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The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFMI), was established in November 2022, by the Human Rights Council to investigate the alleged human rights violations in Iran in connection with the protests that began there on 16 September 2022, especially with respect to women and children.

Despite the efforts of the Fact-Finding Mission to engage with the Government of Iran, the Government did not grant the Mission access to the country, nor respond to calls for meetings.

The Mission ultimately collected and preserved over 27,000 evidence items. It conducted a total of 134 in-depth interviews with victims and witnesses, including 49 women, and 85 men, both inside and outside the country, and gathered evidence and analysis from experts on digital and medical forensics, and domestic and international law, among others. The Mission closely reviewed the Government of Irans official documents, including public statements of officials, alongside 41 reports of Irans High Council for Human Rights (received by other UN bodies), and also held exchanges with Irans Special Committee to investigate the 2022 Unrests.

The Mission found that State authorities in Iran were responsible for egregious human rights violations in connection with the protests that started on 16 September 2022.

The FFM investigation into the fate of Jina Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian- Kurdish woman whose death in custody of the morality police sparked the protests that September two years ago, Our findings showed based on examination of medical documents and also of pattern evidence of the treatment of women in these situations that Jena Moussa Amin, his death was an unlawful death, and we believe that the state is responsible. the Chairperson of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission stated.

Following Jina Mahsas death, protests were sparked across the country and grew into what we now know as the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. Young women and school children were at the forefront, with many removing their hijab in public places as an act of defiance against long-standing discriminatory laws and practices.

During the protests, the security forces used firearms, including assault rifles, as well as metal pellets and paintball guns, causing deaths and extensive injuries. The use of AK 47s was documented widely, killing large numbers of people within the first few days, and impacting disproportionately on some of the minority areas.

The use of such unnecessary and disproportionate force on largely peaceful protests, resulted in unlawful killings and injuries of protesters resulting in credible figures of 551 deaths, among them at least 49 women and 68 children, in 26 out of the 31 provinces in Iran, Sara Hossain said.

There were disproportionately high numbers in minority-populated regions. On just one day, 30 September 2022, Bloody Friday, in Zahedan city, Sistan and Baluchistan province, credible information indicates that security forces killed 104 protesters and bystanders, mostly of men and boys, the highest number of deaths documented within a single day during the entire duration of the protests.

The Mission acknowledges the Governments claim that some 54 security forces were also killed and many others injured. The Mission requested information from the Government about the circumstances of those deaths, in order to investigate these situations last June, but has till today received no response to enable it to assess those claims in accordance with its methodology.

Security forces also carried out mass arbitrary arrests of protesters. The Government of Iran itself announced that 22,000 people were pardoned in connection with the protests, suggesting that many more were detained or charged.

Women and men, boys and girls, were viciously beaten and arrested while dancing, chanting, writing slogans, or honking car horns in peaceful acts of solidarity. Upon apprehension, security forces transferred detainees en masse in a coordinated manner to unofficial detention facilities run by the Ministry of Intelligence, Basij and the Revolutionary Guards, the Chairperson of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission stated.

The FFM heard from witnesses, while in detention, many protesters, including women and children, were held incommunicado, in inhumane detention conditions, subjected to prolonged solitary confinement which stripped basic facets of their dignity. Security forces deprived them from contacting families or lawyers and put them out of the reach of the law, in some cases in conditions amounting to enforced disappearances. To punish, humiliate or extract a confession from them, detainees were often subjected to sexual and gender-based violence, including gang rape and rape with an object, as well as beatings, flogging, or electric shocks, in acts that constitute torture, she said.

Children were subjected to extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, and held in detention along with adults. Others were brought to juvenile detention centres or mental health facilities aimed at reforming them, she said.

Trials were marred by systematic violations of due process. Most persons tried in connection with the protests were brought before Revolutionary Courts, on vague charges of corruption on earth or waging war against God in relation to protected conduct or speech. Many were denied access to counsel of their choice, and not able to access their case files, or copies of their judgements. Judges manifested clear bias against protesters, systematically dismissing complaints of rape, torture and ill-treatment.

At least nine young men were arbitrarily executed, following hasty and flawed proceedings that disregarded basic fair trial and due process guarantees, creating terror among other protestors. By January this year, Iranian courts had pronounced at least 26 death sentences against persons in relation to the protests, Hossain said.

A year and a half on, women and girls are still confronted daily by discrimination in law and in practice affecting virtually all aspects of their private and public lives. We are receiving chilling reports on the use by the State of artificial intelligence, including through new mobile apps, to monitor and enforce compliance by women and girls with mandatory hijab rules, she said.

Without holding accountable the perpetrators of the violations in the context of the protests that started on 16 September 2022, the cycle of impunity cannot be broken. Sara Hossain urged the Government of Iran to take immediate and concrete measures to halt executions, promptly release all those arbitrarily detained in connection with the protests, including women arrested for defying the mandatory hijab, cease judicial harassment of victims and their families, provide them with redress, truth, justice and reparations and dismantle and disband the persecutory system of the enforcement of these laws and policies.

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OHCHR / IRAN FACT FINDING MISSION | UNifeed - UN Web TV

Russian and Chinese warships have arrived in Iran's territorial waters to participate in joint naval drills dubbed "Maritime Security Belt 2024". Photo: IRNA

Iran, China, and Russia carried out a naval exercise in the Gulf of Oman from March 12-15. The drill, named the Marine Security Belt 2024, encompassed an area of 17,000 square kilometers (6,600 square miles). Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Oman, Pakistan, and South Africa were official observers of the action.

The naval exercise had the goal of strengthening maritime cooperation and safeguarding peace and stability, as stated by the Chinese Defense Ministry. Irans Admiral Mostafa Tajaddini stated that the three nations operation was also meant to confront piracy and terrorism, support humanitarian activities and the exchange of information in the field of rescue.

The Marine Security Belt 2024 involved more than 20 ships. China sent guided-missile destroyer Urumqi, guided-missile frigate Linyi and comprehensive supply ship Dongpinghu, Russia sent the cruiser Varyag from its Pacific Fleet, while Iran contributed a range of vessels, including warships Dena and Abu-Mahdi, as well as naval helicopters, speedboats and submersibles.

The exercise was not unprecedented, as the three countries had carried out three other similar exercises since 2019. Though, it was a display of increased cooperation between the three countries.

The location of the exercise is noteworthy. The Gulf of Oman is in the northern part of the Indian Ocean. It leads into the Strait of Hormuz, right off the coast of Iran. The Strait of Hormuz connects the Gulf of Oman to the Persian Gulf. At its narrowest point, it is only 21 miles wide, of which only 6 miles are navigable. As much as 21% of the worlds oil is shipped through the strait of Hormuz. For this reason, the Strait is of strategic geopolitical importance. Any disruptions in shipping through this strait would cause an immediate spike in the price of oil, potentially destabilizing the worlds economy.

Farther west in the Indian Ocean is the Gulf of Aden, leading to the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, on to the Red Sea. It is in this area that the United States is leading a coalition of forces in intense naval operations since December 2023.

Israels genocide of Gaza has had an enormous impact on the peoples of the entire world, and especially in West Asia. In the region, people have demanded action from their governments in support of Gaza. The most concrete actions did not come from oil rich Gulf monarchies, which limited their actions to words, making statements and declarations. They came from Yemen, a country emerging from an eight year occupation by a Saudi-led coalition. Yemen suffered immensely through the occupation, with widespread extreme poverty, starvation and disease.

It was only two years ago, on March 30, 2022, that Saudi Arabia ended its occupation. As a result of the brutal occupation, Yemen is still struggling with a severe economic crisis, with an estimated 50% of its population living below the poverty line. The force leading the fight against the Saudi invasion was Ansar Allah, which leads the Yemeni government today, referred to in Western media as the Houthis.

In November 2023, Yemen started showing solidarity with Palestinians suffering from the genocide by targeting all ships supplying Israel sailing off its shores. Whether Israeli-flagged or not, Ansar Allahs pledge to disrupt Israeli supplies has been a success. Despite overwhelming naval superiority, the US, UK and their allies have been unsuccessful at making the passage of Israeli supply ships safe.

The Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb is only 20 miles wide. This largely neutralizes the vast advantage that the US navy enjoys in the region. The March 14 reports that the Yemeni forces have acquired supersonic missiles further exacerbates the US challenge in helping Israel resupply its military for its nearly six month long bombing of Gaza.

In years past, the US dominance over the Indian Ocean, specifically in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea went unchallenged. Geography has enabled countries challenging US hegemony in the region, like Iran and Yemen, to challenge that naval dominance, not by matching the US naval might, which would require resources they lacked. Instead, they have had to acquire enough firepower to enable them to engage in asymmetric warfare should an open war break out. Rockets, missiles and speedboats have been somewhat of an equalizer in narrow waterways where the technological advantages of the US are minimized.

Traditional naval exercises of the kind Iran, China and Russia just carried out, however, are another challenge to US naval dominance. Here again, the three countries combined may not be able to match the US naval presence in the region. But the message that this naval drill sends to the United States is that it does not own the waters of the region.

March 15 marked the completion of Marine Security Belt 2024. Iran announced the operation a success and that the goals of the exercise had been met.

Mazda Majidi is a long-time social justice and anti-war activist and an activist with the ANSWER Coalition. He has written extensively on US intervention in the Middle East and beyond.

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China, Russia, Iran naval drills challenge US domination of the seas - Peoples Dispatch

Nobody was holding their breath over the outcome of this month's elections to the Majlis Iran's parliament, said Maryam Aslany and Rana Dasgupta in The Sunday Times. These were the first elections to be held after the wave of protests that convulsed the nation in 2022-23. That unrest, sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old student arrested for not wearing a hijab properly, had threatened the authority of Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, which is why he was so determined to frame last week's election as a public endorsement of the Islamic regime. To that end, every candidate was vetted by the Guardian Council, an assembly of 12 clerics controlled by Khamenei, which made it its business to disqualify almost all reformists and moderate conservatives from standing. Thus the result was always a foregone conclusion.

Yet even in this pitiful excuse for an election, Iranians managed to deliver a "stinging rebuke" to the regime, said Farnaz Fassihi in The New York Times. Deprived of their preferred candidates, many didn't bother to vote: turnout was just 41% the lowest in the Islamic Republic's 45-year history. In Tehran, it was 24%. Khamenei tried to spin the outcome as an "epic" victory; it was anything but. Some 15,000 candidates ended up competing for 290 seats, said Sina Toossi in Foreign Policy (Washington), and the winners were mainly members of a new generation of fundamentalists, many clerics, who espouse a rigid version of Islamic law and oppose any engagement with the West. Having bested their pragmatic rivals, they now seem intent on out-hawking each other on both domestic and foreign issues.

But far more important than the outcome of elections to the Majlis has been that of elections to the powerful Assembly of Experts, held on the same day, said Guido Steinberg in Cicero (Berlin). This is the body responsible for choosing Khamenei's successor: and as the supreme leader is frail and about to turn 85, it's more than likely the assembly will have to carry out that duty sooner rather than later. So once again, as with the Majlis, every effort was made to ensure the ascendancy of candidates supportive of Khamenei and to bar reformists from running: even former president Hassan Rouhani was excluded from running on the grounds he was too moderate. So skewed to the conservative Right is the assembly that a hardliner is certain to prevail in the race to succeed Khamenei. Yet by excluding conservative moderates, Khamenei may have ended up weakening his position, said Iran International (London). Radicals are far less easy to keep under control. Take a man like Hamid Rasaei, a hardliner "with a questionable reputation", who wasn't even allowed to run in the 2020 election, but who last week was elected to a Tehran seat by a huge majority. Rasaei has already disregarded Khamenei's plea for the new intake "to avoid conflicts and controversies". Quite the contrary, he has branded the speaker of the Majlis, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, "a hypocrite" and demanded his resignation. And Ghalibaf happens to be a relative of Khamenei's.

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As one of its former commanders, Ghalibaf has the backing of the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), an important player in Iranian politics, so he is probably secure for now. But whichever faction prevails, the real question to ponder is how long the mullahs can retain their grip over such a disaffected populace, said The Economist. Inflation is soaring; meat and even rice are unaffordable to most people; the regime's backing of Hezbollah in Lebanon and of Yemen's Houthis is proving hugely costly; US sanctions continue to bite. And "everyone in Iran knows what the regime is truly afraid of", said Maryam Aslany and Rana Dasgupta. It's written in the graffiti sprayed on walls and bridges across the country. "Long live the king." What most Iranians long for is the return of a constitutional monarchy, and of a man now living in Great Falls, Virginia the son of the shah and scion of the dynasty that ruled before the mullahs seized power in 1979: crown prince Reza Pahlavi.

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Iran at the crossroads: have the mullahs lost their grip? - The Week

Amid wars in Gaza and Ukraine, attacks on Red Sea shipping, tit-for-tat killings between Americans and Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria and skirmishes across the Israel-Lebanon border, an issue that once galvanized the international community has receded into the background.

Yet Irans nuclear program is advancing largely unchecked, posing an additional potential flashpoint for a world already overloaded with crises.

According to the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the worlds nuclear watchdog, Iran had amassed more than 5,000 kilograms of enriched uranium by the end of February 2024, of which more than 120 kilograms were enriched to 60 percent purity, perilously close to weapons grade. That is enough, if further enriched, to make several bombs. Under a 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran was allowed only 200 kilograms of uranium enriched below 5 percent until 2031 and its entire program was subject to unprecedented scrutiny by the IAEA. That deal fell apart after the Trump administration quit in 2018, while Iran was in full compliance. Iran waited a year before beginning to move beyond the JCPOAs restrictions and has kept on going as efforts by the Biden administration, the European Union and others to restore the deal have faltered.

In September 2023, the U.S. and Iran did manage to reach an informal understanding on a series of disputes that slowed Irans accumulation of 60 percent uranium and also freed five U.S.-Iran dual nationals who were held in Iranian jails. In return, the U.S. eased enforcement of efforts to block Iranian oil exports and gave South Korea a green light to release $6 billion in Iranian oil revenues that had been frozen in South Korean banks because of U.S. sanctions. The money was transferred to banks in Qatar but has essentially been refrozen in the aftermath of the deadly attack by Hamas on Israel of Oct. 7, 2023, and rising tension between the U.S. and other Iran-backed militant groups after Israel invaded Gaza.

The Gaza war pre-empted what was supposed to be a follow-on meeting in Oman in late October between Iranian officials and Brett McGurk, White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. McGurk did participate in indirect talks with Iran in Oman in January 2024, according to published accounts, but the main topic was to urge Iran to exert pressure on the Yemeni Houthis to halt their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. A second meeting in February was postponed as the Biden administration focused on getting an Israel-Hamas cease-fire and freeing Israeli hostages.

Non-proliferation experts are trying not to be distracted by the war and are scrambling for new ideas to avoid what some have called a binary choice between bombing Iran and Iran with a bomb.

Iranian officials insist that they are not seeking weapons and that the only thing that could provoke them to develop a bomb would be a U.S. or Israeli attack on the Iranian homeland. The latter appears unlikely now, but President Joe Biden has repeatedly said he would not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons and has not excluded military action. Recent comments by a veteran Iranian nuclear expert, Ali Salehi, that Iran possesses all the pieces necessary for a bomb have heightened concerns.

With the window for progress under Bidens first term closing, Iranian officials appear to be trying to increase their leverage in case Donald Trump returns to the White House. They also understand that Biden is reluctant to make significant concessions during an election year, having already been accused of appeasement over last years informal understanding.

Whoever wins, however, will have to confront the issue soon. The U.N. Security Council Resolution that enshrined the JCPOA expires in October 2025. After that, the only international constraint on Iran will be its promise, as a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to continue to foreswear nuclear weapons, as well as a religious ruling or fatwa against developing weapons of mass destruction issued some time ago by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and widely discounted by Irans adversaries.

Given their bitter experience with the Trump withdrawal, Iranians have sought guarantees that any additional constraints they accept will have concrete benefits for Tehran that cannot be removed with the stroke of a pen. One idea is to allow Iran to hold onto a large quantity of 60 percent enriched uranium under IAEA supervision on Iranian soil, but that appears to be a non-starter unless Iran dramatically increases transparency about its program and restores some of the intrusive monitoring provided for under the JCPOA. This could entail restoring daily IAEA access to Irans main enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow as well as allowing inspections of manufacturing sites for centrifuges to guard against undetected diversion.

Iran could also finally resolve a dispute with the IAEA clarifying the source of uranium particles found at two sites undeclared to the agency. It could comply with its legal obligation to implement a modified Code 3.1, under which a country with a safeguards agreement with the IAEA must inform the agency as soon as it has made the decision to build a new nuclear facility, rather than six months before introducing nuclear material. If Iran wants to be able to continue as essentially a nuclear weapons threshold state without generating wider international opposition, greater accountability and transparency are a minimum requirement.

Another idea is to utilize Irans year-old restoration of diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia to devise a regional deal that would compensate Iran with Arab investment in return for rolling back some of its nuclear advances. This could also include regional cooperation on civilian nuclear energy, especially the safety of nuclear facilities. With the Saudis eager to develop their own nuclear power and the United Arab Emirates about to bring a fourth power reactor online, such regional cooperation under the auspices of the IAEA might be a useful confidence-building step.

Like the rest of the world, Iran is trying to prepare itself for the possibility of a second Trump administration. Trumps advisors have generally been very tough on Iran and vowed to ramp up their policy of so-called maximum pressure. However, the Saudis and Emiratis who bore the brunt of Irans retaliation for Trumps withdrawal from the JCPOA may advise Trump to go in a different direction.

In campaigning for his first term, Trump vowed to ditch the JCPOA, which he called the worst deal ever negotiated. That doesnt mean he wouldnt try for an alternative so long as it isnt called JCPOA 2.0 and offers the prospect of besting Biden and equaling Barack Obama by winning a Nobel Peace Prize.

Iranians might be reluctant to reward a man who ordered the assassination in 2020 of their most famous general, Qasem Soleimani. But if Trump fancies himself a master of the art of the deal, Iranians are practiced at handling friends and foes through the excessive flattery known as taroof. Their economy faltering and their governments legitimacy in question, the Islamic Republic could use a diplomatic win.

Ultimately, there is no other way to contain Irans nuclear program except through diplomacy. No other path has succeeded, and a new military confrontation is the last thing a Middle East already in flames can afford.

Barbara Slavin is a Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center, where she directs the Middle East Perspectives project. She tweets @BarbaraSlavin1.

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How to Prevent a Nuclear Crisis with Iran Stimson Center - Stimson Center

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday lashed out at the international community, particularly pressure against an expanded military operation in Rafah and American calls for an early election in Israel.

"Since the beginning of the war, we have been fighting on two fronts - the military front and the political front," Netanyahu said at the opening of the State Security Cabinet (SSC) weekly meeting.

"On the political front, we have so far managed to allow our forces to fight in an unprecedented manner for five full months. But it is no secret that the international pressures against us are increasing," the prime minister continued.

"There are those in the international community who are trying to stop the war now, before all its goals are achieved. They do this by making false accusations against the IDF, against the Israeli government and against the Prime Minister of Israel," he likely referred to recent remarks from U.S. Democrat leaders, President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

"They do this by trying to bring about elections now, in the midst of the war. And they do this because they know that elections now will stop the war, and paralyze the country for at least six months," Netanyahu explained.

"So let's be clear: if we stop the war now, before all of its goals are achieved, it means that Israel has lost the war, and we will not allow that. That is why we must not give in to these pressures, and we will not give in to them," the prime minister declared.

"On the contrary, this simple truth only strengthens our determination to keep fighting the pressures and keep fighting until the end - until the absolute victory. No amount of international pressure will stop us from realizing all the goals of the war: eliminating Hamas, releasing all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat against Israel," he reiterated.

"To do this, we will also operate in Rafah. This is the only way to eliminate the rest of Hamas's murderous battalions, and this is the only way to apply the military pressure necessary to release all our hostages," Netanyahu added.

"To this end, we approved the operational plans for action in Rafah, including the promotion of the steps to evacuate the civilian population from the battle zones. This is a necessary step towards military action," the prime minister stated, emphasizing "I say again - we will act with care. It will take a few weeks, and it will happen."

"And to our friends in the international community I say: Is your memory so short? So quickly did you forget October 7, the most terrible massacre committed against Jews since the Holocaust? So quickly are you ready to deny Israel the right to defend itself against the monsters of Hamas? Did you lose your moral conscience so quickly?"

"Instead of putting pressure on Israel, which is fighting a just war, against an enemy that cannot be more cruel, direct your pressure against Hamas and its patron - Iran. They are the ones who pose a danger to the region and the entire world," Netanyahu concluded. "We, in any case, will face all the pressures, and with God's help, we will continue to fight together until complete victory."

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Netanyahu Calls For International Pressure To Be Redirected To Hamas, Iran - I24NEWS - i24NEWS