• Responding to Rouhani, Hook Says the Iranian People Want Jobs
Brian Hook, U.S. Special Representative for Iran, has responded to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani who told the Iranian people “to put a curse” on those who caused the current economic crisis in Iran.
Tweeting in Persian, Hook said: “In response to the paralyzed economy, Rouhani asked the Iranian people to put a curse on United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia! By resorting to curses and magic he is after blaming others for his economic record.”
: “Rouhani asked Iranians to ‘put all your curses’ on the U.S., Israel, and Saudi Arabia in response to a crumbling economy. By resorting to curses and witchcraft, he’s shifting blame for problems of his own making. Iranians are interested in jobs, not curses.”
• Iran Regime Hints at Using Foreign Militias in Domestic Crackdown
An influential Iranian cleric says Iran might bring Shiite militias to the country from other parts of the Middle East to fight threats to the government.
Musa Ghazanfarabadi, head of the Tehran Islamic Revolution Courts, told religious students in Qom this month that his government could use foreign fighters to crack down on potential popular uprisings in Iran.
Ghazanfarabadi was referring to Shiite militias from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen that have been formed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Ghazanfarabadi’s comments have triggered negative reactions inside Iran and abroad.
• The Official Verdict Against Nasrin Sotoudeh
Iranian authorities have published and confirmed the most recent verdict against human rights lawyer and activist Nasrin Sotoudeh.
The official verdict states that she will serve 26 years and a total of 148 lashes. This has been added on to five years she is already serving for espionage. It is the second of two verdicts against her.
“She said she wouldn’t want to appeal, and the reason is that the judicial process is unfair and such protests will do no good,” Sotoudeh’s husband Reza Khandan told Agence France Presse in a telephone interview. “She does not want to undertake any judicial action since she does not agree with the judicial process. Nothing will be done along these lines.”
• 600 people poisoned by spoiled frozen meat
In the past two days, the number of people poisoned in the city of Ghorveh in eastern Kurdistan, reached 600, according to local papers.
After examining the patients, doctors at the Ghorveh Hospital confirmed that all have been poisoned from consumption of frozen meat.
• IRGC Commander highlights regime’s meddling in region
The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said that the organization tasked with protecting the regime at all costs, had “organized around 100,000 popular forces” in Syria and Iraq, adding that this and Hezbollah’s “missile capabilities” were just some of the “unrivaled success of the Islamic Revolution”.
Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said that Iranians were also sent to neighboring countries to “share their experience” with the regime’s forces there.
Recently, the State Department’s special representative on Iran, Brian Hook, once again warned the regime against its involvement in Iraq and Syria.
“Since 1979 they have sought to undermine various states, and they want to replace their national identity with a sectarian identity,” Hook told Alhurra television on March 15, adding that this had created instability in the Middle East and contributed to violence and bloodshed.
