NEWS))))))
Iranian regime said on Friday that it would execute at least 10 “trouble-makers” in the coming days to combat “insecurity” in society. “Within the next several days, God’s verdict will be applied in the cases of more than 10 trouble-makers”, said Seyyed Ibrahim Re’isi, Iran’s deputy judiciary chief. He said that the sentences of these individuals had already been upheld by the State Supreme Court.“In order to root out insecurity once and for all, there must be an unrelenting campaign to combat this problem”, he said at Friday prayers in Tehran. His remarks were reported by the official news agency IRNA.
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The international human rights group Amnesty International accused the Iranian regime on Wednesday of continuing to execute minors.At least 71 child offenders were awaiting execution in Iran, Amnesty said in a report entitled, “Iran: The last executioner of children”.It said that more child offenders had been executed in Iran than in any other countries since 1990. In its report, Amnesty listed the names of the 71 child offenders known to be facing the death penalty, but noted that the total number could be much higher “as many death penalty cases in Iran are believed to go unreported”. Of the 24 child offenders recorded as having been executed since 1990, 11 were still under the age of 18 at the time of their execution while the others were either kept on death row until they had reached 18 or were convicted and sentenced after reaching that age, the group said.
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The Guardian reported today that Iranians set fire to a dozen petrol stations in Tehran in the early hours yesterday, angered by the sudden start of fuel rationing, a step that threatens to further increase the unpopularity of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.After the violence security was strengthened at several stations, and there was calm as Iranians lined up to fill their tanks under the new restrictions, which limit private drivers to 100 liters (22 gallons) a month.The government has been warning for weeks that it would start rationing, but the announcement on Tuesday, only three hours before the measure went into effect at midnight, sent Iranians rushing to fill up.The rationing is part of a government attempt to reduce billions of dollars in subsidies it pays to keep petrol prices low. Iran is one of the world's biggest oil producers, but has few refineries and imports more than 50% of its petrol needs. The government says money saved from subsidies can go to building refineries, improving public transportation and job creation. "This man Ahmadinejad has damaged all things. The timing of the rationing is just one case," said Reza Khorrami, a teacher who was among those lining up at a Tehran petrol station.
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According to BBC News on Friday, Iran's top security body has ordered local journalists not to report on problems caused by petrol rationing, a day after its surprise introduction. Angry motorists have reacted violently to the curbs, attacking up to 19 petrol stations in the capital, Tehran. There are still long queues outside filling stations. The authorities switched off the mobile text messaging system in Tehran overnight to prevent motorists from organizing more protests. The BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran said that many Iranians are already on edge because of a recent sharp rise in the cost of living. During Wednesday's unrest, motorists threw stones and shouted slogans against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
NEWS))))))
Authorities executed a 40-year-old man in public in southern Iran, state media reported on Wednesday. The execution was carried in public in the city of Shiraz, the state-run newspaper Etemaad wrote. The man, identified only by his first name Nasrollah, was accused of drug trafficking.Iranian authorities routinely execute dissidents on bogus charges such as armed robbery and drug smuggling.
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Associated France Press reported that an Iranian-French journalism student is being prevented from leaving Iran after spending a month in jail for interviewing opposition members, Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday. Mehrnoushe Solouki has been under house arrest in Tehran since March when she was freed from Tehran's Evin prison where she was interrogated and confined to a cell with a permanently-lit neon light, the group said. Solouki, a doctoral student in Montreal- Canada, had obtained permission from Iranian authorities to produce a documentary film on the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq war, said Ajar Smouni, a spokeswoman for Reporters Without Borders. But she was arrested on February 17 after interviewing family members of the opposition People's Mujahedeen who said they had been victims of repression, Smouni said. Solouki, 38, who holds Iranian and French citizenship, was freed on March 19 after posting bail of 80,000 euros (107,000 dollars) and has since been under house arrest in Tehran. Iranian authorities confiscated her notes and film footage and have since called her in for questioning, according to her lawyer in France, William Bourdon, who said they have threatened to jail her again unless she cooperates. The lawyer said Solouki had been given her French passport back, but that authorities were refusing to let her leave. "This is a very worrying situation," said Bourdon, who has raised her plight with Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. The foreign ministry said it was in contact with Tehran about Solouki's case, with spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei saying that "we obviously hope that the situation can be resolved and that she will be able to have full freedom of movement."
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Coalition forces uncovered half a dozen Iranian-made rockets in a Baghdad schoolyard earlier this week, the U.S.-led military said on Monday.Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldiers and aviation assets discovered the six rockets in a schoolyard in the Iraqi capital’s Rashid District on June 17, the Multi-National Corps – Iraq (MNC-I) said in a statement.
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Forouz Raja'ee-Far, secretary general of the Headquarters for Honoring the Martyrs of Islam World Movement, said the former $100,000 prize for carrying out the execution ordered by Imam Khomeini in 1989 has now been increased to $150,000, the Fars News Agency reported Monday. After writing “The Satanic Verses” Khomeini ruled Salman Rushdie’s death by a Fatwa. "According to Imam Khomeini's verdict, it is an obligation for all Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie even if he repents from the bottom of his heart and becomes the pious man of the time," Raja'ee-Far said. "Also according to Imam's verdict, if a non-Muslim person can find and execute Rushdie sooner than Muslims, it will be an obligation for Muslims to provide such a person with whatever he wants as his payment or prize," he said.
Authorities executed a 40-year-old man in public in southern Iran, state media reported on Wednesday. The execution was carried in public in the city of Shiraz, the state-run newspaper Etemaad wrote. The man, identified only by his first name Nasrollah, was accused of drug trafficking.Iranian authorities routinely execute dissidents on bogus charges such as armed robbery and drug smuggling.
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Associated France Press reported that an Iranian-French journalism student is being prevented from leaving Iran after spending a month in jail for interviewing opposition members, Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday. Mehrnoushe Solouki has been under house arrest in Tehran since March when she was freed from Tehran's Evin prison where she was interrogated and confined to a cell with a permanently-lit neon light, the group said. Solouki, a doctoral student in Montreal- Canada, had obtained permission from Iranian authorities to produce a documentary film on the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq war, said Ajar Smouni, a spokeswoman for Reporters Without Borders. But she was arrested on February 17 after interviewing family members of the opposition People's Mujahedeen who said they had been victims of repression, Smouni said. Solouki, 38, who holds Iranian and French citizenship, was freed on March 19 after posting bail of 80,000 euros (107,000 dollars) and has since been under house arrest in Tehran. Iranian authorities confiscated her notes and film footage and have since called her in for questioning, according to her lawyer in France, William Bourdon, who said they have threatened to jail her again unless she cooperates. The lawyer said Solouki had been given her French passport back, but that authorities were refusing to let her leave. "This is a very worrying situation," said Bourdon, who has raised her plight with Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. The foreign ministry said it was in contact with Tehran about Solouki's case, with spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei saying that "we obviously hope that the situation can be resolved and that she will be able to have full freedom of movement."
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Coalition forces uncovered half a dozen Iranian-made rockets in a Baghdad schoolyard earlier this week, the U.S.-led military said on Monday.Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldiers and aviation assets discovered the six rockets in a schoolyard in the Iraqi capital’s Rashid District on June 17, the Multi-National Corps – Iraq (MNC-I) said in a statement.
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Forouz Raja'ee-Far, secretary general of the Headquarters for Honoring the Martyrs of Islam World Movement, said the former $100,000 prize for carrying out the execution ordered by Imam Khomeini in 1989 has now been increased to $150,000, the Fars News Agency reported Monday. After writing “The Satanic Verses” Khomeini ruled Salman Rushdie’s death by a Fatwa. "According to Imam Khomeini's verdict, it is an obligation for all Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie even if he repents from the bottom of his heart and becomes the pious man of the time," Raja'ee-Far said. "Also according to Imam's verdict, if a non-Muslim person can find and execute Rushdie sooner than Muslims, it will be an obligation for Muslims to provide such a person with whatever he wants as his payment or prize," he said.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
NEWS)))))
Iranian authorities hanged five individuals in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, a state-run daily reported on Thursday.The five individuals were hanged on Wednesday, the daily Tehran Emrooz wrote.Three of the men were accused of murder, while the other two were accused of drug trafficking.
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Authorities have hanged a man in public in the northern Iranian city of Gorgan, state media reported on Tuesday. Abolfazl Shahrabadi was hanged on Sunday, the official news agency IRNA said. Shahrabadi was accused of murder.Gorgan is situated in the Iranian province of Golestan.
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Iranian authorities hanged a man in public in the southern town of Kazeroun, the official state daily Iran reported on Monday.The man, only identified by his first name Sirous, was accused of murdering another man.Kazeroun is situated in Iran’s Fars Province.
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The main Iranian opposition group, which has challenged its black-listing by the European Union, scored a major victory in the Italian Parliament on Thursday.The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) has cried foul over the EU’s decision not to remove its name from the terrorist register despite a verdict by the European Court of First Instance last December annulling the EU’s decision to blacklist the group. The Court ordered the EU to remove the PMOI from the list of organizations whose assets were to be frozen in the fight against terrorism.On Thursday, the Italian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a binding resolution calling on the government of Romano Prodi to urge the European Union to implement the European court order.The resolution gained cross-party support and obligated the Italian government to “support the 12 December 2006 verdict of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities in the meeting of the Council of the European Union”.EU Foreign Ministers will be meeting in Luxembourg on June 18-19, when they will likely discuss the matter.The National Council of Resistance of Iran, the main opposition coalition which includes the PMOI, in a statement welcomed the Italian resolution.“Many Senators and Members of Parliament from the ruling party and the opposition, as well as a Parliamentary majority have signed a statement addressed to the European Union in which they called on it to respect the verdict of the Court of Justice in Luxembourg”, the Parliamentary resolution said, referring to the announcement in March that 318 of the 630 Members of Parliament had signed a statement in support of the PMOI.The PMOI recently filed another complaint at the European Court of First Instance, accusing the EU of defying the original Court verdict and demanding 1 million Euros compensation.
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The U.S. State Department accused Iranian regime on Tuesday of being a major hub of human trafficking.The State Department 2007 annual Trafficking in Persons Report listed Iran alongside Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, North Korea, Sudan, Bahrain, Oman, Syria, Burma, Kuwait, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela as the worse offenders.“Iran is a source, transit, and destination country for women trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude”, the report said. “Iranian women are trafficked internally for the purpose of forced prostitution and forced marriages to settle debts. Children are trafficked internally and from Afghanistan for the purpose of forced marriages, commercial sexual exploitation, and involuntary servitude as beggars or laborers. “According to nongovernmental sources, Iranian women and girls are also trafficked to Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom for commercial sexual exploitation. Media sources reported that 54 Iranian females between the ages of 16 and 25 are sold into commercial sexual exploitation in Pakistan every day. “The Government of Iran does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Credible reports indicate that Iranian authorities commonly punish victims of trafficking with beatings, imprisonment, and execution. “Sources report that the Iranian government fails to meet the minimum standards for protection of victims of trafficking by prosecuting and, in some cases, executing victims for morality-based offenses as a direct result of being trafficked. “The Government of Iran did not improve its protection of trafficking victims this year. The government reportedly punishes victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked; for instance, victims reportedly are arrested and punished for violations of morality standards such as adultery, defined as sexual relations outside of marriage. Although it is unclear how many victims are subjected to punishment for acts committed as a result of their trafficking experience, there were reports that child victims of sex trafficking have been executed for their purported crime of prostitution or adultery. “The government runs 28 “health houses” set up by the state-operated Welfare Association to provide assistance to unmarried girls who have run away from their homes and who are at risk of being trafficked. However, girls reportedly are abused in these shelters, even by shelter staff and other government officials. The Government of Iran should take immediate and significant steps to prevent the punishment of trafficking victims and should improve the protection services available to victims”, the report said.
Iranian authorities hanged five individuals in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, a state-run daily reported on Thursday.The five individuals were hanged on Wednesday, the daily Tehran Emrooz wrote.Three of the men were accused of murder, while the other two were accused of drug trafficking.
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Authorities have hanged a man in public in the northern Iranian city of Gorgan, state media reported on Tuesday. Abolfazl Shahrabadi was hanged on Sunday, the official news agency IRNA said. Shahrabadi was accused of murder.Gorgan is situated in the Iranian province of Golestan.
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Iranian authorities hanged a man in public in the southern town of Kazeroun, the official state daily Iran reported on Monday.The man, only identified by his first name Sirous, was accused of murdering another man.Kazeroun is situated in Iran’s Fars Province.
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The main Iranian opposition group, which has challenged its black-listing by the European Union, scored a major victory in the Italian Parliament on Thursday.The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) has cried foul over the EU’s decision not to remove its name from the terrorist register despite a verdict by the European Court of First Instance last December annulling the EU’s decision to blacklist the group. The Court ordered the EU to remove the PMOI from the list of organizations whose assets were to be frozen in the fight against terrorism.On Thursday, the Italian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a binding resolution calling on the government of Romano Prodi to urge the European Union to implement the European court order.The resolution gained cross-party support and obligated the Italian government to “support the 12 December 2006 verdict of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities in the meeting of the Council of the European Union”.EU Foreign Ministers will be meeting in Luxembourg on June 18-19, when they will likely discuss the matter.The National Council of Resistance of Iran, the main opposition coalition which includes the PMOI, in a statement welcomed the Italian resolution.“Many Senators and Members of Parliament from the ruling party and the opposition, as well as a Parliamentary majority have signed a statement addressed to the European Union in which they called on it to respect the verdict of the Court of Justice in Luxembourg”, the Parliamentary resolution said, referring to the announcement in March that 318 of the 630 Members of Parliament had signed a statement in support of the PMOI.The PMOI recently filed another complaint at the European Court of First Instance, accusing the EU of defying the original Court verdict and demanding 1 million Euros compensation.
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The U.S. State Department accused Iranian regime on Tuesday of being a major hub of human trafficking.The State Department 2007 annual Trafficking in Persons Report listed Iran alongside Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, North Korea, Sudan, Bahrain, Oman, Syria, Burma, Kuwait, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela as the worse offenders.“Iran is a source, transit, and destination country for women trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude”, the report said. “Iranian women are trafficked internally for the purpose of forced prostitution and forced marriages to settle debts. Children are trafficked internally and from Afghanistan for the purpose of forced marriages, commercial sexual exploitation, and involuntary servitude as beggars or laborers. “According to nongovernmental sources, Iranian women and girls are also trafficked to Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom for commercial sexual exploitation. Media sources reported that 54 Iranian females between the ages of 16 and 25 are sold into commercial sexual exploitation in Pakistan every day. “The Government of Iran does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Credible reports indicate that Iranian authorities commonly punish victims of trafficking with beatings, imprisonment, and execution. “Sources report that the Iranian government fails to meet the minimum standards for protection of victims of trafficking by prosecuting and, in some cases, executing victims for morality-based offenses as a direct result of being trafficked. “The Government of Iran did not improve its protection of trafficking victims this year. The government reportedly punishes victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked; for instance, victims reportedly are arrested and punished for violations of morality standards such as adultery, defined as sexual relations outside of marriage. Although it is unclear how many victims are subjected to punishment for acts committed as a result of their trafficking experience, there were reports that child victims of sex trafficking have been executed for their purported crime of prostitution or adultery. “The government runs 28 “health houses” set up by the state-operated Welfare Association to provide assistance to unmarried girls who have run away from their homes and who are at risk of being trafficked. However, girls reportedly are abused in these shelters, even by shelter staff and other government officials. The Government of Iran should take immediate and significant steps to prevent the punishment of trafficking victims and should improve the protection services available to victims”, the report said.
Friday, June 08, 2007
NEWS)))))
Cyclone Gonu waned into a storm as it passed into a major oil shipping route toward Iran on Thursday, but killed 28 people and left a trail of destruction that halted Oman's oil and gas exports for a third day Rueters reported yesterday. Gonu, which peaked as a maximum-force Category Five hurricane on Tuesday and faded to a Category One hurricane on Wednesday is now an ordinary tropical storm, experts said.The storm's maximum sustained wind speed is now about 45 miles per hour, the U.S. military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said, and it was likely to keep dissipating."As far as Oman is concerned, it is over. Cyclone Gonu passed into the Gulf of Oman and is heading toward Iran but it is no longer a tropical cyclone," said Ahmad al-Harthi, head of Oman's meteorological department. "It caused a lot of havoc in terms of high seas, rain, winds and floods in combination." Three people were killed in southern Iran due to the storm, while those living within 300 meters of the coast in Hormozgan province had been evacuated, Iran state television said.State media said roads and houses in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan had been damaged and many coastal areas were cut off by flooding."Connections between over 500 villages and Nikshahr city have been cut and many houses in villages are badly damaged."
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Four “suspected terrorists” believed to be transferring roadside bombs from Iran to Iraq were arrested by Coalition troops on Tuesday, the U.S. military announced.“The individuals detained during the raid are believed to be members of the secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq, as well as bringing militants from Iraq to Iran for terrorist training”, the Multi-National Force – Iraq said in a statement.Among those detained during the raids in northeast Baghdad was a “suspected terrorist cell leader”. “Intelligence reports indicate that the suspected terrorist cell leader detained during the morning raids is associated with the operational and logistic elements of the secret cell terrorist network. He is also believed to be involved in the procurement and distribution of small arms”, the Multi National Force in Iraq said.
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Iranian regime has expelled about 100,000 Afghans in nearly six weeks in a drive to deport those who are in the country illegally, the UN refugee agency in Afghanistan said Tuesday. About 1,000 were now returning every day through two border points, the UNHCR's representative in Afghanistan, Salvatore Lombardo, told reporters. "We are talking of approximately 100,000 Afghans being deported since April 21," he said. "The crisis had at the very beginning a very high number of people being deported. It has decreased in the past couple of weeks. What we see now is probably approximately 1,000 deportees per day from the two crossing points." Tehran has said it wants one million Afghans repatriated by next March. Afghanistan has asked its neighbor to halt the returns, saying it does not have the capacity to accommodate a large number of people at once. The United States has also voiced concern over the flood of returning deportees becoming a burden. The deportations were quick and sometimes not "according to all the standards," he said, without elaborating.
Cyclone Gonu waned into a storm as it passed into a major oil shipping route toward Iran on Thursday, but killed 28 people and left a trail of destruction that halted Oman's oil and gas exports for a third day Rueters reported yesterday. Gonu, which peaked as a maximum-force Category Five hurricane on Tuesday and faded to a Category One hurricane on Wednesday is now an ordinary tropical storm, experts said.The storm's maximum sustained wind speed is now about 45 miles per hour, the U.S. military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said, and it was likely to keep dissipating."As far as Oman is concerned, it is over. Cyclone Gonu passed into the Gulf of Oman and is heading toward Iran but it is no longer a tropical cyclone," said Ahmad al-Harthi, head of Oman's meteorological department. "It caused a lot of havoc in terms of high seas, rain, winds and floods in combination." Three people were killed in southern Iran due to the storm, while those living within 300 meters of the coast in Hormozgan province had been evacuated, Iran state television said.State media said roads and houses in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan had been damaged and many coastal areas were cut off by flooding."Connections between over 500 villages and Nikshahr city have been cut and many houses in villages are badly damaged."
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Four “suspected terrorists” believed to be transferring roadside bombs from Iran to Iraq were arrested by Coalition troops on Tuesday, the U.S. military announced.“The individuals detained during the raid are believed to be members of the secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq, as well as bringing militants from Iraq to Iran for terrorist training”, the Multi-National Force – Iraq said in a statement.Among those detained during the raids in northeast Baghdad was a “suspected terrorist cell leader”. “Intelligence reports indicate that the suspected terrorist cell leader detained during the morning raids is associated with the operational and logistic elements of the secret cell terrorist network. He is also believed to be involved in the procurement and distribution of small arms”, the Multi National Force in Iraq said.
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Iranian regime has expelled about 100,000 Afghans in nearly six weeks in a drive to deport those who are in the country illegally, the UN refugee agency in Afghanistan said Tuesday. About 1,000 were now returning every day through two border points, the UNHCR's representative in Afghanistan, Salvatore Lombardo, told reporters. "We are talking of approximately 100,000 Afghans being deported since April 21," he said. "The crisis had at the very beginning a very high number of people being deported. It has decreased in the past couple of weeks. What we see now is probably approximately 1,000 deportees per day from the two crossing points." Tehran has said it wants one million Afghans repatriated by next March. Afghanistan has asked its neighbor to halt the returns, saying it does not have the capacity to accommodate a large number of people at once. The United States has also voiced concern over the flood of returning deportees becoming a burden. The deportations were quick and sometimes not "according to all the standards," he said, without elaborating.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
NEWS)))))
Iranian State Security Forces (SSF) have arrested 32 “trouble-makers” in the northern province of Qazvin.The deputy chief prosecutor for Qazvin said that the 32 individuals had been arrested as part of the nationwide “National Security Plan”. His remarks were reported by the government-run news agency Fars on Wednesday.The SSF are presently carrying out a nationwide crackdown primarily targeting youths and women under the guise of combating “trouble-makers” and “mal-veilers”. The nationwide clampdown began in April.
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Iranian authorities hanged five people in the eastern and south-eastern provinces of Khorrasan Jonoubi and Sistan-va-Baluchistan respectively, state media reported on Tuesday.One of the men, identified as S. Gh. (alias: Rahmatollah), was hanged on terrorism charges, the government-run news agency Fars said. He was hanged in a prison in Zahedan, provincial capital of Sistan-va-Baluchistan, on Monday for killing four members of Iran’s State Security Forces and belonging to a “terrorist group”.Four other men, charged with drug trafficking, were hanged in the town of Birjend, Khorrasan Jonoubi Province, the report said.
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Associated Press reported on Wednesday, supporters of an Iranian opposition group said Wednesday the European Union had failed to adequately explain why it refused to take the group off its list of terrorist organizations despite an EU court ruling.The EU's refusal to remove the People's Mujahadeen Organization of Iran from the list was "a political and ethical disgrace," said Alejo Vidal-Quadras, vice president of the European Parliament. "We have come across no evidence whatsoever which would justify maintaining the PMOI on the terrorist list," the Spanish conservative told a news conference.Associated Press added: The PMOI is seeking €1 million (US$1.35 million) in damages claiming the EU has refused to apply a court order last year that annulled a 2002 decision to place the organization on its terrorist blacklist and order its assets frozen. Mohammad Mohaddessin, a spokesman for the PMOI's political wing contended that the EU and the United States were maintaining the group on their terror lists to avoid further harming relations with the Iranian government.He claimed the Iranian government had made the group's continued blacklisting a condition for negotiations with the EU, most notably talks on the country's nuclear program which are due to resume Thursday in Madrid.
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Reuters reported on Wed. that world powers, including Russia, threatened "further appropriate measures" on Wednesday if Iran failed to comply with U.N. resolutions demanding that it suspend nuclear enrichment. "Should Iran continue not to heed the call of the Security Council, we shall support further appropriate measures as agreed in Resolution 1747," the Group of Eight (G8) foreign ministers said in a statement issued at a meeting in Potsdam, Germany.The term "appropriate measures" is widely seen as diplomatic code for sanctions. The U.N. has already imposed two rounds of sanctions on Iran for failing to suspend uranium enrichment, a process of purifying uranium for power plants or weapons.The G8 countries also said they "deeply deplore the fact that, as evidenced by the (International Atomic Energy Agency) Director General's latest report to the Security Council, Iran has expanded its enrichment program".Security Council resolution 1747 gave Tehran a 60-day deadline to freeze all enrichment work. Iran ignored the deadline, which expired last week.
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The Guardian reported on Thursday that Iran's powerful intelligence ministry has stepped up its war of nerves with the west by telling the country's academics they will be suspected of spying if they maintain contact with foreign institutions or travel abroad to international conferences.The blunt warning has been issued by the ministry's counter-espionage director in an atmosphere of rising suspicion and paranoia as Iran claims to have cracked a CIA-backed spy ring and has charged three American citizens with spying.In a briefing with Iranian journalists, the official - whose identity was not disclosed - accused western intelligence agencies of using academic contacts to lure scholars into an espionage network against Iran. He said seminars inside and outside the country were used.The mood has been captured on campuses by the appearance of slogans such as "the cultural revolution is forthcoming", seen as signalling a return to puritanical values of the 1979 Islamic revolution. It has been accompanied by tales of harassment for such perceived offences as advocating a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or even wearing a tie, seen as a decadent western affectation.This week Iran said it was charging two American-Iranian scholars Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh with spying after accusing them of fomenting a "velvet revolution". Parnaz Azimi, a journalist, has been charged with acting against national security.
Iranian State Security Forces (SSF) have arrested 32 “trouble-makers” in the northern province of Qazvin.The deputy chief prosecutor for Qazvin said that the 32 individuals had been arrested as part of the nationwide “National Security Plan”. His remarks were reported by the government-run news agency Fars on Wednesday.The SSF are presently carrying out a nationwide crackdown primarily targeting youths and women under the guise of combating “trouble-makers” and “mal-veilers”. The nationwide clampdown began in April.
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Iranian authorities hanged five people in the eastern and south-eastern provinces of Khorrasan Jonoubi and Sistan-va-Baluchistan respectively, state media reported on Tuesday.One of the men, identified as S. Gh. (alias: Rahmatollah), was hanged on terrorism charges, the government-run news agency Fars said. He was hanged in a prison in Zahedan, provincial capital of Sistan-va-Baluchistan, on Monday for killing four members of Iran’s State Security Forces and belonging to a “terrorist group”.Four other men, charged with drug trafficking, were hanged in the town of Birjend, Khorrasan Jonoubi Province, the report said.
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Associated Press reported on Wednesday, supporters of an Iranian opposition group said Wednesday the European Union had failed to adequately explain why it refused to take the group off its list of terrorist organizations despite an EU court ruling.The EU's refusal to remove the People's Mujahadeen Organization of Iran from the list was "a political and ethical disgrace," said Alejo Vidal-Quadras, vice president of the European Parliament. "We have come across no evidence whatsoever which would justify maintaining the PMOI on the terrorist list," the Spanish conservative told a news conference.Associated Press added: The PMOI is seeking €1 million (US$1.35 million) in damages claiming the EU has refused to apply a court order last year that annulled a 2002 decision to place the organization on its terrorist blacklist and order its assets frozen. Mohammad Mohaddessin, a spokesman for the PMOI's political wing contended that the EU and the United States were maintaining the group on their terror lists to avoid further harming relations with the Iranian government.He claimed the Iranian government had made the group's continued blacklisting a condition for negotiations with the EU, most notably talks on the country's nuclear program which are due to resume Thursday in Madrid.
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Reuters reported on Wed. that world powers, including Russia, threatened "further appropriate measures" on Wednesday if Iran failed to comply with U.N. resolutions demanding that it suspend nuclear enrichment. "Should Iran continue not to heed the call of the Security Council, we shall support further appropriate measures as agreed in Resolution 1747," the Group of Eight (G8) foreign ministers said in a statement issued at a meeting in Potsdam, Germany.The term "appropriate measures" is widely seen as diplomatic code for sanctions. The U.N. has already imposed two rounds of sanctions on Iran for failing to suspend uranium enrichment, a process of purifying uranium for power plants or weapons.The G8 countries also said they "deeply deplore the fact that, as evidenced by the (International Atomic Energy Agency) Director General's latest report to the Security Council, Iran has expanded its enrichment program".Security Council resolution 1747 gave Tehran a 60-day deadline to freeze all enrichment work. Iran ignored the deadline, which expired last week.
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The Guardian reported on Thursday that Iran's powerful intelligence ministry has stepped up its war of nerves with the west by telling the country's academics they will be suspected of spying if they maintain contact with foreign institutions or travel abroad to international conferences.The blunt warning has been issued by the ministry's counter-espionage director in an atmosphere of rising suspicion and paranoia as Iran claims to have cracked a CIA-backed spy ring and has charged three American citizens with spying.In a briefing with Iranian journalists, the official - whose identity was not disclosed - accused western intelligence agencies of using academic contacts to lure scholars into an espionage network against Iran. He said seminars inside and outside the country were used.The mood has been captured on campuses by the appearance of slogans such as "the cultural revolution is forthcoming", seen as signalling a return to puritanical values of the 1979 Islamic revolution. It has been accompanied by tales of harassment for such perceived offences as advocating a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or even wearing a tie, seen as a decadent western affectation.This week Iran said it was charging two American-Iranian scholars Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh with spying after accusing them of fomenting a "velvet revolution". Parnaz Azimi, a journalist, has been charged with acting against national security.
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