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UPDATE: 7:00 PM CET
EU Maintains Restrictive Measures Against Iran Under the Non-Proliferation Sanctions Regime After Oct. 18
BRUSSELS, Oct 17 (Reuters) – EU member states maintained on Tuesday restrictive measures against Iran under the non-proliferation sanctions regime after a nuclear agreement transition day, according to a statement, a move Tehran condemned as “illegal”.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, is a defunct 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and major powers under which Tehran agreed to restrain its nuclear program in return for relief from U.S., EU and U.N. sanctions.
“The Council adopted legal acts to maintain the designations, that had initially been imposed by the United Nations for individuals and entities involved in nuclear or ballistic missiles activities or affiliated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” the statement said.
“The Council also agreed to maintain sectoral and individual measures, existing under the EU’s sanctions regime, notably those related to Iran nuclear proliferation, as well as arms and missile embargoes.”
UPDATE: 12:30 PM CET
World Must Not Fail in Iran as It Did in North Korea -UN Nuclear Chief
WASHINGTON, Oct 16 (Reuters) – The world must not fail in Iran as it did in North Korea, which kicked out International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and developed nuclear weapons, the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday. The IAEA has not had access to North Korea since Pyongyang expelled its inspectors in 2009 and it now observes its nuclear advances from afar including through satellite imagery.
“The IAEA is the eyes and ears and presence of the international community in Iran,” Grossi told an annual U.S. State Department arms control conference in a recorded message, adding he was extremely concerned about Iran’s nuclear programme.
“We have to deploy every effort to prevent this problem, this current debate on what is happening and what can be done in Iran (from) becoming a failure on the part of the international community to prevent a country that has capabilities which could potentially lead to the development of nuclear weapons from doing it,” he added.
Iran Is a Terror State Meddling in the Middle East To Wreak Havoc – The Solution for Lasting Peace Is a Regime Change
Tehran’s long-time extensive financial and military support and training for terrorist groups throughout the region, including Hezbollah and Hamas — facilitated through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — is well documented.
In fact, immediately after his inauguration, the current Iranian regime president Ebrahim Raisi met with the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, emphasising the regime’s full support for inciting war in the region under the guise of defending Palestine.
He stated that: “There has never been, and never will be, any doubts about this policy.”
Tehran describes its terrorist proxies jointly as the “resistance front”, which is tantamount to the front-line of its export of terrorism and warmongering in the region, and even beyond.
Rishi Sunak Faces Renewed Pressure to Ban Iran’s Revolutionary Guard
Rishi Sunak has faced renewed pressure to add Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to the list of banned terrorist organisations, as conflict in the Middle East continues. Dr. Liam Fox, Conservative former defence secretary, warned that while Hamas had its “fingers on the trigger” of the violence in Israel and Palestine, the “strings being pulled” are from Tehran. He was joined by a host of influential Tories in calling for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a special Iranian military force, to be proscribed as a terrorist group. Dr Fox told the Commons: “If the fingers on the trigger were Hamas, the strings being pulled were from Tehran.
Conservative MP Bob Blackman (Harrow East) told the Commons the operation “by the terrorist group Hamas was clearly well-planned, well-resourced, well-equipped and had been planned for many months”.
He added: “It is beyond belief that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps who fund and support Hamas were not behind this whole operation. “So will he now take the action that the whole House has asked him to take and that’s to proscribe the IRGC in its entirety?”
UPDATE: 8:00 AM CET
US Officials Warn Iranian Regime Against Escalation of Gaza Conflict
Senator Rick Scott, a member of the US Senate, emphasized, “We know that the Iranian regime is behind these attacks, and America must lead the world in punishing the evil regime ruling Iran, the largest supporter of terrorism in the world.”
Senator Lindsey Graham, in an interview with NBC News, said: “The idea that the Iranian regime read about these operations in the newspaper or on television is laughable. 93% of Hezbollah and Hamas’ money comes from Iran. They’re the source of the problem. They are evil.”
Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor to the White House, in an interview with CBS News in response to a question about the role of the Ahvani dictatorship in the regional war, said, “The threat yesterday was real. The threat today is real. There is a risk of an escalation of this conflict, the opening of a second front in the north, and of course Iran’s involvement- that is a risk. And that’s a risk that we have been mindful of since the start. It’s why the President moves so rapidly and decisively to get an aircraft carrier into the eastern Mediterranean, to get aircraft into the Gulf, because he wants to send a very clear message of deterrence to any state or any actor that would seek to exploit this situation.”
Sullivan added, “We can’t rule out that Iran would choose to get directly engaged in some way; we have to prepare for every possible contingency. That’s exactly what the President has done. That is part of what has motivated the President’s movement of these assets, to send that clear message of deterrence to make clear that this war should not escalate, and that no other actor should seek to exploit this situation.”
Contrary to Tehran’s Propaganda, Iran’s Regime is in Crisis
The state of failure and weakness of the mullahs’ regime, which has ruled Iran for over four decades, is no longer a secret. This predicament is evident to all, so much so that even government newspapers are openly acknowledging the impasse the mullahs’ regime faces.
In the political discourse of the Iranian regime, especially in recent years with growing whispers of change and regime overthrow, the propaganda machine and think tanks of the regime’s intelligence and security apparatus constantly attempt to sway public opinion and Iranian civil society. They often claim that if Iranian society were to embark on another revolution with the intent of toppling the regime, it would result in a deadlock, civil war, or even draw parallels with Syria or North Korea.
The primary aim of such propaganda is clear: to perpetuate the perception of a deadlock and maintain their grip on power, while discouraging alternative narratives.
The Ongoing Debate on the Death Penalty in Iran in 2023: A Global Call for Abolition
The practice of the death penalty continues to be a contentious issue worldwide, with various countries employing different methods and justifications for its use. Iran, in particular, has gained notoriety for both issuing and carrying out a significant number of death sentences. This article explores the ongoing debate surrounding the death penalty in Iran, its international implications, and the efforts to combat it. On the 10th of October, designated as the “International Day of Struggle for the Abolition of the Death Penalty,” global attention turns towards the grave issue of capital punishment. This initiative was established by the Global Coalition Against the Death Penalty, a consortium of more than 160 non-governmental organizations.
A Young Woman in Tabriz Is Assaulted and Forcibly Disappeared
Tabriz incident follows two weeks after Armita Geravand was assaulted by Hijab Guards in Tehran. Exactly two weeks after Armita Geravand was brutalized by Hijab Guards in a metro station in Tehran, a young woman in Tabriz was badly beaten by security forces and taken to an undisclosed location. Sunday, October 15, 2023, a young woman in Tabriz was shopping at a pastry shop without covering her hair. According to social media reports, she was assaulted and shoved by security forces such that they hurt her leg.
Iran: Anger at Medicine Shortage and Raisi’s Remarks
The statements of the regimes’ president, Ebrahim Raisi, regarding the shortage of medicine for specific patients, have led to criticism from a wide spectrum of the people.
In his speech at the “Thirteenth National Elite Conference,” Ebrahim Raisi responded to the parents of individuals with special diseases who had protested against the shortage of medicine, saying, “First, life is in the hands of God,” and “Second, how do you know that we cannot produce the necessary medicines ourselves?”
Of course, the regime’s senior officials have made similar statements before. For example, Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, the Minister of Health of Hassan Rouhani’s government, had said to a baker who complained about the medical and physiotherapy expenses, “Massage it yourself!”
Also, read Iran News in Brief – October 16, 2023
