Reports are circulating that one of the highest-ranking members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps was killed in Aleppo on Saturday.
Brigadier General Mohammad Hossein Rafieii was in charge of the IRGC’s Special Forces Commandos, according to Syrian News Channel, Orient. He had been sent there after the Iranian Regime had failed to take Aleppo.
Amir Basiri, a human rights activist writes in an article for Forbes, about the Obama administration’s further easing of financial sanctions on Iran, that were lifted as part of the nuclear deal that came into effect early this year. This facilitates for non-U.S. persons to deal with Iranian entities that are minority owned or controlled by sanctioned individuals or bodies.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has reported that a group of prisoners in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj wrote to António Guterres (just elected as the next United Nations Secretary General) and to Asma Jahangir (the new UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran). In their letter they complain about the appalling human rights abuses and political violence that is taking place in the country.
In a letter to the Iranian regime’s Attorney General, political prisoner Narges Mohammadi said: “I will not be silent until my rights are respected and justice is served.”
The Attorney General had referred to Narges Mohammadi as “a sinister existence” and added: “If the Judiciary does not reveal the documents of infringement and violations by her and others like her, it does not mean that they are good people.”
NBC has reported that U.S. officials believe Iran has supplied weapons to Houthis in Yemen. The head of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, Kevin Donegan, who is tasked with securing the waters around Yemen, told NBC that he believes the U.S. and partner nations have intercepted five shipments of weapons to Yemen from Iran.
Law enforcement agents beat demonstrators and arrested 15 people and took them to an unknown location said the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). A sixteen year old boy was arrested and his mother was badly injured while trying to prevent her son’s arrest.
The crowd was peacefully standing in front of a hospital in Tehran in support of political prisoner Mohammad Ali Taheri who is in a coma following a hunger strike.
Michael Morell, a former acting director of the CIA and a national security adviser to Hillary Clinton, this week proposed that the U.S. should go to war with Iran to secure Saudi Arabia’s influence in Yemen.
Writer and human rights activist Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee has been arrested for writing a story on stoning in Iran. Her husband Arash Sadeghi is already serving fifteen years in custody for his human rights activities.
Ebrahimi Iraee has allegedly been transported to the women’s ward at the Evin Prison in Tehran, after a violent house raid with no official summons. The authorities also broke down Ebrahimi Iraee’s front door with violence and took her to Evin Prison where her husband was already being detained.
Dr. Mohammad al-Sulami, a Saudi journalist, with a Ph.D. in Iranian studies, vast expertise, and knowledge in questions concerning Iranian politics, commented recently that the expansion of the Islamic Republic of Iran should not be seen as a strength. According to Dr. al-Sulami, it is a sign of weakness.
Reuters have reported that the Republican leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives plan to vote as soon as mid-November on a 10-year reauthorization of the Iran Sanctions Act. This news, told by congressional aides, could provoke a “potential showdown with the White House and Senate”.
The Iran Sanctions Act (ISA), due to expire on 31st December, allows trade, energy, defense and banking industry sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missile testing.
