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GENEVA, Feb. 13, 2017 In a statement that has gone viral on Twitter and Facebook, UN Watch, a non-governmental human rights NGO in Geneva, expressed disappointment that Swedens self-declared first feminist government in the world sacrificed its principles and betrayed the rights of Iranian women as Trade Minister Ann Linde and other female members walked before Iranian President Rouhani on Saturday wearing Hijabs, Chadors, and long coats, in deference to Irans oppressive and unjust modesty laws which make the Hijab compulsory despite Stockholms promise to promote a gender equality perspective internationally, and to adopt a feminist foreign policy in which equality between women and men is a fundamental aim.

In doing so, Swedens female leaders ignored the recent appeal by Iranian womens right activist Masih Alinejad who urged Europeans female politicians to stand for their own dignity and to refuse to kowtow to the compulsory Hijab while visiting Iran.

Alinrejad created a Facebook page for Iranian women to resist the law and show their hair as an act of resistance, which now numbers 1 million followers.

European female politicians are hypocrites, says Alinejad. They stand with French Muslim women and condemn the burkini banbecause they think compulsion is badbut when it happens to Iran, they just care about money.

The scene in Tehran on Saturday was also a sharp contrast to Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lvins feminist stance against U.S. President Donald Trump, in a viral tweet and then in a Guardian op-ed last week, in which she wrote that the world need strong leadership for womens rights.

Trade Minister Linde, who signed multiple agreements with Iranian ministers while wearing a veil, sees no conflict between her governments human rights policy and signing trade deals with an oppressive dictatorship that tortures prisoners, persecutes gays, and is a leading executioner of minors.

If Sweden really cares about human rights, they should not be empowering a regime that brutalizes its own citizens while carrying out genocide in Syria; and if they care about womens rights, then the female ministers never should have gone to misogynistic Iran in the first place, said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.

The government has now come under sharp criticism from centrist and left-wing Swedish lawmakers, who said the ministers should not have deferred to gender apartheid.

They go to my country, said Aliinejad recently in the European Parliament, and they ignore millions of those women who send their photos to me and put themselves in danger to be heard. And [the European politicians] keep their smile, and wearing hijab, and saying this is a cultural issuewhich is wrong.

Below, Swedens feminist trademinister Ann Linde dons the hijab and wears a black cloak like her Iranian counterpart.

Writing in the Guardian, Deputy prime ministerLvin contrasted Swedish policy with that of President Donald Trump,sayingthat the world needs strong leadership for womens rights and Sweden will have an increasingly important role to play in this. She added that many countries could learn an important lesson from this.

Her viral tweet above was meant to emphasize her governments focus on womens rights, as opposed to Trump.

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Walk of shame: Sweden's first feminist government don hijabs in Iran - UN Watch (press release)

Amir H. Heidarian Published 3:02 p.m. CT Feb. 12, 2017 | Updated 6 hours ago

Thousands marched towards Tehran's Azadi Square on the anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. USA TODAY

A handout picture provided by the office of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani shows him delivering a speech on Friday at Azadi Square in Tehran during a ceremony to mark the 38th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.(Photo: Getty Images)

As an Iranian American I am grateful that the Obama administration helped relocate 3,000 of my friends and colleagues, members of the principal Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), out of Camp Liberty, Iraq. But I am very critical of its utter weakness in dealing with the Islamic Republic

Having formerly occupied the mini modern town called Ashraf in eastern Iraq, MEK members were under constant threat of attack from Shiite militant groups loyal to Iran. Dozens had been killed over the years but now, the survivors are safe in Albania and elsewhere, and are free to carry on their work for the ouster of the repressive theocratic system in place in Tehran.

Although the previous administration is owed credit for its action on this issue, even where Camp Liberty is concerned, the Obama White House carried on its work with little fanfare. It never acted as a public advocate for the MEK, and it never confronted Iran over its role in the repeated targeting of the camp with missiles that could often be traced back to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Since Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was elected in 2013, things have gotten worse in many respects. The so-called moderate executive has overseen a dramatic increase in executions, in a country that already had a reputation for maintaining the highest rate of executions per capita. At the same time, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has undertaken a major crackdown on activists, journalists, minority groups and dual nationals. The Rouhani administration did nothing to challenge this crackdown, and neither did the Obama administration.

This fact was repeatedly underscored by international human rights organizations, which publicly criticized the Obama administration and its allies for sidelining human rights issues in the interest of keeping a narrow focus on the nuclear deal, which effectively left 80 million Iranians at the mercy of the IRGC.

This past week, President Donald Trumps National Security Adviser Michael Flynn formally put Iran on notice over its recent ballistic missile test and its ongoing provocative moves in the region. Then Trump himself took the regime to task for playing with fire and failing to appreciate the conciliatory treatment it had received from his predecessor. That soft approach is now at an end, according to the president and his foreign policy team, who insist that all options are on the table as potential responses to any more malign behavior by Tehran or the IRGC.

We welcome this messaging, as well as the follow-through that the administration has shown in imposing new sanctions on 13 individuals and 12 companies connected to the Iranian ballistic missile program. We are hopeful that further such sanctions will be used to isolate the IRGC and shrink its influence both at home and abroad. Presently, the hardline paramilitary controls the majority of Irans GDP, is acquiring larger shares of the national budget and is benefiting from President Barack Obamas misguided nuclear agreement.

Counteracting the enrichment of the IRGC is the first step toward addressing Irans abysmal human rights record. And whether or not this is specifically part of Trumps aim, he is on the right path with his imposition of non-nuclear sanctions and his declared willingness to take more of the same measures.

Amir H. Heidarian, a resident of Mequon, is president of the Iranian American Community of Wisconsin, a member of the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC-US).

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Heidarian: Iran policy may positively impact human rights - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Common Dreams

Iran: Challenging Three American Truths Common Dreams The United States recently put Iran on notice. National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn stated, The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate Iran's provocations that threaten our interests. The days of turning a blind eye to Iran's hostile and ...

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Iran: Challenging Three American Truths - Common Dreams

Lionel DeputeHerald Reporter Iran has commended the excellent political relations with Zimbabwe and urged the strengthening of trade and economic ties between the two countries.Speaking at the commemorations of the National Day of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Harare on Friday, incoming Iranian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Ahmad Erfanian said his government will strengthen trade relations that have been low because of trade sanctions that were imposed on Iran by Western countries.

Despite the excellent political relations that exist between the two countries, the volume of trade is not what is expected, he said. I will devote all of my efforts to work towards strengthening economic and trade relations with Zimbabwe.

With the implementation of the nuclear deal with six powers, sanctions against Iran have been lifted and there is no restriction to expanding the trade relations between the two countries.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Edgar Mbwembwe said relations between Iran and Zimbabwe dated back to the liberation struggle.We celebrate this historic and momentous day fully cognisant of the close relations that so happily exist, between the Republic of Zimbabwe and the Islamic Republic of Iran, he said.

These strong bonds of friendship and solidarity have been mutually nurtured before and after Zimbabwes independence.Deputy Minister Mbwembwe said Government will continue to make the visible relations stronger for the peoples benefit.

We remain committed to maintain this momentum to further strengthen these relations for the benefit of our people, he said.Deputy Minister Mbwembwe highlighted a number of projects that were imitated with the support of the Iranian government in the previous years, including Zimbabwe-Iran Joint Commission and scholarships for Zimbabweans in medicine and engineering.

We have consulted and mutually implemented wide ranging programmes and projects undertaken in the past years, he said.(These include) the Zimbabwean-Iran Joint Commission, scholarships for Zimbabwean students, the visit by secretary of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Joey Bimha in November 2016 and cooperation in the small and medium enterprises and cooperative sector.

Deputy Minister Mbwembwe said the pending visit by the Speaker of Parliament Advocate Jacob Mudenda to Tehran was also evidence of cordial relations between the two countries.

The month of February marks the 38th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

The Islamic Revolution gained its final victory on February 11 in 1979, after years of struggle, self-sacrifice and resistance under the leadership of Imam Khomeini.

Originally posted here:
Excellent Zim, Iran ties hailed - The Herald

As promised, President Trump made his first Supreme Court nomination last week, a historic choice that dominated headlines in the subsequent days.

But 14 hours later, his White House issued an unexpected statement that could have fateful consequences too. The statement, followed by others and new financial sanctions on Iran, effectively drew a diplomatic red line designed to contain that troublesome country.

In only 244 words, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, listed a series of Iranian transgressions, including funding global terrorism, flouting U.N. resolutions on ballistic missile tests and attacking ships in international waters. He could have also mentioned seizing American sailors.

Flynn ended with: As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice.

Asked later whether military action was a possibility, Trump said what all presidents claim: Everything is on the table.

The situation is particularly precarious because after President Barack Obamas numerous empty threats, the United States has scant credibility as an enforcer, especially in the Middle East. It will take some time and perhaps the use of military force for a Trump administration to be taken more seriously.

Predictably, Iran dismissed the U.S. bluster and launched another rocket as Trumps domestic opponents protested his temporary immigration ban and its rollout.

Now remember: During the presidential campaign, two of Trumps major themes involved the Obama administrations terrible foreign deals, especially the nuclear pact with Iran, and the unfortunate predictability of Obamas foreign policies. The United States needs to be less predictable, Trump said.

Well, you may have noticed in the new presidents first two weeks there was a good deal of unpredictability. Not by accident.

Iran, Vice President Mike Pence warned, would do well not to test the resolve of this new president.

Obamas diplomacy was indeed predictable in one very serious sense: No matter what he sought, implied or threatened, there would be no serious consequences beyond words and ineffective sanctions.

Often Obama offered concessions even before they were sought. He canceled missile defense systems in Eastern Europe to coax Russian cooperation in reining in Iranian ambitions. Russia said thanks, then sold advanced military hardware to the mullahs.

Obama pledged swift justice on Benghazis murderers; nothing happened. His economic sanctions on Russia for annexing Crimea were so serious that President Vladimir Putin ignored them, armed Iran, fomented rebellion within Ukraine and moved militarily into Syria.

Obamas worst display of impotence came from his infamous 2012 threat to Syrias Bashar Assad that using chemical weapons in that civil war would cross a red line in the Democrats mind.

A year later, Assad had again used chemicals on civilians. Facing domestic criticism, Obama blustered, did nothing, blamed Congress for inaction, and Putin stepped in to broker a faux weapons disposal.

In real estate negotiations and his recent campaign, Trump has seen unpredictability as a positive bargaining tool. Sending Flynn out to read carefully from a prepared text and take no complicating questions was a clear sign that Trump will employ such strategic ambiguity and threats in diplomacy. Let Iran imagine how bad the consequences might be, starting with renewed sanctions.

A problem with ambiguity, of course, is that a paranoid opponent might overreact. More importantly, Trump must be prepared to impose consequences on his notice. And then be prepared for the enemys reaction to those consequences.

Westerners have an expression for someone who talks a lot and does little. They say hes all hat and no cattle. Trump has that familiar red baseball cap. To avoid earning the same international reputation as Obama, well soon see whether the New Yorker has any cattle in his diplomatic herd.

McClatchy Washington Bureau

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Trump draws red line with Iran - San Francisco Chronicle