US Says 'All Options' On Table As Iran Nuclear Talks Remain Deadlocked

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency HRANA reported Tuesday that Arshia Takdastan, 18, arrested in Nowshahr, has been sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court in the northern city of Sari in Mazandaran province.

The charges that have led to the death sentence are “enmity with God” and “Corruption on earth,” both vague principles in Islamic law that the regime uses to issue death sentences. Some clerics have challenged the government for using these charges against dissidents.

He has also been sentenced to six years of prison on charges of “disrupting security and inciting people to kill each other”, as well as “propaganda against the institution”. He must also serve two years in prison for “insulting the Supreme Leader”.

According to this report, his accusations are related to the protests held on September 21 in Nowshahr.

HRANA quoted an informed person as saying that “the court issued its verdict based on an accusation that he threw a bottle and a stone at a police car."

The same court on Monday sentenced another 18-year-old protester Mehdi (Shayan) Mohammadifard, to double death.

HRANA said the political prisoner was deprived of the right to have a lawyer and in the absence of his chosen solicitor, the court accused him of "directing and planning" the protest rally on September 21 in Nowshahr.

An informed source close to Mohammadifard's family said, “all the confessions by the defendant during the interrogation were obtained under duress.”

Recently, French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has launched an international competition -- called "Mullahs Get Out" -- to produce caricatures of Khamenei, as a “symbol of backward-looking, narrow-minded, intolerant religious power.”

On Tuesday, French daily Le Monde published one of the cartoons, saying that Charlie Hebdo is publishing a special issue on the occasion of the eighth-year anniversary of the Paris terrorist attacks, mocking Khamenei in support of the protests in Iran. Charlie Hebdo has been the target of three terrorist attacks: in 2011, 2015, and 2020. All of them were presumed to be in response to a number of cartoons that it published controversially depicting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. In the 2015 attack, 12 people were killed. 

“The freedom to which every human being aspires is incompatible with the archaism of religious thought and with submission to every supposedly spiritual authority, of which Ali Khamenei is the most deplorable example,” Charlie Hebdo wrote. 

On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian censured the controversial French magazine Charlie Hebdo for publishing caricatures of Khamenei, warning of an “effective and decisive response.” The satirical magazine recently launched an international competition -- called "Mullahs Get Out" -- to produce caricatures of Khamenei, as a “symbol of backward-looking, narrow-minded, intolerant religious power.”

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As part of the special "January 7" issue, commemorating the anniversary of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack, the satirical weekly chose to support Iranian men and women and to "beat the mullahs," Le Monde said, adding that the paper was able to view 35 drawings selected from the 300 sent to the Charlie Hebdo editorial office, including from Iran, Turkey, the United States, Senegal and Australia. 

The magazine advised that a cartoon of Khamenei should be the "funniest and meanest" possible, noting that "Cartoonists and caricaturists have a duty to help support Iranians in their struggle as they fight for their freedom, by ridiculing this religious leader who represents the past and casting him into history’s garbage bin.”

“One cartoon shows Khamenei being punched with the slogan 'Women, Life, Freedom,' while another depicts a mullah being crushed under a heel. Among the very political drawings, the supreme leader is also depicted as Marilyn Monroe, whose dress is lifted by the wind of the headscarves that women have freed themselves from. In another, armed with stones, they pommel him,” Le Monde described some of the works.

Since the beginning of the current wave of protests in mid-September, Charlie Hebdo also published other cartoons of Khamenei, one of which prompted the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Ministry to summon the French chargé d'affaires in Tehran. In the cartoon, Khamenei is depicted with bloody hands and a turban and an attire with the logo of clothing manufacturing company Nike and its motto: Just Do It. 

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The landscape of Iranians’ protests against the regime has never been this openly full of insults and slogans against the country’s ruler. Chanting “Death to the Dictator” and “Death to Khamenei” was still a taboo until very recently even during the protests. But now, making fun of the authorities and even the dead ones – which is extremely frowned upon in Iranian society – has become a common way of protests. 

In December, a famous Iranian actor lashed out at Khamenei saying at least try to be a “personable dictator”. He compared Khamenei with other dictators such as Francisco Franco, Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini, saying he is “mentally ill” just like his “colleagues”.

January 3 marks the death anniversary of the commander of IRGC’s Quds (Qods) Force -- a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations. He was one the most revered figures of the Islamic regime and was killed in a drone strike ordered by former President Donald Trump. His body was so mutilated in the explosion that many social media users described him as a “Cutlet” after his death, an Iranian dish resembling hamburgers mixed with potatoes. Despite extravagant ceremonies to honor his memory, Iranians are burning his banners and statues all over the country and even named January 3 as World Cutlet Day. 

At the first meeting of the wider, 31-person cabinet, Netanyahu said he would “work more vigorously to prevent Iranian-military entrenchment in Syria and elsewhere” and that he would step up opposition to efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Some Israeli media play up a warm relationship between Netanyahu and United States President Biden, arguing the Israeli prime minister has little to fear over JCPOA revival. Israel Hayom, the free Israeli newspaper owned by the family of US Republican Party ‘kingmaker’ Sheldon Adelson, claimed Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, told new Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in a 40-minute phone-call that the JCPOA was finished, and that the US wanted the European Union to step up sanctions against Iran.

A leading member of the 11-member security cabinet – Itamar Ben Gvir, the national security minister and leader of Otzma Yehudi (Jewish Power) – earlier in the day visited the Temple Mount, sparking memories of the September 2000 visit by Ariel Sharon that led to the so-called second Palestinian intifada. The site, which contains both the temple and the al-Aqsa Mosque, has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 war.

European Union foreign policy chief continued efforts in December over the JCPOA, meeting Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Jordan, and the EU now faces a quandary heightened by several European countries sanctioning Iran over its dealing with current unrest or military links with Russia.

US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions on Iran were introduced in 2018 when former President Donald outlined a range of demands of Iran, including ending any uranium enrichment and stopping support for militant proxy groups. But while the sanctions badly affected Iran’s economy, Tehran rejected the US demands and has increased its nuclear program beyond JCPOA limits.

‘The sphere of global opinion’

While Europe welcomed Biden’s commitment, on taking office in 2021, to restore the JCPOA, neither multilateral talks with world powers nor bilateral US-Iran contacts have bridged gaps. While Biden has continued the sanctions ostensibly to secure JCPOA revival, it emerged in December that he had in November described the JCPOA as “dead.”

While the latest Israeli military intelligence report favors efforts to reach an international agreement over Tehran’s nuclear program, Netanyahu, who has argued since the 1990s that Iran was close to acquiring a nuclear weapon, told the cabinet Tuesday that Israel would work not only “with leaders behind closed doors but strongly and openly in the sphere of global opinion” to prevent the remaining “possibility” that the JCPOA could be revived. “Global opinion” was “now aware of the true dangers posed by Iran – the Iranian regime that is killing innocent citizens in and outside Iran,” he said.

The Times of Israel reported that even if Likud Party members on the security cabinet “watered down” the influence of Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism Party, this was still “among the most hawkish the country has ever known, reflecting the radical-right makeup of the new government.” During his Knesset tenure Ben Gvir set up an office in Sheikh Jarrah quarter, Jerusalem, where Palestinian Christians are resisting eviction, and has called on Israeli police to open fire on protestors.

While media attention in Israel is focused on Netanyahu’s plans for judicial reform or his promise of a broad front against Iran, Palestinian parties are concerned that the new government will speed up and extend Jewish settlements in the West Bank. United Nations experts in December condemned “rampant Israeli settler violence and excessive use of force by Israeli forces,” and the UN General Assembly last Friday voted to seek an opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s highest court, on Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

Mehran Basir Tawana, a 29-year-old athlete from Foman, was shot on November 16 on the anniversary of those who were killed in 2019 protests.

One of his relatives, whose identity cannot be revealed due to security reasons, told Iran International that "On November 16, Mehran got out of work with his friend to go shopping. On the way back, he saw a group of government agents beating an old woman."

"Mehran got out of the car to talk to the security forces very calmly to convince them not to beat her, but when he wanted to help the old lady to get out of the area, a commander of IRGC shot him in the back of the head, at a distance of almost one meter…,” he added.

According to this informed person, Mehran Basir Tawana was taken to hospital by other people, but three days later he succumbed to his injuries in Rasht hospital.

During a memorial ceremony for Mehran a few days later, those present chanted slogans against the Islamic Republic, and after that, the threats and harassment of other family members begin.

According to the source, at the same time one of the family members, who only published stories about Mehran's death, was arrested and has been tortured for more than a month.

Iranian human rights groups abroad monitoring the protests report that more than 500 civilians, including 64 children and 34 women, have been killed during since unrest began after the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September.

Halvash website that covers Baluchestan events said the operation was jointly carried out by the Ministry of Intelligence, the Revolutionary Guard, and the provincial police forces while the detainees have been transferred to an unknown place.

IRNA news agency quoted an “informed source” saying the detainees were “criminals and armed robbers of Zahedan."

However, activists say almost 30 were arrested in a sports field in Karimabad region of Zahedan.

Within the past thirteen weeks, Zahedan, a Sunni Baluch city, has been the scene of weekly protests against the regime on Fridays.

The Bloody Friday in Zahedan took place September 30, when security forces killed at least 93 people, and injured hundreds more as civilians protested.

The US-based Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported Monday that at least 516 people, including 70 children have been killed by the regime forces during the nationwide protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September.

While the Islamic Republic has not provided accurate figures of those detained in the protests, the watchdog went on to say that at least 19,204 protesters have been arrested including 687 students.

HRANA added that 161 cities and more than 144 universities across Iran have also been the scenes of anti-government protests.