Nika Nikoubin, 21, has been charged with attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon and burglary, KLAS-TV reported.

Nikoubin and the man met online on a dating website, Henderson police wrote in an arrest report. The pair then agreed to meet at Sunset Station hotel on March 5, renting a room together.

While in the room, the pair began having sex when Nikoubin put a blindfold on the man, police said. Nikoubin then turned off the lights, and several minutes later, the man “felt a pain on the side of his neck,” KLAS reported.

Nikoubin reportedly stabbed the man in the neck “for revenge against U.S. troops for the killing of Qassem Soleimani in 2020,” police wrote in a report.

U.S. forces killed Soleimani , a top general in Iran’s military, in a drone strike in January 2020. Soleimani headed the expeditionary Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. responsible for the Islamic Republic’s foreign operations. He gained prominence for advising Shiite paramilitary forces fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq, before it was defeated in 2017.

After the stabbing, the man pushed Nikoubin off of him and ran out of the room to call 911, police said.

Nikoubin also ran out of the room, telling a hotel employee that she had just stabbed a man, police said.

When talking to police, Nikoubin told an investigator “she wanted revenge,” police said. She said she had listened to a song called “Grave Digger,” which “gave her the motivation… to carry out her revenge.”

The man’s current condition was not available, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.

Nikoubin is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing March 24, the newspaper said, It’s not clear if she has a lawyer yet.

Nika Nikoubin, 21, has been charged with attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon and burglary, KLAS-TV reported.

Nikoubin and the man met online on a dating website, Henderson police wrote in an arrest report. The pair then agreed to meet at Sunset Station hotel on March 5, renting a room together.

While in the room, the pair began having sex when Nikoubin put a blindfold on the man, police said. Nikoubin then turned off the lights, and several minutes later, the man “felt a pain on the side of his neck,” KLAS reported.

Nikoubin reportedly stabbed the man in the neck “for revenge against U.S. troops for the killing of Qassem Soleimani in 2020,” police wrote in a report.

U.S. forces killed Soleimani , a top general in Iran’s military, in a drone strike in January 2020. Soleimani headed the expeditionary Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. responsible for the Islamic Republic’s foreign operations. He gained prominence for advising Shiite paramilitary forces fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq, before it was defeated in 2017.

After the stabbing, the man pushed Nikoubin off of him and ran out of the room to call 911, police said.

Nikoubin also ran out of the room, telling a hotel employee that she had just stabbed a man, police said.

When talking to police, Nikoubin told an investigator “she wanted revenge,” police said. She said she had listened to a song called “Grave Digger,” which “gave her the motivation… to carry out her revenge.”

The man’s current condition was not available, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.

Nikoubin is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing March 24, the newspaper said, It’s not clear if she has a lawyer yet.

The key question here, above all, is why should an American citizen care about the Middle East and North Africa in the first place?

Well, there is one overwhelming reason, which is that what happens in the Middle East must reflect negatively or positively on the American citizen, whether from the political, economic or military side, and even from the angle of the continuity of the United States as the leader of the new world.

Open Market

The world is crowded with all types of goods from different countries of the world, and the United States needs to increase the commercial market for its various goods, and this is necessary in order to sustain the stability of the US economy and generate jobs. The Middle East and North Africa is a developing market and it is still for a long time to come, capable of expanding, importing and producing a lot.

Energy and Oil

Although the world is experiencing an abundance of global fossil energy production resources, the United States needs to maintain the stability of its influence in the Middle East, which accounts for approximately 69% of global oil production, according to announced estimates.  Although the United States’ share in oil production has increased and its dependence on imports decreased, this will never be sufficient to ensure American economic stability. In light of the free market strategy on which the United States relies radically, ensuring the stability of the oil market depends mainly on the production of the Middle East.

International Strategy

With regard to conflict and strategic competition with China and other major poles, the stability of the United States’ influence on energy sources in the Middle East and North Africa is essential.

Security

Terrorism represents one of the major dangers threatening the United States and the world, and it is the main threat in the Middle East, where the theocratic Iranian regime officially adopts terrorism, and Tehran is a meeting point and the backbone of all terrorist organizations such as Hezbollat, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Nusra Front.

What gave Al-Qaeda the appropriate opportunity to carry out the 9/11 terrorist attacks was the extensive logistical support it received from Iran through a mutual commitment by two parties not to attack one another, and Iran’s hosting of leading elements of Al-Qaeda.

Why Democrats Should Not Win November 2020?

The United States represents the greatest power globally, and regardless of some other powers that are trying to compete the United States influence in the world and the Middle East, the United States still has the power to sustain its influence.

The ability of the United States to sustain its global influence has not been based on just the military power but through its ability to make deals and mutual understandings with all power globally, especially in the Middle East. For a century, the United States has been following a strategy that respects the essence of coexistence regardless of some errors that are widely controversial at the US and international level. Generally, both Republicans and Democrats have been following this strategy (Live and let others live).

Obama and Far Left

Before that day, everything related to Barak Obama was an American domestic affair for the Middle East and North Africa. 10 February 2007, was an ominous, the day Obama has announced his candidacy to the White House. It’s similar to the day the Iranian Anti-Islam leader, Shiite mullah Khomenei, the supreme leader of (IRGC) landed in Tehran coming from Paris on an Air France jet, 1 February 1979. 

2009 June 4, Obama as a US President gave his famous speech at Cairo University in Egypt, directing his speech to the Islamic world, especially the Middle East and North Africa.  The peoples of the Middle East and North Africa had no clue that that famous smile and flowery words of a honeyed flavor promising progress, prosperity and peace, were hiding the most evil figure ever, similar to Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini, but in the most deceptive way. Obama was a successful project of chaos. The famous Cairo speech was a prelude to the most sinister plans the region had ever faced.

Although the term “Creative Chaos” was known to elites around the world as a theoretical concept, Obama was professionally leading the Devil’s Orchestra, as Democrats began implementing on the ground in the Middle East and North Africa. The opportunity was perfect for Satan’s right hand to shake left one.

Iran (IRGC) Destabilising the Middle East

March 2, 2009, in response to Obama’s initiative, “Khamenei did not see a real change in Washington’s policy towards his country,” despite the US President Barack Obama’s pledge to a new beginning for relations with Tehran, adding that “changing the tone is not enough. Rather, the United States must implement what it calls for on the ground”.  The steps taken by the Obama administration to ease pressure and get out of his way to appease the Iranian regime the agents of choas in the Middle East at the time threw the Middle East into choas and emboldened Qatari and Turkish regime’s chaotic agendas in the region, while cementing Iranian influences in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.  “Our people do not accept a proposal of negotiation. You can not talk to us like this”, Khamenei’s response.

To enhance the chances of threatening American influence in the region and tarnishing the reputation and prestige of the United States, the Iranian regime (IRGC) launched a series of insulting statements and actions against the world’s superpower, indifferent to any reaction from Washington.  The American response via US presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs was “a full evaluation will be needed with our policies, there are other initiatives”. Obama and the Democrats have shown US policy against Iranian policy as if they represent a republic of a small and marginal state on the world map, and the extreme weakness to the Iranians was strikingly provocative.

The United States has faced a continuous series of humiliating Iranian (IRGC) provocations that violate international law and human rights, that have been causing thousands of victims of American citizens and citizens of the Middle East and North Africa since 1979. Yet, Democrats humiliatedly continued to give the Iranians big rewards, not the last of which was surrender to the Iranians and handing Iraq over free of charge to the Iranians (IRGC) by announcing the withdrawal. Well, the withdrawal in and of itself was not the issue as it was a deserving desire of many American voters, but the withdrawal was through a refusal to cooperate and coordinate with the US allies in the region such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, all of these countries have been key allies of the US in the Middle East.

Since January 2009, the Democratic administration headed by Obama began a broad campaign of pressures against the governments around the Middle East and North Africa, political, economic and military.  It was a highly stupid plan. While the Iranian regime (IRGC), the most aggressive since the end of the Cold War, was being rewarded, excessive pressures were exerted on the governments of the region, which were mostly peaceful and desirous of peace, by aggressive means to impose Obama’s version of democracy on the peoples of the region.

The Middle East today became full of extremely dangerous terrorist militias affiliated with (IRGC) where the region has been seriously threatened by Al Qaeda and ISIS, who have been generated by the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood and trained by (IRGC).

On April 2, 2015, the completion of the nuclear deal was announced, which is considered the largest reward in history that a superpower at the height of its greatness offered to the enemy. The largest reward not only for the Iranian regime (IRGC), but was also a great reward for all competitors and adversaries of the United States such as China, Russia, Europe and all the spectrum of extremist groups around the world.

Betraying the US Allies in the name of “the Arab Spring”

The so-called “Arab Spring” was the lowest point in the curve of the US wisdom of policies. The governments allied with the United States or were more liberal in cooperation with the United States, were replaced with extremist religious governments and militias in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen. New problems were created to threaten American interests instead of dealing with one, which is the Iranian regime (IRGC).  It empowered the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood, other extremist religious organizations and far left revolutionary parties in the region that have been in consistent with the revolutionary vision of (IRGC) regarding the rejection of peace, and the rejection of coexistence, and the insistence on hostility toward the peoples of the region and toward the United States. Well, 22 new cases were a candidate to be new (IRGC) had the Obama project succeeded completely in the region.

Incredibly, the opportunity of such enormous planning and support (Creative Chaos), that could have directed to topple the Iranian regime (IRGC) to support the US allies inside Iran during the Green Revolution that erupted on 12 June 2009, was completely ignored. Instead, the policies of the Democrats administration was hostile to the US allies throughout the region.

The Fruits Of Obama’s Plan

The result of Democrats policies was a huge wide disaster. Other than further increase spread of Al Qaeda, ISIS and other militias affiliated with (IRGC), the Democrats caused civil wars, massacres, and complete or partial failure of the states, which caused millions of victims, dead, wounded, displaced and refugees throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The numbers of economic losses from this gruesome catastrophe similar to the holocaust reached a trillion dollar. Dramatically, threats against global energy sources have increased and the Middle East and North Africa became more complex than were originally complicated. Unfortunately you can see that on the map, as mere red-hot spots.

Growing Russian Influence In The Middle East

Iraq and Yemen were handed over to the (IRGC) the Russian-ally. Syria was handed over to the Russians and the (IRGC), and Ukraine was handed over to the Russians and Libya has been in the way. Those countries that have already engaged in understandings with the United States and were close to the US strategy have been smashed in favor of Russia.

Enable the Enemies of the United States

All that the Democrats have done was hand over the region to the powers of chaos instead of consolidating the US influence with the allies.  In addition to the increasing of terrorist groups, the matter has come to increase the threats against the main allies of the United States in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia and Israel), as (IRGC) tide reached the borders of Israel, and Saudi Arabia and the threats became greater than ever, leading (IRGC) obtaining outlets on the Red Sea, the Strait of Bab Al-Mandab and Mediterranean coasts.

The American People

I am confident that the American people are intelligent and peace-loving, but they have been subjected to the greatest operation of deception, concealment of information and the most dangerous exploitation of their economic and security concerns.

Historical Evidence: Desert Storm

Surprisingly, there is evidence that good cooperation and coordination between the United States and its allies is fruitful, cost-effective, and far away less costly.  The liberation of Kuwait from the Iraqi invasion in Desert Storm was an ideal coalition of what the United States could do and apply at its administration of the world.

The American-Saudi regional, and global understanding was deep on all levels, as military operations were launched on 16 January 1991 and ended with complete success on 27 February 1991. The coalition’s human direct losses were only 190, among – nearly – one million troops.  This war did not burden the American taxpayer, as the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Germany and South Korea bore most of the costs of this war, which costed nearly 61 Billion USD.  It was a smashing success.  Well, this is how the results of the fine-tuned good work should be supposedly. 

Wake Up Call: Donald Tump

The nomination of the US President Donald Trump on June 16, 2015 was a milestone in modern American history, and then his election victory was a staggering for political institutions, media and study centers in the United States.  Well, the Americans have decided to take the lead.  Trump was able to smoothly establish a new era internationally by opening up to the Islamic world forcefully through realistic and open understandings, which greatly enhanced positive communication between Americans and Muslim peoples, especially with the Saudis where the Saudis represent the centre of the Islamic world religiously and economically.

President Trump has done exactly what a leader of a superpower is supposed to do.  Restoring American prestige, holding global religious reconciliation, counter terrorism decisively, restoring strong influence in the Middle East and North Africa, more pressure and chances for China to respect the US leadership, securing more energy sources.

Objectively, I can affirm that the chances for peace, prosperity, and more cooperation with the United States and respect for its global leadership role have been decisively enhanced thanks to Donald Trump.

Turkei Al-Owerde is Editor-in-Chief and Political Analyst of the Herald Report. His knowledge of the religious undertones of most Muslim Terrorist Organizations makes his many “conflict analysis” a valuable source of information for many security experts from around the world. He regularly tweets under @Turki_AlOwerde.

Michael Arizanti

Obama-era mistakes will only compound the difficulties the region already faces.

Middle East policy has shifted up the U.S. Presidential Election agenda ahead of Novembers ballot, thanks in large part to the remarkable normalisation deals between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain. At the start of the year, following the Soleimani assassination, it seemed likely to be high on the agenda, before the pandemic took over all our lives. It belongs firmly in the debate, as America’s actions have major consequences in the Middle East, and under Obama those were largely negative.

Beneath all the bluster and rhetoric, is there actually a considerable amount of difference between the two candidates. It’s true that there would be obvious differences under Biden, not least in seeking a return to the Iran deal in some form, although hopefully he will avoid repeated the error of shunning input from the region’s powers. But the notion that we might see a wide-reaching return to Obama-era accommodation with Islamist forces in the Middle East is far less plausible. Quite simply, the sands have shifted.

It is perhaps the most fatal flaw in President Obama’s approach to the Middle East that he sought to build relations with Islamist groups, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood. His description of them as ‘an unsavoury but inevitable by-product of democracy’ was a basic failure to understand an organisation that views the creation of an Islamic caliphate intolerant of non-believers as it’s raison d’etre.

This shift in approach not only enabled a destabilising, hard-line organisation but simultaneously saw a cooler approach to America’s traditional allies in the region. Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and others all increasingly saw their advice as states on the frontline of regional problems fall on deaf ears. The consequence was greater regional instability, greater resource for violent proxies and an emboldening of Islamist forces manifesting themselves in Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and beyond.

Despite this bleaker picture, the past four years (and indeed the past two months), we have seen an historic realignment in the Middle East. Recent peace deals between Arab nations and Israel are no PR stunt; they are a formal recognition of shared core interests and a realisation of longstanding cooperation in combating extremism across the region. Israel along with its partners in the Gulf – all of them US allies – now form a bulwark against the Islamist ideology that the last administration turned a blind eye too.

Turkey, meanwhile, has emerged as the preeminent author of instability in the region. President Erdogan’s aggressive foreign policy in Libya, Syria and in the Eastern Mediterranean pits it against US allies across the board. Countering his neo-Ottoman ambitions and the Muslim Brotherhood-aligned ideology he propagates is a key challenge for the next president.

In order to meet that challenge, both candidates must recognise how this situation arose in the first place. Obama-era mistakes will only compound the difficulties the region already faces. America is undoubtedly seeking to pull back from the region in a military sense. However, recent weeks have shown the positive diplomatic impact the U.S. can have in terms of building alliances, improving stability and challenging the forces of divisive Islamism.

Whoever sits in the Oval Office in January should view promoting the growing unity among the United States’ allies as a priority, listen to their allies and reject Islamist thinking. Winding back the clock is not an option.

Article first published on Times Of Israel’s Blog section.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not reflect Milli Chronicle’s point-of-view.

The current political situation shows that the regime in Iran is tangled in a political and economic dead-end…

July 15, 2020, marks the fifth anniversary of the Iranian regime’s nuclear deal with 5+1 countries, a deal woven through with appeasement policy, leading to nothing but instability in the region and the spread of terrorism.

During the first three years, from 2015 to 2018, the Iranian regime’s proxy groups continued to be developed unchecked, in the regime’s hands turning into an apparatus for the killing of Iraqis, Yemenis and the people of Lebanon.

The deal also enabled the regime to support Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship in Syria, giving it an open hand in chemically bombing its own people.  The Assad regime’s war against the Syrian people with the help of Qasim Soleimani, the late chief of the Qods force, led to five million Syrian refugees.

No wonder Mohammad Javad Zarif,  the Iranian regime’s foreign minister, called this deal his greatest diplomatic achievement. Speaking in Majlis (parliament) he said: “I met each week with Qasim Soleimani and we set our schedules together”.

Also, Hassan Rouhani called the deal the key to solving Iran’s economic problems. But after five years, the JCPOA has borne no fruit, but rather catastrophe for the regime.

The outraged people of Iran shook the foundations of the clerical rule with three great uprisings in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

After each uprising the regime claimed to have everything under control, yet again the brave youth of Iran, accompanied by all strata of the society, rose in another uprising; even more widespread, to show their abhorrence of this regime.

Eventually, on Tuesday, May 8, 2018 the US left the JCPOA and President Donald Trump ordered the revival of the sanctions against the Iranian regime.

Irrevocable developments have taken place during 2018 to 2020, in the region and regarding Iran’s internal affairs. Qasem Soleimani, the number one terrorist and the chief of the IRGC’s (Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps) Quds Force was killed; in Soleimani, the Iranian regime lost one of its most important commanders who coordinated its regional terrorism and his death has resulted in debilitating the regime’s proxies in the region.

Also during the last two years, Tehran has faced serious economic, social and political crises; its ruling elite witnessing serious internal fractures.

As far as its economy is concerned, according to a report published by ‘Trading Economist’ on July 2, 2020, Iran’s annual inflation rate reached 22.5% in June of 2020; food and beverages had seen a 14.9% rise, housing, and services 21.7%, transportation 48.6%, medical and hygienic services 24%, clothing and shoes 28% and restaurants and hotels a 17.9% rise in prices.

In a Bushehr’s City Council meeting on Tuesday, July 14, Majid Khorshidi security and social deputy of Bushehr’s (southeast Iran) governor, said: “Sanctions have crippled our economy”. (Avaye-Bushehr- July 15, 2020)

He continued, “Impacted by escalating sanctions, and with the coronavirus increasing the impact, the country’s economy is in turmoil”. He spoke of “a halt in all” the regime’s “revenues”.

Recently, the minister of Health and Medical Education, Saeed Namaki, stated, “Having in mind the conditions of our citizen’s livelihood, we must think of all the poor, rioting”. (Deutsche Welle- July 9, 2020).

The regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, is well aware of the army of hungry people and knows that the slightest mishap could ignite a great uprising. To control this situation, Khamenei has seized control over political, economic and cultural affairs, unilaterally controlling the society.

He has engineered a homogeneous governing force, putting Ibrahim Raisi and Mohammad Baqer Qalibah over two of the country’s powers, the judicial and the executive, and trying to seize the third one too, the legislative, by an effort to oust Rouhani and replace him with one of his own ‘royal pawns’, to help save himself from the current infighting.

Khamenei and his faction are turning Rouhani into a scapegoat, blaming all the regime’s failed policies on him to relieve Khamenei of the blame.

Regime MPs (appointed by Khamenei in a sham election) signed for Rouhani’s impeachment. But Khamenei, not having the power to exclude Rouhani from their infighting, is holding back the reins. This is the dead-end that Khamenei is facing in trying to homogenize his ruling force.

Meanwhile, in the early hours of Thursday, July 16, a huge crowd, led by youths, took to the streets in Behbahan (located in Khuzistan Province, southwestern Iran). They gathered in front of the Meli Bank which was torched in November 2019 uprising and chanted: “Don’t be afraid, we are all together”, “canon, tanks and fire crackers, the mullahs must get lost” and “neither Gaza nor Lebanon, I give my life for Iran.”

In a short time, in fear of a rise in other cities, the regime disrupted and cut the internet in Khuzistan Province.

SSF units (Social Security Forces) were deployed to the scene and tried to disperse the crowd by firing tear gas canisters and shooting in the air, but the youths confronted them in the streets and alleys by throwing stones at them.

The chief of Behbahan’s SSF, Colonel Mohammad Azizi, announced the day after that the protesters “not only didn’t disperse” when police entered the scene, “but also started chanting slogans against the Nezam (system)”.

Simultaneously, Iranians abroad, along with advocates of democracy in Iran, held a global webinar gathering with live communication from 30,000 locations in more than a 100 countries of the world in solidarity with the Iranian people.

A thousand political personalities from many countries participated in this global gathering, several making speeches pledging their support.

This comprehensive portrait of the current political situation shows that the regime in Iran is tangled in a political and economic dead-end, with no light for it at the end of the tunnel.

Hassan Mahmoudi is a Sweden-based social analyst, researcher, independent observer and commentator of Middle Eastern and Iranian Politics. He tweets under @hassan_mahmou1. 

Regime forces’ machine-gunning and burning alive of unarmed protesters whose ‘crime’ was to demand freedom..

With anti-regime protests once again breaking out across Iran,  it’s notable that one region, Ahwaz, is conspicuously not participating, at least so far, in the latest wave of demonstrations.

The brutally oppressed people of Ahwaz in southwest Iran are certainly watching and silently supporting the current demonstrations, this time instigated by regime forces’ shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 people on board;  there’s widespread disgust, if no surprise, at the regime’s crime, while some in the region had family or friends aboard the plane and are in mourning for their loved ones. 

Like most of Iran’s population, Ahwazis fervently hope that the hated regime is growing weaker and its future is short.  But with no international support, Ahwazis know all too well from harsh experience what will – and will not – happen in response to the demonstrations,  and are in no hurry to sacrifice more of their sons and daughters in another uprising for which they will be particularly mercilessly punished, persecuted and slaughtered in the face of global indifference.

For the world’s news media, the Ma’shour Massacre in November 2019 barely merited a paragraph if it was mentioned at all; regime forces’ machine-gunning and burning alive of unarmed protesters whose ‘crime’ was to demand freedom and the detention of thousands of others was simply dismissed as one more faceless “outbreak of Middle East violence”.  For Ahwazis, especially the poorest of the poor in Ma’shour, who’ve endured decades of persecution and terror at successive Iranian regimes’ hands, this indifference was further confirmation that the world will do nothing to protect those who rise up against their oppressors.

For all the fine and noble words from Western politicians and pundits and UN officials about the importance of supporting universal freedom, human rights, and justice, the actions have never matched the righteous speeches;  Ahwazis’ freedom, human rights and access to justice are apparently deemed expendable, not only to the leadership in Tehran but to the ‘civilised’ world’,  being considered far less valuable than maintaining the “stable” totalitarian despotism of the  Tehran regime and ensuring access to the abundant mineral reserves in the region, which contains over 95 percent of the oil and gas reserves claimed by Iran’s regime.

The medieval barbarism used in the Ma’shour Massacre by Iranian troops and affiliated sectarian militias from across the region was not an anomaly but a return to form for the Islamic Republic’s regime whose forces began their reign of terror in Ahwaz shortly after the revolution in 1979.  From the very beginning of its rule in Ahwaz, as across Iran the new theocratic ‘Islamic Republic’ regime set about dismantling or straightforwardly arresting, imprisoning and killing the members of civil society groups that might allow any sort of outlet for anti-regime sentiments, formulating Orwellian policies to crush all dissent. 

In Ahwaz, this resulted in what is now known as ‘Black Wednesday’ on May 30, 1979, when a massive operation by regime forces began, with troops and militias storming political activists’ homes and the headquarters of civic society groups in the city of Mohammareh, assassinating local leaders of Arab organisations at point-blank range, often along with colleagues and family members. The operation was a bloodbath, with the world, as always, silent and indifferent. Within five days, around 500 people were killed. The massacre culminated with the local head of regime forces, Ali Jahan Ara, deploying helicopter gunships to rain down rockets upon Arab residential neighbourhoods in the city.

In the wake of this massacre, the regime continued targeting leaders and members of civic society groups, activists and dissidents for assassination and summary execution, with thousands more displaced and forced to flee the country to survive.  Hundreds were arrested, tortured and subjected to summary execution after kangaroo trials in the regime’s ‘Revolutionary Courts’ in cities including Mohammareh, Abadan, Falahiyeh and the regional capital Ahwaz, which have become a byword for brutal injustice, with sentences a foregone conclusion and usually decided long before the ‘trials’ take place.  Although these trials and executions no longer take place on the same industrial scale as they did in the first decade after the 1979 revolution, they are a commonplace evil for Ahwazi dissidents, who continue to be routinely arrested, tortured into making false confessions that are often televised on state TV despite being visibly coerced, and imprisoned or executed on charges including ‘enmity to God’ for the slightest expression of dissent with or opposition to the regime.

While all dissent is outlawed in Iran, dissident Ahwazis and other minorities such as Kurds, Balochis, Turkmen, and Azeris are subjected to twofold persecution, both through the regime’s customary totalitarian repression of dissent and via straightforward ethnic discrimination; while the regime likes to present itself internationally as a champion of the persecuted, its persecution of minorities in Iran is all-encompassing, affecting every aspect of life, from the available choice of names at birth to education to employment opportunities to housing to healthcare and all other areas.

The regime promotes a profoundly supremacist worldview domestically, maligning and dehumanising non-Persian minorities within Iran as a way to sow mistrust and enmity among different groups within the population generally and to inculcate a belief in an innate Persian superiority among the Persian population. This calculated promotion of hostility and distrust towards the minority groups who collectively make up a majority of the population helps the regime to create division, justify persecution, and promote itself as the protector of a mythical Persian pre-eminence.    

In practical terms, this means, amongst other things, that Ahwazis are denied the right to dress in their traditional Arab garb, to be educated in their native Arabic tongue, to teach or learn about their own history, with only the revisionist Persian version of history permitted in schools. Arabic poetry or literature celebrating Ahwazis’ rich cultural history are outlawed, with literary groups shut down, their members imprisoned, and celebrated poets like  Hassan Haidari assassinated as dangerous symbols of freedom and justice.

All this shows that for Ahwazis as for other minorities in Iran, state-sanctioned racism and persecution are not an anomaly but an everyday fact of life. From cradle to grave, Ahwazis are made aware of their second-class status and their lack of any recourse to law or justice; how to call the police on your oppressors, after all, when your oppressors are the state, including the police?    

Against this background of institutionalised injustice and persecution on such a large scale that the regime’s atrocities can be classified as crimes against humanity, the international community’s tireless wooing and appeasement of the regime and its deafening silence on the historic and terrible injustices done to the Ahwazi people can only be described as complicity. 

Ahwazis, numb from decades of injustice, oppression and savage brutality at the hand of Iran’s regime can be forgiven for extreme scepticism about the international community’s claims to a genuine commitment to human rights when the only rights the international community works to defend in Iran are those of the oppressor, rather than the oppressed. Indeed, the resilience of Ahwazis’ resistance, despite this relentless, inhuman Orwellian persecution and the world’s silent indifference is a testament to the indomitable power of the human spirit in the face of evil.

In the typically understated words of George Orwell, ‘There is something wrong with a regime that requires a pyramid of corpses every few years.’  For over 40 years to date, from Mohammareh to Ma’shour, Iran’s regime has built more pyramids than Egypt’s pharaohs from the corpses of its Ahwazi victims; this is not just wrong but a monstrous affront to humanity and human decency. The world’s failure to act to atone for its complicity with this evil will be remembered unsparingly as a no less damning indictment than its appeasement of Nazism in the 1930s.

Article first published on Dur Untash Study Center.

Ruth Riegler is a Scottish writer, editor and supporter of universal freedom, democracy and human rights who previously lived in the Middle East. She tweets under @NippySweetyLass.

Even when US-Iran tensions aren’t ramped to extreme it seems the editors in London love a click-baity Dubai-bashing headline.

The chances are if you are a western expat in the UAE – particularly a Brit – reading this, you’ve probably had your mum on the phone over the last few days.

‘They are saying all westerners must leave the UAE immediately’ she might have said, ‘It’s in The Daily Mail and everything.’

Yes, the UK papers may have jumped on a particular line spouted by one source in the aftermath of Friday’s death of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, but let’s look at this in detail for a minute…

Who said it and what exactly did he say?

All of these headlines stem from one, yes one, Iranian professor Seyed Mohamamd Marandi from the University of Tehran, who told the BBC, “If I was a Western citizen I would leave the United Arab Emirates immediately. Not only will Iranian leaders retaliate but also Iraqis will retaliate.”

“The Americans have murdered Iraqi war heroes, this was a senior Iraqi government official. The American position in Iraq is no longer sustainable and I think that the whole region is now a threat.”

“The whole region’s future is unclear because of the terrorist attack committed in Iraq. No matter how you frame it, it’s the equivalent of assassinating the British commander of the British armed forces.

“This is essentially a declaration of war against Iran and they have a pretty wide menu from which to choose [as a form of retaliation].”

Why have the UK papers jumped all over it?

Even when US-Iran tensions aren’t ramped to extreme it seems the editors in London love a click-baity Dubai-bashing headline.

We don’t know why that is, but other than being jealous of the better weather perhaps they need to link the wider Middle East region, which is vast and extremely varied (with a landmass of nine million square kilometres – only slightly smaller than the US), to somewhere where their western readers might actually be able to relate to.

Most people would have holidayed here in Dubai or at least know someone who has. So, if you need web hits, a surefire way of getting them is to go with the most recognisable brand recall in the region, which is Dubai.

It’s also home to 102,000 Brits according to the British Embassy, which after Australia and Spain is one of the biggest collectives of expat Brits on earth. Foreign Office figures also suggest that 1.5 million Brits visit the UAE a year and there are currently 30,000 Brits on holiday here at this very moment, which again makes the UAE, and in particular Dubai, the most popular place in the region for vacationing Brits.

Ironically right next to these stories of impending doom in Dubai, there are also pictures of celebrities vacationing on these very beaches in pre-arranged photo-shoots probably set up by the papers themselves to ‘clandestinely’ capture these celebrities kicking back in the emirate. You can’t have it both ways Daily Mail, should we be staying or going?

In the void of information that follows such an event like Friday’s killing there’s also not that much more for journalists to go on (until Iran actually retaliate), other than to invite a pundit on to speculate about what could happen, because nothing gets hits like a little scaremongering and who better to do it than this guy.

What else has Professor Marandi said?

The American-born academic actually has quite a back catalogue of outlandish statements, none of which have come true, and all of which seem to be heavily centred around UAE-bashing.

One of which, as told to Russia’s answer to Fox News, Russia Today, in July of last year was that “the UAE would cease to exist in a few days.”

Check his tweets and there’s more of the same. He’s previously stated that ‘western expats should leave the UAE immediately’ after similar events like the oil tanker and Aramco attacks last year, but here’s the thing, westerners are still here.

In such a market, and it is just that, some analysts gain notoriety out of being as outspoken as possible, and some channels gravitate towards giving the ‘shock jock’ air time. Marandi is building quite a career out of appearing on TV and scaring people, and as an Iranian academic, with heavy alliance to one-side of the argument he’s unlikely to say anything different is he?

It’s also not all his fault, he may say one thing that gets sensationalised and blown out of all proportion, but the question is why are UK papers trying to smuggle the ridiculous in with genuine news to merge the agenda? It’s pure clickbait.

This from The Telegraph of all papers (oh, you thought you were safe with the broadsheets); headline: ‘Westerners should leave UAE immediately: Gulf warning as British troops put at greater risk in Iraq after US kills Iran military chief, January 3.

Intro: “British troops in Iraq are at greater risk after the US airstrike that killed Iran’s military chief, a former Foreign Office minister has warned, as the US embassy in Baghdad urged Americans to leave Iraq.”

Fair enough, this sounds like a a credible opening, but it’s followed up by the lure that got you to click in the second par of all places: “As one leading Iranian figure urged western citizens to ‘leave the UAE immediately’ for their own safety.”

There it is, the admission that the sensational headline was just that, hidden in the story.

What’s the reality?

US and UK Foreign Offices have indeed updated their travel advisories in the wake of Qasem Soleimani’s death urging citizens in the ‘region’ to ‘remain vigilant’. But none of them explicitly mention Dubai or the UAE.

The UK foreign office notice for the UAE says, “Following the death of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in a US strike in Baghdad on 3 January, British nationals in the region should remain vigilant and keep up to date with the latest developments, including via the media and this travel advice.”

The British Embassy had nothing more than the above to add, while the US embassy in Abu Dhabi said, “US citizens are strongly encouraged to maintain a high level of vigilance and practice good situational awareness.”

All of this is quite different to pack your bags and leave, and it could be the same sort of travel advice the world over with the global threat of terrorism as it is nowadays.

In fact the only three places in the region considered ‘no go’ or ‘all but essential travel’ are Iraq, Iran and Yemen, and they were even before this whole fiasco.

How safe is Dubai?

Dubai ranked 28th in the 2019 Safe Cities Index and 10th in Numbeo’s Crime Index last year.

A 2018 national agenda survey also found that 96.1 per cent of people felt safe to walk outside at night.

The UAE also came first in the lowest rate of crimes related to murder at 0.7 per cent and kidnapping at 0.8 per cent.

Article first published on Gulf News.

Ashley Hammond is the Chief Reporter of Gulf News.

There is fear because he was so central to almost every regional event in the last two decades that even people who hate him can’t believe he could die.

Middle East woke up to incredible news of Qassem Suleimani’s killing in US strike in Iraq, at Baghdad airport on Friday. He had reportedly just flown back from Beirut. He was like a Middle East viceroy, trotting around region, giving orders, masterminding small and large operations.

A combination of elation, relief and fear here in the region among people who suffered tremendously from Suleimani’s policies, from Lebanon to Syria and Iraq.

Elation and relief because he was seen as the evil mastermind of policies of death and destruction propping up bloodthirsty oppressive militias, overseeing a devastating war in Syria, feeding/playing on sectarian hatred, helping crack down on protestors in Iran (2009/2017/2019), Iraq now, and likely more recently helping Hezbollah to navigate protests in Lebanon.

Note that he had just flown back from Beirut and it’s definitely not his first visit. There were reports of him being in Lebanon in 2006 to help Hezbollah strategise in the war against Israel, and so there’s celebration and relief from Iran, to Iraq to Lebanon and Syria, among those, Sunnis and Shias who suffered from his evil mind.

I write about him in my forthcoming book Black Wave and the deadly dynamics of revenge that he pursued after Iran-Iraq war.

There is fear because he was so central to almost every regional event in the last two decades that even people who hate him can’t believe he could die, a bit like people couldn’t believe Saddam was really gone. He seemed invincible, omnipotent. What happens in his absence?

Some of his aura or reputation was probably overblown, but he really was indispensable to Iran, he was not on a mission, he was the mission, the architect of Iran’s expansionist regional policy, the indispensable upholder of the Islamic Revolution, keeping it alive for Khamenei

So what comes next: war? chaos? limited retaliation? nothing? no one really knows, not in the region, and not in DC, because this is unprecedented.

There is anger too of course, among his supporters, allies, proxy militias, who were devoted to him and lionized him and will be lost without him.

There is no replacement that I know of or can see. They will be mulling their next step for a bit. First, huge displays of mourning.

Lots more to say about region, US policy, Saudi Arabia reaction, Iran domestic reaction, local dynamics and more later, but for now then read Dexter Filkins’ piece from 2013 on Suleimaini, the best profile out there.

Kim Ghattas is a non-resident scholar and author of upcoming book Black Wave. Article complied from series of her Tweets.

Many people see the blood of innocents — including Syrian, Yemeni, Lebanese, Bahraini and Iraqi children and women — on Soleimani’s hands.

The unexpected death of Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the elite Quds Force, should be viewed as a severe blow to Iran’s leadership, particularly its military apparatuses.

When it comes to authority in the Islamic Republic, Soleimani was considered Iran’s second man, after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Being a staunchly loyal confidante to Khamenei, Soleimani had great influence over dictating the Iranian regime’s foreign policy.

In fact, Soleimani was not bragging when he famously wrote in a message to US General David Petraeus: “You should know that I … control policy for Iran with respect to Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza and Afghanistan. The ambassador in Baghdad is a Quds Force member. The individual who’s going to replace him is a Quds Force member.”

Soleimani rose from being a construction worker in Kerman to the second most powerful man in the Islamic Republic by exploiting Iran’s 1979 revolution, and by proving his loyalty and determination to advance its revolutionary principles by any means — including brute force or war.

Almost two decades ago, Soleimani was appointed by Iran’s supreme leader to be the head of the Quds Force, a branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The Quds Force is tasked with exporting Iran’s ideological, religious and revolutionary principles beyond the country’s borders.

As the leader of the Quds Force, Soleimani was in charge of extraterritorial operations, including organizing, supporting, training, arming and financing predominantly Shiite militia groups; launching wars directly or indirectly via these proxies; fomenting unrest in other countries to advance Iran’s ideological and hegemonic interests; attacking and invading cities and countries; and assassinating foreign political figures and powerful Iranian dissidents worldwide.

As the leader of the Quds Force, Soleimani was in charge of extraterritorial operations, including organizing, supporting, training, arming and financing predominantly Shiite militia groups.

Under his leadership, the Quds Force was accused in 2011 of failed plans to assassinate Adel Al-Jubeir, then Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US, and to bomb the Saudi and Israeli embassies in the US.

An investigation also revealed that the Quds Force was also behind the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, Lebanon’s influential Sunni politician and former prime minister, in 2005.

Soleimani soon became well-known as the Middle East’s deadliest, and Iran’s most dangerous, man. He prioritized offensive tactics and operations over defensive ones, and rejoiced in taking overconfident selfies with his troops and proxies in battlefields in many countries, including Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.

He was previously sanctioned by the US, Switzerland and the UN Security Council via Resolution 1747. He was also on America’s Specially Designated Global Terrorists list.

He ruled over roughly 20,000 Quds Force members. However, he could also deploy forces from the IRGC and Basij in case of emergencies. In addition, Soleimani technically commanded fighters from militias that Iran supports and helped create. He also hired fighters from many countries, including Afghanistan, to fight as proxies.

Soleimani’s modus operandi was anchored in creating instability in other countries in order to achieve Tehran’s hegemonic and ideological objectives.

He once declared that the unrest and uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa “provide our (Iran’s) revolution with the greatest opportunities …

Today, Iran’s victory or defeat no longer takes place in Mehran and Khorramshahr. Our boundaries have expanded, and we must witness victory in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. This is the fruit of the Islamic revolution.”

While some Iranian politicians believe their country should wield power via its ideology, Soleimani believed that it should spread its ideology via hard power.

His strategies and military tactics included influencing the sociopolitical and socioeconomic processes of Arab countries via the Quds Force — by supporting and assisting in establishing militias in several countries.

Under his leadership, the Quds Force also infiltrated top security, political, intelligence and military infrastructures in several countries, including Syria and Iraq.

He chose which foreign leaders and politicians to rule, and he had operatives and agents worldwide.

In almost every country and conflict in the region, Soleimani appeared to play a destabilizing role in order to tip the regional balance of power in Iran’s favor.

Many people see the blood of innocents — including Syrian, Yemeni, Lebanese, Bahraini and Iraqi children and women — on Soleimani’s hands. He was considered to be responsible for deaths in many countries in the region and beyond.

Reports suggest Soleimani was killed, along with Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, on Friday in an airstrike near Baghdad airport.

The Islamic Republic will most likely attempt to retaliate against the US and its allies.

Iran’s supreme leader will also try to appoint someone like Soleimani – an ideologue and revolutionary general who frequently expresses support for, and loyalty to, Iran’s revolutionary Shiite values and the supreme leader – as the head of Quds Force.

In a nutshell, the unexpected death of Qassem Soleimani is a severe blow to Iran’s leadership and its military apparatuses.

Article first appeared on Arab News.

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. He is a leading expert on Iran and US foreign policy, a businessman and president of the International American Council. He tweets under @Dr_Rafizadeh.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Millichronicle’s point-of-view.