Iran's Rouhani in Europe in July to seek backing for nuclear deal

Vienna (AFP) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will visit Austria and Switzerland next month as part of a campaign by Tehran to secure continued European backing for the 2015 nuclear accord. The future of the landmark deal was thrown into doubt when President Donald Trump announced last month that the United States would withdraw and reimpose sanctions that would hit international businesses operating in Iran.

The other parties to the agreement – Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia – have vowed to stay in the accord but their companies risk huge penalties if they keep doing business in the Islamic republic.

Iran has already warned it is ready to resume uranium enrichment to 20 percent "within days" if the deal falls apart and warned Europe that time was running out. The visits were announced Monday by the presidencies of both European countries.

Rouhani will visit Switzerland on July 2-3 and then head on July 4 to Vienna – home of the UN nuclear watchdog the IAEA which monitors Iran's compliance with the accord. Relations between Tehran and Bern, which represents Iran's interests in the United States, have been deepening in recent years, and Rouhani will be welcomed with full military honours, a statement from the Swiss presidency said.

Vienna played host to marathon talks that began in June 2013 and led to the signing in July 2015 of the deal aimed at preventing Iran from building an atomic bomb.

https:// www.yahoo.com/news/irans-rouhani-europe-july-seek-backing-nuclear-deal-102440956.html

Iran Executes Sufi Man Convicted Of Killing 3 Police Officers In Clashes

Iranian authorities have executed a man convicted of killing three police officers during clashes involving members of a Sufi order, despite calls to stop his execution. The official website of Iran's judiciary said Mohammad Reza Salas was hanged early on June 18.

"We are shocked and saddened to announce that Mohammad Salas was executed this morning," Amnesty International said on Twitter.

The 51-year-old was convicted and sentenced to death in March following what the London-based rights watchdog described as a "grossly unfair trial."

"In their haste to do justice, the authorities have trampled all over this man's rights," Philip Luther, Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at ‎Amnesty, said in a June 17 statement.

Luther cited Mohammad Reza Salas's denial of access to a lawyer before and during his trial and the dismissal of "key defense witnesses who can testify that he was already in detention when the three policemen were killed."

During the court hearings, Salas testified that he did not kill the police officers intentionally, according to local media.

Three officers were left dead after they were run over by a bus during battles between security forces and followers of one of Iran's largest Sufi orders in Tehran in February.

Followers of the Nemattolah Gonabadi order, known as dervishes, were protesting the arrest of members of the sect, as well as rumors that their 90-year-old leader would soon be detained by police, despite assurances by the authorities that they had no such intention.

Two members of the paramilitary Basij force were also killed in the skirmishes, authorities said. Some 300 dervishes were reportedly arrested following the violence.

Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam, is not illegal in Iran but rights groups accuse the Iranian government of harassment and discrimination against their followers, including the Gonabadis, one of the largest Sufi sects.

Rights groups have repeatedly called on Iran, one of the world's leading executioners, to abolish the death penalty.

Amnesty International said in a report published in April that 507 people were executed in the country last year – a 10-percent decline compared to the previous year.

http:// www.payvand.com/news/18/jun/1084.html

Nutshell analysis!

>>1809497

Nutshell analysis

I hope you understand that as a compliment:)

Iran nuclear chief vows full protection of national interests at Oslo Forum

Iran nuclear chief vows full protection of national interests at Oslo Forum

Press TV- The Iranian nuclear chief says he will defend the country’s national interests “in the best way” during the upcoming Oslo Forum.

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi made the remarks on Monday upon his arrival in Norway to participate in the 16th edition of the Oslo Forum. He said he would express Iran’s explicit stance on the multilateral nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, after the United States’ move to withdraw from it. “Certainly, the JCPOA will be one the most important issues which will be discussed and we will declare Iran’s positions explicitly and transparently,” Salehi said.

US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement, which was reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China – plus Germany. Trump also said he would reinstate US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose “the highest level” of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.

Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran. Since the US president pulled Washington out of the historic nuclear deal, European countries have been scrambling to ensure that Iran gets enough economic benefits to persuade it to stay in the deal. The remaining parties have vowed to stay in the accord.

Salehi further noted that he would hold meetings with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the Norwegian prime minister and foreign minister on the sidelines of the Oslo Forum. The AEOI chief said he would also exchange views with political experts from different countries and a number of other participants at the forum on the future of the nuclear accord after the US exit.

More than 100 of the world’s most prominent armed conflict mediators, peace process actors, high-level decision-makers and eminent thinkers will gather in Oslo on June 19-20 at the 16th edition of the Oslo Forum. Co-hosted jointly by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), the forum brings together practitioners and experts for informal discussions to reflect on current peacemaking trends and challenges.

The overarching theme of the 2018 Forum will be ‘The End of Big Peace? Opportunities for Mediation’. Participants will explore the challenges posed to peacemakers by the increasingly atomized and internationalized nature of ongoing conflicts.

https:// theiranproject.com/blog/2018/06/18/iran-nuclear-chief-vows-full-protection-of-national-interests-at-oslo-forum/

Iranians to Hold Annual Gathering in Paris Calling for Regime Change in Iran

The annual grand gathering of the Iranians will take place on June 30, 2018 at the Villepinte Exposition center north of Paris – France.

This year's gathering will be held circumstances of unceasing nationwide protests and uprising of the people from all walks of life and all segments of society against the religious tyranny ruling Iran and demanding regime change.

This gathering will express solidarity with the Iranian people’s long quest for freedom and democracy, and support for the democratic alternative to the current dictatorship in Iran.

https:// www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/iran-resistance/24715-iranians-hold-annual-gathering-calling-for-democratic-change-in-paris

On June 30, the World Will See an Alternative Iran

What’s often missing in discussions of Western policy on Iran is the role of the Iranian people and their desires. A comprehensive policy must before all else take into consideration events on the ground in Iran or else it would yet again fail to address one of the most crucial foreign policy issues of recent times. The wave of protests which started at the end of last year and continued through the New Year shook not only the regime in power but the entire world. The people of Iran poured onto the streets across the country rejecting the clerical regime in its entirety. Chants of “death to Khamenei and Rouhani” and “reformists, hardliners, the game is over” left no doubt that the people of Iran want regime change and nothing short of that. The people called for a republic and a free Iran. To the surprise of many Iran experts and governments in the West, the core of the people on the streets of over 140 cities were the same sector of the society which were wrongly thought to be the power base of the clerical regime. Indeed, the entire nation is demanding regime change.'''

On June 30, 2018 Iranians from across the world, free from the yoke of the mullahs, will join in Paris, in an extraordinary event “Free Iran; The Alternative.” Tens of thousands are expected to participate in the gathering. Each Iranian attending the rally represents dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of brave Iranians inside the country who are protesting for regime change. The event has already been publicized inside Iran through social media, and messages of support for the event are coming from civil society. The people of Iran see the June 30 event as the echo of their own cry for freedom.

The annual gathering of Iranians in previous years had drawn some 100,000 participants. However, this year’s event, given the domestic situation and the international developments, is unique. The event heralds the dawn of freedom for the people of Iran and an end to the nightmare of spread of Islamic fundamentalism and instability in the region.

This event is also unique because in the midst of partisanship on both sides of the Atlantic, dignitaries, politicians and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle will join each other to support the Iranian people in their dream and desire for a free and democratic Iran. Americans and Europeans, Democrats and Republicans, Conservatives and Christian Democrats as well as Social Democrats and Socialists will address the rally along with representatives of Iranian communities.

Last year more than 500 international dignitaries attended the gathering, including former Prime Ministers, government officials, and Members of Parliament. They included the former French Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard Kouchner; the former President of Germany’s Bundestag Rita Suessmuth; and the former UK Minister of Northern Ireland from Europe as well as Ambassador John Bolton, Senator Joe Lieberman, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Gov. Ed Rendell, and former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich from America.

The Free Iran gathering of June 30, 2018 will present to the world an alternative to the mullahs’ regime for a future free and democratic Iran.

https:// www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/iran-resistance/24749-on-june-30-the-world-will-see-an-alternative-iran

Iran Mullahs feel more international pressure

Iran opposition convention causing tensions for regime.

The foreign policy apparatus must place its official protest to French foreign policy officials and use all its capacity to make this measure by France costly for them,” the state-run Siyasat-e Ruz daily wrote alongside publishing a large image of this convention in 2017. Such a text can be considered a direct threat to France. This proves to the world that when the mullahs have no solutions from within, there is a democratic alternative with half a century of experience and support inside the country and abroad. In this gathering Tehran is witnessing a ready force flexing its muscles and enjoying growing popularity. This is the message causing concerns for the mullahs regarding this convention.

Jordan won’t name an ambassador to Iran

A high-ranking Jordanian source told Al Arabiya English on Friday that Jordan transferred its ambassador Abdullah Abu Rumman from Iran to the Jordanian Foreign Ministry headquarters in Amman based on a decision by the Jordanian cabinet. “There is no intention to name another Jordanian envoy in Tehran at the time,” the source told Al Arabiya English. ALSO READ: King Salman’s decisive initiative to salvage Jordan from its economic woes. Commenting on the decision’s circumstances, the source reiterated: “Jordan’s fixed position from Iranian policies which include interfering in the affairs of the region’s countries,” and voiced Jordan’s concern over “the security of the region’s countries particularly of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.”Diplomats said Jordan’s decision comes according to Jordan’s orientation “to evaluate its relations with Iran during this phase in the light of the givens and developments related to interferences in the security of the region’s countries.”

Shanghai Cooperation Organization Rejects Iran Regime’s Membership Request

When Russia with such a power and influence is unwilling to upgrade its relations with the Iranian regime for fear of endangering its ties with the West, then it’s quite natural that other SCO member states are all the more unwilling to do so. Moreover, it’s a reality that Russia can’t take the West’s place, neither economically, nor politically.State media’s stances on Russia’s policies and its abandoning the regime in crucial moment points to the fact that regime’s so-called ‘look east’ policy is not going to bear any fruits. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) turned down regime’s membership application for the 12th consecutive year. This is while regime’s papers had earlier reported that the approval of regime’s membership request seemed to be certain this year. “Iran’s membership in the SCO has been backed by other members. According to Russia’s Sputnik, Russian president Vladimir Putin has said in his meeting with Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani that Russia welcomes Iran’s full membership in the SCO,” writes state-run Javan newspaper on June 11, 2018.

World Should Listen to the Real Voices From Iran

Many experts believe that the Iranian regime is weaker than ever since 39 years and suggest that it is due to a variety of issues among them President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal. By having a closer look at what is happening on the Iranian streets across the country, one realises that the regime in Tehran is facing a more serious problem, which threatens the theocracy’s existence. In her speech to the gathering last year, the NCRI president-elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, said “the regime is besieged by the poor and unemployed youths who additionally want regime change”. Indeed, one year later, the world witnessed Mrs. Rajavi’s words translate into the nationwide protests. It is an evident fact that the theocracy has no future in Iran. Consequently, it is crucial for the West, and especially the European countries, to listen to the real voices coming from Iran, which demand democratic change.

Today, the entire clerical dictatorship is challenged by mass strikes and sporadic popular demonstrations from almost all sectors of the Iranian society.

https:// iranfreedom.org/en/2018/06/17/iran/