April
2, 2023
Authorities
in Iran have arrested two women at a store in the city of Shandiz after a man
was seen throwing yogurt at them Thursday, officials said.
Iran's
judiciary said in a statement published by its media arm, the Mizan News
Agency, that the two women were arrested on the charge of "committing a
forbidden act" by not wearing hijabs.
Iranian
officials also criticized the man's "unconventional treatment" of the
women, arresting him and charging him with "practical insult and
disturbance of order."
"The
necessary judicial orders were issued in this regard and these people were
arrested," the statement reads.
The
Mizan News Agency also released an image taken from surveillance footage at the
store, in which one of the women is seen unveiled with her hair covered in
yogurt. Another woman seen in the image is veiled.
"Chastity
and hijab are a religious necessity. Hijab is immunity, for the individual and
society," President Ebrahim Raisi said in a statement on Twitter from the
Iranian government.
"We
are faced with a legal obligation, compliance with the law is agreed upon by
all. Today, the issue of hijab is a legal issue and all members of our society
should be committed to the issue of chastity and hijab, as they have been
committed so far."
The
news comes as Iranians across the Muslim country continue to protest the
country's hardline government after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
Amini
died in the custody of the country's morality police after she was arrested for
not properly wearing her hijab, sparking widespread protests that some have
called a "revolution."
Iran says it warned off US Navy aircraft close to Gulf of Oman
April
2, 2023
The
Iranian navy said it identified and warned off a U.S. reconnaissance plane near
the Gulf of Oman on Sunday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
"After
the warning, the plane was prevented from entering the country's skies without
authorization," said the report, identifying the plane as a U.S. Navy
EP-3E.
While
the opening line of the Tasnim report said the aircraft had crossed into
Iranian airspace, the same report also said the aircraft had not entered
Iranian skies and had left after the warning.
The
U.S. Defense Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Iran
has had similar confrontations with U.S. forces in the past. In 2019, Iran shot
down a U.S. drone which it said was flying over southern Iran.
On
Dec. 31, Iran said its military had launched a drone to warn off a
reconnaissance plane trying to approach Iranian war games on the Gulf coast,
without identifying the aircraft.
The
United States has long deployed weaponry and troops in the oil-producing Gulf
to provide security to its allies.
Long-strained
relations between Iran and the United States have deteriorated further in the
last year, as talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal hit deadlock and after
Tehran unleashed a deadly crackdown on protesters.
U.S.
sanctions have also targeted suppliers of Iranian drones which Washington said
have been used to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine during the conflict
with Russia.
Iran
has previously acknowledged sending drones to Russia but said they were sent
before the invasion. Moscow has denied its forces used Iranian drones in
Ukraine.
Most Iranians don’t want Israel to be annihilated - Tehran prof.
April
2, 2023
In
a series of eye-popping comments from the Iranian Prof. Sadegh Zibakalam, who
teaches at the reportedly antisemitic Tehran University, he slammed the Islamic
Republic of Iran for its avowed policy to destroy the Jewish state.
Tehran
University Prof. Zibakalam said in a panel discussion that was posted to the
New Harf channel on the Aparat Portal website on March 14, 2023, that "You
people say that you are on a mission to annihilate Israel. Who gave you this
mission? The Quran? God? The Prophet? The constitution? Who? Let's have a
public opinion poll. IRNA, ISNA – all those regime outlets – can conduct it. If
50% plus one person of the Iranians say 'yes' then by all means, we should
annihilate Israel. But I completely believe that not even 10% would say they
want to annihilate Israel. [The regime] says that we should annihilate Israel,
but 90% of the Iranian public says: 'Why? How is this our business? This is a
conflict between the Palestinian Arabs and the Israeli Jews. What does this
have to do with us?'“
"You
people say that you are on a mission to annihilate Israel. Who gave you this
mission? The Quran? God? The Prophet? The constitution? Who? Let's have a
public opinion poll. IRNA, ISNA – all those regime outlets – can conduct it. If
50% plus one person of the Iranians say 'yes' then by all means, we should
annihilate Israel. But I completely believe that not even 10% would say they
want to annihilate Israel. [The regime] says that we should annihilate Israel,
but 90% of the Iranian public says: 'Why? How is this our business? This is a
conflict between the Palestinian Arabs and the Israeli Jews. What does this
have to do with us?'“
Prof. Sadegh Zibakalam
The
US-based organization Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) first
translated Zibakalam’s statements and posted the broadcast of his critique of
Iran’s clerical regime.
What
else did the Iranian professor say?
Zibakalam
said "Why was there a revolution [in 1979]? Because there were no free
elections, no free press, no freedom to establish political parties and groups,
and because there were 5,000 political prisoners and these prisoners were
tortured.”
He
added that "But we are not saying these things. Why can't we say these
things? Because I would be spitting on my own face if I said that we [carried
out a revolution] so that there would be free elections, and so that the
judiciary would not be a servant to the ruling regime.”
Banafsheh
Zand, an Iranian-American expert on the Islamic Republic, told The Jerusalem
Post that “Zibakalam supported the revolution and the Khomeinist version of
Shia Islam, which has always been an abject contradiction to the actual branch
of Islam. Anyone with any knowledge of the nature of the two main branches of
Islam and any honesty would have known that fact. That said, during the last
decade or more, he has been openly criticizing the regime. He has done things
like refused to walk over, and has walked around the US and Israeli flags that
the Khomeinist regime has painted on the
floors of their administrative buildings and offices.”
Zand
added that “But unlike other former regime supporters who have turned their
backs on their past mistakes, and openly defy the regime, Zibakalam has not
been arrested and jailed, which is one of the reasons why he is considered to
be duplicitous and a phony. That said, he clearly understands that the end of
the regime is drawing near and he should be encouraged to step up his criticism
and even attack the Khomeinist brass.”
Zibakalam
earned a PhD in political science from the University of Bradford in Britain.
The Shah’s government imprisoned him for two years due to his criticism of the
monarchy.
In
2018, the Iranian regime’s opaque judiciary banned Zibakalam from media work,
social activities for a period of two years. The regime’s crackdown on
Zibakalam resulted from a 2018 interview he gave to Deutsche Welle’s Persian
outlet, in which he said internal public discontent was the primary factor of
upheaval in the nation that year.
The
clerical regime said the social unrest was due to Tehran’s external enemies.
Prior to his media ban in 2018, Mizan, an Iranian regime-controlled news agency
affiliated to the judiciary, said he was facing allegations of “spreading
propaganda against the state through giving interviews to foreign websites and
trying to discredit the Islamic Republic’s ruling system.”
Zibakalam
said during the March interview: "What percentage of the Iranian public
says 'Death to America'? What percentage says 'Death to England' or 'Death to
France'? What percentage accepts your policy of becoming Russia's servant?”
Sheina
Vojoudi, an associate fellow for the Gold Institute for International Strategy,
told the Post that “Zibakalam is a reformist. The opponents of the Islamic
republic don’t trust him. He’s like Mostafa Tajzadeh. They criticize the regime
from inside Iran but they don’t believe in regime change. They want to save the
Islamic Republic.”
Vojoudi,
who fled the Islamic Republic due to persecution, told the Post that “The
reformists speak well like Mohammad Khatami, Mohammad Zarif, Hassan Rouhani,
Tajzadeh, Zibakalam but we call all of them regime’s sly fox, because whenever
the regime was about to fall they saved it because the people believed that
they really want to change something but it’s not true. The only power in Iran
is Khamenei, his son and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The reformists
only want more of a share of the power.”
Tehran
University has long been a hotbed of genocidal antisemitism targeting Israel.
The Iranian cleric Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari declared on
Al-Quds Day in 2022 on the campus of Tehran University that “There won’t be any
place for the Zionist regime in the world future.”
Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, started Al-Quds
Day in 1979 as a protest against Israel’s right to exist. The International
Quran News Agency, a regime-controlled news website, also reported about a 2008
conference at Tehran University titled, “The rise of Islam, Destruction of
Israel.” Fars News, an Iranian outlet affiliated with the IRGC, which has been
designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, published an
announcement from the Basij professors at Tehran University stating that they
will do everything possible to bring about the “destruction of the infamous
Zionist regime.”
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