Jailed Rights Activists Recounts Ordeal Of Women In Evin Prison

Mohammad Moghimi said Thursday that according to the new regulation approved by the university council, women without proper hijab will be identified upon entering through their student cards.

According to him, after identifying the students, messages will be sent to them, and they will be asked to observe the mandatory hijab.

“In the next step, the university will contact the student's family and if the student still does not observe the mandatory hijab, a disciplinary case will be filed against her,” added Moghimi.

The dean of Tehran University warned the students that “as of now, the mandatory hijab regulations will be strictly enforced.”

During the nationwide protests in Iran following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, universities have been the scene of anti-regime protests, however the authorities of the Islamic Republic have imposed extensive restrictions on the protesting students.

For instance, a few days ago, Shargh daily reported that security organs have banned around 50 students from entering Urmia University in the northwest.

After months of protests, many women have removed their hijab in big cities and the government is hesitating on a full clampdown, afraid that it would inflame more unrest.

Earlier, sources reported increasing pressure through "exclusion from dormitories and suspending students."

Hosting his first senior member of President Joe Biden's administration Netanyahu said they had discussed prospects for a diplomatic breakthrough between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Since nuclear talks with Iran came to a deadlock last September, the US has increased closer political and military contacts with Israel.

Sullivan also heard from the Palestinians that their hopes of achieving statehood - long a Riyadh condition for normalizing relations with Israel - were being endangered by Israeli actions.

Netanyahu has pledged to forge Saudi ties that would round out normalization pacts he signed with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in 2020 dubbed the "Abraham Accords".

Their discussions were followed by a virtual meeting among Sullivan and his Israeli, Emirati and Bahraini counterparts. They discussed cooperation in areas such as emerging technology, regional security and commerce, according to a joint statement.

Israel and Persian Gulf allies share fears over Iran, but Netanyahu's return at the head of a religious-nationalist coalition government has stoked concern of an escalation in the decades-old conflict with the Palestinians.

Hosting Sullivan in the West Bank hub city of Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged US intervention.

On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud urged Israel's new government to engage seriously on resolving the conflict.

In a brief readout of the call, it said Putin and Raisi discussed the situation in Syria - where Moscow and Tehran both backed President Bashar al-Assad in a long-running civil war - and cooperation in transport and energy.

Russia, Turkey and Syria have launched diplomatic efforts for an agreement to improve Ankara-Damascus relations, after years of tensions during the Syrian civil war, but Iran has not been invited to take part.

Turkey has been the primary backer of Syria's opposition for more than a decade of war, while Russia has backed the Syrian government.

The statement by the Kremlin on Putin-Raisi talks made no reference to the war in Ukraine.

Iran has taken on greater importance as a partner for Russia since Putin's invasion of Ukraine last February triggered waves of Western sanctions against Moscow.

Since early October, the energy infrastructure across Ukraine has been attacked repeatedly by Russian missiles and drones it acquired from Iran, resulting in dozens of casualties and disruption in water and power supplies.

Iran has denied supplying weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, but foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian after earlier denials acknowledged in early November that Tehran had supplied drones to Moscow “months before” the Ukraine war, leaving it vague if these were used in the war.

The United States and its European allies have strongly objected to Iranian drones for Russia, imposing sanctions and keeping nuclear talks with Tehran dormant.

Iran International had earlier reported exclusively that Robert Malley and Saeed Iravani had held three meetings and the US State Department did not deny the report after being specifically asked.

In response to questions submitted by Iran International on January 17, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, “We have the means to deliver specific and firm messages to Iran when it is in America’s interest to do so.”

Iran International had asked the DoS that according to information it obtained, US Special Representative for Iran Robert Malley met with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Saeed Iravani, “at least three times in the last two months.”

In its response, the DoS did not deny or confirm Malley’s possible meetings with Tehran’s envoy but underlined that the US has its channels to communicate messages to the Iranian side.

However, on Thursday, Iran's mission to the United Nations announced, "it has not held any negotiations with any of the US officials."

"Iran's ambassador to the United Nations meets with various political and academic figures, but he has not had any negotiations with American officials," ISNA news agency quoted Iran’s mission as saying.

If Malley did meet Iravani face-to-face, it would be the first reported direct meeting between US and Iranian diplomats since the Biden administration assumed office and offered talks to revive the JCPOA. Iran has consistently refused direct talks with the United States.

The resolution demands Iranian authorities end the crackdown on popular protests that started last September after a 22-year-old woman was killed in hijab police custody.

It also demands that Europe should sanction the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and its president Ebrahim Raisi.

The issue of adding the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) to the list of Europe’s terrorist entities became a rallying point for the Iranian diaspora, which launched online campaigns and held a large protest in Strasbourg on January 16 to lobby the European Parliament for passing the resolution.

MEPs demand that all those responsible for human rights violation should face EU sanctions and the IRGC should be on the EU terrorist list.

The resolution is not binding on the European Council that defines the general political direction and priorities of the European Union andcan make final decisions on sanctions.

The European Parliament’s resolution urgesthe EU to expand its sanctions list to cover all individuals and entities responsible for human rights violations and their family members, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Ebrahim Raisi, Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri and all foundations (‘bonyads’) linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG).

It also calls on the Council and the member states to add the IRGC and its subordinate forces, including the paramilitary Basij militia and the Quds Force, to the EU terrorist list. Any country in which the IRGC deploys military, economic, or informational operations should sever and outlaw ties with this entity.

The IRGC played a major role in suppressing antigovernment protests in the past four months, overseeing several security agencies that have killed over 500 civilians, jailed over 20,000 people and inflicted lasting injuries on hundreds of people.

Reports, however, say that the European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is not in favor of sanctioning the IRGC, concerned that the Islamic Republic will not be forthcoming in nuclear talks with the West.

Negotiations that began in April 2021 to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, came to a deadlock in September. In the meantime, Tehran has supplied kamikaze drones to Russia, which are used in attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.

The Islamic Republic and its officials, extremely concerned about IRGC’s designation, have been warning Europe in recent days against “the consequences” of such a decision.

The resolution also calls on Tehran in “strongest terms” to stop the execution of detained protesters. So far, the government has hanged four young men after sham trials. It also urges “the authorities of the Islamic Republic to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all protesters sentenced to death and condemn the fact that criminal proceedings and the death penalty have been weaponized by the regime to stamp out dissent and to punish people for exercising their basic rights.”

The European Parliament also condemned Iran’s military assistance to Russia and its “transnational repression carried out by the authorities of the Islamic Republic, which includes espionage and assassinations, against the Iranian diaspora living in the EU. They call on the EU and the member states to protect those affected more robustly against such repression.”