IRAN : Lamentable: Iranian FM invited to Oslo Forum to share experiences of peacemaking

June 13, Oslo: On Tuesday (14 June 2016) around 100 prominent mediators of armed conflict and peace process actors will be welcomed in Oslo by Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Børge Brende. Included amongst the participants invited to share their experiences of peacemaking will be Iranian Foreign Minister Mr. Javad Zarif at this year’s 2016 Oslo Forum. Yesterday evening former Norwegian MP Mr. Lars Rise for his reaction on hearing that the Iranian FM is speaking at this year’s Oslo Forum. And we suggested that surely having open dialogue with these perpetrators of war crimes is better than to freeze them out of discussions? - See more at: http://www.theoslotimes.com/article/lamentable:-iranian-fm-invited-to-oslo-forum-to-share-experiences-of-peacemaking#sthash.Rj7DsKQz.dpuf

Lamentable: Iranian FM invited to Oslo Forum to share experiences of peacemaking

Iran regime purchases $8 billion worth of weapons from Russia in violation of UN resolutions

Iran regime purchases $8 billion worth of weapons from Russia in violation of UN resolutions

The Iranian regime’s defense minister who had been involved in hostage taking and terrorism is visiting Moscow for talks about closer military cooperation.

Officials in Iran announced Monday that the regime in Tehran would spend another $8 billion on the purchase of Russian arms.

The Iranian regime has already handed Moscow a shopping list and the visit by Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan should speed up a number of key arms deals, RT reported.

"Iran would like to buy Russia's latest S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile system, developed by Almaz-Antey. And they make no secret of it. On the eve of his visit to Moscow Dehghan openly said to Iranian media they want to purchase the S-400s," the report said quoting sources of the business daily Kommersant.

Days after a preliminary nuclear agreement between the Iranian regime and six world powers, the United Nations adopted a resolution on July 20 forbidding Iran’s regime from purchasing conventional arms for the next five years.

Trip by mullahs’ foreign minister to London and participation in Syria conference will only intensify the Syrian crisis

National Council of Resistance of Iran

The Iranian Resistance strongly condemns the trip by the foreign minister of the religious fascism ruling Iran to the UK and his participation in the Syria Donors Conference scheduled for February 4. The Iranian Resistance calls for cancelation of Zarif’s invitation and participation in the conference.

The clerical regime ruling Iran and its crimes in Syria are the primary problem in that country and throughout the Middle East. Seeking the engagement of the Iranian regime in solving the Syrian crisis is as legitimate and as rational as asking an 'arsonist to put out the fire'.

The clerical regime has been the main reason for Bashar Assad’s survival and continuation of the massacre of the Syrian people. It has dispatched more than 5000 commanders and rank and file of the IRGC and tens of thousands of its foreign mercenaries including those from Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and it has provided complete logistical and military support to Assad's regime. The Iranian regime has spent tens of billions of dollars of the Iranian people’s wealth in order to maintain Assad in power. The most senior officials of the clerical regime have reiterated on numerous occasions that without their direct and full-fledged support, the Assad regime would have been overthrown on a number of occasions. The Iranian regime’s officials have explicitly described Syria as one of “Iran's provinces” that has to be fought for vigorously. The downfall of Bashar Assad would be a devastating blow to the clerical regime. Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian regime’s president, during his European tour last week, once again reiterated the need to support Assad.

Iran regime plans to forcibly turn Tehran church grounds into mosque

church-iran

Authorities in Tehran are planning to transform illegally-confiscated church grounds into an ‘Islamic prayer center.’

The land belonging to the Iranian Assyrian community’s Chaldean Catholic Church in Tehran’s Patrice Lumumba Street (in Western Tehran) was illegally confiscated two years ago under the pretext of constructing an Islamic prayer hall and the authorities have refused to hand it back, a member of the regime's Majlis (Parliament) was quoted as saying by the state-run newspaper Sharq on Wednesday, December 30.

Repeated complaints about the illegal confiscation of the church grounds have fallen on deaf ears despite repeated pleas by the representatives of the Christian minority, said Jonathan Bet-Kelia, a member of the regime’s Majlis.

Bet-Kelia told Sharq that he had approached Ali Younesi, special assistant to the regime's President Hassan Rouhani on ethnic minorities affairs, on this matter but was told that nothing could be done about it. Younesi is a former Minister of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and is personally responsible for ordering numerous arrests and assassinations of dissidents.

Commenting on the regime's admission that it had usurped church grounds to build its own prayer hall, Ali Safavi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said: “The brazen admission displays first and foremost the discriminatory and sectarian policies of the regime vis-à-vis Iran’s religious minorities. At the same time, it speaks to the failure of Western policy to accommodate the regime in the futile hope that it will promote moderation and tolerance on the domestic front.”

Fmr Jordanian ambassador to Iran condemns missile attack on Camp Liberty

Dr. Bassam al-Omoush, a former Jordanian minister 

Dr. Bassam al-Omoush, a former Jordanian minister of administrative development and former Ambassador to Tehran, has called for Iraq’s National Security Advisor Faleh Fayyad to be replaced and international protection be provided to members of the main Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK) in Camp Liberty in Iraq.

Dr. al-Omoush issued a statement regarding the October 29 missile attack on Camp Liberty and reminded the international community of its responsibility to secure the wellbeing and protection of the camp’s residents.

Excerpts of his statement:

On October 29, 2015, a deadly attack on Camp Liberty by elements of Iranian regime in the government and security forces of Iraq led to hundreds of casualties among the camp’s residents, including 24 dead, and the destruction of large sections of the camp. Located in one of the most protected areas of Baghdad and near the Baghdad International Airport and place of deployment of U.S. forces, this attack on the camp would have been impossible without the collaboration of part of the Iraqi state and security apparatuses.

A year and a half after the removal of Nuri Maliki from power in Iraq, the file of Camp Liberty remains in the hands of Faleh Fayyad, a well-known element of the Iranian regime who has been directly involved in the massacres of the residents over the past seven years.

Despite many international calls, the government of Iraq continues to dodge its responsibilities in protecting the camp and has not initiated any investigations into the October 29 massacre.

Moreover, Iraqi forces are barring attempts to normalize the conditions in the camp devastated by the missile attack and are also hampering delivery of food, fuel and basic needs to the residents.

We are thus calling on our own government, the United Nations, the U.S. government and the European Union to compel the government of Iraq to live up to its commitments to the residents, and in particular:

1. Camp Liberty should be designated a refugee camp under UNHCR supervision to ensure residents’ security by the UN.

2. Immediate needs of Camp Liberty should be provided following the missile attack to normalize the condition of the camp.

3. Camp Liberty’s file should be removed from the hands of Faleh Fayyad, and those managing the camp ought to be replaced with individuals not associated with the Iranian regime.

4. The residents should be allowed to sell their property in [Camp] Ashraf or be reimbursed for it to be able to provide for their expenses.

In a case of RETRIBUTION IN KIND in Iran, the life of a prisoner was spared at the last minute before being hanged by a couple whose son was murdered by him

In a case of RETRIBUTION IN KIND in Iran, the life

The National Observer, Dec. 18, 2015 – Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Dion joined the United Nations in calling on Iran to improve its human rights record in a resolution passed by the General Assembly.

The UN resolution expressed “serious concern” at Iran’s high and increasing use of the death penalty without respect for any international safeguards, which resulted in the execution of 694 prisoners between Jan. 1 and Sept. 15 of this year. In addition, the resolution called on Tehran to ensure that prisoners received a fair trial with proper legal counsel and were not subjected to torture or other forms of harsh punishments such as sexual violence for forced confession.

“The text of the resolution reflects both the areas where human rights violations continue and those areas where Iran is taking steps to improve the human rights situation,” said Dion.

According to the United States Institute of Peace, Iranian authorities executed 753 people in 2014, noting that executions carried out by the Islamic Republic “have been rising at an exponential rate since 2005.”

Under Iranian law, a wide range of offences carry the death penalty, including murder, drug trafficking, political opposition, espionage, blasphemy or apostasy, adultery, and homosexual acts.

The most common method of execution in Iran is hanging, which is often carried out in public at the scene of a prisoner’s supposed crime. Other methods of execution include stoning to death, shooting and pushing the victim over from a height. Shooting the victim is no longer commonly employed, but in the immediate aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, thousands of prisoners were shot dead by revolutionary firing squads. There have also been a few cases of prisoners being thrown from cliffs in years past.

“Canada and the international community remain deeply concerned about Iran’s human rights record. We call on the government of Iran to implement its human rights obligations to ensure the full enjoyment of human rights for all people in Iran,” said Dion.

In addition to executions, the UN resolution condemned the Islamic Republic’s ongoing persecution of ethnic and religious minorities. It also noted that Tehran continues to restrict freedoms of expression, assembly and association by harassing, prosecuting, and detaining anyone deemed to be an opponent of the Islamic regime.

“Canada will continue to speak out about issues of concern such as human rights violations or Tehran’s regional policies,” Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Rachna Mishra said.

Under Stephen Harper’s former Conservative government, Ottawa severed diplomatic relations with Tehran in 2012 and declared Iran to be a state sponsor of terrorism. This policy remained in place even as Iran negotiated with the Americans and Europeans to resolve its nuclear crisis.

Ex-Argentine FM admits Iran regime blew up Jewish center

AMIA-community-center

Argentine journalist Daniel Santoro on Friday revealed two recordings in which former Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman is heard admitting that Iran's regime “planted the bombs” that demolished the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994.

Timerman was speaking with the president of the local Jewish community Guillermo Burger in 2012, when negotiations with Iran's regime over its responsibility for the terrorist act had just begun.

Santoro said that during the conversation, revealed in Santoro’s new book 'Nisman Must Die', “Timerman pressured members of the AMIA not to release a statement at the start of negotiations with Iran.”

The negotiation was a very dramatic event, Santoro explained, because then President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was officially committed to a policy of “we don’t negotiate with terrorists.”

 “And here’s Timerman, in a conversation, saying he is convinced that it was the Iranians who planted the bomb,” said Santoro, adding, “Imagine the irony—so he applied pressure on the Jewish community, in both recordings,” not to mention his words in public, suggesting it would render the talks with the Iranians ineffective. At one point on the tape, after Burger argued that Iran's regime is not a reliable partner in negotiations, Timerman explodes, “Who do you think we’re negotiating with, Switzerland?”

Argentina’s new Justice Minister Germán Garavano has already announced that he would not appeal a court decision to annul an agreement with Iran's regime which absolved Tehran of responsibility for the AMIA atrocity that killed 85 and left 330 wounded.

Garavano serves in the cabinet of the new president of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, who took office two weeks ago.

A woman appointed as Commonwealth secretary-general

Baroness Patricia Scotland

BaronessPatricia Scotland, the first woman to be appointed Commonwealth secretary-general, says she will "put the women's agenda very strongly on the table".

Commonwealth leaders meeting in Malta chose Scotland on Friday, November 27, 2015, after a fraught and extended meeting to choose between three candidates.

She is to take over from Kamalesh Sharma, who has served in the role for eight years.

Scotland, a lawyer who has dual British and Dominican citizenship, served as minister of state, deputy home secretary and attorney-general under the previous Labour government in the UK.

She was the first black woman to be appointed as a Queen's Counsel in the UK and at the age of 35, was also the youngest woman.

After Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced her appointment to reporters, she said she was "incredibly proud" to be the first woman to hold the post.

Every minute 5 more people in Iran join army of unemployed

iranian-young

Every minute five more people in Iran join the sea of unemployed people in the country, according to the state-run Resalat daily.

The paper wrote on October 25 that Ali Rabei, Hassan Rouhani’s Minister of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, who was speaking to a gathering of representatives of unions in Iran’s Zanjan Province, said: “Currently, it is such that every minute five more are added to the army of unemployed and there is a need now for the creation of 800,000 new jobs every year.

Iran: As schools get ready to open, many teachers still linger in prison

rasoul-bodagh

The arbitrary resentencing of imprisoned teacher Rasoul Bodaqi in mullahs’ shamcourt to 3 more years in prison

As the schools are about to open, a large number of teachers in the country continue to linger in prison, including Messrs Mahmoud Beheshti Langeroudi, Mehdi Bohlouli and Reza Neiknejad who are recently arrested, as well as Messrs Rasoul Bodaqi, Esmail Abdi, Ali-Akbar Baghbani, Alireza Hashemi and Abdolreza Qanbari who were already in prison. This is while Ali-Asghar Fani, Rouhani’s Education Minister, deceptively expressed hope on September 15 that the imprisoned teachers would be released before September 23, the day that schools open.

The prison term for political prisoner Mr. Rasoul Bodaqi, the noble teacher that has been in prison for six years for defending teachers' rights, ended on August 4, 2015, but the Iranian regime refuses to free him and in an arbitrary and sham trial condemned him to another three years in prison .

Iran - members in Camp Liberty face humanitarian crisis

Camp Liberty: Preventing necessary surgery of 8 ill asylum seekers

 At the behest of the Iranian regime, the committee tasked with suppressing Camp Liberty residents led by Faleh Fayyaz in the Iraqi Prime Minister’s Office has intensified its suppressive policies and inhumane restrictions against Camp Liberty residents.

                                                         

 inCamp Liberty face humanitarian crisis