Continued strikes of workers and the working people, and protests of looted people and other deprived people

National Council of Resistance of Iran

1. The general strike of the workers of the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company, including the workers of the agricultural, equipment and engineering sectors, continued for the second day. The Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Workers Syndicate announced on Sunday, March 4, that after the suicide of Ali Naqdi, a deprived cane cutter, the salaries of the workers for the month of January have been paid. But the salaries of other workers of other parts of the factory, as well as February salaries and the benefits and bonuses of the end of the year, have not yet been paid. 

2. The workers of the Ahvaz Steel National Group continued their strike in front of the Ahvaz Governorate for the thirteenth day. They chanted: We stand, we die, we get our rights. On Monday evening, a group of workers and families and relatives of detained workers gathered in front of the Ahvaz court. 

3. More than a hundred U-TA-TEC workers from the southern oil and gas industry in Bushehr went on strike in protest of their unpaid demands that are between one and seven million tomans (~ $200-$1400) per worker. The corporation, which belongs to the Revolutionary Guards Corps, continuously threatens to expel and arrest the deprived workers. Workers are protesting late wage payment, situation of dormitories, and the lack of minimum essential services. 

4. Tabriz railway workers stopped working for the second day in protest of not getting paid their wages and refusing their official recruitment. 

5. Hundreds of deprived farmers of Varzaneh in Isfahan, who have been protesting the regime's refusal to give their water rights since a few days ago, gathered in front of the Benroud Province. They say the clerical government has promised them lies and the governor does not do anything for the farmers. 

6. A group of Haftgel de-salting workers protested against the regime's governorate. 

7. Workers of the vegetable oil factory of the industrial city of Shourmast of Savadkouh gathered in the factory to receive their five months' unpaid salary. 

8. Khorramshahr Municipality workers gathered to protest against non-payment of their six months' salary in front of the office of Khamenei’s representative. 

9. Fuel carriers gathered in Tehran in protest of the monopoly on the distribution of fuel to the regime's dependent companies in front of the regime's oil ministry. 

10. Workers of the Gorgan municipality's outbound and underground projects gathered to receive months of unpaid salaries at the Gorgan City Council. 

11. Ghaemshahr textile workers continue to protest because they did not get paid for three months of salary. 

12. The workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, on the twenty-second day of their protest, chanted in front of the Tehran City Council: Mayor, be ashamed, think about us! the workers are awake, they hate thefts; one less embezzlement, our problem will be resolved. 

13. Workers at the Hafez Tile factory in Zarqan in Fars province, called for payment of their several months’ unpaid salary by gathering in front of the factory. 

14. The merchants and shopkeepers in Jolfa objected to not releasing their goods and causing damage to them in the office of the Assistant Economic Directorate of Aras. On the eve of Nowruz they are deprived of being with their families due to poverty and can not provide for their livelihoods. 

15. Those who were approved by the Ilam Agriculture Supervisory Board and have completed all legal procedures for recruitment, gathered in front of the governorate of the city due to the failure to recruit them and their deteriorating livelihoods. 

16. A group of looted people at the Vali Asr Institute in Nasim Shahr, Tehran province, demanded that their deposits be returned. 

17. Merchants of the city of Daran in Isfahan Province gathered to protest the economic turmoil. 

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran 

March 6, 2018 

UN-GENEVA- Speech on Human Rights in Iran by Struan Stevenson

In Iran, the mullahs’ policy of velayat-e faqih, or absolute clerical rule, allows them to justify every horror, every medieval torture, and every public execution

Can I thank you very much for inviting me here today and for giving me the opportunity to speak about the human rights situation in Iran and the nationwide protests and uprising earlier this year.

In Iran, the mullahs’ policy of velayat-e faqih, or absolute clerical rule, allows them to justify every horror, every medieval torture, every public execution, every act of terror, as the ‘will of God.’ For 39 years, since the Iranian revolution handed power to Ayatollah Khomeini, the clerical regime has ruled Iran with an iron fist, suppressing freedom and justice, abusing human rights and women’s rights and exporting terror.
On the 28th of December last year, Iran’s restless citizens finally signalled that they had had enough. The uprising, which began in the holy city of Mashhad, was initially sparked by protests against spiralling living costs, rising unemployment and increasing poverty. It quickly escalated into an angry confrontation with the government, spreading like wildfire to the capital Tehran and to some 140 cities across the country.
Demonstrators chanting: “Death to Khamenei”, “Death to Rouhani”, “Reformists, hardliners, it is game over now,” “Death to the Islamic Republic” and “Shame on you, mullahs,” have shown that this is an uprising against the regime itself. Their chants of: “No Gaza, No Lebanon, My Life for Iran ‘Death to Hezbollah” and “Leave Syria alone, think about us instead” have shown that they are sick of their wealth being looted to fund proxy wars and terrorists throughout the Middle East.
Top officials of the regime, including the Supreme Leader Khamenei himself, have admitted the role of the main opposition, PMOI, in leading and helping to spread the uprising.
Rouhani also called President Macron to take action against the PMOI, who have their headquarters in Paris. Such remarks and confessions are indicative of the regime’s deepening concern at the growing role of the PMOI, who have rightly said that there is no prospect of reform within the Islamic Republic and that the only solution is complete regime change.
Iran is the most repressive country in the Middle East. It executes more people, per capita, than any other country in the world. 90% of all executions in the Middle East are carried out in Iran. More than half the population of 80 million is under 30. Around a quarter of young people are jobless, more in some harder-hit regions. Yet Iran is one of the most pro-Western countries in the Middle East. But they are ruled by a clique of elderly, bearded, misogynistic, homophobic and deeply corrupt mullahs, who have drained the country’s rich oil resources to featherbed their own lavish lifestyles and to fund their policy of aggressive revolutionary expansionism.
Of course the mullahs reacted to the uprising in their usual, time-honoured fashion, sending in the regime’s Gestapo, the IRGC, who gunned down dozens in the streets and arrested over 8,000 protesters, 13 of whom have so far been tortured to death in prison. In blind panic, the regime severed connections with Instagram and Telegram, to stop the protesters using social media to spread their message of dissent. The IRGC even created apps such as Mobogram, an unofficial Telegram fork and used malware embedded in the app to spy on, identify, threaten and eventually arrest the protesters who used Mobogram during the uprising.
The malicious codes are undetected by the mobile users. If Mobogram is installed by an administrator of a Telegram channel on his or her phone, the hidden code allows the IRGC to gain full access to the entire list of that channel’s subscribers. Thousands of arrests have been triggered based on this malicious form of cyberwarfare. But the brutal crackdown has only served to deepen public hatred of the regime and to harden resolve for its ultimate overthrow.
On February 8th 2018, the regime announced the death by suicide in prison of a prominent and respected environmentalist, Dr Kavous Seyed Emami, who had been arrested on 24th January.
I do not see any way in which the current Iranian regime can survive. Millions of Iranians now live in poverty. There is rising inflation and massive unemployment, particularly amongst the young. Yet Tehran continues to pour billions into propping up Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the brutal Shi’ia militias in Iraq, the ruthless Houthi rebels in Yemen and the terrorist Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Iranian people are no longer prepared to stand aside as the mullahs plunder their national wealth and turn Iran into a pariah state. The latest uprising has revealed the emergence of a courageous new force from within the heart of Iran’s long-suffering cities; a new force, prepared to struggle for their rights and to fight for freedom and equality. This new force has, I believe, the capability of overthrowing the theocratic regime.

The EU’s High Representative for Foreign affairs – Federica Mogherini – has been a leading appeaser of the mullahs, often visiting Tehran to pay homage to the theocratic dictatorship. She has always remained silent on the question of human rights and the repression of women, however. It took her 5 days to issue a statement about the uprising, which was not even critical of the regime and as such was counter productive.
Mogherini has successfully peddled the idea that is widely accepted in the West that Rouhani is some sort of moderate; a reformist, despite the fact that around 3,500 people, including 80 women, have been executed during his first four years in office. 700 people were executed last year alone, including women and teenagers.
The EU should understand the true nature of the so-called justice system in Iran, where the current Justice Minister – Alireza Avaie - has been listed on EU and UK terrorist lists since 2011 for human rights violations. Indeed Avaie, only appointed in July last year as Justice Minister by Rouhani, is notorious for his well known role as public prosecutor in the city of Dezful in Iran’s Khuzestan Province in the late 1980’s, where he was personally responsible for ordering the hanging of countless political prisoners, including many teenagers and students, for alleged opposition to the oppressive rule of the mullahs.
These hangings were an orchestrated part of the massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988, in one of the worst atrocities since the Second World War, a crime against humanity now being actively investigated by the UN. It was shameful to allow this criminal to address the UN Human Rights Council last week.

As the arrests and violent repression continue, the international community must not remain silent. The United Nations Security Council must adopt punitive measures against the regime. They must hold to account the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre. Many of these murderers are still in positions of power in Iran today. The international community must demand the release of the thousands of protesters arrested during the recent uprising and issue strong warnings against any torture or execution of these prisoners.

I call on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mr Zeid al-Hussein and the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, together with other relevant special rapporteurs in the UN to speak out strongly and publicly against the torture and killing under torture of the detainees in Iran. The UN must raise its voice against human rights violations in Iran and put maximum pressure on the Iranian regime to release these detainees. 
Thank you.

STRUAN STEVENSON
Coordinator
Campaign for Iran Change (CIC)
Struan Stevenson was a member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999-2014), president of the Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009-14) and chairman of Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (2004-14). He is an international lecturer on the Middle East and is also president of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA)

 

French minister in Iran to reaffirm nuclear deal but set out concerns on missiles

French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean Yves Le Drian arrives at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, January 5, 2018

France’s foreign minister visited Iran on Monday on a delicate mission to reaffirm Europe’s support for a nuclear deal that opened Iran’s economy, while echoing U.S. concern about Tehran’s missile program and role in regional conflicts.
Jean-Yves Le Drian’s visit reflected French efforts to safeguard Iran’s 2015 accord with major powers. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to pull out unless three European signatories help “fix” the deal by forcing Iran to limit its sway in the Middle East and rein in its missile program.
Iran’s clerical rulers believe that even if it were to do so, as called for by Western leaders, the United States is bent on “regime change” in the Islamic Republic and therefore any concessions would be futile.
After a day of tough talks with senior Iranian officials, who all repeated that Tehran would not bow to Western pressure to scrap its ballistic missile tests, Le Drian said there remained“much work to do” with Iran.
“We’re not going to be Donald Trump’s envoys or Iran’s defense lawyers,” said a French diplomatic source. “We have our own concerns and will talk to the different sensibilities of the Iranian system to get our point across.”
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, which answers only to its ultimate political authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, runs the missile program.
Earlier, the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted an Iranian armed forces spokesman as saying Iran’s missile development would “continue non-stop and foreign powers have no right to intervene on this issue”.
Hardline Iranian media reacted angrily to Le Drian’s visit with headlines like“The Rude Guest” and“Weapons of mass seduction”. Fars news agency said a group of hardliners gathered at Tehran’s International Mehrabad Airport and in front of Iran’s Foreign Ministry to protest at Le Drian’s visit.
The deal with France, Britain, Germany, Russia, China and the United States gave Iran relief from economic sanctions in return for curbs on its disputed nuclear activity, allowing Tehran to talk trade with Europe for the first time in years.

ECONOMIC BENEFITS SLOW TO ARRIVE

But so far the deal, pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani ’s headline achievement, has yet to deliver the economic benefits many Iranians yearn for. That has impeded efforts by Rouhani efforts to engage with the West, an approach opposed by hardline allies of Khamenei in the clerical and security establishment.
In an effort to keep him on board, French President Emmanuel Macron has criticised Iran’s missile program and raised the possibility of new sanctions. On the eve of Le Drian’s visit, Macron told Rouhani by phone that France expects Iran to make a“constructive contribution” to solving crises in the region.
Tehran supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against rebels, including groups backed by the West, and also backs Israel’s enemy Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“France will continue discussions with Iran...but must find a way to restore stability in the region,” Le Drian told reporters, adding that Iranian leaders voiced extreme concern over Syria’s humanitarian disaster after seven years of war.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Le Drian that the European signatories of the nuclear deal “should play a more active role to keep the accord alive.
“Supporting the accord verbally is not enough ... If the EU is trying to salvage the accord..., they should try to keep Iran, not the U.S., in the accord,” he said, state TV reported.
Le Drian also met with Rouhani, who told the French minister that Tehran would not be the first to violate the nuclear accord, according to state television.
France says Iran has been committed to the terms of the deal, but argues that Tehran may be violating part of the U.N. resolution enshrining the accord. The resolution calls on Tehran to refrain from work on missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads, although this is not in the accord itself.
“On the ballistics, the Iranian program is not compatible with (the resolution) and we have a particular concern on the transfer of know-how of ballistic capacity to regional actors, and by that we mean Hezbollah,” the diplomatic source said.

EU delegation briefed about Iran’s subversive role in Bahrain

A European Parliament delegation visited an Interior Ministry’s exhibition

 A European Parliament delegation visited an Interior Ministry’s exhibition showcasing samples of the weapons and explosives which were used in terrorist operations targeting policemen. Public Security chief Major-General Tariq bin Hassan Al Hassan briefed the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) led by its vice-chairman Van Olden on the types of arms and bombs used by terrorists.

Iran Uprising: Call for Regime Change, U.S. Policy Options

Rudy Giuliani at OIAC Iran Policy Briefing

Mayor Giuliani: MEK always sought democracy, freedom, rights for women, rights for everyone, and a nonnuclear, peaceful Iran

The uprisings [in Iran] were obviously not sporadic. They were very well organized… in every major city in Iran … and then continuing on to today”

 Rudy Giuliani

WASHINGTON, DC, USA, March 5, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Washington, DC; March 1, 2018 - At a National Press Club luncheon titled, “Iran Uprising: Call for Regime Change, U.S. Policy Options,” the fourth in a series of OIAC-sponsored forums on Iran policy, former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani urged the U.S. Government and the international community to impose further sanctions on the clerical regime and do more to stand with the Iranian people in their efforts to change the regime and bring freedom and democracy to Iran.
Ambassador Lincoln Bloomfield Jr., Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs during the Bush Administration, moderated the event.
Mayor Giuliani praised the Iranian people for their uprising and the U.S. administration for supporting the protesters, adding, “I am very, very glad that at the very outset back in December, … President’s public support of anti-regime protesters, which riveted 142 cities in Iran, really basically changed American foreign policy.”
“The uprisings [in Iran] were obviously not sporadic. They were very well organized… in every major city in Iran … and then continuing on to today,” Mr. Giuliani said.

When asked about the street slogans of “reformers, hardliners—the game is now over,” Giuliani said, “The whole notion of reformers inside Iran… those are the people you see on the street. They’re not sitting in government offices.”
In regards to the organized opposition, Mr. Giuliani added, “the MEK [Mujahedin-e Khalq organization] is a significant movement in Iran…. There is no organization as comprehensive as the MEK or with the both internal and … foreign support… It should be clear at the outset that the MEK is not interested in dominating alone the politics in Iran…. it’s always been an organization seeking democracy, freedom, rights for women, rights for everyone, and a nonnuclear, peaceful Iran.”
Dismissing the concerns about a post-theocracy Iran, Mr. Giuliani said, “We have a great alternative in Madame [Maryam] Rajavi… We have a woman who’s proven herself, we have a woman that beyond anyone is popular inside Iran… extraordinarily popular … She’s in favor of freedom, economic democracy, the rights of women.”
He urged the U.S. government to, make sure Iranian people have “open access to the Internet without interference,” and called for added sanctions. “We should make sure that particularly access to banking is cut off,” he said.
Dr. Majid Sadeghpour
Organization of Iranian American Communities-US (OIAC)

Rudy Giuliani at OIAC Iran Policy Briefing

Iran: A Detained Protester Killed Under Torture

Ghobad Azami, from Javanroud (Kermanshah province)

 Iran Uprising - 100

Iranian regime’s henchmen Killed Ghobad Azami, under torture, he was from Javanroud (Kermanshah province), and was arrested on February 28th. The mullahs’ intelligence service shockingly informed his family two days after his arrest, on March 2, that he had committed suicide with poison. Such absurd and blatant claims do not deceive anyone, and only inflames the anger and hatred of the Iranian people towards the regime and increases their will to overthrow this regime.

With the martyrdom of Ghobad Azami, the number of political prisoners who have been martyred under torture reached at least 14 people.

While expressing its condolences for the martyrdom of Ghobad Azami, the Iranian Resistance calls on all the Iranian people, especially the brave youth of Javanrood and Kermanshah province, to protest this terrible crime, and emphasizing that torture is a clear indication of crime against humanity, it asks the Secretary-General, the United Nations Security Council and all international human rights organizations to strongly condemn the mullahs’ regime for the systematic killing of prisoners under torture, and to take urgent action to stop these horrific crimes. Silence and inactivity against the murder of at least 14 political prisoners under torture, within two months, only encourages the religious fascism ruling Iran to continue its crime against humanity.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran

Fighting shakes Syria enclave after regime advances

Smoke billows following Syrian government bombardments in the Eastern Ghouta region on March 3, 2018

 Fighting rocked Syria's Eastern Ghouta on Sunday as rebels battled to retake territory seized in a devastating regime assault on the last major opposition enclave near Damascus.

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad launched the assault earlier this month with waves of air strikes, artillery fire and rocket attacks that are reported to have left more than 640 civilians dead.

Under growing international pressure to end the bloodshed, regime backer Russia last week announced daily five-hour 'humanitarian pauses' in the enclave. But while the air campaign has eased, fighting has intensified on the ground.

Regime forces engaged in clashes with rebels in the eastern area of the enclave on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, after advances in recent days that saw the regime seize control of 10 percent of the region.

Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Observatory, said at least 12 regime fighters had been killed in two areas, Al-Rihan and Shifoniya, in overnight clashes with the Jaish al-Islam rebel group.

Hamza Bayraqdar, a spokesman for Jaish al-Islam, said on Twitter that the group's forces had launched 'surprise attacks' against regime positions.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground to monitor Syria's civil war, said rebels had retaken some parts of Shifoniya.

- Hundreds flee -

An AFP correspondent inside Eastern Ghouta saw hundreds of civilians on Sunday fleeing from the town of Beit Sawa in the southeast of the enclave.

The Observatory said some 2,000 civilians had fled regime shelling and clashes in eastern parts of the enclave.

On Saturday, 18 civilians, including 3 children, were killed in regime bombardment of Eastern Ghouta, according to the Observatory.

At least 76 pro-regime fighters and 43 rebels from Jaish al-Islam have also been killed in clashes since February 25, it says.

Encircled by regime-controlled territory and unable or unwilling to flee, Eastern Ghouta's 400,000 residents have in recent weeks suffered one of the most ferocious assaults of Syria's civil war.

Under siege since 2013, they had already been facing severe shortages of food and medicine. The region's over-burdened medical workers have been struggling to cope with the rising number of wounded.

While falling short of a 30-day ceasefire demanded by the United Nations , the announcement of daily humanitarian pauses in fighting had raised hopes of some aid deliveries and evacuations.

But trucks loaded with aid have so far been unable to enter the enclave, according to the UN.

Moscow has offered safe passage to non-combatants wishing to leave the enclave during the pause, but no Syrian civilians have left since the first break in fighting took effect on Tuesday, the Observatory says.

The Russian military said in a statement that no civilians exited via the established corridor on Saturday.

- 'Simply unacceptable' - 

French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed 'grave concern' about the humanitarian situation in the area in a telephone conversation late Saturday.

'The UN convoys must immediately deliver medical assistance and food aid to the besieged population,' the French presidency said.

Macron was set to speak by telephone Sunday with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, another key supporter of the Syrian regime.

The UN's regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, Panos Moumtzis, sounded the alarm on Sunday over the increase in violence.

'Instead of a much-needed reprieve, we continue to see more fighting, more death, and more disturbing reports of hunger and hospitals being bombed,' he said in a statement.

'This collective punishment of civilians is simply unacceptable.'

As Syria's conflict approaches its seventh anniversary, Assad's forces, heavily backed by Russia, have retaken most of the territory once lost to rebels.