Iraqi FM urges US for quick release of Iran's frozen funds
Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein has urged the US to find a swift solution for releasing Iran's frozen funds in Iraq on Friday, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein has urged the US to find a swift solution for releasing Iran's frozen funds in Iraq on Friday, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
Hussein emphasized to US Acting Under Secretary for Political Affairs John Bass "the need for a quick and fair solution that serves the interests of both parties and enhances financial stability in the region," according to an Iraqi Foreign Ministry statement.
This is while, in May, a senior Iranian official stated that Tehran has no blocked funds in Iraq, following sanction waivers issued by the current US administration in 2023 and earlier this year, allowing Baghdad to release these funds.
Iran exports natural gas and electricity to Iraq, but Baghdad could not pay the debt due to US banking sanctions imposed on Tehran in 2018. However, the renewal of Iraq’s waivers by both the Trump and Biden administrations has mainly been a routine matter.
Nevertheless, while exempting Iraq from sanctions on importing energy from Iran is not a new policy, Baghdad's permission to make payments in hard currency is a recent development. The Biden administration introduced this provision last year as part of the waiver and has faced backlash from US lawmakers since.
The Biden administration has stated that the funds, held in euros in Oman, can only be used for humanitarian purposes under the waiver's terms. However, critics contend that this arrangement has effectively freed up resources for Iran to support its proxies across the Middle East and advance its nuclear weapons program.
Ahadi, who studied medicine at the University of Tabriz alongside her classmate Pezeshkian, told Iran International that after the Islamic Revolution, a radical group declared that women should wear the hijab, and it was Pezeshkian who was responsible for this group.
“It was not an official policy from [Supreme Leader] Khomeini or Tehran,” she recalled.
Ahadi’s first hand experience of Pezeshkian’s alleged misogyny directly challenges the mainstream media’s portrayal of Pezeshkian as a “reformer.”
“At first we did not take them seriously because they were a small group. We organized demonstrations on the streets of Tabriz. I held speeches on the street. We were against the hijab,” she said.
According to her, the Islamists “with beards were aggressive” and were part of Pezeshkian’s pro-Khomeini movement.
“[They] attacked us and said sexual insults. Later these men came with knives," she said.
As violence against women intensified in Tabriz, northwest Iran, Ahadi said protesters were forced to retreat from their street demonstrations.
“During one demonstration, a 16-year-old girl fell. I felt compelled to help her and went back, even though the men were chasing us with knives. It was very dangerous,” said Ahadi.
She also recounted that during her time working at a hospital near the medical school, Pezeshkian insisted that female employees wear a hijab. Some men told Ahadi, “If you want to enter the hospital, you need to wear a hijab.”
Ahadi said one of the Islamists, part of Pezeshkian’s group, enforced the compulsory hijab at the Tabriz hospital with a pistol. She responded, “If you have the courage, shoot.”
The dissident, who at the time was part of the Iranian left in Tabriz, said Khomeini’s “cultural revolution purged all universities” of secular freedoms.
According to her, Pezeshkian boasted that the University of Tabriz was the first Iranian university to undergo a "cultural revolution" orchestrated by the Islamic Republic.
This Islamist-driven purge of Tabriz's academic institutions, Ahadi said, led to her expulsion.
Pezeshkian and his violent Islamist movement in Tabriz were responsible for the murders of three students, according to Ahadi. She posted a picture on X of a student named Massoud, whose eyes were gouged out due to his opposition to the emerging Islamist regime. Two other students were also reportedly executed by the Islamists in Tabriz.
“We brought Massoud to a cemetery, and I delivered a speech. I said that this is a reactionary regime that is beginning to murder people,” she recounted.
The Islamic Republic executed Ahadi's husband in 1980. She was not at home when the regime raided her apartment and seized him.
Ahadi, who served as the spokeswoman for the Anti-Stoning Committee against the Islamic Republic’s medieval practice primarily targeting women, said, “Pezeshkian gave an interview with Iranian TV and said he ordered the hijab at the university before Khomeini started it.”
This week, the Iranian state-controlled outlet Tabnak posted one of Pezeshkian’s previous interviews regarding his role in implementing the forced hijab. Subsequently, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) publicized and shared the Tabnak report widely.
Ahadi’s account further corroborates Iran International contributor Majid Mohammadi’s piece, which details Pezeshkian’s misogynistic actions.
“He has been a strong advocate of compulsory hijab and cancel culture, even stating that he enforced these policies in a hospital and university under his management right after the 1979 Islamic takeover, before they were mandated,” Mohammadi wrote recently.
According to Ahadi and Mohammadi, Pezeshkian’s revolutionary political Islamism was even more extreme than Khomeini’s, who enforced the compulsory hijab in 1983.
Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Shah, fervent slogans such as "Wear a veil, or we will punch your head" and "Death to the unveiled" were promulgated.
Ahadi criticized the international media's portrayal of Pezeshkian, a cardiac surgeon, in his role as President.
"The international media reports that because a surgeon is in charge, everything is better. That is not true regarding Pezeshkian…his previous actions tell a different story," she said.
The charges include 'spreading falsehoods' and 'spreading propaganda against the regime,' according to Negin Niknaam, an Iranian activist and Salehi's friend.
"I think they couldn't execute him because he's now famous. They're afraid of him. So one thing that the regime always does with famous people or artists in Iran is they try to isolate them or keep them in prison. I'm really worried about him," said Niknaam.
The new charges against Salehi could potentially be a crime punishable by death, said human rights lawyer Kaveh Shahrooz.
"Part of the problem with the usual charges they level against dissidents -- moharebeh (waging war on God) & endangering the regime -- is that they're incredibly vague and broad. So one is never really sure what is and is not a crime," said Shahrooz.
Salehi has been detained since October 31, 2022 in solitary confinement in Isfahan's Dastgerd Prison, which is a in a high-security ward controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) intelligence organization.
He rapped about political and social issues exposing the Islamic Republic's abuses through his lyrics. The rapper grew to international fame during the 2022 nationwide Woman- Life- Freedom moment, where he not only used his platform to echo the voice of protestors, but joined them in the streets.
In May, more than 100 music, culture and human rights icons, including Coldplay and Sting, signed a statement demanding Salehi's immediate release.
After international outcry and pressure, Salehi's death sentence was overturned by Iran's Supreme Court in June and less than two weeks after his release on bail, he was rearrested.
The hope of another bail release seems unlikely now, said Niknaam.
"I'm really depressed because we were excited. We were really excited that we heard that he may come out soon," she said.
German Member of Parliament (MP) YeOne Rhie, Salehi’s political sponsor, believes the Iranian government is plotting to keep the critic behind bars.
"I am asking myself why are they doing that? And I think the only reason is because they are so afraid of him that they don't want him out and freedom," said Rhie.
Toomaj is not the first famous activist to have his prison term extended.
Jailed Noble peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi is serving multiple sentences, which amounts to more than 13 years of imprisonment for her human rights activism. Her sentence was extended in January with an additional 15-months in for new charges concerning “spreading propaganda against the state."
Niknaam said she doesn't understand the rationale for the new charges.
"How can someone in prison spread lies or spread propaganda against the regime?...he's in prison, and he's only allowed to call his father and no one else," she added.
Rhie said Iran's new president elect, Masoud Pezeshkian, who was supported by Iran's Reform Front and is portrayed as a reformer, should take action.
"If the new president wants the Western world to believe that he has a reform and he wants to bring more freedom and democracy to the country, he should start right now and he should start with releasing all the innocent people."
Rhie said it would be symbolic for Pezeshkian to order the release of a figure like Salehi, who is often described as the "voice of the people of Iran" and the "son of Iran" but that still wouldn't be enough.
"Because we all know that there are over 20,000 other political prisoners," said Rhie.
