Nima Sharif
While talks with Iranian regime continue in order to press the mullahs to abandon their suspicious nuclear program and to prevent this government from acquiring the nuclear bomb, there has been a horrifying surge in the number of executions in the country that has gone mainly unnoticed. The executions are carried out by hanging victims in groups and are conducted mostly in public in a way that is most inhuman and also degrading.
Back in the 1980s, right after the then leader of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Khomeini accepted the UN Resolution to end the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, Iranian mullahs went on to execute some 30,000 political prisoners in a matter of two months. The event is known as the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in human rights circles. (Click here to watch the video of Amineh and Ehsan Qaraee.)
The 1988 executions aimed to contain the surge of internal dissatisfactions among Iranian public with policies of the government during many years of war. With the executions mullahs managed to stay in power by practically wiping out a whole generation of young political activists who rose after the 1979 revolution in the country.
While mullahs’ highly corrupt system has ruined the country’s economy, state of health, and ecosystem, their expansionist ideas, aspiring to build an Islamic Empire in the region, has consumed whatever resources was left from Iran’s lucrative oil exports in support of terrorism and fundamentalist groups throughout the region.
Tight in money and facing the international sanctions due to its nuclear program, the Iranian government has been forced to come to the negotiating table. Their first and foremost aim, as it has always been, is to somehow buy time and dodge having to come clear with the nuclear bomb building plans. But the situation is severe.
After almost 30 years past the 1988 massacres, the mullahs are once again facing a similar political situation. Having to give up their nuclear program and retreat from the region, in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, is a major defeat for the regime; one that will have a much bigger impact than having to accept the ceasefire as it is already shacking the pillars of the Islamic Republic.
That should explain the rise in the number of executions and public hangings and it should be a major concern for the international community.
While it is true that the main state-sponsor of terrorism in the world should never be allowed to acquire a nuclear bomb for the sake of peace in the world, the ongoing talks between the p5+1 and Iran, should and must address the human rights violations by the mullahs’ regime. The International community cannot and should not once again turn a blind eye to what is transpiring in Iran and the Iranian people should not have to be forced to pay the price with their lives or that of their loved ones.
On June 13, Paris will host tens of thousands of Iranian dissidents as well as other supporters of Maryam Rajavi and the National Council of Resistance of Iran, cheering in unity, and calling for a democratic change in Iran. Maryam Rajavi is the true voice of the Iranian people such as Amineh and Ehsan and her ten point plan for democracy in Iran should be supported. Only a democratic change in Iran will bring peace and security to the region and stop mullahs’ nuclear bomb building plans.
Sign the Petition and Join the Cause to Support Human Rights and Democratic Change in Iran in 2015
See also Professor Tanter’s Article: A “bad nuclear deal” would jeopardize world peace, lead to greater suppression in Iran
