{"id":314076,"date":"2023-12-07T07:19:05","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T06:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=314076"},"modified":"2023-12-07T18:15:28","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T17:15:28","slug":"iran-news-in-brief-december-7-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-news-in-brief-news\/iran-news-in-brief-december-7-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran News in Brief \u2013 December 7, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

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THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS<\/h2>\n

UPDATE: 6:00 PM CET<\/span><\/p>\n

Treasury Targets Network Financing Houthi Regional Aggression<\/h3>\n

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WASHINGTON \u2014 Today, the Department of the Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned 13 individuals and entities responsible for providing tens of millions of dollars\u2019 worth of foreign currency generated from the sale and shipment of Iranian commodities, backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), to the Houthis in Yemen. Through a complex network of exchange houses and companies in multiple jurisdictions, these persons, under the auspices of U.S.-sanctioned Houthi and IRGC-QF financial facilitator Sa\u2019id al-Jamal, serve as an important conduit through which Iranian money reaches the country\u2019s militant partners in Yemen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Houthis continue to receive funding and support from Iran, and the result is unsurprising: unprovoked attacks on civilian infrastructure and commercial shipping, disrupting maritime security and threatening international commercial trade,\u201d said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. \u201cTreasury will continue to disrupt the financial facilitation and procurement networks that enable these destabilizing activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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UPDATE: 3:30 PM CET<\/span><\/p>\n

Princeton Professor Investigated by House Republicans for Suspected Ties to Iran<\/h3>\n

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A Princeton University professor suspected of advancing Iranian state interests is under investigation by the House Education and the Workforce Committee.<\/p>\n

Professor Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a Middle Eastern nuclear and security policy specialist who has taught at Princeton for 13 years, denies he has any ties to the Iranian regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not been able to go to Iran since June 2021 and I have not been engaged with any government including the government of Iran since the Iranian court convicted me in 2008,\u201d Mousavian told The College Fix via email.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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FBI Director Cites Mysterious Iran-Linked Attack in Arguing for Section 702<\/h3>\n

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FBI Director Christopher A. Wray made a fresh appeal to lawmakers this week to renew an expiring surveillance power, revealing that in one recent case, it had helped authorities alert 300 potential victims in all 50 states as well as in other countries that they might be targets of a cyberattack.\u00a0He didn\u2019t identify the case, but officials familiar with the matter told The Washington Post that it involved hackers sponsored by Iran who were launching ransomware attacks in 2021. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter\u2019s sensitivity.<\/p>\n

One target of that campaign, which has been made public, is Children\u2019s Hospital in Boston. And Wray noted in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that \u201cIran has conducted a cyberattack on a children\u2019s hospital in New England.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Amnesty International Report on Iran\u2019s Use of Rape and Torture Against Men, Women and Children as Young as 12 Should Put Western Appeasers to Shame \u2013 Struan Stevenson<\/h3>\n

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Amnesty International\u2019s latest report on the conditions suffered by political prisoners and other detainees in Iran\u2019s medieval jails should provide a wake-up call for Western politicians keen to appease the theocratic regime. Amnesty says that prisoners detained following the nationwide uprising in 2022 have been subjected to rape and sexual assault, aimed at intimidating protesters and opponents of the regime.<\/p>\n

The report documents \u2013 \u201cin harrowing detail\u201d \u2013 the ordeals experienced by 45 survivors of the countrywide protests, including 26 men, 12 women, and seven children, who were subjected to rape, gang rape, and other forms of sexual violence. It identifies those responsible for the rape and sexual violence as members of the paramilitary Basij, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the ministry of intelligence and security forces (MOIS), and various branches of the police, including the Public Security Police (police amniat-e omoumi), the investigation unit of Iran\u2019s police (agahi), and the police special forces (yegan-e vijeh).<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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UPDATE: 2:00 PM CET<\/span><\/p>\n

Dozens With Ties To Iranian Regime Caught by Canada\u2019s Sanctions<\/h3>\n

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For 12 years, Roohollah Firooznam ran a company that installed and operated security cameras for Iran\u2019s hardline regime.\u00a0The cameras were used to monitor detainees at prisons where torture took place, and to keep watch on political opponents.\u00a0Three directors of the company were senior members of the intelligence ministry. A former vice-president of Iran was a shareholder.\u00a0Firooznam\u2019s business partner in another venture was a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander who spent a decade guarding Ali Khamenei, Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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UPDATE: 8:00 AM CET<\/span><\/p>\n

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Appeasing Iran\u2019s Regime Invites Terrorism<\/h3>\n

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On December 3, agents of Iran\u2019s regime\u00a0attacked<\/a> and set fire to the office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Berlin. Fortunately, the occupants intervened and prevented the fire from spreading across the building. The incident is currently being investigated by the German police as a possible terrorist attack. This comes in continuation of a series of terrorist activities by Iran\u2019s regime against the Iranian Resistance and its supporters in the past year. On May 31 and June 11, 2023, agents of the regime\u2019s terrorist IRGC Quds Force attacked a building belonging to the supporters of the Iranian Resistance with firearms and incendiary material.<\/p>\n

The uptick in the regime\u2019s terrorist activities against the Iranian Resistance comes against the backdrop of a series of concessions made by the West to the regime, including the release of its terrorist diplomat Assadollah Assadi.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Iran\u2019s Regime Faces Backlash After Changes to Retirement Laws<\/h3>\n

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In recent days, the contentious decision to raise the retirement age in Iran by the regime\u2019s parliament has sparked widespread criticism. Labor organizations have denounced the resolution as \u201canti-labor\u201d in separate letters to the Guardian Council, urging its rejection. Members of the labor commission within the parliament have also penned a letter to the Guardian Council, seeking the rejection and revision of this resolution.<\/p>\n

In this letter, the labor faction outlined the challenges faced by the labor community, warning that the approval of this resolution by the Guardian Council would deal an irreparable blow to workers. They asserted that the decision to increase the retirement age was made \u201cwithout due consideration of logical and legal reasons\u201d and without\u00a0respecting workers\u2019<\/a>\u00a0maximum rights and fair reforms under the 7th Development Plan.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Court Hearing Examines Masoumeh Yavari\u2019s Charges<\/h3>\n

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The Revolutionary Court of Golpayegan convened on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, to review the case of political prisoner Masoumeh Yavari. Ms. Masoumeh Yavari, 45 years old, has been charged with \u201cpropaganda against the regime\u201d and \u201ccollaborating and communicating with hostile governments.\u201d Today, she presented her defense in court.<\/p>\n

Masoumeh Yavari is currently imprisoned in Dolat-Abad Prison in Isfahan. She was summoned to the Golpayegan Court after receiving a summons. Previously, on Wednesday, October 19 of the current year, an interrogation session for Masoumeh Yavari was held at the second branch of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor\u2019s Office in Golpayegan.<\/p>\n

Ms. Yavari was arrested by security forces at her residence in Golpayegan on September 4, 2023, and after a search of her house, she was transferred to Dolat Abad Prison in Isfahan.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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On Students Day in Iran, Honoring Young Iranian Women<\/h3>\n

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On December 7, 1953, three students were killed by military forces on the campus of Tehran University\u2019s College of Engineering. Since then, this day has been known as Students\u2019 Day in Iran, honoring the struggles of Iranian university students. Iranian universities have long served as hubs of knowledge. Alongside knowledge, there emerges a deep longing for freedom. Consequently, many leaders of opposition movements in Iran have risen from universities, drawing from the most informed sectors of Iranian intellectuals.<\/p>\n

During the Shah\u2019s dictatorship in Iran, freedom-seeking students organized protests, birthing leading opposition groups within Iranian universities. Despite severe crackdowns under the mullahs\u2019 regime, these institutions persist as centers of protest, often leading to widespread arrests and imprisonment of students.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Revolutionary Guards Seize Two Vessels in the Persian Gulf<\/h3>\n

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The Iranian regime\u2019s IRGC has seized two vessels with 34 foreign crew members in the Persian Gulf on charges of \u201cfuel smuggling.\u201d The IRGC announced the seizure of the ships on December 6.<\/p>\n

According to the regime\u2019s news agencies, citing Ali Ozmayee, the commander of the fifth naval zone of the IRGC, one of these ships, with 13 foreign crew members, was smuggling 2.28 million liters of fuel and was seized near Abu Musa Island in the south.<\/p>\n

He added that the other ship, with 21 foreign crew members, was carrying 2.3 million liters of smuggled fuel and was confiscated by IRGC forces.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Iranian Security Forces Raped Detained Protesters, Amnesty International Reports<\/h3>\n

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On Thursday, December 6, Amnesty International released its latest report on the conditions of Iranian regime opponents and detainees of the\u00a0protests in 2022 in Iran<\/a>. The organization stated that the regime security forces have extensively used sexual assault and other forms of sexual violence to intimidate protesters and opponents. The report documented in detail the harrowing ordeals of 45 survivors of nationwide protests in 2022, including 26 men, 12 women, and seven children, who were subjected to rape, gang rape and\/or other forms of sexual violence by intelligence and security forces.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0report<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0reveals that perpetrators of rape and other forms of sexual violence included agents from the Revolutionary Guards, the paramilitary Basij force,\u00a0and the Ministry of Intelligence, as well as different branches of the police force including the Public Security Police (police amniat-e omoumi<\/em>), the Investigation Unit of Iran\u2019s police (agahi)<\/em>, and the Special Forces of the police (yegan-e vijeh<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Paris\u2014December 5, 2023: MEK Supporters Held an Exhibition in Solidarity With the Iran Revolution<\/h3>\n
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Paris\u2014December 5, 2023: MEK Supporters Held an Exhibition in Solidarity With the Iranian Revolution.<\/div><\/div>
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