Post Tagged with: "Iran"

Anticlerical Rule is on the Rise in Iran

Anticlerical Rule is on the Rise in Iran

The women-led anti-hejab movement that began after the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, in Iran, is ongoing. Even though the street protests have subsided, many Iranian women defy to comply with wearing Islamic hejab in public. Nonetheless, the Islamic government is fighting to enforce hejab by various means, including closing stores that admit women without headscarves and[Read More…]

by 14/05/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The Clerics in Tehran Want to Wipeout the Iranian Cultural Heritage

The Clerics in Tehran Want to Wipeout the Iranian Cultural Heritage

The clerical leadership in Iran has tried hard to prevent its demise, as is popularly demanded in recent months by Iranians inside and outside Iran. To continue their Islamic rule, the clerics have tried hard to preserve the Islamic Hejab, which has been widely demanded during the past six months by Iranian women to be abolished. Now, the beginning of[Read More…]

by 16/03/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Background To The Struggle Of Iran’s Women

Background To The Struggle Of Iran’s Women

Women’s Day A few days ago, on Woman’s Day, an article called our attention to the plight of Iranian women, who are fighting for their freedom and civil rights against the oppressive religions government of Iran. Here is the link: https://truthout.org/articles/this-international-womens-day-iranian-feminists-are-at-the-front-lines/ Iran, Past and Present Here is a link to my book, “Iran, Past and Present”. https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/12/Iran-Past-and-Present-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf My father went[Read More…]

by 10/03/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Iran Punished For Treatment of Women

Iran Punished For Treatment of Women

The Islamic Republic of Iran was the first UN member ever to be expelled from the prestigious Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), tasked with protecting women’s rights and promoting gender equality. In response to Iran’s crackdown on protests, following the death of a young woman in police custody, Tehran’s four-year term on the CSW came to an end[Read More…]

by 21/12/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Salute Workers and People of Iran 

Salute Workers and People of Iran 

In Iran, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody, believed to be beaten following her arrest by the “Morality Police” on the grounds that her hair was visible, instigated the Iranian people to flood the streets, starting with women. The demonstrations, which began with demands against the Morality Police and the compulsory headscarf, have been going on continuously[Read More…]

by 17/12/2022 Comments are Disabled World
EU Cracks a Gentle Whip at Iran

EU Cracks a Gentle Whip at Iran

The European Union has returned to the ritual of sanctioning Iran to leverage its foreign and security policies. The highlight of the EU Foreign Affairs Council ministerial meeting in Brussels on Monday was the imposition of sanctions against Iran over a range of issues. The issues were “the unacceptable repression of the ongoing protests and the worsening human rights situation”[Read More…]

by 15/12/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Iran, Past and Present

Iran, Past and Present

I would like to announce the publication of a new nook, entitled “Iran, Past and Present”. The book may be downloaded and circulated, free of charge, from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/12/Iran-Past-and-Present-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf Below is some discussion of the content of the book: An ancient civilization Iran, or Persia, is one of the most ancient civilizations that we know of. There is[Read More…]

by 13/12/2022 Comments are Disabled Book Review
U.S. Internationalizes Iran’s Unrest

U.S. Internationalizes Iran’s Unrest

The ongoing unrest in Iran since mid-September following the death of a Kurdish woman in police custody shows no signs of abating as of now. The unrest has drawn support from all social strata and assumed anti-government overtones. The efficacy of suppressing the unrest is doubtful. Iran is entering a period of turmoil. Indeed, the government faces no imminent threat[Read More…]

by 08/12/2022 Comments are Disabled World
The Protesters Want Fundamental Change in Iran

The Protesters Want Fundamental Change in Iran

Since the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, unrest in Iranian cities has continued. So far, more than 100 people have been killed in the riots, and many political activists, journalists, and college students have been arrested. On October 3, after over two weeks of silence, the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, appeared at a police graduation ceremony and blamed[Read More…]

by 18/10/2022 Comments are Disabled World
The Number Of Death In The On-going Protests In Iran Reaches 154

The Number Of Death In The On-going Protests In Iran Reaches 154

The Iranian Human Rights Organization (IHRO) announced that the number of people killed in the on-going protests in Iran reached “at least 154 people”. Among this number of deaths 9 were probably “children” and 63 are citizens of Zahedan. Iranian officials report at least forty dead, while independent sources claim it is much higher. Iran’s state TV has reported the death toll[Read More…]

by 05/10/2022 Comments are Disabled World
 The only option for Iran is to end the Hijab mandate

 The only option for Iran is to end the Hijab mandate

‘One day the hijab will no longer be compulsory in Iran, this is part of progress and development’ – Parvaneh Salashouri, reformist lawmaker, women’s faction in Iranian Parliament, 2018 ‘The hijab in the Quran is for women’s protection but what we’ve done is holding the hijab over women like a club’ – former President Hassan Rouhani, moderate cleric, January 2019.[Read More…]

by 30/09/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Enforcing Islamic Attire on Women Sparks Protests in Iran

Enforcing Islamic Attire on Women Sparks Protests in Iran

Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, the ruling clerics have strictly enforced the Islamic hijab on women in Iran. The clerics require women above puberty age to wear headscarves and avoid wearing tight clothing. On September 13, 2022, Mahsa Amini, a 22-years-old woman, was arrested by Morality Police (Gashte Ershad) presumably for not having proper Islamic attire. Mahsa, who lived[Read More…]

by 29/09/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Demonstrators burn a scarf at a protest against the Iranian government on Sunday. (David Bates/CBC)

Defying Warning, Iranians’ Anti-hijab Protest Continues For 10th Night: 57 Deaths

Iranians took to the streets for a 10th consecutive night Sunday, in defiance of a warning from the judiciary, to protest the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in morality police custody. Images circulated by IHR showed protesters on the streets of Tehran, shouting “death to the dictator,” purportedly after nightfall on Sunday. Witnesses said that protests in several locations were[Read More…]

by 26/09/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Many protesters cut their hairs. Photo Reuters

At least 31 Killed As Anti-government Protests Spread Across Iran

Norway-based, Iran Human Rights Organization says that they can confirm that at least 31 protesters have been killed in the on-going anti-government, anti-hijab protest across Iran. Iran’s state-run media acknowledged on Thursday that at least 17 people have been killed in anti-hijab protests which have spread across the country. The protests have spread to more than 80 cities and towns across[Read More…]

by 23/09/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Jafar Panahi

Iran imprisons film directors amid escalating crackdown on dissent and protests

In the largest crackdown on its film industry since 2010, Iran ordered internationally acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, 62, to serve a six-year jail sentence after he criticised the government. Panahi was arrested on July 11 when he went to the prosecutor’s office to follow up on the arrest of Mohammad Rasoulof, another well-known filmmaker, and Mostafa Aleahmad. The two were[Read More…]

by 23/07/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Plotting War on Iran

Plotting War on Iran

The United States, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, responsible for military fiascos, hundreds of thousands of deaths, and innumerable war crimes in the Middle East, are now plotting to attack Iran. The United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia are plotting a war with Iran. The 2015 Iranian nuclear arms accord, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Donald Trump sabotaged,[Read More…]

by 18/07/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Iran’s Economy Growing Despite US Sanctions

Iran’s Economy Growing Despite US Sanctions

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi says the first priority of his administration during the Persian New Year is boosting employment and creating new jobs. He made the remarks in his New Year message aired live from the Grand Mosque of the southwestern Iranian port city of Khorramshahr on Sunday evening. “My first Nowruz message as the servant of the public is[Read More…]

by 21/03/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Israel Pushes Hardline in Iran Nuclear Talks

Israel Pushes Hardline in Iran Nuclear Talks

by Ariel Gold and Medea Benjamin After a 5-month hiatus, indirect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran resumed last week in Vienna in an attempt to revise the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA). The outlook isn’t good. Less than a week into negotiations, Britain, France, and Germany accused Iran of [Read More…]

by 11/12/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Iran’s Dy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani (C) with diplomatic adviser to UAE President Anwar Gargash (L) and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khalifa Almara, Abu Dhabi, Nov. 16, 2021

As UAE embraces Iran, fizz goes pop for Abraham Accords

The terrible secret about Faustian deals is that they need a Mephistopheles to nurture them. That said, Goethe’s Mephisto is very different from the crude devil of medieval legend. Goethe sketches him as a cultivated, witty, and cynical exponent of materialism and nihilism who preaches a sophisticated doctrine of philosophical negation. There is no way the Abraham Accords would have[Read More…]

by 04/12/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Iran’s SCO membership is a big deal

Iran’s SCO membership is a big deal

Like in a Wagnerian music drama, there is an associated melodic theme that accompanies the situations behind the two big regional developments last week — the announcement of the AUKUS, security alliance of three “maritime democracies” on September 15 and Iran’s accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as full member on September 17.  Both developments broke the glass ceiling. The[Read More…]

by 25/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Iran’s Vice-President & head of the Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Eslami (second from right) met International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi, Tehran, Sept 12, 2021

Biden Doctrine appears in Persian Gulf

The incipient signs of a US retrenchment from Saudi Arabia have appeared in a series of moves in the past 2-3 weeks. On a parallel track, the Biden Administration is factoring in that new Iranian government is returning to the negotiating table at Vienna on nuclear issues. The interconnected maneuverings are predicated, indirectly at least at this point, on an[Read More…]

by 14/09/2021 Comments are Disabled World
U.S. transfers an airfield to Iraqi government forces in 2020. Credit: public domain

America’s Afghan War Is Over, So What About Iraq – and Iran?

by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies At Bagram air-base, Afghan scrap merchants are already picking through the graveyard of U.S. military equipment that was until recently the headquarters of America’s 20-year occupation of their country. Afghan officials say the last U.S. forces slipped away from Bagram in the dead of night, without notice or coordination. The Taliban are[Read More…]

by 12/07/2021 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (R, bottom) at the peace talks with Afghan government, Doha, Qatar (File photo)

Afghanistan, Iran And USA

Introduction On July 7, 2021 Iran hosted talks between the Afghan Government and Taliban (the Taliban delegation was led by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai). The same day, the Taliban attacked the Badghis provincial capital Qalat-i-Naw. Iranian Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif emphatically stated that the Afghan people should decide their own future, while also stating that there was a major threat[Read More…]

by 11/07/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Forging a future with rather than against Iran

Forging a future with rather than against Iran

The rise of hardline President-elect Ebrahim Raisi has prompted someanalysts to counterintuitively suggest that it could pave the way for reduced regional tensions and potential talks on a rejiggered Middle Eastern security architecture but getting from A to B is likely to prove easier said than done. Hopes that a hardline endorsement of a return to the 2015 international agreement[Read More…]

by 25/06/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Woman votes in Iranian election. Photo credit: Reuters

How Biden Helped Hardliner Raisi Win Iran Election

by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies  It was common knowledge that a U.S. failure to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal (known as the JCPOA) before Iran’s June presidential election would help conservative hard-liners to win the election. Indeed, on Saturday, June 19, the conservative Ebrahim Raisi was elected as the new President of Iran. Raisi has a record[Read More…]

by 23/06/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani (L) meets the media with President-elect Ebrahim Raisi (R) in Tehran, June 19, 2021

Biden has a worthy interlocutor in Raisi

This may seem a paradox but the truth is that the United States does not realise that Iran’s presidential election result — the resounding victory of the conservative head of the judiciary Ebrahim Raisi — can be an optimal outcome. Raisi has impeccable credentials as a hardliner who belongs to the powerful religious establishment and happens to be a genuinely popular public[Read More…]

by 21/06/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Composite photo of dual nationals being held as prisoners in Iran.

“Unbearable”—The Lives of Iran’s Political Prisoners Hang in the Balance, June 13 – A Moment to Act

“Unbearable.” That’s the title of Reza Khandan’s gut-wrenching Ms. Magazine report from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s (IRI) Qarchak prison for women. Khandan is the husband of attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh, who is imprisoned there for the “crime” of representing activists for human and women’s rights. What is so “unbearable”? “Entering these cells is like being transported back to the Middle Ages,” Khandan writes,[Read More…]

by 09/06/2021 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
How India lost its way in Persian Gulf

How India lost its way in Persian Gulf

“India gets booted out, by Iran, of Farzad-B gas field in Persian Gulf… India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd had discovered it way back in 2008.” India began to identify itself with the countries of the anti-Iran regional front that the former US President Donald Trump was sponsoring, involving Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE…and with Washington’s so-called Indo-Pacific strategy against China.[Read More…]

by 24/05/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (R) received Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (L), Jeddah, May 11, 2021

Saudi-Iran reset will take time

The Saudi-Iranian contacts that began last month in secrecy have gained gravitas. Significantly, this is an exclusively regional initiative. The Saudi-Iranian drive to normalise ties is motivated primarily by the two sides’ deep distrust of American intentions. Blinken sounded unhappy and somewhat irritated. His words reflect the reality that the US is a mere passive bystander while the two Gulf[Read More…]

by 20/05/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Beautiful Plots: Israel Sabotages the Natanz Nuclear Facility

Beautiful Plots: Israel Sabotages the Natanz Nuclear Facility

Over the weekend, Iran marked National Nuclear Technology Day.  The stars of the show were going to be new advanced centrifuges at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant.  Unfortunately, the stars did not shine and President Hassan Rouhani and his officials were left with a reminder of the previous time the centrifuges at Natanz crashed.  In 2010, a joint US-Israeli operation[Read More…]

by 13/04/2021 Comments are Disabled World
India completes two years of operations in Chabahar Port

With eye on Biden, India’s Iran diplomacy shifts gear

By a fortuitous happening, the top South Block official  heading the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran Division in India’s External Affairs Ministry, J.P. Singh was in Iran in the weekend, hot on the heels of the senior Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. It is improbable they met. It is equally improbable that the Indian diplomat failed to take note of the Taliban co-founder’s[Read More…]

by 09/02/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Health Imperialism and Discriminatory International Laws

Health Imperialism and Discriminatory International Laws

“Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promise, for never intending to go beyond promise costs nothing.” – Edmund Burke  Joe Biden’s statements on resuscitating the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has also reignited an old debate inside Iran. With the Rouhani administration clearly siding with those pushing for unconditional return to the ‘deal’ signed with the U.S.  and[Read More…]

by 26/12/2020 1 comment World
Is Iran Closer To Avenging The Murder Of Its Two Prominent Leaders?

Is Iran Closer To Avenging The Murder Of Its Two Prominent Leaders?

Brigadier General Mohsen Fakhrizadeh of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Command (IRGC) and Iran’s most important nuclear scientist was assassinated not too far from Tehran recently. Iran immediately accused Israel , an allegation confirmed by a senior Washington official soon after. Meanwhile Tel Aviv has remained silent. Given its many earlier assasinations of Iran’s nuclear scientists and Netanyahu’s specific mention of[Read More…]

by 24/12/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Insanity reigns — the US, Israel and Iran

Insanity reigns — the US, Israel and Iran

All too often, events occur that make me feel that I am living in ‘Bizarro World’. The recent talk and extensive US corporate media coverage about whether or not the US and/or Israel will soon attack Iran is one of these occasions. The alleged rationale for such an attack is the possibility that Iran might pursue the development of a[Read More…]

by 03/12/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Azerbaijani-Iranian Relations Continue to Warm

Azerbaijani-Iranian Relations Continue to Warm

Since mid-August of this year, there has been an increase in the number of Iranian and Azerbaijani reports celebrating the continued warming of relations between these neighboring states. Of particular interest is the near-completion of a synchronized power grid between Iran, Azerbaijan, and Russia. Synchronization is a requirement for buying and selling electrical power and boosting strategic cooperation between these[Read More…]

by 18/09/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Iran Sitting On A Ticking Powder Keg

Iran Sitting On A Ticking Powder Keg

    Shahran oil depot in north west Tehran has been likened to a “hydrogen bomb”  The subterfuge and sabotage, particularly after the August 4, 2020 Beirut, Lebanon blasts 1 , in which around 181 people died, more than 3,00,000 rendered homeless and property worth billions of USD gutted, has become the new normal.   There are many theories about who[Read More…]

by 31/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Foiled in the Security Council: The United States, Extending Arms Embargoes and Iran

Foiled in the Security Council: The United States, Extending Arms Embargoes and Iran

There are no official policing authorities as such when it comes to international relations.  Realists imagine a jungle of states, the preyed upon and the predators, a grim state of affairs moderated by alliances, agreements and understandings. But there is one body whose resolutions are recognised as having binding force: the Security Council, that most powerful of creatures in that[Read More…]

by 17/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
 Will War with Iran Be Trump’s Election Eve Shocker?

 Will War with Iran Be Trump’s Election Eve Shocker?

Was Donald Trump’s January 3rd drone assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani the first step in turning the simmering Cold War between the United States and Iran into a hot war in the weeks before an American presidential election? Of course, there’s no way to know, but behind by double digits in most national polls and flanked by ultra-hawkish Secretary of State[Read More…]

by 11/08/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Iran And Israel Spar Over Cyber Warfare

Iran And Israel Spar Over Cyber Warfare

There is a whole lot of churning going on in Iran, which has been at loggerheads with US, for around more than five-decades, as it traces its modern tussle with US to the way Muhammed Musaddiq government was over thrown by US in 1953 1, which later was followed by setting of a new nationalist government after US sponsored Shah[Read More…]

by 30/07/2020 1 comment World
JCPOA: The Deal That Wasn’t

JCPOA: The Deal That Wasn’t

July 14th, 2020, marks the fifth anniversary of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Agreement, often referred to as the Iran Nuclear Deal (or simply the Deal) – the Deal that wasn’t.   It was yet another attempt at regime change. Of all the plans to control Iran beginning from Operation Ajax to Operation JCPOA and everything in between, the[Read More…]

by 10/07/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Life without the Hijab: A Woman’s Journey to Freedom?

Life without the Hijab: A Woman’s Journey to Freedom?

I met my dear friend Maryam in the spring of 1980. We studied at the same US University in Rhode Island. She was a couple of years older than me as she was doing her Masters in Sociology and Community Development. The very first conversation I had with her was on a Friday afternoon as all the foreign students were[Read More…]

by 18/06/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
 Who Are the Secret Puppet-Masters Behind Trump’s War on Iran?

 Who Are the Secret Puppet-Masters Behind Trump’s War on Iran?

Co-Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies On May 6th, President Trump vetoed a war powers bill specifying that he must ask Congress for authorization to use military force against Iran. Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign of deadly sanctions and threats of war against Iran has seen no let-up, even as the U.S., Iran and the whole world desperately[Read More…]

by 29/05/2020 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Excellent vivid images of flags for you. With the texture of fabric at 100 percent view.

COVID-19: Iran and the U.S., An Irony of Curious Affinity

This spring, the novel coronavirus pandemic has raised the issue of the relationship between the blindest kind of religious faith and rational skepticism — this time in two countries that think of themselves as polar opposites and enemies: Supreme Leader Ali Khameini’s Iran and Donald Trump’s America. On the U.S. side of things, New Orleans pastor Tony Spell, for instance, has[Read More…]

by 20/05/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Vague Imminence: US policy, Pre-emptive Force and Qasem Soleimani

Vague Imminence: US policy, Pre-emptive Force and Qasem Soleimani

International relations is typified by its vagueness of definition and its shallowness of justification. Be it protecting citizens of a state in another, launching a pre-emptive strike to prevent what another state might do, or simply understanding the application of a treaty provision, justifications can prove uneven and at odds. The pre-emptive jerk behind the killing of Major General Qasem[Read More…]

by 13/01/2020 Comments are Disabled World
US backs off support for regime change in Iran

US backs off support for regime change in Iran

An Iran hawk who advocated killing general Qassim Soleimani, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has ordered his diplomats to limit contacts with militant Iranian exile and opposition groups that support either regime change or greater rights for ethnic groups like Kurds and Arabs. Coming on the back of the Soleimani killing, Mr. Pompeo’s directive appears to put an end[Read More…]

by 12/01/2020 Comments are Disabled World
A Time to Kill?  Open Your Eyes!

A Time to Kill? Open Your Eyes!

In the movie adaptation of John Grisham’s “A Time to Kill,” Carl Lee Hailey’s defense lawyer Jake Brigance, in his summation, asks the jury members to close their eyes while he tells a horrid tale of a little girl being attacked, raped, beaten, tortured and left to die by two grown men. The jury squirms as they hear the story[Read More…]

by 08/01/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Disruptive Assassinations: Killing Qassem Soleimani

Disruptive Assassinations: Killing Qassem Soleimani

On the surface, it made not one iota of sense.  The murder of a foreign military leader on his way from Baghdad airport, his diplomatic status assured by the local authorities, evidently deemed a target of irresistible richness.  “General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.”  The words from[Read More…]

by 06/01/2020 Comments are Disabled World
The ‘Great Game’ is Afoot: Killing Soleimani Reflects US Desperation in the Middle East

The ‘Great Game’ is Afoot: Killing Soleimani Reflects US Desperation in the Middle East

Co-Written by Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo By killing top Iranian military commander, Qasem Soleimani, American and Israeli leaders demonstrated the idiom ‘out of the frying pan into the fire.’ US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are both politically and legally embattled – the former has just been impeached and the latter is dogged by an[Read More…]

by 06/01/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a news conference with President Donald Trump on February 28, 2019 in Hanoi, Vietnam. U.S. (Photo: Tuan Mark/Getty Images)

War With Iran

The assassination by the United States of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, near Baghdad’s airport will ignite widespread retaliatory attacks against U.S. targets from Shiites, who form the majority in Iraq. It will activate Iranian-backed militias and insurgents in Lebanon and Syria and throughout the Middle East. The existing mayhem, violence, failed states and war,[Read More…]

by 05/01/2020 1 comment World
Iran vs. US – The Murder of General Qassem Suleimani

Iran vs. US – The Murder of General Qassem Suleimani

 Interestingly, after the US attack on Iraqi Militia fighters on 31 December 2020, and the assassination of General Qassem Suleimani, on 2 January, the first thing President Trump could come up with, was bragging that it was him who gave the order to murder the popular military leader. General Qassem Suleimani, was the commander of the Iranian special Quds Force.[Read More…]

by 05/01/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Attacks On Iran, Past And Present

Attacks On Iran, Past And Present

The assassination of General Qasem Soleimani On Friday, 3 January, 2020, progressives in the United States and all peace-loving people throughout the world were horrified to learn that Donald Tromp had added to his long list of crimes and imbicilities by ordering the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, who is a hero in his own country, Iran. The murder, which[Read More…]

by 04/01/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Iran – a Club of Sanctioned Countries – In Solidarity Against US Economic Terrorism

Iran – a Club of Sanctioned Countries – In Solidarity Against US Economic Terrorism

PressTV Interview – transcript Excerpts: An Iranian parliamentary faction has come up with the idea of establishing a club of sanctioned countries for concerted action against the US economic terrorism. The chairman of the Parliament’s faction on countering sanctions, Poormokhtar, gave a report on the formation of the faction and its activities, as well as the ongoing efforts to establish[Read More…]

by 13/09/2019 Comments are Disabled World
Death of female Iranian soccer fan puts FIFA and Asian soccer body in the dock

Death of female Iranian soccer fan puts FIFA and Asian soccer body in the dock

When Sahar Khodayari this week set herself alight in front of a Tehran courthouse, she indicted world soccer body FIFA, its Asian regional group, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and their presidents, Gianni Infantino and Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa. Messrs. Infantino and Al Khalifa have been selective in their support for women’s soccer rights. Mr. Infantino was in[Read More…]

by 13/09/2019 Comments are Disabled World
Iran Nuclear Accord: The Third Act is Now Starting

Iran Nuclear Accord: The Third Act is Now Starting

            The first act of the Iran Nuclear Accord took eight years. The backdrop kept changing from Geneva to Vienna but the actors were nearly all the same.  Except for the representative of the European Union it was an all male, middle-age cast with little comic relief, at least on stage.  The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, to give the[Read More…]

by 28/08/2019 1 comment World
Why Should Iran Be Cherished And Defended

Why Should Iran Be Cherished And Defended

As I pen this short essay, Iran is standing against the mightiest nation on earth. It is facing tremendous danger; of annihilation even, if the world does not wake up fast, and rush to its rescue. Stunning Iranian cities are in danger, but above all, its people: proud and beautiful, creative, formed by one of the oldest and deepest cultures[Read More…]

by 29/07/2019 Comments are Disabled World
After alleged UK tanker incident in Persian Gulf, EU powers threaten Iran

After alleged UK tanker incident in Persian Gulf, EU powers threaten Iran

US and UK military sources claim that Iranian boats intercepted a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz Wednesday, before a British warship, the HMS Montrose, chased them off. None of the reports about this incident can be taken at face value. Iran has flatly denied that it took place, and US officials making allegations have not posted videos they[Read More…]

by 12/07/2019 2 comments World
Iran vs. Spineless Europe

Iran vs. Spineless Europe

Iran announced the second step in reducing her commitment under the 2015 so-called Nuclear Deal, officially known as The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), by exceeding the limit set by agreement of 3.67% uranium enrichment and 300 kg of enriched uranium accumulation. When asked by the media about his reaction, Trump says, “they know what they are doing” and[Read More…]

by 12/07/2019 1 comment World
US steps up threats as Iran exceeds uranium enrichment cap

US steps up threats as Iran exceeds uranium enrichment cap

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Monday confirmed that Iran has breached the limit imposed by the 2015 nuclear agreement on the level at which it is allowed to enrich uranium. Iran had announced its breach of the limit on Sunday, a deliberate step aimed at pressuring the remaining signatories to the nuclear accord—particularly Germany, France and the UK—to take[Read More…]

by 09/07/2019 Comments are Disabled World
It is not the non-existent Iranian bomb; it is the other existing bombs

It is not the non-existent Iranian bomb; it is the other existing bombs

United States (US) demands that Iran promise to halt pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile developments distract from the real intent of the US actions. Knowing that the Islamic Republic is not pursuing nuclear weapons and will react aggressively to sanctions, the US ploy deters other nations from establishing more friendly relations with Iran and from changing their perspectives[Read More…]

by 09/07/2019 Comments are Disabled World
Iran And The West:  Travelling Back in Time

Iran And The West:  Travelling Back in Time

This article was written 10 years ago.  Nothing has changed! It appears President Trump is fond of time travel.  In his July 4th speech he talked about taking over airports in America in 1775.  There was no air travel in 1775.  Facts don’t matter.   Except this time, travelling back in time in our Iran dealings has very dangerous and unforeseen[Read More…]

by 09/07/2019 Comments are Disabled World
Why Is American Aggression Missing in Action? 

Why Is American Aggression Missing in Action? 

Headlined “U.S. Seeks Other Ways to Stop Iran Shy of War,” the article was tucked away on page A9 of a recent New York Times. Still, it caught my attention. Here’s the first paragraph: “American intelligence and military officers are working on additional clandestine plans to counter Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf, pushed by the White House to develop new options that[Read More…]

by 02/07/2019 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
EU meeting on Iran ends with no agreement to prevent US war

EU meeting on Iran ends with no agreement to prevent US war

On Friday, diplomats from Germany, Britain, France, the European Union, China, Russia and Iran met in Vienna for talks on the 2015 Iranian nuclear treaty, a year after Washington unilaterally scrapped the agreement. No agreement emerged from the meeting on the central issue: the growing danger of a US war against Iran. Last week, amid an ongoing US military build-up[Read More…]

by 29/06/2019 Comments are Disabled World
 An Honorable Course in Iran: End Sanctions, Resume Dialogue

 An Honorable Course in Iran: End Sanctions, Resume Dialogue

The greatest outlier in terms of possessing nuclear weapons is the U.S.  Last week, Elham Pourtaher, an Iranian graduate student at the State University of New York in Albany, wrote about how U.S. policies cause suffering and trauma far beyond U.S. borders. Her diabetic father, for example, is in danger of losing access to medicines because sanctions against Iranian banks[Read More…]

by 26/06/2019 1 comment World
America’s War Against Iran: Timing And Consequences

America’s War Against Iran: Timing And Consequences

(Part 2 of Will American Belligerence Against Iran Lead to War?) After reading my article “Will American Belligerence Against Iran Lead to War?”   https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/will-american-belligerence-against-iran-lead-to-war published in countercurrents, a colleague called me. He wanted to know if America will seriously attack Iran and if so when and the consequences for America, Iran and the region. History is what is past, but[Read More…]

by 26/06/2019 Comments are Disabled World
As Conflict With Iran Escalates, Path To Peace Can Be Found

As Conflict With Iran Escalates, Path To Peace Can Be Found

 Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers The recent escalation of conflict between the United States and Iran threatens another US military quagmire that would create crisis and chaos in Iran, the region and perhaps globally as well as costing the US trillions of dollars. The US needs to change course — a deeply wrong course it has been on[Read More…]

by 25/06/2019 1 comment World
The New Politics of Starvation

The New Politics of Starvation

President Donald Trump’s use of the most vicious aspects of economic warfare prompt another examination of the politics of starvation. After George W. Bush’s administration, Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump lessened Bush’s aggressive war policies and leaned to economic warfare. Sounds harmless when compared to exploding bombs, but it is not — economic warfare can crush an adversary without firing a shot.[Read More…]

by 20/05/2019 1 comment World
Strait of Hormuz, Sabotage Attack and the Sabre-Rattling

Strait of Hormuz, Sabotage Attack and the Sabre-Rattling

“The people of Iran should stand united in the face of this, and they will deliver a strong punch to the mouth of the American secretary of state and anyone who backs them” (Dehghanpisheh and Andrew 2018)). Almost one year back, Ismail Kowsari, the deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Iran’s elite military force, responded strongly at[Read More…]

by 20/05/2019 1 comment World
Why There Will be no War in Iran

Why There Will be no War in Iran

Many journalists are wringing their hands over the possibility of America waging war with Iran just as many did over the possibility of a U.S. invasion in Venezuela.   A decade ago, both might have been real possibilities, two decades ago they would have been absolute certainties, but not today.  Why?  Because there are forces in the world acting to keep[Read More…]

by 16/05/2019 4 comments World
Washington pushes to brink of war against Iran

Washington pushes to brink of war against Iran

The abrupt trip staged by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Brussels to push Washington’s hard line against Iran, combined with the deployment of still more US military assets to the Persian Gulf, point to Washington’s calculated escalation of a war crisis in the region. Late Monday, the New York Times posted an article under the headline “White House Reviews Military[Read More…]

by 14/05/2019 Comments are Disabled World
Maximum Pressure in the Strait of Hormuz: The US-Iran Standoff

Maximum Pressure in the Strait of Hormuz: The US-Iran Standoff

Hegemons are never going to sound too sensible when they lock horns or joust in spats of childish anger.  Power corrupts, not merely in terms of perspective but language, and making sense about the next move, the next statement, is bound to be challenging.  Otherwise justified behaviour can be read as provocative; retaliatory moves duly rattle and disturb. The Iran-US[Read More…]

by 14/05/2019 Comments are Disabled World
Ratcheting up tension: US designation of Revolutionary Guards risks escalation

Ratcheting up tension: US designation of Revolutionary Guards risks escalation

The stakes in the Middle East couldn’t be higher. Suspicion that the United States’ intent is to change the regime in Tehran rather than its officially stated goal of forcing Iran to curb its ballistic missile program and support for militias in Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen was heightened with this week’s decision to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)[Read More…]

by 09/04/2019 Comments are Disabled World
epa03878004 Iranian revolutionary guard soldiers march during the annual military parade marking the Iraqi invasion in 1980, which led to an eight-year-long war (1980-1988) in Tehran, Iran, 22 September 2013. Iranian president Hasan Rowhani said that Iran only wants to end the civil war in Syria for avoiding a new escalation of violence in the Middle East.  EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

Trump declares Iranian Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group at Netanyahu’s request

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing a hotly contested bid for a fourth term, tweeted Monday (April8) that the Trump administration designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization at his request, Los Angeles Times reported from Jerusalem. “Thank you, my dear friend, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, for having decided to designate Iran’s[Read More…]

by 09/04/2019 Comments are Disabled World
With the author kneeling in the lower right, an international peace delegation outside Iran's Tehran Peace Museum. (Photo: Courtesy of Medea Benjamin)

How US Sanctions are Hurting Iran: A Firsthand Report

On a recent delegation to Iran, we experienced first-hand the legendary Iranian hospitality. Iranians are particularly thrilled to meet Americans, but as we discovered, our government’s policies are hurting the very people who want to be our friends. As our 28-person delegation traveled through the country wearing messages on our jackets proclaiming “Peace with Iran” in English and Farsi, we were surrounded[Read More…]

by 12/03/2019 Comments are Disabled World
The US Must Grow Up And Respect Iranian Independence

The US Must Grow Up And Respect Iranian Independence

Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers One of the lessons from our recent visit to Iran as a Peace Delegation is that Iran is a mature country. It is 2,500 years old, ten times as old as the United States and one of the world’s oldest continuous major civilizations with settlements dating back to 7,000 BC. It was an empire that[Read More…]

by 11/03/2019 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Europe and America clash over Washington’s economic war on Iran

Europe and America clash over Washington’s economic war on Iran

Washington’s imposition of sweeping new sanctions on Iran—aimed at strangling its economy and precipitating “regime change” in Tehran—is roiling world geopolitics. As of today, the US is embargoing all Iranian energy exports and freezing Iran out of the US-dominated world financial system,so as to cripple the remainder of its trade and deny it access to machinery, spare parts and even[Read More…]

by 05/11/2018 3 comments Imperialism
young filmmakers working on the streets of Tehran

Hello, They Lied To You About Iran!

Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek Have you ever considered the possibility that almost everything that you have been told about the world by the Western mass media is a lie and fabrication? I am sure you have, at least lately, when the insanity of Western propaganda is becoming very clear and obvious. But what about the extent of indoctrination you[Read More…]

by 19/08/2018 33 comments World
Amid ethnic protests, Iran warns of foreign meddling

Amid ethnic protests, Iran warns of foreign meddling

Video link: https://av.voanews.com/Videoroot/Pangeavideo/2018/08/6/61/61c5c34a-8423-42b6-a9c5-de80b804fb7c.mp4 Iran has raised the spectre of a US-Saudi effort to destabilize the country by exploiting economic grievances against the backdrop of circumstantial evidence that Washington and Riyadh are playing with scenarios for stirring unrest among the Islamic republic’s ethnic minorities. Iran witnessed this weekend minority Azeri and Iranian Arab protests in soccer stadiums while the country’s Revolutionary[Read More…]

by 15/08/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Trump’s Iran Gambit Won’t Pay Off

Trump’s Iran Gambit Won’t Pay Off

It is as clear as day that President Trump is obsessed with regime change in Iran.  What is not made clear is how much his gambit is damaging to Americans and American interests. Without cause or justification, Mr. Trump  pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA), striking a hard blow to America’s European allies – and its[Read More…]

by 30/06/2018 1 comment Imperialism
Does The Israeli-Saudi Alliance Plans A War Against Iran?

Does The Israeli-Saudi Alliance Plans A War Against Iran?

Israel, the USA, and Saudi Arabia are doing everything to lay the foundations for war against Iran. That is why Iran and its people must be demonized and dehumanized. The Israeli governments have been doing this since the Shah of Iran was overthrown by the Iranian people. In general, all Sunni Muslim countries get along very well with Iran, except[Read More…]

by 29/11/2017 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
A US – Iran War

A US – Iran War

  There are two kinds of people:  those with, and without, grace.  President Trump can decide on which side he falls, although Mrs. Abe the Japanese Prime Minister’s wife has clearly made up her mind.  Anyone who can read a whole speech in English knows enough to say, ‘Excuse me, I do not speak English well’.  So, to not respond[Read More…]

by 24/07/2017 3 comments World
Dubious Results Of The Presidential Elections In Iran

Dubious Results Of The Presidential Elections In Iran

Iranians voted in the presidential as well as the city and village councils elections on May 19, 2017. The two elections were arranged to be on the same day to boost participations and show support for the clerical regime in Tehran. The Guardian Council had handpicked six candidates and rejected the rest of more than 1600 applicants who had registered[Read More…]

by 12/06/2017 1 comment World
Terror Attack In Iran Exacerbates War Tensions In Gulf

Terror Attack In Iran Exacerbates War Tensions In Gulf

Nineteen people, including all six assailants, were killed as the result of a coordinated terrorist attack Wednesday morning that targeted Iran’s Parliament complex in central Tehran and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republic’s founder-leader, some 15 miles to the south. The attack, which took Iranian elite forces close to two hours to end, also wounded 43 people, some[Read More…]

by 08/06/2017 1 comment World
Iran’s Elections: An Empty Charade for Ethnic Minorities

Iran’s Elections: An Empty Charade for Ethnic Minorities

With the Iranian presidential election scheduled to take place on Friday, May 19, the six candidates are competing for every vote, with all vying to win the essential backing of the country’s ethnic minority regions, whose peoples collectively comprise over 50 percent of the Iranian population.   All six candidates – Hassan Rouhani, Ibrahim Raisi, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, IssaqJahangiri, Mustapha Hashmi[Read More…]

by 12/05/2017 1 comment Human Rights, World
The Presidential Election Show In Iran

The Presidential Election Show In Iran

The Islamic Republic of Iran has started propagandas for its 12th presidential election which is on Friday May 19. This is not a free election because the major secular political parties are banned and prevented to designate their candidates. Islamic Republic is a misnomer, the regime is neither Islamic nor a republic. It is a theocratic totalitarian regime ruled by a[Read More…]

by 09/05/2017 1 comment World
Another Missile Crisis or More Chaos?

Another Missile Crisis or More Chaos?

Iran test-fired a missile and the U.S. government went ballistic. It put Iran ‘on notice’ — a phrase meaning little but with a distinct menace. Rummaging around in the Obama administration files, the new arrivals soon discovered well-prepared plans for sanctions should Iran’s actions displease. Iran was no longer ‘on notice,’ it was sanctioned. The Iranians are furious, saying nobody[Read More…]

by 06/02/2017 1 comment World
Trump: Trumpeting For A War On Iran?

Trump: Trumpeting For A War On Iran?

The Trump Administration’s rhetoric and actions have alarmed the world. The protests in response to his visa ban have overshadowed and distracted from a darker threat: war with Iran. Is the fear of the threat greater than the threat itself? The answer is not clear. Certainly Americans and non-Americans who took comfort in the fact that we would have a[Read More…]

by 06/02/2017 1 comment Imperialism
White House Issues War Threat Against Iran

White House Issues War Threat Against Iran

In an extraordinarily bellicose statement Wednesday, US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn accused Iran of “destabilising behaviour across the Middle East” and warned, “As of today we are officially putting Iran on notice.” He denounced Tehran for carrying out a ballistic missile test on Sunday and accused the Iranian regime, without any substantiation, of responsibility for an attack on a[Read More…]

by 02/02/2017 2 comments World
The Legacy Of Iran’s Powerful Cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

The Legacy Of Iran’s Powerful Cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the main pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran, died on January 8, 2017, in Tehran. The Islamic government announced the cause of his death as heart attack, but some other sources have claimed he was killed by the agents within the clerical regime. According to one source, he was suffocated in a Sa’dabad[Read More…]

by 19/01/2017 2 comments World
Trump Team Targets Iran

Trump Team Targets Iran

  Saudi Arabia dominates above all other nations as a supplier of suicide bombers, and its royal family dominates as the world’s top financial backer of Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups, but incoming President Donald Trump has chosen to lead his national-security team, only people who blame Iran and not Saudi Arabia, as being the main source of international[Read More…]

by 14/01/2017 2 comments World
Free Homa Hoodfar

Free Homa Hoodfar

At the end of August, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif traveled to six Latin American countries: Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, and Venezuela. On what was mainly a business tour, Zarif discussed megaprojects like the Grand Interoceanic canal. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said that “Iran has such a position that it can pick its political friends and trade[Read More…]

by 10/09/2016 1 comment Human Rights
Iran Regime Sentences Three Ahwazi Young Men To Public Execution

Iran Regime Sentences Three Ahwazi Young Men To Public Execution

  A senior Iranian regime judiciary official has issued the final confirmation of the death penalty for three Ahwazi rights activists, with another four sentenced to between 25 and 35 years in prison, as well as exile. Gholam-Hossein Mohsen Eie’I, the First Deputy Head of the Iranian regime’s Judiciary, confirmed the sentences in an interview with the regime-affiliated Moj News[Read More…]

by 19/06/2016 Comments are Disabled Human Rights, World