Iran Nuclear Deal Distracts From Regime Crimes Against Humanity

October 18, 2020; by Homeira Hesami, Issues & Insights

Long before the current United Nations General Assembly, it was well-understood that Iran policy would feature prominently in high-level debate. Iranians inside and outside the country were looking forward to it. But they recognized that the focus would most likely be far too narrow, with little bearing upon their efforts to secure a democratic, secular and non-nuclear future.

Leading Western powers have remained heavily preoccupied with the fallout from President Donald Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA). The international community’s single-minded focus on Tehran’s nuclear program has been detrimental to the Iran policy because it ignores key dimensions of the regime.

Read more...

UN Must Investigate Iran's Major Crimes

September 23, 2020; by Ken Blackwell, CNS News 

In 1988, when Iran’s rulers brutally executed potentially more than 30,000 political prisoners, including teenagers and pregnant women, the world community kept silent. In fact, to this date, the United Nations (UN) has not formally investigated this unprecedented crime against humanity.

Students of history know that the case was raised at the time but the diplomatic community refused to pay due attention and did not hold the ayatollahs accountable for what a number of experts have described as the worst crime against humanity in the second half of the 20th century for political convenience. And history has proven that was a major mistake with grave consequences for the Iranian people.

Read more...

The UN Failed to Address Iran's Crimes Against Humanity, It's Time For Western Democracies to Step In

August 3, 2020; by Taher Boumedra, Town Hall

U.S. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus on July 17 called on the international community to conduct independent investigations into the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran, and to provide accountability and justice.

Following a fatwa handed down by Ayatollah Khomeini, then the regime’s supreme leader, in mid-July 1988, over several months more than 30,000 political prisoners, primarily affiliated with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), were secretly mass executed after mock trials that lasted just five minutes. Their corpses were doused with disinfectant, packed in refrigerated trucks, and buried at night in mass graves across the country.

Read more...

What do Republicans and Democrats Find Common Ground On These Days? Promoting Democracy In Iran

June 28, 2020; by Majid Rafizadeh, The National Interest

Democracy for Iran is one cause that effortlessly unites the left and the right in unprecedented ways.

Bipartisan agreement in U.S. politics is extremely rare these days. But democracy for Iran is one cause that effortlessly unites the left and the right in unprecedented ways. On Wednesday, senior lawmakers from both parties joined leaders of Iranian-American communities in a Congressional briefing to introduce House Resolution 374.

The bipartisan resolution, endorsed by a strong majority in the House, condemns Iranian state-sponsored terrorism and expresses unambiguous support for the Iranian people’s desire for a democratic, secular, and non-nuclear republic in Iran.

Read more...

Iran’s gamble of military provocations for concessions is not working on Trump

April 26, 2020; by Michael Pregent, Alarabiya 

Iran’s recent military provocations against the US and its western allies in the Gulf are straight out of Tehran’s old strategic playbook: provocations for concessions, and military adventurism designed to prop up the regime’s image at home while deliberately stopping short of an escalation that would lead to a devastating response from the US and its allies.

But even after the US killed its most senior commander Qassem Soleimani in January, the regime in Tehran still doesn’t seem to understand that the rules of the game are changing.

In the past week, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy have harassed US Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz, its militias in Iraq have threatened to attack US bases, and the government launched a military satellite using ballistic technology that is tied to its weapons program.

Read more...