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Recently, Lebanon announced that it is on the verge of bankruptcy due to years of sectarian rule that ended in complete political and economic chaos, as political reform failed to eliminate the sectarianism that has plagued the country since the 1975 civil war.

In Iraq, Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr called on political forces to end sectarianism and pay attention to the national interest to form a new Iraqi government, stressing that sectarianism is the reason for Iraqs deterioration.

In Yemen, President of the Presidential Command Council, Rashad Muhammad Al-Alimi, pledged to work to end the war and bring peace to Yemen, stressing that the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council will stand as an impenetrable dam to confront terrorism in all its forms, and will work to combat sectarian conflicts that are tearing up Yemens social fabric. This is especially so since Yemen has turned into an arena for sectarian conflicts that want Yemen to be a starting point to undermine the security and stability of the Arab Gulf.

In Libya, the same sectarian conflict still prevails after nearly a decade since the popular uprising against the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and the military intervention of NATO to help overthrow him. Libya has become a battleground for armed militias competing for power and money. The country witnessed regional and international proxy conflicts that undermined all possibilities for restoring stability.

In the Gulf region, especially after the recent Houthi attacks, the dynamics of sectarian politics have re-emerged, especially that there are about 2 million Shiites within the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Although the sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites in the Middle East has existed for more than 1,300 years, sectarian problems were not necessarily intractable. Despite the long history of sectarian divisions in the Middle East, research confirms the possibility of cooperation between the different sects in a way that does not undermine the concept of the state.

According to research, throughout our modern and contemporary Arab history, since the independence of the Arab countries and even before that, no one in the Arab world has called for dividing the Arab countries into Sunni or Shiite countries. Arab socialists called for Arab countries that adopt socialism and value social justice, Arab nationalists call for countries that adopt Arab nationalism and value unity, Arab Islamists call for Islamic countries that value the Islamic approach, and Arab liberals call for liberal countries that value liberalism. In general, the Arab intellectual and political forces did not adopt this hateful sectarian dimension as part of their political programs.

Nevertheless, the nature of sectarianism and sectarian conflict has evolved and changed significantly during that period. Specifically, the sectarian conflict in the Arab world began to take shape to appear in its current form, which succeeded in destroying many Arab countries since the Khomeini revolution in Iran and the regime that was introduced. It was this racist sectarian regime that initiated sectarian hatred and deliberately sought to ignite strife and conflict between Shiites and Sunnis to serve its expansionist project in the Arab region.

Then, the United States and the West assumed the task of developing the sectarian division scheme, which they found a promising project to destroy the Middle East region to exploit its wealth. This scheme, which succeeded in tearing the Arab world apart, destroying Iraq and Syria, cast a shadow over Libya, Yemen and Tunisia, and almost succeeded in Egypt, but the cohesion of the Egyptian people and the strength of their army succeeded in thwarting this scheme. Indeed, Egypt was the only country that was able to survive this devastating sectarian conflict and did not fall into this trap when the Brotherhood succeeded in deceiving the people and reaching power because national unity was the effective weapon that preserved Egypt.

Despite the withdrawal of the United States of America from the Middle East, this sectarian project that seeks to divide the Arab countries into sectarian states is still ongoing and is supported by many American and European research centers that confirm in their research that sectarian conflict in the Middle East is inevitable. What is worse is that these researchers began to focus more on the Arab Gulf states and the need to redraw borders again on sectarian bases to avoid future conflicts. These researches focus on the Gulf countries definitely because they are the second stage in the scheme to tear the Arab world apart after the first stage achieved a lot of success.

The Arab peoples preceded their political leadership and realized that the nation-state and national unity are the only way to preserve the Arab nation and restore its glories. Today, the whole world hears the voices of the masses in the squares of Iraq, Lebanon, and many Arab countries, denouncing sectarianism and foreign labor, and rejecting the rule of militias and the corrupt. All Arab peoples today demand the upholding of the value of the homeland and the national state.

The present moment is a decisive moment for all Arab leaders to prove their patriotism and rise above useless differences. The restoration and preservation of the nation-state are the basis for stability and the beginning of recovery. The sectarian conflicts will only benefit the gangs of terrorism and the forces greedy for the wealth of the Arab world.

Dr. Marwa El-Shinawy Assistant Prof. at International American University for Specialized Studies (IAUS)

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Opinion| Iran and the US are behind sectarian conflict scheme in the Arab world - Daily News Egypt

IranSource

April 21, 2022

ByAhou Koutchesfahani

Iranian womens rights activism is very much present and made visible on social media with countless hashtags, images, and videos circulating online and going viral to regularly draw attention to important causes, such as freedom of expression, sexual abuse by powerful men, and depicting harassment and abuse of women by security forces. However, in much of what is said and shared about Iranian womens plight online, disabled Iranian womens voices often go unheard.

This unequal dynamic within Iranian womens rights activism online is further compounded by social media algorithms, which favor posts that have a large audience engagement rate. Why then, are disabled womens voices marginalized online as they so often are offline?

Since the 2009 post-election protests known as the Green Movement, social media has provided a useful platform for activists, journalists, and ordinary citizens alike to highlight human rights issues and violations to a growing audience within and beyond the transnational Iranian public sphere. Of that group, a minority has focused on raising awareness on disability rights issues, such as the Kampayneh Maloolan (disability campaign), a platform that highlights the discrimination faced by disabled Iranians on the regular.

On Twitter and messaging app Telegramboth platforms are blocked by the Islamic Republic and must be accessed via circumvention toolsthis campaign provides a window into the activism led by disabled Iranians, most notably through the hashtags #_ (#Disability_Law) and #__ (#Pass_Disability_Bill), a reference to Irans Law to Protect the Rights of the Disabled. This was ratified by parliament in 2018 after a Twitter storm in 2017led by the disability campaignmobilized users to make the hashtag trend on Persian language Twitter with over 27,000 tweets. However, more than four years later, the bill has yet to be implemented. The campaigns discourse surrounds disability activism and stands in stark contrast to the lack of representation of disabled Iranians on the platforms of Iranian womens rights activists.

The intersection of disability and womens rights movements

It may be unclear from the outside how the disability and womens rights movements are connected, but the most recent law to be swiftly passed in parliamentnotably, the Population Growth Plan (__#)is a good example of how the Islamic Republic undermines both Iranian women and disabled Iranians. The law, which passed in March 2021, criminalizes the use of contraceptives and abortion and is set to grant privileges to families with upwards of three children. It also aims to eliminate mandatory pregnancy screenings, raising the risk of mother/child complications and premature death. Financial support for disabled Iranians is already stretched but this law further significantly cuts disability allowance and curtails womens financial independence as it incentivizes childbearing and marriage.

Under the current economic hardships faced by Iranians due to punitive sanctions, mismanagement, and corruption, many young women will have no other choice but to marry early as a result. Additionally, many disabled Iranians will be left poor without adequate financial aid, leaving them more vulnerable to abuse and dehumanization, with them being considered financial burdens on families and the state. While the bill to Protect the Rights of the Disabled accounted for equal access to work, adequate healthcare, and at home support, the Population Growth Plan undermines all these demands by reneging on the rights of the disabled.

Disabled Iranian women face many barriers in their daily struggle within a patriarchal and ableist society. Theirs is an uphill battle to dismantle not just ableism but also misogyny. From poor accessibility to minimal welfare support and gender inequalities, disabled Iranian women face double the amount of discrimination as their non-disabled peers.

The social media link

Normalizing ableist attitudes contributes to the discrimination faced by Iranian disabled women, severely curtailing their ability to become active members of society. Social media is an opportunity to forge a link between different groups of Iranian women in the online sphere and to create solidarity through struggles to dismantle patriarchy and ableism. Unfortunately, little to no attempts are currently being made at forging allyship with the disabled community.

This is further compounded by the minimal coverage of the rights of disabled women in Iran. Within what goes viral, a narrow definition of woman, which doesnt include the voices of the marginalized, is predominant. As a result, it plays a role in the erasure of disabled voices within the online depiction of womens rights issues in Iran and to the transnational public sphere and beyond. Thus, there is a contradiction in the attempt at being intersectional by influential Iranian womens rights activists.

To truly dismantle patriarchal assumptions in Iran, ableist notions that are steeped in patriarchy must also be addressed. Disabled voices must be heard, supported, and amplified. Their struggle is not unlike womens rights activists and their rights to access dignified healthcare, equal access to work, and equal opportunities in society intersect with the rights of Iranian women to do the same. Understanding the intersectionality of the feminist and disabled causes is important in the struggle for an open society that countless activists are striving towards.

Ahou Koutchesfahani is a PhD candidate at the Department of War Studies at Kings College London. Her research is concerned with feminist politics and social movements, with a focus on Iran. Follow her on Twitter: @ahou_doe.

Thu, Jun 24, 2021

IranSourceByFatemeh Haghighatjoo

Its important to take a close look at President-elect Ebrahim Raisi's wife, Jamileh Alamolhoda, and, more importantly, how the couple will impact womens rights in Iran.

Image: Iranian journalist transcribes an interview from a tape recorder into Braille at the offices of Iran Sepid in Tehran. Iranian journalist Laleh Arabzadeh transcribes an interview from a tape recorder into Braille at the offices of Iran Sepid, a daily newspaper for the blind in Tehran September 12, 2005. The subscription newspaper, which is written and run by blind people, started in 1996 and carries news about the blind community in Iran as well as news items of general interest. Picture taken September 12, 2005. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi

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Ableism exists online amongst Iranian women's rights activists. It needs to be addressed. - Atlantic Council

About one-third of the railway line connecting Rasht and Bandar Anzali in Iran has been constructed. 11 out of 35 kilometres of track are in place already, and the lines construction proceeds despite some technical challenges, said Abbas Khatibi, the deputy director of Irans Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company (CDTIC). An important rail axis will be inaugurated next year, he added.

The Rasht-Astara railway link has been highlighted as one of the main bottlenecks in developing the International North-South Transport Corridor stretching from Russia, through the Caucasus region and Iran all the way to the Persian Gulf. Iran faced financial and technical difficulties forcing it to postpone the links construction for years.

However, now it is very close to completing a railway section that could prove crucial in extending the railway from Rasht to Astara. The Rasht-Bandar Anzali line will be complete in 2023 and is also important because it provides rail access to the Caspian Sea since Bandar Anzali is a port city.

Khatibi underlined that during the construction of the lines first section, CDTIC had to tackle multiple challenges ranging from the lack of credit resources, to the high value of agricultural lands and gardens that the line passes through, the high cost of land acquisition, and the difficulty of executive operations in swampy lands and preparation of soil materials. These factors contributed to some delays in the initial construction planning.

However, works continued and are currently proceeding quite more efficiently. Twenty-four kilometres remain for the lines completion, which will be ready in 2023. The projects total worth is approximately 155 million US dollars.

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Iran's missing North-South corridor rail link proceeds with construction - RailFreight.com

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iran has confirmed it relocated a centrifuge facility to its underground Natanz nuclear site, state media reported, days after the U.N. atomic watchdog said it installed surveillance cameras to monitor the new workshop at Tehrans request.

The late Saturday report by the official IRNA news agency comes as diplomatic efforts to restore Irans tattered nuclear deal appear stalled.

The news agency quoted the spokesman for Irans atomic energy organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, as saying authorities had moved the operation to a safer place.

Irans centrifuge facility in Karaj found itself targeted in what Iran described as a sabotage attack in June. Natanz itself has twice been targeted in sabotage attacks amid uncertainty over the nuclear deal, assaults that Iran has blamed on Israel.

Unfortunately because of a terrorist operation that took place against Karaj, we were obliged to intensify security measures under which we moved an important part of the machines and transferred the rest to Natanz and Isfahan, said Kamalvandi. Isfahan is the location of another Iranian nuclear facility.

On Thursday, The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said it installed cameras and removed seals from machines at the new workshop in Natanz two days earlier. Those machines will be used to make centrifuge rotor tubes and bellows, crucial parts for the devices that spin at very high speeds to enrich uranium gas.

Talks between Iran and world powers in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal have stalled. There is concern that Iran could be closer to being able to construct an atomic weapon if it chose to pursue one.

The nuclear deal collapsed four years ago when former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States and imposed crushing sanctions on Iran. In the meantime, Iran has vastly expanded its nuclear work

Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday insisted negotiations over the deal are going ahead properly, even after repeated comments by American officials that an agreement to restore the accord may not happen.

The nuclear deal saw Iran put advanced centrifuges into storage under the watch of the IAEA, while keeping its enrichment at 3.67% purity and its stockpile at only 300 kilograms (661 pounds) of uranium.

As of Feb. 19, the IAEA says Irans stockpile of all enriched uranium was nearly 3,200 kilograms (7,055 pounds). Some has been enriched up to 60% purity a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Meanwhile, Iran has stopped the IAEA from accessing its surveillance camera footage.

Kamalvandi reiterated Irans stance that Tehran will not provide data from the cameras to the U.N. nuclear agency if a deal is not concluded.

Iran long has insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. However, U.S. intelligence agencies and the IAEA believe Iran had an organized military nuclear program up until 2003.

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Iran confirms centrifuge workshop moved to underground ...

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The Iranian regimes terrorism in the region and beyond raises serious concerns. After the recent arrest of two terrorists in the United States, with possible links to Tehran, there is troubling news coming from the Ayatollahs network of terrorism in Turkey.

In recent years, Turkey has become a prime destination for Iranian dissidents and refugees to try to free themselves from the regimes clutches. Meanwhile, Tehran has also been quite active there.

The mullahs have been spending billions of dollars of peoples wealth on terrorism and forming networks in different countries to save their sinking regime. From the Americas to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, Tehran has formed extensive networks of terrorism and espionage. It uses Turkey, in some cases, to lure and carry out cross-border kidnapping of dissidents. The Iranian regime has recently arrested and kidnapped two Iranian-Arab citizens in Turkey after snaring them in a honey trap.

In October 2021, The Iranian regimes plot to kidnap Mehrdad Abdarbashi, an Iranian ex-pilot in the border city of Van, failed. The Turkish police arrested 11 agents, including some Turkish citizens.

In February 2020, the Turkish media reported that police had dismantled a terrorist ring that planned to abduct Shahnam Golshani, an Iranian refugee in Turkey. Golshani later revealed that some local agents were involved in his foiled kidnapping.

The regimes terror squad consisted of 17 agents, including Morteza Soltan Sanjari, Ali Ghahreman Haji Abad, and several retired Turkish army officers. The same group had kidnapped an Iranian named Yagub Hafez in Turkey and transferred him to Iran.

Tehrans ominous presence in Turkey is not limited to kidnapping Iranians. On November 14, 2019, the Iranian regimes agents assassinated Masoud Molavi Vardanjani, an Iranian dissident who had run a channel on Telegram, exposing the regimes corruption.

Later in March 2020, Reuters revealed in an exclusive report that the regimes diplomats instigated killing of dissidents in Istanbul, per Turkish officials.

According to Turkish officials, Video footage broadcast on Turkish television after Vardanjanis killing showed a gunman running past two men as they walked in central Istanbuls Sisli neighborhood at 10 pm on Nov. 14 last year.

The Vardanjanis companion, who was not harmed at all, was later identified as Ali Esfanjani. According to Reuters, Esfanjani went to the Iranian consulate in the morning before the killing. He later met the gunman to discuss details of the operation, and the officials said, Reuters wrote, quoting Turkish officials.

Since taking power in 1979 in Iran, the mullahs have been playing the terrorism card. Whenever it sees itself engulfed by domestic crises, the regime goes to its playbook with exporting terrorism and oppressing dissent as its centerpiece.

The Iranian regimes terrorism in Turkey dates back to the 1990s. Tehrans operatives carried out several assassinations in Turkey, targeting Iranian human rights defenders and members of Irans principal opposition group, the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), and its umbrella organization, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Hossein Abedini, an NCRI member, survived an assassination in March 1990. The actual target was Mohammad Mohaddessin, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the MEKs parent coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

Ali Akbar Ghorbani, a senior MEK member, was abducted in 1992 in Istanbul by an extremist group, Islamic Action, at the behest of Tehran. Along with the regimes agents sent from Tehran, the groups members tortured and killed Ghorbani and later buried his mutilated body in a shallow grave.

On Tuesday, February 20, 1996, at 9:00 pm, the Iranian regimes terrorists assassinated Zahra Rajabi, NCRIs representative in Turkey, along with an MEK activist. According to Turkish prosecutors, Reza Barzegar Masoumi, an Iranian regime intelligence agent who had disguised himself as a MEK supporter, led the assassins to the NCRI office at Fateh district in Istanbul.

Turkish authorities later revealed that several Iranian regime diplomat-terrorists were directly involved in the terror plot.

Using its diplomatic missions and embassies as centers of spies and terrorists has been the regimes modus operandi. In 2018, the European security services apprehended the regimes Vienna-based diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, who had plotted to bomb the NCRIs rally in Paris.

Due to the Wests feckless approach, the Iranian regime has only stepped up its terrorist activities, using them as leverage to blackmail its foreign interlocutors. By engaging in dialogue with the Iranian regime, to contain Tehran, Western powers are countenancing havoc to beget chaos. Granting any concessions to the regime in Tehran will only increase its ability to destabilize the Middle East.

The international community should double its efforts to tackle Tehrans expanding terrorism. The terrorist Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) should not only remain on the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, but the regimes diplomatic missions should be closed, and Tehrans agents should be expelled. This is the only way to curb Irans terrorism. Anything less would only encourage the mullahs to continue their terrorist path.

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World Needs to Increase Efforts To Curb Iranian Terrorism in Turkey - National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)