Iran Says Ready For Talks With Saudi Arabia In Atmosphere Of 'Respect'

Photos and videos emerged Thursday of Alberto Fernandez being warmly embraced by Putin, who sat very close to the Argentinian president in contrast to his greeting Raisi, a cleric, from a distance before the two men sat at opposite ends of a long table. This led to social-media comments claiming confirmation that Putin had not shown the respect due to the Iranian president.

Critics widely shared photos and videos of the two meetings alongside each other on various social media platforms on Friday and commented that they proved earlier claims that Putin had not shown due respect to the Iranian President.

Morteza Kazemian, journalist, told Iran International TV Friday that Putin’s reception of Fernandez proved that Raisi's treatment had been “out of the ordinary.” Clearly this showed the Russian president considered Raisi "a second-rate official” and "an executive officer" of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Kazemian opined.

The Putin-Raisi January 21 meeting fed speculation over the table’s placement – for some as an intentional act to imply "distance" – over Putin apparently chewing gum, and over the absence of the two countries’ flags in the hall. A video released by Russian media after the visit apparently showed Raisi leaving the Kremlin without being seen off by Russian officials.

A conservative journalist, Mohammad Mohahjeri, called for Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian's resignation for failing to ensure that diplomatic protocols had been observed. The arrangements were "disgraceful," he said.

Various officials, government media, politicians, and Friday imams disagreed, insisting that Raisi had been respectfully received. They praised Raisi for praying in the Kremlin, a building seen for decades under Communism as the bastion of world atheism, and rejected criticism of Raisi’s government's efforts to expand relations with Russia and China in the face of continuing US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions.

Some argued that Putin had kept a ‘social distance’ because Raisi had refused to abide by Covid protocols required by the Kremlin, including vaccination with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and being tested before the meeting. They also said this was a "working visit" which did not require the ceremonial display of flags.

Fars news agency said the whole show, including the placement of the table, conformed with diplomatic protocols and suggested that Putin had been so impressed with the Iranian president that he fidgeted with his tie.

‘Witness 458’ told the unofficial tribunal in London, which is meeting behind closed doors and not open to most media, that as a member of Iran’s ‘Imam Ali’ anti-riot brigades he had seen the deployment of “violent criminals” as well as members of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, and the Afghan Fatimiyoun militia.

Speaking online with a covered face, witness 458 said Imam Ali brigades had set gas stations ablaze to blame the fires on the protesters and so justify suppression, and had been authorized to shoot protesters in the torso and head to end the unrest.

Witness 458 told the tribunal he had witnessed the killing of five protesters and that members of the Basij, the state-run paramilitary group, as young as 15 had helped deal with the protests, which followed a rise in rationed fuel prices from 7 cents to 10 cents a liter.

Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Shaabi) consist mainly of Shia Muslims and played a leading role fighting the Islamic State group (Isis) in Iraq after 2014 in coordination with Iraqi Kurdish forces and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). The Fatemiyoun brigades (Liwa al-Fatimiyun) are an Afghan Shia militia funded and trained by the IRGC who have been fighting in Syria to keep Iran’s ally, Bashar al-Assad in power.

In another presentation to the tribunal, Ali Rezaei played a recording of a phone call, made he said on November 17 in Karaj, from a third party taking his brother Naser Rezaei to hospital. "He has been shot in the eye,” the speaker said. “He is unconscious.” The Rezaei family have said they do not believe they can get justice for Naser, who died, through the Iranian legal system.

Assembly and collusion

Amnesty International reported the killing of at least 304 protesters including at least 23 minors during the November 2019 protests – but its report made no reference to evidence of the involvement of Iraqi or Afghan militias. Reuters in December 2019 reported that around 1,500 civilians were killed by orders of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to suppress the protests.

Iran has not announced figures for deaths or arrests, nor tried anyone over killing protesters, but has prosecuted and passed heavy sentences including the death penalty on protesters on charges including “assembly and collusion.” Over 700 banks as well as gas stations and police stations were targets of violence.

Saturday was the resumption of the ‘Iran atrocities tribunal’ set up in November 2020 on the first anniversary of the protests by the London-based Justice for Iran, the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), and the international anti-capital punishment organization Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort (Together Against the Death Penalty).

The tribunal stated its aim as investigating “atrocities” and “human rights violations by Iran” during the protests. The tribunal has so far ‘indicted’ 160 Iranian officials, but its ‘verdicts’ will be symbolic. Iran has dismissed the tribunal, with media calling it a stunt and “puppet show” with findings decided in advance.

Raisi made the decision during a session of the Covid-19 taskforce on Saturday while 120 cities are now considered "red zones”.

Instead, he proposed that the definition of the red zones should be changed in a way that the number of 'red' cities decreases.

Raisi said the country should not go into lockdown as was the case during the previous waves and restrictions should be regional and local.

Etekaf (from the Arabic for ‘adhering to’) ceremonies, scheduled this year for February 15-18, during which large numbers pray in mosques throughout day and night, were cancelled in the cities deemed red zones.

The government hasn’t announced restrictions on the Fajr film and theater festivals, and its plans remain in force to re-open schools and to hold gatherings during the ten-day Fajr period that ends on the anniversary of the 1979 Revolution on February 11.

This would not the first time the Islamic Republic seems to prioritize official events over the health and safety of people. There were media allegations that authorities played down the threat from Covid in early 2020 so as not to deter voting in the February 2020 parliamentary elections.

Health authorities, who have said the country is in a sixth wave of the pandemic, expect infections to rise to “up to”

In a letter released by National Review on Friday, a group of lawmakers called for a clear strategy to counter the evolving capabilities of Iran’s long-range strikes and urged the administration to take measures against the threat.

The group, led by Representative Joe Wilson who is the chairman of the Republican Study Committee’s national-security taskforce, said the recent tests of a satellite-launch vehicle contributes to attempts to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile whose range could “potentially put US allies in Europe as well as the US homeland in range.”

They expressed concerns over the recent missile launches by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen against the United Arab Emirates and the Iranian military launches of 16 ballistic missiles during military exercises in December and said these all overlapped with the talks to revive the nuclear deal in Vienna.

They said the Biden administration only condemns such launches “but concern and condemnations are insufficient. Action is needed”.

“The Trump administration routinely sanctioned these networks which supported Iran’s missile and military programs as well as those of its proxies, whereas your administration has been lagging in this area,” read the letter.

They demanded written answers in 30 days to questions about the capability of CENTCOM defense systems against the missile threat and the administration’s measures to enforce sanctions on sectors of Iran’s economy that support the ballistic missile program.

In an open letter signed the human rights groups on Friday asked the prime minister not to allow Canada to become a haven for Iranian officials who are known rights violators.

The move was in reaction to a short video of a retired commander of the Tehran's Police forces and the IRGC, Morteza Talaie, working out in a gym during a visit to Canada.

The video was shared on social media last week with a caption saying the former police chief has emigrated to Canada. It drew criticism from dozens of social media users, especially after Talaie released a video from Tehran, denying the report and saying it is nobody’s business where he travels.

Expressing serious concerns, the rights groups urged the Canadian government “to take immediate action to uphold its stated commitment to human rightsand ensure that impunity at home, does not mean impunity abroad”.

“Allowing Talaei to freely enter Canada sends a dangerous message; a message that is an affront to Iranians who have themselves sought refuge in Canada”.

Talaei orchestrated widespread crackdownson protestors, mass arrests, beatings, and torture of many dissidents, and is the founder of the so-called hijab police.