Author: AIAINY

May 19, 2017 The Iranian authorities must immediately transfer Atena Daemi, an imprisoned human rights defender, whose health has sharply deteriorated in recent days, to a hospital outside of prison so that she can receive the specialized medical care she requires, said Amnesty International. Atena Daemi, who has been on hunger strike for 40 days, has been coughing up blood, suffered severe weight loss, nausea, vomiting, blood pressure fluctuations, and kidney pain. Doctors have warned that she requires immediate hospitalization. However, the authorities at Tehran’s Evin prison have refused to authorize her transfer to a hospital outside prison for medical…

Monday, 22 May 2017 By Heshmat Alavi – Al Arabiya As Iran’s incumbent President Hassan Rouhani reached a second term on May 19th, one major issue of concern must be how to bring an end to Tehran’s destructive meddling across the Middle East. If we take into consideration how The Telegraph said, “The re-election of President Hassan Rouhani changes nothing. Iran remains an impoverished dictatorship governed by a theocratic elite,” Tehran, from its own perspective, will need to continue defying domestic demands and international calls for a changed approach. At a time when Saudi Arabia and the entire region were sidelined by…

Iran Focus – May 5, 2017 In 2012, Iranian diplomat Hamid Mohammadi said there were many Iranian-Canadians “working in influential government positions” and called on others to “occupy high-level and key positions.” Now, in Canada, Iran is making an effort to expand its presence, with an aim to use America’s neighbour as a “forward operating base” for influence operations against the American government. Hassan Abbasi, a leader in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was seen boasting about a “guerilla movement of Iranian agents living and working in the United States,” in a recent video. He said that Iran, is…

May 4, 2017 Squaring off with Iran, Syria and North Korea, the Trump administration has indicated that the years of appeasement with dictators have ended, according to a new op-ed carried by the Washington Examiner. Tehran is beginning to understand these policy changes from the United States, and it follows that Trump should also target Iran’s human rights violations. Amir Basiri writes in ‘Washington Examiner’ on 2 May 2017, “While Iran does pose a major military threat, through supporting what has been described by Trump as ‘radical Islamist terrorism’, Tehran’s ongoing human rights abuses should finally receive the long overdue…

By Zahraa Alkhalisi   @CNNMoney April 20, 2017 America is turning up the heat on Iran. A day after ordering a review into whether lifting sanctions on Iran was good for U.S. national security, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson accused the Islamic republic of “alarming and ongoing provocations” and said it “has the potential to travel the same path as North Korea” if unchecked. Under a deal signed in 2015, Western powers agreed to lift some economic sanctions in return for Iran agreeing to rein in its nuclear program. Analysts say the Trump administration is now dropping hints that it will reimpose sanctions unless Tehran…

Iran Focus April 14, 2017 Ray Takeyh, an Iranian-American Middle East scholar, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and former United States Department of State official, gave his opinions and assessment of the stability of Iran before the Subcommittee on National Security of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government. He also advised what the US can do to weaken the regime and to counter its influence in the region. He noted the similarities between Iran and the Soviet Union during the seventies. At that time, it was believed that the Soviet Union was still going strong,…

April 13, 2017 This Tuesday, the European Union voted to extend sanctions against Iran until April 2018, in response to “serious human rights violations”, according to Reuters. This move has been welcomed by politicians, organizations and members of the general public who advocate for human rights. The EU stated that their ban targeted people who were complicit in “torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, or the indiscriminate, excessive and increasing application of the death penalty, including public executions, stoning, hangings or executions of juvenile offenders”, and those “responsible for directing or implementing grave human rights violations in the repression of peaceful demonstrators, journalists,…

March 6, 2017 INS-Once again, Iran has successfully test-fired new missiles during the Islamic Republic’s naval drills. During a large-scale drill, code-named Velayat 95, in the strategic southern waters, Iran’s navy tested its domestically-manufactured missiles. Just three weeks after the Trump administration put new sanctions on the Islamic Republic in place, Tehran is testing Washington again. The war games cross an area of about 2,000,000 square kilometers in the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman, the Bab el-Mandab and northern parts of the Indian Ocean. The naval maneuvers are limited to anti-terrorism and anti-piracy training purposes, according to an…

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2017-The United States has underscored the need for a refreshing approach to help change the ambivalent culture permeating the United Nations regarding the violations of human rights around the world. Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) welcomes this development and applauds Ambassador Nikki Haley’s efforts to place human rights at the center of the U.S. mission at the U.N. As Ambassador Haley pointed out recently, “peace and security cannot be achieved in isolation from human rights.” The long-suffering people of Iran, Syria, and Iraq bear witness that “human rights abuses are not the byproduct of conflict; they…

Maryam Hejazi March 20, 2017 Raiding private ceremonies and night parties by the police has reached new dimensions in Iran. The most recent cases were arresting 34 girls and boys at a night party in Southwestern province of Khuzestan as well as organizers of another one in Tehran. Khuzestan revolutionary prosecutor-general announced on Sunday March 5 that 14 girls and 20 boys have been arrested at a night party in the province. A day before the police in Khuzestan raided a night party, Western Tehran Police Chief announced that police had raided a hen party. Mohsen Khancharli said that “some…