Monday, January 29, 2018

IRANIAN ACTIVISTS STRIVE TO BUILD AWARENESS OF PROTESTERS’ DEMANDS AND TEHRAN’S RESPONSE

By INU Staff

INU - On Thursday, World Watch Monitor featured an interview with the Iranian-born human rights activist Mansour Borji, now the advocacy director of the UK-based charity called article 18. The article added Borji’s voice to the ongoing assessments of the situation faced by the Iranian nation in the wake of mass protests that began on December 28.

According to Borji, those protests demonstrated public opposition not only to Iran’s clerical regime as it exists today but also to the entire concept of political Islam. This account of popular sentiment is in keeping with the slogans that organizations like the National Council of Resistance of Iran have reported as coming out of those protests. These include calls for the resignation of both the “moderate” President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Protesters have also been heard to identify by name the reformist and conservative political factions that these two men lead, only to declare “the game is over” and suggest that there is little difference in what each has to offer the future of the Iranian nation.

Borji echoed this interpretation of public sentiment, stating that Iranians see little chance for reform from within the existing regime. “They see just survival tactics,” he said of the people’s response to Iranian activities such as the wasteful expenditure of public funds on interventions in the broader region, as well as the regime’s violent reaction to the latest round of protests.

Many observers of Iranian affairs have concluded that such violence is likely to only inflame the types of sentiments that Borji highlighted. For instance, an editorial published at Iranian.comdeclared that while the protests had largely subsided after two weeks, “the fallout from the government’s harsh response has just begun.” The article points out that the disappearance of protesters and politically active university students has brought people out by the thousands to protest in front of Iranian prisons and demand information or the release of their loved ones.

The Iranian Resistance group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK), was wrongfully on the US’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations until 2012, but how did it wind up there in the first place?
Let’s take a little look.

The MEK was put on the FTO but evidence suggests it had little to do with the MEK’s actions or beliefs. Instead, the US wanted engagement with the Iranian Regime, which apparently looked to be a permanent fixture in the Middle East by the 1990s, and the simplest way to do that was to label the MEK as a terrorist group. The West didn’t see regime change as an option then.

This was even admitted to by Martin Indyk, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs in the Clinton Administration, who said: “[There] was White House interest in opening up a dialogue with the Iranian government. Top Administration officials saw cracking down on the [MEK], which the Iranians had made clear they saw as a menace, as one way to do so.”

This is similar to the tactics used in the 1980s during the Iran-Contra scandal. In exchange for the release of American hostages being held in Lebanon by proxies of the Iranian Regime, the US State Department had to issue a statement accusing the MEK of terrorism. The Tower Commission Report cited a letter from Iranian negotiator, Manouchehr Ghorbanifar, to his US counterpart, which listed that as one of nine demands from the Regime.

A decade later, the State Department added the MEK to the FTO to appease Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, wrongly perceived as a moderate by the US.

A senior Clinton administration official even admitted this to the LA Times. They said: “The inclusion of the People’s Mujahedin was intended as a goodwill gesture to Tehran and its newly elected president, Mohammed Khatami.”

The evidence that the West provided to justify the designation was shaky at best. They alleged that:

There are a number of persistent and harmful rumours surrounding the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) - mainly spread by the Iranian Regime’s propaganda machine, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) - that are designed to make the international community and the Iranian people themselves distrust the MEK.

In this series, we intend to set the record straight and tell you the truth behind the lies.

The Lie: The MEK murdered Americans in Iran during the 1970s.

According to the US State Department’s 2009 Country Reports on Terrorism, the MEK killed the deputy chief of the US Military Mission in Tehran (1973), two members of the US Military Assistance Advisory Group (1975), and two employees of Rockwell International (1976). In addition, the MEK claimed responsibility for killing an American Texaco executive (1979).

Even Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said that he was living and working in Iran during that time and said that in his view the MEK were “terrorists”.

This is, of course, concern for Americans and most people around the world, but there is a bigger story here.

On November 9, 1978, the U.S. ambassador to Tehran, William Sullivan, sent shock waves through the foreign policy establishment with a diplomatic cable to the White House titled, “Thinking the unthinkable. Iran without the Shah.” The Iranian monarchy had been a U.S. ally for decades but in less than three months, the Shah and the monarchy were history.

Pundits were surprised by that change, and they were surprised again when Iran erupted at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018. As the principal opposition movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) played an important role in organizing the protests and breaking the mullahs’ censorship with news about them. Among this news were reports that protests had emerged in more than 140 localities.

In an era of social media, it was the protesters who sent the “cables”. The message was plain and simple. With chants like “down with Rouhani,” “down with Khamenei” and ‘no to reformers, no to hardliners; this game is over,” the Iranian people clearly communicated that they want regime change and they want it now.

WASHINGTON – Iran has aggressively pursued its ballistic missile program since agreeing to the 2015 nuclear deal, regularly launching nuclear-capable missiles in what critics consider a violation of the spirit of the deal, according to a report obtained by Fox News.

The report shows Iran has fired some 23 missiles since signing the deal, as many as 16 of them nuclear-capable. The controversial deal reached with the Obama administration did not include a ban on missiles, and Iran and European signatories to the agreement stress international inspectors have certified Iran in compliance.

But critics say the robust missile program shows the Islamic republic is bent on intimidating its enemies and preparing for the day when it can do so with the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.

“Out of all the ballistic missiles Iran fired in 2017, only four or five missiles can be considered nuclear-capable. In 2016, Iran fired 10 to 11 missiles than can be considered nuclear-capable,” according to a report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “It is highly likely that the administration’s threat intimidated Tehran, altering its flight-testing calculus.”

A protester holds a placard with a crossed-out portrait of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during a demonstration on Jan. 3, 2018, in Brussels. (EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)

By Haidar Khezri

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 and women's empowerment, police began to crack down.

By Jan. 4, riot police using tear gas, batons and bullets seemed to have quelled the protests. Then, on Jan. 14, two detained activists, Saro Ghahremani and Ali Poladi, died in prison, reportedly from torture.

What we have all come to understand is the fact that protests across Iran came as a major shock for the ruling regime and the international community. While the first wave of protests may have been quelled, Iran's regime fully understands there is an intense fire burning in this powder keg society.

Making matters even worse, and a subject Tehran refuses to discuss, is the parallel expansion of international isolation currently haunting this regime. The Obama years are gone and the United States, Europe and the Arab World are adopting increasingly stronger positions against Iran's belligerent policies.

Iranian protesters are following these developments closely, knowing the stronger the international effort, the weaker the clerical rulers will be in quelling their demands for ultimate regime change.

Washington initiative

In response to U.S. President Donald Trump's 120-day ultimatum for Europe to improve the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson paid a visit to his European counterparts to discuss Iran's ballistic missile program and regional meddling.

This cumulative pressure, with the Trump administration pushing lward this new Washington initiative to reform the JCPOA, is placing the Europeans before a decision they have been kicking down the road for decades, and especially during the eight years of Obama's full-throttle appeasement drive.

This rift in the West's actions provided Tehran the breathing room it desperately needed to export its dilemmas abroad, under the banner of "exporting the revolution." The end results in Iraq, Syria and Yemen go beyond any need of explanation after all these years of atrocities.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE’S MOJAHEDIN ORGANIZATION OF IRAN (PMOI/MEK)

by Jazeh Miller

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) is a political group dedicated to a#chieving a free and democratic Iran, but how did it start and why?
The MEK was founded on September 6, 1965, by three engineers: Mohammad Hanifnejad, Said Mohsen, and Ali-Ashgar Badizadgan.

The trio had previously been involved in the Freedom/Liberation Movement, led by Medhi Bazargan, which advocated for the democratic principles of the Iranian constitution created after the 1905 revolution.

The group lasted for two years before the Shah outlawed all pro-democracy groups and imprisoned their leaders, following the 1963 June Uprising, in which pro-free speech and anti-monarchy protests broke out across Iran before being violently put down by the Shah’s police. Bazargan w#a#s sentenced to ten years in prison.

The fight for freedom in Iran was far from over, but the MEK founders knew that they could not repeat the actions of the Freedom Movement, lest they meet the same fate.

Maryam Rajavi is the leader of the combined Iranian Resistance forces, which fight for freedom and democracy in Iran.

She is president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a broad coalition of resistance groups, with has the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) as its largest member, which serves as the government in exile for Iran.

Maryam Rajavi first joined the MEK in the early 1970s- not long after its founding- when they were fighting against the brutal regime of the Shah. Her family were also involved in the struggle against the Shah; her brother Mahmoud was also a member of the MEK and was held as a political prisoner during the Shah’s reign, while her sister Narges was tragically murdered by the Shah’s secret police (known as SAVAK) in 1975.

Still, her family fought on to attain freedom for all Iranians.

Shortly after joining the MEK, Maryam Rajavi became an official in its student movement (1973-79) before moving on to its social department (1979-81) following the Iranian Revolution. In 1980, she ran for Parliament in Tehran and received 250,000 votes, but the ruling mullahs banned anyone associated with the MEK from entering Parliament.

The overthrow of the Shah was supposed to yield freedom for Iran, but Ruhollah Khomeini’s faction hijacked the revolution, made him Supreme Leader, and began to suppress the will of the Iranians. So, Maryam Rajavi and the MEK once again began fighting for the freedom of Iran.

Shortly after the mullah’s takeover, they began to persecute dissidents and soon Maryam Rajavi’s sister Massoumeh was arrested. In 1982, the pregnant student was tortured and executed.

Still, Maryam Rajavi refused to crack under the pressure of an unjust Regime. She has since served as Joint-leader of the MEK (1985 to 1989) and Secretary General of the MEK (1989 to 1993) before taking on her current role in the NCRI.

As President-elect of the NCRI, Maryam Rajavi has provided a tremendous challenge to the despotic mullahs and their rule both in terms of policy and ideology. She even has a 10-point plan for a Free Iran which includes a commitment to gender equality, an end to corporal punishment and executions, and a non-nuclear Iran.

By INU Staff

INU - Could the current regime of Iran annihilate the / PMOI? Or the MEK / PMOI together with protesters will be victories?

The recent uprising in Iran which began on December 28 late last year, has sent shockwaves around the world, including the current debates among Iran policy circles in the United States.

Many policy experts, analysts, and commentators now view and describe the uprising as “watershed”, or “landmark event” or a “tuning point” in the period since 1979.

The below article is trying to provide a summary of these conceivable options and views mainly focus on the question of “will this uprising continue.”

There has been speculation that the uprising will die out or be crushed by the regime. However, a key barrier has been broken: Iranians are no longer contained by the wall of fear created by the Islamic Republic regime.

Not only has Iran’s theocracy lost its legitimacy, but also it has lost its ability to control the public who are well organized and peaceful through the instruments of violence. MEK / PMOI supporters shown outstanding supremacy in the uprising.

Their vision and advice has been well followed by young protesters. None of the shop or people properties has been attacked. MEK / PMOI supporters thoughtfully organised not to target none government position but to be focus on authorities belonging such as Bank, Clerical institution, suppressive forces bases etc., Unlike in past protests, countless Iranians have demonstrated that they will no longer participate in the political game of “reformist vs. conservative” (better known as “moderates vs. conservatives” in the West).

by Jubin Katiraie

After a fatal and long-lasting muteness, Khamenei spoke on the thirteenth day of the uprising and showed his panic and fear over the people’s fury, with an inverse tone, he reiterated the fact that the Iranian Resistance and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) are the alternative to his regime.

Khamenei stated: the MEK "had been ready since months ago ... since several months ago (they were ready) to organize, and meet this person and that one; and to select some people inside the country, find them and help them, so they would come and call on the people. They (MEK) announced their call, and made the slogan “No to high prices”. Well, this is a slogan that everyone likes. They (MEKO managed to attract some people with this slogan. And then, they(MEK) could come to the scene and pursue their goals, and make the people follow them”.

However, Khamenei while admitting to the critical situation in the country, the widespread uprising in 142 cities and all provinces in the country as "fireworks and devious work" after a deadly and lengthy silence, showed up on the thirteenth day of the uprising.

He inevitably had to acknowledge the continuation of the uprising. Referring to the protesters, he said, "The enemies’ agents will not give up”. This is at a time when Jafari, the IRGC commander, had announced a week earlier that the uprising had ended, and Rouhani had told the Turkish president that the unrest would end in two days.

Khamenei again, underscored the fact that the Iranian Resistance and the PMOI / MEK are the alternative to his regime. And thus tried to portray them as insignificant.

Scared of the people’s anger over the corrupt ruling system that has plundered tens of billions of the people’s assets, he, who is the greatest thief in Iran's history, said: "Troublesome funds or some of the troublesome financial institutions, some of the troublesome organs” have dissatisfied some people. "Those popular demands or popular appeals or popular protests have always existed in this country, and they exist now too. … Nobody opposes them either. These words should be taken into consideration and should be heard, and they should be responded to as much as possible. "

The AFP citing Iran's "state television", reported that while making a clear allusion to the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, Or the MEK, Rouhani told President Macron, "We criticize the fact that a terrorist group has a base in France and acts against the Iranian people and encourages violence. We expect the French government to act against this terrorist group ".

Shahriar Kia "Riyadh Daily"

Iran's uprising is organized and heading for a specific objective

The senior board of Iran's so-called Assembly of Experts recently expressed grave concerns regarding the consequences of Iran's latest uprising.

In this session assembly chief, Ahmad Jannati and spokesman Ahmad Khatami referred to three important crises facing the regime in regards to these protests.

1. The legitimacy of the people's demands

2. The impasse Iran's regime is facing in continuing its crackdown campaign

3. Failure and inability to control the internet

The truth is this uprising is an unexpected earthquake, and of course with a clear objective launched by the Iranian people against the entirety of the mullahs' regime. Their obvious goal is the all-out overthrowing of this regime.

Mehdi Abrishamchi, Chairman of the Peace Commission in the Iranian opposition coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), provided some understanding in this regard in a recent interview with the INTV satellite network, Abrishamchi in Farsi in Iran and across the globe.

Iconic Women Known As Girl Of Enghelab Street Arrested Again

Lawyer and human rights activist Nasrin Sotudeh said that the girl who took off her scarf and stood shaking it on Enghelab Street, known as the “Girl of Enghelab Street” on social media, was arrested once again after she was released from prison.

Sotoudeh reportedly went to Enghelab Street, where the woman carried out her defiant act, to discover more about her whereabouts. She told AFP that the only information she was able to gather was that the woman is 31 years old and has a 19-month-old baby.

Sotoudeh told the AFP that in the past the regime’s authorities have taken women to a holding place before they receive legal representation and beaten them.

“Before even being tried by legal authorities, [women] are taken to a place called ‘Gasht-e Ershad’ [Guidance Patrol], where they can be harshly beaten up,” she said. “Whether a case is opened for them or not is not important. The illegal punishment they have had to bear has always been much more than what is foreseen in the law.”

Girl of Enghelab Street, Vida http://iran-hrm.com/enghelab-street-arrested/ index.php/2018/01/24/iconic-women-known-girl-who was arrested for removing her headscarf and waving it in the air as a sign of protest to the compulsory hijab law in Iran was first arrested in one of Tehran’s busiest streets on December 27.

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. Police reportedly said that women who wear makeup and loosened headscarves will no longer face arrest, but will be sent to “Islamic values” classes.

Iran: 2-Year-Old Earthquake Survivor Dies Due To Atrocious Living Condition

Little 2-year-old Sarina died on January 18, 2018 after catching the flu in the western Iranian province of Kermanshah.

More than 70 days after the earthquake, her father says authorities refused to provide his family a trailer and little Sarina died of the freezing winter cold.

Speaking with the state-run ISNA news agency on January 24, Sarina’s father said: “High fever and repeated seizures worsened the condition of Sarina and there was not even a specialist at the city’s clinic. Subsequently her health deteriorated and she lost consciousness on January 17. We took her to a hospital where they could not do anything for my daughter due to shortage of specialist. The next day I took her to Kermanshah hospital but she died two hours later in my hands.”

Shahab Naderi, an outspoken MP who has criticized the authorities’ inadequate reaction to the November earthquake has said “four deaths from frostbite have been reported in the quake-stricken areas.”

He also gave news of at least 20 suicides after the recent earthquake, saying that the statistics are increasing day by day.

“People in rural areas are in very difficult conditions, and promises made by officials have not been fulfilled,” Naderi said in an interview with the state-run Khane Mellat news agency.

A recent controversial interview by an state TV reporter shows how more and more Kermanshah earthquake survivors are committing suicide due to dire living conditions. In the interview he asks people to help, forgetting to mention why the government has failed to provide meaningful aid?

A video recently posted on social media showed a man who reached the point of setting his entire family on fire due to their atrocious living conditions after the earthquake which left 30,000 homeless.

In the drugs and arms trade, is Iran getting away with murder?

Hezbollah flag in one of the alleys of Lebanon

BARIA ALAMUDDIN

Arab News, 21 January 2018 - Possibly one of the biggest scandals of the Obama administration was the blocking of active investigations into Hezbollah and Iran’s complicity in the deadly global trade in drugs and armaments. Former US Treasury official Katherine Bauer testified that these investigations were “tamped down for fear of rocking the boat with Iran and jeopardizing the nuclear deal.” In recent days, the US Justice Department has reopened these investigations. This couldn’t come a moment too soon.
We all remember former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cozying up to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez as part of their anti-American axis. It later came to light that this alliance brought forth a vast drug-trafficking operation, which saw Venezuelan cocaine sales skyrocket from 50 to 250 tonnes a year — mostly bound for the US. In and around 2007, Venezuela’s state airline was ferrying large quantities of cash and drugs to Tehran each week, returning laden with weapons and Hezbollah operatives.

S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Britains Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson attend a press conference in London, January 22, 201

WASHINGTON (Reuters) 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.

US Secretary of State Rex Tilerson and Prime Minister Teresa May meet in London

London, SPA, 22 January 2018 - British Prime Minister Theresa May and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stressed the importance of concerted international efforts, to counter Iran's destabilizing activities, in the Middle East, as she received the US official, currently on an official visit to the United Kingdom.

Tillerson also met with his British counterpart Boris Johnson.

During the meetings, US Secretary of State held with the British side, he discussed the special relationship binding the two countries and means of enhancing them, in the light of the challenges facing the world, in addition to a number of regional and global issues of common concern, according to the spokesman for the British Prime Minister, in a press statement announced here today.

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

Before its news.com, January 21, 2018 - 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 Leader Ali Khamenei said, “These incidents had been organized.” The MEK implemented the plans. He added, “The MEK had prepared for this months ago” and “the MEK’s media outlets had called for it.”

US Vice President Mike Pence

January, 21, 2018 - US Vice President Mike Pence on his trip to the Middle East centered his talks on the malign activities of the Iranian regime. In his tweete, the Vice President said; 'We will NOT WAVER in our resolve to confront the leading state sponsor of terrorism – the dictatorship in Iran. We will NEVER ALLOW Iran to acquire a usable nuclear weapon The Trump Administration has put Iran on notice.'

US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley

January 23, 2018 - US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that the US will no longer tolerate Iran ignoring the UN resolutions.
In her tweet, Ambassador Haley said: 'We will not tolerate Iran ignoring @UN resolutions by continuing their ballistic missile program, and we look forward to other countries joining us in addressing their dangerous and destabilizing behavior.

1. On Saturday, January 20, several people from Robat Karim (Tehran Province) protested against high prices. The protesters, a major part of whom were women, chanted slogans against the regime.

In order to intimidate and disperse the crowd, the law enforcement criminal agents ran over by a car a lady who was protesting against plundering her deposits. The same criminal method was carried out in Ahwaz during the first days of the uprising during which the regime’s criminals ran over the people with a truck.

2 On the same day, in Ahwaz, deprived farmers, whose lands had been looted by the regime’s false promises, protested outside the Amir Kabir Sugarcane Development Company in Ahwaz. Their demand was to work on their own lands that had been looted. The riot guard attacked them with Baton.

3. Also, a number of workers from the Mahshahr municipality gathered outside the city's municipality in protest of the non-payment of their monthly salaries.

4. The protest gathering by a group of workers at the Kian Kurd Factory in Malayer, which started last week in protest against the failure to pay six months of overdue salaries and the failure to pay for the 2017-2017 gift, continues.
On Thursday, January 18, protests by deprived and oppressed people continued in various parts of the country:

5. The brave youths of Qum burned a large image of Khamenei in the Hamza boulevard near the Parsian gas pump.

In a gathering for the New Year, Sunday, January 21, Maryam Rajavi met with a group of the elected representatives of the people of France, French supporters of the Iranian Resistance, and a number of residents of Auvers-sur-Oise and other cities.
In remarks to this gathering, she extended her New Year greetings and said:

Elected representatives of the people of France, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
Once again, we have gathered to celebrate the New Year.

It is a great pleasure for the big family of the Iranian Resistance to gather with their best friends. I wish you a happy New Year filled with happiness, health and success.

In Iran, 2018 began with a breeze of freedom, promising hope for regime change in 142 Iranian cities. The people of Iran took to the streets, from north to south, and from east to west. The uprising began in Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city, and subsequently spread all over the country.

Of course, the clerical regime reacted with violence. Dozens were killed. More than 8000 have been arrested. The majority of the victims are under 25 years of age. Everyday adds to the number of protesters who get murdered under torture.

This is the uprising of the poor and hungry, young men and who suffer from unemployment, those who do not have any future. As we witnessed, Iran’s courageous women had a great role in the uprising which was sparked by economic and social demands but quickly turned political.

The regime tries to suppress the uprising by engaging its repressive forces but the protests have continued, by writing graffiti on the walls, by strikes and gatherings. In addition, many of the regime agents have defected.

Aladdin Borujerdi, chairman of the Foreign Policy and National Security Commission of the Mullahs’ regime Majlis (parliament), is to attend the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. Regarding the freedom lovers of the Iranian communities accepting someone who has always played an active role in suppressing Iranian people

and supporting terrorism in the last four decades in the European Parliament, is absolutely unacceptable. Iranian resistance for freedom and human rights calls for the lifting of the call, which is in clear contradiction with the values that the European Union is founded on and defended by the European Parliament.

At the time all the international human rights bodies express their concerns over slaying and torture of the protests’ detainees in the prisons of the mullahs’ regime in Iran, hosting a criminal of the oppressor gangs ruling Iran, under the pretext of “Developing the Parliamentary dimension of the EU-Iran relations and to engage Members of both sides to discuss issues of common interest” is just scorning the humanitarian values.

Iranian people demand all the freedom lovers to condemn the shameful visit of the representative of religious dictatorship ruling Iran.

Iran Focus

London, 6 Jan - If you persist, the world will stand with you and on your side.

Ending the silence on Iran and shattering a 4-decade-old barrier of appeasement of the regime, the UN Security Council’s meeting on Iran is a product of the Iranian people’s uprising, the sacrifice of its martyrs and the suffering of its captives. The world’s major governments had so far turned a blind eye on brutal suppression of our people and executions of 120,000. Iran’s protesters and youths, however, have in their first step turned the page of the United Nations and Security Council’s history on Iran. This indicates that the young men and women who rose up in the streets of , Doroud, Ghahdarijan, Jouyabad of Isfahan, and 75 other cities can and must turn the darkest page of Iran’s history.

As the Iranian Resistance’s Leader, Massoud Rajavi, said, “If you persist, the world will stand with you and on your side.”

Iran: Three woman protesters arrested in southwest Tehran

Eleven persons including three women were arrested in Parand Sunday night, December 31, 2017.

Parand is located in Robat Karim, southwest of Tehran. Abdollah Pashaki, the State Security Force commander of Robat Karim in southwest Tehran, announced that those arrested were among the protest leaders and active protesters. (The state-run ILNA news agency – January 1, 2018)

According to the reports reaching the Iranian Resistance, more than 1000 protesters have been arrested in the first four days of the uprisings across Iran.

At the same time, supporters of the Iranian Resistance hung a huge banner bearing the image of opposition leader, Maryam Rajavi, from a pedestrian bridge overlooking AshraIs

fahanifi- expressway in west Tehran.

IRAN 19 hours ago Women are leading in Iran. Where is their voice of support from the left?

The most striking images coming out of the Iran human rights protests are not of men – they are of women. And while American media was slow and even hesitant to pick up that anything at all was actually happening – this, while protests ignited for what is now six full days around Iran, nine years after the Green Movement protests began – Twitter was flooded with videos and photos on the ground, in defiance of the Iranian regime’s social media policy.

Almost none was more striking than a young Iranian woman standing atop a container and shedding her hijab – a garment mandated and enforced upon her and all women in Iran – while simultaneously waving it as a flag. It was an act of defiance much like that of the Iranian chess champion Derakhshani, who was expelled from competition in Iran for refusing to wear a headscarf in competition.

There were unconfirmed reports that the unidentified girl was taken into custody and the spot where she stood had become a makeshift shrine, but because of the scattering of information on the ground there’s no way to confirm that.

As demonstrations against the clerical regime continue, the numbers of Iranians using privacy technologies is increasing.

By Alexander J Martin, Technology Reporter

The use of counter-censorship technology is increasing in Iran after the authorities blocked access to popular communications services.

Photo-sharing app Instagram and encrypted messaging app Telegram have been blocked in the country despite president Hassan Rouhani claiming he would allow "space for legal criticism" as demonstrations against the clerical regime continue.

Despite the potential disruption to communications provided by these blocks, the use of anonymity network Tor has increased to its highest ever number in the country.