Spring of freedom

Fragments of Iranian maid Qiam-class ballistic missiles fired from Yemen at Saudi Arabia, on display in Washington, D.C. As the administration on Monday showed foreign ambassadors alleged evidence of links between Iran and ballistic missiles fired into Saudi Arabia by Houthi rebels in Yemen, an Iranian opposition group said it has received reports that the launches are occurring under the “direct orders” of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Citing sources inside the regime and the IRGC, the exiled Iranian opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran/People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (  NCRI  /MEK) said the reports indicate that the missiles are being manufactured at factories affiliated to the IRGC’s aerospace division.  “According to these sources, the Houthis received training from IRGC and the Lebanese Hezbollah on how to handle and use the missiles,” the group said in a report, which also identified shipping companies s...

The woman who removed her headscarf is jailed hand harassed by Iranian state security forces  At the close of 2017, an Iranian woman removing her hijab and waving it like a flag became a symbol of the protests sweeping through Iran. That woman's current whereabouts are unknown, but locals claim she was arrested by police.  The woman in the video was violating Iran's so-called modesty laws, which mandate that women wear Islamic head coverings at all times.  At the time, some media reports claimed these laws were no longer enforced in cities like Tehran during the protests. However, the laws and accompanying punishments were only loosened slightly. Those wearing loose-fitting hijabs and too much makeup were assigned to mandatory Islamic culture classes, rather than the usual punishment of jail time. The illegal punishment they have had to bear has always been much more than what is foreseen in the law.   Anti-government protests raged in Iran as the n...

People demonstrate in solidarity with anti-government protests in Iran near the Iranian embassy in Paris, France, Jan. 6, 2018 Iranian voters, fed up with politics as usual, have demanded the ouster of both Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President  Hassan Rouhani THE CONVERSATION, January 23, 2018  - The two-week protest movement that rocked cities across Iran earlier this year has largely subsided, but the fallout from the government’s harsh response has just begun. More than 3,700 people were arrested and 23 were killed in sometimes violent nationwide marches that started on Dec. 28, 2017, in response to an austerity budget proposed by President Hasan Rouhani. At first, the protests were a display of anger by working-class Iranians, in the city of Mashhad, who complained of poverty and inequality. But the unrest soon spread to more than 80 cities. And as thousands of disenchanted citizens widened the agenda to include corruption, human rights, foreign policy...

This young woman who defied the Mullahs dress code was arrested  According to reports, the fate of the “Girl of Enghelab Street,” a woman arrested for removing her white headscarf and waving it in the air in a sign of protest to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s compulsory hijab law is unknown. The woman’s act of bravery and defiance took place on one of Tehran’s busiest streets on December 27, just one day prior to the start of the national uprising against the Iranian government, as part of a movement known as “White Wednesday.” She quickly became a symbol of hope for the protesters. The report sites witnesses on the scene seeing her taken away and even accompanied her to the police station.  The only information available about her is that this brave woman is 31 years old and has a 19-month-old baby. The incident took place on the same day that the Iranian regime announced it was relaxing its punishment for women who do not adhere to the strict Islamic dress code....

In a meeting in Paris, Jan. 19, 2018, former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich expressed his support for the Iranian people’s uprising and for the organized resistance under the NCRI The prominent Republican and former presidential candidate was addressing a meeting with representatives of Iranian communities from Europe, which was held at the  NCRI  ’s headquarters in a northern suburb of Paris. Maryam Rajavi  , the President-elect of the NCRI, addressed the meeting, titled “Regime change in Iran.” The meeting took place in the wake of a popular uprising that erupted in Iran on December 28. According to the network of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK), the NCRI’s main constituent group, the protests rapidly spread to 142 cities across the country. The MEK network reported that some 50 protesters were killed and at least 8,000 were detained. A growing number of are found to have been tortured to death. In his speech on January 9, Iran’s Supreme ...

.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Britains Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson attend a press conference in London, January 22, 2018  The United States plans to send a diplomatic team to Europe to discuss the Iran nuclear deal and countering Iranian activities in the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Monday according to a U.S. pool reporter.  “We have a team traveling - actually, they’re coming to Europe,” Tillerson said according to the U.S. reporter traveling with him. The team would explore “how we can address these flaws in the nuclear agreement ... but also how can we cooperate more on countering Iran’s activities that are not related to their nuclear program. Our concerns about their arms exports to Yemen and elsewhere,” Tillerson said.

Social and Economical protests have turned political  As protests recently began to consume Iran, European capitals were at a seeming loss for words. After several days of silence, Europe’s leaders issued curt statements of sympathy for the protestors — but with a notable tinge of moral equivocation. A  European Union  statement and Britain’s foreign secretary separately called on “all concerned to refrain from violence.” Germany’s foreign minister urged “all sides” to abstain from bloodshed. What accounts for Europe’s apparent conflation of victim and oppressor? Previously, European leaders have expressed their determination to raise difficult issues with Iran, including human rights. After concluding the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), European leaders hailed the beginning of a new era in EU-Iran relations. A 2016 resolution passed by the European Parliament voiced the hope that a “substantial improvemen...

National Council of Resistance of Iran Two other people arrested in the popular uprisings in Iran were killed by the torture of the henchmen of the Velayat-e faqih regime in Arak and Sanandaj. Seyed Shahab Abtahi, a 20-year-old young man who was arrested in Arak two weeks ago, died under the torture of the henchmen. The tormentors left the martyr’s body 10 days after his arrest in front of his father’s house, while signs of the baton blows on his body were visible. Before him, another man arrested in the popular uprising in Iran, Vahid Heidari, a 22-year-old deprived street vendor, was martyred by baton blows. The police of Markazi Province alleged in a stupid lie that he had been arrested on charges of carrying drugs and committed suicide at the detention centre of police station 12 of Arak. The detainees of the uprising in Arak were first transferred to the central prison of Arak and then to the Basij garrison in the so-called resistance square. A number of detainees ha...

Protests in Iran gets more confrontational as the suppressive measures are imposed by the regime  Widespread protests have engulfed Iran for at least two weeks.  Despite nearly 8,000 arrests, 50 deaths, thousands wounded, and deployment of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), calls continue to go out for protests in dozens of cities. The 2017 uprising was different from the 2009 Green Movement in several respects. The latest demonstrations started out with smaller numbers but with a much broader geographic and social base. There are no declared leaders to arrest and no specific location to suppress. The ideological focus of the emerging movement was also far-reaching. Whereas the Green Movement focused primarily on disputed election results, the current protests emerged out of the economic anxieties of a population that has been essentially plundered by the self-serving clerical elite.  Large crowds of protestors have been heard chanting “death to th...

President Trump  We did get a report this week that the street in Iran is actually happy with President Trump.  This is from news reports: They are risking their lives to bring freedom to Iran, and vow to continue their protests. 'These uprisings have just begun.  People are not at all willing to give up,' one activist told Fox News from the streets of Iran. 'Their patience has come to an end and they have nothing to lose.  Iran will surely not fall down and people will not retreat from their demands.' The defiance comes as President Trump announced Friday that he is waving sanctions against Iran under the controversial 2015 nuclear deal one last time, and gave the European allies four months to change the terms of the agreement or he may seek to scrap it. The protesters we talked to demand even harsher sanctions. 'They should impose major sanctions on the regime,' one protester demanded.  Another added [that] there 'should be sanctions for huma...

US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley US Ambassador to the  United Nations  , Nikki Haley said in a tweet published on the USUN twitter account that the Iranian regime spends at least $200 million on Hezbollah each year, while their citizens chant, “Neither Gaza, nor Lebanon, my life only for Iran.”

People protest in Tehran, Iran December 30, 2017 in in this picture obtained from social media.  The massive and widespread arrests of young people in different Iranian cities continue since the people took to the streets on December 28. According to reports from inside Iran and from within the regime, the number of detainees has mounted to at least 8,000 by the end of the second week of the Iranian people's uprising.   The repressive forces are beating a protester on the street In recent days, several of these prisoners were martyred under the regime’s medieval tortures. Despite the regime’s attempts to keep hidden the number of arrests, it admitted to parts of it due to the high rise in numbers. A week ago Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of parliament, said the number of arrestees amounted to 3,700. On January 2, political-security deputy governor of Tehran said 450 people were arrested in Tehran in only three days (December 30 - January 1). On Decemb...