iran panorama

By Dr. Majid Rafizadeh The Iran nuclear deal was struck between the Islamic Republic and a group of world powers known as the P5+1 — the permanent members of the UN Security Council (the US, UK, Russia, France and China) plus Germany — in 2015. As I mentioned at the time, when the agreement was reached and celebrated, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as it is known, was flimsy, unlikely to last and had fundamental flaws, including the sunset clauses that removed the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program after the expiration of the deal. Iran’s military sites, such as Parchin, which is reportedly where nuclear development and research is conducted, were also out of the reach of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors. In addition, there was no reference to Iran’s ballistic missile program, which is a core pillar of its foreign policy and appears to be linked to the nuclear program. Furthermore, Iran’s breakout time — the amount of time needed to produce enoug...

By Dr. Majid Rafizadeh Since the Trump administration began exercising its “maximum pressure” policy on the Islamic Republic, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appears to have given the green light for the military to act as it wishes. In order to alter Iran’s aggressive policies in the Middle East and deter Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, the US offered it the chance to come to the negotiating table. The Iranian leaders categorically declined the invitation and threw cold water on the possibility of negotiations in the future. In a tweet mentioning Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Khamenei wrote: “You said that Trump has said negotiations with the US would lead to Iran’s progress. By the grace of God, without negotiations and despite sanctions, we will progress.” In a meeting with Abe, Khamenei also pointed out that: “I do not consider Trump, as a person, deserving to exchange messages with. We will not negotiate with the United States.” In o...

By Heshmat Alavi The June 12 attack targeting two oil tankers in the Sea of Oman was carried out by a special unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Navy, according to Majid Hariri, a member of the Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ). The attack was launched under orders from IRGC Brigadier General Ali Fadavi and in collaboration with a naval base associated to the IRGC in the port of Jask, southern Iran, just 30 miles from the location where the oil tankers were attacked, the NCRI member said in an  interview  with the Syrian opposition Orient TV network. Tehran’s objective in this attack was to save face and prevent a massive drop in spirits among its IRGC ranks and file as domestic and international crises are engulfing the regime in Iran. By disrupting regional security and oil transfers, Iran sought to decrease the impact of ongoing political, social and economic dilemmas that have a suffocating and overwhelming effect on...

By Pooya Stone A representative for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said on Wednesday that Tehran would speed up its enrichment of uranium on Thursday after a deadline they gave to European countries to protect them from US sanctions is due to expire, according to the IRIB news agency. The organization’s spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi  said : “The deadline of the Atomic Energy Organization for passing the production of enriched uranium from the 300-kilogram border will end tomorrow. With the end of this deadline, the speed of enrichment will speed up.” This will violate the nuclear deal and several powers have warned Iran against enriching uranium past the maximum 3.67% enshrined in the deal, fearing that this takes Iran one step closer to a nuclear weapon. (When the nuclear deal was agreed in 2015, experts believed Iran needed between several weeks and three months to have enough material for a bomb.) Tom Plant, the director of proliferation and nuclear policy at London’s...

By Jubin Katiraie The Trump administration is working to persuade allies that the ongoing tensions in the Middle East are a global challenge that requires global diplomacy, according to the new acting US defence chief Mark Esper on Tuesday, and “not [just] Iran versus the United States”. Esper, who is meeting with NATO defence ministers in Brussels, told reporters that he wants to help create a broader coalition to deter Iran’s malign behaviour and compel Iranian officials to come back to the negotiating table for a new nuclear deal. Donald Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear agreement last May, citing Iranian noncompliance and the deal’s failure to address Iran’s other malign behaviour, and reimposed tough sanctions saying that he wanted Iran to agree to a much stricter deal. Since then, Iran has been very volatile towards the US and US interests, including threatening to close a key shipping lane, attacking oil tankers, and shooting down a US drone. The US has respond...

By Nikoo Amini According to a state-run newspaper, 30% of Iranians live in rented homes while 2.5 million homes are left uninhabited. “26.6 million Iranians live in rented squalid homes and apartments,” Vatane Emrooz wrote. The newspaper said that the owners of the 2.5 million uninhabited homes refused to rent their homes or would only rent them out at outrageous prices that almost no one could afford. The price of rent in large cities has turned into a huge problem for Iranians who live under the line of poverty. Iranian officials blame everything on the US and say that all economic problems are the result of sanctions. They say that institutionalized corruption and government mismanagement have had little to do with the economic crisis in Iran. This is while sanctions have had very minimum effects on many economic problems, including the housing market. According to the latest statistics released by Iran’s Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, the price of housing has ri...

Iran, June 26, 2019  – The Arabic language Independent newspaper published a detailed report on Tuesday about the Iranian regime’s terrorist plot  against the Iranian opposition rally in Paris last year. The newspaper unveiled the details of how the explosive material originated in Iran and was transferred to a couple in Europe. According to the report, the material, the highly explosive TATP, was transferred from Tehran to Austria via an Austrian commercial passenger plane to be delivered to the couple missioned to execute the terrorist attack at a rally outside Paris, where tens of thousands of civilians and hundreds of current and former American and European VIPs were attending. The plot was later thwarted by European authorities. Details of this plot date back to 2018 when Tehran had plotted the criminal terrorist attack against the Paris gathering way in advance, the report adds. Assadollah Assadi , an agent of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Securit...

Ambassador  Lincoln J. Bloomfield Jr.  has published a new monograph,    The Ayatollahs and the MEK–Iran's Crumbling Influence Operation   , through the University of Baltimore College of Public Affairs. Bloomfield, a former defense and foreign policy official who has served three presidents over five administrations in the Pentagon, the White House and the U.S. State Department, is the author of a 2013 study of the MEK,    The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK)–Shackled by a Twisted History   , also published by the University. The story of this group, which was formed by student intellectuals during the 1960s to oppose the Shah of Iran but became an enemy of the clerical regime of Ayatollah Khomeini after the revolution, was twisted by U.S. officials in a misguided attempt to engage and appease the Iranian government. Bloomfield has also prepared testimonies about the MEK for hearings before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Overs...

By Jubin Katiraie The US military’s cyber forces launched a digital strike against Iran’s military computer systems on Thursday, at roughly the same time that Donald Trump cancelled a conventional military strike in retaliation for Iran’s takedown of a US surveillance drone. Two US officials said that the cyber strikes were approved by Trump, while a third provided the outlines. The trio spoke anonymously because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the action. These  cyber attacks  have disabled Iran’s computer systems controlling its rocket and missile launchers; specifically, those operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC, which the US blames for the oil tanker attacks earlier this month, was designated a foreign terrorist group by the US earlier this year. There was no immediate reaction from Iran. Tensions have been rising between the US and Iran ever since the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal last year and began reimpos...

By Shahriar Kia The United States government seeks to stand with the Iranian people, Vice President Mike Pence said on Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation. Asked what the U.S. strategy is respect to the threats posed by the Iranian regime, Vice President Pence said: "What we want to do is stand with the Iranian people, thousands of which gathered outside the White House on Friday, and tens of thousands of which, took to the streets last year in communities across Iran, we want to stand with them to see Iran come forward, step to a future and embrace freedom." "While we stand firmly against the Ayatollahs, we have the highest hopes for the Iranian people," he said. Vice President Pence added that for 40 years, the Iranian regime has "propagated terror". "They're the leading state sponsor of terror in the world. Those days must come to an end, and America is going to continue to stand, resolved, with the people of Iran for a better future for t...

By Dr. Majid Rafizadeh Iranian President Hassan Rouhani continues to project himself as a defender of human and women’s rights, while evidence on the ground points to the opposite being true. The number of political prisoners being found dead in suspicious circumstances in Iran’s prisons is on the rise. The latest incident was the case of political prisoner Alireza Shirmohammadali, who was reportedly stabbed to death in the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary last week. A source told the Center for Human Rights in Iran that “prisoners in the ward said he had been stabbed so many times that he died before the prison guards got to the scene.” He was arrested on July 15, 2018, over messages he had posted on social media. Ambiguous charges were brought against him, including “insulting sacred religious beliefs,” “insulting the supreme leader” and “propaganda against the state.” The charge of insulting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei can carry the death penalty. The Iranian authorities ...

Washington, D.C, June 21 -  On Friday, a large crowd of Iranian-Americans gathered in Washington, D.C., in front of the U.S. State Department, to support the uprising of the Iranian people and their desire for regime change in their country. Also attending the event were several distinguished American politicians who emphasized the need for the international community and western governments to adopt a firm policy toward the regime of Iran. The participants voiced their support for the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ) and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran ( PMOI/MEK ), the main opposition and democratic alternative to the tyrannical rule of Tehran’s mullahs. The rally was held on the 38th anniversary of the Iranian regime’s crackdown on a massive 500,000-strong demonstration in Tehran, which marked the beginning of an era of brutal repression against opposition forces. Since then, the mullahs’ regime has executed more than 120,000 members and su...