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European states call for stiffer sanctions against Iran following IAEA report

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European states call for stiffer sanctions against Iran following IAEA report

France, Germany and UK urge further sanctions as IAEA finds evidence that Iran had worked on developing nuclear weapons

The UK has called for more sanctions against Iran.

European states have called for further sanctions on Iran in the wake of a UN report that Tehran had worked on developing nuclear weapons, but Iran denounced the report as fabricated and said it would not compromise on its nuclear programme.

France took the lead in ratcheting up pressure, calling for a meeting of the security council; the foreign minister, Alain Juppé, said sanctions against Tehran should be raised to an “unprecedented scale” if Iran fails to co-operate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) investigations into past work on designing a nuclear warhead .

In a report issued on Tuesday, the UN agency said it had found credible evidence that Iran had been carrying out experiments aimed at designing a bomb on a substantial scale until late 2003, and may have continued work on a lower level after that time.

The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, attacked the credibility of the IAEA.

“Why are you ruining the prestige of the agency for absurd US claims?” he asked, in a speech to a crowd of several thousand people in the central city of Shahr-e-Kord in central Iran.

Iran has always rejected allegations it had a nuclear weapons programme, insisting that the aims behind its uranium enrichment efforts and extensive atomic research work have been entirely peaceful, and within Iran’s rights.

“This nation won’t retreat one iota from the path it is going,” Ahmadinejad said.

In a statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday morning, the British foreign secretary, William Hague, said: “The assertions of recent years by Iran that their nuclear programme is wholly for peaceful purposes are completely discredited by this report.”

Hague said that if Iran failed to enter serious negotiations on its programme, “we must continue to increase the pressure and we are considering with our partners a range of additional measures to that effect”.

Hague, however, did not go as far as his French counterpart in calling for a security council session, but rather noted that the IAEA member states would meet in a board session next week.

The board could opt, by majority vote, to refer Iran once more to the security council, but British diplomats think such a referral would be pointless in the face of the continued threat of Russian and Chinese vetoes.

Moscow and Beijing have both said they would study the IAEA report before issuing a definitive judgment, but both had argued strenuously against publication of intelligence on suspected weapons projects.

Moscow has since warned that the publication could hurt the chances of renewed talks on the issue and questioned whether the UN agency was “whipping up emotions”.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, criticised both Iran and the IAEA, calling on Tehran be “serious and flexible” and to co-operate with inspections while adding pointedly that the UN agency should be “objective”.

Government sources in Israel were quoted by Reuters news agency as saying that the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, had ordered his cabinet ministers not to speak publicly about the report, letting other world capitals take the lead.

In the runup to the report’s publication, however, Israeli officials had described it as the world’s last chance for a peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear crisis.

Germany said it firmly rejected any military action, calling instead for “new, stronger sanctions”.

The foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said talks were under way between EU member states and international partners on new sanctions, which he called “unavoidable”.

Diplomats and observers said that any new punitive measures are likely to be incremental, possibly including a tightening of EU financial and travel sanctions to match US sanctions, and the addition of more targets to the UN financial sanctions list. Anything stronger is likely to be vetoed by Russia and China, they said.

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Iran Guard says will retaliate if leaders killed

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Iran Guard says will retaliate if leaders killed

 

AP – An Iranian semi-official news agency says that a top commander in the country’s Revolutionary Guard force has threatened to kill “dozens” of American military commanders, should the U.S. kill any one of theirs.

“You also should not forget that American commanders have plenty of presence and travel in the region. If you kill any of us, we will kill dozens of you,” Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the Guards’ aerospace division, was quoted by Fars agency on Tuesday as saying.

Earlier last week several American neoconservatives, including retired U.S. Army general Jack Keane, urged the Obama administration to use covert action against Iran and target members of the Quds Force, the Guard’s special foreign actions unit.

 

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Opposition leader moved to new location

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Opposition leader moved to new location

 

Radio Zamaneh – Opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi has been moved to a more appropriate location for his house arrest, says his son, after authorities finally bowed to pressure from his family.

Karroubi was being held in a small office apartment, and his family had stressed that the cramped conditions were highly detrimental to his health.

Mohammad Taghi Karroubi wrote that the rent for the new apartment is being shared by the Karroubi family and the Ministry of Intelligence, due to the presence of their forces in the apartment. He added that the authorities have been refusing to allow his mother, Fatemeh Karroubi, to stay with her husband.

The opposition leader was first put under house arrest with his wife last February, after he and MirHosein Mousavi rallied people to join a march in solidarity with the recent Arab uprisings.

However, in August, Mehdi Karroubi was transferred to a small unit, where the authorities claimed there was no longer enough space to keep Fatemeh Karroubi together with her husband.

Karroubi’s son also reported that his father’s spirits were high and he was unwavering in his political stance despite all “physical pressures.”

Mehdi Karroubi and MirHosein Mousavi both challenged the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidential victory in the 2009 election and were, thus, subjected to growing pressure by the authorities, until they were both finally put under house arrest and completely cut off from the public.

Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, have been under house arrest since February 14 at their home in Tehran and denied any contact with the outside world.

 

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Stoning YouTube, Facebook, And Google In Iran

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Stoning YouTube, Facebook, And Google In Iran

 

RFE/RL – The “stoning of the devil” is one of the rituals performed at the hajj during which pilgrims throw pebbles at three pillars that represent the devil.

At a recent exhibition of digital media in Iran, a similar ritual was reportedly staged against YouTube, Facebook, and Google — apparently because the Iranian authorities consider them to be evil.

A picture from the exhibition, which was held last month, shows three black pillars representing YouTube, Facebook, and Google, and stones on the ground.

Here is another picture from the exhibition, widely shared on social media, that appears to show the stoning of YouTube.

Blogger “Uranus,” who shared the picture, writes that YouTube was stoned because the videos of “the crimes” of the Iranian establishment are available on the website. “Those that you don’t want anyone to see because just watching five minutes of your actions will result in washing away years of your brainwashing [efforts],” Uranus writes.

Many Iranians who used their phones to document the 2009 postelection violence by pro-government forces posted the videos on YouTube. One of those YouTube videos documented the last moments of Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman shot dead during the antigovernment protests who became one of the symbols of the opposition movement.

Iranian authorities have in the past warned against the use of social-networking sites.

 

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Where does Iran’s power lie?

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Where does Iran’s power lie?

 

Asharq Alawsat – In both the Arab and Western worlds, voices are becoming louder saying that the power or influence of Iran in the region, specifically in Iraq, is in decline. These attitudes have emerged with the announcement by Washington to withdraw its troops from Iraq by the end of this year. In order to determine whether the Iranian role is truly in decline, we must ask the fundamental question: Where does Iran’s power lie?

If we know the true nature of Iran’s power in Iraq, or the region, then we can gauge whether its influence has actually declined or not. To answer this question, the real power of Iran lies in subversion, through Shiite militias in Iraq and other Shiite religious parties affiliated to Iran in Iraq and the wider region, from Hezbollah in Lebanon to the Huthis in Yemen and al-Wefaq in Bahrain, alongside other groups, whether in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia and so on. The strength of Iran throughout the reign of its ruling regime after the Khomeini Revolution does not lie in Iran’s economy or culture, or what is known as “soft power”. It does not even lie in its military capabilities, for example, but rather its subversion. When Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Salehi, in an interview with this newspaper, defended the commander of the Quds Force, General Qasim Sulaimani, saying that he does not possess the staff of Moses in Iraq, especially against 150,000 U.S. soldiers, this is typical of the Iranian political premise. The U.S. forces’ objective is to impose security and order in Iraq, whilst the objective of Iran’s Quds Force is to create unrest and chaos. As the proverb says: “a stone thrown by one crazy person can hinder the work of hundreds”. The Iranian stone thrower is not crazy, but the objective is clear, namely to fragment the Iraqis and ignite the flames of sectarian strife between them. Here we find the answer to a specific question which is: Why have pilots, university professors, political elites and tribal leaders been targeted, ever since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime, alongside those who objected to al-Qaeda such as Abu Risha, and even national Iraqi Shiite leaders, such as [Abdul Majid] al-Khoei?

Of course, there is nothing in this story that comes as a surprise. Anyone who follows Iran’s methods in the region finds that Iran’s power lies not in its arsenal of weapons, nor in its economic or cultural soft power. Iran is not the America, China or even Turkey of the region, Iran’s power lies in its sabotage. We must remember that those who seek to destroy are unlike those who seek to build. The Iranian regime intentionally exploits sectarian sentiments in the region, and builds alliances on that basis, but Tehran does not hesitate to even exploit Sunni fundamentalist groups in the region, including al-Qaeda. The objective of Iran in the region, and specifically the Arab world, is not construction but demolition, and the difference is clear and large.

Thus, all indications before us say that the danger of Iran is still present, because Iran’s goal is clear and simple. It seeks to negotiate with the West within the confines of Tehran’s influence, within the region that it exploits, and the issues it manipulates. Iran is strengthening its trump card to negotiate with the West, nothing more, nothing less.

We must always remember that from the Khomeini Revolution until this day, Tehran has not provided any successful model of cooperation between Iran and the region, whether economically or even culturally. Iran’s mission is subversion, and this is the engine behind its power.

 

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British firm with links to William Hague sells ‘protester-tracking’ product to Iran

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British firm with links to William Hague sells ‘protester-tracking’ product to Iran

 

The Telegraph – A British technology firm with links to William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, has sold a product to Iran which could be used to track down protesters.

Creativity Software sold the product to the regime despite concerns that it has been used to round up activists communicating with their mobile phones.

The main bankroller of the company is MMC Ventures, whose chief executive and chairman both funded Mr Hague’s private office until recently.

The disclosure could prove embarrassing to Mr Hague who has been a critic of Iran, but the Government has not blocked the sale of such products to the regime, which has crushed Arab Spring protests.

Creativity Software secured a contract two years ago to “provide lawful intercept solutions” to Iran. The company’s website describes how the systems can be used to pinpoint a person’s location and track their movements.

MMC Ventures is a major shareholder in Creativity Software. The chief executive of MMC is Bruce Macfarlane and the chairman is Alan Morgan, both of whom paid part of the salary of Chloe Dalton, a researcher for Mr Hague between 2006 and 2009. They contributed £25,000 to Mr Hague’s private office.

Iran heavily restricted the use of mobile networks after the country’s June 2009 elections. The Creativity Software deal with Irancell, one of the biggest mobile phone networks in Iran, was signed on Aug 1 of that year. Saeid Pourheydar, an Iranian journalist, said he was presented with his “entire phone history” when he was arrested and claimed the technology helped the regime track protesters. “The biggest problem is that with this technology they can find exactly where you are. You don’t even have to be on the phone, they can simply track you down just through your mobile phone when it is lying on a coffee table,” he said. “There should be pressure on anyone connected to them, including the UK Government, the Conservative Party and William Hague.” Lord Alton of Liverpool, a leading member of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom, said last night that Mr Hague faced “serious questions” over his links to MMC. “It is clear that the use of mobile phones has been crucial in allowing the people of Iran to arrange demonstrations and promote human rights, and the fact that a British company would sell technology that could be used to asphyxiate these demonstrations is unthinkable, especially when we know that many of the dissidents have been tortured and executed,” he said. “The Government must have known what this technology was capable of, and if William Hague is linked to a company behind this export then that is a very serious question and he needs to answer it.” Mr Macfarlane said: “Nothing is exported without UK approval, so you need to talk to the UK government. We have no further comment.” He did not respond to questions about his donations to Mr Hague’s private office. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the software was not covered by export controls. A spokesman said: “The Government actively discourages all trade with Iran. We take any reports of exports being misused overseas seriously. It does not appear that the exporter has broken the law.”

IAEA Accuses Iran Of Work On Nuclear Bomb Design

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IAEA Accuses Iran Of Work On Nuclear Bomb Design

 

The UN atomic agency charges in a new report on Iran’s nuclear program that Tehran has worked on developing a nuclear weapon design and other research and testing relevant for such arms.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says in the leaked report by Director-General Yukiya Amano that it “has serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program.”

Amano says “the information indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device.”

The report says that while some of the suspected secret nuclear work by Iran can have peaceful purposes, “others are specific to nuclear weapons.” The document says those activities may be continuing.

Signaling frustration at Iranian officials’ dealings so far on crucial topics, the report “requests” that Iran “engage substantively with the Agency without delay for the purpose of providing clarifications regarding possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program.”

The report’s summary says that since “Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation, including by not implementing its Additional Protocol [to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty], the Agency is unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”

Before the report was released, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, speaking on Iranian state television, said Amano was just delivering “the papers that American officials hand to him.”

“I regret that they’ve placed a person on top of [the IAEA] who has no authority of his own,” Ahmadinejad said. “He even violates the agency’s rules. Some of the documents have been written by the Americans and have been handed to him. He’s just coming and talking all the time. [He should] publish a report on America as well and publish a report on America’s friends.”

Ahmadinejad reiterated Iran’s claim that it is not involved in making a nuclear weapon, and said it will not withdraw from peaceful nuclear activities.

The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed anger over the report, saying in a statement that it was adding to tensions in the standoff between world powers and Tehran.

The U.S. State Department said it needed time to study the new report, with spokeswoman Victoria Nuland initially declining to make any immediate comment on its contents.

 

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Student Activists to Obama: “End US Appeasement Policy towards IRI”

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Student Activists to Obama: “End US Appeasement Policy towards IRI”

 

HRANA News Agency – On the 32ndanniversary of the day when the American embassy in Tehran was occupied by student activists in 1979, nineteen former and current student activists have written a letter to President Obama to ask him to end the US appeasement policy towards the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Bamdad Khabar Website has released the complete contents of this letter as follows:

Your Excellency, the President of the United States of America,

With greetings,
Last year on a day such as this, a group of student activists wrote a letter to you to direct your attention towards human rights violations in Iran and your moral obligation to support our oppressed nation.

On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian student activists who called themselves “the Followers of Imam’s Line” attacked the United States embassy in Tehran and took American diplomats and workers hostage. Because according to International Law, embassies are the sovereign soil of the countries they represent, this action was a grave mistake resulting in serious damage to Iran’s national interests.

While thirty two years have passed since that event took place, revolutionaries of those days have been taken hostage by the Islamic Republic of Iran and even the same student activists are imprisoned today.

During the last few years, our nation has shown time and again that it desires to be set free from the claws of the current regime. Two years ago, while Iranians were facing bullets and batons in the streets, they asked you, “With whom do you stand? With the regime or with the people?”

People’s voices were heard shouting, “Obama, Obama, either with them or with us.” Addressing you directly, our nation asked you for help, but your advisors directed you to negotiate with the “hostage takers,” the Islamic regime that has taken our nation captive. As a result, the Islamic Republic of Iran comfortably and confidently continued to suppress peaceful demonstrations in the streets of Tehran.

What did you gain from extending a hand of friendship towards the Islamic Republic of Iran? The regime replied back by taking three American hikers hostage, sent weapons to terrorist groups in Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Nigeria, plotted to assassinate the ambassador of Saudi Arabia in Washington DC and continued to pursuit developing nuclear weaponry.

Mr. President, currently, our brothers and sisters in Syria are fighting against the brutal regime of Bashar Assad. As a result, more than 4,000 Syrians have been killed and tens of thousands have been imprisoned and injured. Meanwhile, the statesmen in Tehran maliciously continue to support the dictatorship of Syria because they know that their fate is tied to that of Bashar Assad, and their turn will come soon.

Our brothers and sisters in Syria have asked for your support by declaring a no-fly zone over parts of the Syrian air space in order to prevent further killing of the dissidents by the oppressive regime. Further negligence of the US government on this matter is not acceptable. We recommend ceasing the US appeasement policy towards Damascus and not repeat the same mistake made while dealing with the Green Movement in Iran. Stand by the Syrians, and ignore the demands made by dictatorships such as Russia and China.

Your Excellency, Mr. Obama, you are not only the president of the most powerful government in the world but also the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Hence, your moral objection towards establishing peace and protecting human lives has been doubled many times over. In our letters written in the past years, we asked you to follow up on violations of human rights especially those aimed towards students in Iran.

Three American hikers together with many Iranian students can testify about what is happening in prisons throughout our country. In recent weeks, the situation has deteriorated such that the Islamic regime has begun flogging student activists whose prison terms have ended. The annual report released by the Secretary General of the United Nations and the report written by the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations, Dr. Ahmad Shaheed, reveal only a small portion of human rights violations not only in prisons but also throughout our country.

During the last decade, passive policies and the negligence of the international community resulted in the creation of a nuclear regime in North Korea. If the Islamic Republic of Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weaponry, the same mistake will be repeated; such a debacle must be prevented.

Let us say it clearly and loudly that we don’t wish for your military intervention in Iran and warn you about its unintended and adverse consequences under the current conditions. We hereby ask you to do what the US government has announced itself. We ask you to take sanctions against the highest government officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran and their immediate relatives and partners seriously. Blocking their bank accounts and properties and banning their trips outside Iran are also equally important.

We also request to impose sanctions on all companies whose shares are owned by the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (IRGC) and their high ranking executive officers. We ask you to help our nation to have easy access to the Internet and satellite programs and make free flow of information possible. We want you to fight against censorship, Internet filtering, and deliberate jamming of radio and TV signals with the intention to disrupt communications and the surveillance of dissidents in Iran. We ask you to severely punish all governments and companies that help to facilitate such actions in Iran.

We request from you to remain committed to the sanctions imposed on the commanders of IRGC and individuals violating human rights in Iran. We ask you to place pressure on governments, organizations and companies that violate the terms of such sanctions. We want you to pressure your alias not to assist the Islamic Republic of Iran by supporting the sanctions against the regime. We ask you to pay attention and be aware of the media funded by American tax-payers but used as a soapbox to promote an appeasement policy towards the supports of the Islamic Republic of Iran, anti-west and anti-American trends.

We call for imposing sanctions on the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a ban on the purchase of oil from IRI because the Islamic regime uses the funds to build and further strengthen its intelligence and military apparatus instead of providing economic resources for our nation. The Islamic Republic of Iran also utilizes the revenue from the sale of oil to support and spread terrorism and oppresses democratic movements throughout our country.

We request to end the appeasement policy towards dictators. Instead, empower our people who once bravely poured into the streets of Iran but returned home disappointed due to the lack of support from the international community and also the brutal oppression of the regime. And let Iranians know and feel that they can achieve what they set out to do.

There are many ways to reach these goals, but you must possess the will to pursuit them.

Cordially,

Signatories:

Amir Hussein Etamadi – Former student activist, University of Tehran, and a member of Iranian Liberal Students & Graduates.
Ali Tarokh – Student activist, Shiraz Azad University and a senior member of Mir Hossein Mousavi’s presidential campaign, student division, Fars Province.
Nima Rashedan – Researcher, political analyst and a former student activist.
Arman Rezakhani – Winner of Khwarizmi International Award in 2007 & 2008 and credited for the discovery of two theorems in trigonometry and mathematics.
Sahar Reza Zadeh – Former student activist, University of Tehran.
Pedram Rafati – A member of the Islamic Association of Students, Amirkabir University of Technology and banned from continuing his education.
Amin Riahi – A member of Tahkim-e Vadhat, General Council.
Salman Sima – Student activist, Tehran Azad University, and banned from continuing his education.
Siavash Safavi – Former student activist, University of Mazandaran.
Ahmad Eshghyar – Former student activist, University of Tehran, and a member of Iranian Liberal Students & Graduates.
Liuna Isagholian – Former student activist, University of Tehran, and a member of Iranian Liberal Students & Graduates.
Saeed Ghaseminejad – Former student activist, University of Tehran, and a member of Iranian Liberal Students & Graduates.
Navid Mohbei – Student activist, Azad University, and blogger.
Mashood Masjodi – Former member of the Islamic Association of Students, School of Engineering, University of Tehran.
Ali-Reza Mousavi – Former member of the Islamic Association of Students, Allameh Tabatabai University, and a member of Iranian Liberal Students & Graduates.
Behzad Mahrani – Journalist, political analyst and a member of Iranian Liberal Students & Graduates.
Yohana Najdi – PhD graduate student of political science, USM University of Malaysia, and a member of Iranian Liberal Students & Graduates.
Ali Nazari – Former student activist, University of Mazandaran.
Rahim Hemati – Former head of the student branch, Jonbesh Moslamanan Mobarez.

 

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Baha’i Citizen Parisa Babaei Arrested

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Baha’i Citizen Parisa Babaei Arrested

 

Baha’i citizen Parisa Babaei has been arrested.

She was arrested following a summons order to the Intelligence Ministry.

According to the Human Rights House of Iran, the security forces appeared at her house and informed her that she has been summoned to Ghaemshahr Intelligence Ministry. She was detained and transferred to the Sari Intelligence Ministry.

He house had also been searched before her arrest.

 

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Hamid Reza Khadem Serving His Sentence in Evin Prison

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Hamid Reza Khadem Serving His Sentence in Evin Prison

 

HRANA News Agency – Political activist Hamid Reza Khadem, 34, reported to Evin Court in order to begin serving his four year prison sentence and has been locked up behind bars in Ward 350.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), on December 7, 2010, the fifteenth branch of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Hamid Reza Khadem to 5 years in prison on charges of conspiracy and propaganda against the regime. This sentence was later commuted to 4 years by the Appeals Court.

Hamid Reza Khadem was arrested after the presidential election in 2009. He is a member the Research Bureau of the National Front of Iran (Jebhe Meli).

 

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