IRAN:How hypocritical the trip to Tehran is from the perspective of a dissident

How hypocritical the trip to Tehran is from the perspective of a dissident

The parade of Western leaders, with their shared weaknesses.

The young Zanjani speaks: “The mullahs haven’t changed”

Il Foglio - April 14, 2016

By Cynthia Martens

Paris. Elham Zanjani has never been to Iran. Her parents left their home country in the 70s, and she was born in Montreal in 1978 and raised in Toronto. Though Zanjani speaks fondly of Canada, as a young girl she was troubled by the knowledge that far away, cousins whom she had never met were living a totally different sort of life.

“You always have in the back of your mind,” she says in an interview with Il Foglio. “How is it possible that I could grow up in a place where I could do sports, I could swim, I could think freely, go to the mall, listen to music, eat what I want and start building the future that I want – but my cousins, the same age as I was, didn’t have the same rights,” she says, noting that the girls had to wear full black chadors. Contact with loved ones in Iran was limited, due to the regime’s aggressive monitoring of phone calls.

The scar of Camp Ashraf

Zanjani’s concern for her relatives eventually blossomed into a desire to work with the Iranian resistance. As a college student in Canada, she was interested in physiotherapy, but instead of finishing her studies, left everything for Camp Ashraf, a city in Iraq near the border with Iran that was home to many political refugees and former prisoners of the Iranian regime. Though she initially expected her stay to be brief, Zanjani stayed for well over a decade, working at the local hospital and putting her language skills – in addition to English, she speaks French, Farsi and a bit of Arabic – to use as an interpreter.

“I got to improve my Farsi, and got to really understand my background much more,” she recalls.

A relatively peaceful life in Ashraf took a turn for the worse after U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq, and residents of the camp experienced several attacks from Iraqi forces guided by a prime minister, al-Maliki, who was sympathetic to the Iranian regime. Zanjani was directly hit by a grenade. Getting proper care for her extensive arm and leg injuries was complicated, and Zanjani eventually returned to Canada, where she recovered.

NCRI’s Shahin Gobadi comments on Jordan’s decision to recall Iran envoy

Shahin-Gobadi

NCRI - Following the Jordanian government's decision to recall its envoy to Iran, Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) made the following remarks:

“We welcome the decision of the Jordanian government to recall its ambassador from Iran. It is time for all countries in the region to sever all ties to the clerical regime, which is the godfather of export of Islamic extremism and terrorism.

Syrians show their resentment for Iran regime’s support for Assad

Syrians show their resentment for Iran regime’s support for Assad

NCRI - Residents of the Syrian towns of Kafr Zita and al-Lataminah, north-west of Hama, have contributed to an online campaign over the weekend exposing and condemning the Iranian regime's support for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in the massacre of the people of Syria.

Syrians of all ages have held placards in particular pointing out that the Iranian regime’s meddling in Syria has increased since Hassan Rouhani took office as President in 2013. Many of the placards had messages directed at the European Union’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini who visited Iran over the weekend to hold trade discussions with the mullahs’ regime. Some also criticized Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi for meeting with the Iranian regime’s officials in Tehran last week.

Mogherini’s trip was condemned by Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

Some of the banners from Hama, Kafr Zita and al-Lataminah read:

#No2Rouhani Dear Federica Mogherini: These diplomatic visits mean that you do agree on Iran interferences in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen. Do you??! - Syria – Keferzaita

Since Rouhani came to office their interferences in Syria have increased. #No2Rouhani - Kefer Zaita - Syria

He [Rouhani] is responsible for all the crimes committed by the Iranian regime in Syria during past 2 years. Kefer Zaita - Syria

Rep. Ed Royce: People of Iran are disenfranchised by the mullahs’ regime.

Rep. Ed Royce: People of Iran are disenfranchised by the mullahs’ regime.

NCRI - U.S. Congressman Ed Royce (R-CA), Chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, on Thursday addressed the threats posed by the mullahs' regime in Iran during a strategic conversation on U.S. foreign policy at the Stimson Center.

Rep. Royce took part in the forum event with Ambassador Lincoln P. Bloomfield Jr., a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs and current Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Stimson Center.

Rep. Royce said that the people of Iran are being “disenfranchised” by the mullahs’ regime.

He rejected the outcome of the regime’s sham Parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections in February, pointing out that candidates that were not loyal enough to the regime’s Supreme Leader Militarywere automatically disqualified.

"The election was in fact between the hardliners in Iran and the very hardliners in Iran. At the end of the day every one of those candidates was picked by the ayatollah," he said.

U.S. policy towards the Iranian regime has not succeeded in changing Khamenei’s attitude, he said.

“If we look at the number of people put to death and the political prisoners in Iran last year, it was much higher than the year before. It is a number which is going up.”

Iraqi merchants wishing to purchase residents’ property are barred from Camp Liberty

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran

A blatant hampering of the resettlement

The Governmental Committee tasked to suppress Camp Liberty residents headed by Faleh Fayyad prevented two groups of Iraqi merchants who wanted to purchase residents’ property from entering Camp Liberty on Thursday, April 14, 2016. Similarly, on the previous day, two other merchants who had come to purchase the property were turned back at the entrance to the airport area

This inimical behavior is being implemented despite the fact that the sale of the property in Liberty is one of the requisites for the transfer of residents out of Iraq. The Government of Iraq had already declared its consent with the sale of residents’ property. Residents wish to sell their property to provide for part of their resettlement expenses. It seems that in addition to imposing pressures on and psychological torture against residents, another objective of the suppression committee in preventing the sale of the property is to repeat a scenario of systematic plundering and stealing of the PMOI property that it has already executed in Camp Ashraf.

IRAN: Exclusive: Women in Iran face dual discriminations

 

#Iran Exclusive: #women in Iran face dual discriminations

#Iran Exclusive: #women in Iran face dual discriminations

Women in Iran carry the burden of a dual discrimination. Both the judicial system in the country and the strict interpretation of Sharia laws by the fundamentalist mullahs have been combined to ignore the basic human rights of women in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Not only the discrimination against women in Iran is legalized, but also institutionalized. Although one could argue that women’s rights are violated in many countries, and that women are suppressed in many Muslim countries under the “sharia law”, but Iran remains unique as its crackdown is embedded in the constitution, and civil and administrative laws.

British MPs urge EU’s Mogherini to cancel Iran visit amid execution spree

British MPs urge EU’s Mogherini to cancel Iran visit amid execution spree

NCRI - The following is the text of a press release by the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom calling on European Union foreign policy chief, Ms. Federica Mogherini, to cancel her upcoming visit to Tehran in light of the appalling human rights record of the mullahs' regime:

Press Release: British MPs urge EU Foreign policy chief to cancel Iran visit amid execution spree

The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom (BPCIF) regrets the decision by EU Foreign policy chief, Ms Federica Mogherini, to visit Iran on April 16, 2016.

The planned visit to Iran by Europe’s most senior official on foreign affairs and similar travel by other European state officials is highly inappropriate considering the regime's domestic repression and destructive policies abroad.

During the “moderate” administration of Hassan Rouhani, nearly 1000 people were executed in Iran last year alone, including juveniles in violation of international law. At least 47 journalists and social media activists were reportedly detained in the country as of January 2016, according to reports by the UN Special rapporteur for Iran and Amnesty international.

This is in addition to Tehran's destabilising actions and support for terrorist groups in the region as well as pressing ahead with its missile programme in clear defiance of the international community and regional concerns.

The EU should not allow itself to be deceived by Rouhani's charm offensive and his unfulfilled promises of “moderation” and instead pay close attention to the bellicose rhetoric coming out of Tehran. The Iranian Supreme Leader, who holds the ultimate power in the country, declared recently that “missiles, not talks, are key to the regime's future” emphasising that “Those who say the future is in negotiations, not in missiles, are either ignorant or traitors.”