October
7, 2023
Tehran
says the selection of women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi was “political”
Tehran
has condemned the Nobel Peace Prize committee after it awarded an Iranian
rights campaigner, calling the move “politically motivated” and alleging that
the activist had engaged in “criminal acts.”
The
Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement early on Saturday addressing the
Nobel committee, not long after it selected Narges Mohammadi for its 2023 peace
prize. Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani argued that the organization had made
a “political move in line with the meddlesome and anti-Iran policy of some
European governments.”
“The
Nobel Peace committee has awarded its peace prize to someone who has been found
guilty of frequently violating the law and engaging in criminal acts. We
condemn the move by the Nobel committee as spiteful and politically motivated,”
Kanaani added.
The
Nobel committee unveiled the prestigious award for Mohammadi less than one day
prior, saying she was chosen for her “fight against the oppression of women in
Iran.” The activist is currently serving a ten-year sentence after her latest
run-in with the law in 2021, when she was accused of threatening Iran’s
national security and spreading propaganda, among other offenses.
The
Iranian spokesman slammed the Nobel committee’s announcement, saying it was
“riddled with false and counterfactual claims about Iran’s developments.” He
added that the award showed that some European states seek to “falsify news and
produce misguided and deviant narratives” about the Islamic Republic.
Kanaani
urged the committee to award the peace prize only to “individuals or
organizations that sincerely seek to promote the culture of peace and justice
in the world,” instead of those “serving as a tool to implement the
hypocritical policies of some Western countries.”
Tehran
has come under fire from several Western governments and human-rights
organizations over its gender-based policies, namely its mandatory dress code
requiring women to wear headscarves in public.
The
country was gripped by months of violent protests last year following the death
of a young woman in police custody who was accused of violating the mandate.
The protests resulted in thousands of arrests and the further loss of life
among demonstrators and security forces. The Iranian government blamed Western
countries for the chaos.
Iran warns against betting on ‘losing horse’ Israel
3
Oct, 2023
Tehran has called on the Arab world to avoid normalizing
relations with the “Zionist regime”
Iranian
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned the Arab world against
normalizing relations with Israel, predicting that the Jewish state will
eventually “be eradicated.”
“The
definitive stance of the Islamic Republic is that the governments which make
the gamble of normalization with the Zionist regime will lose,” Khamenei said
on Tuesday, according to Iranian state media.
“As
the Europeans say, they are betting on a losing horse,” the Ayatollah
continued, calling Israel a “cancer” that will “God willing, be eradicated by
the hands of the Palestinian people and the resistance forces throughout the
region.”
White
House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters last week
that a “basic framework” is in place for a US-brokered peace deal between Saudi
Arabia and Israel. Such a deal would build on former US President Donald
Trump’s ‘Abraham Accords’, which saw Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the United
Arab Emirates agree to establish diplomatic and economic relations with Israel.
Iran
and Saudi Arabia are the largest geopolitical rivals in the Middle East, and a
normalization deal between Riyadh and West Jerusalem would be a major strategic
blow to Tehran.
Prior
to Kirby’s announcement, Saudi Arabia had apparently been drifting away from
American influence, with Riyadh reportedly working on a deal to sell oil to
China in yuan and signing a Beijing-brokered normalization deal with Iran in
March. Saudi Arabia and Iran also received invitations in August to join the
BRICS group of emerging economies, an informal bloc led by Russia and China.
Speaking
at a conference of Islamic scholars on Sunday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi
denounced the idea of rapprochement between Israel and the Muslim world.
“Normalizing
relations with the Zionist regime is a reactionary and regressive move by any
government in the Islamic world,” he said. “The only option for all the
fighters in the occupied land and the Islamic world is to resist and stand
against the enemies,” he continued, adding that Iran continues to support the
“liberation” of Jerusalem from Israeli occupation.
No comments:
Post a Comment