Iranian Death Row Scientist Reproaches Swedish PM Over Prisoner Swap

On Tuesday, Mohammadi's lawyer, Mostafa Nili, revealed on the social network X that her conviction stemmed from her remarks shared from Evin Prison about sexual harassment of journalist Dina Ghalibaf, her open letter advocating the boycott of parliamentary elections, and her correspondence with the parliaments of Sweden and Norway.

Mohammadi's court session, held on June 8, was conducted in secret and without her presence in spite of her public appeal on May 18 for an open trial.

In a December message to the Norwegian Parliament, Mohammadi urged the world to support the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement and cease being mere spectators.

In March, she branded the Islamic Republic's parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections a sham, calling on Iranians to boycott what she described as the "staged elections of the despotic religious regime".

On October 6, Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the second Iranian to receive the honor after Shirin Ebadi in 2003.

The group says it aims to strengthen efforts against “institutionalized regimes of systematic oppression and domination imposed on the grounds of gender.”

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said on Tuesday.“Generations upon generations of women and girls, the world over, have been subjected to institutionalized and systematic violence, domination and oppression. Incalculable numbers have been killed, with many more denied dignity, freedom, and equality in their daily lives."

The concept of gender apartheid emerged from Afghan women's human rights defenders and allies in response to the Taliban's suppression of women's rights in the 1990s.

The impact of the Iranian movement joining the campaign was especially pronounced after Iranian women protested against compulsory hijab laws which have seen brutal crackdowns by morality police, including the deaths of women including Mahsa Amini. Her death in September 2022 led to months-long nationwide demonstrations during which time, over 550 protesters were killed, including many minors.

Now, Afghan and Iranian activists have joined forces to elevate gender apartheid to a recognized crime comparable to racial apartheid.

Women such as Iranian-American dissident activist Masih Alinejad, have played a pivotal role in amplifying and broadening the campaign's reach.She has been the subject of multiple assassination attempts abroad by the regime as it continues to target dissidents both at home and on foreign soil.

“The hijab became a tool in the hands of the Islamic Republic to control the whole society through women. The mullahs are writing their ideologies on our bodies,” Alinejad told American philosopher Sam Harris in his podcast episode titled Gender Apartheid and the Future of Iran.

In 2021, the US Department of Justice pressed conspiracy charges against Iranian agents for their foiled attempt to abduct Alinejad in New York and transport her to Iran. Subsequently, in 2023, additional charges were filed by the Justice Department regarding a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by the Iranian regime targeting her.

In 2023, TIME named Alinejad one of the Women of the Year, and she was elected President of the World Liberty Congress.

"In the 21st century, gender apartheid remains absent from international legal frameworks," remarked Alinejad at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit last month. "Women from Afghanistan and Iran implore world leaders to expand the definition of apartheid to encompass gender discrimination."

According to the 2023 Global Gender Gap Report by the Global Economic Forum, Iran ranks 143rd among 146 countries regarding gender equality.

"The bottom of both regional and global rankings feature Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan," noted the report.

The polls aim not only to gauge the electability of individual candidates but also to provide meaningful forecasts of voter turnout, which can significantly impact the chances of various candidates.

However, some pollsters and political commentators report that certain officials have instructed them to withhold their information, fearing that discrepancies between their predictions and the actual results could lead to social disturbances. Following the post-election unrest in 2009, the Iranian government appears to be wary of the possibility of post-election upheavals.

On the other hand, managers of government-owned polling agencies refrain from publicizing their data, fearing that their activity could annoy future government officials after the election. It is customary in Iran for new presidents, cabinet ministers, and other officials to replace many officeholders with trusted individuals. Polling agency managers do not want to be among those dismissed on the first day of the new administration.

Some government offices, however, choose to make their findings public for various reasons. This year, the Culture, Art, and Communications Research Center's Polling Agency is one such example. It is the first government center to publish the results of a study conducted between June 11 and June 13. The Culture Ministry-affiliated center states that the study was conducted through nationwide telephone interviews but does not disclose the number of individuals interviewed. The results of this poll have been quoted by several well-known and traceable social media users.

The study's first finding estimates voter turnout for the election to be between 51 and 56 percent. Most commentators, including those from other polling agencies, have similarly predicted a turnout of around 50 percent, following the Guardian Council's approval of one 'reformist' candidate. However, pessimistic observers insist that despite Masoud Pezeshkian's candidacy, the turnout is likely to be closer to 40 percent.

The study says that some 62 percent of the voters willing to take part in the election have still not made up their mind about their favorite candidate. Based on the study, the other 40 percent votes are going to go to:

Saeed Jalili 36.7 percent

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf 30.4 percent

Massoud Pezeshkian 28.3 Percent

Alireza Zakani 01.7 Percent

Mostafa Pourmohammadi 01.4 Percent

Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh 01.4 Percent

However, according to estimates on social media, Pezeshkian is generally believed to be way ahead of Jalili. On the other hand, the undecided voters' say if they ever decide to vote. They will vote for:

Massoud Pezeshkian 15.8 Percent

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf 12.0 percent

Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh 03.8 Percent

Saeed Jalili 3.0 percent

Alireza Zakan i0.8 Percent

Mostafa Pourmohammadi 0.0 Percent

The situation could have changed over the past five days, but that remains to be seen after similar poll results come out.

In the meantime, an unscientific poll conducted on a popular Telegram page, which has over 23,000 subscribers, among around 6000 voters who had voted for pragmatist candidate Hassan Rouhani in 2017, returned the following results about their voting pattern in the 2021 and 2024 presidential elections:

Did not vote in 2021 but will vote in 202410 percent

Voted in 2021 and will vote in June 202410 percent

Did not vote in 2021 and will not vote in 202456 percent

Voted in 2021 but will not vote in 202411 percent

Still undecided 13 percent

The account pointed out that based on voter comments not included in this study, Pezeshkian is far less popular than Abdolnaser Hemmati, a reformist candidate in 2021.

These were the only two polls with known sources. Other polls, with unidentified origins, appear to be part of some candidates' campaigns and likely contain more opinion and advocacy than factual data.

In a post on his X account on Tuesday, Abram Paley said he's returned from Brazil where he had "constructive meetings with officials on our concerns about the destabilizing activities of Iran and its proxies in the region, sanctions enforcement, CT cooperation and our shared nonproliferation goals."

The Islamic Republic’s activities in the Americas have stirred concerns especially after its warships docked in Brazil last year, making Iran’s presence a little too close for comfort to the Biden administration.

With Brazil refusing to join the US in sanctioning Iran, dating back to 2010, options are running out as to how one of the world’s biggest powers, can fight the threat of Iran looming closer to its shores with a lack of legal mechanisms in place.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government was urged by the Biden administration to send the Iranian warships -- IRIS Makran and IRIS Dena -- away in January 2023, but it finally bowed to Tehran, allowing them to dock in February.

The presence of the Islamic Republic in Latin America has been a growing concern for the US in recent years with several Congressional reports presented in different Senate and House committees detailing Iran’s influence in the region.

The mass circulation German tabloid Bild on Sunday reported that it obtained “confidential files" of the Iranian atomic program.

The Bild wrote “As the documents show, representatives of the UN agency met with Javad Karimi-Sabet in Vienna in early 2022…. Karimi-Sabet has been on a US sanctions list since 2020 and is considered one of the masterminds in the development of the Iranian atomic bomb. According to internal emails, the IAEA paid Karimi at the meeting. Since a bank transfer was not possible due to the sanctions, the scientist was paid the money in cash.”

Karimi-Sabet is the vice chairman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

The IAEA told the Bild that US sanctions are not applicable to its work and did not deny the payment.

“As part of the United Nations (UN) system, the IAEA follows the UN sanctions regulations and does not implement national sanctions regulations, “noted the IAEA.

When asked about the Bild story, which was headlined “Did the UN help the mullahs build the atomic bomb?, David Albright, one of the world’s leading experts on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s illicit nuclear program, told Iran International “I do not agree with the claim that the IAEA is contributing to Iran's nuclear weapons program. Nonetheless, there are many issues with the IAEA's technical support programs when it comes to states violating their safeguards agreements in fact or by intention. Today, Iran should not be benefiting from IAEA technical support programs.”

Albright, physicist and founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, D.C., added “The visit by Karimi is deeply troubling because of his role in establishing Iran's centrifuge program. See photo from our website from earlier days; In this picture from 2008, President Ahmadinejad holds a carbon fiber rotor tube; visible is also a bellows. Karimi is standing to the left of Ahmadinejad, who was touring Natanz. Karimi is likely still working on centrifuges, based on some of his recent publications. “

Albright added Karimi-Sabet “worked in other sensitive nuclear areas, not just on centrifuges.”

The Bild reported that the confidential documents revealed that the IAEA launched funding programs for Iranian nuclear science. The IAEA said, according to Bild’s information, that project “IRA2018001” was coordinated with the Iranians in 2019, with the aim of “Improving the skills and knowledge of scientists and improving the hardware and software infrastructure, which contribute to improving the operation and use of research reactors.”

The paper added “The IAEA also financed numerous training programs for scientists from Tehran in Russia…selected experts were sometimes under the wing of Putin's Rosatom for weeks - the state authority is also responsible for the civil and military use of nuclear energy.”

An IAEA spokesman confirmed the training to the Bild; "The IAEA's Technical Cooperation (TC) program supports member states in (...) development and management of nuclear knowledge." The IAEA added that it ensured that the Iranian participants did not obtain knowledge about nuclear weapons during the training.

Ukraine’s president has long suspected that the quid pro quo between Iran and Russia entailed Tehran receiving support for its atomic weapons program from Moscow in exchange for providing lethal drones to Russia in its illegal war to conquer the Ukraine.

Separately but related, in March, 2023 Fox News Digital reported that the clerical regime in Tehran allegedly secured secret deals with Russia to guarantee deliveries of uranium.

According to the Fox News article, Putin agreed to return enriched uranium that it received from Iran if a prospective nuclear deal collapses. According to the intelligence officials cited in the Fox report, the Iranians exploited the opportunity during Putin’s pressing need for drones and demanded a "nuclear guarantee" that would enable Iran "to quickly restore its uranium stock to the quantity and enrichment levels it had maintained before the resumption of the agreement."