Dear Friend,
We are delighted to present you with the current issue of Iran Update, a publication of International Solidarity for Democratic Change in Iran (ISDCI). |
500 rally in Tehran cemetery
Some 500 opposition supporters gathered in Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery in southern Tehran on Tuesday afternoon despite measures by authorities to disperse the crowd. Earlier, some 200 security agents had set up barricades at the entrance of the cemetery to block people from entering.
Many people inside the cemetery were carrying flowers to lay at the tombs of those killed by security forces during anti-government protests last year.
At least 30 people were arrested and dozens wounded in clashes between security forces and opposition supporters at the cemetery.
Separately, a small rally took place in Tehran's Vali Asr Square, but police quickly dispersed the crowd, according to eye witnesses.
Internet lines have been extremely slow in the capital throughout the day.
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Western nations slam Iran over human rights record
Associated Press
JOHN HEILPRIN
15 June 2010
GENEVA - Western nations rebuked Iran for its human rights record Tuesday after overcoming an attempt by Iran and its Muslim allies to block the statement from being read aloud in the U.N. Human Rights Council.
The United States and Norway pressured Iran to make good on its pledge to improve human rights, crafting a statement that won the backing of all 27 European Union nations and more than two dozen other countries.
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Australia announces Iran sanctions
The Sydney Morning Herald
CATHY ALEXANDER
15 June 2010
Australia will take out its own sanctions against Iran as it seeks to help curb the regime's nuclear program.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has announced Australia will impose sanctions on a bank, a shipping line, and an individual involved in a construction company.
The move comes on top of a fresh round of UN sanctions imposed last week.
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E.U. signals new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program
The New York Times
STEPHEN CASTLE
14 June 2010
LUXEMBOURG - The European Union is likely to agree on tough new sanctions against Iran that cover further investment in the country's oil and gas industry as well as its financial sector, Foreign Secretary William Hague of Britain said Monday.
His comments came ahead of a meeting of the bloc's 27 heads of government Thursday in Brussels at which they are expected to agree on a formal statement on how to put pressure on Iran over its nuclear program...
After the Thursday summit meeting decides on the parameters of European measures, the list of restrictions may be agreed upon as early as next month. Speaking at a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Mr. Hague said that the Thursday meeting would specify "various areas for additional sanctions." "There is a lot of support, including from the U.K., for those sanctions to include measures in the financial sector and on oil and gas investment," he added. ... Read More | |
Iran cleric wants 'special weapons' to deter enemy
Associated Press
ALI AKBAR DAREINI
14 June 2010
TEHRAN, Iran - The hardline spiritual mentor of Iran's president has made a rare public call for producing the "special weapons" that are a monopoly of a few nations - a veiled reference to nuclear arms.
The Associated Press on Monday obtained a copy of a book written by Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi in which he wrote Iran should not deprive itself of the right to produce these "special weapons."
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Iranians involved in 1988 massacres remain in public life
The Sydney Morning Herald
GEOFFREY ROBERTSON
14 June 2010
The anniversary at the weekend of Iran's rigged election turned the spotlight on the man who approved it - the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei - and the man who was cheated of the presidency, Mir Hossein Mousavi.
If there was justice in the world, both men would be still be serving prison sentences, along with Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and a number of the nation's top judges and politicians. All were complicit in one of the gravest crimes against humanity since World War II, the mass slaughter of political prisoners at the close of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988.
Then, Mousavi was prime minister, Khamenei was president and Rafsanjani commanded the Revolutionary Guards. They implemented a secret fatwa which ordered the mass murder of left-wingers in prisons nationwide.
The victims were mainly student protesters who had been arrested and sentenced for leafleting and demonstrating against Khamenei's revolutionary republic in the early 1980s. They sympathised with the Mujahideen-e-Khalq...
As the war with Iraq ended in 1988, the regime decided it was too dangerous to let these dissidents live, so its leaders plotted a "final solution". On July 28, a week after the ceasefire, the secret fatwa was issued, at first decreeing death for all who remained "steadfast" in their Mujahideen sympathies.
The men who implemented the fatwa did so knowing they were committing an international crime. They were well versed in the Geneva Conventions because they were always complaining about Saddam Hussein's breaches. By refusing to explain the fate or identify the burial places of the victims, Iran's present leaders perpetuate the crime. The Security Council would be entitled to use its power to set up an ad hoc international court to indict the Supreme Leader and others in his government. This may be a better way to deal with a theocracy whose inability to punish, or even admit, the barbaric behaviour of 1988 provides the greatest reason for concern over its future access to nuclear weaponry. ... Read More | |
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Sincerely,
ISDCI News Group |
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