Spring of freedom

Archive photo: Struan Stevenson, former MEP, and coordinator of the Campaign for Iran Change (CiC), speaking at the Geneva Conference on the situation of human rights in Iran The former member of the European Parliament Struan Stevenson published an  op-ed for UPI  on Thursday, April 25. He used the opportunity to urge the US government to maintain its application of financial pressure on the Iranian regime and end its reign of violence and tyranny. Stevenson called President Trump’s decision to end waivers for Turkey, Iraq, India, Japan, and China that permitted them to continue purchasing Iranian oil “the final nail” in “the mullahs’ coffin.” For Stevenson, this was a necessary move to slash Iranian oil exports closer to “zero” goal. STRUAN @STRUANSTEVENSON My article in @ UPI Decision to cancel the temporary waivers that had enabled some countries to continue purchasing # Iran 's oil has hammered the final nail into the mullahs' coffin # MEK @ Se...

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force is involved in destructive activities across the region  Two international experts explained the threats and terrorist activities posed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ( IRGC ) Quds force across the Middle East. Seth G. Jones chair, director, and senior advisor to the Transnational Threats Project explained how the IRGC Quds Force is acting as the Iranian regime extraterritorial arm. “The IRGC Quds Force is Iran’s primary military actor in the Middle East. It competes with countries like the United States by training, advising, and equipping sub-state forces, including Shiite militias in  Iraq , Hezbollah in  Lebanon ,” Jones said in an interview “Iran’s goal with the base like in Lebanon is to improve the capabilities of its local actors,” Jones added.  He continued to say that Iran has such basis in  Syria , too, with the aim of bringing these actors from all over these locations for training. He also e...

Iranian regime officials are concerned over how to compensate for the lack of foreign currency.  While international sanctions against the regime ruling Iran increase and every venue for exporting oil comes to a close, the ruling theocracy in Iran is going into a panic mode. Petrodollars, in addition to covering Iran’s hegemonistic ambitions and its export of fundamentalism throughout the Middle East, also provided for part of the government’s budget. Now that the U.S.’ zero-export-policy is firmly implemented, Iranian regime officials are concerned over how to compensate for the lack of foreign currency. This prevailing issue looms large over the already hot internal debates between Iran’s opposing factions inside the ruling elite weighing the right approach towards the international community. In response to the new no-waiver policy for Iran’s oil exports, the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani claim Iran will sell as much oil as it wa...

The regime in Iran is providing millions to Iraq & Syria while millions are suffering from floods inside Iran It has been more than a month since the devastating  floods  in Iran has washed away more than half of the country’s lands and leaving the lives of more than 11 million people in two third of the country’s provinces in ruins. While there is a desperate need for state funds to help the people and provide at least basic necessities, some state-run media reported on Saturday that the clerical regime ruling Iran has paid 1.2 trillion rials (equal to about $30 million) to  Iraq  and  Syria  under the pretext of rebuilding shrines in those two countries. The head of one of the regime’s corrupt institution, the “Department for Rebuilding Sacred Shrines,” acknowledged the amount. By calling it propaganda against the state, he reacted to the growing popular hatred of spending so much on the regime’s extraterritorial projects while people in floode...

For the regime ruling Iran, there’s no escaping from the FATF crisis  The bills related to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) are still under review in Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council and proponents from both factions, as much as the opponents, are dragging the council to abide by their political position. Amid this fiasco, most evident is the fact that the Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei lacks both the power and authority to make a decision and accept the consequences and responsibility that come with it. On April 23, Keyhan newspaper, known as Khamenei’s semi-official mouthpiece, published an article titled, “The Expediency Discernment Council’s procrastination in disapproving the  FATF  is not expedient,” accusing the council members of leaving the Palermo and CFT bills in limbo. “After the FATF, in its recent statement, suspended Iran again from its blacklist for a period of four months, proponents of the FATF asked for this bills to be...

Jeremy Hunt, British foreign secretary, meeting with Gabriella Ratcliff, Nazanin Zaghari's daughter in Tehran British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Thursday dismissed the suggestion of a prisoner swap for a British-Iranian mother being held in Tehran as a "vile" diplomatic ploy, while her husband told AFP the idea was "almost impossible". In New York, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday suggested a swap between Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is in jail in Tehran for alleged sedition, and Negar Ghodskani, an Iranian woman held in Australia on a U.S. extradition warrant. Hunt said there was a "huge difference" between the two women. "The woman in jail in Australia is facing due process, a proper legal procedure, and she is alleged to have committed a very serious crime," he told reporters in London. "Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is innocent -- she has done nothing wrong." He added: "What is u...

INU - Iran is the world leader in executions per capita and torture is routine in the Regime’s prisons, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the Iranian Resistance and future President of Iran for the transitional period. would ban the death penalty as soon as she got into office. Her plan for a future Iran is a country the devoid of the death penalty, all forms of torture, and any human rights abuses. Many years ago, Maryam Rajavi and the Iranian Resistance called for the abolition of the death penalty, the end of torture, and the halting of all human rights abuses in Iran. The mullahs have never agreed and their abuses have only grown over the years. Maryam Rajavi said: “Our plan is to revive friendship, conciliation and tolerance. Our plan for the future is to put an end to the mullahs’ religious decrees. We reject the inhuman penal code and other abusive laws of this regime. We believe Retribution is an inhuman law.” Maryam Rajavi and the Iran...

London, 25 April - The US recently placed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) on its list of foreign terrorist organisations, which is a bold move that complements the Treasury Department’s previous listing of the IRGC as a banned terror group. It was the first time that an entire division of a foreign government was formally labelled as a terrorist organization. This move was made because of increased Iranian aggression and regional interference in recent months, ever since Donald Trump took office, and that is a worrying prospect from the world’s leading state sponsor of terror. The IRGC was founded in 1979 to safeguard the revolution, which basically translates to crushing any and all detractors. Now, the 125,000-strong militia holds incredible influence over the political and economic spheres, with financial interests in the telecommunications, construction, energy and auto industries. They have their own army, air force and navy, control Iran’s nuclear and inte...