• Mattis Says Iran Has Been Put On Notice at Pentagon Press Conference
During a press conference on August 28, U.S Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that “Iran has been put on notice” for what he called mischief throughout the region.
Mattis listed the issues that the United States has with Iran’s activities in the region, including “what they are doing with Assad, the threats about the Straight of Hormuz, the support for the Houthis with the missiles that are being fired into Saudi Arabia.”
Mattis acknowledged that the United States has noticed there was “less willingness to be confrontational” from Iran’s side. The former Marine general also acknowledged that “our problem is not with Iran; it’s with the Iranian regime leadership.”
• Iranian activist jailed over hijab protests goes on hunger strike
Human rights activists in Iran have said they are worried about a man on hunger strike who was reportedly jailed for protesting against rules requiring women to wear a hijab.
Farhad Meysami, 48, a doctor and publisher before becoming a civil activist, was arrested in his office in July and taken to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.
After a wave of hijab protests, Iranian authorities cracked down on activists. Meysami was accused of possessing badges stating: “I am against the compulsory hijab.”
• Over 200 Dervishes Convicted
Since May 2018, revolutionary courts have sentenced at least 208 members of the religious minority to prison terms and other punishments in trials that violate their basic rights, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities detained more than 300 community members in the notorious Fashafuyeh and Qarchack prisons after late February protests that included violent clashes between protesters and security forces in Tehran.
The courts handed down sentences that include prison terms ranging from four months to 26 years, flogging, internal exile, travel bans, and a ban on membership in social and political groups. Flogging as punishment is recognized under international human rights law as a form of torture.
“The unjust trials of over 200 Dervishes is one of the largest crackdowns against a religious minority in Iran in a decade,” said Sarah Leah Whiston, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Authorities have used the February protests as an excuse to intimidate this vulnerable group and silence another segment of Iranian society demanding basic rights from a repressive security state.”
• Iran oil shipments are declining at a faster-than-expected pace ahead of U.S. sanctions set to begin in November.
Iran expects crude exports to fall by a third in September, according to people familiar with purchasing plans, potentially posing an unforeseen supply risk to markets. Officials at the state-run National Iranian Oil Co. provisionally expect crude shipments to drop to about 1.5 million barrels a day next month, down from about 2.3 million barrels a day in June, say people familiar with the country’s ports loading.
