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]]>Iran’s theocracy is at the weakest point of its four-decade history and facing unprecedented challenges from a courageous citizenry hungry for freedom, Iranian dissidents and prominent U.S. and European politicians said Friday at a major international rally calling for the downfall of the dictatorship in Tehran.
The annual “Free Iran Global Summit,” held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, brought together Iranian resistance groups and their allies around the world behind the common cause of pushing to replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime with a nonviolent democracy.
The summit — organized and hosted by the multinational umbrella organization the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and its associate group, the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) — was something of a technical marvel, uniting via Zoom tens of thousands of participants from 102 countries and 30,000 separate locations around the world.
Some Iranian resistance activists were even broadcasting into the summit from inside Iran at tremendous risk to their own safety, given the Khamenie regime’s history of violently cracking down on internal opposition.
Behind the logistical triumph was a simple message from the NCRI organizers that Iran’s clerics and terrorist sympathizers are living on borrowed time, facing unprecedented anger from within and crushing external pressure as the Trump administration’s financial sanctions campaign against Tehran continues to squeeze the Iranian economy.
“This generation is a constant nightmare for the mullahs. Indeed, the clerics have come face to face with a rebellious generation against which they are vulnerable,” acting NCRI President Maryam Rajavi said during a passionate address Friday morning. “Today in Iran, one of the greatest battles and one of the greatest tests of our time rages on between freedom and religious fascism, between democracy and religious fundamentalism. This is a battle intertwined with the destiny of contemporary humanity and global peace and security.”
Mrs. Rajavi delivered her address from the Ashraf-3 complex in Albania, which has become the headquarters of the movement and is home to MEK dissidents and resistance fighters dedicated to overthrowing an oppressive government that has ruled Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Leaders of the NCRI, which is comprised of multiple other organizations, say the council has seen its stature grow to the point that Iranian officials can no longer deny its influence.
The NCRI has many American supporters, including some with close relationships to Mr. Trump, such as former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, one the president’s personal lawyers. They say the organization not only has galvanized tens of thousands of Iranians behind its cause but also has fashioned itself into something of a shadow government that could potentially step into power in Tehran if the regime falls.
“We know the truth and they know the truth: They know this organization is a total threat to them,” Mr. Giuliani said during a speech delivered to Friday’s virtual summit.
“When they see today, this gathering of people taking advantage of Zoom and the new modern methods of communication,” he said. “They realize they have a formidable foe. They realize and can foresee how this group could easily stand up an interim government that could be a bridge to a permanent, democratic, free, prosperous and wonderful Iran.”
Other prominent American figures from both political parties participating represented a who’s who list of American “formers,” including former Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, retired Marine Commandant James T. Conway and others. Several current U.S. officials also delivered remarks, including Sen. Martha McSally, Arizona Republican, and Rep. Brad Sherman, California Democrat.
Mrs. Rajavi, Mr. Giuliani and other speakers said the wave of popular protests inside Iran over the past three years prove that the time is ripe for dramatic change. In 2017, 2018, 2019, and again in January, swarms of protesters took to the streets to demonstrate against Iran’s leaders and their policies.
Thousands of those protesters, the NCRI and others have estimated, were killed or imprisoned as a result, though the Iranian government denies those claims.
Friday’s Free Iran summit was the first since Tehran and Washington came to the brink of all-out war last summer. After a series of military encounters in the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian-backed attacks on Americans inside Iraq, President Trump ordered an airstrike to kill Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s Quds Force and a designated terrorist.
Iran responded by firing rockets at U.S. personnel stationed in Iraq, though no Americans were killed. The two nations ultimately pulled back from the brink of war, but the administration continued its economic pressure campaign and urged its European allies to fully scrap the Obama-era nuclear deal. Mr. Trump exited the deal in 2018, arguing that it was too weak and still gave Tehran a pathway to nuclear weapons.
That pact was designed to offer Iran economic relief in exchange for giving up its nuclear weapons program. But instead of investing in its people, critics argue Iran’s leaders used the money they received to enrich themselves and covertly deliver funds to terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah.
“They’d rather send people to bomb us in Paris or to kill some of you in America than to feed their people,” Mr. Giuliani said Friday.
Even across Europe, where the Iran nuclear deal was much more popular than it was in the U.S., officials say Iran’s leadership has proven it can’t deliver for its people.
“The Iranian people want change, to have democracy, finally to have human rights, to finally have economic wealth, no more hunger. The will of the people is much stronger than any oppressive measure of an Iranian regime,” said Martin Patzelt, a member of German Parliament.
Whether it was the Iran nuclear deal or other policies, all efforts to reform the government in Tehran have failed and the only remaining option is for the Iranian people to rise up and install new leadership, said former U.S. Sen. Lieberman.
“We have reached a point where we can conclude, after all that has been tried with this criminal syndicate that is holding the people and history and culture of Iran hostage, that everything that has been tried has not worked,” he said. “It will come from the resistance fighters in Iran … and when they do turn their resistance into rebellion, we and the rest of the world — particularly the United States — must stand with them and support them. I am convinced that is a day that is coming.”
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]]>The Trump administration halted scheduled Iranian fuel deliveries to Venezuela Wednesday by threatening sanctions on the ships carrying the cargo, according to U.S. officials.
Iran and Venezuela attempted to outmaneuver American sanctions by establishing a new oil partnership.
Two Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned ships that “were en route to Venezuela carrying Iranian fuel, scrapped their deliveries after the U.S. threatened sanctions,” a senior U.S. official told Fox News.
First reported by The Wall Street Journal, the ships were expected to arrive in Venezuela as the final delivery in a previously planned five-oil-tanker shipment, an effort that the Venezuelan regime has said is a partnership to thwart the American sanctions.
IRAN TANKERS SAILING TO VENEZUELA IN EFFORT TO UNDERMINE US SANCTIONS
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said in a televised address: “We are two rebel revolutionary peoples that are never going to kneel before North American imperialism.”
But the Greek-owned ships would have been unable to access international banking and maritime insurance had they carried out the shipment.
U.S. officials have been in direct communication with the ships, which are no longer heading to Venezuala but heading south off the coast of Senegal near Liberia, according to The Wall Street Journal.
POMPEO: ALL IRAN SANCTIONS WAIVERS COVERING NUCLEAR PROJECTS ARE ENDING
The State Department’s Iran Action Group reportedly contacted the Liberian government, to which the two ships are registered, to warn them against sanctions. The Liberian government immediately revoked the ships’ accreditation.
The two Greek firms that own the ships were also threatened with U.S. sanctions and legal action, at which point the two ships abandoned the course, according to The Journal.
The U.S. has been increasing its efforts in pressuring both nations with sanctions.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Wednesday that the U.S. will be removing all sanction waivers that allowed Chinese, European and Russian companies to work with Iranian nuclear sites without falling target to existing U.S. sanctions on Iran.
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President Trump has also increased sanctions on Venezuela, drastically affecting its oil production.
According to experts, the oil shipments were only expected to satisfy Venezuelan demand for a couple of weeks.
The Department of State could not immediately be reached for comment.
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Authorities in Iran have arrested a man accused of beheading his 14-year-old daughter in an honor killing that sparked widespread outrage in the Middle Eastern country.
Teenager Romina Ashrafi ran away from her home to elope with her 34-year-old boyfriend Bahamn Khavari after her family objected to the union. The pair was caught by the cops nearly 200 miles north of Tehran. Ashrafi was forced to return home, despite pleading with authorities and claiming she feared for her life.
POMPEO ACCUSES IRAN OF ECHOING ‘HITLER’S CALL FOR GENOCIDE’ OVER ‘FINAL SOLUTION’ RHETORIC
Last week, Ashrafi was allegedly beheaded with a sickle in her bedroom by her father, Reza Ashrafi, who then walked out of his house with the sickle in his hand and confessed, local reports claimed. Reza Ashrafi is currently in custody.
Under Iranian law, girls can get married as young as 13.
The grisly death has ignited a firestorm in the country as calls for the brutal so-called honor killings to stop grows.
Honor killings are typically carried out on a family member who is thought to have brought dishonor upon relatives. Reasons can include anything from refusing to enter into an arranged marriage to being the victim of a sexual assault or rape. Killings also have been carried out for not agreeing with the way a woman or girl is dressed to displaying behavior that is believed to be disobedient.
Punishment for honor killings is not as severe as other crimes.
AYAAN HIRSI ALI: VICTIM OF AN HONOR KILLING, BRANDEIS-STYLE
In Iran, if a man is found guilty of an honor killing, the typical punishment ranges between three and 10 years in prison, which is significantly less than the normal death sentence or severe punishment for other murder cases.
But the tides in the conservative country could be turning.
As of Thursday, the Persian hashtag #Romina_Ashrafi had been used more than 50,000 times on Twitter, with most finding fault with the killing and condemning the “patriarchal nature of Iran society in general,” the BBC reported.
Proposed legislation against honor killings has apparently been fruitless among various decision-making bodies in Iran.
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However, Ashrafi’s case has led to Iranian President Hassan Rohani to urge his Cabinet to speed up harsher laws against such killings.
There is no official data on how many young girls and women are killed by family members or close relatives because of actions they take that are perceived as violations of Islamic norms on love and marriage.
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The incident took place near the Strait of Hormuz
One sailor has been killed and others have been wounded in a “friendly fire” incident involving two Iranian naval vessels, Iranian state TV has said.
A new anti-ship missile being tested by the frigate Jamaran hit the logistical ship Konarak. Initial reports said dozens of sailors were killed.
The accident happened during a training exercise in the Gulf of Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s armed forces regularly hold exercises in the strategic waterway.
The “Konarak vessel was struck with a missile yesterday [Sunday] afternoon during a military exercise in the waters of Bandar-e Jask” off Iran’s south coast, state TV said on its website.
“The vessel was hit after moving a practice target to its destination and not creating enough distance between itself and the target,” it added.
The incident happened near the port of Jask, some 1,270km (790 miles) south-east of Tehran, in the Gulf of Oman, state TV said.
The Jamaran and Konarak are said to belong to naval forces of the Iranian army.
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]]>Iran on Thursday hit back at President Trump’s declaration to the Pentagon to retaliate against Iranian ships that harass U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf, and said its navy will “destroy” American ships if threatened.
Mr. Trump on Wednesday said he has authorized the U.S. Navy to “shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass” U.S. ships. His tweet came one week after a handful of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps boats made several threatening approaches to U.S. warships conducting joint operations with Army attack helicopters in international waters.
“I have ordered our naval forces to destroy any American terrorist force in the Persian Gulf that threatens security of Iran’s military or non-military ships,” Major General Hossein Salami told state-television.
“Security of the Persian Gulf is part of Iran’s strategic priorities.”
U.S. military officials said following the incident that the IRGC navy boats repeatedly crossed in front of and behind the U.S. ships at close range and at high speed. One of the Iranian boats came within 10 yards of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Maui.
On Monday, the IRGC acknowledged the close encounter with the U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf, but pinned the blame on Washington.
“I am telling the Americans that we are absolutely determined and serious in defending our national security, our water borders, our shipping safety, and our security forces, and we will respond decisively to any sabotage,” Gen. Salami continued.
“Americans have experienced our power in the past and must learn from it.”
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have skyrocketed in recent months after the U.S. killed a top Iranian military commander, which led Iran to launch a missile strike on a U.S. military base in Iraq.
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