{"id":327814,"date":"2025-01-18T07:27:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T06:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=327814"},"modified":"2025-01-18T08:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T07:07:11","slug":"iran-news-in-brief-january-18-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-news-in-brief-news\/iran-news-in-brief-january-18-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran News in Brief \u2013 January 18, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Protest by third-party contractors of the Lavan offshore platform and oil rigs, Thursday, January 16, 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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

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

\u2018China Most Unbalanced Economy, Will Squeeze Bad Actors Like Iran\u2019: Trump’s Treasury Secy Pick<\/h3>\n

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US Treasury Secretary-designate Scott Bessent on Thursday described China as an \u201cunbalanced economy” and said that the country was in a \u201csevere recession”.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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 \u2014 they\u2019re now exporting approximately 1.7 million. So, through sanction policy, I believe we can make the Iranian regime broke again \u2014 and at the same time, increase our domestic production with the highest energy standards in the world,” Bessent said.<\/p>\n

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

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Iraq Wants Iran-Backed Factions to Lay Down Weapons, Foreign Minister Says<\/h3>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

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UPDATE: 7:00 AM CET<\/span><\/p>\n

Why Pezeshkian\u2019s Speeches Are Disconnected from Iran\u2019s Political and Social Realities<\/h3>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cimbalance,\u201d as well as maximum executions and incarceration of political opponents.<\/p>\n

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

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Smokescreen by Tehran Political Proxies<\/h3>\n

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Eldar Mamedov\u2019s recent article (The American Conservative, Jan. 16<\/a>), ostensibly critiquing\u00a0General Keith Kellogg\u2019s participation<\/a> in an event hosted by the main Iranian opposition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI<\/a>) in Paris, is a textbook example of propaganda masquerading as analysis.\u00a0Mamedov\u2019s piece, which attempts to paint the NCRI and its principal member, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK<\/a>), as a dangerous \u201ccult,\u201d reeks of biases rooted in discredited Iranian regime talking points. By systematically dissecting Mamedov\u2019s assertions and juxtaposing them against his own checkered history and affiliations, the real motives behind his invective become glaringly evident.<\/p>\n

Mamedov\u2019s central claim that the MEK is a \u201ccult\u201d with a \u201chistory of anti-American terrorism\u201d is a well-worn trope propagated by Tehran\u2019s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). This assertion conveniently ignores the organization\u2019s decades-long struggle for democracy and human rights in Iran, often at great personal cost to its members.<\/p>\n

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

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Pezeshkian\u2019s NBC Interview Stirs Backlash Within Iran\u2019s Regime<\/h3>\n

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Masoud Pezeshkian\u2019s\u00a0interview with NBC<\/a>, broadcast on Wednesday, January 15, and his remarks expressing the Iranian regime\u2019s 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.\u00a0Asked about the reported plot against Trump outlined by U.S. authorities, Pezeshkian said: \u201cThis is another one of those schemes that Israel and other countries are designing to promote Iranophobia. \u2026 Iran has never attempted to nor does it plan to assassinate anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NBC reporter then asked Pezeshkian, \u201cYou\u2019re saying there was never an Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump?\u201d<\/p>\n

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

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Iran Faces Widespread Closures Amid Economic and Social Challenges<\/h3>\n

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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 \u201ccorruption\u201d within the regime\u2019s leadership as the root cause of the nation\u2019s paralysis.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cenergy imbalances\u201d stemming from electricity and gas shortages, many analysts believe the closures are symptomatic of a broader crisis. Some have described the situation as a \u201cbankruptcy tsunami,\u201d likening it to \u201csoft martial law.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

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Renewed Ban on Visits and Phone Calls for Female Political Prisoners in Evin Prison<\/h3>\n

\"PMOI-MEK-Supporters-Evin-Prison-min<\/p>\n

Nine female political prisoners in Evin Prison, including two inmates on death row\u2014Varisha Moradi<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Pakhshan Azizi<\/a>\u2014have 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.\u00a0The prisoners barred from visits include: Anisha Assadollahi<\/a>,\u00a0Golrokh Iraee<\/a>,\u00a0Vida Rabbani<\/a>,\u00a0Zahra Safaei<\/a>, Pakhshan Azizi,\u00a0Elaheh Fouladi<\/a>,\u00a0Motahareh Gouneii<\/a>, Varisha Moradi, and\u00a0Maryam Yahyavi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time these prisoners have faced such restrictions. Last summer, they were denied visits as punishment for protesting\u00a0the death penalty<\/a>. Although that ban was eventually lifted, a new restriction was imposed on January 12, 2025, preventing them from meeting their families again.<\/p>\n

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

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Iran: UN Special Rapporteur Condemns Execution Ruling for Pakhshan Azizi<\/h3>\n

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Mai Sato, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, expressed concern on Thursday, January 16, over the Supreme Court of Iran\u2019s regime upholding the death sentence of Pakhshan Azizi, a civil activist and social worker imprisoned in Evin Prison.<\/p>\n

Ms. Sato, while reposting a January 14 statement by a group of\u00a0UN experts<\/a>\u00a0on X, referred to reports of Ms. Azizi being tortured in solitary confinement and denied a fair trial and access to legal representation.<\/p>\n

She wrote that Pakshan Azizi\u2019s case reflects the broader persecution of women activists from ethnic minority groups.<\/p>\n

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

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\u201c70 Percent\u201d of Iranian Farmers Are Illiterate<\/h3>\n

\"Irans<\/p>\n

Shahpour Alaei-Moghaddam, an official from Iran\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2014published on Thursday, January 16\u2014that the low literacy levels among the agricultural workforce make it difficult to conduct educational programs, transfer research findings, and implement agricultural extension initiatives.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

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Iraq Seeks to Disarm Iran-Backed Militias<\/h3>\n

\"Militias-of-al-Hashd-al-Shaabi-Popular-Mobilization-Forces-march-during-a-military-parade-in-Baghdad-Iraq-on-July-10-2015-Getty-Images\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIraq is trying to convince powerful armed factions\u2026 to lay down their weapons or join official security forces,\u201d Fuad Hussein, Iraq\u2019s Foreign Minister,\u00a0told Reuters in an interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s two major proxy groups, due to heavy Israeli strikes, as well as the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad\u2019s government in Syria.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

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Sheffield, UK \u2013 January 14, 2025: \u2018Academics in Exile\u2019 Exhibition Highlights Iran\u2019s Human Rights Violations and Calls to End Executions<\/h3>\n
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Sheffield, Jan 14, 2025: \u2018Academics in Exile\u2019 Exhibition Highlights Iran\u2019s Human Rights Violations<\/div><\/div>
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