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JAKARTA

In a nondescript reception room within a mall in Kelapa Gading, a North Jakarta neighborhood largely populated by Chinese Indonesians, a congregation gathers to worship. The sermon: "Love your God and love your neighbor." The preacher: an evangelical Protestant refugee who fled Iran six years ago to avoid state persecution.

Welcome to the Persian Refugee Service, an evangelical Christian church by and largely for Iranian refugees in Jakarta.

Mohamed Rasool Bagherian, the preacher, left Iran with his family because they were Christian, but a number of the congregation actually converted to Christianity during their years-long purgatory in Indonesia, where refugees and asylum seekers are not allowed to work or go to school. A few of the regular attendees aren't even Christians, just refugees who enjoy the company of fellow Iranians and a hot meal.

Why Iranians become Christians

Against all odds, Christianity has exploded in popularity in Iran in recent years, even though apostasy, or leaving the Islamic faith, is punishable by death in the theocratic state. Beyond Armenian and Assyrian ethnic Christians, who have lived in Iran for centuries, there are growing numbers of Shia Muslims who convert to evangelical Christianity.

Watchdog groups estimate that there are between 300,000 and 500,000 Christians in Iran, from a population of 75 million. Evangelical Christianity proliferates in private "house churches," since preachers can be arrested.

Bagherian and his wife converted to Christianity in 2005. It was discouraged, but not dangerous, to become Christian in Tehran, where they lived at the time, he said. He himself maintained a house church for several years.

"But then [former Iranian president Mahmoud] Ahmedinajad started to ramp up the pressure against Christians, shortly after his election. I was arrested twice, in 2007 and 2010, and after that, we were basically forced to leave the country," he told VOA News. "We had a young child and feared for his life."

Their son, Ahura, is now eight years old and has only known life in Indonesia.

A community church

If Jakarta is an unnatural environment for this family, it doesn't show at their church. Bagherian is a charismatic preacher who slips between Farsi and English, punctuating his 90-minute sermon with droll PowerPoint slides. He speaks from a clear Lucite altar flanked by artificial purple flowers and electric candles.

The service starts with a long musical segment where everyone sings along to English and Farsi praise rock. Then, on a recent Sunday, Bagherian expounded on the parable of the alabaster jar, in which a poor woman anoints the feet of Jesus with her most expensive perfume.

"If you do something for God, it cannot have a price," Bagherian told the assembled crowd of about 30. I asked him later if he viewed his family's laborious transit for religious freedom through that lens. "Well," he said, "that's one way to look at it."

The Persian Refugee Service gets its meeting room from Abbalove Ministries, a 2,000-person Chinese Indonesian church that convenes in an adjacent hall, also on Sunday afternoons. Abbalove also provides boxed lunches and other services for the small congregation.

"Abbalove members are a great blessing," said Bagherian. "They even help my family rent a guesthouse in Kelapa Gading while we wait for updates on our refugee status."

The Bagherians used to worship in an Anglican church in Jakarta, but three years ago, their Australian pastor, Jeff Hammond, suggested they start a standalone Farsi service for the sizable refugee community.

"My daughter and I found this community when we came to Jakarta and we felt like we saw the light," said one middle-aged Iranian woman who was baptized last year in Jakarta. "You can't understand how terrible sharia was for us. Especially how it oppressed women. No, I haven't looked back after converting."

Tough cases for resettlement

Unlike Afghan refugees, who constitute about half of all refugees and asylum seekers in Indonesia, Iranian refugees make up only three percent, and tend to be educated, white-collar professionals who bristled under their home country's theocracy.

That makes it difficult for them to even obtain refugee cards from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), let alone advance in its waitlists. Whereas Afghan Hazara refugees have a broadly recognized claim to deadly persecution, Iran has a stable, albeit authoritarian, government.

That moves Iranians lower in priority for resettlement. And in fact, every year a small number of Iranian refugees, frustrated by the rejection of their refugee or asylum claims, opt for something called "voluntary repatriation" in which they turn themselves over to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which books them a free flight back to Iran.

Nearly every refugee at the Sunday service expressed despair that President Donald Trump's recent travel ban, which includes Iran, and his suspension of refugee resettlement would eliminate the United States as a possible end destination for their journey.

Still, for each of the refugees who attended the service, it was no light decision to flee their home.

"I was arrested for playing music," said Reza, a young man who now plays the keyboard at the Sunday service. "Can you imagine? Music is haram in my country. I went to jail for that. I had to leave."

Abbalove is not the only social institution that serves Iranian refugees. The nondenominational Jakarta International Christian Fellowship also includes several refugees, and it has a dedicated Farsi service. Twelve Iranian children attend Roshan Learning Center, a school for refugees and asylum seekers in South Jakarta, and two young adults are teachers there.

Even if Indonesia is just a point of transit, many Iranians said they felt immensely relieved to be there.

"Here it's also an Islamic nation, but it's democratic," said Arash Ehteshamfar, who left Iran in 2011 to avoid religious persecution. "It's like night and day. And of course, we have this church this is our home in this country."

See the rest here:
Iranian Refugees Find Community in a Jakarta Church - Voice of America

Diplomatic activism by Russia in Syria is producing speculation about the Kremlins possible willingness to encourage genuine peace talks and spur transition from corrupt, incompetent and brutal family rule toward something stabilizing and inclusive. If Russia proves genuinely interested in converting military success to a sustainable political settlement, it would put Moscow sharply at odds with Iran and with the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Is Russian President Vladimir Putin truly prepared to turn a page in Syria? The litmus test will be Moscows view of whether or not Assad rule should be restored to areas eventually liberated from the Islamic State group..

Russian air power and Iranian-led Shia foreign fighters saved Assad from military defeat. Intervening militarily in Syria allowed Putin to tell his countrymen that Russia was back as a great power; that Russia had thwarted a purported American regime-change campaign in Syria. Iran, on the other hand, has supported Assad because Assad alone, in a nationalistic Syria, is willing to be Irans servant on all matters having to do with Lebanons Hezbollah: the terrorist long arm of Iranian penetration into the Arab world.

Having saved Assad and all but declared military victory, Russia may be asking itself now if Assad is a liability for its longer-term interests in Syria. It would be an apt question.

Hypothetically, therefore, Russia might be interested in a political transition formula that gradually marginalizes Assad and vests executive power in a national unity government. Iran, however, would have no such interest. Tehran knows that, beyond the Assad family and entourage, there is no Syrian constituency accepting subordination to Iran and putting the Syrian state at the disposal of a Lebanese terror organization.

Well-informed Syrian opposition figures say they are hearing from Russians that they are disgusted with the undisciplined, looting Shia militiamen brought by Iran to Syria. These Shia militiasincluding Hezbollah advance Irans sectarian agenda and incite Sunni Islamist extremist backlash. They are kerosene on a fire Russia says it wants to extinguish.

Opposition representatives also claim to be finding Russian interest in helping them separate nationalist rebel forces from al-Qaidas Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, the former Nusra Front. The prerequisite for separation is a real cease-fire. When the nationalists and extremists are all under fire from Assad and Iran, they have no choice but to stick together. Enabling separation and the ultimate destruction of al-Qaida therefore requires Russia to keep a tight leash on the Assad regime and the Shia militias. But the regime and Irancontrary to Russiawant to target as terrorists all anti-Assad rebels: even the ones Moscow recently invited to Astana, Kazakhstan, to discuss peace.

So: Russia and Iran may have conflicting views about the future of Assad. But do they really? Would Russia actually be willing and able to neutralize Irans toxic presence in Syria by getting the Shia militias out and then marginalize the polarizing Assad clique?

If Russia is able and willing to do so, clearly it would be for its own interests: a stable, unified Syria closely aligned with Moscow; a place that can attract the reconstruction investment and assistance so sorely needed. What Putin might want from Washington is a commitment to assist with reconstruction once decent, non-Assad governance is in place. Otherwise, if Putin calculates that the Assad-Iran page must be turned for the interests of Russia, then clearly there is need for a geopolitical inducement from Washington.

Central and eastern Syria will likely provide the answer. The United States aims to liberate these areas from the other side of Syrias terrorist coin: ISIS. If Russia calls for Assad rule to be restored in areas liberated from ISISif Moscow wishes to reimpose the governance malpractice that made Syria safe for ISIS in the first placethen clearly it wants Assad and Iran in the Syrian saddle indefinitely, regardless of the consequences.

Speculation about Russia and Iran splitting over Assad is interesting. The truth will be found in Moscows view of what should follow ISIS. Washington is free now to elicit that view and answer the question.

Frederic C. Hof, director at the Atlantic Councils Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, served as a special adviser for transition in Syria at the State Department in 2012.

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Russia and Iran: Split over Syria? - DefenseNews.com

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivers a speech at a ceremony attended by ambassadors and foreign envoys in Tehran, February 9, 2017. (Photo by president.ir)

Iranian President Hassan Rouhanihas stressed that Irans military might is merely meant for self-defense as the country has never interferedin the domestic affairsofother statesand has no plans to do so in the future.

Irans military power is solely meant for defending the country, Rouhani said in a meeting with ambassadors and foreign envoys in Tehran on Thursday duringa ceremony held on the eve of the 38th anniversary of the victory of Irans 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The Islamic Republic has never invaded any country and has no such intention. Our weapons are meant to defendthe country and [we] should not allow certain parties to spread illusions in order to create unhealthy conditions in the region and the world, addedthe president.

Rouhani further stated that Iran favors close bonds among nations, saying that governments are duty-bound to help bring nations closer in order to take advantage of common interests.

Some 38 years ago, the greatest revolution in the region and the world became victorious in Iran through mere reliance on the people and despite the support offered to the past dictatorial regime of Iran by many countries, the Iranian chief executive added.

On Friday, millions of Iranianswill pour onto the streets across the country to mark the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which put an end to the monarchical rule of the US-backed Pahlavi regime.

The rallies come at a time of increased belligerence against Iran by the new US administration under President Donald Trump.

The US officials have recently ratcheted up theirhostile remarks toward the Islamic Republic using Iran's recent missile tests as excuse.

Iran arguesthat its missile program is an inalienable right of the Iranian nation under the international law and the United Nations Charter. The Islamic Republic has always stressed that its military might poses no threat to other countries and is in line with the countrys plan to boost its deterrence power.

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Iran's military power only meant for self-defense: Rouhani - Press TV

Iran is displaying hundreds of ancient and Persian artifacts, some dating back as far as 3,500 years and all of them recently brought back home from museums and collections in Western countries.

Mohammad Hassan Talebian, deputy head of the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization of Iran, told The Associated Press that all of the items on display were repatriated over the past two and a half years from England, Belgium, Italy and the United States.

He credits the improved relations between Tehran and the West in the wake of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal for helping make the process possible.

"The atmosphere after the nuclear deal was very important," Talebian said. "It made it easy to bring back all these objects home."

The special exhibit, which opened Monday in Tehran's National Museum, displays 558 different artifacts.

They include hunting tools and stitching needles from the Iron Age and a pair of necklaces dating back more than 2,000 years to the Achaemenid Empire founded by Cyrus the Great the high point of the Persian rule.

Among the oldest items on display are dozens of clay bowls, jugs and engraved coins dating back 3,500 years and formerly housed in the University of Chicago's famed Oriental Institute.

Iran and the U.S. have not had diplomatic relations since 1979, when Iranian students stormed the American Embassy and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

The 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers put limits on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international economic sanctions.

However, the brief thaw in Iranian-American relations may be short-lived. New U.S. president Donald Trump has heavily criticized the deal and has already engaged in a war of words with Iran's leadership and put Tehran "on notice" over a recent ballistic missile test.

The items from the University of Chicago had previously been displayed on their own in May 2016, but this is a first time that all of the items repatriated from these four countries have been displayed together.

Myriam Rahgoshay, an arts enthusiast, said that the return of these and thousands of other historic artifacts still overseas is a key boost to Iranian national identity.

"This is source of great pride and pleasure, because our identity, which is subject to disintegration, is becoming whole again," she said.

More here:
Iran Displays Ancient Persian Artifacts Returned From the US - ABC News

New York Post

Looks like Team Trump just made Iran blink New York Post It looks like Iran just blinked in the face of tough talk and new economic sanctions from the Trump administration. Fox News reports that new satellite imagery, verified by US officials, shows Iran has abruptly removed a new missile that was ... In escalating conflict with Trump, Iran's supreme leader says his country is 'not afraid of threats'Los Angeles Times What Does Putting Iran 'On Notice' Really Mean?U.S. News & World Report Iran's Supreme Leader Thanks Trump for Showing America's 'True Face'New York Times Wall Street Journal -Reuters all 460 news articles »

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Looks like Team Trump just made Iran blink - New York Post