UAE presidential aide says Iran attacks on Arab states cannot be ignored

UN experts expressed grave concern on Wednesday for two Britons convicted in Iran of espionage who are now on hunger strike in jail.

Craig and Lindsay Foreman were sentenced to 10 years in prison in February on espionage charges, which they deny.

Their family said a failed appeal hearing this month was held without their knowledge and that they had been given little information about the process.

UN special rapporteurs Alice Jill Edwards and Mai Sato said Lindsay Foreman had been refusing food for more than 30 days and her husband Craig for more than 20 days.

“After 30 days without food, this is a medical emergency,” the experts said.

“Lindsay and Craig Foreman should not be in prison,” they added. “They appear to have been wrongfully detained, prosecuted on highly questionable grounds, and sentenced after proceedings that failed to meet basic fair trial guarantees.”

The experts had written to Iranian authorities in April to decry what they said was a pattern of foreign nationals being detained for political purposes.

Britain has called the Foremans’ sentence “totally unjustifiable” and pledged to keep pressing for their release.

Their family has criticized the British government’s response, saying the couple are being used as “human shields” during conflict in the region.

A British-Iranian man was charged on Wednesday over an April arson attack on a memorial wall in London for protesters killed in Iran’s uprising earlier this year.

Ali Reza Fallahi, 45, was charged in connection with the attack on the wall in Golders Green, a north London area with a large Jewish community, displaying pictures of protesters killed by the Iran’s security forces during nationwide protests in January.

He is due to appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

“This charge marks another step forward in one of the investigations into the series of arson attacks targeting the Jewish community and Iranian diaspora in London,” said Helen Flanagan, head of counter-terrorism policing in London.

Police said a 38-year-old woman arrested in connection with the arson was released and faces no further action.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic must move beyond confrontation and focus on economic development.

“We must take over the trench from the launcher boys, lift people out of economic pressure and build the country,” he said at a meeting on China-related economic policy with Iran’s chamber of commerce.

Ghalibaf, who lead Tehran’s negotiating team with the United States, described China as a unique trade partner for the Islamic Republic and said Beijing must believe that Tehran is “a partner in the full sense” for China.

He said any bloc formed with Persian Gulf littoral states would “certainly” be centered on China and the Islamic Republic.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the memorandum of understanding with Iran did not include immediate sanctions relief, but that the issue would be discussed later.

Speaking during a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, Trump said the MOU was not final and warned that if he did not like the agreement, “we will go back to dropping bombs.”

Trump also said reports of a $300 billion fund in the Iran deal was false, adding that the United States was not investing in it.

Trump said the agreement’s main point was that Iran would never have a nuclear weapon, and said the Strait of Hormuz was already partly open and would fully reopen “over the next day or two.”

The US Treasury Department will immediately issue waivers for exports of Iranian crude oil and petrochemical products after the US-Iran memorandum of understanding is signed, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing a copy of the deal it had seen.

The United States will also end its naval blockade of Iranian ports, while the two countries will work to restore maritime traffic through Hormuz to prewar levels within 30 days, according to the report.

The agreement outlines a broad economic boost for Iran in exchange for ending its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and reiterating its commitment never to seek a nuclear weapon, the report said.