Iran crackdown widens to ensnare reformist figures : NPR
FILE – In this photo released by the Narges Foundation archives, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammad is seen after being released for medical leave in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. On her hand is written in Farsi “End gender apartheid.”
Archives of the Narges/AP Foundation
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Archives of the Narges/AP Foundation
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian security forces have launched a campaign to arrest figures in the country’s reform movement, reports said Monday.
It widens a crackdown on dissent after authorities cracked down on violent protests nationwide that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands arrested.
Narges Mohammadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been sentenced to a new prison term of more than seven years. It signals a growing effort to silence anyone who opposes the Iranian theocracy’s bloody crackdown on unrest as it faces new nuclear negotiations with the United States. President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned that he could launch an attack on the country if no deal is reached.
Media reports cited officials from the reform movement, which seeks to change Iran’s theocracy from within, as saying that at least four of their members had been arrested. They include Azar Mansouri, the leader of the Reform Front, which represents several reformist factions; and former diplomat Mohsen Aminzadeh, who served under reformist President Mohammad Khatami.
Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, who led the students who stormed the American embassy in Tehran in 1979, sparked the hostage crisis that lasted 444 days.
Their arrests likely stem from a reformist statement in January calling on Iran’s Supreme Leader, 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to resign his post and hand over oversight of the country to a transitional governing council.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency cited a statement from the prosecutor in Tehran, the country’s capital, as saying four people had been arrested and others summoned to meet authorities. It accuses those allegedly involved of having “organized and directed (…) activities aimed at disrupting the political and social situation in the country, against a backdrop of military threats from the United States and the Zionist regime.”
“After bludgeoning the streets into silence with exemplary cruelty, the regime turned its attention inward, fixing its gaze on its loyal opposition,” wrote Ali Vaez, an expert on Iran at the International Crisis Group.
“Reformists, feeling the ground shifting beneath their feet, had begun to drift – and those in power, ever paranoid, are now determined to cauterize dissent before they learn to walk.”
However, it remains unclear how much political support reformers enjoy in Iran. The anger in the streets of Iran during the protests, heard by people shouting “Death to Khamenei!” and in support of the country’s exiled crown prince, he seemed to lump reformists in with every other politician currently working in the Islamic Republic.
Iran and the United States held new nuclear negotiations last week in Oman. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to diplomats at a summit in Tehran on Sunday, indicated that Iran would stick to its position that it must be able to enrich uranium – a major point of contention with Trump, who bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June during the 12-day Iran-Israel war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to visit Washington this week, with Iran the main topic of discussion, his office said.
The United States has moved the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, ships and warplanes to the Middle East to pressure Iran into reaching a deal and having the firepower to strike the Islamic Republic if Trump chose to do so.
Meanwhile, Iran warned pilots that it planned “rocket launches” from Monday to Tuesday in an area above Semnan province, where the Imam Khomeini spaceport is located. Such launches have occurred in the past when Iran celebrated the anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution.
