
THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS
UPDATE: 8:00 AM CET
‘China Most Unbalanced Economy, Will Squeeze Bad Actors Like Iran’: Trump’s Treasury Secy Pick
US Treasury Secretary-designate Scott Bessent on Thursday described China as an “unbalanced economy” and said that the country was in a “severe recession”.
He stressed on the need to balance free trade with fair trade and said that the current global trade dynamics have heavily impacted the American workers.
“I would view that as we raise US production, we can squeeze down bad actors, especially Iran. I believe Iran was down to 100,000 barrels of oil exports when President Trump left office — they’re now exporting approximately 1.7 million. So, through sanction policy, I believe we can make the Iranian regime broke again — and at the same time, increase our domestic production with the highest energy standards in the world,” Bessent said.
Iraq Wants Iran-Backed Factions to Lay Down Weapons, Foreign Minister Says
LONDON, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Iraq is trying to convince powerful armed factions in the country that have fought U.S. forces and fired rockets and drones at Israel to lay down their weapons or join official security forces, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said.
The push comes with a backdrop of seismic shifts in the Middle East that have seen Iran’s armed allies in Gaza and Lebanon heavily degraded and Syria’s government overthrown by rebels.
The incoming U.S. Trump administration promises to pile more pressure on Tehran, which has long backed a number of political parties and an array of armed factions in Iraq.
Some Baghdad officials are concerned the status quo there may be upended next, but Hussein played this down in an interview with Reuters during an official visit to London.
UPDATE: 7:00 AM CET
Why Pezeshkian’s Speeches Are Disconnected from Iran’s Political and Social Realities
Iranian regime President Masoud Pezeshkian, in his speeches over the past five months, has presented the notion that his audience consists of newborns who have no memory, observation, or experience of the past 46 years, with their minds as blank slates. He consistently imagines himself addressing elementary school children, showing them dreams of the future and interspersing his speeches with moral and civic lessons. He strives hard to instill in his audience the idea that the present and the future are completely disconnected from the past and that the genesis of Iran as a nation coincides with his presidency. For these reasons, he never revisits, critiques, or explains the path leading to the current state.
The foundation of the current regime is built on maximum poverty and inflation, maximum child labor and school dropouts, maximum brain drain, and social migration, and, as Pezeshkian himself repeatedly calls it, maximum “imbalance,” as well as maximum executions and incarceration of political opponents.
Smokescreen by Tehran Political Proxies
Eldar Mamedov’s recent article (The American Conservative, Jan. 16), ostensibly critiquing General Keith Kellogg’s participation in an event hosted by the main Iranian opposition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Paris, is a textbook example of propaganda masquerading as analysis. Mamedov’s piece, which attempts to paint the NCRI and its principal member, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), as a dangerous “cult,” reeks of biases rooted in discredited Iranian regime talking points. By systematically dissecting Mamedov’s assertions and juxtaposing them against his own checkered history and affiliations, the real motives behind his invective become glaringly evident.
Mamedov’s central claim that the MEK is a “cult” with a “history of anti-American terrorism” is a well-worn trope propagated by Tehran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). This assertion conveniently ignores the organization’s decades-long struggle for democracy and human rights in Iran, often at great personal cost to its members.
Pezeshkian’s NBC Interview Stirs Backlash Within Iran’s Regime
Masoud Pezeshkian’s interview with NBC, broadcast on Wednesday, January 15, and his remarks expressing the Iranian regime’s readiness to negotiate with the U.S. while denying any plans by Tehran to assassinate Trump, were met with harsh reactions and strong responses from regime affiliates and media considered proxies of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Asked about the reported plot against Trump outlined by U.S. authorities, Pezeshkian said: “This is another one of those schemes that Israel and other countries are designing to promote Iranophobia. … Iran has never attempted to nor does it plan to assassinate anyone.”
The NBC reporter then asked Pezeshkian, “You’re saying there was never an Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump?”
Iran Faces Widespread Closures Amid Economic and Social Challenges
In the past three months, Iranian schools have been closed for a total of 24 days, citing reasons such as energy shortages, air pollution, and inclement weather, including rain and snow. However, observers argue that these closures reflect deeper systemic issues, pointing to widespread “corruption” within the regime’s leadership as the root cause of the nation’s paralysis.
Recently, authorities have consistently closed schools, universities, and government offices, and even restricted the operations of guilds and bazaars across various provinces. While officials often blame these disruptions on environmental factors like air pollution or what they term “energy imbalances” stemming from electricity and gas shortages, many analysts believe the closures are symptomatic of a broader crisis. Some have described the situation as a “bankruptcy tsunami,” likening it to “soft martial law.”
Renewed Ban on Visits and Phone Calls for Female Political Prisoners in Evin Prison
Nine female political prisoners in Evin Prison, including two inmates on death row—Varisha Moradi and Pakhshan Azizi—have been denied visits with their families and lawyers. Additionally, two other prisoners have been stripped of their right to make phone calls to their families. The prisoners barred from visits include: Anisha Assadollahi, Golrokh Iraee, Vida Rabbani, Zahra Safaei, Pakhshan Azizi, Elaheh Fouladi, Motahareh Gouneii, Varisha Moradi, and Maryam Yahyavi.
This is not the first time these prisoners have faced such restrictions. Last summer, they were denied visits as punishment for protesting the death penalty. Although that ban was eventually lifted, a new restriction was imposed on January 12, 2025, preventing them from meeting their families again.
Iran: UN Special Rapporteur Condemns Execution Ruling for Pakhshan Azizi
Mai Sato, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, expressed concern on Thursday, January 16, over the Supreme Court of Iran’s regime upholding the death sentence of Pakhshan Azizi, a civil activist and social worker imprisoned in Evin Prison.
Ms. Sato, while reposting a January 14 statement by a group of UN experts on X, referred to reports of Ms. Azizi being tortured in solitary confinement and denied a fair trial and access to legal representation.
She wrote that Pakshan Azizi’s case reflects the broader persecution of women activists from ethnic minority groups.
“70 Percent” of Iranian Farmers Are Illiterate
Shahpour Alaei-Moghaddam, an official from Iran’s Ministry of Agriculture, stated that out of the 4.5 million farmers in the country, 70 percent do not even have basic reading and writing skills.
Alaei-Moghaddam, the Deputy for Management Development and Human Resources at the Ministry of Agriculture, emphasized in an interview with the state-run ILNA news agency—published on Thursday, January 16—that the low literacy levels among the agricultural workforce make it difficult to conduct educational programs, transfer research findings, and implement agricultural extension initiatives.
According to Alaei-Moghaddam, only 0.8 percent of Iranian farmers are university graduates and participate in the agricultural sector through cooperatives, associations, organizations, and knowledge-based companies.
Iraq Seeks to Disarm Iran-Backed Militias
“Iraq is trying to convince powerful armed factions… to lay down their weapons or join official security forces,” Fuad Hussein, Iraq’s Foreign Minister, told Reuters in an interview.
According to Reuters, this move by the Iraqi government comes amid significant changes in the Middle East, including the severe weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas, Iran’s two major proxy groups, due to heavy Israeli strikes, as well as the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria.
Several prominent figures in the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump have pledged that with his return to the White House, pressure on the Iranian regime will intensify.
Sheffield, UK – January 14, 2025: ‘Academics in Exile’ Exhibition Highlights Iran’s Human Rights Violations and Calls to End Executions
Sheffield, UK – January 14, 2025: Members of the Academics in Exile Association, supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), organized a book and photo exhibition to protest the death sentences imposed on political prisoners associated with the PMOI.
MEK Supporters Rally in Hamburg to Back Resistance Units, Condemn Iran’s Regime Crimes, Demand End to Executions
Hamburg, Germany—January 14, 2025: Supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) organized an exhibition protesting the death sentences imposed on political prisoners associated with the PMOI. The event also aimed to support the “No to Executions” Tuesday Campaign, which advocates for Iranian political prisoners.