate in labor unions is an integral part of international obligations towards human rights.

Pointing out that the Islamic Republic of Iran has historically neglected the health and general well-being of political prisoners, Human Rights Activists in Iran has announced that this organization holds the government of Iran including the State Prisons System, the Judiciary Branch and the Intelligence Agency responsible for the health and life of Reza Shahabi.

This press release as published on the organization’s official web site contains the following:

Reza Shahabi is a labor activist and the board member of SWTSBC, the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company. He was also previously in charge of the labor committee of Human Rights Activists in Iran. On Saturday, June 12, 2010, four security agents arrested Reza Shahabi at work around 10:00am. Since then, he has been in temporary custody in a legal state of limbo. On Tuesday, November 22, 2011, Reza Shahabi began his open ended hunger strike to protest against the present conditions under which he has been incarcerated.

The current hunger strike is just another form of objection in a series of attempts made by Reza Shahabi to protest against being imprisoned illegally. On May 25, 2011, Reza Shahabi appeared in the 15th branch of the Revolutionary Court in order to face charges filed against him. Although the presiding judge announced that a ruling would be issued within four days after the trial, Reza Shahabi still remains in a legal state of limbo indefinitely.

While locked up in Ward 209 of Evin Prison, Reza Shahabi has been in hunger strike several times in the past. He suffers from osteoarthritis, low blood pressure, and heart and liver problems. During his incarceration, the degenerative arthritis has resulted in the loss of control over the left side of his body such that physicians have strongly recommended immediate surgery for him.

Given Reza Shahabi’s serious medical problems threatening his life and the fact that there has been no news of him since he began his latest hunger strike, Human Rights Activists of Iran has become increasingly concerned about this political prisoner’s current condition.

Human Rights Activists of Iran announces that this labor activist has been in a legal state of limbo for nearly 18 months. According to Article 9, part 3 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, anyone arrested or detained on criminal charges shall be brought promptly before a judge and shall be entitled to a trial within a reasonable amount of time or must be released. Additionally, Article 32 of the Islamic Republic’s constitution strongly reiterates that the charges against an individual who has been detained must be formally given to him in writing, and within 24 hours, the initial case must be referred to the judicial officials in order to begin criminal proceeding as soon as possible.

Moreover, Reza Shahabi’s life has been endangered due to the lack of proper medical care during his incarceration. Such treatment is in violation of Article 22, Part II of Geneva Convention defining the rights of prisoners and Article 103 of the State Prisons System’s regulations requiring the availability of all necessary medical care to inmates who might have to be taken outside the prison to seek treatment.

Human Rights Activists in Iran hereby requests from the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations to pay immediate attention to this prisoner of conscience and his current condition. Human Rights Activists in Iran also demands immediate and unconditional release of the labor activist Reza Shahabi and reminds the government of Iran that the freedom to form and participate in labor unions is an integral part of international obligations towards human rights.

Since the Islamic Republic of Iran has historically neglected the health and general well-being of political prisoners, Human Rights Activists in Iran hereby holds the government of Iran including the State Prisons System, the Judiciary Branch and the Intelligence Agency responsible for the health and life of Reza Shahabi.

The Administrative Office of Human Rights Activists in Iran
November 29, 2011

 

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Concern grows for Iranian journalist in solitary confinement

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Concern grows for Iranian journalist in solitary confinement

 

Jailed journalist Amirali Allamehzadeh is being subjected to grave pressure in prison, his sister has told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Zeynab Allamehzadeh reported: “We want his case to proceed through the normal legal procedures because, from the way my brother talks to us, we realize that his situation is not good.”

Previously, the campaign had cited another source close to the jailed journalist saying that he is “under pressure and torture to make false confessions.”

His sister reported that lately he has been urging his family to get him a lawyer as soon as possible.

Amirali Allamehzadeh was arrested in Tehran in September and has been held ever since in the Revolutionary Guards section of Evin Prison.

Zeynab Allamehzadeh says: “My brother has been in solitary confinement for more than 74 days, which is a torture in and of itself.” She added that in all that time, the prisoner’s family has not been informed of any charges against him. He has reportedly been allowed brief visits with his family, during which they are not allowed to discuss his case.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has expressed deep concern about Allamehzadeh’s situation and called on authorities to honour his right to due process.

 

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Britain pulls diplomatic staff from Iran, orders Iranian Embassy in London closed

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Britain pulls diplomatic staff from Iran, orders Iranian Embassy in London closed

 

The Washington Post – Britain withdrew all its diplomatic staff from Iran on Wednesday and ordered the Iranian Embassy in London closed, after supporters of Iran’s ruling clerics ransacked the British Embassy and residential compound. European member countries were scheduled to meet in Brussels on Thursday to decide whether their embassies would remain open in light of the attack, which was a stark escalation of long-simmering anti-Western sentiment. Norway closed its embassy for the day on Wednesday, and Germany’s Foreign Office announced that it was recalling its ambassador from Iran for consultations.

 

“The PM and Foreign Secretary have made clear that ensuring the safety of our staff and their families is our immediate priority,” Britain’s Foreign Office said in a statement. “In light of yesterday’s events, and to ensure their ongoing safety, some staff are leaving Tehran.”
William Hague, Britain’s foreign minister, said Britain had withdrawn its entire embassy staff from Tehran and had given the Iranian ambassador in London and his embassy staff 48 hours to leave the country.
“If any country makes it impossible to operate on their soil they cannot expect to have a functioning embassy here,” Hague said.
Hague, who called it “fanciful” to think Tuesday’s attack on the British Embassy in Tehran could have happened without the implicit sanction of the Iranian government, said London would not sever all diplomatic ties. He said the two nations would continue to keep some lines of communication open to deal with issues such as Iran’s nuclear program and human rights.

 

 

The European had been scheduled to debate new sanctions against Iran on Thursday, and Tuesday’s events appeared likely to dim hopes of persuading the Islamic republic to negotiate over its nuclear program. Instead it is expected that the meeting will now focus on whether or how the will represent itself in Tehran.
European ambassadors in Tehran had a long meeting Wednesday in which the options of withdrawing heads of missions and even closing all European embassies in Tehran were debated, said a European diplomat who asked to remain anonymous. One diplomat had visited the British Embassy grounds to search for the British ambassador’s dog, which was found. The diplomat said damage to the buildings was extreme. “The place had been systematically ransacked, paintings were destroyed and furniture was broken,” the diplomat said. “We have concluded that the attack had been extremely well coordinated by the authorities,” he said.
Iran’s leaders apparently made a deliberate decision to allow groups of young men armed with sticks to pillage the diplomatic compounds Tuesday and briefly detain six embassy staffers.
Members of the volunteer Basij militia smashed windows, set fires and hurled satellite dishes from the roof of the embassy compound while police looked on. The angry demonstrators, who numbered about 300, were denouncing Britain’s decision to impose harsh sanctions on Iran in response to new revelations about the Islamic republic’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Their actions brought back memories of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

 

 

 

But although some Iranian politicians on Wednesday lauded the looters’ actions, Iran’s Foreign Ministry, headed by an ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, condemned the embassy seizure. The conflicting reactions illustrated the growing rift in Iran between two rival blocs: forces loyal to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and those aligned with Ahmadinejad.
Ali Larijani, Iran’s speaker of parliament and former nuclear top negotiator, said the demonstrators represented Iranians’ feelings toward Britain.

“They say that the students’ behavior was ‘shameful,’ ” Larijani said in a previously scheduled news conference Wednesday, referring to British reactions to the storming of the compounds. “It is the British government’s behavior which is shameful because they have behaved in a hostile manner toward our people for the past five decades,” he added, according to the semiofficial Iranian Students’ News Agency. “

Let them go,” Ahmad Bakhshayeshi Ardestani, an influential analyst who is running for parliament, said of the British. “They will return to Iran because the United Kingdom needs Iran more than it needs them.”

One parliamentarian proposed that the European could make do with a single embassy in Tehran, representing all 27 member nations. Saying that the bloc is planning to integrate its foreign policy, Mehdi Mehdizadeh, a member of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, was quoted by the Atynews Web site as saying that one embassy is enough.

But another member of parliament, Mohammad Mehdi Shahryari, denounced the incursion, which British Prime Minister David Cameron called “outrageous and indefensible” and the White House said it condemned “in the strongest terms.”

“Based on the diplomatic rights, the regulations that the embassies follow and the fact that we have accepted that this country have an embassy in Iran, then, occupying the British Embassy was a mistake,” Shahryari said.

The Alef Web site, which is aligned closely with key members of parliament, also was critical.

“Why did they do this at this moment in time?” an editorial posted on the Web site asked. It said Iran’s government should take steps against Britain, instead of “giving permission to anarchy in the name of Islam and the revolution.”

 

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Why the Concern Over the March Elections?

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Why the Concern Over the March Elections?

 

Bahram Rafiei

With only about three months left for the first elections since the bloody and controversial 2009 presidential voting, security and law enforcement officials have expressed concern over serious security challenges that the March Majlis elections may bring. They have said that “The enemies of the Islamic Republic plan to create pandemonium to harm our revolution.”

Different senior officials have publicly made statements to this effect. Iran’s minister of intelligence Heidar Moslehi, for example, recently said, “The enemy has serious plans for this election and this is a warning. This does not mean we are afraid, because we have complete knowledge of all activities of the enemy and the events of 2009 have been useful to us.”

“The minimum strategy of the enemy is to change the behavior of the regime but with the leadership of the supreme leader over the ninth presidential elections, a complete turn of events took place and the plans of the enemy once again went sour while government agencies made progress. But the enemy has not given up,” Moslehi warned.

“The second strategy of the enemy is its ultimate strategy which it is pursuing through a soft and a hard war. The essence of the soft war is to create doubt in the hearts and minds of people with the purpose of turning their behavior towards its own goals. In such a war the enemy is after the hearts and pains on one hand and the management of doubt and certainty on the other,” he theorized.

Prior to Moslehi, ayatollah Khamenei himself on August 31 directly expressed his concerns about the upcoming Majlis elections and warned, “We must be careful that this great backbone (i.e., elections) does not turn into a security challenge for the country.”

The head of the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence agency also has expressed similar concerns. Speaking at a seminar for public, revolutionary and military prosecutors on March 2 of this year, cleric Hossein Taeb said, “In addition to military and diplomatic measures, the Americans have devised three domestic plans to contain and control. Their hopes have been to get results by linking the (international) sanctions to the (domestic) targeted subsidies. But they failed. For this year, their plan is to first link the sanctions to the next round of targeted subsidies and thus create a new round of chaos. At the same time they want to increase the security threats and keep us engaged in greater security and law enforcement activities and thus exhaust ourselves. And (finally when the election time comes) then plan to launch their velvet revolution.”

Taeb had earlier also said that there were two goals that the enemies of the country were following: a velvet revolution and ethnic uprisings and disturbances. “The purpose of the velvet revolution is to topple the regime and replace it with one that will have the maximum cooperation for American interests.”

Even though almost all the leaders of reform groups and the Green Movement have been either imprisoned or neutralized and the critical media has been for all practical purposes shut down inside the country, and even though the reform parties have expressly announced that they do not intend to participate in the upcoming Majlis elections, security and intelligence officials of Iran continue to display concerns about the March event. Their main concern because of the internal differences and battles among the Principlists, a group of politicians and officials who claim to pursue the ideals of the 1979 revolution, which intensified after differences between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and ayatollah Khamenei went public earlier this year. Military commanders of the IRGC and other forces have expressly said that they fear that Ahmadinejad’s associates, whom they supported in previous elections, would find their way into the Majlis. IRGC commander for Fars province Gholam Hossein Gheibparvar for example told members of the IRGC and the Basij, “We must be vigilant to that the future Majlis does not fall into the hands of irresponsible individuals.” We must also prevent past mistakes from happening again so that only trusted individuals get into the ninth Majlis.”

Prior to this, ayatollah Khamenei’s representative in the IRGC, cleric Ali Saeedi, had talked on the subject during a seminar for ideological-political teachers and trainers of the IRGC in Qom and had said, “We face a most difficult and complex situation. There are differences among the Principlists. This difference must be clearly expressed to the guards.” “We cannot ignore those who have entered the political scene under the guise of being Principlists.”

The supreme IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jaafari also has spoken of the differences among the Principlists and a group within them who are confronting and challenging the revolution. “This group is pursuing its goal by affecting the upcoming elections through money and royalties,” he said.

Another commander, this one leading the Saheb –alAmr force in the province of Ghazvin expressed similar concerns in February/March when speaking at a seminar composed of monitors of the Guardians Council (an institution responsible for implementing elections in Iran, among its other duties). “In the past we used to have a group called reformists, 2 Khordad, and seditionists, all of which were just one entity challenging us. Today there is another group facing us and it is called ‘deviant’ which is so complex that we need to ask God to help us identify it.” He said.

Just last week the former head of the IRGC political bureau IRGC General Yadollah Javani who according to some unofficial sources had been removed from his post because he had been on sanction lists of a number of countries and appointed as the supreme advisor to ayatollah Khamenei in the force also claimed that the ‘deviant course’ (a name attributed to Ahmadinejad and his allies) viewed the next Majlis elections as “a golden opportunity to return the reformists back into the political scene” of the country.

Expressing his concern about the participation of reformers in the next Majlis elections, Javani said, “We must be vigilant about who becomes a candidate to the Majlis because the next Majlis should not be like the sixth Majlis in which 135 representatives through a letter to the supreme leader had called for a compromise because of US threats.”

 

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British embassy attack was state-sponsored, experts claim

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British embassy attack was state-sponsored, experts claim

 

A day after Iranian protesters stormed the British embassy in Tehran, Britain has said it is withdrawing its diplomats, and closing Iran’s embassy in London . The question that remains is – who was behind the attack?

Images broadcast on Iranian state television on Tuesday showed an angry crowd of mostly men gathered in front of the British embassy in Tehran. Women enveloped in black stood at the back.

Chanting “death to England,” a group of protesters stormed the embassy compound and a diplomatic residence while the security forces simply stood by.

The protesters smashed windows, burned a British flag and tossed out paper and other objects apparently looted from offices in the  embassy buildings. Some of the rioters claimed to have confiscated “sensational documents” from the offices allegedly proving Britain’s spy activities in Iran.

The mob that stormed the British embassy issued a swift official statement on Tuesday. “Our actions are a spontaneous reaction of revolutionary students and were not ordered by any state organ,” it said. The move served the interests of the Iranian people, it added.

The students were described as members of the Basij militia by the Iranian state media.

Shortly before the statement was read out, Morteza Talaie, a member of the Tehran city council, welcomed the attack in a note to the Jame Jam newspaper, which has close links to the government.

A state-sponsored protest?

So, just who was behind the attack on the British embassy? Some analysts think the assault was clearly orchestrated by the authorities.

Hamid Etemad (name changed), a lecturer at a university in Iran and an expert on international law said “such an act in blatant violation of international law would be unthinkable without getting a green light from the highest political decision-makers.”

Omid Nouripour, foreign policy spokesman of Germany’s opposition Green Party, agreed. Tuesday’s event was an organized protest, Nouripour said. Forces involved in the brutal crackdown on the Iranian pro-democracy movement in 2009 were among the alleged demonstrators, he claimed.

Nouripour said the attack was used by hardliners in the Iranian regime to try and deflect attention from the current wrangling and disarray in Iran’s political leadership.

Frustration with sanctions

Some experts say that the attack is not surprising and reflects Iran’s mounting frustration with international sanctions.

Mahran Barati, a Berlin-based expert on Iran, said the embassy attack was a desperate reaction from the Iranian regime to Britain’s latest round of tough new economic sanctions.

Britain’s new sanctions provoked special anger because they require all contacts to be severed with the Iranian Central Bank, which British officials accuse of facilitating Tehran’s nuclear program.

London’s decision is a body blow to Iran’s economy, Barati argued.

The expert added that the imposing of new and crippling sanctions earlier this month by the US, Britain and Canada targeting Iran’s petrochemical and banking sector “has hit the regime’s main nerve center.”

The three countries imposed the sanctions, two weeks after a UN report provided new evidence suggesting that Iran may be developing nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems.

The embassy attack came a day after Iran’s parliament approved measures to downgrade diplomatic relations with Britain.

‘Dramatic’ situation

Some analysts suggest that the latest escalation in tensions between the two countries also reflects the growing rifts and power struggles within the Iranian regime.

For years, the Islamic Republic has had no clear-cut power structures. Hardliners within the regime have gradually managed to take control off all levers of power. Ever since a controversial presidential election in 2009, several groups within the conservatives have been busy fighting each other.

Masih Alijejad, a journalist and long-time observer of Iranian politics said that whoever gave the order for the attack on the British embassy, it’s nothing short of a hidden declaration of war.

“The embassy of a country is part of the territorial sovereignty of the country,” Alijejad said. “If you attack that, you definitely want to send a particular message.”

Alijejad stressed that such actions could end up strengthening the hands of hardliners.

“The militants within the Islamic system are provoking a war so that they can cement their own power,” she said.

It’s not the first time that Iran has seen demonstrations against foreign embassies on its soil. But it was the most serious violence aimed at the British Embassy in Tehran since relations were restored in 1990. Experts caution that things could get worse.

Omid Nouripour, who is of Iranian origin, said the situation is “dramatic” and warned that there is enough reason to fear for the lives of foreign diplomatic staff.

 

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‘Regime crises stem from Guardian Council’ says senior cleric

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‘Regime crises stem from Guardian Council’ says senior cleric

 

GVF — All the crises in the Islamic Republic stem from the Guardian Council’s noncompliance with its responsibilities, senior cleric Ayatollah Dastgheib told the Council members in an open letter.

“All the problems before the Islamic Republic of Iran are the outcome of the Guardian Council’s deviance from its main obligation,” the critical letter argued.

The Guardian Council is a twelve-member body in charge of overseeing elections and reviewing all legislation passed by the parliament to ensure its compliance with the principles of Islamic law.

Ayatollah Dastgheib, a prominent religious scholar and supporter of the opposition Green Movement, is also a member of the Assembly of Experts, the only constitutional body with the authority to appoint and dismiss the leader. Since the rigged 2009 presidential race and its subsequent clampdowns, the Ayatollah has proven to be a thorn in the side of Iran’s ruling elite. His forthrightness and vocal opposition to state-violence has made him his home, students, mosque, and seminary the target of regular attacks by pro-government vigilantes who are usually backed up by the security forces.

In his most recent letter, the Ayatollah also criticised the Guardian Council for preventing free and fair elections as well as its role in facilitating widespread rigging in the country’s 2009 presidential election.

“The Guardian Council prevented representatives [of candidates] from being present at polling stations and during the vote count,” the cleric noted. “But it disregarded irregularities such as a lack of enough ballots at the stations, while people were still waiting in long queues and some still voting; many of the ballot boxes were not taken to their original destination.”

“Yes, impulsive officials with no regard for the law, with the aid of the Revolutionary Guards, dared to carry out such unjust and impious acts and to announce the election results with no regard for legal process.”

The dissident cleric also questioned the Council’s impartiality.

“It is odd that some members of the Guardian Council should openly show their support for their desired candidate [Ahmadinejad],” the letter added. “At the moment, they’re regretful for having approved that same person [in 2009] and are advising the Revolutionary Guards to prevent his supporters from participating in the upcoming [parliamentary] elections.”

“Is this not a breach of the law? What are the people to do and how can they be reassured that their votes will be protected and counted?” he asked, adding that the general population had become “indifferent” about the future.

Ayatollah Dastgheib’s letter also called for an inquiry into the post-election crackdowns on protesters, describing them as contrary to Islamic “sharia.” He cautioned that the “only way” to save the Islamic Republic was “to respect the constitution, and to release” the leaders of the Green Movement currently subjected to house arrest, as well as other political prisoners detained in the aftermath of the 2009 coup.

After calling for protests in solidarity with the Arab Spring, in mid-February, opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi were placed under house arrest without any formal charges put forth against them.

In his recent scathing report on Iran’s human rights abuses, UN special rapporteur Ahmad Shaheed expressed concern over the absence of any formal charges against Mousavi and Karroubi as well as their loss of “control over their health care, access to publications, privacy and the ability to live a normal life.”

 

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Iran: Revolutionary Guard’s calling card

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Iran: Revolutionary Guard’s calling card

 

There was little dissembling the official nature of the Iranian demonstration that stormed the British embassy and residence in Tehran.

There was little dissembling the official nature of the Iranian demonstration that stormed the British embassy and residence in Tehran yesterday. Police used teargas and secured the release of six embassy employees taken by what the semi-official Fars news agency called hardline students. But the students themselves included members of the paramilitary basij brigades and carried banners naming Qassem Suleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, which runs the overseas operations of the Revolutionary Guard. This may not have been a government-sanctioned operation but it was an official one, with three conservative institutions, the parliament, the judiciary and the supreme leader, behind it.

So what was going on? The figleaf behind which Britain normally hides is to say that the embassy was attacked because it was there. True, British diplomats had been anticipating a major protest to mark the anniversary of the assassination of the senior Iranian nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari. Shahriari was killed by a hit team on motorcycles, for whichIran has blamed the Mossad. But there is more to this than the traditional Iranian belief, grounded, it has to be said, in history, that Britain is the master string-puller behind all that is bad that happens in Tehran. Britain was the first to cut off dealings with Iran’s central bank, following this month’s critical report on the Iranian nuclear programme by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Both the US and the EU have yet to do this. Italy and Spain, the largest buyers of Iran’s oil in Europe, are opposed to targeting the central bank. As the oil industry, from which the Revolutionary Guard receives its income, relies heavily on the central bank for most of its transactions, Britain presents an obvious target. The Iranian parliament, the Majlis, voted to expel the British ambassador Dominick Chilcott on Sunday, and the parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani called the vote “just the beginning of the road”. Another Iranian MP was quoted as saying that Britain needed a punch in the mouth. The attack on the embassy was well signposted.

The fact that Suleimani’s name was on the Revolutionary Guard’s calling card is also significant. This is a power struggle on which the west’s favourite bete noire, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is currently on the losing side. It is Ahmadinejad’s government that is pressing for a fresh round of talks with the permanent five members of the UN security council, plus Germany, and, according to yesterday’s evidence, the leadership of the Revolutionary Guard is trying to stop it.

It is exactly for this reason that Britain’s reaction to a piece of theatre, albeit an ugly one, should be measured. It may have to abandon its embassy and residence in Tehran. But the talks with the P5+1 should go ahead. The path on which Britain has strode with Iran’s nuclear programme – accelerated and tougher economic sanctions – will not work on a country with porous borders and China as a ready buyer of Iranian oil. Nor will it work in the absence of a positive incentive to talk.The report of the IAEA, despite the heavy pre-publication spin, did not essentially contradict the NIE report in 2007, which said that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003. Instead the IAEA said that although there was evidence that some work had continued, it was not as strong as the evidence before the 2003 decision. While this ambiguity exists, a window for talks remains. It is still not too late to turn Iran from a regional source of instability to its opposite, the power that allows the US to disengage from either of the country’s borders.

 

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Hague says Iran will face ‘serious consequences’ over embassy attack

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Hague says Iran will face ‘serious consequences’ over embassy attack

 

Foreign secretary says Tehran breached Vienna convention in failing to protect diplomatic mission.

William Hague has warned Iran it faces “serious consequences” over the attack on the British embassy in Tehran.

Hundreds of protesters surged onto two compounds this afternoon, putting the safety of staff at risk and causing “extensive damage” to property, the foreign secretary said.

“Clearly there will be other, further, and serious consequences. I will make a statement updating parliament on this tomorrow [Wednesday].”

Iranian police protected Britain’s ambassador and some staff earlier from a large crowd outside, Hague said.

He added: “There has been a confusing situation at times as to the whereabouts of certain staff. I wouldn’t use the term hostage. Clearly there have been situations where the Iranian police have intervened to try to ensure the safety of our staff.

“We are grateful for that but this situation should never have been allowed to arise in the first place.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Iranian protesters stormed the buildings in Tehran, tearing down the union flag, throwing documents from windows, and reportedly briefly taking hostage six members of staff.

In scenes reminiscent of the takeover of the US mission in the same city in 1980 – which led to a long hostage standoff – crowds protesting against sanctions targeting Iran’s nuclear programme smashed windows and burned a building at the main embassy compound, removing the British flag and replacing it with the Iranian one.

Six staff members were taken hostage at the ambassador’s residence in northern Tehran, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency, but were later freed by police.

David Cameron chaired a meeting of the government’s Cobra security committee on Tuesday afternoon, and the Iranian charge d’affaires was summoned to the FCO.

Hague said Iran had “committed a grave breach” of the Vienna convention, which demands the protection of diplomats and diplomatic premises under all circumstances. He added: “We hold the Iranian government responsible for its failure to take adequate measures to protect our embassy as it is required to do.

“I spoke to the Iranian foreign minister this afternoon to protest in the strongest terms about these events and to demand immediate steps to ensure the safety of our staff in both embassy compounds.”

The White House also issued a strong protest.

Iran’s foreign ministry later said it regretted the incidents, the ISNA news agency reported. It quoted a government statement that said: “The foreign ministry regrets the protests that led to some unacceptable behaviours.

“We respect and we are committed to international regulations on the immunity and safety of diplomats and diplomatic places.”

Hague said of Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi: “While he said he was sorry for what had happened and that action would be taken in response, this remains a very serious failure by the Iranian government.

“The safety of our staff is our utmost priority. On our latest information, it now appears that all our staff and their dependants are accounted for. We are urgently establishing the whereabouts of our locally engaged security staff to ensure their wellbeing.”

British nationals have been warned against “all but essential travel” to Iran, and the small number in the country were told to stay indoors and await advice.

The attack came two days after the Iranian parliament voted to expel the British ambassador, Dominick Chilcott, in retaliation for the new economic sanctions imposed by the west.

Ilna, another semi-official news agency, said the protesters had “conquered” the embassy. The events were shown live on state-run Press TV.

About 1,000 gathered on the street in front of the building, waving pictures of the Iranian nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari, who was assassinated in Tehran last November. Others held pictures of another assassinated Iranian scientist, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, and a senior commander of the elite Revolutionary Guard, Qassem Suleimani, who is said to be in charge of the group’s overseas operations.

State TV reported that another group of hardline students had gathered at the gate of the British ambassador’s residence in northern Tehran at the same time.

On Sunday, the Iranian parliament passed a bill to cut Iran’s diplomatic ties with Britain and downgrade Tehran-London relations from an ambassadorial level to that requiring chargés d’affaires.

The move came in retaliation against the economic sanctions imposed by the west.

Tensions with Britain date back to the 19th century, when the Persian monarchy gave huge industrial concessions to London that led to significant British control over Iran’s oil industry.

But they have become increasingly strained as the west accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons – a charge Tehran denies.

During the vote on Sunday, Mehdi Kuchakzadeh, a Tehran MP, suggested Iranians could raid the British embassy, implying a possible recurrence of the 1979 US hostage crisis in Iran. “The British government should know that, if they insist on their evil stances, the Iranian people will punch them in the mouth, exactly as happened against America’s den of spies, before it was approved by officials,” Kuchakzadeh said.

“We must lock the British embassy and ignore them until they come begging like the Americans,” another MP, Mahmoud Ahmadi Bighash, said in quotes carried by the Borna news agency.

 

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Labor Activist on Hunger Strike in Protest to Lack of Medical Treatment

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Labor Activist on Hunger Strike in Protest to Lack of Medical Treatment

 

Labor activist Reza Shahabi, who has been in prison since his 12 June 2010 arrest, embarked on a dry hunger strike on 22 November in protest of the Evin Prison authorities’ lack of medical treatment and attention to his illness.

A close relative of Shahabi’s told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that his family has heard no news from him since he began his hunger strike, and one of his children, his 13-year-old son, had to be taken to the hospital when he heard about his father’s hunger strike due to heart stress.

He also told the Campaign that if Shahabi did not receive immediate medical attention his left side might become paralyzed.

Shahabi is a trade unionist and a board member of Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company. He was arrested on 12 June 2010. Shahabi has embarked on several hunger strikes to protest the unlawful nature of his case proceedings. After spending several months in solitary confinement, Shahabi was transferred to a 12-person cell inside Evin Prison’s Ward 209.

“Ten days ago, Reza Shahabi was transferred to the hospital due to having pain in his back and neck, and doctors told him after an MRI that some of the vertebra in his neck have deteriorated and are in need of surgery followed by six months of complete rest, and that without hospitalization his left side might become paralyzed,” the source told the Campaign in a telephone interview. “But unfortunately, no action has been taken for him yet. In his last contact with us, Reza told us that he would start his dry hunger strike on 22 November.”

The source also told the Campaign that authorities have not permitted Shahabi’s family to see him, despite multiple attempts:

“They only said, ‘he doesn’t have any problems.’ They even said that the reason he went to the hospital ten days ago was because he had a cold, not because of his back or for the MRI. But Reza himself told us that he was sent there for an MRI and even told us what the doctor had said. Would they send anyone to the hospital for a simple cold?!  When his family went to the prison yesterday [25 November], they were told that in order to put their minds at ease, he would be given permission today to contact his home, but unfortunately there hasn’t been any contact with us yet.”

“Reza Shahabi’s case file has been in a limbo for the past 19 months. His last court session was in June, about six months ago, but there is no court ruling yet. Now he is sick and they are inattentive to him. Reza was forced to go on hunger strike,” he added.

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