Iran International
Iran’s nuclear chief says the country is adhering to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) agreements, but is “in the process of reducing its nuclear obligations from the 2015 agreement."
Organized by the New York-based nonprofit, Human Rights Foundation, the three-day event brings together a diverse array of human rights defenders and civil activists from across the globe with this year’s theme being “reclaiming democracy”.
Since its inception in 2009, the OFF has become a global platform for human rights advocates worldwide to share their efforts in challenging repression, advocating against injustice, and promoting liberal democracy.
Speakers this year include the likes of Venezuelan human rights activist, Olga González, Russian politician and opposition figure, Anastasia Shevchenko, Ugandan journalist and digital activist, Agather Atuhaire, Co-founder of Twitter, and Jack Dorsey amongst other renowned authors and activists from various parts of the globe.
Among the speakers on Monday were Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad and activists Sima Moradbeigi, Kosar Eftekhrai, and Zaniar Tondro — three protestors who were injured during Iran’s nationwide Woman Life Freedom uprising in 2022 sparked by the killing of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini in police custody.
The Iranian Struggle at Center Stage
Iran has been a focal point at the Oslo Freedom Forum for several years, reflecting the ongoing repression and human rights abuses in the country. This year, Masih Alinejad, accompanied by the three injured activists, brought the audience face-to-face with the brutal realities faced by protestors.
During her speech, Alinejad shared the stage with Moradbeigi, Eftekhari, and Tondro.
“I am here to ask you to pick a side… to call for action to your leaders, the leaders of democratic countries, the policymakers of the free world whether they want to stand with the killers or the freedom fighters… so hear their stories and make your decision…whether you want to be united with the true people who say that there is one solution for peace in the middle east and the solution is revolution,” stated Alinejad.
Moradbeigi spoke about the sacrifices made by Iranian citizens, including leaving her young daughter at home to protest for freedom and a better future.
Eftekhrai detailed the Iranian regime's deliberate targeting of protestors' eyes, urging attendees to empathize with the pain of being blinded.
Speaking to Iran International following their speech, Kosari further shed light on Iranian protestors who lost both of their eyes as a result of being shot at by state security forces during the protests in Iran.
“People like Hossein Naderbeigi, Ali Taouneh, Matin Manani, and Farideh Salavatipour. These are some of the people who the Islamic Republic shot at and blinded both of their eyes for the crime of being a protestor. Despite this, we stand firm until the end…and we will tell the world that the Islamic Republic is a terrorist,” Kosari stated.
Tondro, who lost his right eye at 16 and still has eight pellet bullets in his head, shared his harrowing experience and mentioned his cousin's killing at the hands of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) by being shot at with a DShK machine gun, motivating him to represent the voices of Kolbars - Iranian cross-border porters.
Alinejad emphasized the strength and resilience of these young activists, calling on the international community to support their fight against the Islamic Republic's gender apartheid regime.
Artistic Expression as Resistance
Atena Farghadani, an Iranian cartoonist and human rights activist, work is also at OFF 2024. Her installation, "We Are Products of the Same Factory," celebrated the power of creative expression in the face of repression. Farghadani, who has been arrested and tortured for her critical cartoons of the Iranian regime, received the 2016 Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent.
Havel Prize Honors Imprisoned Iranian Rapper
This year, the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent includes Iranian rapper and activist Toomaj Salehi among its winners. Toomaj, known for his powerful lyrics against the Iranian regime, remains imprisoned and faces a death sentence. The prize will be presented to Negin Niknaam, a friend and campaigner for Toomaj's freedom, in his honor on Tuesday.
The Oslo Freedom Forum will continue until Wednesday, June 5.
Though the attacks, often from hundreds of miles (kms) away, are not seen by western officials and Israeli experts as posing the same level of threat to Israel as point-blank strikes by Hamas and Hezbollah, they have increased in number and sophistication.
At least two have hit their targets and many have had to be shot down by U.S. and Israeli defenses, according to U.S officials and public statements by the Israeli military.
New weaponry such as cruise missiles have been regularly used since May and are harder for air defenses to destroy.
"Overall, the intensity and the types of weapons systems used have steeply escalated," said Mike Knights, a fellow at the U.S.-based Washington institute for Near East Policy, where he tracks the attacks. "It complicates the Israeli task and is an increased financial cost," he said.
Reuters spoke to more than a dozen people, including sources in Iraqi armed groups and other factions in Iran's network of regional allies known as the Axis of Resistance, alongside U.S. and other regional officials, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to give candid assessments of a sensitive issue.
They said the attacks by Iraqi factions, including Kataib Hezbollah and Nujaba, were a cause for rising concern for Washington and also viewed with unease among some in Iran and its powerful Axis ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has carefully calibrated its own engagements with Israel to prevent all-out regional conflict.
"They could get the Axis involved in something it does not currently want," a senior figure in the Axis of Resistance said, describing the view among pro-Iran groups on condition he not be identified.
Iran and Hezbollah, the most organized members of the network, have in the past struggled to rein in Iraqi factions.
Hussein al-Mousawi, a spokesperson for Nujaba, one of the main armed Shi'ite factions in Iraq participating in strikes on Israel, told Reuters the strikes were a natural evolution of the role of Iraqi groups and aimed to increase the cost of the war in Gaza. They intend to strike from anywhere, for as long as is necessary.
"The operations carried out by the Resistance are not bound by temporal or spatial boundaries," Mousawi said. "We, as a resistance, do not fear the consequences as long as we are in the right and we represent the popular and official will."
The Iraqi government, which carefully balances its alliances with both Washington and Tehran, does not officially approve of the strikes but has been unable or unwilling to stop them.
Critics say this shows the limits of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's power in a coalition government that includes Iran-backed armed groups, and may undermine efforts to rebrand Iraq as stable and open for business.
Iraq does not recognize Israel and a 2022 law punishes those trying to normalize ties with death or life in prison. Israel views Iraq as an Iranian vassal state and main corridor for weapons from Iran to other armed groups including Hezbollah.
The Israeli and Iraqi governments did not respond to requests for comment. The U.S. State Department declined to comment.
ESCALATING THREAT
The Iraqi groups trace their roots to the fight against U.S. troops in Iraq after the toppling of dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. They have since grown their regional reach, mirroring the evolution of other Iranian allies such as the Houthis in Yemen who have launched strikes on shipping in the Red Sea.
Iraqi groups joined the Syrian civil war in support of Iran's ally President Bashar al-Assad, gaining a foothold in territory near the border with Israel. A shadowy Iraqi group claimed drone attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in 2021 and 2022.
The attacks by Iraqi groups on Israel are launched from areas south of Baghdad and in the Iraqi-Syrian border area where Iran-backed factions hold sway, according to Knights.
To get from Iraq to Israel, projectiles must fly over Syria, Jordan or Saudi Arabia.
While Iran has been keen to have Iraqi factions contribute to the regional battle against Israel, their propensity to miscalculate was a constant cause for concern, the senior figure in the Axis said.
He noted that the Iraqi groups had already unwittingly caused a major regional escalation in January, when they killed three U.S. troops in a drone attack on a U.S. outpost in Jordan.
That attack - which crossed multiple U.S. and regional red lines by hitting a neighboring Arab state and killing Americans - led to a deadly campaign of U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.
So serious was the risk of escalation then, that the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force travelled to Baghdad to tell the factions to dial down their attacks, Iranian and Iraqi sources told Reuters at the time.
Attacks on U.S. forces stopped. There was a brief lull. Then, they turned their attention to Israel.
A senior Iranian official who asked not to be identified to discuss sensitive matters said this shift in focus was part of a plan to keep the pressure on Israel over the Gaza war.
A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the attacks on Israel jeopardized the stability of Iraq and the region by increasing the risk of military action, including potentially by the U.S. and Israel.
"The sophistication and frequency of these attacks highlight the escalating threat posed by these groups" the official said.
"The U.S. military will not hesitate to act to protect our forces and support the defense of our allies."
'FREE HAND'
Iraq has posed a threat to Israel before - notoriously during the 1991 Gulf War when Saddam fired barrages of Scud missiles at Tel Aviv and Haifa.
At the time, Washington prevailed upon Israel not to retaliate to avoid an escalation that could undermine a U.S.-led coalition, including Arab armies, which had been pulled together to eject Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
After Hamas militants launched their attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year precipitating the war in Gaza, Iraqi Shi'ite armed factions, like other pro-Iranian groups, pledged to carry out attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians.
They initially targeted mainly U.S. forces based in Iraq and Syria. But on Nov. 2 they claimed their first ever attack on Israel.
A handful of other claimed attacks on Israel followed in the next few months, including four in February, even after the groups had publicly halted attacks on U.S. forces, according to public claims of responsibility by the Iran-backed groups.
The number of claimed attacks shot up to 17 in March, and doubled again in May, averaging more than one a day, though U.S. officials and the source in the pro-Iranian Axis said they are not certain all the claimed attacks were genuine.
Reuters was not able to determine exactly how many attacks have been launched nor how many hit their intended target.
The attacks are frequently accompanied by video released on social media purporting to show the projectiles being fired from remote Iraqi desert sites as militants shout the names of holy figures revered mainly by Shi'ites. Reuters was not able to verify the date or location of the videos.
While Israel rarely comments on its operations in neighboring states, it is thought to have struck pro-Iran groups in Iraq before, in 2019, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had given the military "a free hand" to act "to thwart Iran's plans".
Asked to provide information on launches by Iran-backed factions in Iraq, the Israeli military declined to comment.
Israeli authorities have publicly confirmed at least two impacts on the coastal city of Eilat that Israeli media said came from Iraq, on a school in November and a naval base in April.
Additionally, the military has announced many interceptions of projectiles coming "from the east", widely seen as a reference to Iraq. No injuries or deaths have been reported as a result of the attacks.
Amos Yadlin, a retired Israeli air force general who formerly headed military intelligence, said he would rate the level of threat the attacks pose to Israel as "one step down" from Hezbollah or the Houthis.
The U.S. defense official said projectiles fired from Iraq had been intercepted by U.S. forces operating "from various locations in the Middle East, as part of our commitment to Israel's defense and regional security."
"The frequency of these actions has increased in response to the rising number of threats," the official said.
SOURCE:REUTERS
By Timour Azhari and Laila Bassam
Mohammad Eslami maintained Tehran is still following the NPT Safeguards Agreement and is only reducing the obligations it had under the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The comments come as Britain, France, and Germany submitted a resolution to the United Nations nuclear watchdog’s Board of Governors Monday censuring Iran. According to AFP, European diplomats cited Iran's lack of cooperation with the agency, believing Iran is developing nuclear weapons.
Before the resolution, Iranian officials cautioned European powers against applying pressure on Iran concerning its nuclear program. Ali Shamkhani, a senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the reported head of Iran's nuclear negotiations, asserted on Saturday that if European countries proceed with a resolution criticizing Iran's nuclear activities, Iran would respond in a "serious and effective manner."
The E3 maintains that Iran has signed and ratified the NPT Safeguards Agreement but has not adhered to its legally binding obligations.
IAEA Chief Rafael Grossi acknowledged on Monday that the agency has lost continuity of knowledge regarding the production of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water, and uranium as Iran continues to expand its nuclear program.
In response to a question by Iran International’s Ahmad Samadi about the censure resolution by the European countries, Grossi stated that the member countries must express their opinions on the matter and that the Agency is only required to comply with the resolution if it is approved.
In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), arguing that the agreement did not sufficiently prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Consequently, sanctions reliefs were revoked.
In 2020, the Iranian parliament suspended UN inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities and mandated the government to increase uranium enrichment if European signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal did not lift oil and banking sanctions.
Despite Iran's lack of cooperation with the IAEA on multiple issues since 2020, friction points between Tehran and the agency have recently accumulated.
The Iranian government has deactivated surveillance devices, denied senior inspectors access, and refused to disclose the location of new nuclear facilities, despite insisting that its uranium enrichment is solely for civilian purposes and that it does not intend to develop nuclear weapons.
According to an IAEA benchmark, Iran is enriching uranium to 60% purity, close to the 90% required for weapons-grade material. It has accumulated enough material to be further enriched to produce three nuclear bombs.
