پول ملت ایران کجا می رود ؟
#ایران_بریفینگ /در حالی که بسیاری از کودکان و دانش‌آموزان ایرانی در مدارس غیر استاندارد و غیر ایمن و حتی در چادر و کپر مشغول تحصیل هستند، جمهوری اسلامی و برای پوشش تروریست‌ها و جاسوسان #نیروی_قدس #سپاه_پاسداران برای افزایش نفوذ سیاسی و ایدئولوژیک خود، مدارس و مراکز فرهنگی را در کشورهای دور و نزدیک ساخته است.
در این ویدئو، یک شهروند ایرانی از مقابل مدرسه‌ای بزرگ در امارات متحده عربی می‌گوید این مدارس محل آموزش جاسوس و تروریست توسط رژیم ایران است.

#iranbriefing/ While many students in Iranian schools are studying under unregulated and unsafe conditions, sometimes even in tents or outdoors, the Islamic Republic has built many schools and cultural centers in other countries in order to increase its political and ideological influence.

‏In the video, an Iranian citizen standing in front of a big school in Emirates says that such schools are espionage/terrorism-training bases for the Islamic Republic.

#ثروت_مردم_ایران
@Irbriefing

Senior IRGC Officer Says Houthis Will Take ‘Revenge’ From Saudis
The logistics deputy of Iran’s Qods (Quds) Force, Mohammad Emamgholi, has suggested that Yemen’s Houthis should take revenge on Saudi Arabia for the deaths of over 400 Iranian pilgrims in Mecca five years ago, which Tehran blamed on the Saudi authorities.

Emamgholi was speaking on October 1 at a gathering to honor Iranians among over 2,000 people killed in a stampede in 2015 during the annual Hajj pilgrimage. He said revenge was needed also for Riyadh’s role in trying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

The speech offered an insight into the views of a leading current commander in the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), of which the Qods Force is an extra-territorial special force. In addition to supervising Iranian forces advising and assisting Assad’s units, the Qods Force has recruited tens of thousands of Afghans, Iraqis and Pakistanis to supplement Assad’s armies. It has also coordinated with the Lebanese group, Hezbollah, which has been heavily involved in Syria(link is external).

Emamgholi argued that “defending Syria is defending the Islamic Republic.” While “a lot of blood” had been shed by Iranians, Afghans, Syrian and Iraqis in the Syrian war, Emamgholi insisted that “from a strategic point of view… if the Islamic State [group, known as Daesh or Isis] had been able to set up a government, it would have definitely attacked Iran.”

Emamgholi’s speech reflects the shifting justifications of Iranian officials over their involvement in Syria, which originally was said to be defending Shia shrines. When ‘Arab Spring’ protests began against Assad in Syria in 2010, there was no Islamic State. Subsequent Iranian media reports have illustrated the IRGC’s early involvement, even before the situation flared into a full-blown civil war.

Emamgholi played down the pressures against Iran – which include draconian United States sanctions - that have grown with its enhanced regional role. He said that while Iran’s current economic difficulties would end, “the Islamic Republic” had become popular in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, a popularity that would help reach “the lofty goals of the Islamic Revolution.”

Deteriorating relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with the two countries severing relations in 2016, have resulted in part from taking different sides in Syria, where the Saudis have backed the mainly Sunni opposition to Assad, a long-term Iranian ally. But Emamgholi’s suggestion that the Houthis – who are fighting a Saudi-backed government in Yemen – were the only force capable of avenging the deaths of Iranian pilgrims marks an unusually blunt identification between Tehran and the Yemeni group.
#iran #saudiarabia #houthis #Syria #iranianrevenge
@irbriefing

Protests In Two Iranian Cities In Support Of Azerbaijan
Images on social media Thursday evening showed protests in Tehran and Tabriz in support of the Republic of Azerbaijan in its military conflict with Armenia.
The videos show protesters chanting “(Nagorno-) Karabakh is ours, it will remain ours” and “Karabakh or death” in Azeri language.
There were also some clashes between the protesters and the security forces that tried to disperse the crowd.
On Wednesday, the organizers had published posters on social media calling for gatherings to protest in support of Azerbaijan.
At the same time, several representatives of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, in four of Azeri-majority provinces of Iran released a joint statement in support of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Representatives of Ali Khamenei in East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan Zanjan, and Ardebil said in the statement that there is no doubt that Karabakh belongs to the Republic of Azerbaijan and it has been occupied and must be returned to Azerbaijan.
Calling Azerbaijani casualties in the war “martyrs,” the statement highlighted Iran’s consistent support for the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan. “The occupation of Azerbaijan [by Armenia] would have extended to Baku [the Azerbaijani capital] if it weren’t for the support of the Islamic Republic when Karabakh was first occupied,” they said, referring to Armenia’s intervention in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The statement goes on to say that Iran has “generously” granted access to Nakhchivan road to Azerbaijan.
The media of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Iran’s pan-Turkish groups have accused Iran of assisting Armenia and allowing Russia to transit military equipment to Armenia through Iran. Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani's Chief of Staff Ali Vaezi, have vehemently denied this.
The statement comes at a time when the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs already announced that the Islamic Republic’s policy is to “help and facilitate dialogue between two sides”.
On Thursday, as the military conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia entered its fifth day, the presidents of US, France, and Russia released a joint statement calling on the two countries to cease the conflict immediately.
PThe statement called for an “immediate ceasefire” between Azerbaijan and Armenia and asked them to begin negotiations to end the conflict without preconditions.
Macron said on Thursday that Azerbaijan’s aggression is unjustifiable and said he has irrefutable evidence that shows “Syrian jihadi fighters” have left Syria to fight in the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
In the past three decades, there have been several heavy military conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh and almost 30,000 were killed in these conflicts.

#Azerbaijan #Armenia #conflict #iran #protest
#Farsi🏳️
@irbriefing

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on Saturday warned “all sides” involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict against violating Iranian territory. At least a dozen mortar shells fired by Azerbaijani and Armenian forces have hit Iranian villages since heavy military clashes broke out between Iran’s two neighbors last Sunday [September 27].

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has been monitoring the movements in border areas with great sensitivity,” Khatibzadeh told reporters. “We seriously warn all sides to take the necessary precautions...”

Iranian news agencies have reported that stray mortar shells have injured a six-year-old child in Iran. The shelling has alarmed border-area villagers and led some to flee their homes, Mehr News Agency reported on Saturday. Mehr suggested that mortar fire threatened to damage the Mil-o-Moghan Dam (also known as Aras Dam) in the Aslandouz region, Ardebil Province, a dam built by Iran and Azerbaijan and used jointly.

Iran has stressed the importance of respecting Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and while it has good relations with Armenia, Tehran has always regarded the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh - since the 199os a de facto independent entity led by ethnic Armenians - as Azerbaijani territory in line with the United Nations. Since the recent fighting erupted, Iran has called on both parties to end the clashes and resolve the conflict through negotiations.

The United States has also urged the two countries’ leaders to accept a ceasefire, while on Friday the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned “third parties” to stay out of the conflict, remarks seen by some analysts as a reference to Turkey, which openly supports Azerbaijan. On Saturday [October 3], 60 US lawmakers published a letter calling for Washington to condemn Turkey and Azerbaijan and to end security assistance to Baku.

Armenia on Friday said it was ready for ceasefire talks, but Azerbaijan has yet not accepted a ceasefire or mediation.

Iran is nervous over the conflict given its own Azeri population – at least 20% of 84 million Iranians – have cultural, linguistic and religious links with Azerbaijan, and the Iranian authorities have this week arrested some protesting in support of Azerbaijan. Russia meanwhile supports Armenia.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday demanded an explanation from Turkey after reports it has arranged the sending of 300 militants from the Syrian city of Aleppo to fight against Armenia. Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan is keen to link up with a fellow Turkic people, but both Azerbaijan and Turkey have denied allegations that Syria-based Sunni jihadists have joined the fight against Armenian forces.
#iran #Armenia #Azerbaijan #ceasefire

#iranbriefing / ‏Hundreds of Iranian Twitter users have launched a campaign this week with the Persian hashtag “I bear witness” to highlight executions, killings and imprisonments of opponents, as well as denial of civil rights to citizens.
Individuals tweet saying “I Bear Witness” to cases they are personally aware of or related to their immediate family or circle of friends to mention the death or the persecution of an individual or a group.
The Twitter storm includes cases when the Islamic Republic killed and persecuted many opponents of the 1979 revolution and later executed thousands of dissidents in prisons in 1988, as well as violence and persecution in the last two decades.
One user who is simply named Amineh says, “I bear witness to the mass killing of 1988. I bear witness that my father and all his friends that we used to meet behind prison glass partitions, were hanged for the crime of supporting the Mojahedin Khalq organization  and buried in mass graves, even though they were serving their prison terms.”
This tweet shows five young women executed in prison in 1988

Others also highlight cases of confiscation of property at the early years of the revolutionary government, which victimized former officials, businessmen and members of religious minorities.
One user mentions the persecution of his family as supporters of the Mojahedin and says all his father’s property was confiscated by a cleric named Gholamhossein Mohseni Ajei who later became a top official in the country’s Judiciary.
A user named Hafez Fazeli says the Revolutionary Guard killed his cousin and then handed the body to the family claiming “anti-revolutionaries” had killed him.
Many also highlight violence by the government in nationwide protests that shook Iran in 2009, 2017, 2018 and in November 2019. Some have published photos of adolescents and children killed in mass protests in the past three years.
Shanaz Akmali, a mother whose son was killed in the 2009 protests that she bears witness they buried her son secretly at night.
Others have upheld the memory of those who died in the crash of a Ukrainian airliner on January 8, when the Revolutionary Guards fired two missiles at the plane as it was taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport.
Persecution of women’s rights activists and opponents of compulsory hijab was another subject in the Twitter storm. Many paid tribute to prisoners such as Nasrin Sotoudeh, Narges Mohammadi and other female political prisoners, who have been sentenced to long prison terms in closed-door and unfair trials which applies to all opponents arrested for political reasons.
Discrimination against and persecution of religious minorities was also highlighted by dozens of Twitter users. In past 41 years many members of the Baha’i sect have been executed, imprisoned, denied basic rights and banned from education. Dervishes are another persecuted religious sect. Currently dozens of dervishes are in prisons accused of sedition against the regime.
Persecution of workers who demand their wages and safe working conditions was highlighted in many other tweets. Ehsan Ghadiri says he bears witness that a worker in a sugar factory committed suicide because his could not live on his meager $100 monthly salary.
#iran #Iran_humanrights #socia_media #Rights #violations
@irbriefing

#iranbriefing / The Australian couple who were arrested last year in Iran and were released a few months later have now published a video on the anniversary of the event, saying they were initially charged with espionage but were later released.

In a recent video, the Australian blogger couple, Jolie King and Mark Firkin explain that they decided to pass through Iran for a few days on their way to Europe, and on the fourth day, while camping in a park in Jajrood city, they were arrested by dozens of armed agents in civilian clothing.

They say in the video that although they were charged with espionage and later “taking images of nuclear sites,” they were eventually released.

Jolie King and Mark Firkin publish the images of the countries they visit on their blog, and some of these are aerial images.

The video is published a year after their release from prison. At that time Iranian media also reported the release of Reza Dehbashi, the Iranian student arrested in Australia.

Dehbashi was a researcher at Queensland University who was arrested for attempting to transfer American military radar equipment science to Iran.

The couple explains in their video that their belongings were searched by the agents at the park on the night of their arrest, and they were taken to separate cells without being charged or getting an attorney, and they were not allowed to contact their friends, relatives, or the embassy for a while.

After two days, the judge told them that they have been charged with espionage.

Firkin says after two months in the cell, their captors realized that “we are not spying.” Nonetheless, after two months the judge added the new charge of “taking pictures from an atomic site,” which the couple calls another complete fabrication.

Their initial sentence of execution or 10 years in prison for espionage was reduced to three years in prison, for which their interrogators told them they should be thankful.

Firking concludes the video by saying there are other foreign prisoners in Iranian prisons. Kylie Moore-Gilbert, the Australian academic, is another foreign prisoner in Iran.
#iran #Australia #Couple #prison #espionage

@irbriefing

Lawyers Say Iran Police Publicly Beating, Humiliating Suspects Is Illegal
#iranbriefing / The Iranian Police have in recent days resorted to parading detainees on the streets in various cities including Tehran in a show of force that critics argue is aimed at would-be political protestors and that lawyers say is illegal.

One video posted on social media shows police officers in balaclavas parading suspects on police pick-up trucks in central Tehran while a large crowd lines the sidewalks, watching and recording videos with their mobiles. The masked police are seen(link is external) hitting the suspects on the head and neck as they beg for forgiveness.

While police and military commanders have justified such public humiliation on the grounds of reducing crime, many Iranians detect a tactic that is used whenever the authorities fear protests over economic or political issues. “The aim of these performances is instilling fear and awe in people during hard times,” one Twitter user commented(link is external) on a video showing one of the latest instances of public humiliation posted on Wednesday [October 6].

On Tuesday Brigadier-General Majid Mir-Ahmadi, acting Intelligence and Security Deputy of the Chiefs of Joint Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, said all armed forces including the police (the Law Enforcement Force) had the duty to crack down on “hooligans and thugs.” Mir-Ahmadi told a gathering of army, Revolutionary Guard and police officers in Isfahan that “the main mandate of the Supreme Leader [for us] is drying up the roots of insecurity in society.”

Last week, in a meeting with Isfahan’s Prayer Leader, Amir-Ahmadi had said that the Supreme National Security Council had on August 10 ordered the police to form a special unit for battling “thugs and hooligans” in every province and city. Mohammad-Reza Mir-Heydari, Law Enforcement Commander in Isfahan Province, said the armed forces were prepared to suppress anyone inciting “sedition,” whether through economic profiteering, undermining security by theft or violent crimes, or “mocking the values…of the Islamic Republic.”
Many, including rights activists, have questioned such measures.

“Punishment [for crimes] is necessary but society does not have the right to carry out any kind of punishment and in any manner [without a legal basis],” Abbas Abdi, political analyst and sociologist, wrote in Etemad newspaper on Saturday. “It is a mistake to think that with heavy sentencing repetition of crime can be prevented…in many cases they commit crimes [again] exactly because they have been humiliated. One can’t put out fire with pouring petrol over it. Intensification of punishment and instilling fear does not prevent others from committing crimes, either.”

In one of the latest public humiliations, Marzieh Mousavi, a photojournalist wrote in an Instagram post that she had recognized ‘Meysam,’ a 32-year-old man(link is external) reportedly famous for thuggery in the Moshirieh neighborhood of south-east Tehran, who was paraded by uniformed police after his arrest for armed robbery.

Many government officials and managers of state companies implicated in multi-million dollar corruption and financial fraud cases never receive such a treatment. Many are able even to leave the country and never return. When they are tried, they receive full legal defense and their trials are reported in detail by the media.

Lawyers and human rights activist have pointed out that public humiliation of suspects is illegal. “Punishing criminals before trial and sentencing is a breach of the law,” a Tehran-based lawyer who declined to be named told Iran International. “Punishing criminals before trial and sentencing is a breach of the law. Article 6 of the Citizens’ Rights Act says suspects should not be humiliated during arrest and interrogation.
According to Article 7 of the same law those responsible for ordering or carrying out such shows of violence in public must be dismissed from their position and legally prosecuted.”
#iran #Iran_prisoners #Police_brutality #Iran_news

@irbriefing

#iranbriefing/ A close ally of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said that many young "hoodlums", some of whom might be convicted criminals, have been co-opted into the Basij militia and had played a significant role in suppressing street protests.

Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, prayer leader in Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city, and Khamenei’s representative in Razavi Khorasan Province, told a visiting group of parliament members on October 8 that the young men had undergone “cultural,” meaning religious, rehabilitation in joining local Basij groups. The cleric said they had played an important role in suppressing street protests, while combating poverty and deprivation in discharging their duties.

Iran experienced widespread unrest in 2017, 2018 and November 2019, when security forces, including the Basij, killed hundreds. Recently it was announced that the Basij would strengthen local units to improve ‘security.’

Hossein Hamednai, a Revolutionary Guards general killed in Syria in 2015, used the same tactic of recruiting detained criminals to suppress protests in Tehran following the 2009 disputed presidential elections.

Alamolhoda called on the parliamentarians to prevent “capitalists” from accumulating too much wealth and impoverishing people living in shantytowns. Alamolhoda, appointed by Khamenei as Mashhad Friday prayer leader in 2005 and a member of the Experts Assembly since 2007, is a powerful figure in the city and province, including in the oversight of the foundation managing the Imam Reza Shrine, whose businesses and property are valued in billions of dollars(link is external). Alamolhoda is also father-in-law of Ebrahim Raeesi, who headed the shrine before Khamenei appointed him as chief justice in 2019.

The ayatollah’s concern over poverty follows a dramatic economic downturn in the two years since the United States imposed draconian sanctions in 2018. The national currency, the rial, has lost most of its value while rising food prices are at hyperinflationary levels.
#iran #irannews #mashed #khamenei #basij #irgc
#Farsi🏳️
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGG9x_iqJui/?igshid=1113r93ggciqk

#iranbriefing / Iran’s great singer #Mohammad Reza Shajarian, who passed away in Tehran on Thursday aged 80, was buried on Saturday morning in the Mausoleum of Ferdowsi, Iran’s national poet, in Tous.
Wary of mourners protesting, security forces prevented many who had arrived in Tous from attending the burial ceremony in the pale stone mausoleum.
showed road blocks near the village and the park housing the mausoleum, where some mourners had been present since Friday.
Shajarian was buried in Tous reportedly according to his own will. The ancient settlement known as Susia to Greek historians lies 35 km to the northwest of the provincial capital Mashhad. The mausoleum is a modern structure erected in 1930s where Ferdowsi, author of the epic ‘Book of Kings’ (Shahnama)was buried in 1019 AD.
The six-hectare garden of the mausoleum compound is also the resting place of Mehdi Akhavan-e-Sales, a modern poet hailing from Mashhad where Shajarian was also born. Being allowed to be buried at the compound is a great honor the authorities could not deny to a singer affectionately called ‘The Maestro’ or ‘The King of Iran’s Song-masters.’ Only three people are now buried there.
The governor and mayor of Mashhad, a city of religious importance famous for its conservatism, attended the funeral. High-ranking government officials such as the minister of culture were absent, even though President Rouhani, who adopted Shajarian’s songs in his 2013 and 2017 election campaigns, ventured a message of condolence immediately after the announcement of Shajarian’s demise and several ministers followed suit.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has remained silent. While many Islamists, especially in the early years after the 1979 Revolution, have expressed disdain for music and musicians, Khamenei may have a political motivation for ignoring the singer’s passing during protests after the disputed presidential election of 2009.
“The protesting nation is not really so keen on hearing [Khamenei's] condolences," Morad Veisi.
“The demise of Shajarian demonstrated the massive chasm between the people and the Supreme Leader and made it even deeper.”
#Shajarian_burial

@irbriefing

#iranbriefing / Iran has suffered two cyberattacks leading to the shutting down of some government services, according to a statement issued on Wednesday [October 14] by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).  Social media users have named the Ministry of Roads and Transportation and the Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) as the targets, and also suggest.
Confirmation of the attacks came from the ICT Ministry’s Center For Cyber Support and Operation Coordination, which they had been on “two government organizations” and had led to the “temporary shutdown of services” as a security precaution. “There is no evidence of widespread attacks on a big number of government organizations other than the two,” the statement said, without giving further information.
One Twitter user naming the targets as the PMO and the Transport Ministry suggested the attack has employed the ransomware Harma, which infects computer systems, encrypting data to make it unusable.
claimed the attack had destroyed software in use at the PMO and suggested Israel was responsible.  
Other Twitterati have reported internet shutdowns. “I think Iran’s Internet [connection to the global web] has been reset. I’ve lost all my cookies and credentials and been signed out of all services,” wrote one user Comments on the post reported lost Internet connections at work on Tuesday, while some university students reported the cancellation of online classes.
Zoomit, an IT information website, in an article on Tuesday said government companies and organizations had been warned not to update systems, anti-virus software or firewalls, in order to avoid connecting to the government Intranet known as the National Information Network (NIN), and not to provide distance access to any servers or to information and operational systems.

@irbriefing

#iranbriefing / The director of a Turkish state-run English-language news channel was named and investigated by police as a suspect in a 2013 probe into an Iranian paramilitary network in Turkey, reported the Nordic Monitor on Monday, citing secret court and police documents.

According to the Sweden-based newspaper, Turkish police launched an investigation into Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – #Quds_Force ( IRGC-QF) activities in Turkey, uncovering a network of Iranian and Turkish operatives.

While the investigation was reportedly silenced by President Recap Tayyip Erdogan in 2014, the Nordic Monitor published what it said were Turkish court documents that “identified many Iranian and Turkish nationals as Quds Force operatives and associates.”
One of the names mentioned in the documents was Fatih Er, the news director of state-run TRT World and former bureau chief for TRT in Jerusalem.
According to the Nordic Monitor, authorities had permission to wiretap Er’s phone to investigate potential connections to Iran’s IRGC-QF, which specializes in unconventional warfare and foreign intelligence operations.
“The documents, classified as secret, detail multiple wiretap warrants issued for Fatih Er… by Turkish courts that were overseeing counterterrorism cases in Turkey,” it said.
One warrant was issued in March 2013 after a request was filed by the special counterterrorism section of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
“The warrant authorized the investigators to monitor not only Er’s phone conversations but also his Gmail account in order to decode the #IRGC network, operating under the Turkish name Tevhid Selam,” the Nordic Monitor reported.
Authorities reauthorized the warrant six times based on new leads that police reportedly discovered from the communications.
“The wiretaps reveal the suspects were concerned about the exposure of their past dealings in Syria and did their utmost to keep them a secret,” the report said.
The report also alleges that the Er was “involved as an activist with radical Turkish charity group the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH).”
The IHH “works closely” with a Turkish intelligence agency called MIT whose president “has met with senior IRGC Quds Force operatives,” said the Nordic Monitor, citing the investigation file.
Er was heard speaking with the MIT President Mehmet Akif Ersoy in one of the recorded conversations, in which Er reportedly told Ersoy that “he was marching in an IHH rally in Istanbul.” Ersoy is a former TRT Cairo bureau chief.
Investigations also showed that Sefer Turan, Erdogan’s chief foreign policy adviser for Muslim and Arab states, and Mustafa Varank, Turkey’s industry and technology minister, had been secretly working to promote Quds Force interests in Turkey, according to the report.
Nordic Monitor said that President Erdogan had stopped the investigation after a separate corruption probe in December 2013 had incriminated members of his inner circle.
All suspects were left to roam free and the investigation was dropped when a new pro-Iran prosecutor, Irfan Fidan, took over the case.
“Instead, the prosecutors and police chiefs who had investigated the Quds Force for years as well as the judges who authorized warrants such as wiretaps and surveillance were subsequently charged in sham judicial investigations with attempting to overthrow the government,” the Nordic Monitor said.
All prosecutors, judges and investigators involved in the probe, as well as journalists who reported on IRGC activities in Turkey, were later indicted, according to the report.
“Many have been jailed pending trial since 2015.”
@irbriefing

#iranbriefing/ The bill, if passed, would instruct the president to designate areas under Hezbollah control as "primary money laundering concerns."

A new bill designed to prevent money laundering by Hezbollah has been introduced in the US House of Representatives by a group of Republican congressmen.

The bill calls upon the President to make a determination that areas currently under Hezbollah's control are "primary money laundering concerns" under section 311 of the PATRIOT Act. The regions in question are south Lebanon and the tri-border region in South America, which encompasses three cities in three different countries: Puerto Iguazu in Argentina, Ciudad del Este in Paraguay and Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil. The latter region is widely recognized as a major hub for illicit activities including money laundering, with some US$ 6 billion a year in illegal funds thought to be laundered there annually by organized crime groups and rogue operators.

This bill represents the toughest sanctions on Hezbollah ever proposed by Congress," said Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who introduced the bill. "By cutting off banks in areas under the terror group’s control from the international financial system, this bill will go a long way towards drying up the Iranian terror proxy’s resources to conduct murderous attacks against the US and our allies.

"This bill will make it much harder for Hezbollah to do Iran’s bidding in propping up the criminal Assad regime, the Houthis in Yemen, and continue to destabilize the Middle East,” said Congressman Wilson. “I am grateful that twelve of my colleagues on the Republican Study Committee joined me on this bill as original co-sponsors and I hope that it will send a strong message to the White House that Republicans in Congress continue to support a hard line on Iran.”

It comes as part of a wider wish list for sanctions against Iran, drawn up earlier this year by the Republican Study Committee, the largest Republican caucus in Congress, who in June this year released the “RSC National Security Strategy: Strengthening America and Countering Global Threats.”

That strategy called for “enhancing the President’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran” through a raft of measures, including prohibiting the lifting of sanctions on Iran without the approval of Congress, and for the Trump administration to enact UN snapback sanctions on Iran, permanently extending the UN arms embargo on the Islamic Republic.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft formally requested that UN reimpose sanctions on Iran as part of the “snapback” mechanism of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal on August 21, however that request was not advanced by the UN Security Council. The arms embargo is set to expire on October 18.
#irgcterrorists #irgcqudsforces
@irbriefing

#iranbriefing / The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) of Greater Tehran, Mohammad Reza Yazdi, announced the formation of a special coronavirus-related unit called "Enjoining the Good and Forbidding the Evil."
The unit will deal with people who are inattentive to observing health protocols in public places, said Brigadier General Yazdi, who commands the Tehran province's #IRGC forces.

Yazdi did not elaborate further on how "Enjoining the Good and Forbidding the Evil" unit would deal with offending citizens.
Yazdi also announced the free distribution of the face masks by the IRGC, adding, "We are ready to place the IRGC's medical equipment and facilities at the Ministry of Health's disposal to deal with the coronavirus."
Last week, President Hassan Rouhani announced a fine of 500,000 to 2000,000 rials (about $12 to $48 at the official rate) for those who do not comply with #COVID_19 regulations, saying that the police and the #Baseej forces, IRGC's militia, would oversee the collection of the fines.

According to Iranian health officials, more than four in five Iranians respected health protocols in March in the early weeks of the pandemic, but that has now dropped to as low as 40 percent.

Iran passed 30,000 official COVID-19 deaths on Saturday as health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari announced 253 more deaths in the past 24 hours.

In March, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali #Khamenei assigned the Armed Forces to work on necessary methods to prevent a further spread of coronavirus, as well as other activities such as treatment of patients and establishment of medical centers like field hospitals and convalescent homes.
Despite those measures, the virus has continued to spread in Iran.
#irgcterrorists #irgcterrorist
@irbriefing

#iranbriefing / Ukrainian officials have voiced some optimism after two days of talks with #Iranian officials in Tehran over the downing of a passenger airline in January by Iran’s anti-aircraft fire.

Talks between The Ukrainian and Iranian delegations on October 19 and 20 focused on Ukraine’s demands of full information from Iran on the details of its investigation into the incident and the pursuit of those responsible for firing two missiles that brought down the Ukrainian (UIA) flight PS752.

Iran has promised to provide full and detailed information within a week of its legal investigation and criminal proceedings, according to members of the Ukrainian delegation. Iran has agreed to also provide “documentary evidence” of the detention of six people who were involved in shooting down the jetliner.

On January 8, Iran fired ballistic missiles at American bases in Iraq in retaliation for the United States’ killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad and was expecting a possible US retaliation. However, it did not close the civilian airspace and both civil and military aviation authorities allowed the Ukrainian plane to take off. All 176 passengers and crew were killed in the crash.

Iran first denied the plane had been shot down and after three days it admitted the incident but ascribed it to “human error” but never released a full report and there has been no evidence of a real legal pursuit of those responsible for issuing the order to fire missiles.

According to Ukranian officials, Iran has also promised to return a key piece of evidence, the crew deck of the plane recovered after the crash.
#irgcterrorists #irgcairforce #irgcterorist #ukraine

@irbriefing

#iranbriefing / Another Police Brutality And Killing Video In Eastern Iran Angers The Public
Maryam Sinaee

Another video of police brutality and killing of a suspect from Iran's eastern province of North Khorasan has gone viral on social media. This is the second case of police brutality causing death of a detainee in less than a week in eastern Iran.

The video was first posted on Saturday shows police officers beating a man who has fallen on the ground in a street in the city of Esfarayen. The witness who filmed the incident can be heard on the video saying the police shot the man.

The victim has been identified as Mohsen Minbashi, 37. It is still not clear why the police had been pursuing the victims or why they shot him.

On Sunday, the Military Prosecutor of North Khorasan Province Mojtaba Zare' was quoted by the media that the family of the victim has filed a complaint for the police shooting. According to Zare', the forensic department is carrying out a post-mortem to determine the cause of death and injuries and CCTV footage from the area is being examined to shed light on the circumstances of the incident.

On October 20 police arrested and repeatedly assaulted another man, Mehrdad Sepehri, with pepper spray and shocker in the eastern city of Mashhad. The victim reportedly died of pepper spray injury in the police car on the way to the hospital. A video posted on social media showed Sepehri tied to a pole on the street while a police officer tortured him for 45 minutes before taking him away. While his brother told Iran International Television that police arrested Sepehri for a domestic disturbance, officials have been trying to portray him as an addict.

Many social media users have compared the incident with the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May that lead to nationwide protests in the United States. Iranian hardliners used the killing as proof of racism and police violence against non-white Americans in their anti-US propaganda.

Killing of detainees by the police in Iran has increased in the past few weeks. At least three cases were documented in October of deaths under torture or by shooting of detained individuals. Authorities either try to make the vicitims responsible for their own deaths or make promises of investigations. But the country’s conservative Judiciary which closely collaborates with the police and intelligence agencies rarely issues a report after such killings.
#iran_Police #shooting #Iran_rights #Irannews #irgcterrorists
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#iranbriefing / Many social media users have compared the incident with the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May that lead to nationwide protests in the United States. Iranian hardliners used the killing as proof of racism and police violence against non-white Americans in their anti-US propaganda.

Killing of detainees by the police in Iran has increased in the past few weeks. At least three cases were documented in October of deaths under torture or by shooting of detained individuals. Authorities either try to make the vicitims responsible for their own deaths or make promises of investigations. But the country’s conservative Judiciary which closely collaborates with the police and intelligence agencies rarely issues a report after such killings.

#mehrdad_sepehri #georgefloyd #iraniangeorgefloyd #irgcterrorists #irgcterrorist
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IRGC's monopoly on Iran's economy, politics and security

#iranbriefing/ Three months after the #Islamic #revolution of #Iran in 1979, Ruhollah #Khomeini ordered the formation of The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also known as the #IRGC.
During the almost 8 year long #war between Iran and #Iraq, The IRGC took complete control of all operations from Iran’s #Army and established a total #monopoly over Iran’s internal #security and #military forces.
Having established total control over security and military affairs, the IRGC decided it was time to gradually step inside the world of #politics and with the permission Ruhollah Khomeini’s successor, Ali #Khamenei, the gates to Iran’s #economy started to open up to the IRGC.
A key supporter of IRGC’s looting is state-controlled national #TV, the IRIB, responsible for sanctifying IRGC, covering up and cleaning after them.
#irgcterrorists #irgcterrorist #irgccyberwarfare #irgc
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#iranbriefing / On the evening of Friday, the 8th of Mehr, nearly two thousand Iranian doctors, in a statement “condemning violence against citizens”, demanded to stop the use of medical equipment and signs for security and military purposes.

In their statement, these doctors declared “solidarity” with the people of Iran: “The only real guarantor for the preservation and continuation of health in all its aspects in Iran is to believe that the people are the main owners of the country and the final decision-makers of the country’s fate and how to solve and Chapters are problems and issues within the Iranian society.
In the latest example, on Saturday, October 1, 2022, at 1:20 p.m. local time, bullets were fired at protesters from inside an ambulance in Tehran’s Engelab Street.
#opiran #mahsaamini
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#iranbriefing/ Badri Hosseini Khamenei, the estranged sister of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has criticized her brother and his "despotic caliphate" in an open letter in which she also says she hopes to see him overthrown.
Badri Khamenei’s letter, published on her son's Twitter account on December 6, expressed sympathy to the mothers who lost their loved ones because of their opposition to the Islamic republic in the last four decades and declared that she opposes the actions of her brother.
“The regime of the Islamic Republic of Khomeini and Ali Khamenei has brought nothing but suffering and oppression to Iran and Iranians,” she added, referring to Ayatollah Khomeini, who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. “I hope to see the victory of the people and the overthrow of this tyranny ruling Iran soon.”

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