Houthi General Tells IRGC-Linked Website Of Coming Attacks On UAE

In a statement on Sunday, the EU also expressed concern over her poor health, stressing that enforcing the sentence “is against the universal principles of human rights and the rule of law”.

“The EU calls on Iran to comply with its obligations under international law and urgently release Ms. Mohammadi, taking also into account her deteriorating health condition,” a spokesperson said.

On Friday, Human Rights Watch also slammedher arrest, saying that the Islamic Republic is committed to crush any grassroots effort to protect human rights and urged world powers to press Tehran to stop the crackdown.

The rights group said that the recent heavy sentence meted out against Mohammadi shows that Iran’s revolutionary courts are criminalizing human rights activism.

On January 15, Branch 26 of Tehran’s revolutionary court gave her the harsh sentence in a five-minute summary trial that was held behind closed doors while she was denied access to a lawyer.

In a letter from the notorious Gharchak (Qarchak) Prison, obtained by Iran International, Mohammadi said the court stated her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize as evidence of her criminality.

Mohammadi was arrested in mid-November at the death anniversary of a citizen, Ebrahim Ketabdar, who was shot dead by security forces during the November 2019 protests.

MP Abolfazl Aboutorabi said on Sunday that about 30 lawmakers have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in the past few days.

He said the parliament’s presidium has asked all the lawmakers to get tested for Covid-19 to help curb the spread of the virus.

Alireza Salimi, a member of the presidium, said 10 lawmakers have been hospitalized with complications, while another MP has said that paqrliament members attended the Saturday session although they were tested positive for the virus.

Iran's Health Minister Bahram Einollahi announced the start of the sixth wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the country on Thursday as hospitals report increasing number of referrals related to the highly infectious Omicron variant.

“Unfortunately, we should declare that we have practically stepped into the sixth wave with the rise in hospitalization and outpatient cases,” Einollahi said, urging people to get booster shots.

Epidemiologists say the number of patients will increase fivefold each week, with the number of daily fatalities also rising.

Alireza Zali, the head of Tehran's Covid-19 taskforce, has said the Omicron variant is 64 percent more contagious than the Delta mutation, noting that tests are often unable to detect Omicron because of its similarity to common cold.

According to parliament’s budget review committee spokesman on Saturday, the scheme has received preliminary approval and if it is adopted, Iranian men can buy out their military service as of the next Iranian year starting March 21.

The new plan only includes the absentees who are over 35 years old or at least eight years have passed from their conscription due date, the prices differing based on the levels of education, with those with higher education having to pay higher fees.

The new rates start at 2.5 billion rials (nearly $10,000 at today’s rates) and goes up to 6 billion rials, which are about 11 to 24 times more than the last time the government allowed such exemptions. Average salaries in Iran are about $200 a month.

The option to buy out of the draft was removed from regulations about three years ago because even then only wealthy families could afford it for their sons through paying absence fines.

According to Iran’s constitution, all men over 18 years old must serve in the military for about two years otherwise they cannot apply for a passport to leave the country.

Earlier in the month, a member of the budget committee said that all expats who haven’t served their compulsory conscription can pay €15,000 ($17,000) to buy their freedom.

Criticizing President Ebrahim Raisi’s decision to slash food subsidies, Ahmad Naderi said on Sunday that the government is on the wrong path on some issues.

He said that Raisi’s proposed reforms in the next year’s budget can endanger the entire Islamic Republic regime.

Raisi has been pushing to end cheap dollars allocated by the government to importers of essential food and medicine, as it faces a huge budget deficit.

Naderi also slammed the policies of former president Hassan Rouhani, saying that Raisi’s government cannot bring about miracles and undo “the catastrophes” that happened during eight years of Rouhani’s “neoliberal administration” in several months, but the new government should be in the right track.

“I warn that if these approaches continue, we will reach a point where we will see great social upheavals”, he said.

Earlier in the day, the parliament's budget review committee rejected Raisi's plans to eliminate the cheap dollar subsidy.

Workers and employees from various economic sectors, including teachers, nurses, firefighters, and even staff members of the judiciary department, hold regular protest rallies or strikes to demand better working conditions and salaries.

Food prices have risen by more than 60 percent in recent months, on top of high inflation in the previous three years, while the government is unable to sufficiently boost wages as United States sanctions impede full capacity oil exports and international trade.

Calling sanctions an “economic assault” Khamenei said that it caused some hardship for the people “but production did not buckle and the spokesman of America’s foreign ministry a few days ago frankly and explicitly announced that the maximum pressure policy has turned into a humiliating defeat for America.”

Khamenei was quoting State Department spokesman Ned Price who in his press briefing on January 25 said, “The maximum pressure campaign was an abject failure,” adding that former president Donald Trump’s policy did not change Iran’s behavior.

Iran’s economy went into a tailspin in 2018, when Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement and imposed tough sanctions. Inflation skyrocketed and government budget deficits soared. The sanctions also impacted Iran’s proxy forces in the region, but they continued their destabilizing operations, although they could have been more effective without the sanctions.

In a speech to managers of Iran’s industrial and economic sectors Khamenei reiterated his ideology of self-reliance and called for “economic jihad” in defiance of sanctions, although he admitted that Iran’s economy performed very poorly in the last decade. At the same time, he claimed victory against US sanctions, that he said were meant to foment dissatisfaction among the people.

But as usual, the Supreme Leader blamed presidential administrations instead of the political and economic systems he presides over and his own policy of perpetually confronting the West and regional countries which have good ties with the United States.

Iran’s centralized economy plagued by corruption and mismanagement, as well as under the pressure of oil export sanctions has had zero growth in the past decade. Even before nuclear sanctions kicked in from 2011, its growth on average was anemic at under 3 percent since the early 1980s.

But Khamenei who has been in power since 1989, increasingly relied on loyal hardliners, and resorted to political persecutions and engineered elections instead of allowing a more accountable political system to take root. At the same time, insiders and the military took over the state-run economy using oil export revenues to perpetuate an unproductive system, as they enriched themselves.

In his speech Khamenei expressed disappointment at low GDP growth, lack of investments, a fast-growing liquidity problem leading to inflation and other serious problems the country faces. He emphasized however, that these difficulties are not just due to sanctions but also an outcome of “wrong decisions or lack of effort.”

He then mentioned a series of problems facing Iran’s domestic production sector, such as low quality of products, highlighting the auto industry which has been blamed for high fatalities in road accidents recently. Nevertheless, he reiterated that self-reliance should be the motto.

Khamenei and other insiders in the Islamic Republic system fail to understand or acknowledge that a modern economy can only grow with less government interference, more interaction with other economies, investments and competition. But the Supreme Leader’s domestic quest to reward supporters and continue a confrontational foreign policy, as well as a nuclear program with military ambitions foreclose paths toward economic success.