US Warns Iran Over Death Sentences For Protesters

The US CENTCOM in a statement said that the situation was de-escalated with the help of audible warnings and non-lethal use of lasers.

The incident took place on December 5 during a routine transit in international waters. “The Iranian vessel attempted to blind the bridge by shining a spotlight and crossed within 150 yards of the US ships – dangerously close particularly at night,” CENTCOM said.

"The IRGCN’s actions violated international standards of professional and safe maritime behavior, increasing the risk of miscalculation and collision," the statement added.

Iran has engaged in provocative approaches to the US NAVY in the region many times throughout the years, with Americans firing warning shots on a few occasions.

“This dangerous action in international waters is indicative of Iran’s destabilizing activity across the Middle East,” the statement quoted CENTCOM spokesman Col. Joe Buccino as saying.

Expeditionary sea base platform ship USS Lewis B. Puller and guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans “were conducting a routine transit in international waters” when the Iranian patrol boat approached.

High-ranking Iranian commanders have been praising their navy this week as the true guarantor of security in the Persian Gulf region.

Saudi official news agency SPA is calling Riyadh-Beijing relations a “strategic partnership” encompassing both rising trade and regional security, contrasting with United States officials portraying China as a threatening axis alongside Russia and bemoaning Saudi-Russian cooperation in agreeing oil production targets through Opec+.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi in October said Saudi Arabia was a “priority” for China. While this is due partly to supplying of 1.77 million barrels of Saudi oil a day (bpd) reaching Beijing in the first ten months of 2022 (18 percent of China’s total crude purchases), overall bilateral trade reached $87 billion in 2021 and China is keen to extend infrastructure investment in line with its 149-country Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Saudi Arabia’s plans to diversify away from oil and develop the $500-billion NEOM city in the north west are widely expected to offer significant opportunities for Chinese companies, who are already active in refining and petrochemicals.

Deeping ties with Saudi Arabia has not stopped Beijing continuing as Iran’s main oil buyer, taking between 500,000 and 1 million bpd this year, despite the threat of punitive action by Washington under the ‘maximum pressure’ Iran sanctions introduced in 2018. Both China and Saudi Arabia are uncomfortable by recent US assertions that its foreign policy is based on ‘human rights.’

China has a 25-year cooperation agreement with Iran, reached in 2021, but last month signed a 27-year liquid natural gas (LNG) supply deal with Qatar, which shares with Iran the world’s largest gas-field, the Qatari part known as North Dome and the Iranian part South Pars. Iran has struggled under US ‘maximum pressure’ to develop LNG facilities – the form of gas most suitable for export. French major Total, an LNG specialist, reluctantly pulled out 2018 from a contract to develop phase 11 of South Pars.

‘Leveraging rivalry’

Saudi Arabia, like China, seeks a transactional foreign policy. The Chinese are this week reportedly ready for $30 billion in arms contracts with Riyadh, reflecting Saudi Arabia’s position as the third largest defense spender in the world after the US and China. Riyadh bought 23 percent of all US weapons sold globally 2017-21, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Xi’s visit will also include an inaugural China-Arab Summit, which is expected to include leaders from the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the wider Arab world, including Iraq.

Iran and Saudi Arabia despite a few rounds of exploratory talks still do not have diplomatic relation severed in early 2016. Tehran continues to label Riyadh as an enemy and periodically makes threats against the Sunni power, which considers Shia Iran a threat.

While some Persian Gulf observers continue to insist that nothing has diminished US sway in the region, John Calabrese of the Washington-based Middle East Institute in a briefing published Monday wrote that “Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab neighbors …situated both literally and figurately at the crossroads of intensifying global rivalry between US and China…seek to leverage [that rivalry] to their benefit.”

Judiciary Spokesman Masoud Setayeshi said Tuesday that 16 people had been arrested in the case, among them three minors.

Members of Basij paramilitary are armed and deployed to crack down on protesters, often killing civilians in the streets.

He went on to say that five of them, whose names were not released, are accused of killing Rouhollah Ajamian in the city of Karaj west of Tehran on November 3.

Setayeshi stated that 11 others, including three children will face long prison terms on charges of “corruption on earth” and disrupting national security.

However, he said the verdicts are not final and the sentences can be appealed.

Iran’s Judiciary can frame people for crimes they did not commit, as multiple cases have demonstrated in the past. It can define what “disruption” means and sentence any protester to death for causing an ill-defined act of disruption.

One of the biggest challenges to Iran's clerical leaders since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the twelve-week-old demonstrations have persisted despite a deadly crackdown and severe warnings from security forces.

Iran’s use of the death penalty for protesters has been sharply criticized by the United Nations while some countries and many right groups have also condemned the move.

According to Amnesty International at least 28 inmates currently face execution for participation in the demonstrations.

The political prisoners are identified as Pejman Fatehi, Vafa (Wafa) Azarbar, Mohsen Mazloum and Hajir (Hazhir) Faramarezi whose forced confessions were recently broadcast for the second time on state TV.

Regime’s judiciary also announced that four other people will be hanged on charges of “kidnapping as well as intelligence cooperation with the Mossad.”

Mizan news agency, affiliated with the judiciary, later announced the four people named Hossein Urdukhanzadeh, Shahin Imani Mahmoudabad, Milad Ashrafi Atbatan and Manouchehr Shahbandi Bajandi were executed Sunday morning.

Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization says with the execution of the four citizens, the number of executions this year exceeded 500.

In late October, the judiciary of the Islamic Republic announced the indictment of ten people, who were introduced as “Mossad-related agents,” saying that four of them were accused of “corruption on earth;” a charge that leads to death penalty.

The judiciary did not reveal their identity and the date of their arrest, but only announced they were detained in West Azarbaijan province.

Previously, the intelligence ministry had claimed to have arrested operatives of Komala organization “who were Mossad agents,” but the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan rejected the claim, confirming that several of its members have been apprehended in Iran.

Nasrin Sotoudeh who is in prison and Mohammad Seifzadeh in a joint letter said revolutionary courts “do not have legal authority,” emphasizing that proceedings in such courts are not “fair and judges are not impartial.”

Hours before the publication of this letter Iran's Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei said the death sentences for several protesters have been confirmed and will be executed soon.

The letter is one of the first reactions to the threatening statements made by the Chief Justice on Monday.

The two human rights lawyers also added that most of those arrested were “convicted in revolutionary courts…where they were deprived of the right to have an independent lawyer, and also due to lack of fair proceedings in the judiciary and the impartiality of the judges, the verdicts are completely invalid.”

Based on leaked briefing documents for senior officials from Fras News Agency, over 29,000 people have been arrested during nationwide protests against the regime following the death of Mahsa Amini.

None of the detained had the right to choose a lawyer, and a number of them have been tried and sentenced to death without access to a fair trial.