Ex-Palestinian Chief Justice expresses solidarity with ‘Free Iran’ gathering

Palestine Chief Justice, Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi

Former Palestine Chief Justice, Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi sent a video message of solidarity to the upcoming Grand Gathering of “Free Iran” which will be held in Paris on July 9.
In his message, broadcasted by the Iranian opposition satellite channel Simaye Azadi, Sheikh al-Tamimi condemned the mullahs’ regime in Iran for mass executions and in particular for its export of terrorism and complicity with Bashar al-Assad in the mass killing of Syrian people.
In his message Sheikh al-Tamimi said:
'As we know, tens of thousands of people in Iran have been tortured, imprisoned and killed by the Velayat-e Faqih (clerical) regime. Assad and the mullahs' regime have agreed to suppress and kill their people in autarchy. Yet, the people of Iran and Syria are united as brothers against the oppression by the mullahs' and Assad's regime, and by God's will these autocratic regimes will collapse and the people of Iran and Syria will celebrate their victory.”
“The mullahs' regime believes that its survival is dependent on the survival of Assad's regime and equally that the destruction of Assad's regime would mean its destruction as well. Therefore, the mullahs’ regime kills their people and spreads war to the entire region. They want to impose their tyranny and oppression while they are afraid of justice and democracy. They believe if the people score a victory, their regime will definitely collapse.”
“I say that the meeting to be held in Paris will demonstrate the readiness of the Iranian's Resistance, the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI or MEK), to overthrow the mullahs' regime. The Iranian people, themselves must rule their country with liberty and democracy. As I heard Maryam Rajavi 's speech about the massive rise of Iranian people outside of Iran in solidarity with the people of the world. I am certain that she supports women’s rights by citing the verses of the Quran and quotes of the Prophet Muhammad. As she mentioned, the God Almighty emphasizes in the Quran that women are the counterpart of men and this is what Maryam Rajavi has promoted while on the other hand the Velayat-e Faqih relies on terrorism, murder and fundamentalism, and the fundamentalist groups that kill people everywhere have their roots in the regime of the Velayat-e Faqih,' he added.

White House: Funding Hezbollah will continue to give Iran difficulties with int’l markets

WASHINGTON - If Iran continues to allegedly fund terrorism, including supplying resources to Hezbollah, it will have a negative business impact on Iran, a White House spokesman said on Monday.
“Financial actors do not want to do business with a country that is funding terrorism,” White House principal deputy press secretary Eric Schultz said during a briefing.
“So we call on Iran to not only stop doing this because it is not good for national security and they are supporting terrorism, but we call on Iran to stop doing it because it is not in their interest either,” Schultz said.


White House principal deputy press secretary Eric Schultz
The United States will continue to use all the tools at its disposal, including sanctions, to target Hezbollah, which is a designated foreign terrorist organization, he said.
“We believe our designations over the past year designating Hezbollah procurement networks, financial and commercial front companies and other entities have been highly effective,” Schultz said. The sanctions regime passed earlier this year further builds on that and has created a climate throughout the world where financial institutions are rejecting Hezbollah from their institutions, he added.
“But … if Iran is going to continue to support Hezbollah, Hezbollah is going to continue to have a funding stream and resources,” Schultz said. “That is why it is all the more important that if Iran wants access to international markets, they are going to need to curb their own behavior.”

Source: KUNA, 27 June 2016

Hariri former Lebanese PM slams Hezbollah’s allegiance to Iran's regime

This admission shows Hezbollah follows Iran par excellence, Hariri said on Saturday

Beirut- Just days after former prime minister Sa’ad Hariri reemphasised Lebanon’s “Arab identity”, the Future Party leader slammed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah after he admitted in a recent speech that Hezbollah is funded by Iran.
“This admission shows Hezbollah follows Iran par excellence,” Hariri said on Saturday night, citing Nasrallah’s admission as proof that Hezbollah puts the interests of other countries before those of Lebanon.
“As long as Iran has money, Hezbollah has money... Can we be any more frank than that?” Hassan Nasrallah said in his speech on Thursday marking the arba‘een [passing of 40 days] of Hezbollah leader Mustafa Badr Al Deen, who was killed in Damascus.
Badr Al Deen, a cousin and brother-in-law of Emad Mughniyeh, was accused of assassinating Rafik Hariri in 2005 and his trial in absentia is still under way at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon at The Hague.
Badr Al Deen was killed in a mysterious bombing at Damascus airport while Mughniyeh was killed on February 12, 2008 in a car bomb blast, also in Damascus.
He argued that the focus should be on those who “insist to put Iran, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain first and Lebanon at the end”.
Iranian meddling, he said, will only escalate existing tensions between Arabs and Iran.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s ministers of interior and tourism, Nouhad Mashnouq and Michel Pharoan, held a joint press conference calling for tourists, especially those from the GCC, to return to the country.
It may be recalled that GCC states had banned their nationals from travelling to Lebanon and took specific measures against some Lebanese citizens working in their countries after they designated Hezbollah a terrorist organisation.
Mashnouq sought to assure that the security situation was well under control and that the police presence in tourist areas has been boosted. He added that untoward incidents in Lebanon were far less threatening to similar events in European capitals.
Source: Gulf News, 26 June 2016

Iran: Baha’i woman arrested, her business closed down

Bahai woman arrested in Iran, her business shutdown

Following month of harassments and intimidation, on June 16, the Iranian regime’s court summoned Ms. Sara Akhlaghi, a Bahaii resident of Shiraz, southern Iran for signing a waivers to have her maison unlocked, according to a report published Tuesday by the website of the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ).
Ms. Akhlaghi advertized her Maison's wedding gowns on Instagram.
However, internet security agents hacked and blocked her account for 'dissemination of indecent photographs and inciting and encouraging others to breach public decency.'
In the next stage, her Maison was sealed without prior notice. They posted a banner on the door, which read, 'This business has been sealed because of disseminating indecent photographs and is not allowed to do business.'
Then on June 16, Ms. Akhlaghi was summoned to court ostensibly to reach an agreement for unlocking her business, but she was arrested on the spot. There is no information available on her whereabouts, the report added.

 

Top criminal leaves Iraq for Syria as Iranian regime witnesses internal changes

Top criminal leaves Iraq for Syria

The commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has left Iraq for Syria as the conflicts in Syria heat up, a local news agency reported on Monday.

"Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani rushed to Syria to oversee "Resistance" operations as the fight with "terrorists" takes a violent turn in recent days," semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

Soleimani departed for Syria to join his fellow warriors in the suburbs of Aleppo on Sunday, Xinhua quoted the report as saying.

Asharq Al-Awsat added that Iran’s foreign affairs ministry has introduced changes to its staff, ending the term of Amir Abdul Lahyan – outgoing Iranian assistant foreign minister – who had a major role in Iran’s interference with internal affairs of some Arab states and was publicly supporting Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Al-Quds Force.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday appointed Jaberi Ansari as his new deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs, replacing Abdul Lahyan, who has been appointed as adviser to the Iranian foreign minister.

Analysts believe that the changes reflect disagreements within the Iranian regime.

Last March, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted sources as saying that criticisms against Abdul Lahyan, who manages the Iranian policy in the region, have followed U.S.-Iranian negotiations regarding the Syrian conflict. The sources added that these criticisms resulted from deep disputes with the foreign minister regarding the “new trends” of Iran’s foreign policy.

While the Iranian foreign affairs ministry refused to confirm such claims, White House spokesman Mark Toner announced last week that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the Syrian crisis with Zarif in Oslo. In this context, sources told Al-Monitor that Zarif, at the Oslo meetings, signaled that he has more authority on the Syrian file than he has had until now, and that Iran may be prepared to show more flexibility to advance a political solution.

Several Iranian media reports had talked about U.S. and Arab pressure exerted on Zarif to remove Abdul Layhan from his position as deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs.

However, Zarif refused to deny or confirm these reports, telling Khorasan newspaper in April that diplomatic arrangements were a normal procedure and adding that the Iranian diplomatic organism was under evolution.

Abdul Lahyan is a close friend of the Commander of the Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, and he is the first Iranian official to deny Soleimani’s injury in Aleppo. He is also considered a linking point between the Foreign Minister and the Commander of the Revolutionary Guard.

Iran: Food vendors are beaten by State repressive forces during Ramadan

Iranian peddlers being beaten for selling food during Ramadan

Iranian regime’s suppressive State Security Forces (SSF) used batons to beat and harass a bakery owner earlier this week west of Tehran.
The regime’s agents went to a bakery in Beheshti Street in Heidar-Abad on Sunday, June 12 ordering the store to close his business accusing him of selling food during Ramadan.
The owner attempted to show them his license, which allowed him to sell food during Ramadan but police beat him and took him to the police station.
This action sparked a protest and the suppressive forces were heckled by witnesses.
That same morning, the suppressive forces closed several fast food restaurants and supermarkets in some vicinities in Karaj, west of Tehran, including Azimieh, Kuy-E-Ghaem, Heidar-Abad and Golshahr for selling food during Ramadan.
In some cases, the suppressive forces tried to blackmail supermarket sellers in order to issue them the necessary work permits.
Nevertheless, the repressive police forces closed the supermarkets and fast food restaurants by force.
The business owners argued with the repressive forces who later arrested two shop owners under the pretext of so-called religious principles.

Iran is the problem not the solution for India

Indian PM Narendra Modi visit to the United States

In an article published in the Indian Express on June 19, 2016, former US Senator, Joseph Lieberman warns Indian government of not falling for a petty interest in dealing with the terrorist sponsor regime of Iran. The article explains that financial and economic relations with the mullahs’ ruled Iran, would rob any country of real and tangible benefits of doing business with the rest of the world.
Senator Lieberman explains that Iran’s long cold war with Saudi Arabia has become hotter in recent times, evidenced by the ransacking of the Saudi embassy in Tehran and the ongoing wars in Syria and Yemen. The international community cannot afford to take its eye off Iran and Hezbollah—whether they are threatening Israel or Saudi Arabia. This past month, a senior adviser to Iran’s Quds Force warned that Iran could wipe out Israel “in less than eight minutes”. Iran also continues to host high-level delegations from terrorist organizations which endanger many of America’s allies. Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei and Hezbollah Secretary-General Nasrallah view Israel and Saudi Arabia as two sides of the same coin.
Hezbollah’s heavy involvement in Syria on behalf of the Assad regime has provided the terrorist organization with new weaponry and sophisticated logistics and tactical training from both Iran and Russia, making it more dangerous.

Syrian opp.: Assad regime and Iran stoking sectarianism in the region

Hijab says Assad regime has evaded from discussing political transition during UN-mandated talks in Geneva

ANKARA- UN-brokered talks at resolving the six-year conflict in Syria have reached a dead end due to refusal of the Syrian regime to discuss political transition in the country, an opposition negotiator said.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Riad Hijab said that the Bashar al-Assad regime has evaded from discussing political transition during recent UN-mandated talks in Geneva.
“With every round of negotiations, the regime begins to escalate its bombardment and commit massacres against the [Syrian] people,” said Hijab, the coordinator of the High Committee of the Syrian opposition in negotiations.
Hijab said that the Syrian opposition has suspended its participation in the UN talks due to massacres committed by the regime against Syrian civilians.
“Any return to the negotiations would require creating a favorable climate, which currently does not exist,” he said.
“The Syrian people are still suffering,” he said, citing a recent escalation in attacks by the Assad regime.
“We have seen an unprecedented escalation by the regime and its allies Iran and Russia against the Syrian people, using banned weapons as phosphor and napalm bombs,” he said.
Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to the UN.
UN-mandated talks between the Syrian regime and opposition to look into ways of resolving the six-year conflict collapsed in late April.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday that the international body will not hold another round of Syrian talks until both sides agree the parameters for a political transition deal, which has an August 1 deadline.
'I have informed the Security Council just a few days ago ... The time is not yet mature for the official third round of the intra-Syrian talks,' de Mistura said.
Hijab further accused the Assad regime and allied Iran of stoking sectarianism in the region.
He also criticized attempts by Russia – which began airstrikes against Assad’s opponents in September -- to designate the opposition Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham groups as “terrorist” organizations.
“The two groups are defending the rights of the Syrian people and are working to remove the regime,” he said, going on to call on the international community to “show a real resolve to guarantee political transition” in Syria.
Source: Anadolu Agency, 13 June 2016

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Condemns migrant detention in Europe

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein

GENEVA- The UN's human rights chief voiced alarm Monday at the increasing detention of migrants in Europe, including unaccompanied children, amid widespread anti-migrant rhetoric across the continent.
As Europe faces its biggest migration crisis since the aftermath of World War II, UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said he had sent staff members to assess areas along the main migration routes in the central Mediterranean and Balkans.
'They have observed a worrying increase in detention of migrants in Europe, including in the hotspots, (which are) essentially vast mandatory confinement areas which have been set up in Greece and Italy,' he told the opening of the UN Human Rights Council's second annual session.
'Even unaccompanied children are frequently placed in prison cells or centers ringed with barbed-wire,' he said, insisting 'detention is never in the best interests of the child.'
Zeid urged the EU to collect data on migrant detentions by member states, warning that 'the figures would, I fear, be very shocking.'
More than one million people made the journey to Europe in 2015, the majority fleeing war in Syria and the Middle East, and a further 208,000 have come since January, according to UN figures.
More than 2,850 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean so far this year.
Faced with the influx, the UN rights chief warned that many countries were showing 'a strong trend that overturns international commitments, refuses basic humanity, and slams doors in the face of human beings in need.'
He pointed out that EU countries so far have managed to relocate fewer than one percent of the 160,000 people they have committed to taking from overwhelmed Greece and Italy.
He urged European countries to 'find a way to address the current migration crisis consistently and in a manner that respects the rights of the people concerned,' and to 'remove hysteria and panic from the equation.'
This, he said, was particularly important in the context of a deal between the European Union (EU) and Turkey in March, under which migrants not entitled to asylum are to be deported from Greece back across the Aegean.
Zeid also decried 'the widespread anti-migrant rhetoric that we have heard, spanning the length and breadth of the European continent.'
'This fosters a climate of divisiveness, xenophobia and even, as in Bulgaria, vigilante violence,' he said.
Before they reach Europe, many migrants are meanwhile suffering horrible human rights abuses in chaos-wracked Libya, the UN rights warned.
He decried 'disturbing reports of many migrants in Libya being subjected to prolonged arbitrary detention, attacks and unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment, sexual violence and abduction for ransom.'
UN staff visiting a migrant detention center in the country found 'dozens of people crammed into storage rooms without space to lie down.'
He urged EU countries attempting to cooperate with Libya on migration and border management to only do so 'in full respect for the human rights of the people involved.'

CIA: US very concerned about Iran’s support for terrorist activities in the region

Director of the CIA is very concerned about Quds force

CIA’s director, John Brennan in an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya News Channel on Saturday, 11 June 2016 talked about his concerns of Tehran's support of terrorism and it's meddling inside Iraq, Syria, and other countries throughout the region.
John Brennan said: “I continue to be very concerned about Iran’s support for terrorist activities and terrorist groups, especially the Quds force and their activities inside Iraq, Syria, and other countries throughout the region,”
“Iran still has a long way to go before I’m going to be convinced that they are interested in countering and destroying terrorism,” he added.
Brennan said he is not convinced at all that Ghasem Soleimani commander of the Quds force is trying to take sectarian tensions in Iraq down.
He emphasized that Soleimani who is in the American and European terrorist list “has been taking a leading role for Iran and Quds force inside of Iraq and Syria and other areas.”
CIA’s director told Al Arabiya News Channel that “over the last 15 years, the Saudis have become among our best counterterrorism partners.”
He described Saudi King Salman and his deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as “strong partners in this fight against terrorism.”

Iran and Hezbollah involved in drug trafficking and money laundering operations

100 Hezbollah Sleeper Cells in Latin American countries backed by Iran

Latin American media reports confirmed that there are more than 100 sleeper cells affiliated to the Lebanese Hezbollah in Latin America and that they are spreading in the Triple Frontier; the tri-border between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay and in other areas on the Venezuelan-Columbian border where drug trafficking thrives. The Triple Frontier is considered one of the most dangerous areas in the world due to the drug trafficking and the money laundering activities that take place there.
The Argentinian newspaper La Nación mentioned that Hezbollah has managed to penetrate the region over the years and has formed a large network of relations and interests linked to drug trafficking. It added that the organization has relied on members of the Lebanese community for this.
The report indicates that the US Drug Enforcement Administration has officially informed members of the US Congress that it has evidence that proves Hezbollah’s involvement in huge drug trafficking operations around the world. The United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s director of operations Michael Brown said that the organization, backed by Iran, has managed to move large shipments of drugs across Latin America and also to Europe as part of money laundering operations.
The reports also suggest that the policies established by the former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez paved the way for the formation of these cells in Latin American countries. It is known that the period during which the Leftist president ruled the country was a golden age for Iranian- Latin American relations.
Source: Asharq Al-Awsat, 12 June 2016

Canadian court orders Iranian regimes assets handed to terrorist attack victims

Khobar Towers Saudi Arabia bombed in 1996

TORONTO - According to Canada's National Post, the Iranian government lost a key court battle Thursday when an Ontario judge ordered the Islamic republic’s non-diplomatic assets in Canada to be handed over to victims of terrorist groups sponsored by Tehran.
The long-awaited ruling by the Ontario Superior Court dismissed every argument Iran’s lawyers had made at a trial held in Toronto in January, leaving Tehran financial responsible for the actions of the terrorists it has backed.
“Terrorism is one of the world’s greatest threats,” Justice Glenn Hainey wrote. “The broad issue before the court is whether Iran is entitled to immunity from the jurisdiction of Canadian courts for its support of terrorism.”
Iran’s diplomatic buildings in Ottawa remain unaffected, but several non-diplomatic properties and the contents of a list of bank accounts were awarded to the victims of the Iranian-supported terror groups including Hezbollah.
AFP reported, The Canadian lawsuits were brought under a relatively new law passed in 2012 that allows victims and their families to collect damages from state sponsors of terrorism.
National Post reported that,  the $13-million case was the first challenge of the Justice for Victims of Terror Act.
The 2012 law allows victims to collect damages from state sponsors of terror groups. Canada has designated Iran and Syria state sponsors of terrorism.
 “The JVTA continues to do its job in holding Iran — the world’s most egregious state sponsor of terror — ‎accountable for its terrorist crimes,” said Danny Eisen of the Canadian Coalition Against Terror, which represents victims and lobbied for the law. “As Canada seeks to re-engage Iran it is critical that Iran continue to be held to account in Canadian courts for its terrorism and human rights abuses.”
Until the JVTA came into effect four years ago, foreign governments enjoyed state immunity from civil courts. But the law stripped that immunity from Iran and Syria.
Eventually victims of eight terrorist attacks joined in, including those harmed by Iran’s Lebanese proxy force, Hezbollah.
The five proceedings in Ontario involved the enforcement of a dozen U.S. court judgments against Iran as well as the Ministry of Information and Security and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran initially ignored the cases. Only after judgment orders had been issued, did it hire a Toronto law firm, which argued Tehran had not been properly served with the court papers, the cases were filed too late and the dollar amounts sought by the victims were “offensive.”
In his ruling, Justice Hainey found Iran’s arguments were without merit and declined to set aside the judgments. He dismissed its argument legal papers had been served in English, rather than in a Persian language.
He gave no weight to Iran’s argument it had assumed the Canadian government would protect the regime’s assets, and said Iran had failed to explain why it had not mounted a legal defence until the judgment orders had been issued.
“The failure to provide any reasonable explanation for Iran’s failure to defend these motions suggests to me that the defendants were attempting to gain a procedural advantage and were ‘gaming the system,’ ” he wrote.
Source: News Agencies, 11 June 2016

Obama's 'Appeasement Policy' to Blame for Iran's Rise

For nearly four decades Iran's regime has literally posed the first and foremost threat for peace and security in the world

Shahriar Kia a press spokesman for residents of Camp Liberty in Baghdad, Iraq has written an article on the  'growing threat of Islamic fundamentalism' led by Iran's regime and how the US administration appeasement policy toward Tehran has raised this threat in the Middle East and throughout the world.
The following is the full article posted on the News Max:

As the world continues to struggle in its effort to find a solution to the ever growing threat of Islamic fundamentalism, a very simple reality is very often overlooked -- and at times deliberately neglected.
In the years leading to World War II, the appeasement policy advocated by the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain vis-a-vis the fascist regimes of Europe forced him to declare war on Nazi Germany after Hitler’s 1939 invasion of Poland, and the rest is history.
Decades later, we are literally witnessing history repeating itself as the West, spearheaded by the Obama administration in Washington, has once again embraced the appeasement/engagement policy. This time, it is with a fascist regime in Iran. The objective is to encourage the emergence of moderates from within the mullahs’ establishment. This misguided policy has unfortunately led to the de facto rise of Islamic fundamentalism.
The regime in Iran is relying on three main pillars and platforms to safeguard its ruling system: domestic oppression and harrowing human rights violations, perennial support for international terrorism, and the all-out effort to obtain nuclear weapons by any means possible.
Long before Daesh -- the Arabic acronym for the self-proclaimed Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL -- ever came to existence, the mullahs sitting on the throne in Iran claimed having the prophecy and manifestation to rule over all Islamic countries under such a caliphate.
For nearly four decades, Iran has literally posed the first and foremost threat for peace and security for Middle East and beyond.
The Obama administration sought to tame the regime in Iran through an outreach effort to seal an agreement over Tehran's ongoing differences with the international community regarding its suspicious and clandestine nuclear program.
After years of overt and covert talks, the P5+1 finally closed an agreement in July 2015 for Iran to cooperate in curbing its emblematic nuclear program in return for certain concessions.
The international community expected Iran to at least principally alter previous methods, and remedy its menacing behavior.
However, the mullahs in Tehran – under pressure from their dismal base – built on this naïve expectation and continued wreaking havoc by meddling in the region, test-firing a string of ballistic missiles despite the U.N. Security Council denouncing such measures, and launching massive waves of executions in prisons across the country.
The International Institute of Strategic Studies reported on April 20th: “US Cent-com commander General Lloyd Austin testified in March that Iran’s regional behavior has not changed since the nuclear deal, for better or for worse: ‘The fact remains that Iran today is a significant destabilizing force in the region.’”
Newsweek raised the question of Iran ever maturing into an appropriate neighbor, describing how Tehran has resorted to pursuing “deterrence and military power projection through means of its ballistic missiles, an alliance with Lebanese Hezbollah and the rest of its regional proxy army, and its suite of asymmetric naval capabilities designed to threaten Persian Gulf shipping and U.S. maritime dominance.”
Interestingly, despite all these undeniable facts, the West, and the Obama administration in particular, simply refuse to accept the reality that Iran will not budge to denounce its past or welcome any change whatsoever, nor will it allow its already tenuous hegemony be tethered.
American Thinker’s Rick Moran best summarized and articulated this harsh reality with reference to Iran’s approach regarding its nuclear pact with the P5+1: “I'm trying to decide what's more jaw-dropping: Obama thinking Iran is interested in adhering to the 'spirit' of the treaty, or that the president actually believed the Iranians ever intended to adhere to it.”
We have to accept the fact that any talk of “moderates” and “hardliners” in Iran is merely playing into Tehran’s hands.
The mentality of all factions inside Iran is founded based on Islamic fundamentalism, denying freedoms for all and most importantly, strict gender segregation and discrimination.
Iran under its “moderate” President Hassan Rouhani is known to have executed more than 2,400 people from June 2013 onward. Recent startling reports indicate Iran sent 23 prisoners to the gallows in the span of two days of May 17th and 18th, and placed in solitary confinement 10 young inmates aged between 21 and 25, all in preparation for their executions.
Further disturbing news from Iran show how dozens of high school graduates were arrested and lashed 99 times each for throwing, and dancing at, a graduation party. This should provide a clear insight about the mullahs’ temperament.
This complex, defiant threat was first unearthed more than two decades ago by the Iranian opposition in a book titled Islamic Fundamentalism: The New Global Threat. It precisely evaluated the very foundation of this mentality.
Had these warnings been taken seriously, and received the attention they deserved, rest assured that neither al-Qaida nor Daesh would have emerged. Iraq would not have been taken hostage by Iran-backed Shiite militias sowing the seeds of “sedition and division.”
Nor would Bashar al-Assad, following the footsteps dictated by Iran, have massacred the Syrian people in a turmoil enduring for more than five years now.
The regime in Tehran is the epicenter of provoking this multi-layered misery, and offers a safe haven for terrorists.
Four decades of their onslaught against the Middle East and world over has proven the international community has been neglecting the mainstream solution to this major dilemma.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, symbolized in the leadership of Maryam Rajavi and her 10-point plan for Iran, presents a democratic alternative for Iran to dislodge the mullahs.
As former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani stated at a major NCRI -sponsored gathering back in June 2015: “This is a critical time for freedom in Iran. Now more than ever, it is essential for President Obama and Secretary Kerry to keep the pressure on the Iranian Government.”
He added: “At the core of all these problems is the regime in Iran. It should be changed, it must be changed, it has to be changed…There should be support by the United States government for an opposition in Iran. The United States government should support the opposition groups, Mrs. Rajavi's being the most prominent, and the biggest.'
Shahriar Kia is a press spokesman for residents of Camp Liberty, Iraq, and members of the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran opposition group (PMOI, also known as MEK). Twitter: @shahriarkia

Iran lobby groups that pushed through the nuclear deal are coming under scrutiny

The controvercial Iran nuclear deal

With election season well under way, the nuclear deal with Iran has been making its way back into the spotlight, and will likely become an even bigger issue as presumptive nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump start to lock horns. Clinton, for her part, has already laid claim to setting the ground work for the nuclear deal, while Trump has promised to “tear the deal up.”
Now, the outgoing Obama administration is coming under fire for the tactics used to push for the deal. The nuclear deal was a tough sell for both Congress and the American people. While Obama was able to largely act unilaterally in signing the deal, this has only increased divisions and ramped up criticism. Among other allegations and criticisms, critics are beginning to take a longer look at the lobby groups that supported the administration's efforts.
Numerous Republicans and others have been highly critical of the deal. “The bitter reality is that the notion of moderation by Rouhani as the regime’s president that was the heart of the ‘narrative’ and was pushed by the echo chamber had no basis in reality', said Shahin Gobadi, the Paris-based spokesman for the main Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Gobadi added this is one of the points to be addressed by Iranian dissidents and their international supporters in the major international gathering ‘Free Iran’, slated for Paris on July 9.
'In line with the clerical regime’s pattern in the past three decades, Tehran kept demanding marginalization of the Iranian opposition and their voice in order to prevent the policy to become reflective of the reality of the weakness and domestic isolation of the regime,” argued Gobadi.

Lobby groups fought for Iran nuclear deal

The Iran nuclear deal was the subject of intense lobbying from both detractors and supporters. Now, questions are rising over the motives of those groups that lobbied in favor of the deal. Tehran stands to benefit tremendously from the agreement, primarily due to the rollback of once-crippling economic sanctions, as do numerous Iranian business persons and other parties.
Open borders will create lucrative trade opportunities for any company willing to do business with Iran. Given the benefits for Iran, and the amount of money to be made with trade resuming, it should come as no surprise that millions of dollars were spent by lobby groups in support of the deal (millions were also spent opposing it).
Among the many groups that the Obama administration relied on was Ploughshares, ostensibly an anti-nuclear weapons non-profit. Ploughshares has also funded the National Iranian American Council, which has long been suspected of ties to the Iranian regime. The NIAC was a vehement supporter of the nuclear deal, and spent heavily, running TV ads and pressuring Congress among other things, to see it through.
According to the Daily Beast, the NIAC also receives funded from the Namazis, a wealthy Iranian-American family that does a considerable amount of trade and business with Iran. With extended family in both Iran and America, and as savvy business and financial operators, the Namazis would gain considerably with renewed trade between Iran and the West.
To be clear, the Namazis likely were not advocating on behalf of the Iranian theocracy, but instead their own personal interest. The eldest father, Baquer, and his son Siamak, have been arrested by Iranian authorities.
Interestingly, while the Ploughshares Fund's stated goal is to fight nuclear proliferation, it also funded a number of journalists and websites which engaged in a campaign of demonizing and targeting the MEK, which was the first group to break news of Iran's nuclear weapons program in 2002.
Further, according to the Wall Street Journal and other sources, the Obama administration relied on Ploughshares, among others, to funnel money to democratic senators and other influential policy makers. This cadre of Democratic senators dismantled efforts to stop the deal.

Source; us.blastingnews.com, June 9, 2016

Due to growing pressure State Dept. to Investigate Edited Video on Iran Talks

State Dept. Reopens Investigation In to Deliberately Edited Video on Iran Talks

Facing mounting pressure from members of Congress and from inquiring journalists, the State Department said on Wednesday that it has reopened its investigation into who ordered the video edit of a State Department briefing from December 2013.
Last week when the State Department admitted the video had been deliberately edited (after having originally stated it was a technical glitch) a spokesman said the investigation was over and ultimately could not determine who was responsible.
But on Wednesday State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that decision was overturned by Secretary John Kerry. “The secretary said he wants to dive deeper into this, look more into what happened, and try to get to the bottom of what happened,” Toner told reporters at the State Department briefing today.
Based on claims from the technician responsible for editing the video and her supervisor, officials said they believe that the order came from within the department of public affairs. Yet the technician and her supervisor, who recall having a discussion about the order, both say they can’t remember who called them and told them to do it, according to officials.
Spokespersons Jen Psaki and Marie Harf and other top public affairs officials from 2013 have vigorously denied calling for the deletion.
Toner said today investigators within the state department’s legal division have expanded the investigation to look through emails from “leadership positions” that might give some indications of who called for the edit. So far the emails haven’t offered any indication of who did this, or why, he said.
He also pointed out that no rules were broken when the video was originally edited, but that rules have since been put into place that would prohibit such action.
“But we're going to continue to look at additional troves of information in an effort to find out, again, what happened” Toner said.



Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has called for an internal investigation by the State Department’s inspector general and sent a letter to Secretary Kerry requesting State Department documents and correspondences related to the decision to delete the video footage. He also sent a letter to the White House chief of staff requesting similar information after it was reported that one of its briefings transcripts omitted a line about the Iran nuclear negotiations.
For its part, the State Department says it plans to provide a preliminary response to Rep. Chaffetz on Wednesday.
Source: ABC News, 9 June 2016

Iran; 600,000 new imprisonments each year, basis for social unrest

 
During an open-door session of the Iranian regime parliament on Monday, where the interior minister of Rouhani’s administration was also present, lawmakers warned the administration of the boiling unrest and its consequences in the country due to the colossal and unimaginable plundering and corruption, and on the other hand, the arrests and the most brutal and widespread suppression against ordinary people. They warned that this combination would add up to disaster and earthquake for the entire regime.
The interior minister revealed that “there are more than 600,000 new arrests and imprisonments each year where at least 200,000 of them remain in prison for long terms.”
He warned of the social consequences of such phenomenon and said: “If you want to learn of the social cost of this policy, you must multiply this number by the number of people in a family.  Each of those arrested have a family that becomes concern. And then you must add the government’s economic, social and political programs to that outcome too. Because the lack of ability to satisfy the society would in some point tie to the social apathy and the extent of the repression. Then if we add up all those numbers together, we would have boiling pot which would cook up some catastrophe for the entire regime.
Lahouti, another Majlis (Iran regime parliament) lawmaker warned “we have some 11 million people living in slums. These people lack every social services that is provided to regular inbound city residents. This has really created a problem for us. These people live in dangerous places such as in trash lands where their health would be in grave danger. They illegally use the city’s water and electric systems.”

U.S. rejects EU bid to trade with Iran without the threat of US financial sanctions

Int.companies interested in doing business with Iran are holding back for fear of ...

European Union governments have hit a wall with the U.S. in attempts to shield banks and companies that do business with Iran from the threat of financial sanctions.
EU finance ministers pressed U.S. officials to provide more explicit guidance on the administration’s sanctions regime during talks in Brussels in late May, without success, two people familiar with the meeting said. Spokeswomen for the U.S. Treasury and the European Commission declined to comment on the talks.
With an estimated $24 billion in additional EU trade at stake over the next two years, Europe, Russia and the U.S. lifted economic sanctions linked to Iran’s nuclear program in January. Yet restrictions on dollar-denominated trades related to Iran were among the penalties left in place, crimping Europe’s expansion of business ties with the Islamic republic.
“Banks evidently view the risk of violating U.S. sanctions as too great,” Arnold Wallraff, head of the German government’s Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control, said in an interview. “Additional measures to limit liability would be helpful. Politicians need to address that.”
With oil and aviation deals usually financed in dollars with large banks sharing the risks, the ban on dollar transactions remains a hurdle for deals such as Iran’s agreement to buy 118 Airbus planes worth $27 billion, announced shortly after sanctions were lifted in January.
EU finance ministers and officials pressed the U.S. to give assurances to banks about the reach and application of the remaining sanctions, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks were private. In its response, the U.S. declined to go beyond its publicly announced policy, the people said.
Past Penalties
The push by EU governments reflects pressure by banks after the nuclear deal with world powers sparked optimism that Iran would rejoin the global financial system. More than half of international companies interested in doing business with Iran are holding back for fear of running afoul of sanctions, according to a report by global law firm Clyde & Co.
EU-Iran trade is expected to quadruple in the next two years from an annual level of some $8 billion, according to the U.K. Foreign Office. Yet U.S. politics mean the window for expanding trade with Iran may be closing, with Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump signaling he’d tear up the Iran accord that he says led to U.S. “humiliation.”
Nuclear-related sanctions, including a ban on Iran’s use of the SWIFT system for international financial transactions, were lifted in January following the nuclear deal. Other international sanctions related to terrorism and ballistic-missile development remained in place, as does a U.S. ban on American commerce with Iran.
Past U.S. penalties loom large, including the record $9 billion fine that BNP Paribas SA agreed to pay in 2014 in part for dealings with Iran. France’s Societe Generale SA, Germany’s Deutsche Bank AG, Zurich-based Credit Suisse Group AG, ING Groep NV in the Netherlands and the U.K.’s Standard Chartered Plc are among the big European banks that have said they’re generally not prepared to do business in Iran yet.
‘Lack of Clarity’
France’s government, worried that companies may lose exports, is said to be in talks with the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, to seek a commitment that banks can do business without incurring legal woes.
The U.S. administration says Treasury and State Department officials have held meetings with companies, government officials and financial institutions in more than a dozen countries to discuss the sanctions relief for Iran. Guidance on OFAC’s website is regularly updated in response to questions about the scope of the sanctions, the Treasury spokeswoman said by e-mail.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met European bankers including Deutsche Bank AG Co-Chief Executive Officer John Cryan in London in May, telling them “that legitimate business, which is clear under the definition of the agreement, is available to banks.”
That doesn’t satisfy the Europeans. Several EU companies have asked the European Commission to take their individual cases to the Treasury so they can gain legal clearance or permissions before trading with Iran, Francesco Fini, an official in the office of EU foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini, told Bloomberg BNA on May 25.
“Lack of clarity from the U.S. is causing a lack of certainty for companies like Airbus,” Franck Proust, a French member of the European Parliament, said during a committee meeting in May. “There are no banks at this point that will support investments.”
Source: Bloomberg, 7 June 2016

The repressive Basij forces raided two parties in Nishapur, Iran, arresting 70 people

Iran anti-human Basij force raided two mixed-gender parties arresting 70 young boys and girls

According to The Media Express, the Iranian paramilitary Basij Forces, affiliated to the IRGC forces under the orders of the Supreme leader, broke up 2 parties in the city of Nishapur within 72 hours, detaining 70 people.
The head of Nishapur Basij force, Ali-Akbar Hosseini, has announced that “anonymous soldiers” [expression used to identify regime’s undercover agents] alerted him to an “obscene party”, and later to a second party.
Mixed-gender partying and the consumption of alcohol have been illegal in Iran since the Iranian Revolution. However, many continue to flout the risk of imprisonment and corporal punishment to continue their revelry.
Source: The Media Express, June 6, 2016

In a mounting competition with Iran, Saudi Arabia Cuts Oil Prices in Europe

Saudi Arabia’s move comes after OPEC last Thursday failed to agree on a production ceiling.

Saudi Arabia on Sunday cut its oil prices to Europe, signalling mounting competition after OPEC failed to cap its output amid Iran’s exports ramp up.
In an email sent to customers, state oil company Saudi Armco said it had cut its light crude prices by 35 cents a barrel to Northwest Europe and by 10 cents a barrel to the Mediterranean for July deliveries.
The price reduction is surprising, as demand typically grows in the second half of the year as refineries return from maintenance. In addition, markets have recently been buoyed by outages in countries like Nigeria.
But Saudi Arabia’s move comes after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last Thursday failed to agree on a production ceiling. The absence of output limits effectively gives a blank check for the group’s two most influential members and rivals, Saudi Arabia and Iran, to pump at will.
Geopolitical tensions helped scotch the deal on capping production, with Iran taking a firm stand late last Wednesday against any move that would limit its own production as it aims for an economic comeback following the end of Western sanctions in January. By contrast, Saudi Arabia had expressed openness for a collective output cap.
The two Persian Gulf nations are jockeying for political influence in hotspots such as Yemen and Syria.
But the European price cut on Sunday also exemplifies their intense competition for oil markets. Iran resumed its crude exports to the European Union in February after an EU embargo on its oil was lifted and is now heavily competing there with Saudi Arabia, which had partly replaced Iran as a source of European supply during the sanctions.
Shipments from Iran to the EU have now reached 400,000 barrels a day. They are set to increase to 700,000 barrels a day in the coming months after Iran clinched deals with Greek, French and Italian refiners, according to Iranian officials.
By contrast, Saudi Arabia exported 800,000 barrels a day on average to Europe last year, according to the International Energy Agency.
As a result, Saudi Arabia and Iran have been matching each other’s price cuts, though they deny offering special, private discounts to individual buyers.
Iran believes it will ultimately have the upper hand, as its finances are less dependent on oil. “Saudi Arabia will be big loser in the price war,” Akbar Nematollahi, the head of public relations at Iran’s oil ministry, wrote last month in the ministry’s in-house magazine.
Some European oil producers could be collateral victims of the rivalry. Northern European oil producers, mostly in the U.K. and Norway, have struggled to attract new investments amid depressed oil prices.
Competition for market share has been less intense in Asia, where Iran was always allowed to sell. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia increased its light-crude prices to the Far East by 35 cents a barrel.
It also raised prices by 10 cents a barrel in the U.S., where Iran is still banned from selling.
Source: Wall Street Journal, June 6, 2016

Iran misogynist regime hangs a woman and a man in prison

A woman and a man hanged by the misogynist Iran regime

Iran’s misogynist regime has executed a woman and a man in a prison in the northwestern city of Qazvin.
The woman has not been identified, but the office of the prosecutor in Qazvin Province said that she had been imprisoned since 2014.
The regime’s local deputy prosecutor was present to witness the execution, the state-run Borna news agency reported on Thursday.
The man was identified only as Amir Q., the official state broadcaster IRIB said in its website for Qazvin Province. He was arrested on May 30, 2011.
The latest hangings bring to at least 120 the number of people executed in Iran since April 10. Three of those executed were women and two are believed to have been juvenile offenders.
Ms. Farideh Karimi, a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ) and a human rights activist, last month called for an urgent response by the United Nations and foreign governments to the recent spate of executions and the appalling state of human rights in Iran.
Iran's fundamentalist regime last month amputated the fingers of a man in his thirties in Mashhad, the latest in a line of draconian punishments handed down and carried out in recent weeks.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said in a statement on April 13 that the increasing trend of executions “aimed at intensifying the climate of terror to rein in expanding protests by various strata of the society, especially at a time of visits by high-ranking European officials, demonstrates that the claim of moderation is nothing but an illusion for this medieval regime.”
Amnesty International in its April 6 annual Death Penalty report covering the 2015 period wrote: 'Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to at least 743 the year before.'
'Iran alone accounted for 82% of all executions recorded' in the Middle East and North Africa, the human rights group said.
There have been more than 2,400 executions during Hassan Rouhani ’s tenure as President. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran in March announced that the number of executions in Iran in 2015 was greater than any year in the last 25 years. Rouhani has explicitly endorsed the executions as examples of “God’s commandments” and “laws of the parliament that belong to the people.

Iran hardline regime: Women must stay at home and not to appear in public wearing makeups

Promoting repression of women in Iran by the mullahs regime

The misogynist and medieval regime of mullahs in Iran which advocates stone-age thinking and backward ideology of women being half of men, has come up with a new idea of how to push these disgusting rules in the society.
To attract more attentions to this hateful ideology of repressing women, some hard line devoted members of the para-military Basij or the clergy faction have installed a huge ad-box on the top of their cars promoting their misogynist ideas.
This photo taken in the city of Qom, the power base of the mullahs and some 120 km to the south of capital Tehran shows a car carrying this huge ad-box which has two women drawn on it, one with long black veil (chador) apparently standing in the “heavens.” And the other woman with blond hair, without veil, caught in the middle of fire in the “hell.” A sign written on the top reads “Sit in your houses and don’t come out dressed up wearing makeups like the old era of ignorance.”
The other side of the box reads “Honorable and religious men don’t allow their wives and daughters to go out wearing short skirts and makeups in front of strange men. 
The photo has been provided by the para-militry Basij affiliated the 'Association of Enjoining virtue and forbidding wrong' in the city of Qom.

 

Iran's Revolutionary Guard admits Mullah Mansour Met the Iranian Officials

Mansour was in close relations with Iranian authorities

London-A website linked to the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC),  has admitted that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour had conducted negotiations during the two months of his stay in Iran despite the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s denial of reports that he was in the country before his murder in Pakistan.
On May 23, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hussein Jaber Ansari rejected claims that Mansour had entered Iran.
Two weeks later, Jahan News website revealed that Mansour was in Iran one week before his death and he stayed for two months there to conduct several meetings.
The website described the negotiations between Mullah Mansour and Iranian officials as fruitful. Yet it didn’t reveal details or mention the persons whom he met with.
Jahan News is known for its close relations with Revolutionary Guard Intelligence.
The website also accused Pakistani Intelligence, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), of tipping the United States on Mullah Mansour’s location.
The website described Mullah as an independent person, with no relations to Pakistan yet denied any ties between his death and Iran.
The website added that Mullah Mansour had not allowed for negotiations to take place between the Taliban and the U.S. or its NATO allies in Afghanistan.
According to Jahan, the Taliban chief agreed to stop ISIS’s expansion on Afghanistan’s northern border and the frontier with Tajikistan.



The wreckage of a vehicle that Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour was said to be traveling in near the Afghan border in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan.Reports said Mansour had entered the Iranian border in late March and returned to Pakistan on May 21 coming from Iran. He was carrying the passport of “Wali Mohammed” who was targeted by a drone.
In his article in Foreign Policy Magazine, Michael Kugelman wondered what Mullah Mansour was doing in Iran. He explained it is clearer now that there are ties between him and Iran.
He reported that drones took off from Afghanistan and followed Mullah Mansour while on his way back from Iran and while crossing the border to Balochistan province in Pakistan.
Kugelman wondered why Mullah Mansour would leave his safe haven in Balochistan and head to Iran.
 According to US media , Pentagon has said its forces killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour because he posed a danger to the United States. 
'They were specific things that we knew he had engaged in or was preparing to engage in, that were directly threatening coalition and US forces,' Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said.
'This [Mansour] was an individual who was specifically targeting US and coalition personnel and had specifically engaged in operations in the past that had resulted in US and coalition personnel being killed,' he added.
US President Barack Obama approved the strike based on a law authorizing US military force in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.
The operation against Mansour was strictly in keeping with the rules and in continuance with the US conducting strikes of a defensive nature, according to the Pentagon spokesman.
Source: Asharq Alawsat, Deutsche Welle,  6 June 5016

Bahrain stops attempt to smuggle eight convicted fugitives to Iran

 
Manama- Bahrain's Interior Ministry on Saturday announced, the Coast Guard has foiled an attempt to smuggle eight fugitives convicted in terrorist cases on a boat heading to Iran, the Ministry of Interior has said.
The investigations have revealed that the planners behind the operation were Sadiq Makki Jassim, sentenced to 10 years in Bahrain and currently a fugitive in Iran, and Sadiq Al Hayki, sentenced to life in prison and currently a fugitive in Iran as well.
The coast guard vessels spotted a boat off the coast of northern Bahrain. The boat was chased and then interdicted when those onboard refused to stop.
It released names and photographs of the fugitives who are jailed between 10 to 15 years in the Bahrain court in different cases, Xinhua news agency reported.
'The arrestees' ID cards, money, mobile phones, personal belongings, a GPS and a large quantity of petrol were confiscated,' stated the ministry on Saturday adding legal proceedings were taken.
In October last year Bahrain asked its ambassador in Tehran to leave immediately as it accused Iran of meddling in its domestic affairs and even expelled Tehran's envoy in Manama.
Bahrain authorities in the past have seized weapons shipments which they claim were sent by Iran to create instability in the Gulf.
In November last year, a major counter terrorism operation was conducted by Bahrain's security authorities in which it foiled a terrorist network and the arrest of 47 suspects.
The Interior Ministry said a range of high-grade explosives, bomb making materials and weapons were seized from several locations within populated residential areas in Bahrain.
In addition to the materials seized, a bomb-making facility and an explosives laboratory were discovered.
Bahrain investigators had then said that as with previous terrorist incidents in 2015 the suspects arrested hold strong connections with terrorist organisations in Iran.
Bahrain is a close US ally and hosts its Navy Fifth Fleet, which in this year alone has stopped three dhows in separate incidents that were loaded with large cache of weapons which it claimed were destined for Houthi in Yemen originated from Tehran.

Syria: ‘Operating space for humanitarian relief is shrinking’

hildren collect water at the Al-Riad shelter, Aleppo, Syria

The top United Nations relief official said he remains extremely concerned about the welfare of civilians across Syria, who he said continue to face “horrific deprivation and violence,” particularly those trapped in besieged areas.
Briefing the UN Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria on Friday, especially on critical access issues, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen O’Brien said he is concerned about people trapped in the towns of Mare’a and Sheikh Issa, as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) forces advance, and for the people in eastern Aleppo, and is “appalled” at the mortar attack on the Mseifra camp for internally displaced people in Dar’aa Governorate that occurred this past weekend.
“I told the Council that the operating space for humanitarian actors is shrinking as violence and attacks across Syria increase; and that recent attacks are creating new humanitarian emergencies and compounding the challenges in existing emergency areas,” Mr. O’Brien said after consultations with the body.
He also warned members of the Council that attacks on medical facilities and health personnel have continued in the past few days, despite the recent resolution passed by the Council, and despite the expressions of concern and commitments to action.
“This is unacceptable,” Mr. O’Brien emphasized.
He also reminded the Council that needs are the most acute in besieged locations.
“It is there that the parties to the conflict actively breach the basic laws of war. While humanitarians press for access, there remain areas where access continues to be denied,” he said.
During his briefing, Mr. O’Brien stressed that the only sustainable solution is a complete lifting of all sieges.
“Besiegement is not a natural or necessary consequence of conflict, it is a deliberate policy of parties, and one which can be undone if the political will to do so can be mustered,” he said.
Despite the escalating challenges to humanitarian operations, millions of Syrians in need are being reached through regular and cross-border assistance each month, Mr. O’Brien said, noting that he was able to report that just today a UN inter-agency convoy completed a delivery of desperately needed food for 45,000 civilians in Moadamiyah.
Source, UN News Center, 3 June 2016

U.S. Treasury Official to Travel to Europe to Talk Sanctions

Adam Szubin, secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the U.S. Department of the Treasury

The U.S. Treasury Department said a top counter-terrorism official will visit Europe next week to discuss sanctions enforcement. Treasury also lifted sanctions from a Panamanian company it targeted a month ago.
Treasury said in a statement that Adam Szubin, acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, will visit Paris and Berlin next week to meet with senior government officials and members of the financial-services community to discuss sanctions on Russia, implementation of the Iranian nuclear deal and the importance of working together to strengthen standards against terrorism financing.