Past IRGC Service Sees US Bar Iran Singer As ‘Terrorist’

The blast and the blaze happened in Kavoshgaran Mahshahr petrochemical plant in the port city of Mahshahr in Khuzestan province in the early hours of Friday.

According to a spokesman of the company, Mohsen Adibi, the fire has been contained and the cause of the accident is being investigated.

The CEO of the economic zone, Omid Shahidinia, said a tanker loading a hydrocarbon product caught fire and it spread to other parts of the plant.

In February, the petrochemical company came under attack reportedly by armed men, who set a big fire to a dozen vehicles.

The public relations manager of the firm, Hamid Danesh, told Fars news at the time that “breaking the windows of the security compound, like in this incident, clashing with the security forces of the company and also theft have been among similar cases in recent months."

There have been many explosions and fires in Iran’s military and industrial sites since mid-2020, with authorities not giving a full explanation in many instances. However, they have blamed Israel for a series of spectacular sabotage attacks on nuclear facilities, including two explosions at Natanz uranium enrichment center.

The oil and gas industries have also experienced many incidents of exploding pipelines and refineries where large fires were reported.

Mansouri, the first woman to lead an Iranian party said the election was “a turning point…as the regime completely ignored the need for people's participation at such an important juncture and barred many candidates from running.”

The watchdog Guardian Council set a field of five candidates for the June 2021, excluding the best-known reformists from the poll, which was won by Ebrahim Raisi with 72 percent of the votes.

“When nobody wants a maximum turnout, reformists will not have a chance to run, let alone win in the election,” she said. “However, if we ever get a chance to run, we must invest in the votes of women and the younger generation of Iranians.”

Mansouri reiterated the notion, which she aired in an earlier interview with Nameh News, that reformists should use the coming period to consolidate their role in society, “seek the people's trust and be their voice and give up the idea of grabbing political power for a while."

Being chosen as leader reflected the “political maturity” of a party where 85 percent of members were men, Mansouri said. Opponents had tried to “tarnish my image by mudslinging and through disinformation,” she noted, with Mashregh News trying to convince readers “that I am an illiterate housewife.”

Mansouri also said that people feel deeply disappointed that their country lags in global and regional developmental trends.

Rouhani’s failure

In an interview Cheshmandaz magazine, the party’s former leader Ali Shakouri Rad said that President Hassan Rouhani, who held office from 2013 and was ineligible in 2021 to seek a third consecutive term, had not developed a good relationship with reformists, despite the electoral support they gave him.

“During the eight years of his presidency, reformists had the chance to see him [Rouhani] once a year on the occasion of Ramadan,” Shakouri Rad said. “His behavior as president eroded the remnants of reformists’ trust in him...Rouhani's performance during his first term as president is still defendable. But in the second term, Rouhani's ties with reformists were severed after his first six months in office. He destroyed his own career and our social capital.”

While Rouhani’s strategy for attracting international investment and cooperation, especially in energy, was undone by the United States leaving the 2015 nuclear agreement and imposing draconian sanctions, Shakouri Rad highlighted the role of Rouhani’s brother.

"Rouhani's weak point was his brother Hossein Fereydoun who was behind the former president's failure and frustration after he was arrested in 2018 [on corruption charges],” Shakouri Rad said. “Everything ended for Rouhani after his brother ended up in jail."

#Fifabaniri (FIFA ban Islamic Republic of Iran) and similar hashtags rose to the top of most used hashtags in Persian-language Twitter after security forces Tuesday violently barred women, who had tickets in their hands, from entering the Imam Reza Stadium in the religious city of Mashhad. To disperse women, they pepper sprayed them.

People from every walk of life, including former and current members of Iran's national team and top football clubs, politicians, the exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, and many ordinary Iranians are pledging not to go to stadiums as long as women are not allowed to enter.

"As a member of the football family, I apologize to women who were held behind the stadium gates in Mashhad. The kind of football we want spreads a red carpet for its [female fans] and doesn't spray pepper at them, Javad Nekounam, former national team coach, said in an Instagram post Thursday which he appears to have removed later under pressure.

"Women should be able to come to stadiums. We are the only country, apart from Afghanistan, that doesn't allow women to enter stadiums. Why is it so?" Alireza Biranvand, a member of the national team, said in an interview with Tarafdari sports website Thursday.

Masih Alinejad, an Iranian activist and campaigner against forced hijab has taken it on herself to spearhead a campaign to ban Iran from competing in the World Cup later this year.

"I call on FIFA to ban the Islamic Republic because we, the women of Iran, are banned from entering stadium for 42 years," she told Daily Mail Wednesday. She argued that FIFA would have been stricter in enforcing its own regulations if Western countries had banned women from entering stadiums. "This is a total betrayal that FIFA do not take a strong action against a gender apartheid regime!" she said.

For nearly a decade the world’s soccer authority has tried to convince the Iran’s government to lift an unwritten, four-decade-old ban on women attending stadiums to watch male players. Iranian officials argue that male football fans swear profanities so the atmosphere of stadiums is not suitable for women even if they are seated in a different part of the stadium.

"FIFA's position … is clear: historic progress has been achieved – as exemplified by the milestone in October 2019, when thousands of women were allowed into the stadium … and more recently when some women were allowed again at the FIFA world Cup qualifier match in Tehran in January – and FIFA expects this to continue, as there can be no turning back," FIFA said in a statement Wednesday.

The ban has led to arrests, beatings, detentions, and abuses against women. In September 2019, a female football fan, Sahar Khodayari, who came to be known as the “Blue Girl” after her favorite team, Esteghlal FC, was reportedly sentenced to jail for trying to enter a stadium disguised as a man. She died by self-immolation, causing a domestic and international outcry.

“Iranian authorities have repeatedly demonstrated they are willing to go to great lengths to enforce their discriminatory and cruel ban on women attending football stadiums,” said Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW). “Given Iranian authorities’ longstanding violations, FIFA needs to follow its own global guidelines on non-discrimination and should consider enforcing penalties for Iran’s noncompliance,” she said.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) made the remarks in a statement issued on Thursday, warning that Iran will give a destructive response to the “enemy’s slightest move” against the country.

“Iran’s missile power, popularity, and regional sphere of influence are associated with the IRGC”, the statement said, adding that it “will give categorical and destructive response to even the smallest mistake of the evil and adventurist enemy against the Islamic homeland”.

The terse statement came as one year of talks to restore the 2015 nuclear deal known as JCPOA have reached a deadlock over Iran’s demand for the United States to delist the IRGC as Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).

The statement went on to say that Iran never defines its deterrence “according to the aspirations, desires and wishes of the rulers of the White House and their evil allies, and will not change it under their pressure, threat or evil media propaganda.”

Earlier in the day, IRGC commander Major General Hossein Salami also boasted about the the combat power of IRGC forces -- especially those deployed to the country’s key islands in the south -- urging the Persian Gulf littoral states to end their dealings with Israel.

The saber-rattling by the IRGC follows recent media reports that an air defense pact between Israel and friendly regional countries is in the works to confront threats posed by Iranian drones and missiles.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made his remark during a meeting with his Taliban counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi in China, on Thursday, where foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries had gathered.

Amir-Abdollahian called for women’s right to education at all levels and their participation in different sectors of the society.

“The role of women in Afghanistan is very important to us... Islam recognizes the presence of women in various fields as their inalienable right,” he said.

In reaction to Amir-Abdollahian’s remarks, senior Israeli diplomat Joshua L. Zarka posted a tweet in Persian, calling it “utmost hypocrisy”. “What do Iranian and Afghan women think about the role you ‘give’ them?”

On Tuesday security forces denied women entry into a stadium in Mashhad to watch a FIFA World Cup qualifier between Iran and Lebanon and used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse them.

Mashhad is home to numerous hardliner clerics who are against women’s presence in male dominated venues. Firebrand representative of the Supreme Leader in the city, Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda has been banning concerts and cultural events for years.

Other than the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Iran is the only FIFA member country to bar women from football stadiums to watch men’s matches.