As P5+1-Iran Nuclear Negotiations Resume, Show Trial of American Journalist Begins and Iranian Regime Aggression, Illicit Nuclear Activity Continue

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June 1, 2015
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As P5+1-Iran Nuclear Negotiations Resume, Show Trial of American Journalist Begins and Iranian Regime Aggression, Illicit Nuclear Activity Continue

Negotiators from the U.S. and Iran met this weekend in Vienna in advance of the June 30 deadline to finalize a nuclear agreement. The negotiations resumed in the wake of series of aggressive and illicit actions by the regime including the commencement of  a show trial for American journalist Jason Rezaian, the targeting of commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf, and the bolstering of its support for its extremist proxies in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.    

Human Rights and Hostages

• Following 10 months of incarceration, The Washington Post’s bureau chief in Tehran, Jason Rezaian, goes on trial behind closed doors on charges of “espionage, collaboration with hostile governments, gathering classified information and disseminating propaganda against the Islamic republic.” During his detention in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, Rezaian has spent most of his time in solitary confinement, been subject to severe interrogation, and denied proper medical care as his health has deteriorated. In a statement, The Post’s executive editor said, “The absence of evidence against him should have led to dismissal of the case long ago.” (May 26)
• The Iranian-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen have taken at least four Americans prisoner according to The Washington Post. (May 29)
• 29-year-old Iranian artist and women’s rights activist Atena Farghadani is sentenced to 14 years in prison for posting on Facebook a cartoon she drew that mocked politicians who supported an anti-contraception bill. (May 28)
• UN human rights experts condemn “the sharp increase in executions across Iran in recent weeks, urging the Government in Tehran to heed the Organization's appeal for an immediate halt on the use of the death penalty.” (May 8)
• Ethnic Kurds riot in Mahabad, Iran in response to the mysterious death of a Kurdish hotel chambermaid, who allegedly died while fleeing from an Iranian official attempting to rape her. (May 7)
• One of Iran's most prominent human rights activists, Narges Mohammadi, is forcibly arrested at her home by security forces and sent to Evin Prison. (May 5)
• Amir Hekmati, the Marine veteran unjustly and inhumanely imprisoned in Iran since 2011, resumes his hunger strike “out of despair over the apparent paralysis in his case.” (May 4)
• Iran bans “homosexual” and “devil worshiping” hairstyles, and also prohibits “tattoos, sunbed treatments and plucked eyebrows for men, which are all deemed un-Islamic.” (May 4)

Illicit Nuclear Activity and Noncompliance

• The probe into Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons development remains stalled according to a new report by the IAEA. The IAEA demands more cooperation from Iran, without which it cannot “conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is [for] peaceful activities.” (May 29)
• According to an Iranian dissident group, “a delegation of North Korean experts in nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles visited a military site near Tehran in April.” (May 28)
• Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei says he will not allow inspectors to visit Iran’s military sites or interview its nuclear scientists in order to ascertain whether Iran’s nuclear program is for exclusively peaceful purposes. (May 20)
• The Czech Republic blocks an attempt by Iran to illicitly procure sensitive dual-use equipment for its nuclear program. (May 13)
• Britain informs the United Nations’ Iran sanctions panel “of an active Iranian nuclear procurement network linked to two blacklisted firms,” in violation of UN Security Council Resolutions sanctioning Iran’s illicit nuclear program. (April 30)

Persian Gulf Aggression

• Iranian patrol boats fire directly upon and attempt to disable the Alpine Eternity, a Singapore-flagged chemical tanker when it refused an Iranian ordered to steam further into Iran's territorial waters. (May 14)
• Iranian IRGC patrol boats intercept, fire upon, and then board the Maersk Tigris, a Marshall Islands-flagged container ship sailing in the Strait of Hormuz, after it refused an Iranian order to steam further into Iran's territorial waters. (April 28)
• Iranian IRGC naval forces “encircle and threaten a U.S.-flagged cargo vessel,” the Maersk Kensingon, while it was sailing on an internationally recognized trade route in the southern Persian Gulf. (April 24)

Quotable

“Obama has not done a damn thing so far to confront Daesh [the Islamic State]: doesn't that show that there is no will in America to confront it?”

-          Commander of the IRGC-Quds Force Major General Qassem Soleimani (May 25)

 The “government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has divine permission to destroy Israel.”

-          Mojtaba Zolnour, the Supreme Leader’s deputy representative to the IRGC (May 13)

“We welcome war with the US as we do believe that it will be the scene for our success to display the real potentials of our power.”

-          Lieutenant Commander of the IRGC Brigadier General Hossein Salami (May 6)

“American officials planned and executed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001” to “justify their presence in Western Asia, with the goal of ruling it.”

-          Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Forces Ahmad Reza Pourdastan (April 27)

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