Ex-Iran Detainee Enters Dispute Over British ‘Gold To Tehran’

Despite the Biden administration slowing down the deal, a senior American official overseeing arms exports has told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Washington remains committed.

Mira Resnick, a deputy US assistant secretary of state in the Biden administration, also told the AP at the Dubai Air Show that Gulf Arab partners aren't looking to purchase weapons from Russia as a hedge over American concerns about human rights in the region.

That's even as a high-level Russian delegation met Tuesday with Abu Dhabi's powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, at an air show prominently featuring Moscow's competitor to the F-35, the Sukhoi Su-75 Checkmate.

"The F-35 is already in this region, whether it's Israelis flying the F-35, whether it's American F-35," Resnick said. "We would like the UAE to be able to operate the F-35 in a way that (they) can be our security partners and to deter threats, including from Iran."

The proposed sale of 50 F-35s came at the end of President Donald Trump's administration, rising out of a deal that saw the UAE recognize Israel.

The $23 billion sale also included armed drones and other defense equipment sought by the Emirates, a hereditarily ruled federation of seven sheikhdoms also home to Dubai.

After President Joe Biden came into office, his new administration put the arms sale and others on hold, in part over criticism of the UAE and Saudi Arabia over their yearslong war in Yemen, which has sparked the world's worst humanitarian crisis and rages on today.

Only Israel flies the F-35 in the region, part of its so-called "qualitative edge" granted by America after Israel fought several wars against its Arab neighbors since its founding.

Resnick said she'd heard no concerns from Israel or other allies over the F-35 sale to the Emirates, saying "We are fully committed to the F-35 and transferring the F-35, which is a game changer for the Emiratis."

"We are working with them as we speak to make sure that there are clarifications to the various assurances that were made to the previous administration."

Biden himself pledged during his campaign to make Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a "pariah" after US intelligence agencies said they believe he ordered the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

"We have worked with with Saudi Arabia to make sure that they are able to defend themselves. We know that there are complications in... this relationship and in relationships around the globe," Resnick said.

"But we continue to reinvest and make sure that they can invest in their own defense."

Russia similarly has sought to make an impression at the show, flying a new attack helicopter and showing off the Checkmate fighter jet in a music-video-style presentation to journalists on the tarmac.

But Resnick dismissed that effort, saying "we have not seen any strategic competitor be able to fill the kind of role that we play here in the region."

Report by AP

The banned writers’ group said in a statement, “The foundations [of the Islamic Republic] rest on imprisonments, killings and elimination of dissidents, intellectuals and protesters.”

On the second day of widespread protests in mid-November 2019, Iranian security forces opened fire on demonstrators in many cities killing and injuring thousands. Estimates range from 300 to more than 1,500 fatalities. No one has been held responsible and many detained protesters have been tortured and sentenced to prison.

The IWA said that the government has continued persecution of the families of those killed in protests since December 2017, to prevent them from seeking justice. The statement went to say that today even the most optimistic and gullible people have realized that there is no chance for change and reforms.

Members of IWA who meet in secret, having been stripped of their headquarters, also condemned the government for increasing poverty in the country, saying current policies are destroying Iran’s social fabric.

In a statement on Tuesday, UANI, based in the United States, said it suspected that APT35, also known as Charming Kitten, a well-known Iranian hacking group launched a series of cyberattacks, “Specifically targeting its leadership and members of its Advisory Board.”

UANI CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace was quoted as saying, “Those responsible managed to procure data outside of the public realm, impersonated our leadership in communications with former senior officials of the US government, and attempted to harvest Gmail credentials.”

He added that UANI took immediate action upon discovering these attacks “and has notified the relevant law enforcement authorities to request a criminal investigation.”

The group urged the authorities to investigate the incidents and for the US “to enhance its cyber security cooperation with its friends and allies. UANI further urges the Biden Administration to impose fresh economic sanctions against those responsible.”

UANI added that such attacks will not deter it “from achieving its goal of ensuring the regime fails in its pursuit of nuclear weapons, ends its support for terrorism, and stops its oppression of the Iranian people.”

Farhadi wrote the statement in response to a remark by one of the IRGC's filmmaking organization that previously funded a number of Iranian movies. The official had said: "Farhadi is an intelligent filmmaker. He behaves in a way to please both the government and those who are outside the government," in a way accusing Farhadi of hypocrisy.

This comes while some film critics in Iran and abroad have accused Farhadi of showing the Islamic Republic in a good light to please the ruling mullahs. In his latest film that has been nominated by the government as Iran's entry for the Academy Award, Farhadi showed Iranian prisons in a way the critics described as beautifying a violent regime.

Farhadi said he has no problem if the government decides to pull his film, A Hero, out of the competition for an academy award. He has already won two academy awards for his films A Separation (best foreign language film screenplay in 2012) and Salesman (best foreign language film in 2017). A Hero won the Grand Prix in Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

He told the IRGC official: "I should say very clearly that I hate you!" adding "How can you deceitfully link me to a government whose hardliners have done everything to tarnish my image?" Farhadi also said he has already declared his views about the downing of a passenger aircraft by the IRGC in 2020 and the murdering of protesters in 2019 as well as causing the death of thousands of Iranians by ignoring their need for vaccines against COVID-19. However, he did not say where he publicized his views about these atrocities. Critics had previously lashed out at him for not expressing his views on these matters.

Meanwhile, the renowned filmmaker revealed for the first time that his passport was repeatedly confiscated at the Tehran airport and asked once again, "How can you link me to a government that has said many times that I had better not return to Iran." It is still not clear whether Farhadi released this statement from abroad or he is in Iran, in which case it could entail punishment by the regime.

Addressing the IRGC official, Farhadi said: "I have never had any sympathy with your backward thoughts and approaches and have never needed to be praised by you. While you have accused me for years of portraying Iran disparagingly, now some others are alleging that I am beautifying the regime."

He added: "If you think nominating my film as Iran's entry for anAcademy Award brings me under your flag, I declare very clearly that I have no problem with withdrawing my film from the competition."

Farhadi added that he regrets that his decision to remain in Iran and make films in Iran has led to the belief that he is a hypocrite. He also promised that he will soon speak out clearly about the other controversies surrounding himself and his movies.

Some two months ago, referring to the way the Iranian government handled the COVID-19 pandemic, Farhadi said the people are angry that "the system" has not taken any decision to improve people's lives. He told the US movie publication Hollywood Reporter that Iranians will never forgive the ban on importing of US and UK-made vaccines.

The Islamic Republic of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei banned the purchase of American and British vaccines in January, and his decision reportedly led to thousands of avoidable deaths.

The trial of Hamid Noury (Nouri), ex-judicial official, over alleged involvement in Iran’s 1988 prison executions has begun hearings in Albania with testimony on the part played by President Ebrahim Raisi.

The sessions, which started August 10 in Stockholm, moved to Albania to question members of the opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), who were relocated by the United States after the post-2003 government in Baghdad objected to the presence in Iraq of the armed group, which had been allied to Saddam Hussein.

Six judges, two prosecutors, and the lawyer of 60-year-old Noury all travelled to Duress, Albania. Noury, who was arrested in Sweden in November 2019, is being tried there under a principle of universal jurisdiction and attended Wednesday’s sessions through videoconferencing.

Akbar Samadi, an MEK member, told the court he had been arrested in 1981, aged 14, when a sympathizer of the group. By summer 1988, Samadi had been in prison for seven years serving a ten-year sentence, and Raisi was Tehran deputy prosecutor.

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"Raisi … took me to an empty room,” Samadi told the court. “He ordered me to denounce armed uprising. I told him I was shorter than a G-3 battle rifle [a German-made automatic weapon] when I was arrested…Then Raisi told me to denounce a Kurdish party, the Komala, and I protested that I was neither a Kurd nor belonged to the Komala. He got angry and threw me out of the room and sent me to the death corridor.”

Calling out names

Samadi said after being pressed by a commission of interrogators on four occasions he agreed to a televised interview to denounce the MEK. He also alleged that Noury, known as Hamid Abbasi to prisoners, was responsible for calling out victims' names and taking them to be executed.

In his first press conference as president-elect, on June 21, Raisi replied to questions about the 1988 executions that those accusing him were “guilty themselves” and that foreign powers were harboring "17,000 murderers" who had killed Iranian officials, a reference to MEK bombings and other attacks killing Iranian officials and others.

Noury, the only former Iranian official to face trial for the 1988 executions, has denied all allegations and claims he was on paternity leave at the time.

MEK members were the main victims of the 1988 prison executions, with a lower number of executions of leftists. The MEK has claimed 30,000 members died, and in 2019 launched a booklet Crimes Against Humanity naming 5,000.

In 2016, nearly 30 years after the massacres and seven years after his death, the family of Hossein-Ali Montazeri published an audiotape from a meeting with senior judges in which Montazeri condemned the executions. Montazeri, who had been removed as designated successor of then Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini after protesting the executions, said between 2,800 and 3,800 MEK were killed.

Raisi’s election as president in June sparked interest in his role in the executions. Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, immediately demanded that the United Nations Human Rights Council investigate him for crimes against humanity.