Three years into the tenure of Hassan Rouhani, who he and many in the West promised would be a “moderate” and “reformist” poised to bring about change in Iran, is no moderate at all. We have only witnessed an unprecedented spike in human rights violations, including horrendous public floggings and especially executions.
More than 2,400 executions in the past three years is the report card Iran and Rouhani carry, with Amnesty International and many other international human rights organizations registering that Iran sent almost 1,000 people to the gallows in 2015 alone. Various religious minorities, including Arabs, Baha’is, Christians, Jews and others have also been targeted in this massive crackdown imposed by the regime.
Three young political prisoners in the city of Ahwav (southwest Iran) were recently sentenced to death. The names of these individuals are “Qais Obaidavi, 25, B.A. in Law, his 20-year-old brother Ahmad Obaidavi, and their cousin Sajjad Obaidavi, a law student,” as reported by the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The bogus charges raised against these individuals by the so-called judiciary in Iran have been the loosely-worded ‘moharebeh,’ or enmity against God, and “corruption on Earth.”
International Community Fails to Understand
Even Afghan and Iraqi nationals have not been spared by the Rouhani regime, as reports indicate their executions in various prisons across Iran. Ironically, this recent spike of capital punishment measures in Iran is taking place under the auspices of a regime in Iran that many world powers promised would significantly alter its behavior following the much boasted, yet controversial, nuclear agreement sealed in June 2015, and implemented in January of this year, between the P5+1 and Iran.
What the international community simply fails to understand, and especially those advocating the appeasement policy vis-à-vis Iran, is that change from within the Iranian regime is nothing but a mirage.
Iran’s Drug Smuggling
The Revolutionary Guards are taking full control of the country’s vital economic sectors, including the overt and covert transactions with the outside world. Senior Iranian officials and IRGC commanders are known to be knee-deep in their involvement in international drug smuggling networks.
Iran Meddling in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon
Iran is also intensifying its meddling in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon, as it needs to compensate for the losses it has suffered in its much cherished nuclear program. Millions are left killed, injured and displaced as a result of Iran’s devious policies across the region.
As the world struggles to find a solution to the flashpoint region called the Middle East, which is already engulfed in the turmoil constantly provoked by Tehran’s mullahs, the main Iranian opposition, NCRI, and its jubilant supporters are preparing to hold their major annual gathering in Paris on July 9th.
They are calling for regime change in Iran. Maryam Rajavi, the charismatic President-elect of the Iranian opposition, will be the keynote speaker at this rally. The rally has attracted the likes of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Democratic National Committee chairman, Governor Howard Dean, both under one roof and backing one mantra: the mullahs in Iran have to go.
Hundreds of other senior political figures, MPs, human rights and women’s rights advocates and religious leaders are expected to join the gathering. There are people coming from the United States, Europe and a long slate of Arab and Islamic countries.
As seen each year, more than 100,000 Iranians are expected to flock into France to show the world there is an alternative to the regime ruling Iran, and that the mullahs do not represent the Iranian people inside the country and abroad. Maryam Rajavi is the true voice representing the Iranian people’s desire for freedom and democracy.