US, UK Vow Tehran's Violence Will Not Go 'Unpunished'
The United States is appalled by Iran's execution of Alireza Akbari, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a joint news conference with his British counterpart.
The United States is appalled by Iran's execution of Alireza Akbari, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a joint news conference with his British counterpart.
He also vowed that Islamic Republic's deadly violations of rights in its crackdown of widespread protests will not go unpunished.
Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also voiced support for the Iranian people.
“We’ll keep standing with the brave Iranians who are standing up for their own basic rights led by young women – all of this in the face of extraordinary repression,” he said as the protest movement entered its fifth month.
"We were appalled by the execution of Mr. Akbari just as we've been appalled by everything we've been seeing on the streets of Iran over the last months since these protests began: mass arrests, sham trials, the executions, the use of sexual violence as a tool for protests' suppression," Blinken said at the news conference.
"These abuses will not go without consequence. Together with many other countries, we've been moving forward with a variety of unilateral actions, multilateral measures, using UN mechanisms, to try to hold Iran to account," he added.
Akbari, 61, a British-Iranian national who once served as Tehran's deputy defence minister, was handed a death sentence on charges of spying for Britain.
London has said the charges against him were politically motivated. It repeatedly called for his release. Following the execution, it imposed sanctions on Iran's Prosecutor General.
Cleverly thanked the United States for its support. “I’m very grateful to the United States of America for publicly condemning the execution and for Secretary Blinken expressing his condolences in our meeting a few moments ago,” the foreign secretary said.
What was also notable, was Cleverly’s emphasis on Iran’s activities outside its borders in regional countries and its supply of kamikaze drones to Russia used against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
“For years, Iran’s leadership have inflicted bloodshed on their regional neighbors by arming and supporting military extremists and militias. Now Iran has gone further and supplied Russian with the drones that were used to kill civilians in Ukraine. And the UK will join with the US and other allies to hold the Iranian regime to account for the violations of the rights of their own people and by making themselves accomplices to Putin’s assault on Ukraine,” British foreign minister said.
As nuclear talks between the Islamic Republic and the West have reached a deadlock, both Tehran’s crackdown on people and its foreign policy have become major stumbling blocks to resuming negotiations. Cleverly’s mention of these factors shows that the West will insist on a major change of behavior by Tehran for any renewed diplomacy.
Cleverly made this point very clear: They call – they call for us, for the US, for us, and our friends to lift sanctions. And the point that we have made is that if they want to see those sanctions removed, they have to fundamentally change their behavior.
At the same time he left the door open for dialogue with Tehran. “But we will continue to speak to Iran where we’re able to and we hope that at some point soon they will listen properly to what we’re saying…”
Blinken in turn repeated Washington’s position that it was Tehran’s fault the nuclear talks came to a halt and the US is now focused on what is happening inside the country and not on the nuclear issue. He also emphasized President Joe Biden’s position, “that Iran never acquire a nuclear weapon.”
Mohammad-Hossein Malaek, who served as Tehran’s envoy for four years under former president Mohammad Khatami, told the Iranian Labour News Agency on Tuesday that the 25-year strategic agreement is a document without any value, especially following the visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Saudi Arabia in December.
He noted that the visit has opened a new chapter in Iran-China relations, therefore the agreement should be revised as Tehran and Beijing had different agendas at the time the document was signed.
Malaek claimed that the agreement -- which is wrapped in mystery and so far has had little practical results – made China more interesting for Arab countries and incentivized them to give Beijing many economic and political benefits, as it was seen during the Chinese president’s recent visit to the region. W
When the document was signed, then-foreign-minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was accused of being reluctant to cooperate with China, so with signing an agreement, which does not include any practical measures and is not a binding contract, Zarif managed to exonerate himself from those accusations. “Therefore, this document is no longer the document for which they wrote stories [in Iranian media]," he said, noting that at the beginning, they made a lot of noise about the deal, but no progress has been made and “we are still at the same point.”
Zarif and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on March 27, 2021, signed the controversial 25-year deal at a ceremony at the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran. The deal was first proposed by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during President Xi’s visit to Tehran in 2016.
The pact has been very controversial in Iran because its details have never been disclosed. A leaked copy of the final text only outlines the general terms of the agreement, but Tehran officials, beleaguered by economic crisis they cannot solve, hoped it will bring billions in investment and make Iran part of China' Belt and Road Initiative, a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure scheme intended to stretch from East Asia to Europe. The project aims to significantly expand China's economic and political influence and has raised concerns in the United States and elsewhere.
Malaek added that the Islamic Republic needs foreign investors in the field of oil and gas, and it has nothing to do with signing the document or not. Sanctions have stopped Iran's cooperation with Western companies, and only Russian and Chinese companies may invest in the country. However, he said that China abides by the sanctions and does not violate any of them at all when it feels any threat to its own interests.
Iran has indicated its intention to rely more on Asian countries, particularly China for trade relations as talks with the United States and Europe to resolve differences over Tehran’s nuclear program have not succeeded so far and US sanctions remain in place. However, Beijing has so far has not seriously challenged US sanctions, as it has cultivated closer ties with the Persian Gulf Arab countries and Israel.
Many Iranians have expressed resentment over the 25-year cooperation agreement with China and a proposed 20-year deal with Russia, saying it is a sell-out. Although Iran has not revealed the details of the agreement with China and what it will entail in political, economic and military terms, some social media users go as far as claiming that the Islamic Republic is "selling out the country and its people" to China and Russia.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman says Tehran has protested to Iraq over once again using “a fake misnomer” for the Persian Gulf.
Responding during his press briefing Tuesday to a question over the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani’s insistence on calling the Persian Gulf as the “Arabian” Gulf, Naser Kanaani said the foreign ministry has sent a letter of protest to the government of Iraq.
The name Persian Gulf is “a historical, permanent, documented and undeniable fact,” he said and added that “repeating the fake name does not change facts and brings no legitimacy to it.” He also alleged that Iraq was using the controversial term to appeal to “others”, presumably Iran's Arab rival Saudi Arabia.
Iran's foreign ministry usually protests if foreign officials use alternative names to refer to the Persian Gulf in view of strong feelings among Iranians over the matter who have launched petitions on various occasions to protest to the use of “Gulf” instead of “Persian Gulf” by foreign officials and media such as former US President Barack Obama and the BBC.
“Despite having strategic, fraternal, and deep relations with Iraq, we have openly conveyed our protest with regards to the issue, summoned the Iraqi ambassador and reminded the Iraqi side of the great Iranian nation’s sensitivities about the use of the precise and full term, the Persian Gulf,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said January 11 but also claimed that Al-Sudani had “corrected the matter on social media.”
Tehran summoned the Iraqi ambassador Nasir Abdul Mohsen Abdullah to the foreign ministry on January 11 to voice its strong protest over the use of the misnomer.
At the opening ceremony of a regional football tournament, the 25th Arabian Gulf Cup, in Basra on January 6, Al-Sudani referred to the body of water separating Iran from its several Arab neighbors as the “Arabian Gulf” and despite Iran's protest, in an interview with Deutsche Welle Saturday defended his use of the controversial term and said he would not apologize to Iran for using what Kanaani referred to as a “misnomer” and “fake title”.
The historic waterway has been referred to as the Persian Gulf since ancient times including in historical Greek sources and is still referred to as such in official documents of the United Nations. Since 1960s, Arab governments have increasingly been using The Gulf or Arabian Gulf and officials of other countries and some international organizations have followed suit.
“Using the fake label for the Persian Gulf is seen in Iran as a futile attempt by the Arab neighbors to distort the region’s ancient history,” the IRGC-linked Fars news agency wrote Tuesday.
For Iraq’s prime minister using the term “Arabian Gulf” is seen by many Iranians as another sign of the Iranian regime’s costly efforts to gain influence in its neighboring country, relying on Shia proxy forces and clerics.
Some Iranian media and pundits say Al-Sudani’s insistence on using a name that he knew would irritate Iranians may be a sign that the Shia-majority Iraq is increasingly restoring its ‘Arab’ identity and getting closer to other Arab nations which are Sunnis, despite their seemingly better relations with Shia Iran over much of the past two decades.
Abdolreza Farajirad, diplomatic relations analyst, told the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) Tuesday that all Iraqi premiers after Nouri al-Maleki have tried to mend their relations with the Arab world and go back to their Arab identity and culture. “For them the Arabic identity has priority and the [Shia] religious identity comes second,” he said.
Belgium's Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib and her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian held two phone conversations on Saturday and Monday – January 14 and 16. In the readout of both calls, the Islamic Republic’s foreign ministry did not mention the case of the aid worker and only said the two diplomats discussed bilateral ties and ways to expand cooperation as well as latest state of consular cooperation between the two countries.
Earlier in the month, the Islamic Republic’s judiciary sentenced Olivier Vandecasteele, who was detained in 2022, to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes for alleged “spying and cooperation with the United States, money laundering and currency smuggling $500,000 out of Iran.”
Vandecasteele, 41, has served in various international humanitarian organizations since at least 2006, including, Médecins du Monde, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and Relief International. He worked in Iran for humanitarian organizations for more than six years and left the country. Later, he was lured back by “a girlfriend” and was detained in February 2022. A spokesman for Vandecasteele’s family announced in December that he has been sentenced to 28 years in prison.
However, according to French daily Libération, Tehran has explicitly informed Belgium that Vandecasteele will only return to his country only if Asadollah Asadi -- an Iranian diplomat imprisoned in Belgium, returns to Iran. Assadi, 50, a former attaché at the Iranian embassy in Austria, was convicted of plotting to bomb a gathering of the exiled opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) near Paris on June 30, 2018. He is currently serving a 20-year sentence in Belgium for “attempted murder and involvement in terrorism.”
Earlier in the year, the Belgian parliament passed a law proposed by the government about a prisoner exchange treaty between Tehran and Brussels, creating an uproar in the international community since it could lead to the release of Assadi, and potentially turning Belgium to a safe haven for the agents of the Islamic Republic to operate in Europe. Numerous people and groups from around the world warned about the imminent perilous consequences of the prisoner exchange treaty, calling it “the green light to state terrorism” that only emboldens the Islamic Republic.
The phone conversations between Lahbib and Amir-Abdollahian took place a few days after the Belgian minister vowed at the parliament that her ministry would do its best to improve the conditions of Vandecasteele in prison and work for his release. She said her ministry is doing everything it can for the release of Vandecasteele noting that they have stepped up diplomatic efforts and are exhausting all possible leads.
However, according to the Brussels Times, the liberal party in the parliament deemed such promises insufficient and called on Lahbib to travel to Iran and increase the political pressure on the Islamic Republic’s authorities about his case.
Belgium and Vandecasteele’s family believe he is innocent and a victim of hostage taking by the Iranian regime.
In the past years, 49 European citizens have been arrested in Iran. Eighteen of them are still in prison, including the Belgian citizens. Two of them have been killed: one has been executed and one died due to lack of medical access.
There were speculations that the prisoner swap agreement would lead to Asadi’s exchange with Swedish-Iranian professor Ahmadreza Djalali (Jalali), who was arrested during a working visit to Iran about seven years ago. He was sentenced to death in October 2017 on charges of spying for Israel.
Amnesty International released a detailed research and analysis paper in May to prove that Iranian authorities were threatening to execute Djalali to compel Belgium and Sweden to hand over Asadi and Hamid Nouri who is in prison in Sweden for involvement in mass execution of prisoners in 1980s, and “to deter them and others from future prosecutions of Iranian officials”.
UN experts and international human rights organizations say that the Islamic Republic takes foreigners hostage to extract concessions from the West.