Tag Archive for: Iran

IRAN: Freedom fighters defy Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps ultimatum to cease protests

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Note how Reuters once again refers to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as the “Revolutionary Guards.” Why won’t these “journalists” call the group by its correct name?

Security forces tear gas students defying Iran protest ultimatum

by Parisa Hafezi, Reuters, October 30, 2022:DUBAI (Reuters) -Protests in Iran entered a more violent phase on Sunday as students, who defied an ultimatum by the Revolutionary Guards and a warning from the president, were met with tear gas and gunfire from security forces, social media videos showed.

The confrontations at dozens of universities prompted the threat of a tougher crackdown in a seventh week of demonstrations sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by the morality police for attire deemed inappropriate.

“Security is the red line of the Islamic Republic, and we will not allow the enemy to implement in any way its plans to undermine this valuable national asset,” hardline President Ebrahim Raisi said, according to state media.

Iranians from all walks of life have taken to the streets since Amini’s death in protests that the clerical rulers said were endangering the Islamic Republic’s security.

Authorities have accused Islamic Iran’s arch-enemies the United States and Israel and their local agents of being behind the unrest to destabilise the country.

What began as outrage over Amini’s death on Sept. 16 has evolved into one of the toughest challenges to clerical rulers since the 1979 revolution, with some protesters calling for the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards told protesters that Saturday would be their last day of taking to the streets, the harshest warning yet by Iranian authorities.

Nevertheless, videos on social media, unverifiable by Reuters, showed confrontations between students and riot police and Basij forces on Sunday at universities all over Iran.

One video showed a member of Basij forces firing a gun at close range at students protesting at a branch of Azad University in Tehran. Gunshots were also heard in a video shared by rights group HENGAW from protests at the University of Kurdistan in Sanandaj.

Videos from universities in some other cities also showed Basij forces opening fire at students.

Across the country, security forces tried to block students inside university buildings, firing tear gas and beating protesters with sticks. The students, who appeared to be unarmed, pushed back, with some chanting “dishonoured Basij get lost” and “Death to Khamenei”….

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Islamic Republic of Iran: Security forces target girls school, fire tear gas as girls clash with staff

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Forces of the Islamic regime in Iran have been raiding schools and targeting schoolgirls with increasing frequency; this is is causing even more public fury than there already was. One girl was recently beaten to death by security forces in her classroom for refusing to sing a “pro-regime song.” In mid-October, it emerged that 23 children were murdered by the regime.

Iranian security forces fire teargas as girls clash with staff at Tehran school

Guardian, October 24, 2022:

Iranian security forces fired teargas outside a girls’ school in Tehran when clashes broke out after staff attempted to inspect students’ mobile phones amid ongoing anti-government protests.

Iran’s Ministry of Education said several students were treated by emergency services for a drop in blood pressure, but denied that security forces had entered the school.

But videos circulating on social media showed heavily armed security forces outside the school. One clip showed them on motorbikes and firing at least one teargas canister. The authenticity of the footage could not be independently verified.

Unrest ignited by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who was detained by the Islamic Republic’s morality police for “improper attire” and died in police custody, has swept Iran for five weeks. Rights groups say nearly 250 people have been killed in the crackdown.

Women and girls have played a prominent part in the protests, removing and burning veils. The deaths of several teenage girls reportedly killed during protests have fuelled more anger.

Demonstrations continued on Monday, with a rally at a university in the western city of Hamedan, and students shouting down a government spokesperson who visited a Tehran university, according to students’ and rights groups…..

AUTHOR

CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Biden’s handlers claim Iranian soldiers are on the ground in Ukraine aiding the Russians

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Biden’s handlers cannot necessarily be believed, but as there has been close cooperation between Russia and Iran for years, there is nothing inherently implausible about this. If it is true, there must be some quid pro quo, with Russia in some way aiding the Islamic Republic in putting down the freedom uprising inside Iran.

Iranian soldiers on ground in Ukraine aiding Russians, White House confirms

by Michael Starr, Jerusalem Post, October 20, 2022:

Iranian military personnel are on the ground in occupied Ukrainian territories providing aid to the Russian military in their ongoing invasion, the White House confirmed on Thursday night.

“We can confirm that Russian military personnel based in Crimea have been piloting Iranian UAVs and using them to conduct kinetic strikes across Ukraine in strikes against Kyiv, and in recent days we assess that Iranian personnel — Iranian military personnel — were on the ground in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations,” said US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price….

“In spite of all this we’ve seen Russia and Iran continue to lie…continue to claim that they are not providing this material,” said Price on Thursday night.

The denials continued last weekend when Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdullahian told his Portuguese counterpart that Iran did not sell drones or any weapons to either party to the conflict.

“We believe that arming either side will prolong the war, and we do not think that war is the right way,” Abdullahian said according to Maariv.

Price said that “indisputable proof” had emerged of Irain’s [sic] involvement in the Russia-Ukraine War and had been presented to the  UN Security Council on Wednesday.

Images of Iranian-Russian drones have emerged in recent days on social and mainstream media platforms. CNN was shown a largely intact reconnaissance drone by the Ukrainian military, which claimed that there had been efforts to cover up its Iranian origin….

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Iran: Christian activist forced to strip, says Islamic regime uses sexual violence against female protestors

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The idea is to humiliate and degrade them, and by raping them, to deny them a place in paradise, for in Islam it is entirely the woman’s responsibility to prevent a man from being tempted (hence the hijab, chador, niqab, burqa), and if he is tempted anyway, it’s her fault.

Exclusive: ‘Was forced to strip, govt uses sexual violence against female protesters,’ says Iranian Christian activist

by Annu Kaushik, Firstpost, October 17, 2022:

In 2020, Mary Mohammadi was taken to a detention center near Iran’s capital Tehran. Officials told her that her hair was visible.

In the basement of the all-female detention center, Mary was forced to strip.

“If my hair is a problem, is it not a problem to force me to take off all my clothes? Is this Islamic?,” Mary told Firstpost in an exclusive conversation.

The incident was part of the sexual violence that the regime has been using to suppress female protesters and activists, Mary said.

“During protests, security personnel touch female demonstrators inappropriately. They want to make women fearful of stepping out,” she said.

24-year-old Mary has been on the radar of Iranian officials for several reasons. Born to a Muslim family, she converted to Christianity in 2017.

Christian converts and other religious minorities like the Bahais are not recognised in Iran.

Over the last few years, Mary has faced persecution from the authorities in the form of arrests and interrogations due to her faith as well as activism.

The personnel who transferred her to the detention center in 2020 belonged to the morality police which is currently in the eye of the storm due to the death of Mahsa Amini which has triggered nationwide protests in Iran.

But it’s not just the morality police who target women for not wearing the mandatory hijab or a head scarf or wearing it improperly.

According to Mary “radical Muslims do it too.”

In 2019, Mary was on a bus in Tehran. It was a hot day and she had taken off her hijab. Suddenly a fully veiled woman approached Mary and asked her to cover her hair.

“When I refused, an argument ensued during which the woman attacked me & my face was left bloodied,” Mary said.

The activist somehow managed to take the woman to the police station. According to Mary, the officers dissuaded her from filing a complaint and even threatened her with arrest.

“They (police) were very kind to that woman. They let her go at 10 pm but kept me in custody till 3 am,” she added.

“Radical Muslims can even attack minorities in public because the regime is behind them,

“Islamic hijab is mandatory in Iran even for non-Muslims. I am a Christian but I must wear hijab,” she said.

Mary’s activism and faith also took a personal toll. Without giving any reason, her university barred her from appearing in exams.

But what was more hurtful for Mary was the treatment meted out to her by a former employer who was also a close friend.

“The gymnast training center where I worked was shut down during the COVID lockdown. I kept asking my employers when I can return and they told me and they are still closed,” Mary said.

One day, the activist turned up at the center unannounced and saw that it was fully operational.

Mary was not given her job back and believes that her employer and the university faced pressure from the authorities.

Constant threats that Mary said were from the authorities forced her to flee Iran in February 2022. The activist who is currently living in the US told Firstpost that in her home country security forces “continue to use sexual violence in the ongoing protests.”…

Read more.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Islamic Republic of Iran: Police sexually assault women in public as freedom protests continue

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This is designed to humiliate and demean, and thereby deter, the protestors.

Iran anti-riot police sexually assault women in public as protests near one-month anniversary

 

by Peter Aitken, Fox News, October 15, 2022:

Iranian protesters have demanded “justice” for a woman who was assaulted by anti-riot police, with one officer forcibly grabbing her bottom and then pushing her on the ground.

The video, captured on a security camera at the Argentina Square in Tehran on Wednesday, shows police surrounding the woman. When they start to cart her away, one officer grabs the woman’s bottom before she drops to her knees.

Another woman can be heard saying that the officers were pulling the victim’s hair as she knelt on the ground.

Tehran’s Police Public Relations office has said the incident will be investigated, the BBC reported, but the police provided no statement as to what might have happened. Instead, the police accused “enemies” of “using psychological warfare” to cause “public anxiety and incite violence.”…

Iranian officials and authorities have tried to suppress media of the protests from reaching the outside world, but the protesters have managed to supply the internet with plenty of videos and pictures showing the brutality police have used.

Lisa Daftari, a Middle East expert and editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk, told Fox News Digital about another “horrific” incident in which regime forces dragged a screaming female protestor to the ground before putting her in a van….

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Islamic Republic of Iran: Regime has now killed 185 protesters, but they won’t give up

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If only people in the West were this tenacious against tyranny.

Protests Continue Across Iran as Rights Group Reports 19 Minors Killed

Reuters, October 9, 2022:

Protests ignited by the death of a young woman in police custody continued across Iran on Sunday in defiance of a crackdown by the authorities, as a human rights group said at least 185 people, including children, had been killed in demonstrations.

Anti-government protests that began on Sept. 17 at the funeral of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in her Kurdish town of Saqez, have turned into the biggest challenge to Iran’s clerical leaders in years, with protesters calling for the downfall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“At least 185 people, including at least 19 children, have been killed in the nationwide protests across Iran. The highest number of killings occurred in Sistan and Baluchistan province with half the recorded number,” the Norway-based Iran Human Rights said on Saturday.

Authorities have described the protests as a plot by Iran’s foes, including the United States. They have accused armed dissidents amongst others of violence that has reportedly left at least 20 members of the security forces dead….

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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Islamic Republic of Iran: Authorities force family of girl killed by security forces to lie about cause of her death

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This indicates how deeply threatened the Iranian regime is, and how fearful of what could happen if the truth about its bloodlust becomes widely known. But it is already widely known. That’s why the mullahs are dealing with an uprising in the first place.

Nika Shakarami: Iran protester’s family forced to lie about death – source

by Parham Ghobadi, BBC, October 6, 2022:

Relatives of a girl who died during protests in Iran have been forced into making false statements, a source close to the family has told BBC Persian.

Nika Shakarami, 16, went missing in Tehran on 20 September after telling a friend she was being chased by police.

On Wednesday night, a state TV report showed her aunt, Atash, saying: “Nika was killed falling from a building.”

Her uncle was also seen on TV speaking against the unrest, as someone seems to whisper to him: “Say it, you scumbag!”

The source told BBC Persian that these were both “forced confessions” that came “after intense interrogations and being threatened that other family members would be killed”….

Wednesday night’s state TV report also featured footage in which Atash was seen confirming that her niece’s body was found outside the building mentioned by the judiciary, even though that contradicted previous statements made by her and other members of the family.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

U.S. General: Biden’s Handlers’ Sanctions Relief for Iran Will Aid Mullahs’ Assassination Plots

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Which side is Old Joe on? It’s never hard to tell.

“US General: Biden Sanctions Relief for Iran Will Aid Iranian Assassination Plots,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, September 21, 2022:

Iran will use cash assets provided by the Biden administration as part of a new nuclear accord to fund regional terror groups and enhance the capabilities of a militant network committed to assassinating U.S. officials, according to written testimony to Congress from a top U.S. military commander exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Gen. Stephen Townsend, who led U.S. Africa Command until August of this year, in March warned Congress that Iran is certain to use “at least some of the resources gained from sanctions relief to” increase its illicit shipment of advanced weapons to terror groups operating in Africa and the Near East region, according to written information he provided to Sen. Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) after a public hearing before Congress.

In addition to boosting Iran’s terror allies like the Houthi rebels in Yemen, sanctions relief will enable Tehran to expand its Iranian Threat Network, a group of terror cells run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’s Quds Force that is focused on assassinating American officials, according to Townsend.

With a new Iran nuclear deal expected to provide Iran with up to a trillion dollars over the lifetime of the deal, a coalition of Republican lawmakers on Wednesday introduced new legislation that would bar the Biden administration from implementing the accord until it can certify to Congress that Iran has not engaged in assassination plots on Americans in five years. The bill, which is sponsored by Ernst and Rep. Michael Waltz (R., Fla.), was sparked by Iran’s ongoing efforts to assassinate former U.S. officials like former national security adviser John Bolton and former secretary of state Mike Pompeo.

The disclosures made by Townsend in his communications to Congress are likely to generate further support for the legislation even among Democrats, some of whom recently wrote to President Joe Biden expressing concern about the impending deal.

“It’s hard to fathom that, after countless attacks on Americans, and multiple confirmed plots against U.S. officials, the Biden administration continues to cozy up to Iran in hopes of a mythical, so-called nuclear deal,” Ernst said in a statement. “President Biden should not provide a dime of sanctions relief to the largest state sponsor of terrorism, which is actively trying to kill U.S. officials and citizens, at home and abroad.”

Townsend, who testified before Congress in mid-March, confirmed that sanctions relief provided under a revamped version of the 2015 nuclear deal will directly fund Iranian-backed terrorist organizations. His analysis was provided in a written form to Ernst after she posed a series of additional questions following that briefing.

“If the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is renewed, Iran will likely use at least some of the resources gained from sanctions relief to intensify the pursuit of its interests in Africa,” Townsend said. “Tehran likely will allocate additional revenue to boost lethal aid facilitation to the [Houthis] in Yemen through smuggling routes and East Africa, and could further develop Iranian Threat Network (ITN) capabilities on the continent.”

Once Iran’s regime has access to hard currency freed up under the deal, it “will likely seek opportunities to exploit regional conflicts and the counterterrorism needs of African governments to increase arms sales, enhance defense cooperation, and to undermine Western and Israeli partnerships and ambitions on the continent,” Townsend said. “Though these efforts are nascent, a growing Iranian presence also would provide increased cover for the ITN facilitation network and operational expansion.”

Since late 2020, at least 10 Iranian assassination plots orchestrated in the region by the ITN have been disrupted, according to Townsend, including two against U.S. officials in Africa. Other plots targeted Israeli interests.

“Iran almost certainly continues to seek retaliation for the death of former IRGC-QF commander Qassem Soleimani, and it could leverage the ITN to attack high-level U.S. government or military officials visiting or staying in Africa, especially if Iran suspects them of complicity in Soleimani’s death,” Townsend said….

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Iranian Anti-Hijab Protests Grow: Women are Burning their Headscarves in the Streets of Tehran

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Since the brutal murder of Mahsa Amini by Iran’s morality police over her refusal to wear a hijab, protests have not let up.

Women have no rights in Islam and full coverings are mandatory (Quran 24:31, 33:59).

In response to Amini’s murder, protests are expanding across Iran, with at least five people killed in the demonstrations after security forces opened fire.

The worst nightmare for the Shia regime of Iran is for a coordinated, full-scale public revolt. Iran — from the military to the mullahs — will do all it can to try to ensure that such a revolt never happens, no matter how many civilians end up murdered by the regime.

Shi’ite Iran ascribes to a doomsday theology. The Hidden – or Twelfth – Imam plays a dominant role in Iran’s official religion, Twelver Shi’ism. The belief is that at the end of days, the Hidden Imam will appear in the midst of a violent apocalyptic scenario played out on a battleground stained with infidels’ blood.

Iran unrest: Women burn headscarves at anti-hijab protests

by David Gritten and Oliver Slow, BBC, September 21, 2022:

Women have been at the forefront of escalating protests in Iran sparked by the death in custody of a woman detained for breaking hijab laws.

Crowds cheered when women burned their hijabs on a bonfire in Sari on Tuesday, the fifth successive day of unrest.

Activists said a woman was among three protesters shot dead by security forces in Urmia, Piranshahr and Kermanshah.

Authorities accused protesters of killing two civilians in Kermanshah as well as a police assistant in Shiraz.

At least seven people are now reported to have been killed since protests against the hijab laws and morality police erupted after Mahsa Amini’s death.

The 22-year-old Kurdish woman from the north-western city of Saqez died in hospital on Friday, after spending three days in a coma.

She was with her brother in Tehran when she was arrested by morality police, who accused her of breaking the law requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf, and their arms and legs with loose clothing. She fell into the coma shortly after collapsing at a detention centre.

There were reports that police beat Ms Amini’s head with a baton and banged her head against one of their vehicles, Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada al-Nashif said.

The police have denied that she was mistreated and said she suffered “sudden heart failure”. But her family has said she was fit and healthy.

“Mahsa Amini’s tragic death and allegations of torture and ill-treatment must be promptly, impartially and effectively investigated by an independent competent authority, that ensures, in particular, that her family has access to justice and truth,” Ms Nashif said.

She noted that the UN had received “numerous, and verified, videos of violent treatment of women” as morality police expanded their street patrols in recent months to crack down on those perceived to be wearing “loose hijab”.

“The authorities must stop targeting, harassing, and detaining women who do not abide by the hijab rules,” she added, calling for their repeal….

AUTHOR

CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Bolton warned before Rushdie attack that Iran wasn’t targeting only him, called on Biden to end negotiations

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Bolton, who is quite spectacularly wrong about so very much, cannot be wrong all the time.

Bolton calls Iran assassination plot an ‘act of war,’ calls on Biden admin to ‘terminate’ nuclear talks

by Brooke Singman, Fox News, August 11, 2022:

EXCLUSIVE: Former White House national security adviser Amb. John Bolton said the assassination plot against him by an Iranian operative, and continued threats from Iran to American citizens on American soil is “unprecedented” and “an act of war,” telling Fox News the Biden administration has been “signaling weakness” to Tehran and should “terminate” negotiations on the Iran nuclear deal.

The Justice Department on Wednesday announced charges against Iranian operative Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, for an alleged plot to assassinate Bolton, who served as former President Trump’s national security adviser until 2019.

U.S. officials said the plot was likely planned in retaliation for the January 2020 strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, a revered Iranian leader and the head of Iran’s Quds Force.

In an interview with Fox News Digital on Thursday, Bolton said he had been “aware” of plots against him for “some time.”

Bolton said in the spring of 2020, the FBI contacted him with a “duty to warn.”

“I was given several duties to warn as time went on, and each one was becoming a little more serious,” Bolton said, noting that he went to a meeting at the FBI in the fall of 2021, where officials explained the latest information they had on plots against him.

Bolton told Fox News he requested U.S. Secret Service protection, which he had during the Trump administration but which was terminated upon his resignation.

The FBI granted the request for USSS protection in December 2021, and Bolton told Fox News that protection is ongoing.

But Bolton said he is not so concerned about the individual plot against him, but rather, threats from Iran against all Americans.

“It is not just me,” Bolton said. “The regime in Tehran has targeted a lot of Americans.”

“The aim here is to kill Americans on American soil, and its former government officials,” Bolton explained. “This is a broad threat to private American citizens on American soil, and I think it is, essentially, unprecedented.”

He added: “You could call it an act of war, and it tells you everything you need to know about the government in Tehran.”…

“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, through the Defendant, tried to hatch a brazen plot: assassinate a former U.S. official on U.S. soil in retaliation for U.S. actions,” U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia said this week.

Meanwhile, Bolton went on to slam the Biden administration for engaging in negotiations with Tehran to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, known as the Iran nuclear deal.

“To me, more important than the threats to the individuals is that catastrophic strategic policy that the administration is pursuing to try and revive the 2015 nuclear deal,” Bolton said. “You’ve got a government that absolutely won’t honor any commitments it makes—it will do whatever it thinks is necessary to get nuclear weapons.”

He added: “People are deluding themselves if they think that if we give Iran enough concessions, that they gain to let us back into the nuclear deal—they’ll do what they want to do.”…

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Iran has made $44,700,000,000 in Illegal Oil Sales since Biden took office

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Biden’s handlers’ relentless determination to appease the Islamic Republic has ended up lavishly financing the global jihad.

Cash Bonanza: Iran Has Made $44.7 Billion in Illegal Oil Sales Since Biden Took Office

by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, August 2, 2022:

Iran’s illegal oil trade has boomed under the Biden administration, with the hardline regime selling more than $44 billion worth of its heavily sanctioned oil to malign regimes like China, Syria, and Venezuela, according to figures published by a watchdog group.

From January 2021, when President Joe Biden took office, to June 2022, Iran sold around $44.7 billion in oil primarily to China. The regime’s export revenues between March 2021 and March 2022 from oil, gas, and related products “totaled $39 billion, compared [with] $22 billion for the previous year—a rise of 77 percent and an extra $17 billion,” according to United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI), a watchdog group that tracks Iran’s network of illegal oil tankers.

“This drastic increase in revenue is not surprising when you look at the increase in oil exports that have occurred under the Biden administration,” UANI chief of staff Claire Jungman told the Washington Free Beacon. “This is the result of terminally lax sanctions enforcement.”

In addition to looser sanctions on Iran, the Biden administration has turned a blind eye to enforcement as it seeks to ink a revamped version of the 2015 nuclear deal. These moves are meant to appease Iran and cajole it into signing a deal that will remove virtually all sanctions on the hardline regime, including its oil trade. China is the primary beneficiary of this policy, with Iranian oil imports quadrupling to the country in 2021 to $23.1 billion. The China-Iran oil pipeline is on pace to hit around $27 billion in 2022, according to UANI’s figures.

If sanctions on Iran are lifted as part of a new nuclear deal, Iran-China trade could reach around $60 billion per year, according to one former U.S. official.

“China made a mockery of the credibility of our sanctions programs and emboldened rogue actors across the world to follow suit,” Gabriel Noronha, a State Department special adviser for Iran during the Trump administration, told the Free Beacon.

Iran’s foreign currency reserves— which were nearly drained under the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign—will have “increased nearly tenfold by the end of this year,” according to Noronha.

“The United States refused to enforce its sanctions even while Iran was continuing to advance its nuclear program and its regional terror attacks,” Noronha said. “The result was that Iran’s economy revived itself.”

This financial relief gave Iran a cushion and lessened pressure that could have forced it into accepting a more stringent nuclear deal.

“The Iranian leadership does not feel pressure to finalize the nuclear deal because they’ve already enjoyed the benefits of effective sanctions relief,” Noronha said. “The fact that the Biden administration can’t even manage a return to the notoriously weak [nuclear deal] is evidence of the sheer diplomatic malpractice carried out by the Biden administration, particularly Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. envoy for Iran Rob Malley.”

As Iran and China boost their oil alliance, the U.S. emergency crude stockpiles dropped to their lowest levels in 37 years. This comes after the Biden administration agreed to sell China several million barrels from the U.S. stores, sparking a congressional investigation….

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Iranian Impunity in the U.S.? Man Arrested with AK-47 Outside Brooklyn Home of Iranian Dissident

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On Thursday, a 23-year-old man named Khalid Mehdiyev was arrested in Brooklyn outside the home of Masih Alinejad. She is the astonishingly courageous Iranian dissident who so enrages the mullahs who lead the Islamic Republic that they mounted an audacious plot last year to kidnap her in New York and take her back to Iran, where she would have faced unimaginable horrors. Was this a second attempt by the Iranians to rid themselves of one of their highest-profile and most trenchant critics? If so, it highlights yet again Old Joe Biden’s appalling weakness. Weakness, after all, invites aggression.

According to the New York Post, Mehdiyev (which is a common Azeri name; there is a sizable Azeri minority in Iran) had a loaded AK-47 and over a thousand dollars in cash, and had been hanging around Alinejad’s home for two days before he was finally apprehended. The federal complaint  “makes no explicit connection between Mehdiyev and Alinejad but says the accused had focused on an unnamed Brooklyn ‘residence.’”

Mehdiyev showed all the signs of a determined and potentially lethal stalker: “Law enforcement observed Mehdiyev sitting in a gray Subaru Forester SUV with an Illinois license plate for several hours on Wednesday and Thursday. Feds said he ordered food to his car and looked inside of the windows and attempted to open the front door of the residence he was parked outside of.” Finally, on Thursday, Mehdiyev had the poor judgment to run a stop sign and was stopped by the NYPD, which found that he had no driver’s license.

When cops searched his car, they found, apparently along with two days’ worth of takeout cartons, “the loaded AK-47 with multiple magazines, additional rounds of ammunition and a suitcase full of cash. Two other different license plates were also found.”

But Mehdiyev insists that his odd and suspicious behavior was entirely innocent: he “told police he had been staying in Yonkers, but the rent was too high there and he was looking for a new place to live in the Brooklyn neighborhood. He said he had tried to open the front door of the residence so he could knock on an inside door to ask if he could rent a room.” He apparently didn’t explain why he sat outside the place for two days, and he had no plausible explanation for anything else, either: “He initially told officers he had borrowed the car and he didn’t know anything about the gun and said the suitcase was not his.” Yeah, you know how AK-47s can just appear in your car without your knowledge or consent, and what can anyone do about that?

Later, apparently realizing how ridiculous his initial story sounded, Mehdiyev “confessed that the gun was his and he had been in Brooklyn ‘because he was looking for someone’” — an ominous statement when you’re carrying an AK during your search.

Masih Alinejad is a particular thorn in the side of the mullahs because she highlights on a daily basis the pettiness and cruelty of the Islamic Republic. She routinely posts videos that have been sent to her (at tremendous risk) from inside Iran, showing Iranian women risking multiyear prison sentences for the crime of taking off their hijab, the arrest and torture of women who have done so, and the Iranian regime’s determination to punish women who dare to resist their oppression. On Wednesday, she posted a video showing the “unspeakable cruelty” of the Iranian regime in killing over 1,700 stray dogs. (Dogs are considered unclean in Islam, and Muhammad, the Islamic prophet, ordered that they be killed.)

In a shame/honor culture, Masih Alinejad is doing something that the Iranian mullahs likely consider worse than death: she is humiliating them. And so it wouldn’t be in the least surprising if it turns out that they sent Khalid Mehdiyev, as they sent the kidnappers who were foiled last year. Old Joe Biden presents such an image of fecklessness and lack of control that it’s easy to see why the mullahs would think that this is the perfect time to strike within the United States: if Masih Alinejad were ever abducted or killed, Joe will stumble and mumble through some paper-tiger statement and continue his indefatigable pursuit of a new Iranian nuclear deal. So for the mullahs, there is no downside to continuing to try to get her in their clutches. The only people who would pay a price, as always with Joe’s actions and inactions, are the free people of the world.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Leaked Government Intel Report says Iran Plotting to Murder Trump Inside the U.S.

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Iran has been quite public about wanting to do this, but nonetheless the questions remain: Who leaked it? Why? What was the objective?

“Iran plotting to kill Donald Trump in assassination plot, intelligence leak says,” by Rachel Hagan, Mirror, July 15, 2022:

Iran is plotting to kill or capture Donald Trump and his former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, according to a leaked US government intelligence report.

The Middle East nation is seeking to avenge the United States for the death of Major General Qassim Soleimani, a powerful Iranian commander, at the hands of a US drone strike two years ago.

The astonishing claim came from the latest National Counterterrorism Centre report that said the Iranian regime is “waging a multi-pronged campaign against select US officials”.

It said this includes threats of lethal action, international legal manoeuvring, and the issuance of Iranian arrest warrants and sanctions….

“Since January 2021, Tehran has publicly expressed a willingness to conduct lethal operations inside the United States and has consistently identified former President Donald Trump, former secretary of state Michael Pompeo, and former General Kenneth McKenzie as among its priority targets for retribution,” the report says according to Yahoo News.

It continued that Iran would likely view the killing or prosecution of a US official like Trump as an equivalent in rank and stature to Soleimani “or responsible for his death as successful retaliatory actions.”

Yahoo states that the report is marked with “Not for Public Release” and “For Official Use Only.”…

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

White House worried that Iran could obtain sufficient fissile material for a nuclear bomb in weeks

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Imagine where we would be if Biden’s handlers had spent the last fifteen months trying to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, instead of bending over backwards to appease the mullahs.

Corrected (Official) White House worried Iran could develop nuclear weapon in weeks

Reuters, April 26, 2022:

The White House is worried Iran could develop a nuclear weapon in weeks, press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday, after Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted earlier in the day the country has accelerated its nuclear program.

“Yes it definitely worries us,” Psaki said.

The White House clarified on Wednesday that although Psaki responded to a question about nuclear weapons, she was referring to the breakout time, which is the time it would take to obtain sufficient fissile material for one nuclear bomb, and was not referring to the production of an actual nuclear weapon.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Iran Issues Ramadan Attack Warning in Threat to Mideast Peace

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In an ominous warning to Israel and regional Sunni countries, Major General Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), on Wednesday threatened those nations that have “established political and security relations with the Zionist regime,” a reference to the Jewish State of Israel.

He added, “We explicitly declare and warn that the continuation of such relations is not acceptable at all.”

Coming three days before the start of Ramadan, the annual month of obligatory fasting and prayer for Muslims and one of the Five Pillars of Islam, the warning should be taken seriously by those specifically identified in Salami’s threat because Ramadan is also traditionally a time of Islamic terror attacks.

Those attacks may already have begun with a deadly spate of terrorism across Israel, in Be’ersheba, Hadera and Bnei Brak (just outside of Tel Aviv) that thus far have killed 11 people in the space of a single week. Assailants, two Arab-Israelis and the last one from the town of Ya’bad, near Jenin in Samaria, were armed with knives and guns, including an M-16 rifle, in the three attacks.

In HAMAS-ruled Gaza, sweets were handed out on the street to celebrate Israeli deaths, and in Lebanon, Hezbollah hailed the attacks with flags and music in the streets.

An official statement from Hezbollah referenced both the Abraham Accords indirectly and more specifically the tri-partite March 22 meeting of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the Egyptian resort of Sharm e-Sheikh with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and United Arab Emirates (UAE) Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, declaring that “All meetings of betrayal and the heights of normalization cannot give the enemy security.”

The fact that it was Maj. Gen. Salami, the IRGC commander, who issued the Iranian threat is significant, because it is the IRGC and its subordinate Qods Force unit that provide the support — arms, funding, training — for Islamic terror proxies across the Middle East.

The official statements coming from both Iran and HAMAS, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the wake of the Israel attacks indicate an orchestrated terror offensive, timed for the start of Ramadan. As Islamic doctrine obligates that a warning be given before attack, the Tehran regime is here putting Israel and the entire region on notice that this Ramadan, as others past, will be a violent one.

The Iranian regime understands that both within and outside of the Abraham Accords, key regional players, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Egypt, Sudan, Morocco and others are banding together with Israel in an unprecedented recognition of the threat from an aggressive and rapidly nuclearizing Iran.

Those expanding relationships with the hated Jews, as well as the centuries-old Sunni-Shi’ite split that leaves the Sunni Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in administrative charge of Islam’s Two Holy Places — Mecca and Medina — are what’s really “not acceptable at all” to the Shi’ite Twelvers who head both Iran and the IRGC/Qods Force.

It is especially incongruous that at precisely this time, in this atmosphere, the U.S. reportedly is considering removing the IRGC from the Department of State’s Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) list as one of a slew of concessions to Iran intended to revive the July 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal.

Indeed, indicative of the alarm such reports are invoking, recent articles in the Saudi press have labeled such efforts an “absurd” act and a “crime” that will threaten global security. Writing in the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat on March 22, Saudi journalist Abdullah bin Bijad al-Otaibi called the idea of revoking the IRGC’s terrorist designation “a direct threat and danger not only to the Arab states but to the entire world.”

Likewise writing in Al-Sharq Al Awsat, Saudi journalist Tariq al-Homayed drew the broader implications, stating that “Removing the IRGC from the terror list will grant Iran freedom of action in the region as part of a Russian-Chinese-Iranian alliance.”

As the seasons of Ramadan, Passover and the Christian Holy Week culminating with Easter on April 16 all coincide this year, it is urgent that we understand the explicit intent of the Iranian warning to Israel and the region. It is nothing less than a declaration of war against Israel and those regional people who are choosing the pathway of peace and reconciliation with it.

©Clare Lopez. All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: Death toll during the holy month of Ramadan 2022