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An Iranian woman looks at her mobile phone outside a shopping mall in Tehran in 2019. ( Vahid Salemi/AP Images)

Iranian lawmakers have proposed banning all foreign-owned social messaging apps and replacing them with domestic versions run by the regime.

Dozens of lawmakers have signed the August 24 proposal to create a committee to license and monitor domestic social networking sites and impose punishments of up to two years in prison for violating the new rules, Radio Farda reports.

But as Irans regime moves to further restrict everyday Iranians access to the internet, many senior regime officials still freely use U.S.-based social media technologies to spout propaganda.

Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has several foreign language accounts on Twitter. He posted numerous tweets on September 1 bashing apeace deal between the United Arab Emirates and Israelas a betrayal of Arab nations that wont last long. Since then, Bahrain has also joined the UAE in normalizing ties with Israel.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also have active Twitter accounts. Butthe regime already blocks everyday Iranians access to Twitter, as well as Facebook and YouTube.

The move to further restrict internet access comes after the regimeblacked out the internet to mask its violent crackdownon nationwide protests in November. Regime forceskilled about 1,500 peopleand rights groups say the regime tortured protesters after the demonstrations.

The Iranian regimes security and intelligence agencies apply filters to disrupt internet connections or restrict access. Telegram, the most popular messaging app in the country, is often censored, according to Radio Farda.

Since 2005, Irans leadershave spent at least $4.5 billion to build a domestic intranetthat would block data requests from going outside the country and allow the government to censor content. Regime officials recently announceda deal with China to build the national intranet.

The proposal in Irans parliament, called Organizing Social Media Messaging, would establish a committee to license and monitor messaging apps. The committee of regime entities would include a representative of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a U.S.-designated terrorist organization that answers directly to Khamenei.

The plan would require that an Iranian citizen own at least 50 percent of any domestic app, which must be hosted in Iran and comply with the nations laws. Individuals or entities that produce a messaging app outside the law or distribute virtual private networks would be in violation.

The U.S. government supports the right of the Iranian people to the free flow of information through its policies, such as theU.S. Treasury Departments General License D1, which facilitates the use of personal communications services in Iran.

By U.S. Embassy Tbilisi | 17 September, 2020 | Topics: Human Rights, News | Tags: freedom of expression, Iran, technology

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Who gets to use messaging apps in Iran? - US Embassy in Georgia

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have the honour of speaking on behalf of France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

We would like to thank the Director General for his report contained in document GOV/2020/47 on the NPT Safeguards Agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

We commend the Agency for its continued and intense efforts over almost a year to engage Iran in a substantial dialogue to clarify information relating to the correctness and completeness of Irans declarations under its Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol. We appreciate the Director Generals intensive personal efforts aimed at securing access to two specified locations in Iran and clarifying questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material or nuclear-related activities in Iran.

We welcome the Joint Statement reached on 26 August between the Agency and Iran. The Statement paves a procedural way forward towards the resolution of the safeguards implementation issues specified by the Agency and towards implementation by Iran of its legal obligations to provide access to sites identified by IAEA.

We take note of Irans encouraging statements on its intention to further strengthen its cooperation with the IAEA, and that access to one specified location has already been provided and the date for access to the second location has been scheduled. Furthermore, we note that the Agency has also conducted an additional inventory verification activity at a facility in Iran, in line with the above-mentioned Joint Statement. We expect Iran to fully implement the Joint Statement and provide full access to the second site on the date agreed with the Agency.

We call on Iran to provide the IAEA with the requested information and clarifications needed to resolve all open safeguards questions, including on the origins of anthropogenic natural uranium particles detected by the Agency at an undeclared location in 2019. This is a matter of Irans legally binding safeguards obligations.

We have confidence in the robustness and comprehensiveness of standard practice whereby the Agency evaluates all available safeguards-relevant information, including third-party information. The IAEA has robust procedures in place to corroborate and verify the veracity of third party information.

We encourage the Agency to continue to provide updates on the aforementioned issues to the Board as appropriate.

For transparency reasons, we would welcome the publication of the Director Generals report contained in GOV/2020/47.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Published 18 September 2020

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E3 statement on NPT Safeguards Agreement with Iran - GOV.UK

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier safely transited on Friday through the Strait of Hormuz, the worlds most important chokepoint for oil shipments, the U.S. Navy said, as tensions with Iran continue to simmer.

In a scheduled maneuver, the U.S. sent the carrier and several other warships through the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, according to the U.S. Navys Bahrain-based 5th fleet. The Nimitz, Americas oldest carrier in active service, carries some 5,000 sailors and Marines.

American aircraft carriers have for decades sailed through the international oil shipping route in what the U.S. describes as defensive operations aimed at keeping the strait open.

The show of force follows months of escalating incidents in the crucial waterway, which led earlier this year to an American drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad. Tehran responded to that strike by firing ballistic missiles that wounded dozens of American troops in Iraq.

The Nimitzs arrival in the Mideast saw Iran conduct a live-fire drill targeting a mockup aircraft carrier resembling it, underscoring the lingering threat of military conflict between the countries.

The Nimitz strike group is at the peak of readiness, said Rear Adm. Jim Kirk, its commander.

The Nimitz, whose homeport is Bremerton, Washington, has patrolled the Arabian Sea since late July. It replaced the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which had spent months in the Arabian Sea on its deployment, breaking the Navys previous at-sea record. Navy officials have limited port calls due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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US carrier transits Strait of Hormuz amid tensions with Iran - Yahoo News

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) For the third straight day, federal prosecutors have announced criminal charges accusing Iranian nationals with conducting cyberattacks in the U.S., with the charges this time targeting a member of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.

The most recent charges announced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, accuse a member of the Revolutionary Guard and two others of stealing the identities of individuals working in aerospace and satellite technology. The hackers would then use those identities to launch phishing campaigns on the tech workers' peers in order to launch malware and commandeer sensitive data and intellectual property, officials said.

The accused Revolutionary Guard member is Said Arabi, 34. The other two are Mohammad Reza Espargham, 25, and Mohammad Bayati, 34, all Iranian nationals residing in Iran. Espargham is identified in a leader in the Iranian Dark Coders Team, described in the indictment as a notorious group of Iranian hackers responsible for numerous computer intrusions worldwide.

All three are living in Iran. Court records do not list an attorney for any of the men.

The use of malware, the theft of commercial data and intellectual property, and the use of social engineering to steal the identities of United States citizens to accomplish unlawful acts will not be tolerated," said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia G. Zachary Terwilliger, whose office is prosecuting the case.

Prosecutors say the conspiracy stretched from 2015 through 2019. The indictment spells out one phishing attack that uses the name of an unidentified college professor who purportedly was seeking help on a project related to the processing of satellite images. The email asks recipients to click on a link to assist with the project.

Earlier this week,prosecutors in Boston obtained indictmentsagainst an Iranian national and a Palestinian national for allegedly defacing websites across the U.S. in retaliation to thetargeted killingof Iran Gen. Qassem Soleimani, replacing the websites' content with pictures of the top Iranian general and messages such as Down with America.

And on Wednesday, the department announced charges against two Iranian nationals accused of stealing hundreds of terabytes of data in a hacking campaign targeting institutions in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced sanctions against an Iranian cyber threat group known as Advanced Persistent Threat 39 (APT39) and 45 individuals associated with the group. In a statement, Pompeo called Iran one of the worlds leading threats to cybersecurity and human rights online.

We will continue to expose Irans nefarious behavior and impose costs on the regime until they turn away from their destabilizing agenda. Pompeo said.

Excerpt from:
More Iranian Nationals Charged with Hacking Crimes - Manufacturing.net

Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the NCRI

Maryam Rajavi: Human rights for all the Iranian people, comprehensive sanctions against the religious dictatorship, and recognizing the Iranian peoples resistance and struggle for freedom

Maryam Rajavi: The 1988 massacre and the November 2019 killings must be referred to the U.N. Security Council. The time has come to remove impunity for Khamenei and the regimes officials. They must face justice

On the brink of the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly, an online international summit, entitled Trans-Atlantic Summit on Iran Policy, Time to Hold the Iranian Regime Accountable, brought together Iranians in various countries around the world from 10,000 locations.

Among the personalities who addressed the summit were 30 bipartisan U.S. lawmakers from the House and the Senate, including Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Roy Blunt, Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Bob Menendez, and dignitaries like Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor, General James Jones, National Security Advisor to President Obama (2009-2010), Newt Gingrich, 50th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Joseph Lieberman, former U.S. Senator, as well as a delegation of U.K. lawmakers, and Amb. Giulio Terzi, former Foreign Minister of Italy.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the keynote speaker of the summit, paid tribute to Navid Afkari, a rebellious national hero recently executed by the regime and said: Faced with executions and massacres, the people of Iran urge the United Nations, and the U.N. Security Council, in particular, to restore snapback sanctions stipulated in the six U.N. resolutions against the clerical regime in Iran. Otherwise, Khamenei will continue to ravage the nation as his regimes survival depends on murder and suppression. If Khamenei were to stop executions, he would lose control of the situation, and uprisings simmering in the depths of Iranian society would erupt and overthrow the mullahs religious fascism.

Mrs. Rajavi emphasized Khameneis role in the heartbreaking deaths of over 105,000 people who had lost their lives to the Coronavirus, ranking Iran as the country with the highest number of fatalities per capita in the world, and added: No one initially believed that the clerical regime had deliberately shot down the Ukrainian airliner when it first happened. Likewise, it is hard to believe that Khamenei and Rouhani are deliberately sending people to their deaths by exposing them to the Coronavirus. But they have, infact, adopted the strategy of causing mass human casualties to protect their regime from the Iranian peoples protests and from the danger of being overthrown.

Mrs. Rajavi added: The value of assets amassed by institutions and foundations controlled by Khamenei amounts to more than one trillion dollars. All these properties, assets, and resources belong to the people of Iran but so far, not a cent of it has been allocated to their health and medical care The Coronavirus is the mullahs strongest ally; imprisonment and executions are their most essential instruments of power, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is the most reliable killing machine to prop up their rule If you do not intend to crack down on the public, stoke wars and export terrorism, one army should be sufficient for you. Do not impose the astronomical expenses of the IRGC on the people of Iran. Dissolve the IRGC and spend the money used for its expenses on health and medical care instead, and pay the salaries of nurses, workers, teachers, and public sector employees.

Mrs. Rajavi recalled the uprisings of 2017 and 2019, pointing to the escalation in suppression and murder of MEK supporters and protesters, including the massacre of 1,500 young people and teenagers during the November 2019 uprisings. She also mentioned the mass arrests, torture, and recent death sentences for detainees on charges of moharebeh (waging war on God) and said: The clerical regime is at war with the people of Iran and with the world community. The wrong international policies that aid the murderers of the people of Iran, allowing the religious fascism to violate the rights of the people of Iran and spread war and terrorism in the Middle East, must be stopped.

The NCRI President-elect outlined a three-pronged policy approach vis-a-vis the mullahs regime, comprised of: human rights for all the people of Iran, comprehensive sanctions against the religious dictatorship, and recognition of the Iranian peoples Resistance and struggle for freedom in Iran.

Mrs. Rajavi added: It is a mistake to think that a reduction of international sanctions will result in the regime abandoning its belligerence. Ironically, it was under the auspices of the JCPOA that the Iranian regimes terrorism ravaged Europe.

The Trans-Atlantic Summit on Iran Policy featured hundreds of distinguished political personalities from the U.S. and Europe. Some of the dignitaries who either directly addressed the summit or sent messages of support included: Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former U.S. National Security Advisor General James Jones, General Jack Keane, Senator Joseph Lieberman, Senator Robert Torricelli, Senator Kelly Ayotte, former Albanian prime minister Pandeli Majko, Chairman of Albanias Republican Party Fatmir Mediu, Chair of the Foreign Policy Committee of the Socialist Movement for Integration and former Minister of European Integration of Albania Klajda Gjosha Ambassador Robert Joseph, former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi, British parliamentarian and former Brexit Minister David Jones, senior Member of British Parliament Bob Blackman, US Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt, ranking member of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez, Chairman of Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on The Judiciary and member of Foreign Relations Committee Ted Cruz, member of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jeanne Shaheen, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and Chairman of subcommittees such as human rights and womens issues Marco Rubio, Chairman of Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and member of Foreign Relations Committee Rob Portman, member of Senate Armed Services Committee and Chairwomen of Subcommittee on Water and Power Martha McSally, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Eliot Engel, Rep. Ted Yoho, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, Rep. Tom McClintock, Rep. Raul Ruiz, Rep. Judy Chu, Rep. Paul Gosar, Rep. Lance Gooden, Rep. Janice Schakowsky, Rep. Kathleen Rice, Rep. Tom Emmer, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, Rep. David Joyce, Robert Aderholt, Rep. French Hill, Rep. Brad Schneider, Rep. Don Bacon, Rep. Glenn Grothman, Rep. Jody Hice, as well as representatives Mikie Sherrill Rob Woodall who sent written declarations of support for the gathering.

The global virtual gathering started on Friday at 17:00 European Central Time and continued until 22:00.

Speakers in the summit demanded justice for over 30,000 MEK and other activists, political prisoners massacred in 1988. They urged an end to the policy of appeasement and demanded those who ordered and carried out this great crime, who currently occupy high positions in the regime, to be brought to justice.

Speakers also pointed to the criminal execution of champion wrestler Navid Afkari and urged international intervention to stop the wave of executions and death penalties for anti-regime protesters and especially those detained during the November 2019 uprising.

The summit was broadcast live by satellite into Iran and was also available on social media, including Twitter and Facebook, airing live on the internet in five different languages.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran

September 18, 2020

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Policy on Iran: The Imperative of Sanctions and Holding the Regime to Account - NCRI - National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)