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1. Iran's Next Step Raises Specter of War for Top Atomic Lawyer  Bloomberg
2. Iran to Tightly Restrict Inspectors' Access if U.S. Sanctions Not Lifted  The Wall Street Journal
3. Iran to curb cooperation with nuclear watchdog inspectors  Al Jazeera English
4. Iran's Khamenei demands 'action' from Biden to revive nuclear deal  Reuters
5. Iran's uranium metal production is 'most serious nuclear step' to date, but deal can still be saved  CNBC
6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Iran's Next Step Raises Specter of War for Top Atomic Lawyer - Bloomberg

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) The Iranian womens Alpine skiing team flew on Wednesday to Italy for the world championships in Cortina dAmpezzo without their coach, whose husband has barred her from leaving the country, Iranian media reported.

The reports by the semi-official ISNA news agency and the pro-reform Shargh daily did not provide any details as to why Samira Zargaris husband had not allowed her to leave. Irans ski federation also did not offer any information.

Under Iranian law, husbands can stop their wives from traveling outside of the country.

Zargar is not the first married athlete whose husband prevented her from leaving Iran. In 2015, soccer player Niloufar Ardalan missed the Asian Cup tournament in futsal an indoor version of soccer after her husband confiscated her passport in a domestic dispute.

Womens sports largely disappeared from Iran after the countrys 1979 Islamic Revolution. Over time, however, womens sports gained in popularity, especially soccer. Social customs still come into the game though, as the countrys soccer team plays its games with players hair covered by traditional headscarves, or hijabs.

Two Islamic countries make the headscarf mandatory for women in public Iran and Saudi Arabia. FIFA overturned a yearlong ban against players wearing hijabs in 2012.

Four Iranian skiers are entered for the womens giant slalom race on Thursday at the world championships in Cortina dAmpezzo: Atefeh Ahmadi, Sadaf Savehshemshaki, Forough Abbasi and Marjan Kalhor.

They are part of a 99-skier field for a race in which the favorites are Marta Bassino and Federica Brignone of host Italy, Petra Vlhova of Slovakia and Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States.

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Husband of Irans ski coach bars her from leaving country - Home of the Olympic Channel

The Iranian authorities flogging of Hadi Rostami, an inmate at Urumieh prison in West Azerbaijan province, 60 times on 14 February 2021 is a gruesome reminder of the cruelty of Irans seriously flawed justice system, said Amnesty International, calling on the authorities to immediately quash his conviction and amputation sentence and provide him with the urgent medical care he needs.

A criminal court in West Azerbaijan province convicted Hadi Rostami of robbery in November 2019 following a grossly unfair trial marred by torture-tainted confessions and sentenced him to having four of his fingers amputated. In late 2020, while in prison, he was sentenced to 60 lashes and eight months imprisonment for disrupting prison order. This was in relation to his peaceful protest- including in the form of hunger strikes - against his inhumane prison conditions and repeated threats over the past two months that his amputation sentence would be implemented imminently. He is currently suffering serious health complications resulting from two recent suicide attempts.

The cruel lashing of an ailing, suicidal prisoner is another reminder of the inhumanity of Irans criminal justice system, which legalizes torture and other ill-treatment. The Iranian authorities are committing torture by leaving Hadi Rostami in constant fear of amputation and deliberately denying him urgently needed medical care for complications resulting from his recent suicide attempts, said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty Internationals Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

We call on the Iranian authorities to quash Hadi Rostamis conviction and amputation sentence immediately and grant him a fair retrial without resorting to corporal punishments. They must also immediately provide him with the specialized physical and mental health care that he requires outside prison.

The cruel lashing of an ailing, suicidal prisoner is another reminder of the inhumanity of Irans criminal justice system, which legalizes torture and other ill-treatment.

In recent months, prison, intelligence and prosecution officials in Urumieh prison have summoned Hadi Rostami on numerous occasions, blaming him for the media attention on the cases of men in the prison who are at risk of amputation, and threatening that his amputation sentence would be carried out imminently.

All of this has taken a severe toll on his mental health leading him to attempt suicide twice most recently by swallowing pieces of broken glass on 18 January 2021.

According to information obtained by Amnesty International from an informed source, he remains in severe pain and continues to suffer internal bleeding and vomit blood because there are still pieces of broken glass in hisdigestive system. The prison and prosecution authorities are refusing to authorize his transfer to a medical facility outside of prison to receive the specialized medical treatment he needs. Despite contemplating self-mutilation and having suicidal thoughts, he is also not receiving any mental health care.

Medical services offered in Irans prison clinics are limited to basic forms of care such as measuring blood pressure, administering injections, providing intravenous fluids and prescribing medication. Prisoners who require further treatment have to be transferred to medical facilities outside of prison to receive it.

We call on the Iranian authorities to immediately stop such shocking acts of cruelty and mutilation and treat all prisoners with human dignity. The international community must urgently pressure the authorities to respect human rights, and to refrain from carrying out the amputation sentences of Hadi Rostami and others in Urumieh prison. The world must condemn, in the strongest terms, the ongoing use of corporal punishments by the Iranian authorities, said Diana Eltahawy.

Background

In September 2020, Amnesty International warned that Irans Supreme Court had upheld amputation sentences against four men, including Hadi Rostami, who had been convicted of robbery following unfair trials. In December 2020, the organization published information indicating that prosecution and prison authorities were preparing to bring a guillotine to Urumieh prison to carry out the amputation sentences of up to six men, but it appears that this has not occurred thus far. The six men at risk are Hadi Rostami, Mehdi Sharfian, Mehdi Shahivand, Kasra Karami, Shahab Teimouri Ayeneh, and Mehrdad Teimouri Ayeneh.

Cruel and inhumane punishments such as flogging and amputation constitute torture, which is a crime under international law and prohibited under Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a state party.

According to information gathered by Abdorrahman BoroumandCenter, from 2000 to 2020, the Iranian authorities amputated the fingers and/or toes of at least 129 individuals. This means that, on average, the authorities have amputated the fingers and/or toes of at least one person every two months.

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Iran: Suicidal inmate subjected to 60 lashes and at risk of amputation - Amnesty International

Tue, Feb 16, 2021

IranSourcebyFatemeh Aman

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif meets with Taliban political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Tehran, Iran January 31, 2021. Wana via pool/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY

It could not have been a more striking picture: a Taliban delegation visiting Tehran in late January and being received by senior Iranian officials. They reportedly discussed relations between both countries, the situation of the Afghan migrants in Iran, and the current political and security situation of Afghanistan and the region.

The presence of a Taliban delegation in Iran was shocking to many. However, Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, stated that the Afghan government was notified in advance of the trip. Afghanistans foreign ministry confirmed that Tehran had in fact sought the Afghan governments views in advance. The official Afghan statement went on to say, Iran wants to make sure that a post-conflict Afghanistan will not be a safe haven for terrorist groups [but] will remain a center of regional and international cooperation.

This was not the first time that Taliban leaders had visited Iran. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, director of the Talibans diplomatic office in Qatar, met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran in November 2019. It was a trip aimed at helping Afghan peace and security.

According to Zarif, who met with the Taliban delegation on January 31, political decisions cannot be made in a vacuum and an inclusive government must be formed in a participatory process and needs to consider all fundamental structures, institutions, and laws, such as the constitution.

Inviting the Taliban to Tehran: A hard sell for Iranian leaders

Since 1996, when the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, Iranian hardliners have often been called Irans Taliban. In fact, during the 2009 post-election protests known as the Green Movement, Iranian demonstrators chanted, Down with the Taliban, in Kabul or Tehran. Fast forward twelve years later and Iranian authorities had to justify the actual presence of the Taliban delegation in Tehran.

The trip did not sit well in Afghanistan either. The Afghan public does not react well to the perception that their countrys neighbors support the Taliban, which has been responsible for the deaths of countless journalists, students, and other civilians.

Now the Iranian government must sell the importance of Irans involvement in the Afghan peace process and create a more acceptable image of the Taliban in order to portray them as a serious negotiating partner.

Its attempts so far have not been very successful. On January 27, a tweet by Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Irans Supreme National Security Council, raised an eyebrow among Afghan officials. Shamkhani tweeted that: In todays meeting with the Taliban political delegation: I found the leaders of this group determined to fight the United States. The Iranian Labor News Agency also quoted Shamkhani as saying: Iran will not recognize any group aiming at coming to power through war, emphasizing the necessity of participation of all ethnicities in determining the fate of Afghanistan through an absolutely peaceful process.

The damage was done, however. Iranian and Afghan social media users pointed out the Talibans previous statement [which contradicted Shamkhanis] that the group is in daily touch with American military. Meanwhile, Yasin Zia, Chief of the General Staff of the Afghanistan National Army, criticized Shamkhani on January 28, saying that Unfortunately, your understanding of the ongoing war in Afghanistan is incorrect. The Taliban is not fighting the Americans but the Afghan people. We act decisively against any group of enemies of the Afghan people.

Iran has also tried to offer its services as a potential middleman. On February 2, Special Representative of Irans foreign ministry, Mohammad Ebrahim Taherian, met with Afghan officialsincluding head of the High Council of National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah and Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmarin Kabul, in what appeared to be an attempt to mediate between the Taliban and the Afghan government. Abdullah praised Irans position toward Afghanistans peace process and its role in securing peace.

Irans changing view of the Taliban

The Iranian government has not always been on cordial terms with the Taliban. In 1998, Iran almost went to war with Taliban-led Afghanistan, when the Taliban murdered nine Iraniansone journalist and eight diplomatsat the Iranian consulate in Mazar-e Sharif. After the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, Iran cooperated fully with the US and was highly active in the post-Taliban formation of the Afghan government. It mediated between Afghan warlords who seemed irreconcilable to each other and brought them to the reconstruction conference in Bonn. Iran, the country that for many years hosted various Afghan warlords, expelled Gulbuddin Hekmatyar due to his hostility toward the US.

In January 2002, things changed, however. President George W. Bush branded Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, as the axis of evil in his State of the Union address. That may have been the genesis of Irans contact with the Taliban. Fearing a possible attack from the US via Afghanistan, Iran provided the Taliban with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to assist its insurgent campaign against the US occupation. Iran came to view the Taliban as a way to weaken the Americans but did not support the group at the expense of Afghan stability.

Then came the emergence of the Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K) in 2015, a group many times more brutal and violent than the Taliban. As Iran lost confidence in the Afghan governments ability to defeat IS-K, it turned to the Taliban. High level contacts between Iran and the Taliban ensued. For example, former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was killed on May 21, 2016 by a US drone attack while Mansour was returning to Pakistan after a long stay in Iran. Later, these contacts became public, with Tehran stating that the Afghan government was always notified of meetings between Taliban and Iranian officials. Interestingly, on December 26, 2018, Shamkhani justified the meetings by describing the threat of the IS-K presence in Afghanistan as serious.

Current Taliban-Iran ties

At this point, neither the US nor the government of Afghanistan can deal with the Taliban alone, as neither has enough leverage. At the same time, it is in the interest of the entire region that Afghanistan not become a haven for terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. A regional solution may be a lasting one that prevents Afghanistan from descending into chaos. Iran would be an essential player in such a project and it would be a political and security win for Tehran if it successfully mediates between the Taliban and the Afghan government. However, it is imperative that the Afghan government remain actively involved and does not feel excluded from Iranian efforts.

The truth is that the Afghan government, despite all its shortcomings, has been elected by the Afghan people. It has made achievements in areas such as womens rights and the rights of minorities that should not be sacrificed, and that, as Abdullah promised, should be reflected in the peace process.

Meanwhile, if the Taliban truly desires to be part of the Afghan governing structure, it must be willing to accept that times have changed since they came to power in 1996. Taliban leaders need to understand that to govern Afghanistan they need to win the Afghan peoples hearts and minds and understand that violent tactics will only increase their unpopularity.

The Taliban have frequently denied responsibility for the increase of violent attacks in Afghanistan over the past several months. However, the Afghan public does not believe their denials. The Taliban is not a unified group with a centralized leadership. There are several different factions within the organization, perhaps with varying understandings of power-sharing. There may be spoilers, both within the Taliban and foreign insurgentssuch as IS-Kwho oppose the peace talks. The Taliban, as a negotiating partner, needs to create visible and verifiable distance from these spoilers.

As the Afghanistan Study Groups February report stated, Iran does not want to see the return of a Taliban regime in Kabul. Iran cannot possibly expect to turn the Taliban into its proxy in the case that Afghanistan descends into civil war and there is a genuine ideological rift between Iran and the Taliban. Moreover, it is in Tehrans interests to have a stable Afghanistan as a neighbor.

Regional cooperation might be the only solution to reach a lasting peace for Afghanistan and, in that regard, Iran may be able to help.

Fatemeh Aman is a non-resident senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. She has written on Iranian, Afghan, and broader Middle Eastern affairs for over 20 years.

Thu, Feb 11, 2021

The de-listing of Iranian economic entities that were designated as terrorist entities could spark a broader debate on the overarching US approach to Iranian support for regional armed factions.

IranSourcebyKenneth Katzman

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Iran-Taliban growing ties: What's different this time? - Atlantic Council

A blame game has intensified in Iran more than two months after the assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist and the purported mastermind of an alleged atomic-weapons effort, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

The 59-year-old Fakhrizadeh was killed on a highway outside the Iranian capital in broad daylight in November in what was regarded as a major security failure.

Tehran has blamed the attack on Israel but also acknowledged the likely role of Iranian infiltrators in the killing of Fakhrizadeh, who officials say was also a deputy defense minister.

Israel, which is suspected of a decade-long series of assassinations of at least four other Iranian nuclear scientists, has not commented.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmud Alavi said in a televised interview last week that a member of the armed forces made the initial preparations for the attack in Absard, some 60 kilometers from Tehran.

But the armed forces hit back, saying the unnamed individual had never officially joined its ranks, since he was fired during training in 2014.

Political Rivalries

The public debate over the incident underscores political rivalries within the Iranian establishment, which has sought to project unity over the nuclear program and recent moves aimed at pressuring the United States to remove sanctions imposed under U.S. ex-President Donald Trump.

Iran's covert and publicly declared nuclear activities have been at the center of a decades-long international dispute over what many Western governments and Israel say is a hidden weapons program.

Pressure has ratcheted up on both sides since Trump withdrew nearly three years ago from a 2015 landmark nuclear deal that offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for Tehran abstaining from sensitive work like highly enriching uranium, among other things.

Speaking to Iranian state-controlled television on February 8, Alavi said it was impossible for his ministry to also keep intelligence watch over the "armed forces."

While he did not specify any part of the military, the widely feared intelligence branch of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has a history of arrests of dual nationals, academics, environmentalists, and others suspected of disloyalty.

Defending his ministry's actions in the context of the assassination, Alavi said his agents had warned five days before the attack that an "enemy" was planning to kill Fakhrizadeh "at this location," adding that "only the time was not clear."

"Fakhrizadeh was a member of the armed forces," Alavi said, "[and] the individual who made the first preparations for the terror act was a member of the armed forces. We can't to do intelligence work in the sphere of the armed forces."

Separately, Alavi told the semiofficial ISNA news agency that the individual, whom he described as "the main element" who prepared the killing, had been fired from the armed forces and left the country before the November 27 assassination.

He didn't say which branch of the armed forces -- which includes the IRGC, the army, and certain kinds of law enforcement -- the individual had been involved in.

The IRGC's Ansar al-Mahdi division is reportedly in charge of protecting key state figures as well as important sites.

In a statement issued on February 16, the armed forces said that the individual mentioned by Alavi had been discharged six years ago during training due to "moral problems and drug addiction."

The statement said the suspect had been completely cut off from the armed forces and thus "his security crime, like [those of] other members of society, falls within the scope of the mission and responsibilities of the Ministry of Intelligence."

The statement added that Alavi should have been more careful in his live comments so as not to provide any pretext to "the criminal enemies of the establishment, such as the United States and [Israel]" while safeguarding "the important position" of his ministry and "the dignity" of the armed forces.

In a separate statement, the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency criticized Alavi's comments and said that even if all of his claims were true, he could have ordered the Intelligence Ministry to monitor the site of the planned assassination "until the dust settled."

"Wasn't Fakhrizadeh important enough for Alavi to issue such an order?" the hard-line Tasnim asked. It suggested Alavi's comments could instill a sense of state weakness instead of promoting security.

Rohani Under Fire

Hard-liners have used Fakhrizadeh's assassination to attack President Hassan Rohani and his cabinet. Some have alleged that the government had given the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), access to Fakhrizadeh, a claim that was denied within the government.

Shortly after the attack, government spokesman Al Rabiei defended the Intelligence Ministry, saying it had provided information about the target and likely location of the attack to "relevant security bodies."

Without saying names, Rabiei said that following security protocols could have prevented "the crime."

IRGC officials have said that Fakhrizadeh was killed by a "satellite-controlled" machine gun mounted on a pickup truck that later exploded, and that there were no assassins on the ground.

The British weekly Jewish Chronicle reported last week, citing intelligence sources, that Fakhrizadeh was killed by a one-ton automated gun that was smuggled into Iran piece by piece by the Israeli spy agency Mossad.

The Jewish Chronicle did not provide details of its sources or any evidence to back its report.

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Blame Game Intensifies Over Iranian Accomplice To Assassination Of Top Nuclear Scientist - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty