Iranian Rally In Strasbourg Calls On Europe To List IRGC As Terrorists

The arrest comes after a very small amount of radioactive material was discovered by police on a package that arrived in Britain on December 29.

The package, which was reported to have originated in Pakistan, arrived at Heathrow airport on a flight from Oman. It was thought to have been sent to British-based Iranians, say the British media.

Although there is no public evidence of Iran being involved, some believe that whoever sent it might be testing weak points in British safeguards.

The 60-year-old suspect was apprehended in Cheshire in northwest England on Saturday and then released on bail, the Metropolitan Police said Sunday.

Met Counter Terrorism Commander Richard Smith stressed that there appears to be no direct threat to the public.

“The discovery of what was a very small amount of uranium within a package at Heathrow Airport is clearly of concern, but it shows the effectiveness of the procedures and checks in place with our partners to detect this type of material,” Smith said, adding “there is no linked direct threat to the public.”

Highly enriched uranium can be used to make a nuclear bomb, but the Met statement did not specify the uranium’s intended use.

Some experts told the media the uranium found is likely too inefficient to be used for bomb-making.

In a tweet published by exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, football legend Ali Karimi, British-Iranian actress and human rights activist Nazanin Boniadi, journalist and activist Masih Alinejad, and actress Golshifteh Farahani they said, “our request for the international community is clear: put the IRGC on the terrorist list.”

"For more than four decades, the IRGC has been terrorizing and killing civilians inside and outside Iran," the five prominent opposition figures said in their joint tweet.

In the meantime, diaspora Iranians in Europe are gathering in Strasbourg, France Monday in front of the European Parliament to call on European Union governments to include the IRGC in the list of terrorist groups.

Videos sent to Iran International show that Iranians opposing the Islamic Republic who live in various European cities are moving towards Strasbourg, the seat of the European Parliament.

Meanwhile, the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims, in a statement, supported the demand from the European Union to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization and declared that this organization is a terrorist one and should be recognized as such by the international community.

On January 8, 2020, the IRGC fired two missiles at a Ukrainian plane taking off from Tehran killing all its 176 passengers and crew.

Iran Daily, the formal government newspaper, on Saturday lashed out at the Sunni religious leader of Zahedan, near the border with Pakistan, claiming that Mowlavi Abdolhamid is trying to lead “riots”.

Iran daily also noted that the Friday Imam of Zahedan in the largely Sunni southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province continues to play his “destructive role against national security and unity”.

However, in its statement, the office of Mowlavi Abdolhamid said that after the September ‘Bloody Friday’ in Zahedan, “some inside and outside the country wanted to avenge the bloodshed, but the prominent leader has prevented that.”

The Bloody Friday took place September 30, when security forces killed around 100 people, and injured hundreds more as part of their crackdown on nationwide protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September.

As people congregated for prayers on that day, many began protesting against the government as people in more than 100 other cities were doing. As some approached the headquarters of security forces in the city, Revolutionary Guard troops opened fire, killing nearly 100 civilians.

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After the Bloody Friday of Zahedan, Mowlavi Abdolhamid held Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible and demanded the cancellation of death sentences for protesters. He also continued calling for justice and respect for the people, gaining support from non-Sunni Iranians.

“The officials of Iran newspaper apparently do not know or have forgotten that on September 30, a bloody massacre and an unprecedented crime took place in Zahedan, in which nearly 100 people - including a woman and several children - were killed by the direct fire of security forces while more than 300 people were also injured,” reads the statement.

“In a situation when it was expected the crime would be condemned by the country's high-ranking officials and the perpetrators be held accountable, so far the government has neither censured the killings nor taken a step towards arresting the perpetrators.”

In another part of the statement, the office of the prominent Sunni leader stated, “Not only the people were not provoked by Mowlavi Abdolhamid and the Makki Mosque officials, but they controlled them to a great extent to maintain security.”

At the end the statement tells the editorial staff of the Iran newspaper to “increase their knowledge about the Sunnis in Iran, especially the people of Sistan and Baluchestan and urge the officials of the Islamic Republic to serve justice to those officers who shot directly at people.”

Earlier in November, the hacktivist group Black Reward targeted the data servers of Fars news agency, a media network affiliated with the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guard, releasing several documents to media indicating that Khamenei is dismayed by Mowlavi Abdolhamid’s remarks.

The documents also revealed that instead of arresting or harming him, Khamenei ordered underlings to tarnish Abdolhamid’s reputation so that his influence would decrease among the Sunni population of the country.

Mohammad Sadr has said in an interview with reformist daily Etemad that he had warned the Supreme Council of National Security and the heads of the three branches of the government about the adverse effects of failing to lift the sanctions on Iran's economy.

Sadr further told Etemad: "[President Ebrahim] Raisi told me that he has ordered his men to go ahead and further the negotiations, but he also said that there is serious opposition to the JCPOA in Iran by some security forces, those who benefit from the sanctions, and those who do not understand foreign relations." 

Accusations that those who make money from sanctions by illicit trade or money laundering are not new, but it is the first time that Raisi has reportedly admitted it.

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Meanwhile, in an interview with moderate conservative website Khabar Online, another Expediency Council member Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghaddam has also called on the Iranian government to resume the talks with Western governments to revive the JCPOA as the sanctions prevent foreign investments in Iran.

Both political figures also talked about the impact of Iran's involvement in the war in Ukraine. Sadr said: "Iran's impartiality in the war in Ukraine has been questioned. Peoples and governments in other countries are opposing Iran. Iran's foreign policy has not been successful, and the country's international status is weakening." Sadr added that "Iran should watch out for further diplomatic and international sanctions. The situation for Iran is very dangerous at international level particularly after the executions that have taken place."

Mesbahi Moghaddam on the other hand said that Iran should seek concessions from Russia as Moscow needs Iran to open a corridor to facilitate foreign trade as a country that needs to circumvent international sanctions.

Sadr noted that the United States has even accused Iran of committing a war crime by giving drones to Russia. At the same time, he added that the continuation of protests in Iran and the execution of several protesters has led more foreign pressures on Tehran. All of this, he said, has made an agreement with the West harder than ever before. Sadr further described the situation as an all-out economic, political and propaganda war against Iran.

He also pointed out that the regime needs to bring about a series of reforms, otherwise, it would be hardly able to properly respond to the ensuing consequences. Sadr added that Iran needs to adopt a realistic foreign policy. He pointed out that Tehran’s negotiating team has lost many precious opportunities because of the wrong policies it has pursued so far.

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Politicians in Iran who criticize the government hardly ever mention that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has the last word in all major decisions, especially in foreign policy.

Sadr further pointed out that if the sanctions continue, the economic situation will worsen, and officials should stop the rhetoric about solving economic problems without an agreement over the nuclear program.

"I have talked about this with President Raisi and he is aware that a heavy pressure will be exerted on him if the problem of the JCPOA is not solved," he said, adding that some 30 percent of Iranians are already living in poverty. Some Iranians can no longer afford buying milk and fruits as inflation rises on a dayly basis.

He also warned that if executions and violation of human rights continue a dangerous international situation may occur for Iran and many countries might deport Iranian diplomats and recall their diplomats from Tehran. Meanwhile, the world public opinion has never been as seriously against the Islamic Republic as it is now.

On the other hand, Mesbahi Moghaddam charged that despite all the problems, the government in Iran has no plan or way out of the crisis. Explaining that some of his previous comments about this had annoyed government officials, he said: "What I meant was that the Raisi administration lacks a strategic vision.”

In a video sent to Iran International on Sunday, a woman is heard addressing Mohammad, who was hanged on January 7, telling him that he has numerous sisters now, while another woman is heard weeping in the background. 

"Dear Mohammed, my good brother, now you have so many sisters here, you are not alone anymore, we came from a far distance in this cold because you sacrificed your life for us, we all love you, you are in our hearts," the woman said. 

The 39-year-old – with no apparent family members -- was one of the loneliest victims of the regime’s crackdown, and his hanging drew massive reactions on social media, where Iranian can speak freely. Soon after his death, he became an icon of solitude in the face of the Islamic Republic’s oppression. His grave is regularly showered with flowers and people distribute food and sweets in the honor of their new hero, as is customary by bereaved families in Iran. There are numerous social media posts by people who visit his grave to show that he is not alone, saying all Iranians are his family.

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The regime hanged Hosseini along with Mohammad Mahdi Karami for allegedly killing a member of the security forces during nationwide protests that were triggered following the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody in September. The convictions were not based on a criminal charge related to the murder per se, but they were charged with ‘moharebeh’, meaning “war against God”, a vague religious concept. The Islamic Republic applies the charge to people who might get into a confrontation with security forces during protests. 

The executions led to condemnation by many countries and summoning of Islamic Republic envoys in several capitals, as well as a global outcry by politicians and human rights activists. Moreover, lawyers of the two young protesters say the judiciary executed them so hastily that there was no chance for legal follow-up on their cases.

So far, the government has executed four protesters and eleven others have received the death penalty, some for less serious charges than murder, while at least 109 protesters face charges that could end in death sentences for them, an Iranian human rights group based in Oslo has reported. The Iran Human Rights Organization said in its latest report that this figure is a minimum estimate as most families are under pressure to stay quiet, and the real number is believed to be much higher. According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), nearly 20,000 people have been arrested during the antigovernment rallies. 

While protests continue usually during the mourning ceremonies for the third, seventh and the 40th day after the death of protesters, the Islamic Republic is issuing death sentences, long prison terms and floggings to quell the revolt.

Earlier in the week, the judiciary announced that a court has sentenced three others to death for “war against God” in a case known in media as the "Khane-ye Esfahan." Three more were also sentenced to death in another case over antigovernment protests in the northern city of Nowshahr. One of them, Javad Rouhi, received three death sentences on charges of "corruption on earth" and "moharebeh" and "Apostasy through desecration of the Quran and other Islamic sanctities as well as burning the Quran.”

This week, branches of the revolutionary courts in different cities continued to issue heavy sentences against people detained during the protests. For example, Mehdi Sabzehparvar was given a five-year sentence, Nazli Saeedi was sentenced to two years ban from leaving the country as well as 15 months of prison, dentistry student Behzad Ghadiri was sentenced to 50 lashes in addition to more than three years of prison, and Amin Amanat was sentenced to four years on charges of "acting against national security" and "propaganda against the regime."