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An award-winning Iranian filmmaker imprisoned over his work has been released after serving about five months of his year-long sentence, though he doesn't know whether he'll make movies again in the Islamic Republic.

Keywan Karimi told The Associated Press on Sunday that he credited international pressure for his early release, as well as escaping the 223 lashes that were part of his sentence.

Others, however, remain imprisoned in the Islamic Republic as part of a hard-line crackdown amid President Hassan Rouhani's outreach to the wider world through the nuclear deal.

Karimi said in an interview over Skype that he served his sentence in Tehran's Evin prison, which holds political prisoners and dual nationals detained by the security services. He described spending his first month in solitary confinement, a place he described as "very dirty, very cold."

He said he suffered pain in his stomach and leg, but ultimately recovered. He later was put into the general prison population, sharing a room with 20 other prisoners.

"You're far away from freedom, far away from something you love," Karimi said.

Karimi was convicted of "insulting sanctities" in Iran, whose government is ultimately overseen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The case involved footage from both a "video clip" and a film he directed called Writing on the City,which focuses on political graffiti in Iran from its 1979 Islamic Revolution to its contested 2009 election.

Karimi is perhaps best known by international film critics for his 2013 black-and-white minimalist film, The Adventure of the Married Couple.

The short film, based on a story by Italian writer Italo Calvino, follows the grinding routine of a husband and wife working opposite shifts, she in a bottle factory and he at a mannequin store. Neither speaks, the only noise is the hum of the city they live in.

The film played in some 40 film festivals and won prizes in Spain and Colombia.

Karimi is one of several artists, poets, journalists, models and activists arrested in a crackdown on expression led by hard-liners who oppose Rouhani.

His release comes ahead of Iran's May presidential election, in which Rouhani is seeking re-election. For now, Karimi said he was grateful to be out of prison, though he felt alienated from Iran and its people

"I want to continue filmmaking, but I don't know how and in which country," Karimi said.

Link:
Iranian filmmaker jailed for his work released early - CBC.ca

The conversation in Washington about the nuclear deal with Iran has been on tactical issues like how many months it might take for Iran to breakout from constraints of the agreementlength of time Tehran would need to produce enough highly enriched uranium to make one nuclear weapon. To extend breakout time, the accord requires a restriction on uranium enrichment at two key sites, Fordow and Natanz, and that the core of a heavy-water reactor in Arak be rendered inoperable. Without doing so, a plutonium byproduct might have been reprocessed into weapons-grade material, which would be another route for Iran to acquire the Bomb.

Nuclear weaponization is the conduct of experimentation on large-scale high explosives. To create a nuclear weapon, it is necessary to have fuel (enriched uranium or plutonium), an explosive device (trigger mechanism), and a delivery system, (e.g., a missile). Having ceded to Iran the right to enrich on its own soil and permitted it to develop an advanced enrichment capability, preventing weaponization is the final barrier against a nuclear-capable Iran.

At the conference, the NCRI showed maps, graphs, and charts of the covert organization as well as names of individuals involved in the weaponization program. At the new site, given by Tehran an innocent-sounding name, Research Academy, the regime has used a military facility in Parchin to hide its activities and test high explosives.

The engineering unit that is charged and tasked with actually building the bomb in a secret way for the Iranian regime is called the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, said Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of NCRIs Washington office, using a power point presentation.

A spokesman for the White House National Security Council said that his colleagues are carefully evaluating the NCRI package.

The NCRI called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect Tehrans nuclear sites. It also demanded the international community halt Irans enrichment program and dismantle all covert sites involved in nuclear weapons research and development.

Attending that news conference and being a close follower of nuclear revelations by Iranian dissidents, I can attest the information presented appeared to be valid.

David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, said structures visible in the satellite photography are consistent with a facility that makes high explosives. The international inspectors should use authorities under the nuclear deal to go and look at this site, Albright said. Olli Heinonen, former deputy director-general of the IAEA, said, This is a typical design for a site that works with high explosives. ... Most likely IAEA should have access to this site.

Jafarzadeh said, This is the site that has been kept secret. There is secret research to manufacture the bomb and basically cover up the real activities of the Iranian regime.

The allegations of the NCRI drew upon its extensive network in Iran to obtain information it presented on April 21st. The intelligence demonstrated there is a secret nerve center of the Iranian regimes nuclear weapons project. It is responsible for designing the bomb, and this center has been continuing its work, even after the 2015 nuclear deal.

Irans weaponization program must be totally dismantled; there needs to be airtight control over all aspects of Tehrans nuclear program and permanent, unhindered and immediate access to all sites and access to and interviews with key nuclear experts; and all outstanding questions regarding possible military dimensions of Irans nuclear program need to be followed up to expose the full scope of the nuclear weapons program. The Trump administration should emphasize these three steps. It would move the conversation to a strategic level, where it is most likely to deter the Iranian regime from cheating on its international obligations and prevent it from obtaining the bomb.

Dr. Raymond Tanter (@Americanchr)served on the senior staff of the Reagan National Security Council from 1981-82. He is now professor emeritus at the University of Michigan.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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Trump must work to stop Iran's secret nuclear program | TheHill - The Hill (blog)

(BEIRUT) Syria's military said Israel struck a military installation southwest of Damascus International Airport before dawn Thursday, setting off a series of explosions and raising tensions further between the two neighbors.

Apparently seeking to interrupt weapons transfers to the Hezbollah group in Lebanon, Israel has struck inside Syria with increasing frequency in recent weeks, making the war-torn country a proxy theater for Israel's wider war with Iran.

The increasing tempo of attacks risks inflaming a highly combustible situation drawing in Israel, Syria and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, a staunch ally of President Bashar Assad's government with thousands of fighters in Syria. Israel's military said later Thursday that its Patriot Missile Defense system intercepted an incoming projectile from Syria over the Golan Heights.

An Israeli defense official said the Patriot hit a drone, and the military is checking if it was a Russian aircraft that entered the Israeli side by mistake or if it was Syrian. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with protocol.

Both the Syrian government and Hezbollah, however, are mired in the country's 6-year-old civil war and are unlikely to carry out any retaliation that may ignite a bigger conflagration with Israel.

"Iran and Hezbollah are overstretched, and it's not clear they can afford to gamble with a direct showdown with Israel now," said Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center. "Iran knows no matter how powerful they've become, they can't be fighting on two fronts at the same time."

Israeli Minister of Intelligence Yisrael Katz would not comment directly on the incident but said any similar strike would be in line with established policy to interrupt weapons transfers.

"It absolutely matches our declared policy, a policy that we also implement," Katz told Israel's Army Radio.

Just before the apparent Israeli missile strike, at least three cargo jets from Iran probably landed at the Damascus airport, said Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for the flight-tracking website FlightRadar24. They include an Il-76 flown by the Iranian cargo company Pouya Air that "was last tracked over Iraq headed towards Damascus," he said.

It's unknown what they were carrying. Passenger flights and civilian cargo jets continue flying into Damascus, although there's suspicion that some commercial flights serve as cover for weapons transfers from Iran.

The Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a right-leaning think tank that has criticized the nuclear deal Iran struck with world powers, has said Pouya Air is the latest name for a long-sanctioned airline. It also has accused Pouya Air of funneling arms from Iran into Yemen's capital of Sanaa to supply Shiite rebels there.

Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the foundation, said he tracked a fourth cargo flight from Iran to Syria on Wednesday night, an Airbus A300 operated by Mahan Air, which is suspected of ties to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. He also called one of the cargo flights, a Qeshm Fars Air Boeing 747, especially suspicious because the airline stopped operating in 2013, only to resume flights to Damascus three weeks ago.

"We don't know for sure, but let's say that we can fairly safely assume that the weaponry and fighters reach Damascus through these daily flights," Ottolenghi told The Associated Press.

The explosions near Damascus reverberated across the capital, seat of Assad's power.

Syria's state-run SANA news agency said Israel had fired several missiles from inside the occupied Golan Heights, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Damascus, striking a military installation southwest of the airport that serves both military and civilian flights. It reported damage but no casualties.

"The buildings shook from the force of the blast," said a media activist who goes by Salam al-Ghoutawi of the Ghouta Media Center in the opposition-held northeastern suburbs, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the airport. He said he heard the roar of jets in the distance.

Explosions were silhouetted against the night sky in a video published by the center. Debris was seen flying out as the explosions illuminated a sizeable cloud nearby.

Hezbollah's al-Manar media station reported a blast at fuel tanks and a warehouse next to the airport, which is 25 kilometers (16 miles) east of central Damascus.

The Syrian military said in a statement the attack sought to "raise the morale of terrorist groups" the government maintains are fighting Assad's forces. It made no mention of whether it would respond.

Israel is widely believed to have carried out airstrikes in recent years on advanced weapons systems in Syria including Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and Iranian-made missiles as well as on Hezbollah positions. It rarely comments on such operations.

Last month, Syria fired missiles at Israeli jets after they struck targets in Syria, in a rare military exchange between the two adversaries.

Hezbollah is an avowed enemy of Israel, and the two sides fought a monthlong war in 2006. Tensions between them along the Lebanon-Israel border have risen in recent weeks, with each side warning of a much more serious confrontation. Some Israeli officials have also recently been threatening grave damage to the Lebanese civilian infrastructure in case of a new conflict with Hezbollah, apparently in hopes the country can somehow rein in the militia.

Yahya, the analyst, said Israel is increasingly worried about the potential arsenal that Hezbollah's could acquire and the weapons already available in Syria.

"Most likely they see a window of opportunity where their intervention can degrade Hezbollah's military power," she said.

The conflict in Syria, which pits Assad and his regional allies against local and foreign opposition forces, has killed more than 400,000 people since it began in 2011. The civil war is further complicated by militant factions such as al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria and the even more powerful Islamic State group, which in 2014 seized a large chunk of territory but lately has been losing ground in the face of a campaign by a U.S.-led international coalition.

Russia, another key Assad ally, denounced what it called an act of "aggression" against Syria. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova did not directly blame Israel for Thursday's explosion, but she cited Syrian media as saying Israel was responsible.

In other developments, at least 19 people were killed in air raids across rebel-held Idlib province in the northwest. Some appeared to target ambulances and medical centers.

The Civil Defense, a search-and-rescue organization, said four medical staff were killed in an attack on a university hospital in the town of Deir Sharqi, and four paramedics or ambulance operators died in an airstrike on an ambulance services in another town, Maarzita.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 civilians, including nine children, were killed around the province. The Civil Defense reported the same overall death toll.

The activists believe Russia or the Syrian government launched the raids. U.S. jets also are known to strike in Idlib province, targeting al-Qaida-linked fighters.

Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Ian Deitch in Jerusalem, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Albert Aji in Damascus contributed.

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Israeli Airstrikes Are Turning Syria Into a Proxy War With Iran - TIME

California and Iran pistachio producers pitch shells at one another in tariff fight Sacramento Bee Pistachios now pose the latest flashpoint between Iran and the United States. As the two countries struggle to redefine their relationship over weighty matters such as nuclear policy, California pistachio producers have another mission. They're ... and more »

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California and Iran pistachio producers pitch shells at one another in tariff fight - Sacramento Bee

In reality, elections do matter in Iran. Election posters of Iranian presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

In Donald Trump, opponents of the Iranian establishment bent on regime change have identified a new hope. The US administration, which often talks tough on Iran, has rejuvenated fringe exiled Iranian opposition groups who are irrelevant to modern Iran, yet appeal to gullible Americans.

One such group is led by Reza Pahlavi, who gets attention mainly because he is the son of the late Shah, who was exiled during the revolution in 1979. An advocate of secularism, human rights, and parliamentary democracy in Iran as he puts it on his Twitter profile, he reached out to Trump to congratulate him when he won the election, asking him to to engage with the secular and democratic forces to defeat political Islam.

Pahlavi's overblown rhetoric makes him sound like war-mongering Republicans and Israeli hardliners

In his letter, he wrote that the Islamic Republic was promoting a regressive ideology [that] has spread like a cancer across the globe: from the Middle East to Asia and Africa, and even to Europe and the Americas. With such overblown rhetoric, Pahlavi sounds like war-mongering Republicans and Israeli hardliners who seek to portray Iran as a bigger threat than Isis.

Irans exiled crown prince wants a revolution, is how AP began its interview with Pahlavi in April, in which he says this regime is simply irreformable because the nature of it, its DNA, is such that it cannot.

My focus right now is on liberating Iran, and I will find any means that I can, without compromising the national interests and independence, with anyone who is willing to give us a hand, whether it is the US or the Saudis or the Israelis or whomever it is, he told AP.

In February, Pahlavi told Deutsche Welle that the Iranian regime from the very beginning has been the root cause of practically every problem we see emanating from that region The majority of the Iranian people, I would say easily 90% of Irans society, is against this regime and wants this regime to go.

The other group calling for a revolution is the MEK (the Peoples Mujahedin of Iran), a shadowy group characterised by many observers including former members as cult-like. Earlier this month, Senator John McCain travelled to a conference in Albania to meet with the groups leader, Maryam Rajavi. Speaking in a packed room of MEK supporters, many wearing identical clothes, McCain praised the group and said: This is an example of the support you are able to get in the United States of America, in the world, to get you to get to freedom.

Rajavi, who has led the group for almost as long as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been the supreme leader of Iran, said during the conference that experience has shown that this regime is incapable of changing its behaviour. Thus, regime change in Iran is necessary for peace and stability in the region and for global peace and security.

Contrary to what you might expect, these two opposition forces do not get along. Its pretty much a cult-type structure, Pahlavi said of MEK in his AP interview. Hes absolutely right.

Its not long ago that the MEK, described by US thinktank Rand as a skilled manipulators of public opinion, was listed by the US and the EU as a terrorist organisation. (When it was delisted by the US in 2012, the US government acknowledged that the organisation had renounced violence and had committed no terrorist acts for more than a decade. It was also delisted by the EU in 2009). The group fought alongside Saddam Hussein against Iran in the eight-year war in the 1980s. That itself should explain its immense unpopularity inside Iran. According to state department and FBI assessments, the MEK was behind the killing of Americans in Iran in the 1970s, though the current MEK leadership disavows those killings. Rajavi has also been barred from entering the UK.

In recent years, the MEK has paid many senior American officials to speak at their events, including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Elaine Chao, Trumps secretary of transportation, who received a $50,000 honorarium to speak at an MEK event.

A strong supporter of the MEK is Saudi Arabia. In July 2016, Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former Saudi intelligence chief, spoke at MEKs rally in Paris.

In a not-so-subtle reference to Saudi Arabia, the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad-Javad Zarif, said: In most countries in our region election is a dream You are talking about a region where people dont have a constitution for Gods sake.

Zarif has a point. In a few weeks time, Iranians yet again go to the polls to choose their next government. Groups such as MEK have portrayed Iranian elections as futile. In reality, elections do matter in Iran. While they are far from being fair, given the extent of the vetting of candidates, they are still competitive and are taken seriously by the electorate.

Theres a constant battle in Iran between the elected faction of the establishment, and the unelected faction. In 2013, Irans majority pro-reform population threw its weight behind Hassan Rouhani. Iran has indeed drastically changed under the moderate cleric.

Rouhani, to his credit, fulfilled his main promise of ending the stalemate over the nuclear issue. And if he hasnt been able to succeed to the extent that was expected of him in economic terms, its not because his government did not do enough to generate investment, its because the west the US and the UK in particular have failed to give Iran proper access to the global market.

It is also true that the presidents hands are tied in many matters, and that the human rights situation is poor, but perhaps not worse than in many US allies in the region. Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi remain under the house arrest over the 2009 disputed election. A string of dual nationals languish in jail, including Karan Vafadari, an Iranian-American national belonging to the Zoroastrian faith, and his wife Afarin Niasari. Journalist Hengameh Shahidi is on hunger strike. And on the international front, Irans support for Syrias Bashar al-Assad remains a contentious issue even at home.

Nevertheless, the Iranian people by and large still believe in gradual change, however slow the pace of reform might be. Huge turnouts for elections represent a rejection of the sort of things that Pahlavi and Rajavi have to offer.

In their constant mission to demonise Iran, the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia have heavily relied on groups such as MEK. The fact of the matter is that they remain out of touch with the realities on the ground. Both groups have used human rights as a casus belli, and have simplified the complexities of politics on the ground to suit the foreign audience. So long as reform-minded Iranians are working hard to generate change from within, the intemperate voices of Pahlavi and Rajavi, and their attempts to build political capital in the west, should be dismissed.

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Iran's people care about elections. The so-called democratic fringe doesn't - The Guardian