By Pooya Stone

Over the weekend, US Vice President Mike Pence appeared on CBS’s "Face the Nation" to talk about the threat posed by the Iranian government and the Free Iran rally that took place in Washington DC on Friday.

Journalist Margaret Brennan asked Pence if the US had conducted cyber operations against Iran in response for shooting down a US drone last week, but Pence declined to comment as it was a covert operation.

By Jubin Katiraie

Iran is likely at "an inflection point" and is trying to change the “status-quo” with its recent attacks on tankers and shooting down of a US surveillance drone, according to Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley Jr., the director of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA).

Director Ashley said that Iran probably believes that they are in a "favourable" position because of their influence over the Iraqi government and the probability that their ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will stay in power after the civil war ends.

By Pooya Stone

Mojtaba Zolnoor, a Member of the Iranian Parliament from the city of Qom and a hardliner figure close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was appointed as the president of Parliament’s National Security Commission.

Zolnoor had previously served as the Supreme Leader’s deputy representative in the IRGC. He was behind the crackdown on protesters in 2009, following popular uprisings that erupted in objection to the rigged results of the presidential elections.

By Jubin Katiraie

Three cybersecurity firms have said that they’ve seen Iranian hackers try to infiltrate a number of US organizations over the past few weeks, as tensions between the two nations continue to rise.

It is not yet known whether the hackers were trying to gather intelligence, aiming to create disruptive cyber attack or both. It is not even known if the Iran hackers managed to successfully infiltrate their targets.

By Pooya Stone

Iran is intolerant, warmongering, fundamentalist, paranoid, corrupt, suppressive, and violent. It is made up of only the worst kind of people; those who do not respect the rights of others, who would do anything for power, who believe that their lives matter more than those of the millions they hurt on a daily basis.

By Pooya Stone

The US produced on Wednesday limpet mine fragments that it said came from one of the oil tankers attacked in the Gulf of Oman last week, claiming that the mine looks to be Iranian.

In Fujairah, the United Arab Emirates, the US Navy exhibited pieces of limpet mines and a magnet that American personnel took off one of the tankers - the Japanese Kokuka Courageous – that the US says were left behind by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Iran Focus

London, 20 June - On Monday June 17, Ghasem Mirza Neko, a Member of the Iranian parliament, called the “export of revolution” and “waging war against the world” as reasons for the tough situation faced by ordinary Iranians inside the country. Apparently, this was a reaction to the critics of hard conditions inside Iran.

“When you want to live in a cave, when you want to fight the whole world and export the revolution to everywhere, you have to accept hardships, not just for 14 years, but for much longer than that."

By Jubin Katiraie

United States Republican Senator Lindsay Graham said that if Iran tries to disrupt shipping activity in the vital sea lanes of the Middle East again, whether through attacks on cargo vessels or blocking the Strait of Hormuz as they have threatened to do, then the Trump administration should consider taking serious action.

Graham, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, advised that President Donald Trump create an Iranian "target list" in case Tehran puts the US, its allies, or its interests in danger.

By Pooya Stone

The Iranian government has admitted that its economy fell into a worse recession in 2018 than international organizations predicted after the US started reimposing sanctions on Iran's oil industry and other financial sectors.

The Statistical Center of Iran published a report Sunday that said Iran's gross domestic product decreased by 4.9% in the last Persian year, which ended on March 21.

By Jubin Katiraie

Three women’s rights activists in Iran have been summoned to the Evin Prison’s Prosecutor’s Office for questioning in the past few days, according to the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Their names are Maryam Mohammadi, Esrin Derkaleh, and Nargess Khorrami.

By Pooya Stone

For 40 years, the Iranian regime brought nothing but oppression for the Iranian people, and terrorism and chaos for the Middle East. A quick glimpse at the long list of its crimes against humanity underlines the importance of supporting the great march of Iranian-Americans in Washington DC on June 21 in solidarity with the movement for a free Iran.

This rally is a call for regime change in Iran by the Iranian people and their organized resistance, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the Mujahedeen-Khalq (MEK or PMOI), as the only solution to counter the dictatorial and warmongering regime ruling Iran.

By Pooya Stone

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that there is “strong evidence” that Iran was responsible for the attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week, which supports the comments previously made by the US.

At a news conference in Berlin on Tuesday, following talks with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Merkel said: “We, of course, take these explanations very seriously, and there is strong evidence.”

Outside view by Amir B.

On Friday, 21 June, Iranian-American communities will hold a massive rally in support of the popular protests for regime change in Iran. The rally will be held in Washington DC a week after supporters of the main opposition group People’s Mojahedin (Mujahedin-e Khalq, MEK) held a “Free Iran” rally in Brussels and were supported by many European dignitaries.

In addition to supporting Iranian people’s desire for regime change, the rally will send a strong message to the international community to change their policy on the Iranian regime and support Iranian people’s wishes for a free Iran instead of appeasement.

By Pooya Stone

Iran said today that it wouldn’t give European powers any more time to save the nuclear deal, by helping Tehran evade US sanctions after July 8.

The representative for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said that Tehran was ready to enrich uranium beyond limits set under the 2015 deal, which would violate the deal.

By Jubin Katiraie

United States President Donald Trump said Tuesday the US was “very prepared” for any situation with Iran, following an escalation of tensions over the past week.

It began on Thursday, the US accused Iran of attacking two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Iran denied the attack, but the commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps Brigadier General Hossein Salami has since claimed that its ballistic missiles were capable of hitting “carriers in the sea”, which some observers see as an indication that Iran did attack these tankers.

By Pooya Stone

Starting last weekend, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has begun a series of marches and events in various European and the United States in support of the uprising of the Iranian people and the cause of democratic regime change in Iran.

On June 15, thousands of supporters of the main Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK) marched in Brussels, Belgium urging the EU to cut trade with the regime and support the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people. The MEK, also known as the Mujahedeen-e Khalq are the main group within the NCRI coalition.