Author: AIAINY
Iranian Americans Outline a Comprehensive, Bi-partisan Iran Policy for 2021 OIAC | 12/15/2020 WASHINGTON, DC- On December 15, 2020, the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) hosted a virtual event on US policy toward Iran. The event was titled “Iranian Americans Call for a Comprehensive US-Iran Policy” and featured several members of OIAC’s Advisory Board, members of OIAC’s Young Professionals and Students Chapter, and a panel of Iranian American community leaders. The focus was on countering the escalating human rights violations in Iran as well as the regional and terror threats posed by the Islamic Republic. With…
New York, NY; December 3, 2020 – Association of Iranian Americans in New York congratulates Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY) on his selection as the next Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. As a community of Iranian Americans whose members have loved ones live under medieval oppression in Iran, we applauded Mr. Meeks for focusing attention on what matters in diplomacy: “pushing further on the fight for human rights across the world,” and setting a path to exercise, “the weight of U.S. moral credibility.” Congressman Meeks is commended for his leadership and support for H.Res.752, “Supporting the rights of the…
Iran: Internet deliberately shut down during November 2019 killings Amnesty International | November 16, 2020 The Iranian authorities deliberately shut down the internet during nationwide protests in November 2019, hiding the true scale of unlawful killings by security forces, Amnesty International said today. On the anniversary of the deadliest day of the protests, Amnesty International is launching a new microsite, A web of impunity: The killings Iran’s internet shutdown hid, documenting how the lethal crackdown that left at least 304 people dead was hidden from the world. “When news of the deadly crackdown began to emerge from Iran last November, the…
Amnesty International | September 2, 2020 Widespread torture including beatings, floggings, electric shocks, stress positions, mock executions, waterboarding, sexual violence, forced administration of chemical substances, and deprivation of medical care Hundreds subjected to grossly unfair trials on baseless national security charges Death sentences issued based on torture-tainted “confessions” Iran’s police, intelligence and security forces, and prison officials have committed, with the complicity of judges and prosecutors, a catalogue of shocking human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment, against those detained in connection with the nationwide protests of November 2019, said Amnesty International in a…
NCRI | Written by Shamsi Saadati | July 22, 2020 Morgan Ortagus, the spokesperson of the United States State Department, in a video message on Twitter, while condemning the Iranian regime’s ongoing human rights violations, particularly the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners, called on the “international community to conduct independent investigations and do provide accountability and justice for the victims of these horrendous violations of human rights, organized by the Iranian regime.” “July 19th marks the anniversary of the start of Iran. So-called death commissions on the orders of Ayatollah Khomeini. These commissions reportedly forcibly disappeared and extra judicially executed thousands of political dissident prisoners. The…
Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) (Chairman of the House Democratic caucus) Message to 2020 Free Iran Summit June 17-20, 2020 https://youtu.be/BErhJTkw6-w Thank you to the Summit for Free Iran, and I join your call in denouncing the Iranian regime’s terrorism, human rights abuses, nuclear ambitions and suppression of religious freedom. I support the democratic aspirations of the people of Iran and we stand with you until you are able to obtain the freedom and liberty that all human beings deserve. https://twitter.com/IAC_NY/status/1284593219842572289?s=20
Amnesty International | 10 July 2020 Following the Iranian judicial authorities’ confirmation that on 8 July, a man in the city of Mashhad was executed following repeated convictions for drinking alcohol, Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director of Middle East and North Africa, said: “The Iranian authorities have once again laid bare the sheer cruelty and inhumanity of their judicial system by executing a man simply for drinking alcohol. The victim was the latest person to be executed in Valkalibad prison, the site of numerous secret mass executions and a grotesque theatre of Iran’s contempt for human life. The…
New York Post | By Brian Hook | May 27, 2020 As the US special representative for Iran, I receive complaints regularly about Voice of America’s Persian service. Iranian viewers say its American taxpayer-funded programming often sounds more like the “Voice of the mullahs” than the “Voice of America.” VOA Persian needs to do a better job of countering Iranian disinformation and propaganda. This is a priority for the Trump administration, because supporting the Iranian people includes giving them access to independent and truthful reporting. Voice of America was founded in 1942 to communicate US policies to a global audience. VOA’s…
Press Release | May 4, 2020 Washington—Today, an overwhelming bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives called on the Trump Administration to extend the United Nations arms embargo on Iran, which is set to expire in October of this year. In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot L. Engel and Ranking Member Michael T. McCaul, Representative Stephanie Murphy, and Representative Brian Fitzpatrick led a group of 387 members encouraging robust diplomacy to prevent the expiration of the embargo and of U.N. travel restrictions on Iranians engaged in proliferation activities. The group of members—more than three quarters…
Amnesty International | April 9, 2020 Around 36 prisoners in Iran are feared to have been killed by security forces after the use of lethal force to control protests over COVID-19 safety fears, Amnesty International has learned. In recent days, thousands of prisoners in at least eight prisons around the country have staged protests over fears of contracting the coronavirus, sparking deadly responses from prison officers and security forces. In several prisons, live ammunition and tear gas were used to suppress protests, killing around 35 prisoners and injuring hundreds of others, according to credible sources. In at least one prison,…