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Iran News in Brief – February 10, 2023

Sedighe Shahrokhi
iran javanrud merchants strike 1
On February 9, merchants went on strike in Javanrud, Kermanshah province, western Iran

THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS

UPDATE: 9:00 PM CET

France Urges Stronger International Response to Iran’s Missile Program

PARIS, Feb 10 (Reuters) – There must be a stronger “international response” to the threat posed by Iran’s ballistic missiles program, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told her U.S. counterpart Anthony Blinken, France’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

The French Foreign Ministry said Colonna and Blinken had spoken by phone on Thursday, during which they discussed an array of topics, including Ukraine and Iran.

“The minister mentioned Iran’s destabilizing activities and the increasing threat posed by the increase of its ballistic missiles arsenal, the proliferation of missiles including towards non-state actors (…) and the need to strengthen the international response to this threat,” said the ministry, regarding Colonna’s talks with Blinken.

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UPDATE: 8:00 PM CET

Iran Uprising at a Glance – Day 148

Based partially on reporting by PMOI (MEK) Network in Iran

Friday, February 10, 2023 – 8 PM GMT + 1

Iran’s nationwide uprising is marking its 148th day as people in different cities across Iran.

The MEK-affiliated Resistance Units carried out 44 anti-regime actions to mark the 44th anniversary of the 1979 anti-monarchic revolution. (We will have a complete report in tomorrow’s brief.)

In Tehran, Iran protesters set fire to pro-regime posters, banners, and billboards across the capital.

In Sistan & Baluchistan province, southeast Iran, residents continued their anti-regime protests following weekly prayers. Zahedan, the capital of this restive province, alongside cities in Iran’s Kurdish regions, have become a beacon for protesters across the country and a symbol of the ongoing Iran revolution protests.

Protesters including brave women in various Baluch cities today chanted anti-regime slogans targeting the entire regime apparatus, from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), to the paramilitary Basij units. The protesters were particularly vocal in their chants of “Death to the oppressor, be it the Shah or the Leader (Khamenei). They also chanted, “No to a monarchy! No to the [mullahs’ regime]! Democracy and equality!,” “Free all political prisoners” and “From Zahedan to Tehran, I give my life for Iran.”

In the northeastern city of Galikesh in Golestan province, residents chanted anti-regime slogans including,
“Death to Khamenei!”
“Death to the oppressor! Be it the Shah or [Khamenei]!”
“No to a monarchy! No to the [mullahs’ regime]! Democracy and equality!”
“From Zahedan to Tehran, my life for Iran!”

There were also similar reports of protests in the city of Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan Province. They chanted: “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to Khamenei!”

In Mashhad, northeast Iran, protesters tore down pro-regime propaganda banners and posters in the country’s second-largest city.

In Kish Island, southern Iran, protesters tore down pro-regime propaganda banners and posters across the city.

In Bushehr, southern Iran, protesters torched pro-regime posters, banners, and billboards.

UPDATE: 10:30 AM CET

Tyrant Ayatollahs’ Grip on Iran Is Not Strong, a Push From UK and They Are History Comment

This week marks the anniversary of the Shah’s dictatorship and despotic rule being overthrown by the Iranian people in 1979.

Threats of mass execution are looming in the wake of state reprisals that have killed more than 750 people.

Iran’s most organised pro-democracy opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK), has through its network inside Iran determined that over 30,000 protesters have been arrested.

Many of them could face execution for vaguely-defined national security charges. The regime’s Judiciary has said as much in public, and members of the Parliament have requested it.

Various Western entities have discussed that possibility, and their hesitation has presumably been influenced by a number of factors including a tendency to overestimate the strength of the Iranian regime’s grip on power, and a comparable tendency to disregard the potential for real democratic change.

But that potential has consistently been represented to the world by Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), who has already presented a 10-point plan for Iran’s democratic future.

Mrs Rajavi has spent years calling upon Western powers to proscribe the IRGC and to thus empower the Iranian people to stand up in the face of its brutality.

The current uprising has seen them doing just that, despite the relative absence of support from the international community.

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House Lawmakers Introduce Resolution Backing Iranian Protesters, Calling For Secular, Non-nuclear Republic

During a press conference honoring the introduction of H. Res. 100 on Wednesday, Congressman McClintock said it “expresses our united support for the Iranian people in their struggle for a democratic, secular, and nonnuclear Republic of Iran” while condemning the “violations of human rights and the state-sponsored terrorism” of the Islamic regime.

The resolution recognizes that the Iranian people “are rejecting monarchic dictatorship and religious tyranny” and opting “to establish a democratic, secular, and non-nuclear” state in its stead.

It also urges the U.S. to “be involved in any establishment of an international investigation into the 1988 extrajudicial killings” of thousands of political prisoners in Iran, while calling on relevant U.S. government agencies to “work with European allies, including those in the Balkans where Iran has expanded its presence, to hold Iran accountable for breaching diplomatic privileges, and to call on nations to prevent the malign activities of the Iranian regime’s diplomatic missions, with the goal of closing them down and expelling its agents.”

McClintock pointed to Iranian opposition MEK (Mujahadin-e Khalq) political leader and President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) Maryam Rajavi’s “Ten Point Plan” to ensure Iranians’ freedom of expression and assembly, as well as the right to choose their elected leaders, as the “path toward a free, secular, Democratic and non-nuclear Iran.”

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Dual Citizen Sentenced for Sending Electronics To Iranian, Lebanese Terrorist Groups

Feb. 9 (UPI) — A dual citizen of the United States and Iran will serve a 30-month prison sentence for illegally conspiring to send electronic goods to Iranian and Lebanese terrorist groups. The Justice Department announced the sentence of 44-year-old Kambiz Attar Kashani of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Kashani allegedly conspired with others to send technology from several U.S. companies to the Lebanese terrorist organization Hizballah, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Both organizations are designated terrorist groups by the Pentagon.

“This is a sobering reminder that illegally exporting material is not an abstract economic concern — it is a crime with a direct impact on the safety of the American people,” said Alan E. Kohler Jr., assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division.

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UPDATE: 8:30 AM CET

US Lawmakers Pledge Support for Iran’s Nationwide Uprising

Members of the U.S. Congress introduced a new resolution on Wednesday, expressing their support for “the Iranian people’s desire for a democratic, secular, and nonnuclear Republic of Iran” and condemning the Iranian regime’s human rights violations and sponsorship of terrorism.

The resolution, H. RES. 100, was introduced by Congressman Tom McClintock and has already garnered the support of 166 members of the Congress. In addition to the current round of uprisings, which began in September, the resolution acknowledges the longtime efforts of the people of Iran obtain their freedom, including the recent nationwide uprisings in 2017 and 2019, and the protest movements in 1999 and 2009. It also highlights the massacre of “thousands political prisoners in 1988,” in which the regime’s current president Ebrahim Raisi played a key role. The lawmakers further draw attention to the regime’s human rights abuses against religious and ethnic minorities, including “Iranian Kurds, Baluchis, Arabs, Christians, Jews, Baha’is, Zoroastrians, and even Sunni Muslims.”

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Neda Faragari Fined and Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison

Neda Faragari, one of the detained protesters of the 2022 nationwide uprising, has been fined and sentenced to 2 years in prison by the Amol Revolutionary Court. Ms. Faragari remains incarcerated in the Prison of Amol. Amol security police arrested Neda Faragari on November 3, 2022, during the 40-day memorial ceremony for the slain protester Ghazaleh Chelavi.

After undergoing an interrogation, she was transferred to Amol prison. Neda Faragari is accused of chanting “death to the dictator” during the 40-day memorial ceremony for Ghazaleh Chelavi. The court considered the chant an example of “insulting the leadership.”

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Shah, the Foundation of Foreign Domination and Fascism in Iran!

In 1878, Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, in order to maintain his monarchy, borrowed a ruthless brigade called the Cossack Brigade from the Russian army, and paid all their expenses from the government’s treasury, i.e. the pockets of the Iranian people.

Among the famous leaders of this force, we can mention the notorious Russian colonel Liakhov, who bombarded the first Iranian constitutional assembly, and later on Reza Khan the Ghazagh (Cossack) with help from dominant colonial powers staged a coup d’état and Reza Khan was installed as king. A king who, when his expiration date was over, his masters kicked him out of Iran in disgrace and appointed his son in his place. And in turn, when the expiration date of “son” was over, General Robert E. Huyser came and arranged for the Shah’s departure and handed the country to the mullahs.

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Zurich, Switzerland—February 7, 2023: MEK Supporters Held a Rally in Support of the Iran Revolution

Zurich, Switzerland—February 7, 2023: Freedom-loving Iranians, supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) held a rally and book exhibition in solidarity with the nationwide Iranian Revolution. The Iranian community in Zurich has expressed its support for their rising compatriots and pledged to continue to call for freedom and democracy in Iran.

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Also, read Iran News in Brief – February 9, 2023

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