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Iran News in Brief – September 9, 2021

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THE CONTENT OF THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS

UPDATE: 10:30 PM CEST

US Treasury Seized Tens of Millions of Dollars in Terrorism-Related Assets of the Iranian Regime

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In its annual report, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the seizure of $74 million in terrorism-related assets of the Iranian regime. The report on the seizure of assets of countries and organizations under US counterterrorism law was published on Wednesday, September 8.

According to the report, the number of assets obtained from terrorist-related seizures from Iran, Syria, and North Korea were about $141 million, while the number of assets seized by the Iranian regime from OFAC in 2020 was about $74 million.


UPDATE: 9:00 PM CEST

Western Powers Wary of Iran’s Nuclear Commitment

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German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken address a joint press conference following talks at the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin on June 23. JOHN MACDOUGALL/POOL/GETTY IMAGES

Foreign Policy- On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Iran to resume negotiations with world powers over a return to the 2015 nuclear agreement, warning the new government in Tehran that U.S. patience was already wearing thin.

Last week, Iran’s new foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, said another round of talks in Vienna would not come quickly and “the other party understands that it takes two to three months for the new administration to establish and do planning for any sort of decision.”

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UPDATE: 6:00 PM CEST

Thursday Protests in Iran

Today, Iran has witnessed more waves of protests and demonstrations across the country. People from various backgrounds and expertise took to the streets to fight for something that has been the most obvious thing in any part of the world: the security of their income and livelihoods.


As Covid-19 Death Toll Increases in Iran, So Do Fraud and Mismanagement

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The state-run Etemad newspaper, quoted Abbas Abdi, an alleged “reformist” as saying: “Ramdsivir and Favipiravir were identified as two effective drugs for fighting this disease [Covid-19]. The raw material was imported and produced domesticly and each dose was sold for 700 thousand tomans! At times, its price on the black market had reached 50 million each!”

Abdi added: “Who are the companies producing these drugs in Iran and who are their shareholders and beneficiaries? Why was the medicine, which until a few months ago was considered a hospital medicine, suddenly distributed in pharmacies when its date was about to expire?! Who ordered this? And what effect did it have on its price?”

Mahboubfar, a health expert, wrote in an article in the state-run Arman newspaper on September 9: “The sixth peak of Coronavirus is on its way… If the current situation is not taken seriously, the country will soon face a more terrible humanitarian catastrophe than the fifth wave.”


UPDATE: 5:00 PM CEST

US State Department Calls For the Release of All Political Prisoners in Iran

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Affairs at the United States Department of State called on the Iranian regime to release Maryam Akbari Monfared and all political prisoners.


Unprecedented Suicide Rate in Iran

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Yesterday, a member of the board of directors of the Scientific Society for Suicide Prevention in Iran announced: “The average suicide rate in our country is about 7.02 percent per 100,000 people, but in some provinces, we have statistics of about 10 or 15 and even 20 percent per 100,000 people, which shows a worrying increase.”

Observers say the rise in suicide rates has picked up a steeper slope, especially after the Coronavirus outbreak along with the widespread poverty in Iran. “Sixty percent of people do not use the services provided by various suicide prevention organizations,” he said.

Currently, numbers show that the rate of suicide attempts is being extended from the west of the country to the central provinces. Statistics in Khuzestan and the central provinces show the same increase.


UPDATE: 3:00 PM CEST

Hamid Nouri’s Trial in Stockholm, Sweden

Dozens of exiled Iranians, former prisoners, and families of the victims of the 1988 massacre protested in Stockholm as Hamid Nouri’s trial began on Thursday.


UPDATE: 1:00 PM CEST

French Foreign Ministry Expressed Concerns About Iranian Regime Refusing to Cooperate with IAEA

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The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs published the transcript of its Q/A in response to IAEA’s report on Tehran’s refusal to cooperate with the UN watchdog.

Answering the question concerning the IAEA report on the agency’s growing inability to monitor the Iranian regime’s nuclear activities, it reads: “The conclusions of the two reports issued by the Director-General yesterday once again reveal a serious lack of cooperation between Iran and the IAEA and Iran’s troubling continuation of its nuclear program, including activities that have no credible civilian justification in Iran. We are consulting closely with our partners on a response to this situation.”

Source


US Navy Launches Mideast Drone Task Force amid Iran Tensions

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In this handout image from the U.S. Navy, an MQ-9 Sea Guardian unmanned maritime surveillance drone flies over the USS Coronado in the Pacific Ocean during a drill April 21, 2021. (U.S. Navy/Chief Mass Communication Specialist Shannon Renfroe, via AP)

AP) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet said Wednesday it will launch a new task force that incorporates airborne, sailing and underwater drones after years of maritime attacks linked to ongoing tensions with Iran.

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UPDATE: 9:30 AM CEST

Iran: Coronavirus Death Toll Surpasses 412,700

Infographic-PMOI-MEK reports over 412,700 coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths in Iran

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) announced this afternoon, Wednesday, September 8, 2021, that the Coronavirus death toll in 547 cities had exceeded 412,700. The number of victims in Tehran has reached 96,966, Khorasan Razavi 32,125, Isfahan 27,190, Khuzestan 25,351, Mazandaran 15,830, Fars 14,804, East Azerbaijan 14,763, West Azerbaijan 14,528, Gilan 14,295, Lorestan 14,115, Alborz 12,028, Sistan and Baluchestan 12,025, Qom 11,380, Kerman 10,777, Hamedan 7,903, Central Province 7,698, Hormozgan 7,105, Kurdistan 6,462, North Khorasan 5,354, Ardabil 5,185, Bushehr 4,704, Qazvin 4,544, and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari 3,180.

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The Resilient MEK: Rebuilding the Iranian Resistance in Exile

People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI-MEK)

In our fight against two brutal dictatorships, we have gone to the brink of complete destruction but came back each time even stronger than before. During the 1980s, our organization had thousands of its members imprisoned, many of our rank and file were executed or killed as the regime raided our safe houses, and we were forced to move our Central Committee, with exception of a few, into exile. Logically, we had to maintain proximity to Iranian borders. As our main leadership was based in Paris along with the broader opposition coalition of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), thousands of our rank and file operated in our border bases by the Kurdistan region and Iraqi borders.

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Further Protests in Different Cities Across Iran

Further Protests in Different Cities Across Iran

On Tuesday, September 6, a group of Telecommunication Company employees in the city of Qom, central Iran, held a rally to protest the official’s refusal to implement laws approved by the regime’s own Majlis (parliament). These protesters are demanding a change to their employment status. On Tuesday, September 6, teachers from many cities across Iran held gathered outside the Education Ministry building protesting the Ministry’s refusal to employ them.

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Police Fatally Shoot Incapacitated Man at Point-Blank in West of Tehran City

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Iran’s police shot an incapacitated man at point black on September 4 in Karaj, west of Tehran. The Chief of Police of Alborz Province said the fatal shooting of a young man by the police was an “accident”. This came after a video was posted on social media showing a police officer shooting an incapacitated man, who was on the ground, at point-blank range. The man, who was identified on social media as Morteza Jafari was shot in the head and died from his wound in the hospital.

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Iranian Regime Officials Are Yet To Face Accountability for 1988 Massacre

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The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres highlighted, in the report on human rights in Iran that he presented to the United Nations General Assembly, the consistent lack of accountability of the Iranian regime regarding the 1988 massacre. Tehran has never formally acknowledged the scale of the massacre, though various regime officials have openly defended the effort to annihilate Iran’s leading pro-democracy opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

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IRAN: Coronavirus, Virus or Policy

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As the world has focused on developments in Afghanistan, with the Taliban’s news sweeping social media, and as Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raisi speculates about the possibility of returning to nuclear negotiations, more than 500 people in Iran are losing their lives to coronavirus every day, according to official sources. This is while the Iranian opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) reported that Covid-19 fatalities in Iran surpassed 400,000 on September 2. Dissidents challenge official stats by the Health Ministry, saying the ayatollahs conceal the truth to cover up their incompetence and mismanagement.

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Female Teachers and Educators Held Protests in Tehran, Varamin, Dezful

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Female teachers and educators held four protests in one day, demanding the government’s response to their demands. Young teachers and the Literacy Movement’s teaching assistants in Tehran, teachers in Varamin, and Literacy Movement educators in Dezful held the protests. Young teachers, known as “teachers with green report cards,” held the third day of their protest on Monday, September 6, 2021, outside the Education Ministry building in Tehran.

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Kurd Border Porter Killed by Border Police in Western Iran

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political prisoner Ghader Mohammadzadeh is in dire health after 39 days of hunger strike in protest of the prosecutor’s rejection of his request for leave. A member of the political prisoner’s family told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network that Ghader Mohammadzadeh is in dire health. He described that the court and the Yazd prison officials have accepted Mohammadzadeh’s request for leave, and a bail of one billion Tomans has been set and handed over to the Mahabad judiciary.

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Political Prisoner in Critical Condition Vows To Continue Strike

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A Kurd border porter or “kolbar” was killed by border police today in Marivan, western Iran. According to the Hengaw Organization website, the kolbar was identified as 39-year-old Sirvan Golzari, father to two children. Border police opened fire on Sirvan and a group of border porters, and Sirvan was shot and killed. This is the second border porter killed by border police or security forces in September. On September 5, security forces killed 41-year-old Mohammad Khaled Abdollahzadeh in Piranshahr northwestern Iran.

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Read more: Iran News in Brief – September 8, 2021 

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