type here...
Home Blog Page 565

Iraqi Kurdistan: Cross-Border Attacks Should Spare Iraqi Civilians

crazydead
-
0
Iraqi Kurdistan: Cross-Border Attacks Should Spare Iraqi Civilians

 

(Beirut) – Iran and Turkey’s cross-border attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan have killed at least 10 civilians and displaced hundreds since mid-July 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. Some of the attacks may have been carried out without sufficient attempts to ensure minimal impact on civilians, Human Rights Watch said.

Both Iran and Turkey say that their military operations, including artillery and aerial bombardments, are aimed at armed groups operating out of Iraqi Kurdistan along the northern and eastern borders. When Human Rights Watch visited those areas in August, Iraqi residents and officials said that many of the targeted areas are purely civilian and are not being used by the armed groups.

Evidence suggests that the regular Iranian bombardments may be an attempt to force Iraqi civilians out of some areas near the Iranian border.

“Year after year, civilians in northern Iraq have suffered from these cross-border attacks, but the situation right now is dire,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Iran and Turkey should do all they can to protect civilians and their property from harm, no matter what the reason for their attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan.”

Iran started its cross-border attacks in northern Iraq in mid-July, claiming to be targeting an armed group associated with the Iranian Kurdish Party for Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) operating in the mountainous border region. Beginning on August 18, Turkey carried out attacks across its border with Iraq, targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an armed group affiliated with PJAK that is fighting its own decades-long conflict with Turkey.

Shelling by Iran
Since mid-July, Iran’s operations against PJAK inside or near villages close to the Iranian border have led to the displacement of hundreds of families, caused the deaths of at least three villagers, and wounded an unknown number of people, according to international humanitarian aid organizations, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials, and media reports. Farmers from the border regions told Human Rights Watch in early August that the shelling had damaged their homes and that they saw Iranian soldiers cross the border into Iraq and kill farmers’ livestock. The attacks on civilians and their property that they described were similar to attacks documented by Human Rights Watch in June 2010.

Human Rights Watch visited the Choman and Qalat Diza districts and Qasre, Sangasar, and Zharawa subdistricts between July 26 and August 6 and interviewed more than a dozen displaced villagers as well as others in villages still being shelled. All villagers interviewed said that Kurdish armed groups had never been in their areas and that there were no other military targets in the vicinity at any point before or during the shelling. The affected areas are in the Qandil Mountains, along the eastern borders of Erbil and Sulaimaniyaprovinces, in the region administered by the KRG.

In the crowded Gojar tent camp in Sulaimaniya province, Fatima Mahmoud, 70, told Human Rights Watch she fled there with 11 family members in late July, after two Iranian shells struck her house in the village of Sune, 30 kilometers west of Qalat Diza. She said the village mosque and school were also damaged by shelling.

“It has been more than six years that Iran has been shelling our area, but this year, it was unbelievable,” she said. “I don’t know why Iran is shelling our village – we have never seen any PJAK members at all. I have never seen any [PJAK] members in our village.”

Attacks by Turkey
On August 18, Turkey began a bombing and artillery campaign against the PKK, which it blamed for earlier fatal attacks in Turkey. On August 21, according to Iraqi officials, Turkish warplanes bombed a vehicle carrying civilians. The attack killed seven members of the same extended family according to relatives of those killed, local officials, and media workers. Turkey denied its planes were responsible.

The family group, which included four children, was driving on a highly travelled main roadway in a white 2011 Nissan pickup truck from the village of Bole to Rania to visit relatives. Shamal Hassan told Human Rights Watch on August 29 that the attack instantly killed his wife, Rezan, and his daughters, Solin, two months old, and Sonya, 18 months old. The attack also killed his wife’s parents and two other children.

An emotional Hassan told Human Rights Watch, “The attack was so destructive that we couldn’t recognize their bodies. I want the international community to hold Turkey accountable. They ruined my life.”

Media photos released by multiple Iraqi Kurdish news organizations of the scene corresponded with Hassan’s description, and showed charred and disembodied children and adults splayed on the ground near the remnants of a destroyed vehicle. Human Rights Watch could not independently verify the authenticity of the photographs. There has been no evidence of any military target in the vicinity.

While the Turkish military said that it has killed more than 145 suspected PKK militants with artillery fire and airstrikes in northern Iraq since August 17, it has denied that its warplanes killed the family, saying only that news footage of the destroyed vehicle was not consistent with damage caused by Turkish aerial bombardment. However, Turkish officials have stated that Turkish warplanes were bombing multiple military targets, such as anti-aircraft guns and ammunitions caches, in the area at the time.

Iraqi political and military officials have repeatedly blamed Turkish warplanes for the attack. An August 28 statement from the KRG stated that “[KRG] President Barzani strongly condemned Turkish military attacks,” which it said were responsible for the seven deaths.

Civilian Displacement

Abdulwahid Gwani, mayor of the Choman district, which has been particularly hard-hit by Iranian shelling, told Human Rights Watch that the attacks by Iran and Turkey had cumulatively killed 9 civilians and displaced 325 families from Choman and 500 families in the Sidakan area.
“They [Iran and Turkey] don’t differentiate between civilians and armed groups, and the bombardments are more intense compared with last year,” Gwani said. “We notice that the Turkish bombardments are more random this year – they used to target specific locations in previous years but now it is kind of arbitrary.”

Earlier in August, Gwani and several displaced villagers told Human Rights Watch, the attacks forced hundreds of poor farmers to leave their crops unattended, destroying much of this year’s harvest. A number of farmers told Human Rights Watch that because there has been shelling each year during the short planting and harvesting season, they believed it showed an intentional effort to drive civilians from the area by harming their livelihood.

As in past years, aid organizations and local municipalities have struggled to meet the displaced families’ basic needs. The Kurdistan government does not keep an official registry of displaced villagers.

The representative of an international humanitarian aid organization working in the affected areas told Human Rights Watch on August 30 that the attacks have led to the displacement of 450 families, but that this number includes only families who have resettled in tent camps, and not those still moving around, staying with their families, or elsewhere. A delegation of Iraqi civil society organizations from Baghdad visited the areas on August 3 and reported the displacement of “up to 750 families from the areas of Choman, Sidi Khan and Haji Omran.”

The International Organization for Migration told Human Rights Watch on August 26 that it has so far distributed aid to approximately 295 families in tent camps – 275 families in Sulaimaniya and 20 in Erbil – but that another roughly 300 families from Erbil have been displaced and may require future aid.

Government Reactions

In August, the Iraqi government summoned both Iran’s and Turkey’s ambassadors in Baghdad because of concern about the operations, and both the Iraqi and KRG parliaments have strongly condemned the attacks.
On July 27, an Iraqi parliamentary official who declined to be named told Human Rights Watch that, during a meeting with a high-level Iranian diplomat that day, the diplomat stressed the “importance to Iran” of creating a buffer zone along the Iranian border “with no residents.” The official said that the diplomat also suggested deploying the Iraqi army to the area, instead of the Kurdistan regional forces who now patrol the border, because the Iraqis are not “as close” to the Kurdish residents.

Officials of both the KRG and the central government in Baghdad have told Human Rights Watch in recent weeks that Iran and Turkey have been defiant and dismissive in their private responses. Publicly, both countries contend that they have a right to attack the armed groups inside northern Iraq and both countries deny targeting civilians.

At an August 21 news conference in Turkey, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ said that the militaryoperations “will continue without hesitation when necessary.” The governor of Iran’s West Azarbaijan Province, Vahid Jalalzadeh, told Iranian state television on August 6 that, “The operation against the group [PJAK] will continue until all members are killed,” but called reports of Iranian soldiers crossing into Iraq “rumors.”

The PKK and PJAK both openly admit to multiple guerrilla attacks against Turkish or Iranian soldiers in a self-proclaimed struggle for ethnic equality for Kurds in those countries. Both are considered terrorist organizations by the United States and European Union.

“The evidence suggests that Turkey and Iran are not doing what they need to do to make sure their attacks have a minimum impact on civilians, and in the case of Iran, it is at least quite possibly deliberately targeting civilians,” Stork said. “Regardless of their reasons for carrying out attacks, they need to respect international humanitarian law.”

 

Source

Concern rising about Iran military nuclear work as IAEA seeks rare Mideast talks

crazydead
-
0
Concern rising about Iran military nuclear work as IAEA seeks rare Mideast talks

 

The United Nations nuclear watchdog is “increasingly concerned” about possible work in Iran to develop a nuclear payload for a missile, it said in a report obtained by Reuters on Friday.

In addition to addressing the issue of alleged military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program, the International Atomic Energy Agency said the Islamic Republic had begun installing machines for higher-grade uranium enrichment in an underground bunker near the holy city of Qom.

At another site hosting a research and development facility, the UN watchdog reported, Iran had begun enriching uranium with a more advanced model of centrifuge than those it has been using for some years.

The UN nuclear agency has invited all its members, including Israel, Arab states and Iran, to attend rare talks later this year about the volatile Middle East and efforts to rid the world of atomic weapons, a document said on Friday.

While Israel and some Arab nations have indicated readiness to take part in the proposed forum in November, Iran said it saw no justification for such a meeting now.

 

Controversial Mideast issue

In its response to the invitation from Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran’s envoy to the IAEA took a swipe at Tehran’s arch-foe Israel, which is widely believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal.

Nuclear weapons are especially controversial in the Middle East. Arab states often criticize Israel over its presumed nuclear arsenal. Israel and the United States see Iran as the region’s main proliferation threat, accusing Tehran of covertly seeking to develop nuclear arms. Iran denies this.

“We are of the view that stability cannot be achieved in a region where massive imbalances in military capabilities are maintained particularly through the possession of nuclear weapons which allow one party to threaten its neighbors and the region,” Iranian Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh wrote.

A gathering of regional adversaries around the same table to talk about nuclear arms could be symbolically important, even though substantive progress is likely to remain elusive.

Amano, the IAEA’s director general, said in the report made available to Reuters on Friday that he had written to all IAEA member states about taking part in a Nov. 21-22 forum in Vienna.

Debate would focus on lessons learned and relevant experience for the Middle East from the establishment of nuclear weapons-free zones in other regions, such as Africa and Latin America.

Diplomats stress that no decisions are expected at the planned talks, but that they could be useful as a way to start a dialogue and help build badly needed confidence in the region.

Amano said in his Sept. 2 report, the Application of IAEA Safeguards in the Middle East, that he had sought the views of Middle East countries on the agenda for the planned forum.

Twelve Middle Eastern states, including Egypt, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Syria, have written back, Amano added.

 

Small step

He suggested that his efforts had been broadly welcomed, even though some Arab states sought changes to the agenda.

He then “wrote to all member states inviting them to take part in the Forum to be held on November 21-22, 2011 at IAEA headquarters in Vienna,” the report said.

Amano “will pursue further consultations with member states of the Middle East region and with other interested parties on arrangements conducive to the Forum being a constructive contribution towards the objective of the establishment” of a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East, it added.

Amano told Reuters last month he saw “momentum” for his plan to host discussions between Israel and Arab states. IAEA members decided in 2000 that such a meeting should take place, but agreement on the agenda and other issues has been lacking.

“A nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East will not be achieved tomorrow, everyone knows it, but we can get closer,” Amano said in the Aug. 19 interview. “Increasing confidence is very much needed, even a small step is helpful.”

Israel is widely assumed to hold the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal and is also the only country in the region outside the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Arab states, backed by Iran, say this poses a threat to peace and stability. They want Israel to subject all its atomic facilities to IAEA monitoring.

Israel, which has never confirmed or denied having atom bombs, says it will join the NPT only if there is a comprehensive Middle East peace. If it signed the pact, the Jewish state would have to renounce nuclear weaponry.

 

Source

Three political prisoners granted leave, three sentenced

crazydead
-
0
Three political prisoners granted leave, three sentenced

 

Iranian authorities have granted a three-day furlough to three reformist political prisoners, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Ghorbanali Behzadannejad and Javad Emam.

Mostafa Tajzadeh, a senior member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, was arrested during the protests that disputed the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory in the 2009 presidential election. Tajzadeh was sentenced to six years in prison.

Ghorbanali Behzadiannejad, an aid to reformist presidential candidate MirHosein Mousavi, was sentenced to five years in prison. Javad Emam, another Mousavi aide, was sentenced to one year.

While scores of Iranian political prisoners arrested in the post-election mass protests were released in the past week, many still remain incarcerated in the overcrowded prisons of the Islamic Republic.

During that same week, the We-change women’s rights website reports that two women’s rights activists were sentenced in Esfahan. The report indicates that Mehrnoosh Etemadi and Hayedeh Tabesh, members of the One Million Signatures Campaign to End Discrimination, were given nine months in prison for “propaganda against the regime.” Their punishment has been suspended for three years.

Another human rights and student activist, Saeed Jalaifar, has been sentenced to three years in prison, according to the Human Rights Reporters Committee. He is accused of propaganda activities against the regime and giving interviews to foreign media outlets.

 

Source

Misagh Yazdan Nejad Denied Medical Care

crazydead
-
0
Misagh Yazdan Nejad Denied Medical Care

 

HRANA News Agency – Political prisoner Misagh Yazdan Nejad has been denied medical care by judicial and prison authorities. Currently, he is behind bars in critical condition in Rajai-Shahr Prison.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), although the medical examiner and the medical commission have recommended to the prosecutor and prison officials that Misagh Yazdan Nejad needs to undergo a surgery, nothing has been done thus far.

Last year, after an urgent recommendation was issued by the medical commission, Misagh Yazdan Nejad was taken to an operating room in a hospital outside the prison, but the surgery was halted for unknown reasons.

Misaghh Yazdan Nejad is a 24 year old student who studied in Payam Nur College to become a translator.During a raid by intelligence agents, he was arrested on September 10, 2007 while attending a memorial service for the19th anniversary of political prisoners executed in 1987. He was subsequently sentenced to 13 years in prison by Judge Abolqasem Salvati.

 

Source

Four Kermanshah Cultural Figures Released, While Four Others Remain in Prison

crazydead
-
0
Four Kermanshah Cultural Figures Released, While Four Others Remain in Prison

 

A human rights activist in Kurdistan told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that of the eight cultural and literary figures that were detained a month ago in the city of Gilan-e-Gharb, four were released on bail in the past two days. The detention of four others has been extended for another month.

Maryam Amini, Naeem Najafi, Jamal Khani and Sina Bijanpour were freed on a bail of $50,000 (50 million toman), and were all charged with “propaganda against the regime.” Each of them spent a month in solitary confinement in the Kermanshah Intelligence Office Detention Center, and they were recently transferred to Kermanshah’s Dizelabad and Women’s Prisons.

The detentions of Sajjad Jahanfar, Ezzedin Heydari, Farhad Vakilinia and Maziar Mohammadi have been extended for a month, and they remain at Kermanshah Intelligence Office Detention Center. However, their families have expressed hope that they will be freed by Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Jahanfar, a young Kurdish writer and researcher, has authored several literary works including the seven-volume “Stories of the Medea Land” and other works in Kurdish language. The other detainees are members of the Banan Literary Society and contributors to the cultural website Tagh-e-Vossan.

 

Source

‘I won’t back down an iota,’ Karroubi says

crazydead
-
0
‘I won’t back down an iota,’ Karroubi says

 

GVF — After almost seven months of illegal house arrest and isolation, Iranian opposition leader Mahdi Karroubi says he will continue with his uncompromising stance despite mounting state pressure.

According to Saham news, the official website of Karroubi’s National Trust Party, the Green Movement leader was able meet with his family on Wednesday which coincided with the Eid Al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

The website reported that Karroubi’s son (Hossein), wife (Fatemeh), daughter in laugh and grandchildren were also present at the family reunion.

“I hadn’t seen my father for close to seven months; which means since the first day the house arrest began,” Hossein Karroubi told Saham news. “… I was suddenly informed about the security forces’ agreement to let my family, my mother and I meet with my father. Therefore today around noon we went to the building where he’s been held since for the past month.”

Hossein Karroubi also pointed out that his father’s mental and physical condition was “desirable.” “Throughout the visit, he spoke about [different] matters with great morale, just like before, and he stood on his previous positions more firmly than before.”

In recent days, websites close to the Iranian regime had been claiming that Karroubi was preparing to release a statement announcing his  “repentance” for his uncompromising stance following the aftermath of the rigged 2009 presidential election.

During his meeting with his father, Hossein Karroubi reportedly briefed the cleric about the alleged “repentance letter.” “In response, he said, ‘I’m reaffirm my position and beliefs, and I won’t back down an iota’.”

“The regime and intelligence forces have in the past seven months become very familiar with my character and know my positions, they’ve come to understand how I think, this is why they won’t allow themselves to ‘guide’ and ‘instruct’ me, let alone trying to get me to write a repentance letter,” Karroubi is reported to have said.

Security forces also promised to transfer Mr Karroubi to a more appropriate location with access to a yard and open air. They also spoke about the possibility of Karroubi’s wife, Fatemeh Karroubi, joining her husband in captivity. Currently, the Intelligence Ministry is responsible for providing Mr Karroubi with food and basic necessities, Saham news added.

In an interview with the website news, Karroubi’s wife recently said her husband had been separated and moved to a new, tiny apartment on 1 August 2011 and that there had been no communication from him since 16 July 2011.

Mahdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, two presidential candidates who challenged the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009, were placed under house arrested after calling for protests in support of the Arab Spring on 14 February.

Nearly 200 days later and despite international condemnation of their house arrest, there has been no judicial process whatsoever initiated by their captors.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran recently stated that it held Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “directly responsible for the safety and health of Karroubi and Mousavi and calls on him to immediately release them.”

 

Source

Security forces threaten Sunni clerics for holding Eid Fetr

crazydead
-
0
Security forces threaten Sunni clerics for holding Eid Fetr

 

The Intelligence Agency of various western cities in Iran called Sunni clerics threatening them not to announce Eid Fetr and not to hold prayers for this day.
According to reports, despite the pressure of security institutions on Sunni clerics in the past few days, Sunnis held Eid Fetr prayers in a number of mosques in the cities of Marivan, Javanroud, Kamyaran, Sanandaj and Saqez.
After prayers were held, the Intelligence Agency threatened a number of clerics over the phone who had led the prayers. (Human Rights Activists in Iran – Aug. 30, 2011)

 

Source

 

The Revolutionary Guard; Major Force behind 1980 Coup

crazydead
-
0
The Revolutionary Guard; Major Force behind 1980 Coup

 

It was in the early phase of the war that the leaders of the coup came to conclude that they could not hold a grip on power and implement their plans for the coup, should Bani-Sadr be able to win the war. At those days when Iran’s regular army had been under heavy attack by people like Khamenei, Rezaee, Beheshti and Rayshahri, Bani-Sadr warned of possible military aggression against Iran and called for revival and reinforcement of the army.  Iraq imposed the war on Iran at the time when Iran’s army forces, specially the ground forces, had not been able to revive their military ability which had been weakened following the revolution. Though under heavy fire by the enemy, Bani-Sadr was able to make an organized army which prevented the enemy from further advancement into Iran’s soil. From the second month of the war, the Iranian army took the ground and started attacking the trapped army of Iraq. Given the troubles caused in the regular army’s operations by heads of the Islamic Republic Party and some elements of the revolutionary guard forces, Bani-Sadr used to visit the battle ground on daily basis.

Hatching plots against Bani-Sadr in Tehran, power-hungry individuals strongly believed that it was better for Iran to lose half its territory than Bani Sadr win the competition. By Khomeini’s order, the Revolutionary Guard forces were kept in Tehran and other big cities, and were used as instruments for the closure of the political organizations and the newspapers. The Rajaee’s government and the parliament had simultaneously tasked with standing against Bani-Sadr.

By reading Rafsanjani’s memoirs, one realizes that the part of the Revolutionary Guard, which used to be controlled by the Mujahidin of the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Republic Party, played a very significant role in coup against Bani-Sadr.

In his book Passing the Crisis, Hashemi Rafsanjani confesses that the Revolutionary Guard forces were summoned to Tehran for completion of the latest phase of the June 1981 coup.

Rafsanjani writes about his visit with Beheshti to the Eram Park where the Khuzestan forces of the Revolutionary Guard had been located. The role played by Mohsen Rezaee, Ali Shamkhani, Khosrow Tehrani and Reza Seifollahi, who were all revolutionary guard commanders, in coup against Bani-Sadr’s government shows that they began to interfere in the political affairs by the permission given to them by the leaders of the coup. At the time of impeachment of Bani-Sadr, they were assigned to prevent the people form protesting against the impeachment and they were asked to cooperate with the revolutionary court in arrest and execution of the dissents. Rafsanjani in his book writes that these forces were summoned to Tehran in order to defend the revolution and the parliament. Military personnel, who were supposed not to play any role in the politics, were asked to participate in all the meetings held for the coup against Bani-Sadr’s government.

It was through these meetings that the Revolutionary Guard forces realized that they were indeed the backbone of the regime. People whose opposition to the coup was  so clear that Khomeini had to say if 35 million people say yes I would say no, were no longer regarded as supporting force for the regime. Through the coup and the deal made with Reagan and Bush governments on the embassy’s abductees, the Revolutionary Guard turned to become a driving force in Iran domestic and foreign policy. It comes of no surprise that the Revolutionary Guard forces have been holding the major military and political posts since the revolution to date and have been never questioned by anybody.

Entrenchment of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran’s Domestic Policy through Repression

crazydead
-
0
Entrenchment of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran’s Domestic Policy through Repression

 

With the dawn of the war, people and students staged massive protests both against ruthless dictators such as Khomeini, Beheshti and Rafsanjani, and against the country’s situation, which was getting worst day by day.

When Bani-Sadr was popularly elected as president of Iran, the power-hungry people realized that they could not revive a dictatorship should they be unable to prevent the people from supporting the president. That is why, as Rafsanjani himself has written in his memoirs,  they began to hold secret meetings in which they sketched out and prepared plans  for overthrow of  Bani-Sadr who was supportive of the  people and people’s rights.

Rafsanjani’s letters in 1979 and the letters written by Rafsanjani, Bahonar, Beheshti and Khamenei and Mousavi Ardebili in 1980, all testify to the fact that they wanted to convince Khomeini to establish a clerical dynasty (it has been confessed by Mousavi Ardebili).

As they have written in their letters to Khomeini, they considered Bani-Sadr as a bulwark against their plans for creation of tyrannical government known as seminary Islam (as it is narrated by Rafsanjani). They appeared to be successful in convincing Khomeini that Bani-Sadr’s presidency would endanger “Parliamentary Islam” and the guardianship of jurists.

At this stage, Khomeini and his agents used the Students Follower of Imam’s Path to seize the US embassy with the help of the Revolutionary Guard forces. Following that incident and in the wake of the fake first parliamentary election, they paved the ground for a coup against the Bani-Sadr’s government.

Before that to happen, it was necessary for them to close down the universities which used to form the most important bedrock of support for Bani-Sadr by that time. At that time “Ayat Cassette” was tangible evidence that the closure of universities was a very important step in the procession of gradual coup.

From today’s confessions of some members of the Muslim Students Followers of the Imam’s Path, it is clear that the so-called Cultural Revolution was suggested and put into effect by some members of Islamic Republic Party (Hasan Ayat and followers of Baghaee and Sayyed Zia) and assistance of individuals like Ahmadinejad.

They knew well that they could not carry out their plans for a coup against the Bani-Sadr government if the universities remained open. Therefore, they were looking for the right time to implement their plans and stage a coup against the Bani-Sadr government. To understand the plots they hatched, one has to refer to the statements made by Hasan Ayat, a UK agent, in the meetings with his confidants. In an interview he says, “a plan is so well made that Bani-Sadr can in no way survive. We are going to close down the universities.”

Rafighdoost’s Comments about Mohsen Rezaee

crazydead
-
0
Rafighdoost’s Comments about Mohsen Rezaee

 

Mohsen Rafigh Doost tells a story about Reza Seifollahi and how he helped Rezaee to become the Revolutionary Guard’s Commander-in-Chief before the embassy seizure. Reza Seifollah discloses information about their plots for storming the US embassy, including plans to keep surveillance of the embassy from the state TV. He says “in order to observe the embassy, change the watchmen’s shifts and keep control over the commuters in the embassy, we kept a close surveillance over the embassy from the opposite buildings by the equipment we had prepared earlier. As Zarghami had told us beforehand, we knew well before the operation began that the Revolutionary Guard forces had been located in the embassy and they will support us in case we are attacked.”

By using the university students and participating in the embassy seizure, the Revolutionary Guard’s forces began to interfere in Iran foreign policy, thus making the US a determining factor in foreign policy of a regime they themselves had worked to establish.

1...564565566...704Page 565 of 704