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Iran News in Brief – November 18, 2021

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THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS

UPDATE: 10:30 PM CET

Kayhan Daily Warns Against Mismanagement That Paves the Way for Social Unrest

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Recalling the impacts of the great uprising of November 2019, state-run Kayhan daily wrote today: “The attack on gas stations – and some important economic and even infrastructure and security centers – was carried out so widely, professionally and accurately that it indicates a well-organized and trained network. Less than two months later, the United States dared to assassinate Qassem Soleimani, after watching this level of managerial turmoil.”


Farmers and Ordinary Citizens of Isfahan Continue Their Protest to Save Zayandehroud River

تداوم تحصن کشاورزان خشمگین اصفهان و مردم همراه آنان در بستر خشک زاینده رود، در پایانِ ۱۰ مین شب

On Thursday, the farmers of Isfahan continued their rally for the eleventh day at the dry bed of the Zayandehroud River. These protests have been going on around the clock since Monday, November 8th.

According to environmental activists and locals, mismanagement and systemic corruption enabled the construction of multiple dams by the IRGC that has led to the lack of water and endangered the environment as well as the agricultural milieu.


Three Executions in Iran

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The Iranian regime’s Judiciary executed two prisoners who were previously held in Lakan Prison in Rasht today, and on Sunday, and another prisoner was executed in Adelabad Prison in Shiraz on November 14.

According to HRANA, the prisoners are identified as Mostafa Poorahmad, 35, and Mojtaba Bagheri, 40. The Judiciary had previously announced that the two are going to be executed on Saturday, but their sentences were carried out today.

The other prisoner who was executed in Shiraz was Qolipour, 41, from Kazerun


UPDATE: 8:30 PM CET

US Justice Department Indicted Two Iranian Nationals for Cyber-Enabled Disinformation Campaigns in 2020 Presidential Elections

US Justice Department indicted Iranian Nationals Charged for Cyber-Enabled Disinformation

An indictment was unsealed in New York today charging two Iranian nationals for their involvement in a cyber-enabled campaign to intimidate and influence American voters, and otherwise undermine voter confidence and sow discord, in connection with the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

According to court documents, Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi (سید محمد حسین موسی کاظمی), aka Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazem, aka Hosein Zamani, 24, and Sajjad Kashian (سجاد کاشیان), aka Kiarash Nabavi, 27, both of Iran, obtained confidential U.S. voter information from at least one state election website; sent threatening email messages to intimidate and interfere with voters; created and disseminated a video containing disinformation about purported election infrastructure vulnerabilities; attempted to access, without authorization, several states’ voting-related websites; and successfully gained unauthorized access to a U.S. media company’s computer network that, if not for successful FBI and victim company efforts to mitigate, would have provided the conspirators another vehicle to disseminate false claims after the election.

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UPDATE: 8:00 PM CET

IRGC-run Newspaper Warns Against Unrest in Iran

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‘Javan’, an IRGC-run newspaper wrote today: “The enemy has severely increased psychological warfare aimed at activating security faults to radicalize the economic and social demands of the people. While there were problems such as frequent power outages, water shortages, and droughts, as well as support for protests in Khuzestan, dissatisfaction and protest reached their height in July 2021.”

Javan added: “On the eve of November, we have been witnessing an increase in various kinds of encouragement for actions, including organizing rallies or graffiti on walls, in order to incite and recreate the November 1998 protests.”

The IRGC newspaper warned: “Some domestic media outlets analyze that looking at social and economic issues from a security perspective has silenced reactions, and when the situation becomes fragile, protests and reactions are predictable but uncontrollable.”


UPDATE: 6:30 PM CET

Subsidence: Earth Swallows People in Northern Iran

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According to the state-run website, Aftab News, last night, during a celebration in Soomehsara, the floor collapsed due to subsidence, and people present on the stage sank into a large pit. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but it was another warning of the spread of the emerging catastrophe called subsidence.

Abdolreza Saadat, Director General of Geometry at the National Cartographic Center said:  “Subsidence in Iran is 5 times the global average.

Experts attribute the problem to the destructive measures by state organizations that keep draining underground water resources.

Mohsen Pourkermani, a director at the Geology Department of Azad University said: “State organizations are issuing illegal drilling permits, which leads to the unscientific abstraction of groundwater. The result thereof is subsidence that takes more than 50,000 years to recover.”


UPDATE: 6:00 PM CET

Rejecting Khamenei’s Blame Game, State-affiliated Expert Points the Finger to State Officials for Human Capital Flight

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Talking to the state-run Ofogh TV, Hossein Raghfar, a state-affiliated expert, rejected Ali Khamenei’s remarks about universities being the source of the youth’s demotivation and said: “Why are we experiencing such large waves of migration from the country now? Why is there such a demand, especially among the youth? Because we have made the country uninhabitable for them.”

Referring to the source of the problem, Raghfar added: “With such high pricees, when there’s no job available, when the money that should have been invested in the country has been spent on importing luxury car, that’s why it happens. Do not even think that some strange people have done this. Those who are in power, they have done it.”


Former Official Slams Khamenei’s Remarks on Laying the Blame for Brain Drain on Universities

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Following the Iranian regime Supreme Leader, Khamenei’s remarks, who blamed Iranian universities for the flight of the youth abroad and accused them of treason, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a former member of the regime’s parliament tweeted: “Genius youth do not leave this country because of someone’s encouragement. The circumstances of universities and the country turn them into fugitives.”

On Wednesday, November 17, Khamenei said in his speech: “In some universities, there are elements that encourage young elites (geniuses) to leave the country. Frankly, this is treason, this is enmity towards the country, that we disappoint a young man about the future of the country, to show him the future in a bitter and dark way so that he goes and emigrates. In the sense that this is treason, and it should be persecuted.”


UPDATE: 2:00 PM CET

Tireless Iranians Continue to Call for Justice

تظاهرات ایرانیان آزاده و هواداران مجاهدین در استکهلم

تظاهرات ایرانیان آزاده و هواداران مجاهدین در استکهلم

تظاهرات ایرانیان آزاده و هواداران مجاهدین در استکهلم، همزمان با دادگاه حمید نوری در آلبانی - ۲۷آبان

Today, on the anniversary of the November 2019 uprising, the trial of Hamid Nouri, a former prison official during the 1988 massacre in Iran is being held for the seventh consecutive session. In this session, Hassan Ashrafian a member of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MEK/PMOI) is testifying as a witness against Hamid Noury.

At the same time, Iranians and supporters of the MEK in Stockholm demonstrated and called for the trial of Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian regime’s president as well as the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei for genocide and crimes against humanity during 4 decades of their barbaric rule.


Arab Coalition Strikes Hard At Iranian Regime Proxy Groups in Yemen

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The Arab Coalition said in a statement on Wednesday that its ongoing operations had destroyed a Houthi air defense system and killed more than 90 elements.

Al-Arabiya reported on Thursday, that Arab coalition fighters at Sanaa’s Al-Dailami airbase bombed several weapons caches and military installations of Houthi militias affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Lebanese Hezbollah.

In response to the Houthi missile and drone threat, the Arab coalition said, its forces have carried out extensive airstrikes in Sanaa, Zamar, Saada, and Al-Jawf provinces, destroying important military targets, including ballistic missile slums, Iranian drone factories, and other communication systems of the Houthis.


UPDATE: 10:00 AM CET

Iranian Regime Slams International Condemnation of Its Human Rights Violations

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Following the approval of a draft resolution on human rights violations in Iran by the United Nations General Assembly’s Third Committee, the Iranian regime expressed its dismay and resorted to the usual clichés.

“This resolution is biased and unconstructive and a dishonest and indefensible political move,” Zahra Ershadi, the regime’s ambassador to the United Nations said.

Ershadi added: “This resolution is full of thematic errors, shows the selective and political distortion of existing facts, and shows the hostile and deliberate policy of inciting others to Iranophobia.”


UPDATE: 8:00 AM CET

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68th UN Resolution Condemning Human Rights Violations in Iran

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Welcoming the adoption of the 68th resolution of the United Nations’ Third Committee condemning the brutal and systematic violations of human rights in Iran, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said: While this resolution reflects only a small portion of the crimes of the ruling religious fascism in Iran, it, nevertheless, leaves no doubt that this regime has always been the leading human rights violator in the world. The dossier on four decades of crimes against humanity and genocide committed by this regime, especially the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners and the massacre of 1,500 demonstrators in 2019, must be referred to the UN Security Council, and the leaders of this regime, including Ali Khamenei, Ebrahim Raisi, and the Judiciary Chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni Eje’I, must be prosecuted in an International Court. The international community must shun this regime and end impunity for its criminal leaders.

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“We Executed Your Brother. We’ll Execute You Too”—Political Prisoner Testifies About Iran’s 1988 Massacre

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Wednesday marked the fortieth session of the Hamid Noury trial, held at the same time in Stockholm, Sweden, and Durres, Albania. Noury, a former official in various prisons of Iran, is charged with torturing inmates in the Gohardasht prison (Karaj) and taking part in the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners. Noury was apprehended by Swedish authorities during a trip to the country in 2019. He is now standing trial in a court where many of his victims are giving harrowing testimonies of how he and other regime officials brutally tortured and executed prisoners.

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Appeals Court for Three Iran-linked Terrorists Begins in Antwerp, Belgium

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The Court of Appeal of Antwerp, Belgium, will consider the appeal of three terrorists working for the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) on Wednesday and Thursday. The three operatives, Nassimeh Naami, Mehrdad Arefani, and Amir Saadouni, were the co-conspirators of Assadollah Assadi, a Vienna-based Iranian diplomat who plotted to bomb a large gathering of the Iranian opposition in France in 2018. All three had Belgian passports.

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First Session of Belgian Appeal Court Over Iran Government’s Terror Plot Against Its Main Opposition

Iranian diplomat-terrorist Aassadolah Assadi
Iranian diplomat-terrorist Aassadolah Assadi

On Wednesday, November 17, the first hearing of the appeals court will be held at the Antwerp tribunal in Belgium about the bombing plot by the Iranian regime against the Grand Gathering of the Iranian Resistance in 2018. Assadollah Assadi, the bombing terrorist diplomat, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the first court, but did not request any appeal and accepted the final decision of the court, because any rejection would only lead to a further scandal for the regime during the appeal. An Antwerp court is hearing the appeals of three accomplices of the diplomat-bomber on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18.

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Iran: Land of Floods and Droughts

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Floods are annually causing the loss of many lives and a tremendous amount of economic damage. They are unavoidable natural phenomena caused by large surges of water in a short period of time, making the established drainage system unable to handle it. They are also, the most frequent form of natural disasters and are among the costliest to both human life and property. Worldwide, the economic damage from flooding has been substantial.

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Iran Sentences Kurd Activists to Prison and Lashes in NW City

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The Bukan Revolutionary Court sentenced a Kurd activist to 14 months of prison, 70 lashes, and a fine of 30 million tomans ($1,057) in northwestern Iran. According to a Kurdish human rights website, the man was identified as Chia Aghabegpour.

Chia was charged with “spreading propaganda against the state for opposition groups”. He was detained by security forces on July 30 but was later released on September 6. In detainment, Chia was denied access to his lawyer and to see his family.

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Read more: Iran News in Brief – November 17, 2021

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