Iftar In Tehran Sheds Light On Who Is Still Welcome By Khamenei

Grenell, who was also a White House Advisor, told Iran International’s Fardad Farahzad on Wednesday that he is not surprised by the Iranian regime’s move, adding that “we know that they deny systemically, every single day, basic human rights for women, for gays and lesbians, for the general population”.

Grenell, a strong supporter of former president Donald Trump, who also tweeted similar remarks in Persian earlier in the day, said, “I’m not surprised that they see my work in Farsi and Arabic languages to push human rights as a threat. I am absolutely not surprised that they don’t want me to be speaking about these issues and try to silence me.”

Insisting that the Tehran does not sanction Democrats because they “are darting towards the Iranian regime,” he said, and added, “The Biden administration is filled with total hypocrisy. They pretend to talk about human rights, but it doesn't come into their calculus… they're talking about giving money to the Iranian regime, they dropped the sanctions on the Iranian regime.”

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Grenell, who also served as the acting director of national intelligence in the Trump administration, found himself on Iran's list of sanctioned individuals this week, joined by 24 other former Trump administration officials who were officially sanctioned due to what Iran called “terrorist activity and human rights violations".

“I would just note that on the Iranians' list of sanctions, of who they're concerned about, who they want to silence, there are no Democrats, there are no progressives on that list. They're just Republicans” he added.

He said, “I find it as a point of pride when your enemies publicly say that you are a threat to them it just means that you are really doing good work”.

He defended his efforts for the rights of the LGBTQ community, saying that “I believe that if you are an international diplomat and you are working to criminalize homosexuality, then you should not get a visa. Your kids should not get a visa to come to the US. There needs to be consequences for individuals who criminalize homosexuality and push that issue in their country”.

Grenell added that the Iranian regime is terrified of the right-wing LGBTQ campaigns in the Middle East, noting that there is no such fear from the activities of left-wing organizations

There is no fear of the activities of Hollywood types and Disney-type left-wing organizations, he said. “I think the Iranian regime is very pleased that the gay left has never taken this fight to Iran or to the Middle East. I think it’s shocking that the gay left will continue partnering with the Palestinian Authority knowing that the gay pride parade in Tel Aviv is literally a beacon of hope in the entire Middle East,” the Republican campaigner said.

United States District Court Magistrate Judge G Michael Harvey, after four detention hearings, released Arian Taherzadeh, 40 and Haidar Ali, 35, after prosecutors argued that they would pose a danger to the community. The judge ruled that prosecutors did not prove that the suspects had some foreign links, which would pose a danger to others, Iran International correspondent Arash Alaei reported.

Prosecutors asked for detention of suspects to continue until 9:00 am Wednesday for time to appeal the decision to release them.

Taherzadeh, with an Iranian and Ali with a Pakistani origin were arrested after federal authorities learned that they were impersonating United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents and trying to befriend Secret Service and other federal personnel. Prosecutors say the suspects gave or offered lavish gifts to the government agents and possessed a range of law enforcement equipment and weapons.

During the detention hearings their defense attorneys argued that prosecutors took their clients’ actions out of context.

On the second day of a detention hearing on Monday, Judge Harvey said he had authority to convict the pair and sentence them to three years’ jail.

Defense attorneys on the third day of the hearing Tuesday morning said their clients had not obstructed justice, that the federal prosecutor had jumped to conclusions, and that the men’s actions had been overblown into a media frenzy, which has included talks of links to Iranian intelligence.

Prosecutors told the third session of the hearing that four federal agents were “compromised” because of contacts with the suspects. One is a Secret Service agent in First Lady Jill Biden’s protection detail. However, prosecutors are still not accusing the men of being agents for a foreign intelligence service, although they continue to look into that.

It is not clear why the suspects spent large suns of money to give gifts to federal personnel and maintain several expensive apartments in a Washington DC building, offering their targets free occupancy in these units. Taherzadeh also got access to the building’s security system and was monitoring the residents.

Taherzadeh’s lawyer Michelle Peterson said her client was charged with bribing federal agents due to an offer of cigars. "They have jumped to the wildest conspiracy theories imaginable over the most scant of evidence," she said.

In response to Judge Harvey calling Taherzadeh “a danger to the community” because he possessed rifles, Peterson said her client was “not a flight risk or violent, and must be freed.” The lawyer argued that “lying about his identity to common people doesn't amount to a crime.”

Ali’s attorney Gregory Smith said the allegations were preposterous: "They have been making a mountain out of a molehill, and it is time for it to end.” Taherzadeh and Ali allegedly began posing as law enforcement agents in February 2020, the month after a US drone strike in Baghdad killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and nine others.

According to videos and photos sent to Iran International, the protesters who were retirees of the Iranian Telecommunication Company (ITC) gathered in front of the building of Executive Headquarters of Imam Khomeini's Order -- or simply Setad, which is a quasi-state quasi-business organization under direct control of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, which is the main shareholder of the ITC.

They were protesting for their poor living conditions and meager incomes and chanting slogans against “injustice in the country.”

In a controversial deal in October 2009, the company was transferred to the Etemad Mobin consortium, whose main shareholders were the Revolutionary Guard and the Setad. In 2018, the IRGC announced that it had transferred its shares to Setad too.

In recent months, current employees and retirees of the company have repeatedly staged protest rallies.

With consumer price inflation hovering over 40 percent, and food prices rising faster after four years of United States ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions, Iranian workers and retirees have been holding regular protests or strikes to demand higher salaries.

Hundreds of striking and protesting workers and labor activists have been arrested since 2017, many spending months in prison. Some are still detained without trial.

Confirming the plans, Mohammad Aghamiri told Didehban-e Iran website on Saturday that there are "men who are not family members and young [unmarried] men" in parks so it is to women's own benefit to keep men out from where they play with their children. He also claimed that creation of a separate area for women and their children was based on "popular demand".

Those who advocate allocation of a different section of parks and other public areas such as playgrounds to women claim that this will help guard women's privacy and separation from men according to Islamic values.

Limitations for women have always existed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution under the pretext of protecting them, Niki Mahjoub, journalist, told Iran International TV, adding that segregation laws have steadily increased, particularly in the past few years.

Some fear that religious hardliners might be aiming at more segregation in parks and other public places.

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Addressing a Tehran City Council meeting on Sunday, Aghamiri claimed that Didehban-e Iran had misrepresented his remarks and that he had not meant complete segregation of parks but meant only allocation of a special place for women and their children to play together.

He insisted that the plan ensures "women's safety" and giving them peace of mind that their children would not be "abducted". He went on to claim that women are far less likely to abduct children than men.

"There are special parks for children in all countries but now that this is being done in Tehran those who are hostile [to Islamic values] are painting a dark picture and saying parks are going to be segregated," he said.

Aghamiri added that mother and child parks will help make families happier and healthier. "Men are at work during the day. Mothers who have more free time can go to these parks and spend time with their children," he said.

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Tehran has over 2,500 large and small parks and neighborhood playgrounds including nine parks that are for women only. Aghamiri said on Sunday that the number of all-female parks is going to increase to forty soon.

The first of all-female parks opened in Tehran was inaugurated by the city's conservative mayor, Mohammad Ghalibaf, in 2008. Some women at the time welcomed the idea because in this park they did not have to wear the compulsory hijab and could dress or exercise as they wished, as even gardeners were female. Others, however, said they feared this was a prelude to greater gender segregation in the city.

Since 2008 all-female parks have also been established in other cities and towns.

On Saturday a video was posted on social media showing tall concrete walls built around a park by the municipality in Bojnord in northern Iran. The mayor of Bojonord has said that the walls have been built not to segregate men and women, but to provide "a safe space" for women.

The Islamic Republic enforces complete segregation of men and women in many public spaces including schools, public transportation, gyms, swimming pools, and beaches. Women are allowed at some athletic events such as volleyball games, in a separate part of the stadium, but unofficially banned from others such as football stadiums, men's wrestling competitions and boxing matches.

In a proclamation sent to the heads of Iran’s three branches of power and the Expediency Council on Sunday, Khamenei on Sunday issued the policies aimed at improving social welfare, removing poverty, and supporting the vulnerable strata of the society in compliance with the first clause of Article 110 of the Iranian Constitution.

He ordered the presidential administration to cooperate with the parliament and the judiciary and mobilize all the relevant entities to provide a comprehensive plan for the implementation of these policies, including legislation, devising regulations and necessary executive measures, within six months.

Khamenei’s directive is a brief and general guideline issuing a series of orders that is meant to expand services to underprivileged people living in urban and rural areas.

In his decree, Khamenei called for establishing a comprehensive, integrated, transparent, efficient and multi-layered social security system, as more reports emerge of deepening poverty amid a 40-percent inflation rate.

The policies include reforming subsidy schemes, promoting job creation, providing all members of the community with access to social services and public resources, and paradoxically offering fertility services to increase the population growth rate.

The directive makes no mention of needed financial resources to expand the social security net. The Islamic Republic has for years provided general energy and food subsidies, but its centrally controlled and closed economy has stifled growth and made it vulnerable to oil export sanctions.