Five French Unions Denounce Escalation Of Executions In Iran

Released on Monday, the statement sheds light on the government's systematic efforts to strip Baha'is of their "sense of peace and security in their daily lives."

The disturbing methods employed by authorities include violent home raids, a surge in Baha'is in prison and awaiting summons, punitive property confiscations, denial of burial rights, obstruction of higher education, and a surge in official hate speech against the community.

Simin Fahandej, BIC Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, expressed deep concern, stating, "The growing volume of attacks on Iran’s Baha’is, which we have observed for over a year, is exceeded only by the brutality of the new tactics that the Iranian government is bringing to bear against the innocent Baha’i community."

The statement outlines a strategy by the Iranian government to terrorize vulnerable Baha'is, who already face extreme pressures for their faith, aiming to demoralize not only the Baha'i community but all of Iranian society. The international community is urged to insist on an immediate halt to the oppressive policies.

Since October, 40 Baha'is have been arrested, and the homes of nearly 100 families have been invaded and searched across cities. Approximately 70 Baha'is are in detention or serving prison terms, subjected to psychological and physical abuse during interrogations, while 1,200 others are entangled in ongoing trials or awaiting prison summonses.

Unofficial sources estimate over 300,000 Baha'i citizens reside in Iran, yet the Constitution officially recognizes only Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, making Baha'is the largest non-Muslim religious minority, systematically targeted since the 1979 revolution.

The statement criticized the Islamic Republic, stating that it has “legitimized itself through autocracy and relies on coercive forces.”

The students urged their peers across Iranian universities to "refrain from attending classes for one day" as a form of protest. The announcement comes amid increasing pressure on students, with reports of summonings and suspensions related to clothing choices, stemming from last year's nationwide protests following the controversial death of Iranian-Kurd Mahsa Amini in morality police custody.

Students were at the heart of protests and were consequently harshly punished, including bans on education. The death of the 22-year-old, arrested for the inappropriate wearing of her hijab, triggered widespread civil unrest and became a focal point for student-led protests across Iran. Iranian universities have witnessed heightened tensions since last year, particularly as students view the government as a symbol of a patriarchal society that contradicts their pursuit of gender equality.

The refusal to adhere to the mandatory hijab is also seen as a manifestation of discontent with the Islamic Republic and its policies. The wave of student protests draws parallels with the political unrest of the 1960s and 70s, though during that period, the focus was on political issues rather than hijab-related concerns.

Since last September, at least a thousand protesting students have faced suspension or academic bans across various universities in Iran.

The episode began when three commercial vessels came under attack from Iran-backed Houthis on Sunday. USS Carney responded to the vessels’ distress calls and shot down three drones. It too got targeted, according to some Pentagon reports. But later the Pentagon claimed they were not sure if US warships are being targeted by the Houthis.

However, in a presser Monday afternoon, national security advisor Jake Sullivan pointed the finger at Iran.

“We have every reason to believe these attacks, while they were launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran,” he said, reiterating an earlier statement from Centcom.

Sullivan added that talks are being held with US allies to set up “a maritime task force of sorts” to ensure safe passage for ships in the Red Sea.

The Biden administration has been trying hard to avoid direct confrontation with Iran –and a potential escalation of war in the region. But continued targeting of American troops and interests is making this strategy untenable.

Lara Seligman of Politico tweeted that “An hours-long firefight involving U.S. commercial vessels in the Red Sea this weekend has left some U.S. officials frustrated by what they see as the Biden administration’s deliberate downplaying of a major threat to American forces.”

Middle East expert Charles Lister also tweeted, “Two DOD sources told me today that the Biden White House has placed (in the words of one) ‘every possible handcuff’ on DOD’s ability to respond to Iran proxy attacks.”

We do need to be more aggressive and push back against Iran,” said Senator Joni Ernst Monday. “This would continue to escalate if we have such a milk-toast response from this administration.”

Biden critics say his approach has emboldened Iran and its proxies. On the Capitol, some call his strategy “appeasement” and are pushing for tougher actions.

“What is it going to take for the Biden administration to take action to stop Iran,” asked Congressman Mike Waltz in an interview with Fox News Monday. “Our sailors under direct fire from Iranian-made missiles & drones deserve better.”

In the past few weeks, the Houthis have attacked several vessels in the Red Sea and launched drones and missiles towards Israel. But they had avoided targeting the Americans – until last weekend.

The more recent wave of Houthi attacks can thus be read as a clear escalation, which could make it harder for Biden and his team to shrug off the role of the regime in Tehran as well as the link to the war on Gaza.

Despite clear messaging from the Houthis in Yemen, both the US and Israel seem to prefer to portray the Red Sea debacle as a separate issue unrelated to Israel's attacks in Gaza. Yet neither have ruled out the possibility of a military response to Houthi attacks.

“If we make the assessment or feel the need to respond, we will always make that decision at a time or place of our choosing,” a Pentagon official was quoted as saying by Politico.

The US has struck back at Iran proxies in Iraq and Syria several times in recent weeks. On Sunday, a US drone killed five militants in Iraq, whom, according to the Pentagon, were preparing to “launch a one-way attack drone.”

Monday afternoon, Centcom published another statement detailing yet another rocket attack on a US base in Syria on the weekend. “There were no injuries to personnel or damage to equipment,” the statement said, confirming that 15 rockets had been fired from “a fuel truck modified to launch up to 20 rockets” in Iraq.

Addressing the ongoing attacks by Iran proxies on American troops across the Middle East, Senator Pete Ricketts blamed the Biden administration and reiterated what seems to be a growing consensus in Washington. “The only thing they understand is strength,” he said. “And when we project weakness like we are, we’re only encouraging them to continue to attack us.”

The editor of moderate Rouydad24 website in Tehran, Farhad Farzad, attributed the popularity of the video to its "color, rhythm and sex appeal," which is non-existent in Iran's entertainment industry particularly on the state TV.

The LA-based singer, Sassy Mannequin, releases only one music video annually, all of which have become major hits in Iran. Schoolchildren sing and dance to them nationwide, and young Iranians frequently play them in their cars.

One of Iran's homegrown social media platforms, Soroush, which is sponsored by the government to counter the "cultural onslaught" from foreign platforms also offered a link to Sassy's latest music video, Leyla's Brothers. This led to an immediate reaction by censors and clerical judges who issued an order to arrest its managing director Farhad Moradi on December 3. He was released on Monday on bail.

Some comments published under the news about the arrest said the government should shut down the Soroush platform and give its budget to a charity. Another comment under the Rouydad24 report suggested that people should stage a rally and call on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to have the singer arrested. The comment even went as far as to suggest that the Iranian intelligence agencies should send their officers abroad to kill Sassy.

Sassy's latest music video, Leila's Brothers, named after a banned Iranian film, mocks a children's program on Iran's state television and harshly criticizes Iranian officials and their main propaganda machine, the state TV, for their hypocrisy.

Days before it was first aired on Radio Javan, a US-based, MTV-style channel that broadcasts Persian music round the clock, its teasers appeared on the Iranian social media. Some 11 million viewers watched the teaser online in less than 24 hours and more people tuned to their satellite television to watch the actual video clip.

Unlike some foreign-based Iranian singers whose concerts and videos are full of obscenity and rude words, Sassy's video comes with a disclaimer that limits the viewership to people over 18 years of age and that is because of mentions about sex, drugs and women in his music videos who appear in modern outfit and sometimes in swimsuits when the scene takes place at the seaside or around a swimming pool.

One of his older videos, Gentleman, enraged Iranian officials who fired several teachers in Iran when they found out that Iranian students dance to the tune and sing the song together in school gatherings.

Sassy's simple songs often become controversial in Iran only because what viewers see and hear in them are in sharp contrast to the extremely conservative and traditional modes of behavior approved by the fundamentalist Islamic Republic.

Even some of the words that annoy Iran's elderly clerics are in fact commonplace in the Iranian society as millions of teens use them in their everyday conversation. The Iranian Generation Z subculture is so prevalent and at the same time so strange to traditional minds that more than one dictionary of modern Persian slangs have been published in Iran in recent years.

This is the generation that was behind the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests. A generation that has refused to accept the Islamic Republic's propaganda and insists that nothing is sacred.

Díaz-Canel, leading a high-ranking political-economic delegation, arrived in Tehran on Sunday. The visit comes at a critical time for both nations, with Cuba grappling with its most severe economic crisis since the disappearance of Soviet subsidies in the 1990s. The island nation is experiencing shortages of food, medicine, and fuel, while Iran is contending with a record depreciation of its currency and rampant inflation.

The meeting marks the first visit by a Cuban president to Iran since 2001 when Fidel Castro traveled to the Islamic Republic. In June, Raisi visited Havana as the final stop of a tour of "friendly countries" in Latin America, including Venezuela.

Iran, facing isolation in the international arena due to its perceived destabilizing actions, is working to strengthen ties with countries that share anti-Western perspectives.

Iran has strategically cultivated alliances with various Latin American countries, such as Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, for over four decades. Simultaneously, it has sought to influence the region by disseminating its ideology through disinformation campaigns.

Cuba, enduring a long-standing US trade embargo since the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro, is actively strengthening ties with key allies such as Russia and China, both of which are also facing US sanctions. The Cuban economy has been significantly affected by the US trade embargo.