The USA is considering new sanctions against Russia and Iran for their support of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad after his most recent chemical attack which killed over 100 civilians, according to the USA’s UN ambassador Nikki Haley.
Hayley appeared on CNN’s State of the Union to confirm that, regarding tougher sanctions on Assad’s supporters, nothing was off the table, particularly after Russia condemned the US’s retaliatory strike on a Syrian air force base.
On Thursday, Ebrahim Raisi officially announced his candidacy in Iran’s presidential election. This came at a meeting of the “Popular Front of Revolutionary Forces”, as he gained the highest number of votes amongst the “principalists”.
Back in March 2016, Raisi was appointed by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as head of the Astan Quds Razavi foundation, a major economic entity associated with Khamenei himself.
In what has been described as Tehran’s first international marathon, it’s ironic that Americans will not be allowed to participate. Additionally, women are being forced to run separately from the men.
Although the race’s website listed 28 Americans among the registered runners, along with participants from more than 40 countries, Iran stopped issuing visas to U.S. citizens after President Donald Trump first announced a travel ban on Iranians and citizens of six other Muslim-majority countries in January.
The Trump administration is considering calls for the IRGC to be designated a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) under U.S. law.
Mark Dubowitz, Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) executive director and Iran expert, in written testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the IRGC could be designated under executive order 13224, a post-9/11 tool designed to disrupt funding to terrorists. “Congress should reject the argument that this designation will provoke the IRGC to threaten or commit violence,” he said. “To do so would hold American policy hostage.”
The gas attack in Khan Sheikhoun, Idlib Province, on Tuesday was strongly condemned by European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA) and their President Struan Stevenson, former MP representing the Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009-14) and Chairman of Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (2004-14). They also call for urgent and effective action by the UN Security Council to punish Bashar al-Assad.
They call the attack a war crime, that left hundreds of people dead and injured, and say that silence from the international community, and their inaction in response to this massacre will embolden the Syrian dictator and his allies, who will continue to expand, and even escalate such war crimes, as well as crimes against humanity.
The International Radical Party held à conference at the United Nations European Headquarters in Geneva. Speakers at the conference condemned human rights violations and increasing executions in Iran.
They discussed the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran, as well. Speakers called for a UN probe into these crimes, since the conference coincided with the 34th UN Human Rights Council session.
Iranian Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan said on Thursday that the United States is an unwelcome intruder in the Middle East and warned that it needs to leave the region immediately.
According to numerous state media outlets, Dehghan, the Minister of Defence of Iran, said: “What is the U.S. doing in the Persian Gulf? They better leave this region and not harass the regional countries.”
When he was 19 years old, Sina Dehghan was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The arrest took place in October 2015 while he was on guard duty at military barracks where he had been enlisted. He was only four days away from ending his military service.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran said that Dehghan and two other men were charged with “posting anti-Islamic content on social media”, “insulting the Prophet” and “insulting the Supreme Leader of Iran”.
Iran is getting ready to elect its next president in May. Although the president of the country has an inferior position to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, these upcoming elections may be significant given his deteriorating health.
There could be a transition to double leadership in Iran and it is important to turn our attention away from the country’s capital and towards border areas. We are used to hearing about hardliners versus moderates in Iran, but this is only applicable to Tehran.
A spokesman for the Tunisian president has denied the remarks attributed by Iranian regime’s media to Tunisian president al-Baji Qaed al-Sebsi during his meeting with the regime’s Minister of Culture and Guidance.
Regime’s official news agency had falsely quoted al-Sebsi as saying “Iran is supporting the Islamic world against the Zionist regime.”
