Iran
Iran

Iran: ‘Death Committee’ veteran becomes president

Iranians voted in a controlled election, virtually guaranteed to deliver an ultra-conservative president after all other serious contenders were barred from the race. The pre-ordained winner is Ebrahim Raisi, the chief justice, who has been under US sanctions since he oversaw repression in putting down the 2019 protest wave. Amnesty International reacted to Raisi’s election by calling for him to be investigated for “the crimes against humanity of murder, enforced disappearance and torture.” Especially at issue is Raisi’s role as a member of the “Death Committee,” a panel of four special jurists that that oversaw the secretive execution of some 3,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Europe
NCRI

Belgium: Iranian diplomat on trial over bomb plot

Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi and three Iranian-Belgians went on trial in Antwerp, Belgium, marking the first time an EU country has put an Iranian official on trial for terrorism. The four are charged with planning an attack on a rally of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in 2018. The NCRI is political wing of the exiled Iranian opposition group, Mujahedin-e Khalq, which is seeking to overthrow the Islamic Republic. Assadi served at Tehran’s embassy in Vienna and is believed to have been working for Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. (Photo of 2018 rally in Paris via NCRI)

Iran

Iran: deadly attack on Revolutionary Guards

At least 24 people, including 12 Revolutionary Guards, were killed and more than 60 were wounded when gunmen attacked a military parade in the city of Ahvaz, capital of Iran's restive southwestern province of Khuzestan. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif blamed "a foreign regime" backed by the United States for the attack. A representative for the separatist al-Ahwaz Arab Liberation Front told the London-based Iran International TV that the Ahwaz National Resistance, a coalition of separatist groups, was responsible for the attack, but insisted that civilians were not the target. (Map: ResearchGate)

Iran

Ayatollahs blame Iran unrest on US —surprise!

In a perfectly predictable response, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the US of fomenting the latest irruption in the wave of popular protests that has swept the country since the start of the year. Just as predictable was US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's transparently bogus statement of support for the Iranian protesters. Somewhat more surreal was the spectacle of Rudolph Giuliani, addressing a Paris rally staged by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), political wing of the cultish armed opposition group Mujahedin-e-Khalq—once listed as a terrorist organization by both the US and EU. Giuliani of course had to invoke the dreaded "regime change" phrase at the NCRI rally. This kind of US "support" hurts more than it helps, allowing the ayatollahs to more easily portray protesters as pawns, dupes or agents of the West.  (Photo: Center for Human Rights in Iran)

Iran

Iran, Saudi Arabia wage execution war

Violent protests in Iran against Saudi Arabia's execution of a dissident Shi'ite cleric come as the Islamic Republic is itself preparing a mass execution of Sunni political prisoners.

Iran

Iran, world powers reach nuclear agreement

The Iran nuiclear deal comes as the US is in a de facto alliance with Tehran against ISIS, and includes a lifting of sanctions on a notorious commander of counterinsurgency forces in Syria and Iraq.

Southern Cone

Argentina and Iran in oil-for-terror deal?

Did Argentina's President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner strike a secret deal with Tehran to cover up Iran's role in a terror attack in exchange for guarantees of oil imports?

Iraq

Iraq: death squads target Mujahedeen Khalq?

At least 47 are dead following an Iraqi military assault on Camp Ashraf, a refugee settlement inhabited by exiled members of Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen Khalq. 

Iraq

Iraq: Mujahedeen Khalq camp attacked by rockets

In attack blamed on Iran’s elite Quds Force, Katyusha rockets rained down on the former US military base outside Baghdad now used by “demobilized” Mujahedeen Khalq fighters.