Senator Hagerty Raises Questions About US Iran Envoy Malley

Repeating Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s decree that being unveiled is “both politically and religiously haram”, Ahmad Khatami, the ultra-hardliner Friday imam of Tehran, told a congregation gathering for special Eid ul-Adha prayers that those who are unveiled aim to weaken the pillars of family life and destroy peace of mind in the society.

“I’m telling those who are unveiled that their defiance of hijab will never become a norm, because it was, is and will be against norms,” Khatami said, complaining that some unveiled women on social media “attack those who wear it”.

“Discarding hijab is haram based on Sharia and also politically,” Khamenei declared in a speech in April. His declaration was a clear signal to officials and his loyalists to do anything it takes to re-establish control over women.

But in the past few months the regime has been struggling to enforce the hijab as successfully as it used to in previous years. Less force is being used in the streets against women due to the fear of igniting another round of anti-government protests.

“It is unbearable that those who wear the hijab and their children are assaulted in the Islamic Republic,” Khatami said and urged the authorities to take legal action. “You, authorities who are in charge, [be aware] that assault on women who wear the hijab is a crime. What and who are you waiting for? [Are you waiting for them] to commit a crime and then apologize and say they are sorry for overreacting?”

It is not clear what the firebrand cleric was referring to. There have been no attacks against women for wearing the hijab. There have been argument and scuffles in the streets when religious women on government payrollhave stopped other women to scold them for ‘improper hijab.’

Other clerics and hardliners have also been making similar allegations against unveiled women whose number has been on the rise to the extent that being unveiled is becoming “the new norm” in some Iranian cities.

Pro-hijab enforcement rally outside the Iranian parliament June 27

A video circulating on social media of a pro-hijab rally in front of the parliament June 27, shows a cleric who demands stricter enforcement of hijab rules calling the anti-compulsory hijab women “promiscuous”. The cleric claims that unveiled women are only “a minority of two to three percent [of all women] who present themselves as the majority”.

“And how many participated in this rally? Maximum 30 people. No need for further explanation,” dissident journalist Ehsan Bodaghi in Tehran tweeted about the cleric’s claim.

Authorities have been making various threats against those who defy the hijab rules since mid-March when protests that had engulfed the country for over six months became less frequent.

Iran's Police Chief Ahmad Radan in June threatened government offices that do not deny services to unveiled women with repercussions as part of hijab enforcement. Authorities have also been putting pressure on businesses including cab companies to make them enforce such rules by denying services to unveiled women.

Earlier this month students at University of Art in Tehran who had staged a sit-in protesting draconian hijab laws were assaulted by a security official of the university and several students were reportedly badly injured.

The regime has also tried to tighten its control over entertainment content in line with its policy of enforcing religious restrictions on the population and warned filmmakers not to hire actresses who have been supporting the anti-compulsory hijab movement by unveiling in public or publishing unveiled photos on social media.

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Seyyed Solat Mortazavi, won a vote of confidence to become the Raisi administrations’ labor and social welfare minister in October 2022.

He replaced Hojjat Abdolmaleki who resigned in June 2022 under pressure from the media and the parliament as weeks of protests by pensioners and teachers across the country threatened political stability.

As protests in Iran began in mid-September 2022, the government blocked Instagram, the only international social media platform people were allowed to use.

Other platforms including Facebook and Twitter were banned after the 2009 presidential election and Telegram in the aftermath of the November 2019 protests.

Despite the bans, Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei are present on Twitter and some have more than one account on every platform. Ordinary Iranians also continue to use social media apps by paying for VPNs [Virtual Private Networks] that allow them to circumvent the ban. However, high-level officials have unrestricted internet access.

Social media has revolutionized the authoritarian information space in Iran. The government has lost its monopoly on information and desperately tries to control the Internet. Social media has become a town square where citizens gather to criticize and berate the clerical regime.

In a letter to the Embassy of Sweden in Tehran, the Islamic Republic has asked the Swedish government in its capacity as the President of the Council of the European Union, to convey Iran’s protest to the relevant authorities of the European Parliament and the European Council.

In late May, Neuman protested the spiral of executions in Iran saying people, such as Ebrahim Raisi, got away with killing thousands and his impunity persists after decades.

Iran’s foreign ministry called the statement by Neumann regarding the impunity of President Ebrahim Raisi in the killing of thousands in the 80s “provocative and biased”.

“The anti-Iranian statements and activities of the stated individual, especially her latest provocations in recent months, lack legal legitimacy, they are based on distortion of reality and misinformation, they are far from rationality and political wisdom," read the letter published by Neumann on her Twitter Saturday.

Raisi is accused of having had a direct role in executing thousands of political prisoners in 1988.

“Accusing a President, who was elected by the majority of the Iranian citizens, in a democratic process in a free election, is simply a showcase of an illegitimate and of course a failed political agenda, which is unfortunately linked to the current Iran phobia trend in Europe,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry wrote in the letter.

Elections in Iran are not free or competitive, as most candidates are rejected by regime's pre-screening process.

Israel's main ally the United States has been holding talks with Iran in recent weeks in an attempt to outline steps that could limit Teheran's nuclear program and de-escalate tensions. Tzachi Hanegbi said it is still unclear what will come of those talks.

Hanegbi told Channel 13 television that no agreement could obligate Israel which views Iran's nuclear capability as an existential threat. Asking whether Israel had made a decision on a preemptive strike, Hanegbi replied:

"We are not getting closer because the Iranians have stopped, for a while now, they are not enriching uranium to the level that in our view is the red line."

"But it can happen. So we are preparing for the moment, if it comes, in which we will have to defend the people of Israel against a fanatic regime that is set on annihilating us and is armed with weapons of mass destruction."

Iran has ramped up enrichment to 60-percent purity since 2021, which is below the bomb-grade 90-percent level Netanyahu has set as a "red line".

Iran denies that it has nuclear weapons ambitions, which was the reason for the 2015 agreement that limited the country’s uranium enrichment.

As soon as Donald Trump ditched the nuclear deal in 2018, he reimposed crippling sanctions on the Iranian economy. Tehran responded by a gradual move beyond the deal's enrichment restrictions.

Iran International first reported Thursday that Malley has long been absent from his job and his security clearance status was under review. The State Department after hours of delays finally admitted that Malley had been on leave. Quickly information emerged that on the same day his paid leave had turned into “unpaid leave.”

“Media reports indicate that Special Envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, was placed on unpaid leave after his security clearance was suspended earlier this year amidst an investigation into potential mishandling of classified documents,” the HFAC chairman wrote. “These reports raise serious concerns both regarding Malley’s conduct and whether the State Department misled Congress and the American public.”

Malley had been conspicuously absent from a Congressional briefing in May and the State Department had said that he was on personal leave due to the illness of a family member. The question remains as to why the administration did not tell the truth to Congress about his security clearance issue.

Malley’s deputy Abram Paley has already been appointed as acting Iran envoy by the State Department.

Many suspect that as the administration was holding secret talks with Islamic Republic of Iran in Oman and perhaps elsewhere, they did not want Malley’s issue to come into the open, since he has been at the forefront of President Biden’s efforts to make a new deal with Tehran.

“The Department’s failure to inform Congress of this matter demonstrates at best a lack of candor, and at worst represents deliberate and potentially unlawful misinformation,” the chairman continued. “Given the gravity of the situation, it is imperative that the Department expeditiously provide a full and transparent accounting of the circumstances surrounding Special Envoy Malley’s clearance suspension and investigation and the Department’s statements to Congress regarding Special Envoy Malley.”

Iranian Americans have been urging lawmakers to demand answers on this issue and also on reports about the administration trying to make a deal with Iran that would release billions of dollars in frozen money for release of three individuals held in Iran as leverage against the United States.

Earlier this week, before the news about Malley’s absence surfaced Iranian American activists sent a letter to McCaul asking him to subpoena Malley over his history of secret engagements with high-ranking Islamic Republic regime officials with ill will towards the US, as well as his intent on pursuing a policy of appeasement in favor of the biggest state sponsor of terrorism.

“Mr. Malley’s conduct is not acceptable to us as Americans of Iranian origin, especially while we witness people inside Iran being slaughtered by the regime in the streets and tortured in prisons by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a US-designated terrorist organization,” read the letter.

Some have commented that Malley is a childhood friend of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and this might have been a factor in keeping the reason for his absence out of public view.

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), an advocacy group, also called Friday for a Congressional investigation regarding lack of transparency by the White House over Malley’s suspension.

“It is imperative that the Biden administration disclose how long it has withheld from Congress that consequential diplomatic engagements have been led by someone other than Mr. Malley and when the alleged mishandling of classified information took place, a statement issued Friday by UANI said.