Iranian regime’s woes exposed at the UN General Assembly

Many view the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly held every year in the fall as an opportunity to make peace with the rest of the world with the exception of a handful of nations such as the Iranian regime. This year is no different for ruling clerics at odd with the world.

Aside from internal criticism over the financial burden of the trip especially when ordinary Iranians are desperate and worried about the rising cost of living, President Hassan Rouhani’s address would have no significance since the final word comes from Tehran and the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Every year, a big delegation is sent to the international event. Not counting those with an actual mandate such as the president or the foreign minister a large group of family members or even distant relatives of the regime’s officials tag along.

They simply get the free ride for sightseeing and shopping while their husbands or fathers showcase their supposed love and devotion for poor and impoverished not only in Iran but throughout the world. What a mockery of human values.

No doubt the Iranian regime has prepared a well rehearsed scenario for this year for the most important gathering of heads of states in New York. Ali Khoram a regime’s seasoned diplomat and close to Rouhani’s camp prescribed for the president to play it safe and refrain from the usual fiery speeches which are only good for internal consumption.

Khoram went on to tell Rouhani to play the martyr and complain about return of sanctions and how much it has bitten the ordinary citizens especially children and those in dire need of medicine.

The state-run daily Kayhan, which is a mouthpiece for Khamenei warned Rouhani and advised him to follow the strict guidelines set by the Supreme Leader.

Kayhan sarcastically wrote: “Those who are nostalgic for renegotiations with the United States are moles and spies.” “Overt or covert meetings with former ‘bodies’ from good old days of negotiations for nuclear deal do not go unnoticed,” the paper added.

President Rouhani meets with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in New York on September 26, 2018, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. (AFP)

Iranian regime at an impasse

Despite the rivalry among two main factions of the regime and their plans and recommendations for saving the regime’s skin, Khamenei is in a serious dilemma that has crippled him. Iran’s national currency is plummeting everyday signaling a dying economy. Iran’s currency market according to traders is acting crazy and there is no hope.

“The US dollar price skyrocketed in Tehran’s markets on Monday, soaring over 160,000 rials. The euro was selling between 175,000 to 189,000 rials. The British pound had increased to over 210,000 rials.”

The state-run ISNA news agency described these escalating statistics as “strange” and added, “Today, trading for the US dollar began at around 149,000 to 150,000 rials and even reached the 155,000 rial mark.” These statistics were registered in authorized currency exchanges. In Tehran’s black market, however, the prices reached over 160,000 rials.

A citizen told Jahan-e-San’at daily on September 6th, “I earn around 22 million rials a month. With a mortgage of 9 million and two children, how can I buy 1 kilogram of rice for 100,000 rials, red meat at 600,000 rials and fruits at least 80,000 rials for each kilogram?”

Analyzing the increasing price of essential goods, the state-run ILNA news agency reported on September 11th: “In September, an average worker’s family must spend 72 percent of their earning to simply remain alive. At the end of the day, this family has less than 4 million rials to provide for their essential necessities, such as mortgage, transportation, and education. But how?”

Truckers went on strike again this week over high cost of maintenance and low incomes. The new round of strike hit hard on September 22th in Yazd, Mashhad, Shiraz, Karaj, Neka, Sanandaj, Bukan, Dezful, Bardsir, Borujerd, Isfahan, Shapur Jadid, Qazvin, Urmia, Bandar Abbas, Bandar Khomeini & the Khorram Abad/Pol-e Dokhtar.

Shiraz’s Prosecutor, Ali Salehi, threatened the truckers with legal action. He used the key word often used by the Iranian regime’s judiciary officials to threaten people with death. Salihi said: “Those continue the strike and break the law could be prosecuted as ‘Mohareb’ (waging war against God deemed a capital crime in Islam publishable by death).”

Not a day goes by without fresh strikes and protests in Iran. So far the theocratic regime has responded with an iron fist. In past three weeks 31 prisoners were hanged in different cities across the country. Nine were hanged together in the central city of Shiraz on September 22th.

A handout picture shows Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaking during a government meeting in Tehran on August 29, 2018. (AFP)

Nightmare for Khamenei

Khamenei no longer hide his biggest nightmare: fear of its main opposition growing in numbers and gaining strength in Iran.

According to the regime’s analysts, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) has been behind every protest and strike especially in the past eight months. Khamenei’s fear is valid since many in the world have come to realize that this regime has lost all credibility and his biggest nightmare is coming true.

Last week was a show of force for those Iranians dreaming for a genuine democratic change in Iran. Iranian American Communities conference’s “2018 Iran Uprising Summit” was it. Many former American and European officials were present. The keynote speaker was Maryam Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance (NCRI). She addressed the meeting via video feed.

“We call on the United States to expel the Iranian regime’s operatives from America. We urge Western governments to shut down or restrict the regime's embassies, which are control centers for espionage and terrorism; and to expel this regime's criminal forces from Syria and Iraq.” The opposition leader added: “Iran’s seat at the United Nations does not belong to the terrorist regime ruling it. That seat belongs to the Iranian people and Resistance,” Rajavi said.

Time has come for a new era in Iran without the clerical regime. 
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Reza Shafiee is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). He tweets @shafiee_shafiee.

By Reza Shafiee

The Protest Sponsored By Association Of Iranian Over Rouhani’s Speech At UN

The protest sponsored by Association of Iranian over Rouhani ‘s Speech at UN

The UN General Assembly is going to hold its annual session on 7 September 2018.

Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian regime’s president, is also attending.

The United Nations General Assembly which is one of the six bodies of the organization and represents all 193 members of it, holds annual meetings in late September. Attendance of many heads of state, premiers, and foreign ministers of countries makes the UNGA annual meetings an important venue for the world leaders to address the most important national, regional, and international issues in their speeches.

Organization of Iranian-American Communities-US (OIAC), the largest, most active grass root body of Iranian Diaspora in the United States, and other peace-seeking Iranians and Americans association, invites all concerned citizens to join the supporters to the “Free Iran Rally”, scheduled for Tuesday September 25, 2018, outside the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

The gathering will bring thousands to the U.N. against the backdrop of increasing executions in Iran just as the U.N. General Assembly meetings convene. The Association of Iranian American is going to announce to the world that Rouhani does not represent the people of Iran. He is a murderer like Khomeini and Khamenei and other leaders of the Iranian regime. Rouhani directly involved in the repression and killing of Iranians.

The Association of Iranian American also calls on the United Nations to hold Iran’s rulers accountable for their crime against humanity.

Many human rights activists, prominent civic and political leaders will join to the thousands of Iranian-American community members to condemn unabated executions in Iran, and to denounce Iranian government’s malign role in the Middle East, particularly in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon. The gathering supports and echoes the rights of Iranian people and their organized resistances for democratic regime change in Iran.

Maryam Rajavi: Iran’s Seat At The United Nations Does Not Belong To The Terrorist Regime

Maryam Rajavi: Iran’s seat at the United Nations does not belong to the terrorist regime

While world leaders prepare to address the annual UN General Assembly, a large crowd of Iranian-Americans gathered in a New York venue to voice their support for continued protests in Iran and to call on the international community to support the Iranian people and their resistance movement in the cause for regime change in Iran.

In a video message to this meeting, Maryam Rajavi elaborated on the rapid developments in Iran, with the looming prospect of a secular country free from religious tyranny. Following is the full text of Maryam Rajavi remarks:

Dear compatriots,
Distinguished personalities,
Members of Iranian communities in the United States,

You have organized a gathering that glows with unyielding resolve to secure a free Iran. Such gatherings around the world, added to the popular base of this resistance in Iran, in and of themselves manifest the roadmap for freedom and democracy in Iran.

Dear friends,

Today, I would like to briefly talk about the path to freedom and the Iranian Resistance’s platform for the future of Iran.

Accelerating developments in Iran enhance the prospects of an Iran free of religious tyranny. Since the uprising of December 2017, Iranian society has essentially not stopped marching and protesting. In August, at least 27 cities in Iran rose up once again. The regime arrested over 1,000 protesters but failed to stop the protest movements across Iran. As the Iranian Resistance’s Leader Massoud Rajavi has said: “This is an uprising until overthrow and until victory. … It will persist, it will spread, and it will deepen. It is linked with and relies on, the organized resistance. And the inhuman enemy has no solutions or options to escape from it.”

Today, the ruling mullahs’ fear is amplified by the role of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and resistance units in leading and continuing the uprisings. Regime analysts say: “The definitive element in relation to the December 2017 riots is the organization of rioters. So-called Units of Rebellion have been created, which have both the ability to increase their forces and the potential to replace leaders on the spot.”

The roadmap for freedom reveals itself in these very uprisings, in ceaseless protests, and in the struggle of the Resistance Units.

At the same time, the regime is surrounded – politically and internationally, and in economic terms, it is on the brink of collapse. Over the past 12 months, the national currency has lost two-thirds of its value. Today, the regime has reached a point where its factions publicly threaten their president with physical elimination.

The mullahs have no way of escaping the siege imposed by an array of dangers, which is why they have activated the regime’s most senior officials in their bid to deal major blows to the Iranian Resistance while accepting the significant political risks and costs that such a strategy entails. The discovery of a number of the regime’s terrorist and spying operations targeting the Iranian Resistance in Albania, France, and the U.S. in recent months; the arrest of a senior intelligence official who, while posing as a diplomat in Austria, was commanding a terrorist plot against the Resistance; and the recent warning of the French Foreign Ministry regarding the possibility of its diplomats being taken hostage by the regime as a means to secure the release of its terrorist-diplomat, are all instances of this modus operandi.

In addition, two weeks ago the mullahs launched a missile attack against headquarters of Iranian Kurdish parties in Iraq, leaving dozens of their officials and members martyred or injured. At the same time, in a despicable crime, the regime hanged three Kurdish activists after years of torture and imprisonment.

In committing these crimes, the mullahs are testing western governments. In such circumstances, a lack of resolve or a passive attitude by western governments will intensify the regime’s terrorist actions. This reality attests to the righteous nature of the struggle of the Iranian people and Iranian Resistance to overthrow this regime, and underscores the urgency of this struggle. Freedom in Iran and stability and security in the region and world are intertwined. The road to all goes through the overthrow of the velayat-e faqih regime (absolute clerical rule).

Dear friends, my compatriots,

I want to stress the path we have chosen and the horizon ahead of us as we strive to reach the Iranian people’s grand destination.

We seek popular sovereignty. We are fighting for the establishment of a republic based on the vote of the people. We consider the people’s free vote to be the sole criterion of legitimacy for national officials.

We stress human rights in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in accordance with conventions adopted by the United Nations.

Our plan includes the abolition of the death penalty.

The mullahs’ sharia edicts, which make up the legal precedent of the regime’s punitive laws, will have no place in tomorrow’s Iran.

We also stress the separation of religion and state.

Active and equal participation of women in the political leadership of society is the strategy of our Resistance, both as we persevere and struggle to overthrow the regime, and as we establish freedom, democracy, and equality following the clerical regime’s downfall.

We have risen up to establish a new economic and social order based on freedom. Our roadmap includes the uprooting of poverty, expansion of social justice, and growth of the economic power of citizens, enabling all of them to have equal opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship.

Democracy in tomorrow’s Iran will be founded on the participation of its various ethnicities liberated from dictatorship. In this respect, the 12-point plan of the National Council of Resistance of Iran(NCRI) for the autonomy of Iranian Kurdistan, adopted 35 years ago, continues to shine as one of the most comprehensive models in the world.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and all of the suppressive, espionage and inquisition-like institutions will be disbanded.

In the Iran of tomorrow, the regime’s policy of exporting terrorism will be replaced by peace and peaceful co-existence.

In accordance with the adopted plans of the NCRI, following the overthrow of the regime, a provisional government will be formed, responsible for transferring power to the Iranian people and for organizing free elections for the formation of a National Constituent Assembly within six months.

And finally, we seek a constitution based on freedom, democracy, and equality.

This is the roadmap to freedom. This is the roadmap to build our homeland Iran and make it prosperous.

Dear Friends,

With regard to the United Nation’s Security Council decision to discuss Iran, among other issues, during its September 26th session, I must recall the demands of the Iranian Resistance underscored many years ago. It is an urgent imperative that the Security Council address the flagrant violations of human rights in Iran, especially the torture and massacre of political prisoners, and the regime’s export of terrorism and warmongering in the Middle East Region. It must adopt binding measures to compel the regime to halt its crimes.

Overthrow, democratic change and establishing a free Iran are the responsibility of our people and Resistance. To this end, supporting the Iranian people’s uprising for the overthrow of the regime will contribute to regional and global peace and coexistence.

The financial lifelines which fund the regime’s Supreme Leader and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps must be blocked. This is what the Iranian people demand, and it is indispensable to regional and global peace and security.

At the same time, we emphasize that the greatest danger posed by this regime is suppression at home. As such, firmness vis-à-vis the mullahs will only be effective when the violations of human rights, the Iranian people’s uprising, and the mullahs’ terrorism are addressed in any discussion about Iran.

We call on the United States to expel the Iranian regime’s operatives from America. We urge western governments to shut down the regime’s embassies, which are control centers for espionage and terrorism; and to expel this regime’s criminal forces from Syria and Iraq.

Iran’s seat at the United Nations does not belong to the terrorist regime ruling it. That seat belongs to the Iranian people and Resistance.

In closing, I again salute your magnificent gathering.

Hail to freedom
Hail to the Iranian people

Visiting the PMOI/MEK in Albania

MEK residential compound near Tirana, Albania

Iran’s regime is currently facing a surge in domestic and international crises. As a result, the mullahs desperately need to decrease this mounting pressure. As seen before, their measures mainly focus on launching false rhetoric campaigns aiming to demonize their main opposition, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

L. Todd Wood of The Washington Times recently visited the PMOI/MEK residential compound – still under construction – located 45 minutes outside of Tirana, the capital of Albania, and wroteabout his experience.

“… I had no idea what to expect upon reaching the sprawling facility which is the new home for approximately 3,200 of the Iranian resistance movement’s personnel, after being forced out of Iraq by violence from the Iranian-backed government… The MEK sees a real chance to force regime change from inside Iran, without needing the use of expensive and already overextended American military force.

“With the eventual fall of the mullahs, the MEK wants to finally install a democracy. It was against this backdrop that I visited Ashraf 3 in Albania.” he explains at first.

Acknowledging the fact that the Iranian regime considers the MEK as “an existential threat,” the mullahs’ have scrambled in “reckless ways to counter what it sees as its real opposition, even if is all the way in Albania.”

This evaluation can be confirmed in a recent tweet by Iranian regime Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif literally begging Twitter to take some kind of action against the PMOI/MEK members in Tirana who are involved in internet activities informing people inside Iran and across the globe about the Iranian regime’s human rights violations, support for terrorism, malign ballistic missile program and very suspicious nuclear drive.

L. Todd Wood also refers to the Iranian regime’s terrorist measures against the PMOI/MEK, specifically mentioning the “foiled bomb attempt at the Free Iran Gathering 2018 in Paris last June, where an Iranian diplomat was arrested, and the recent arrest and indictment of two Iranian spies in Washington, D.C., looking to target resistance officials in the United States.”

Tehran’s activities have also expanded to Albania itself, allocating a significant line-up of senior officials to its embassy in Tirana.

“Iranian intelligence agents have been active in Albania, recruiting former MEK members for propaganda purposes and attempting to stain the reputation of the group within the eyes of Albania’s people,” he added.

Indicating his “open mind” approach, Wood provides a detailed explanation about his initial experience inside the newly built site, praising the PMOI/MEK for doing “remarkably well in such a short period of time.”

“What struck me initially was the openness that I encountered. Multiple attempts at journalistic hit pieces had culminated in a recent drone flyover by an adversarial news group from the UK, most likely funded by someone who doesn’t want the MEK to be successful in its quest.

“As the members of the camp knew that I had promised to keep an open mind, I was met most graciously. I asked many questions during my two-day visit. All of the questions were answered in-depth, sometimes with other members being brought in to give a more detailed and complete answer. I was not prevented from seeing or requesting anything. I asked about life at the camp, those who had left the movement, even about the MEK’s alleged involvement in the Iranian Hostage Crisis decades before. All questions were met with complete answers.”

Emphasizing on the PMOI/MEK’s “openness,” Wood explains his ability to sit down and talk with a variety of members representing people from all walks of life in Iran’s vast society.

“In addition to being exposed to many of the day-to-day locations members would frequent, I also had the chance to talk and interview probably 50 members from all walks of life within the movement… Many pundits have described the MEK as a cult. I would describe it as a fanatically committed group of individuals who have given their lives for an idea: a free Iran. Each and every one of them spoke about their people, and how they wanted a better life for the Iranian population. This was especially prevalent among the young men and women I met…”

PMOI/MEK members have dedicated decades, if not their entire lives, to the struggle aimed at establishing freedom and democracy in Iran. And their determination is undeniable.

“The ideal of freedom is a powerful one and permeated throughout Ashraf 3. It is utmost on everyone’s mind. It is something bigger than themselves. Most of the people I met were highly intellectual and successful in their previous lives. They could have been living anywhere in the West, but they chose, at a personal sacrifice, to join this movement. The younger members know nothing but the regime and are hellbent on destroying it. I saw a remarkable level of focus and determination. All of the members of the group had a job to do and were singularly focused on its completion.”

Debunking a series of allegations, lies and misinformation drives launched by the Iranian regime against the PMOI/MEK, Wood sheds light on what he has learned first-hand and his plans for the future in this regard.

“Each person I spoke with knew exactly why and for what he or she was fighting for and why they had given up so much of their own lives to fight the regime.

“Albania has nothing to fear from this group. I did not see any weapons or military training. They want to become good citizens of Albania and to build a life in the former communist country. In fact, it is the MEK who has to be worried about violence. The regime has shown it will stop at nothing to destroy them. Iranian Ministry of Intelligence agents are active in Albania. They are the ones the Albanian public has to fear, not the people in the camp.

“There has been much disinformation purposefully spread about the PMOI/MEK. I hope to confront most of it by writing from personal experience from my interactions with the Iranian resistance. This is the first of many reports on the subject.”

A closer look at the Iranian regime’s increased terrorist activities

The Iranian regime used its official embassies in Europe to plot a terrorist attack on the MEK meeting

 In its 40-year history, the terrorist and fundamentalist regime of Iran has done everything within its power to terrorize and destroy its dissidents and opponents. The regime has been engaging in terrorism across the world in different ways. This is a reality that parliamentarians and politicians have confirmed in the past years, and they have recognized the Iranian regime as the biggest state sponsor of global terrorism.

At the turn of the year, when protests erupted across Iran, the Iranian regime increased its efforts to strike at the Iranian opposition in hopes of stifling the uprisings. Following the remarks of the Iranian regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in which he emphasized the role of the PMOI/MEK in the uprisings, the Iranian regime engaged in several terrorist attempts. At the doorsteps of the Iranian new year in March, the Iranian regime dispatched a group of terrorist to Albania to detonate bombs at the annual gathering of the MEK. Again, in June, another team of Iranian regime terrorists tried to bomb a large Iranian opposition rally in Paris. Shortly after, a similar attempt was discovered in the U.S. If any of these terrorist attempts succeeded, it would have caused a disaster.

What’s significant about these terror attempts is the haste in which the Iranian regime has tried to carry out its plots, to the extent that it has overlooked all the sensibilities that surround its own present circumstances. The Iranian regime even overtly employed its embassies and diplomats in implementing its plans. The disclosures made by the Iranian opposition and the arrest of Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi in Germany and the other members of its terrorist network in Albania, France, Belgium, and the U.S. have become a diplomatic disgrace for the regime of Tehran.

Iranian regime officials are resorting to such measures while they are under international scrutiny. They are shamelessly carrying out terrorism through their embassies, which can only be described as a stupid move. While the world is rallying against terrorism, resorting to terrorist measures further arouses international anger at the regime. This is especially bad for Tehran because after the U.S. exited the Iran deal, the regime has become increasingly in need of support from European countries.

The regime’s hasty terrorist measures and its increase of domestic suppression and executions only hint at its desperate state in its final days.

On September 8, the Iranian regime executed three Kurdish political prisoners. At the same time, the regime attacked the headquarters of Kurdish opposition groups in Iraq, killing and injuring dozens of people. There is evidence indicating that the attack was staged from inside Iraq, through a missile base in Sulaymaniyah. If the allegations are proved to be true, it means that the Iranian regime has entered a dangerous game in the region.

History has seen many dictatorships, but the mullahs’ regime of Iran is unique in its own right, especially in terms of shamelessness. The officials of the Iranian regime describe Iran as “the most democratic country in the world” and claim that “there are no political prisoners in Iran.” They also claim that Iran is the most secure country in the world. What they don’t say is that the Iranian regime is the record-holder of executions in the world and it is the biggest state-sponsor of terrorism.

Another aspect of the Iranian regime’s shamelessness is it cyber-terrorism. Recently, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google shut down several online accounts linked to the Iranian regime because of their role in undermining public discourse and spreading propaganda. The Iranian regime’s huge cyber-terrorism machine is being run by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), employing thousands of IRGC agents and hackers and spending millions of dollars out of the pockets of the impoverished Iranian people to spread misleading news and lies about the Iranian opposition.

What is evident is that execution, terror, missile attacks and other hollow muscle-flexing moves are being decided at the highest levels of power in the regime. But it won’t help the regime out of it current predicament. The Iranian people are determined to continue their uprisings, and the Iranian community is more vigilant than ever. The regime’s efforts are only further proving that the PMOI/MEK and the NCRI are the main Iranian opposition movements and the real alternatives to the mullahs’ rule.

We’re also witnessing that the international community is becoming increasingly aware of the need to stand against the terrorist regime that rules in Iran and to protect the Iranian opposition. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Iranian regime’s embassies shut down soon and the NCRI recognized as the real representative of the Iranian people.

Iran’s Compounding Crises

Iran's ever increasing compound crisis

The Iranian regime is facing ever increasing crises with each passing day. The inner circle of the ruling regime refers to them as challenges and “super challenges.” High ranking officials, such as Vice President Es’hagh Jahangiri, Majlis (parliament) speaker Ali Larijani and others have announced up to 30 super challenges, referring to enormous hurdles with extensive repercussions. This wide variety of challenges are numerous crises often leading to one another.

Economic crises at every level consists of unemployment now topping the 8 million mark, according to the regime’s own officials. However, economists are putting these numbers as high as 15 million.

The liquidity crisis brought about by printing currency bills without back up and/or holding collateral equal value. According to regime sources, the volume of printed currency without collegial equal value are increasing at a daily rate of 16 trillion rials per day (equal to around $381 million based on the regime’s 42,000/$ ratio). This is creating a devastating tsunami of all sorts.

Economic depression and domino-like closure of factories and workshops are wiping out the remnants of national industries and domestic production.

Unprecedented class inequality: People related to the ruling elite own 75 percent of all Iranian bank holdings, according to a state-run website. Accordingly, more than 30 million Iranians are living in absolute poverty, unable to make ends meet and to cover their basic minimum needs of daily life. The Iranian regime’s Chamber of Commerce chief warned, “If things continue on this tract, we will be facing famine in 30 months.”

Social crises include water shortages, ecosystem problems, the drug addiction epidemic, malnutrition and …

Senior regime officials are acknowledging this subject, admitting their inability and failure to rectify them. They express concerts that such failures will follow far more serious consequences for the regime as a whole and are threatening its very existence.

The existence of such crises are nothing new for the Iranian regime. Therefore, what makes this period different from the past? Until the last presidential election in Iran, or even last year, it was always presumed as natural factional disputes and politicians jockeying for their share of power. However, despite that underlying factor, the Iranian regime is now also fighting for its survival, too. And this makes everything so different this time around.

“Right now, 80 percent of the people are unhappy about the status quo. If this reaches the 90 percent mark and public opinion is aggravated, God forbid, we will enter an ominous situation which would be very costly to get out of,” said the Iranian regime’s deputy homeland minister.

Background

Two major and specific reasons can be mentioned for the grave situation the Iranian regime is in.

1. The explosive social conditions after the Dec/Jan uprising. This has changed everything. When summoned recently by the regime’s parliament. Iranian regime President Hassan Rouhani specifically said everything changed after Dec 26, 2017.
2. Changes in international and regional circumstances, and more specifically, an end to the appeasement policy from Washington are bringing an end to the Iranian regime’s bullying.

It is also worth noting that the Iranian regime is currently facing important developments. On September, U.S. President Donald Trump chairs a special United Nations Security Council session to discuss Iran’s issues and its regional meddling. Less than a week later, October 2^nd, is Tehran’s last chance to sign the FATF anti-money laundering treaty.

If Tehran fails to do so by that deadline, it will be blacklisted and will lead to stopping all banking relations with a large number of banks and financial institutions in over 200 FATF member states.

Finally, the second round of extensive U.S. sanctions will come into effect on November 4^th, including oil and banking sectors. It will hurl the regime back to the pre-JCPOA period with even more far-reaching consequences.

The extend and seriousness of all these deteriorating and deepening crises are already felt by the regime with a number of figures sounding the alarm for the downfall of Iran’s ruling mullahs.

West has a chance to bring Iranian regime to heel at UN Security Council

This Islamic Republic of Iran is mired in crises, few of which stem from US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and the subsequent renewed economic sanctions. Those actions only serve to help the US, and hopefully the international community as a whole, in putting pressure on Iran’s clerical regime at a time when it is most vulnerable and least likely to conceal the misdeeds that make such pressure necessary.

 

Iran’s national currency, the rial, plumbed new depths this month, trading at more than 150,000 to the US dollar. The new figures provoked further economic protests in various Iranian cities, in what has become the status quo in recent months. The Iranian people view the economic catastrophe as part of the broader failings of the Iranian government, and many of the protests have accordingly taken on an unequivocal message of opposition to the regime in its entirety.

 

Activists have chanted “death to the dictator” and “death to Rouhani,” in reference to the country’s supreme leader and its president. Others have doubled down on the condemnation of both political factions of the clerical regime, while also rejecting the regime’s attempts to dismiss the unrest as the product of some foreign conspiracy. “The enemy is here,” protesters declared, according to independent Iranian news outlets and witnesses on social media. “They are lying when they say it is America.”

 

But the Iranian people are not simply declining to blame the West for their problems. The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a major driver of the protest movement, insists that the Iranian people are in fact calling out to the US and Europe to stand with them as they take hold of the solutions to their problems.

 

We can do this by focusing international attention on the human rights abuses with which the Iranian regime responds to any and all popular threats to its hold on power. We can also weaken the regime’s repressive infrastructure by building a broader consensus for economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation that will ultimately force the mullahs to respond to the crises they are presently trying to suppress.

 

A combination of internal and external pressure could finally bring the Iranian regime to heel, thereby ushering in both democracy at home and security abroad.

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh

The worsening economic and social conditions, along with the popular response to them, amplify the inherent potential of assertive Western policies. 

 

Clearly, the Trump administration’s decision to convene the UN Security Council to discuss Iran-related issues on Sept. 26 comes at an auspicious time, providing an opportunity to condemn the latest arrests and human rights violations involving peaceful protesters, and to underscore the ineffectiveness of those measures. The 2018 Iran Uprising Summit planned in advance of that meeting will echo this message.

 

In August alone, Iranian authorities arrested approximately 1,000 protesters. In January, in the midst of the nationwide uprising, arrests exceeded 8,000. Arrest in the Islamic Republic usually involves long periods of isolation, followed by torture, as security forces clamor for false confessions to support political charges. 

Recent examples are numerous and come as no surprise to Western observers, after several American and European nationals were caught up in the regime’s efforts to suppress all manner of perceived threats to its hard-line Islamist identity.

Visitors to the Islamic Republic are not the only Westerners at risk from the regime’s desperate bid to resolve its domestic crises through violence. The acknowledged role of the MEK in the uprising has prompted Tehran to target the popular democratic resistance group outside of Iran. Fortunately, all serious attacks have been thwarted so far, but had they managed to slip past European security services, terrible damage was plotted in March against the MEK community in Albania. On June 30, targets included hundreds of American and European dignitaries attending an international rally outside Paris organized by adherents of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and its president-elect, Maryam Rajavi.

The unraveling of the latter attack led to the arrest of Assadollah Assadi, a high-level diplomat at the Iranian embassy in Vienna, who masterminded the plot hatched at the highest levels in Tehran. His arrest exposed a terrorist operative hidden at the heart of Europe, and that Tehran’s anxiety at the domestic unrest and the MEK’s advances outweighs all other considerations, including relations with the EU.

A continuation of rights abuses in Iran means a perpetuation of terror threats abroad, while preventing Tehran from further abuses in one of these areas will ultimately make the regime’s entire project of self-preservation unsustainable.

The recent terror attempts should make it apparent to both sides of the Atlantic that Western interests and the Iranian people’s interests are one and the same. A combination of internal and external pressure could finally bring that regime to heel, thereby ushering in both democracy in Iran and security abroad. This is a message that should be emphasized at the Security Council this month.

• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. He is a leading expert on Iran and US foreign policy, a businessman and president of the International American Council. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point-of-view

7.4 million Iranian children deprived of education

Approximately 327,000 children in the streets of Tehran who weren’t going to school

It is no secret that the Iranian regime spends billions of dollars on its terrorist and extremist ambitions abroad. And these foreign expenditures, aimed at preserving the regime’s hold on power at home and the region, are not only taking their toll on the livelihoods of the people of Iran but are also negatively affecting the lives of the future generations of Iran.

On September 14, Iran’s Ruydad news website published a report in which it revealed damning statistics about the educational conditions of children inside Iran. According to this state-run website, Iranian regime officials are offering conflicting accounts of how many Iranian children have or don’t have access to basic education. Writes the site: “Like many other national statistics, the exact number of children who have been deprived of education is not available. The figures offered by the ministry education differs from that of the Well-being Organization. The Mardom-Nahad body and other NGOs also offer different information.”

The report concludes that such differences between the figures itself speak to the criticality of the situation.

According to Ruydad, the caretaker of the Iranian regime’s labor ministry says that in the first three months of the Persian year (March-June), the government has identified approximately 327,000 children in the streets of Tehran who weren’t going to school. This is the statistics offered by the Well-being Organization.

Taking this figure as a basis to offset the entire country, in the most optimistic calculation, in which the uneducated children of other provinces (31 in total) are estimated at a third of Tehran, the total sums up to around 3.5 million children across the country who aren’t going to school.

The Ruydad report writes: “The situation could be worse than this: According to the most recent consensus, the country’s 7- to 19-year-old population is around 20 million people. If we compare this figure to the last consensus, which counted 12.6 million Iranian students, the count of children deprived of education spikes to 7.4 million!”

Despite all of the evidence, during the presidency of Hassan Rouhani and his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian regime’s education ministry never acknowledged these statistics.

Farideh Oladghobad, a member of the education and research commission in the Iranian regime’s parliament, says, “A while ago, the head of education in one of the counties of Golestan province approached us and said that they are faced with a large number of children who aren’t going to school, most of them being girls.”

Oladghobad added, “We don’t have accurate figures of the number of children who have been deprived of education across the country. For example, in Sistan and Baluchestan province, where the living conditions are harsh, our estimates are 100,000 uneducated children, but we don’t know if the other provinces are worse or not.”

According to the Iranian regime’s constitution, the government is responsible for providing quality education to all Iranian children, but the MP lays the blame at the feet of the people themselves, adding that the regime will be ratifying new regulations to penalize families who don’t send their children to school, not taking into account that a large portion of the population is living in substandard conditions and are struggling to make ends meet.

This will provide the Iranian regime with yet another excuse to tax the people and empty their pockets of their last rials.

According to the statistics provided by international bodies and the Iranian opposition, the Iranian regime spends a nearly $16-25 billion on the war in Syria, where it is struggling to prop up the regime of Bashar al-Assad against opposition forces. This amount alone is more than enough to pay for the educational expenses of students in Iran and to renovate schools across the country.

According to a recent report by the state-run Mehr newspaper, there are 32,000 primary schools for more than 4 million students across the country, and 300,000 educational personnel are working in these schools. Many of the buildings of these schools are so decayed that they might collapse or cave-in, Mehr warns.

This is just a glimpse of the crimes that the Iranian regime is committing against the people of Iran. As far as the people are concerned, they’ve made it clear that their miseries, including their children’s lack of access to proper education, will only end when the mullahs’ regime is gone, a fact they’ve made clear in their ongoing protests across the country where they are chanting slogans against the regime in its entirety.

Residents of earthquake-stricken Kermanshah sell their kidneys to survive!

Some residents selling their kidneys to gain money to rebuild their homes

Ten months have passed since an earthquake hit Kermanshah and dozens of aftershocks have kept the fear of a new catastrophe looming over the city and its population. But a new earthquake isn’t the most imminent danger that threatens to accelerate the deterioration of living conditions.

Fati, a 32-year-old housewife, says that they still don’t have a proper tent for living. With two four- and six-year-old kids she has to live with four other relatives in a tent that was originally created for four people.

The housing situation is so catastrophic that some of the residents are reportedly selling their kidneys in order to rebuild their homes.

In an interview with Iran’s Ilna news agency on September 14, Sarpol-e Zahab’s City Council Chairman accuses Hassan Rouhani’s administration of inaction and considers this the reason why some citizens are selling their kidneys.

He adds: “The mental situation of the citizens is very troubling. Hygiene and sanitation are very inadequate, and the municipality hasn’t yet given us any money to do something. I wish the Ministry of Interior would say what services they’ve provided for a city like Sarpol-e Zahab.”

On September 5, Irna news agency wrote about the housing situation: “Earthquake-stricken [families] with sick or elderly members or little children are more concerned, because if they don’t succeed in building their shelters, they have to spend a second cold winter in makeshift Conex houses and tents, not to mention the grueling summer heat they have to bear right now.”

And while the situation is far from normalized, state agencies are leaving the area one after another.

“On arrival, many of the agencies which came to the area, put up banners in the city saying that they will stand together with the earthquake victims until the end. Unfortunately, many agencies didn’t stay in the area and declared that they want to leave,” says Sarpol-e Zahab’s City Council Chairman.

On June 23, Iran’s Parliament news agency quoted an MP from Kermanshah saying: “Arrangements were made to give villages 350-million- and cities 400-million-rial loans but unfortunately, it was never realized.”

On August 18, Mehr news agency published a story-like report about the situation in Kermanshah nine months after the earthquake. Describing the situation of a family in Sarpol-e Zahab the report says: “She opens water on the soap that covers the 4-5-year-old boy’s face. The child’s body crumples under the sudden impact of the water’s cold temperature.”

The 40-year-old mother who lost her two brothers in the earthquake says: “I wash the kids in the toilet. We have one toilet for 40 people.” Referring to politicians and state affiliated celebrities who make empty promises and show off without helping them she continues: “Some people come here and take photos with our miseries.”