WHY ARE SUPPRESSION AND ARRESTS RAMPING UP IN IRAN?

WHY ARE SUPPRESSION AND ARRESTS RAMPING UP IN IRAN?

INU - According to reports obtained from inside Iran, the past months have seen a spike in arrests and executions. In fear of mass anti-state protests similar to those that took place in 2009, the regime has resorted to raid the homes of political and human rights activists in Iran, especially the supporters of the main resistance group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

This happens against the backdrop of a widespread campaign in Iran condemning the regime’s three-decade-long crimes in the country’s prisons, especially the massacre of 30 thousand political prisoners in the summer of 1988.

One of the more recent cases is that of Majid Assadi, 34, who lives in Karaj, 40 km west of Tehran. Holding a degree in economics from the Alameh Tabatabai University, Assadi is a student activist, former political prisoner, and a supporter of the MEK.

On February 18, 2017 agents of the Ministry or Intelligence and Security (MOIS) arrested Assadi after they violently broke into his father’s home in Karaj.

The ten armed MOIS agents arrested Assadi and ransacked his house without any warrant.

At the time of the arrest, the agents also harmed Assadi’s ailing father, who had just undergone a liver implant surgery as part of his cancer treatment.

The agents handcuffed Assadi in front of his family and interrogated his family in his presence to torment him. They then confiscated all of his personal belongings, including his personal computer, phone and books.

Assadi was subsequently transferred to the Karaj intelligence office, and from there to Evin prison’s ward 209, where political prisoners are held. He spent 50 days in solitary confinement, under severe mental pressure and interrogations.

Since the time of his arrest, Assadi has been held in a state of limbo. After lingering in wards 209 and 240, he was transferred to Gohardasht prison in recent weeks.

According to the latest reports, Assadi is now in , and his case remains unsettled.

In 2008, Assadi was arrested for attending a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary of the 1999 student protests in Tehran. Assadi was held in solitary confinement for 52 days.

In 2010 he was given a four-year prison sentence. His appeal request was rejected, and he was imprisoned from 2011 to 2015.

At present, Majid Assadi’s family have called on human rights organizations and other relevant international bodies to help save his life and deliver him from the dungeons of the Iranian regime, where human rights activists are executed and tortured to keep the mullahs in power.

IRAN'S "WAR AGAINST TERRORISTS" SHOULD NOT DECEIVE THE WEST

INU - It was recently announced that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards fired mid-range missiles from western Iran into the Deir-es-Zour region of eastern Syria. Allegedly, this was a response to a “war against terrorists”. However, even before the missile strike, the Iranian authorities were using the June 7th terrorist attack on the Iranian parliament building and the mausoleum of Islamic Republic founder Ruhollah Khomeini to portray themselves as both an opponent of, and target for, global terrorism.

Alejo Vidal-Quadras, former vice-president of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2014 and current president of the Brussels-based International Committee in Search of Justice (ISJ) writes in his article for Euractiv, that “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has said that “the founder and the number one state sponsor of terror is trying the switch the place of murderer and victim and portray as such the central banker of terrorism. The real victims of these vicious actions are the innocent people killed or wounded that deserve indeed our solidarity, and not the most cruel and oppressive regime of the planet.”

Vidal-Quadras says that her statement places this “in the context of a broader Iranian project of trying to overcome the country’s economic and political isolation without compromising on its violent and destabilising activities in the region and the world.”

The Iranian regime’s response to the Tehran attacks is linked to the lightly enforced 2015 nuclear agreement that enforced restrictions on country’s nuclear enrichment program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

The agreement encouraged a number of European policymakers and business leaders to begin expanded relations with the Islamic Republic, despite the failure to address such items as the moderation of Iranian human rights behavior and tensions between the Islamic Republic and the West.

Many of the advocates of trade deals and normalization may view the Tehran attacks with favor. Vidal-Quadras poses that this may be used as justification: “If Iran is a target for ISIS, they might argue, surely it can also be an asset in helping to defeat the Sunni terrorist group. If that’s the case, what harm could come of doing business with Iran and providing its government with an economic boost as its fight aids in the defeat of terrorists?”

The recent ISIS attacks change nothing about the Iranian regime’s history, ideology, or conduct. Since the 1979 popular revolution, that regime, and in particular its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), has been a force behind Islamic extremism. He says, “Sometimes it has even fuelled Sunni extremism by encouraging the alienation of Sunni populations overall, as it has done in the ISIS hotbeds of Syria and Iraq, where Shiite militants with the IRGC’s backing run roughshod over the country.”

But most important is that many of these militant groups have been accused of human rights violations.

The international community must remember that any expansion in economic, political, or security cooperation with Tehran will be a deal with a regime that represses the Iranian people, and executed dissidents and activists, including 30,000 political prisoners, mostly from the opposition group PMOI (MEK), in the summer of 1988.

Iran’s record will be explained on July 1st, when the NCRI holds its annual Iran Freedom rally in Paris to endorse regime change. Hundreds of European and American politicians will attend the event, as well as tens of thousands of expat Iranians. The US and its global partners will be urged to blacklist the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.

“The task thereafter will be to convince Western governments to set policy in accordance with the notion that Middle Eastern conflicts should not be competitions between two factions of extremists, but rather between extremism as a whole and the moderate Muslims who advocate for true democracy and freedom in their homelands,” Vidal-Quadras concludes.

NEWS : IRANIAN OPPOSITION

PRESIDENT MACRON: IRAN IS NO PARTNER TO FRANCE

INU - On June 17, 14 years ago, the French anti-terror police raided offices of the Iranian main opposition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and its principle member, the Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK, near Paris. Hundreds were arrested and building were torn down.

The expressed explanation for the drastic measure was “terrorism”. It turned out, they found nothing but a group of unarmed exiles and political refugees whom their only crime was trying to expose a tyrannical theocratic regime that ruled their country for decades.

It was further revealed that the then government of France had entered a shameful deal with the terrorist regime ruling Iran to raid the offices of its democratic opposition in return for more trade contracts.

The MEK was ultimately cleared of all charges, with the investigating judge reaching the conclusion that MEK has been engaged in a legitimate struggle against repression.

The MEK was vindicated but left an eternal shame for those who were engaged in sacrificing France’s reputation as the cradle for human rights for a few commercial deals with a terrorist regime.

Nowadays, the Iranian mullahs’ regime is being recognized as the source and main supporter of terrorism around the world and specifically in the Middle East.

The MEK Struggle

For over three decades the MEK and its supporters have been struggling to bring freedom and democracy to Iran.

The MEK members have been the pioneers in the struggle to realize the desire of the Iranian people to end the mullahs’ dictatorship in their country and replace it with a democratic government.
World governments increasingly come to realize the result of what is now known as the “rapprochement policy” towards the Iranian mullahs.

The carnage in Syria and crimes against humanity committed by Bashar Assad and the Iranian regime is one example of the outcome of the policy of appeasement.

Today, the MEK is increasingly gaining ground as a legitimate and strong solution and alternative to the Iranian rulers.

The MEK message is that the world no longer has to put up with a government that supports terrorism and threatens other nations by building nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles.

Today, the MEK constitutes a strong force in the Iranian people’s struggle for democracy and freedom. That is so while over 100,000 members and sympathizers of the MEK have been executed by the clerical regime during the past four decades.

The MEK has called on world governments to stand with the Iranian people’s desire to end mullahs’ regime and bring peace and stability to the region.

The MEK’s network in Iran has in recent months extensively increased its activities inside Iran. A major movement for seeking justice for victims of mass executions by the Iranian regime has formed in Iran. In particular the movement is seeking justice for victims of 1988 massacre of political prisoners, most of whom were members and supporters of the MEK.

The strength of the movement in support of the MEK has sent shockwaves through the Iranian regime. Almost every day state run media are writing about the MEK in a futile attempt to demonize the MEK.

The mullahs are using the same method, disinformation, by their lobbyist or agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) to demonize the MEK in order to confront growing recognition of the MEK as a leading democratic force for change in Iran.

MEK And Europe

A large number of members of the MEK, were moved to Europe last year, mostly to Albania under the direct supervision of the United Nations.

According to Albanian media since the relocation to Albania, many American and European dignitaries and representatives have paid visits to the group, expressing their support for the MEK and its cause.

To name a few, US senator John McCain, Ambassador John Bolton, Gilbert Mitterrand, a French parliamentary delegation, as well as Members of European Parliament visited the MEK members at their new home in Tirana just recently in 2017.

Every year around this time, the Iranian diaspora supporting the democratic coalition of National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), in which the MEK is a member organization, holds a large gathering in Paris, France as the annual gathering of Iranians seeking freedom and democracy in their homeland.

The Beginning Of Resistance

The month of June also marks the beginning of the massive, all out, crackdown on the Iranian opposition some thirty six years ago.

On June 21, 1981 the regime then Supreme leader called on the notorious Revolutionary Guards to open fire on the peaceful demonstration organized by the MEK.

A massive crackdown and execution rampage that was staged by the mullahs soon after, forced many Iranians including the MEK and its supporters into exile. That was the start of the resistance movement which is today recognized as the main opposition to the Iranian regime.

Paris Rally: The Call For Regime Change In Iran

In recent years, the Rally held in Paris, brings in tens of thousands of supporters to France calling for regime change in Iran and the establishment of a non-religious and elected government in that country.

Many world-recognized dignitaries and high officials have attended the gathering in the past as they will do so this year to extend support and solidarity with the Iranian voices for freedom.

The key-note speaker of the event last year was, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance, who has led the movement during the hard years of exile.

The Rapprochement Policy

The rapprochement policy may have secured some commercial contracts for EU countries, yet it has brought nothing but more terrorism and agony for the EU citizens.

The policy has brought more executions and oppression for the Iranian people and the MEK specifically.

And the policy has resulted in no true resolution to the rogue actions of the mullahs. On the contrary, the rapprochement policy has emboldened the mullahs in taking the world hostage for political ransom.

The Iranian mullahs openly support acts of terrorism throughout the world by supporting groups such as Hezbollah. Their Revolutionary Guards corps is actively involved in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and other parts of the region. The Iranian officials have openly confirmed involvement in fatal attacks on US and Western personnel in Iraq.

Just recently, 265 members of the European parliament singed a statement calling for the blacklisting of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.

The statement also calls for a commission for inquiry into massacre of political prisoners in Iran. The Iranian regime went on a rampage killing over 30,000 political prisoner following the eight-year war with Iraq in the summer of 1988.

The majority of those fallen victim to the executions where members and supporters of the MEK.

MEK – Blowing The Cap Off Mullahs’ Nuclear Program

Many world parliamentarians and high-officials have recognized and commended the MEK as the original revealers of the Iranian regime’s nuclear development program - revelations that have come with great sacrifice from the part of MEK supporters inside the country.

We may never know but the MEK may have in fact saved the world from complete destruction by preventing a state-sponsor of terrorism from becoming armed with nuclear weapons.

And The Paris Rally

As the yearly rally by the Iranian opposition nears – planned for 1 July, 2017 – France will once again be at center stage of a peaceful but very significant gathering of not only Iranians but world dignitaries who care deeply about peace and security in the Middle East and the world over.

This is a gathering against extremism and advocating tolerance.

In this respect, MEK is the political force, which rejects extremism under the name of religion, advocates gender equality and separation of religion and state and in short advocates a democratic and tolerant Islam.

European leaders including President Macron who has just formed its government after a landslide victory in the Parliamentary election are expected to stand firm vis-à-vis the extremism whether it is originated by ISIS or the mullahs’ regime who are called by Iranian people as the Godfather of the ISIS.

The world is watching European leaders at this critical juncture to stand with their principles and not some petty economic interests. History will judge them.