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In this mailing:
* Majid Rafizadeh: EU Still Siding with the "World's Worst Human Rights Abuser"
* Peter Huessy: Iran: Can the U.S. Make Peace with the Mullahs?


** EU Still Siding with the "World's Worst Human Rights Abuser" ([link removed])
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by Majid Rafizadeh • October 3, 2020 at 5:00 am
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* "One day, I heard screams, shouting, and pleas for help in the police department.... I witnessed two officers who were dressed in unofficial uniform cursing and hitting Navid with batons and metal pipes with no mercy. They would tell him: 'the truth is whatever we say, will you write what we are saying or not?' Navid was... begging: 'please, stop, please don't hit me, I didn't do anything.' He covered his head with his arms. And one of the officers, whose name I later learned was Abbasi, hit Navid with such strength that Navid let out a gut-wrenching scream and fell unconscious". — Witness to the torture of Iran's wrestling champion, Navid Afkari, who was reportedly tortured into a false confession, then hanged.
* Iran's leaders most likely wanted to make an example of the highly respected wrestler, to impose fear in society, and send a strong message to the people that anyone who dares to protest can face severe consequences.
* Did they hear about the four teenagers who will have their fingers amputated as a punishment for stealing, also, according to them, after being tortured until they "confessed"?
* The European Union, in empowering a regime that is torturing and executing protesters and political prisoners, is making itself complicit in these crimes against humanity. Instead, the EU needs immediately to join the US in putting pressure on the mullahs and holding them accountable.

Despite an international outcry, Iran's theocratic establishment on September 12 defiantly executed wrestling champion Navid Afkari, an innocent protester who was apparently tortured into a false confession. His execution was clearly carried out in a hurried manner and he was even denied a last visit from his family. Pictured: Protesters in London, England denounce Afkari's execution, on September 12, 2020. (Photo by Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

The European Union is openly siding with the ruling mullahs of Iran and attempting to scuttle US efforts to pressure the rogue regime to stop. Britain, France and Germany, on September 18, told the UN Security Council that the EU is strongly committed to ensuring the continued lifting of sanctions against the Iranian government. The three European powers added that, as far as they were concerned, even if the United States reimposes all sanctions, their UN sanctions relief for Iran would continue beyond September 20.

The EU has also been helping Iranian leaders to evade US sanctions through a payment mechanism labeled as INSTEX (Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges), which is designed to permit European firms and corporations to continue doing business with the Iranian government in spite of US economic sanctions against Tehran.

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** Iran: Can the U.S. Make Peace with the Mullahs? ([link removed])
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by Peter Huessy • October 3, 2020 at 4:00 am
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i.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/email/offer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gatestoneinstitute.org%2F16582%2Firan-can-the-us-make-peace-with-the-mullahs&pubid=ra-52f7af5809191749&ct=1&title=Iran%3A+Can+the+U.S.+Make+Peace+with+the+Mullahs%3F [link removed]
* With regard to the JCPOA itself, Iran's serious and continuing violations ([link removed]) of the nuclear enrichment terms of the existing agreement reflect the true intentions of the mullahs, and clearly indicate that a new nuclear deal could not be implemented with any confidence: it would also be violated by Iran. Secretary Pompeo, in a statement ([link removed]) posted on the Department of State's website, noted that Iran has shown no willingness to live in peace ([link removed]) .
* Like other criminal cartels, Iran has operational arms ([link removed]) , including the IRGC, Hezbollah and Hamas, to do its dirty work. In 2014-15, Iran's terror proxy, Hezbollah, financed its terrorism through smuggling contraband cigarettes in the United States, and working with Venezuelan drug cartels to smuggle drugs ([link removed]) and traffic in women and children. Revealingly, a nearly-completed law enforcement effort to take down Hezbollah's cigarette smuggling ring was shut down ([link removed]) by the Obama administration just before the 2015 JCPOA was concluded.
* If anyone thinks that diplomacy can resolve such threats, one need not do any more than remember the diplomatic success Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had in preventing Nazi Germany from attacking Poland.

U.S. Secretary Mike Pompeo, in a statement posted on the Department of State's website, noted that Iran has shown no willingness to live in peace. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP Getty Images)

On Saturday, September 19, after months of futile diplomatic efforts to extend the UN ban on Iran's purchase of advanced weapons, the Trump administration implemented "snap back" sanctions as set forth in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). That action was taken, said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, because "The Iranians are largely ignoring the most important components of the [nuclear deal] with respect to nuclear enrichment."

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