Iran
U.S.: Undersecretary Of State Pushes For More Interfaith Dialogue
Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes being interviewed at RFE/RL's Prague headquarters (RFE/RL) PRAGUE, June 11, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- On June 11, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes, a longtime confidante of U.S. President George W. Bush, visited RFE/RL's Prague broadcast center. In a wide-ranging discussion with several RFE/RL correspondents, Hughes laid out her strategy for reaching out to other cultures and societies as part of the U.S.-led global war on terrorism. Hughes emphasized the need for greater dialogue among cultures and the role of people-to-people exchanges in order to counteract extremist and terrorist ideologies.
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RFE/RL: As underscretary of state for public affairs and public diplomacy, what are the main opportunities and challenges you are facing in fulfilling your mission?
Karen Hughes: I really view my job and the way I describe it in simple terms is [that] I'm focusing on America's conversation with the world. And I say "conversation" because I think sometimes the world thinks we speak at them, rather than listening to them. So I've tried to focus a great deal on listening and engaging in dialogue.
And as I travel the countries I try to meet with people. I meet with a wide sector of people, young professionals, people in low-income neighborhoods. Many people have told me that I've gone places where an American has never gone before. I try to appear on television shows where they've never interviewed an American before, to really reach out. The core of public diplomacy is, I believe, people-to-people programs and exchanges and ways that we can actually reach out to people.
I have three strategic goals for the way I look at, the way I constantly ask my staff to look at, our public-diplomacy efforts and I'll just go through them all quickly. The first is I believe it's very important that America continue to offer the world a positive vision of hope and opportunity that’s rooted in our values, our belief in freedom, our commitment to human rights, our belief in the worth and dignity and equality and value of every single person in the world. I saw a focus-group interview [with] a young man in Morocco and he said: "For me, America represents the hope of a better life." And I think it's vitally important that our country continue to offer that hope to people everywhere, whether it's people in Afghanistan, or Uzbekistan, or Iran -- that we've got to offer that hope that’s rooted in our fundamental values again. The most fundamental of all is that we believe every person matters, every person counts, and every person has the right to live a life that’s meaningful and to contribute.
Hughes speaks to an Afghan child during a visit to Kabul on February 26, 2004 (epa)
And the final strategic imperative is that I believe it's very important for America to foster a climate of common interests and common values between Americans and people of different countries and cultures and faiths across the world. And that's particularly important at this time when we are engaged in a worldwide war against terror. One of our former ambassadors, when I met with him, said to me: "Karen, you know, American foreign policy can't be just seen as focusing on common threats. We have to focus on common interests and common values." And I find as I travel the world we do have a lot in common, even though we don't always recognize that. If you ask a lot of people around the world "what's most important to you," frequently they’ll say their faith, their family, their sense of social justice and responsibility. If you ask Americans "what's most important to you," we'll say "our faith, our family, our communities." Often, though, if you ask the people in other parts of the world "do you think Americans value faith and family," they don't understand that about us. So I think it's very important that we talk and engage in dialogue so that we understand that we do have a lot in common.
I'm a mother. I have a son who I love dearly and a daughter, and I want the best for them. I want them to be educated; I want them to have a chance to travel around the world and meet other people; I want them to grow up and have an opportunity for a job and a productive, meaningful life. And that's what parents across the world want for our children. And so I think it's very important that we reach out in that spirit to the rest of the world.
RFE/RL: You just spoke about the importance of having a dialog between the United States and the Muslim world. Do you see a role that international broadcasters could play in that dialogue?
Hughes: Absolutely. I'm here at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and I was just told that of the 28 countries where you broadcast, I think, 18 have majority Muslim populations. And so that's a very important voice for our values going into those countries. Your mission here is to provide the truth and to provide audiences in those countries with information that is accurate. One of the challenges, I think, that I face in my job, one of the things I say, is that I want people to be able to decide for themselves. And I think that's very different from the extremists that we face. The extremists want a very narrow, rigid view of the world. They basically say, "it's our way, or you're wrong."
Young people in Tehran (RFE/RL file photo)
Another big part of my strategy is to try to empower our own citizens. We have in America 6-7 million Muslim-Americans, and I believe they are a very important bridge to the wider Muslim, Islamic world because many of them are from cultures around the world, came from those countries, and so know both cultures, know both their home culture and their now American home culture. And so I think they are an important bridge.
I was in Germany not too long ago, and I was meeting with a group of Muslims who live there and this woman was telling me how isolated her community is. And I said, "Well, could I come meet and maybe talk with people in your community?" And she looked at me and kind of shook her head and said: "No, not really." I was kind of taken aback and I said, "What do you mean?" And she said, "Well, we wouldn't want our own government officials to come and meet with us, so why would we want yours?" Because there is such a hostility, a sort of disconnect, the community feels very isolated there. And I said, "what if I sent a group of Muslim-American citizens over here to meet and talk with you?" And she said, "that'd be great!"
And so, beginning next week, we're going to be sending Muslim-Americans to different regions of the world to meet with Muslim communities and begin a dialogue. And so I think one of my roles is to help empower those voices and to let Muslim communities across the world hear different points of view and hear debates, and I know that's one of the things that our broadcasting encourages is: "Let's look at...." [and] "We've got to talk about...."
We have in America separation of church and state, but that doesn't mean -- I think I'm worried that sometimes freedom of religion has come to mean freedom from religion. And I don't think that's what was intended. America has people of many different faiths -- Muslims work and worship and practice their faith very freely in my country. And so do many Jewish citizens. So do many Christian citizens of all different denominations. And some Americans choose to practice no faith at all, and that's fine too. So we have a very diverse and tolerant society. And I think it's important that we allow and, through our broadcasting, that we allow discussion of these kinds of issues.
RFE/RL: There are countries in the world that you can visit, where you can talk directly to people. But there are countries, like Iran, that are much more difficult to visit. Do you have different strategies for communicating with people in more isolated societies?
Hughes: That's where broadcasting [into Iran] becomes even more important, because Radio Farda does reach an audience that we're not able to reach. President Bush has recently requested supplemental funding for additional broadcasting into Iran and also for an opportunity to try to begin some people-to-people exchange programs, where we could begin to try to have some exchanges. That's going to be difficult and we recognize that.
So our broadcasting becomes very important in terms of being able to establish a dialogue, and some of the correspondents here were sharing with me that you hear from many of your listeners within Iran, that they would call and leave messages or they would send e-mails. I think that's a very important dialogue.
We, of course, have many Iranians in America and they are in touch with people in Iran. For example, recently, I reached out to them and had conference calls with them to get their points of view about events in Iran and how we might better engage with the people of Iran. But clearly it's a problem.
In societies such as Cuba, for example, as well. Again we try to broadcast into Cuba, but we don't have formal relations, therefore we don't have formal exchanges. We, again, have a lot of Cuban-Americans who communicate to some extent with family back at home. So we have to adapt our strategies to each country. By and large, however, I think that in today's world, it's very different than public diplomacy was in the Cold War. In the Cold War, as you know because Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was such a vital part of it, we were broadcasting news and information into societies that were largely closed, that were hungry for that information. That's still the case in Iran today, or in places like Cuba.
Iraqis in Baghdad watching the news on television (epa file photo)
And so today, in today's world, when we see on our television stations pictures from around the world in an instant what we're vying for, I think, is attention and credibility in the midst of an often-crowded communications environment and that's why it is so important, I think, that our broadcasting is committed to telling the truth and to portraying truthful, accurate information without bias, without propaganda, without slant, but providing the truth to people across the world.
RFE/RL: You earlier indicated that you have made several trips to Afghanistan and you are a good friend of the Afghans, especially the women. Are there any concerns about what seems to be a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan with advances by the Taliban and especially the anti-U.S. rioting that took place recently? And you are also welcome to make any statement for Afghan listeners.
Hughes: Well, thank you so much. Afghanistan stole my heart on my first visit to Afghanistan several years ago. I was so impressed by the great courage, particularly of the women there who have been through so much after years of war and years of the Taliban rule. Yet I met women who, despite threats of really their life in some cases, were having home reading classes to teach little girls to read because little girls were forbidden from going to school or learning to read. And I met women who just had so much courage, who had lost husbands at war and yet had been struggling to try to support their families.
Of course, everywhere I went, the people were so gracious, so warm. You’d meet people who had virtually nothing and yet they would offer you everything. They’d invite you to their home, and serve you tea and greet you with great warmth. I really admire the courage of the people of Afghanistan.
And I found when I was in Afghanistan that the people of Afghanistan were very grateful. Everywhere I went, they said two things to me. They said: “Tashakkour” -- “Thank you.” And then they said “don’t leave,” because they very much want a chance at peace and stability.
I think what we are seeing now is some Taliban remnants try to take advantage of a situation there as NATO takes the lead of the operations for the coalition there. I think we are seeing increased presence of NATO in the southern part of Afghanistan, and so we are encountering some Taliban forces that we had not encountered before because we hadn’t had that kind of presence in the southern part of the country.
I saw the American ambassador to Afghanistan interviewed about the riots. He said he thought it was more of a crowd that got out of control, and was just sort of in a very ugly, feisty bad crowd dynamics. Because he said his experience is still by and large the same as mine, and that is that the majority of the Afghan people want the presence of American forces and coalition and NATO forces in Afghanistan, because they know that is the best hope to have peace and prosperity in their future.
Afghans in Jalalabad celebrating Norouz in March (RFE)
We are committed to Afghanistan. America is committed to Afghanistan. NATO is committed to Afghanistan. And we want Afghanistan to succeed. It’s fairly exciting that we have a democratically elected government there. I had the privilege of attending President [Hamid] Karzai’s inaugural and watching the Supreme Court under the new constitution administer the oath of office to the new president, the chief justice. I couldn’t help but think, you know, two years ago none of this was here. There wasn't a constitution; there wasn't an elected president; there wasn’t.... Now we have a parliament with a number of women in parliament. I am looking forward to visiting with some of them on my next trip to Afghanistan.
RFE/RL: There seems to be a problem between two important allies in the war against terrorism -- Pakistan and Afghanistan. Using your status in the administration in promoting communication and dialogue, can you influence this? Can you do anything about it?
Hughes: Well, I certainly hope I can. I’ve been to both countries. I was in Pakistan not too long ago. I led a group of business leaders to Pakistan to help raise money for recovery from the horrible [October 2005] earthquake there.
I am aware that there are tensions and, unfortunately, there are some very difficult regions along the border between the [two] countries. Americans ask me all the time, why haven’t we caught [Al-Qaeda leader] Osama Bin Laden if he is there? I have flown over that country. As you know, it is extremely rugged. It’s hard to imagine. I remember flying over some of those mountains and thinking there is no way anyone could live there. And then they had put me on night-vision goggles and I looked down and there were hundreds of fires where people had campfires, where people were living all throughout those mountains and they go for miles and miles, and it was incredibly rugged and incredibly hostile territory and incredibly difficult to imagine. And of course, [there are] long traditions and long grievances. So it’s difficult. But I certainly hope that America, our government could in some way perhaps encourage better relations.
RFE/RL: You have spoken about the importance of faith, at least of telling the world that Americans are people of faith. How important is sensitivity to religious issues in your communications strategy, especially sensitivity to Islam? And would you talk a little bit about the role of this interfaith dialogue you have been active in? How that is involved in your strategy?
Hughes: I think it is absolutely vital, because as a communicator I understand that the way that you really communicate with people is that you have to speak in ways that are relevant to their lives. And so if you are speaking with someone whose faith is the most important thing in their life, which it is for many people across our world, you can’t just ignore that factor.
Azerbaijani women worship in a Baku mosque (AFP file photo)
It’s interesting, I was in Morocco last week and I was talking with a couple of people who had been on exchanges and I asked them what their feeling was in America. And they said they felt so free -- they couldn’t believe how free they felt. A woman who wore cover told me how sometimes when she travels to Europe and other places, she feels as if people stare at her and look at her as is she is a little different or a little suspect. And yet she said in America she felt totally free, and she didn’t have that feeling in America. Because we are a very diverse and very welcoming country and society.
And I think it is important that we seek to foster interfaith dialog and that’s one of the things that President Bush asked me when I took this job. He said, "meet with religious leaders, foster conversations among religious leaders." I’ve attended a number of interfaith conferences. Because again you have to recognize that faith is very important to many people’s lives. So if you exclude that from your conversation, you are excluding something that is very important to many people.
The other thing is that the world’s major faiths have many things in common. The world's major faiths all believe that we should try to live in peace and love for each other, that we should love God and love our neighbor. All believe and teach that life is precious and that the taking of innocent life is wrong. It’s important that we talk about these things. Sure, we have differences. We have important theological differences. But we also have much in common. And I think it is very important that we foster that kind of dialogue.
RFE/RL: The United States has been accused of having allies that are undemocratic even as America promotes democracy and freedom. How do you answer critics who charge that the United States preaches one thing but practices another?
Hughes: President Bush made it very clear in his second inaugural address that he felt that America had to stand for freedom everywhere in the world and that, in the aftermath of September 11, America had reevaluated our national security, had looked at the situation around the world and had realized that when you have regions where there is a freedom deficit, then you often have the kind of conditions that can be taken advantage of. You have a kind of hopelessness, you have a sense of simmering anger that can lead people to get on airplanes and do crazy things like flying them in the buildings full of innocent people. He recognized that we had to address that.
So in the aftermath of September 11, the president made it our policy to foster freedom everywhere, to foster democracy, to encourage the democratic aspirations of people, because -- again -- we feel that’s in our national interests as well as in their interests. He said we have no monopoly on freedom in America. We believe that men and women were endowed by their creator with certain rights, as our Declaration [of Independence] says, and among them are the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- in other words, to freedom. And so we have an obligation to stand for that everywhere. He also said we recognize that will come in different ways in different places, and that the pace of change will be different in different places.
For example, in some place like Egypt, we spoke up and commended the step of having a multiparty presidential election. I remember being in Egypt and talking with a young man -- he was not much older than my son -- and he had just voted for the first time in the presidential election and I said, “did you have a choice of candidates?” And he said “yes.” And that was the first time that there had been a choice like that.
Then they had parliamentary elections that were not as open and not as free. And we expressed our concerns about that. So when there are crackdowns against people who are trying to peacefully exercise their right to speak out, we will speak up and say that we disagree with that.
Again, we recognize that the pace of change will be different in different places. There will be slow steps in some places. In other places, there will be bigger steps. But what we are seeing across the world, we hope, and what we are trying to encourage, is the advance, greater liberties, greater freedoms.
The women of Kuwait, for example, now have the right to vote and the right to run for office. So we are seeing advances.
A man in Hebron walks past a Hamas election poster during the Palestinian Authorities legislative elections in January (epa)
And so slowly, but surely, we believe that freedom is on the advance. We have in the world today many more democratic nations than we had in the past. So we are making progress, and the United States will continue to stand for greater freedom, for greater human rights, and for the voices of those people in their societies to speak out and influence the direction of the governments of their societies.
RFE/RL: Central Asia is exactly a region with a "freedom deficit," as you put it. Does it pose a dilemma for the United States, as on the one hand most of the governments in Central Asia are undemocratic, and, on the other, they are strategically important in the war against terrorism? Is it a dilemma for the United States whether to support them and to cooperate with them in the war against terrorism or do you see undemocratic governments as a cause of terrorism?
Hughes: I think I would separate the two slightly in that President Bush has said we want to work across the world with people who want to crack down in the fight against terrorism. We want to work on a lot of different levels. We work with the governments, for example, to try to withhold funding to terrorist organizations. We try to share intelligence. We try to share law enforcement. And that is a global strategic issue with which we work with governments across the world.
I hope most governments in the world want to protect their citizens. President Bush believes that the most fundamental responsibility of government is to try to protect its citizens’ right to not have airplanes fly into buildings where you are just going to work one day. So we work in cooperation with governments across the world to try to share information and intelligence to protect the lives of our citizens.
Parliamentary candidate Shukria Barekzai at a Kabul voting station during the country's legislative elections in September 2005 (RFE/RL)
We recognize that in Central Asia that’s a very great challenge. So, one of the things I work to do in my area is to foster the kind of exchanges, the kind of growth of civil society, to try to have people come to the United States and meet with civil-society organizations with the hopes that they can go back to their country and help form those kinds of civil-society organizations. We recognize that in many countries, it’s very difficult to do. It’s difficult for citizens to peacefully assemble and try to either express their political views or even express nonpolitical, charitable [views], to assemble together. But we work. And again, some of this is a process that takes a great deal of time.
As people here in the Czech Republic know very well, it takes time sometimes. But we are confident that as we work to exchange people and exchange ideas, as we work to support civil-society institutions, as we work to support education programs, as we work to broadcast truth and information into these societies -- that ultimately will help to empower people, so that they themselves have the information and the skills and the strength to make their societies a better place.
U.S. Undersecretary Of State Karen Hughes
U.S. Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes greets students from the State Islamic University in Jakarta, Indonesia, on October 21, 2005 (official site)
MEET THE NEWSMAKER: Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs KAREN HUGHES has been tasked by U.S. President George W. Bush with leading efforts to promote U.S. values and confront ideological support for terrorism around the world.
She oversees three bureaus at the U.S. State Department: Educational and Cultural Affairs, Public Affairs, and International Information Programs. She also participates in foreign-policy development at the State Department.
A longtime adviser to Bush, Hughes served as counselor to the president for his first 18 months in the White House. As counselor, she was involved in major domestic and foreign-policy issues, led the communications effort in the first year of the war against terrorism, and managed the White House Offices of Communications, Media Affairs, Speechwriting and the Press Secretary.
Hughes returned to Texas in 2002, but continued to serve as an informal advisor to the president and was a communications consultant for his 2004 reelection campaign.
She is the author of "Ten Minutes From Normal," the story of her experiences working for Bush, and she helped write the president’s autobiography, "A Charge To Keep"....(more)
Karen Hughes on November 14, 2005, speaks to Pakistani women who were left homeless by an earthquake in that country in October 2005 (official site)
Karen Hughes (left) having a working lunch with President George W. Bush (center) and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice in the White House on October 5, 2005 (official site)
Hughes (right) reads a book with Kashmiri earthquake survivors during a visit to a tent school in Muzaffarabad on November 14, 2005 (official site)
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Egypt and Qatar have scored diplomatic gains by brokering the elusive truce between Hamas and Israel.
However, Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Sunni monarchy, has not gained much from the war.
“They put all their money on the Abraham Accords and were close to normalizing with Israel formally before October 7,” said Ayub, the analyst in Washington. “But they had no meaningful sway on regional developments since then.”
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, key allies of Riyadh, recognized Israel under the Abraham Accords in September 2020.
The prewar hopes for Saudi Arabia to follow suit may be a casualty of the conflict, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza.
This factor has also turned much public opinion in the region against the United States, which has called on Israel to show restraint while also providing the weapons it needed to wage war.
Both the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations have claimed credit for the peace deal, but it will be for President-elect Donald Trump to deal with the aftermath.
It’s expected he will adopt a policy of maximum pressure toward Iran. His rhetoric has been firmly pro-Israel. The coming days will show if the peace deal holds -- and how Trump’s arrival reshuffles the cards once again.
2 Iranian Supreme Court Judges Killed In Tehran
Two prominent Iranian Supreme Court judges have been killed in an attack at the court's headquarters in Tehran, according to Iran's judiciary.
The victims were identified as Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghiseh. A third judge was also wounded in the attack, which took place at Tehran's Palace of Justice.
The press service of Iran's judiciary reported that an armed individual had "infiltrated the Supreme Court in a planned act to assassinate two judges."
Initial investigations found that the attacker did not have a case before the court, nor any other connections, the judiciary's press service reported.
The Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority in Iran, with its head appointed by the supreme leader. Headquartered in Tehran, it has branches throughout the country.
Details of the incident or the attacker's motive remain unclear. The judiciary's press service reported that the attacker "quickly committed suicide" after the shooting, although this has not been confirmed.
Other Iranian media reports stated that the perpetrator was an "infiltrator" who first wounded a bodyguard with a knife, seized their weapon, and then carried out the assassinations.
Iran's semiofficial Mehr News Agency, citing an informed source, reported that the judges were shot with live rounds before the attacker committed suicide.
Both victims held significant positions in Iran's powerful judicial system. Judge Mohammad Moghiseh had presided over numerous political trials, including cases involving supporters of the 2009 opposition Green Movement. He was under sanctions from both the European Union and the United States for human rights violations.
Razini had served in many high-profile positions in the judiciary and had been accused by Iran's opposition of being involved in a series of extrajudicial killings of political prisoners in 1988.
In 1998, when he was serving as chief justice of Tehran, Razini was wounded in a bomb attack while leaving his workplace.
In its statement on the judges' deaths, the judiciary's press service said that in recent years "extensive measures have been taken by the judiciary to identify, prosecute, arrest, and prosecute agents and elements affiliated" with Israel and "American agents, spies, and terrorist groups."
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and the identity of the attacker is not known.
Exiled Iranian Satirist Ebrahim Nabavi Takes His Own Life
The family of the exiled Iranian satirist and comedian Ebrahim Nabavi has announced his death in the United States at the age of 66. In a statement, they said he had taken his own life and that the "impossibility of living in his homeland weighed heavily on him." Nabavi left Iran in 2003 after serving multiple prison terms for his activism and criticism of the Islamic republic.
A Weakened Iran's New Russia Pact Comes In Shadow Of Distrust
A common enemy -- the United States -- has brought Iran and Russia together despite their troubled history and deep mistrust. Now, two of the world’s most sanctioned nations are poised to sign a strategic partnership that will govern their bilateral relations for the next two decades.
The agreement deepens the ties between Tehran and Moscow, which have expanded in recent years, including in Syria -- where both countries bolstered the regime of now-deposed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad -- as well in Ukraine, where Iran, despite official denials, has supplied cheap drones to Russia for the all-out war the Kremlin launched on its neighbor in 2022.
The agreement, expected to be signed during Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on January 17, is likely to be viewed with distrust and suspicion by the Iranian public -- and even by some of the country’s politicians who say Tehran cannot trust Moscow.
Most recently, a senior commander with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) accused Russia of betrayal in Syria and aligning with Iran’s chief enemy, Israel.
In 2021, it was Iran's then-Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, currently serving as a vice president for strategic affairs, who accused Russia of working to undermine nuclear diplomacy with the West.
The new partnership agreement comes with the Islamic republic at one of its weakest points in recent history.
Iran’s economy is in shambles, and its so-called “axis of resistance” is significantly weakened -- or even dead, as some would argue.
Meanwhile, the regime faces an Iranian public increasingly angry and frustrated by the clerics’ more than four decades of mismanagement and incompetence, which have brought misery and poverty, repression, and even widespread power cuts in a country with major energy resources.
The signing of Iran’s new strategic partnership with Russia comes days ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington on January 20, and Iranian officials -- including Pezeshkian -- have been sending signals to Trump’s incoming administration, which is likely to ramp up pressure on Tehran.
The agreement is unlikely to offer the Islamic republic much-needed economic relief or provide Iran security amid heightened tensions with Israel and reports that Tel Aviv could strike Iran’s nuclear sites.
For now, Tehran’s ties with Russia have brought the country more sanctions and isolation while strengthening its pariah-state image.
The partnership is likely to bring even more international pressure on Iran and make a potential detente with the West more difficult.
Amid Biting Sanctions, Russia And Iran Sign Pact To Deepen Ties
Iran and Russia, two of the most-sanctioned nations in the world, have signed a "comprehensive strategic partnership" treaty as Moscow and Tehran deepen cooperation that has steadily increased since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian, on his first visit to the Kremlin since he won a presidential election last July, signed the pact in Moscow on January 17 after meeting for talks that both leaders said would strengthen relations in a broad spectrum of areas.
The new treaty, which runs for 20 years, aims to strengthen Tehran and Moscow's "military-political and trade-economic" relations, the Kremlin said.
While details of the agreement are scarce, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference on January 15 that the treaty “is constructive in nature and is aimed at strengthening the capabilities of Russia, Iran, and our friends in various parts of the world."
The agreement reportedly does not include a mutual defense clause.
Russia and Iran are both under severe Western sanctions, including restrictions on their energy industries.
Pezeshkian’s visit and the signing of the treaty are further signs of the deepening relationship between Tehran and Moscow. The two countries have also expanded their military cooperation despite warnings from Western countries over the supply of Iranian-made Shahed drones to Russia.
Europe and the United States have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Iranian entities and individuals for providing various types of support to Russia, including the Shaheds. Iran claims to be "neutral" in the Ukraine war.
Pezeshkian's visit to Russia comes just days before President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Trump, who withdrew the United States from an international deal designed to curb Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief and ordered the killing of one of Iran's top generals in 2020, was the target of an alleged Iranian plot to kill him last year.
- By Ray Furlong
Explainer: Looking Back At The Israel-Hamas War
A landmark deal has been agreed between Israel and Hamas, proscribed as a terrorist organization by the United States and other countries. The war has fundamentally reshaped the Middle East.
- By Kian Sharifi
Israel, Hamas Agree Cease-Fire Deal, Although Much 'Uncertainty' Remains
Israel and the U.S.-designated Palestinian terrorist group Hamas have reached a multiphase cease-fire deal that includes the exchange of Israeli hostages for some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners and the delivery of urgent humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
Mediated by Qatar and Egypt, the agreement will go into effect on January 19, according to Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani. It includes three stages, with the final stage focusing on the reconstruction of Gaza.
The conflict broke out in October 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked settlements in southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages to Gaza.
Israel retaliated by launching a devastating war in the Palestinian enclave that has killed over 46,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities. The conflict has led to the mass destruction of the territory and the displacement of most of its 2.3 million residents.
What We Know
The details of the agreement have not been formally published, but a clear image has emerged from official comments and media reports based on leaked drafts of the deal.
In the first phase, a six-week cease-fire will begin, during which Israeli troops will gradually withdraw from central Gaza.
During this phase, Hamas will release 33 hostages -- expected to be mostly women, the elderly, and the sick -- in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Some hostages were released in November 2023 in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas is still holding 94 hostages, but Israel believes that only 60 are still alive.
Palestinians displaced by the conflict will be allowed to return to their homes in the first phase of the deal, while humanitarian aid will start to flow into the Hamas-run enclave. Nearly the entirety of Gaza residents were forced to flee their homes, fueling a major humanitarian crisis.
Further negotiations on the second and third phase of the agreement will begin on the 16th day of the deal’s implementation, and analysts say this could pose the first real challenge to the cease-fire’s longevity.
The second phase of the agreement involves the release of the remaining hostages and, crucially, the end of the war.
“There is a lot of uncertainty as to whether Israel is committed to a permanent end of the conflict,” said Michael Horowitz, the head of intelligence at the Bahrain-based Le Beck International consultancy.
What It Means
The Iran-backed Hamas has suffered greatly in the course of the war, losing its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and his successor, Yahya Sinwar, within months of each other.
Horowitz said Hamas will claim victory simply because it survived the war.
“The question is whether it can truly return to power in Gaza, retain its military capabilities, and even capitalize on this perceived victory to consolidate its presence outside of Gaza, namely in the West Bank,” he added.
Iran, whose so-called axis of resistance has suffered multiple setbacks since the outbreak of the Gaza war, sees the cease-fire as good news.
Israel fought a devastating war with the U.S.-designated Lebanese political party and armed group Hezbollah late last year, decimating its senior leadership and degrading its military capabilities. Hezbollah came out of the war a shell of its former self, and its weakening led to the election of a president and prime minister in Lebanon who are favored by Western powers and Iran’s regional rivals.
Adding insult to injury, Syrian rebel forces opposed to the government of Iran’s longtime ally Bashar al-Assad launched a lightning offensive on the very day that Hezbollah and Israel agreed to a cease-fire. The Iran- and Russia-backed government of Assad fell in under two weeks, dealing a major blow to both Tehran and Moscow’s regional ambitions.
Horowitz said the Gaza cease-fire allows Iran to fully de-escalate and engage the Donald Trump administration once he takes office later this month.
Iran may also sit back and recalibrate its strategy, such as deciding whether to re-arm Hamas, which Horowitz said may not pose the same threat to Israel as it once did for a long time.
“I think the West Bank may be more interesting for Iran, as this is where the future of the Palestinian divide between Hamas and Israel will play out,” he added.
Many in Israel will welcome the end of the war and the return of hostages, but the cease-fire deal could turn into a headache for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has claimed several times that the war will continue until “total victory” over Hamas.
Given the staunch opposition to the deal among far-right members of his cabinet -- some of whom have threatened to quit -- Netanyahu’s top priority will be to ensure his government does not collapse, according to Horowitz.
- By Kian Sharifi and
- Iliya Jazaeri
Lebanon Names ICJ Chief As Prime Minister In Latest Blow To Iran
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's designation of Nawaf Salam, the head of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as the country's new prime minister appears to deal another blow to Iran's declining regional influence.
Lawmakers on January 13 nominated Salam for the post, favoring him over the incumbent, Najib Mikati, who was said to be the preferred candidate of Hezbollah, the political party and armed group backed by Iran and designated as terrorists by the United States.
Aoun himself was elected president by lawmakers on January 9, filling a role that had been vacant for over two years, not least because lawmakers from Hezbollah and its Shi'ite ally Amal Movement would refuse to attend sessions to prevent the parliament from reaching quorum.
The U.S.- and Saudi-backed former army chief was elected president in the second round of voting after Hezbollah lawmakers opted to vote for him, having withheld their ballots in the first round in an apparent attempt to show that the group still held some power.
However, Salam's designation as prime minister further reflects the weakening of Hezbollah -- and by extension the waning of Iran's influence.
"It means that Iran's dominance in the region has come to an end," Makram Rabah, a history lecturer at American University of Beirut, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda.
Mohammad Raad, leader of the Hezbollah bloc in parliament, claimed on January 13 that opponents of the group were working to exclude it from power and sought to divide the country.
The Lebanese lawmaker said the group had "extended its hand" by helping Aoun become president but found the "hand was cut off" after meeting him following the parliament's nomination of Salam.
Raad warned any government that "opposes coexistence has no legitimacy whatsoever."
Rabah said Salam's designation as prime minister "does not pose a challenge for anyone," but if Iran and Hezbollah believe that his becoming Lebanon's premier is "an attempt to end them," that means the Islamic republic and its Lebanese ally "harbor ideas and policies that contravene the principles of governance and progress."
Once a powerful force in Lebanon, Hezbollah's recent war with Israel has left it politically and socially weak and militarily degraded.
Under Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing political system, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a Shi'ite Muslim.
Salam, who comes from a historically political family, served as Lebanon's ambassador to the United Nations in 2007-17 before elected to serve on the ICJ, with his term beginning in 2018. In 2024, he became the first Lebanese judge to be elected as the head of The Hague-based court.
Tehran Releases German-Iranian Activist Nahid Taghavi
Nahid Taghavi, a dual German-Iranian national, has returned to Germany after four years of imprisonment in Iran as a new round of nuclear negotiations between three major European countries and Tehran is set to resume.
Taghavi's daughter, Mariam Claren, posted on social media on January 14 a picture of herself embracing her mother at what appeared to be a German airport with a caption saying "It's over. Nahid is free!"
"After more than 4 years as a political prisoner in the Islamic Republic of Iran my mother Nahid Taghavi was freed and is back in Germany," she added.
Taghavi, now 69, was arrested by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) while visiting Iran in the fall of 2020.
She was later sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison by a revolutionary court on charges of taking part in an "illegal group" -- something she and her family have denied.
Taghavi was briefly granted medical furloughs but was required to remain under electronic surveillance in Tehran.
She was forced to return to prison amid increased tensions between Iran and Germany, notably after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz voiced support for Iran's Women, Life, Freedom protests, a movement advocating for women's rights and freedom in Iran.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock celebrated Taghavi's release in a social media post, calling it "a moment of great joy."
Taghavi's release follows a flurry of diplomatic moves leading up to talks to be held in Geneva on January 14 between Iran, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France.
Last week Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was released after being detained in Iran for three weeks while in Tehran for a reporting trip.
Separately, Iranian national Mohammad Abedini, who was arrested in Italy on a U.S. warrant for allegedly smuggling drone parts to the IRGC, was released and returned to Tehran last week.
The talks in Geneva are the second round in two months concerning Tehran's nuclear program.
France has said the so-called consultations are aimed at working "toward a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear program, the progress of which is extremely problematic."
France, Germany, and the United Kingdom were key players in a 2015 deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), that gave Iran some limited relief from international sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program designed to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Under then-President Donald Trump, the United States pulled out of the deal and reimposed biting sanctions on the Islamic republic.
With Trump scheduled to be inaugurated once again as president on January 20, Rafael Grossi, head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has urged Iran and its global partners to achieve "concrete, tangible, and visible results" in talks over Tehran's nuclear program as Trump's return to the White House may mean the window for diplomacy is closing.
Taghavi's case is just one of many involving dual nationals detained in Iran. The West accuses Tehran of using the detainees as diplomatic bargaining chips.
France has demanded the immediate release of its nationals arrested in Iran, saying their conditions are tantamount to torture.
Meanwhile, Switzerland has called for an investigation into the death of one of its citizens in an Iranian jail last week that Iranian authorities ruled was a "suicide."
The fate of Jamshid Sharmahd, an Iranian-German political activist executed in Iran under controversial circumstances, also has fueled tension between Berlin and Tehran. Despite an international outcry, Iran has not released Sharmahd's body to his family in the United States.
Italy Frees Iranian Wanted By U.S. For Alleged Involvement In Drone Attack
Tehran has confirmed that an Iranian national has returned home following his release from Italy, despite a request by Washington for his extradition to the United States for alleged involvement in a deadly drone attack in Jordan.
Italy's release of 38-year-old Mohammad Abedini on January 12 came four days after the freeing by Tehran of 29-year-old Italian journalist and podcaster Cecilia Sala, although no mention of a prisoner swap was made by either side.
After saying Abedini had been released earlier in the day by Italy, the Iranian Foreign Ministry and judiciary announced he had arrived in Iran.
Abedini, an Iranian-Swiss businessman, was arrested in Italy in December at the request of the United States.
Washington has accused him of supplying sophisticated drone technology to Iran's military in violation of U.S. sanctions and of alleged involvement in a January 2024 drone attack on a U.S. base in Jordan that killed three soldiers.
The U.S. Justice Department said Abedini was the founder and director of an Iranian company "that manufactures navigation modules used in the military drone program" of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry claimed Abedini's arrest was a "misunderstanding" that was resolved in talks between the Iranian and Italian intelligence services.
The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported Abedini had been released from a Milan prison by the Court of Appeals based on a ruling by Justice Minister Carlo Nordio.
Italy's Justice Ministry said that, according to the country's treaty with Washington, extradition can only occur if an alleged crime is punishable under both countries' laws.
"The first conduct attributed to the Iranian citizen of 'criminal association to violate the IEEPA' [is not] punished by the Italian criminal system," it said, referring to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a U.S. law that gives the president sweeping emergency powers.
The Iranian man is also accused by Washington of "criminal association to provide material support to a terrorist organization resulting in death" and of providing "material support to a foreign terrorist organization resulting in death."
However, Italy's Justice Ministry said no evidence was offered as "a basis for the accusations made."
Washington has not commented on Abedini's release.
Sala, who was arrested on December 19 by Tehran police for her "journalistic activities," was released on January 8 and has returned home.
The journalist, who has a podcast called Stories that covers life in places around the world, was held for over a week before Iranian authorities confirmed her detention.
The arrest sparked a diplomatic clash between Tehran and Rome, with Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto calling her arrest “unacceptable.”
The United States called Sala's detention "retaliatory," while media watchdogs Reporters Without Borders and the International Federation of Journalists described her arrest as "arbitrary" and aimed at "extortion."
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced in a post on X that Sala was released "thanks to intense work on diplomatic and intelligence channels."
Iran is routinely accused of arresting dual nationals and Western citizens on false charges to use them to pressure Western countries.
With reporting by AFP
Key Trump Adviser Blasts Iran At Paris Opposition Gathering
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's incoming special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, while attending an Iranian opposition event in Paris, called for the return of "maximum pressure" against Tehran to push it to allow more democracy and to cease support for extremist elements in the Middle East.
"These pressures are not just kinetic, just not military force, but they must be economic and diplomatic as well," Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant-general, on January 11 told attendees at a gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) – which Tehran considers a terrorist group.
Trump has vowed to return to the "maximum pressure" policy he pursued during his previous term, with the goal of hampering the Iranian economy enough to force it to negotiate its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and curb regional activities.
Trump in 2018 withdrew Washington from a landmark nuclear deal signed with world powers, reimposing crippling sanctions on Iran. Trump said the terms were not strict enough to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
In Paris, Kellogg said there were now opportunities "to change Iran for the better" but that "we must exploit the weakness we now see. The hope is there, so must too be the action."
It was not immediately clear if Kellogg's trip and statements on Iran policy were directly synchronized with Trump.
Trump on November 27 tapped Kellogg, who has long served as a top adviser on defense issues, as his nominee to be special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
Earlier this month, Kellogg postponed a trip he was expected to make to Kyiv and other European capitals until after Trump takes office on January 20.
Meanwhile, Hussein Salami, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), on January 11 warned the incoming administration that strategic miscalculations could lead to armed conflict.
He added that Tehran's military was not as weak as some believed.
"We know that such judgments are the dreams of the enemy, not realities on the ground," he said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
"Be careful, don't make any strategic mistakes or miscalculations," he said, without directly mentioning Trump.
The Trump administration in 2019 officially designated the IRGC a foreign terrorist organization.
With reporting by AFP and dpa
Swiss Demand Answers After Death Of Man In Iranian Prison
Swiss authorities have called on Tehran to provide full details on the death of a 64-year-old Swiss national in an Iranian prison following his arrest last month on allegations of spying.
“Switzerland is demanding that the Iranian authorities provide detailed information on the reasons for his arrest and a full investigation into the circumstances of his death,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Valentin Clivaz told RFE/RL in an e-mail on January 10.
Clivaz added that the Swiss Embassy in Tehran has been in daily contact with Iranian authorities since it was informed of the arrest on December 10, 2024, but that, because the allegations included espionage, it was not granted access to the detainee.
“On January 9, 2025, the embassy was informed that the Swiss man had taken his own life in prison,” the Swiss statement said.
It added it was withholding the name of the deceased for the protection of the victim's family but that repatriation of the body to Switzerland is a "top priority."
The Mizan news website, which is affiliated with Iran's judiciary, said the Swiss citizen had been "arrested by security agencies for espionage and his case was under investigation" when he took his own life at the prison in the eastern city of Semnan on January 9.
Mizan quoted Mohammad Sadeq Akbari, the chief justice of Semnan Province, as saying the individual was being held in a cell with another prisoner and took his life when the cellmate was not present.
Akbari did not name the Swiss citizen or provide further details, saying an investigation is being conducted and that, so far, "suicide is certain" as the cause of death.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry said the man was traveling in Iran as a tourist at the time of his arrest and that he had not lived in Switzerland for nearly 20 years. He last lived in southern Africa, it said.
Several European countries and the United States have characterized the Islamic republic's arrest of Western citizens as "hostage diplomacy," claiming Tehran uses such detentions as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.
On January 10, the French Foreign Ministry said it summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest Tehran's detention of three French citizens it says are state “hostages” and demanded their immediate release.
“The situation is intolerable, with undignified detention conditions that, for some, constitute torture under international law," the ministry said.
Teacher Cecile Kohler and her partner, Jacques Paris, were detained in Iran in May 2022, accused of organizing labor protests. A third French national, identified only by the first name Olivier, has also been held since 2022.
In 2021, a Swiss diplomat died under mysterious circumstances in Iran.
Iranian media said the person died from a fall from a high-rise building just outside of Tehran. Swiss authorities did not identify the victim, nor did they give details on the incident.
In December 2024, the Swiss Attorney General's Office said the case of the diplomat's death had been closed and that an investigation had not proven any "criminal interference by a third party."
The investigation reportedly was complicated by the absence of organs in the victim after an initial autopsy was performed in Iran.
Switzerland has represented the United States diplomatically in Iran since Washington and Tehran cut ties in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry, in its January 10 statement, said that there were no other Swiss nationals in Iranian custody at this time.
- By Kian Sharifi
Election Of New Lebanese President Signals Iran's Waning Influence
Lebanese lawmakers have elected army chief Joseph Aoun as the country’s new president, ending a two-year gridlock in a clear sign of the weakening of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed political party and military force that had scuttled past efforts to name a president.
Lawmakers from Hezbollah, which is a U.S.-designated terrorist group, and its ally Amal had for two years obstructed attempts to elect a president by walking out of the parliament, preventing it from reaching a quorum.
This time, however, they voted for Aoun in the second round on January 9 after their preferred candidate dropped out.
In the end, Aoun secured a commanding second-round victory, winning 99 out of 128 votes after falling short of the two-thirds majority required for victory in the first round.
Hezbollah’s devastating war with Israel late last year caused significant damage in Lebanon, particularly in the capital, Beirut, and weakened the Shi’ite group militarily, socially, and, it seems, politically.
Hamidreza Azizi, a fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said the election of the U.S-backed Aoun indicates that Hezbollah has “come to terms with the new political realities” in Lebanon.
He said that, by backing Aoun’s election, Hezbollah sought to avoid being blamed for prolonging Lebanon’s political gridlock while also ensuring that more staunchly anti-Hezbollah figures such as Samir Geagea did not become president.
“[Hezbollah’s] focus remains on survival while working toward a more stable situation in the country, which they hope to use over time to regain strength and rehabilitate their position,” Azizi added.
Aoun’s election was backed by the United States, France, and Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia, indicating that Riyadh’s influence in Lebanon will likely grow at Tehran’s expense.
“It is quite evident that, as Hezbollah’s role diminishes in Lebanon’s political and military affairs, Iranian influence is also waning,” Azizi argued.
Losing influence in Lebanon caps off a catastrophic few months for Iran, which has witnessed the battering of its sprawling network of regional proxies and the fall of longtime Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Still, Tehran appears supportive of Hezbollah’s strategy of maintaining a lower profile and focusing on rebuilding its strength, according to Azizi.
Even Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian has welcomed Aoun's election, saying it was a "reinforcement of stability and unity" in the country.
Iranian state-affiliated media, meanwhile, have avoided criticizing Aoun, with one news agency even describing him as an “impartial” and “relatively popular” figure.
In his victory speech, Aoun vowed that only the Lebanese state would have a "monopoly" on weapons in a comment seen as a pledge to disarm Hezbollah, which has long been considered a more powerful force than the Lebanese military.
Azizi said disarming Hezbollah is a longer-term goal which is “easier said than done” and that for “clear-eyed” Aoun, the immediate priority is establishing stability in Lebanon.
Of more immediate concern, analysts say, is the implementation of an Israeli-Hezbollah cease-fire while also seeking funding to rebuild Lebanon, especially in areas in the south and east that were hit hard by the fighting.
"Aoun has interlocking objectives. He has to address Hezbollah's weapons through some sort of dialogue forum. Yet he can only do so if he secures funding to rebuild mainly Shi'a areas. And for this he must engage in economic reform, because the Gulf states now demand it," said Michael Young of the Carnegie Middle East Center.
- By Kian Sharifi
Iran In 'Critical Situation' After Punishing Year At Home And Abroad
Iran is weaker and more vulnerable than it has been in years after suffering a series of major blows.
During a punishing 2024, Tehran saw its regional influence diminished, its military deterrence against archfoes Israel and the United States weakened, and its economy languish.
Experts say the Islamic republic has tough decisions to make in the year ahead as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office and the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers expires.
"I suspect 2025 year will be a year of hardship and difficult choices for Tehran as the regime faces off against the bullish incoming Trump administration and tries to hunker down to contain the impact of Trump's hard-line approach," said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at the London-based think tank Chatham House.
On The Back Foot
The fall of longtime Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an ally, in December was a major blow to Iran's regional ambitions.
Under Assad, Syria was a member of Iran's "axis of resistance," its loose network of regional proxies and partners, and allowed Tehran to supply its allies.
That included Hezbollah, the political party and armed group in Lebanon, which has also been Iran's most important partner for decades.
Once a force to be reckoned with, Hezbollah is now a shell of its former self. Israel's aerial bombardment and ground invasion last year severely degraded the group's military capabilities and decimated its senior leadership.
Meanwhile, Israel's war in the Gaza Strip against U.S.- and EU-designated Palestinian terrorist group Hamas -- another ally of Tehran -- has left Iran with little clout in the Palestinian enclave.
Domestically, things are not looking any better. The national currency has lost over 60 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar in the past year, while the authorities shelved a controversial law to increase enforcement of the hijab, or Islamic head scarf, out of fear of public revolt.
Hamidreza Azizi, a fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said Iran's clerical establishment is in a "critical situation."
"This may be the most challenging phase in [the Islamic republic's] history since the 1980-88 war with Iraq -- or perhaps even more severe," he argued.
Azizi added that even the establishment's core support base was now "questioning the validity" of the country's domestic and foreign policies.
Making matters worse is that 2025 could be a make-or-break year for Iran's nuclear program, with the practically defunct 2015 nuclear deal set to expire in October and the West growing impatient with the lack of progress on efforts to revive the deal.
French President Emmanuel Macron this week warned that Tehran's nuclear program was approaching "the point of no return" in comments that Iran later called "deceitful."
'Shock Therapy'
Iran is facing the consequences of years of poor investments both domestically and internationally, which have brought it to a critical "juncture," according to Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington.
"Iran needs shock therapy…. It needs a shaking to its core to be able to maybe rescue this regime," Vatanka said.
Analysts say Tehran needs to make major policy changes and tough decisions, such as engaging the Trump administration, to prevent further decline.
During Trump's first term in office from 2017-2021, his administration pursued a campaign of "maximum pressure" on Iran that included imposing crippling sanctions against Tehran.
"There appears to be a growing consensus among political circles in Tehran that, given the complexities on both domestic and external fronts, reaching an agreement is the most pragmatic course of action," said Azizi.
While the "world should welcome" such an agreement, it may not be enough to save the clerical establishment, Vatanka said.
"There is nothing Trump or anybody else can do for the hard problem that the regime in Iran faces, which is that it has lost its own people," he said, referring to growing public discontent in the country in recent years.
Swiss Citizen Dies In Iran After Being Accused Of Spying
A Swiss national who was accused of spying by Tehran was found dead in prison in what officials say was a suicide.
The Mizan news website, which is affiliated with Iran's judiciary, said the Swiss citizen had been "arrested by security agencies for espionage and his case was under investigation" when he took his own life at the prison in the eastern city of Semnan on January 9.
The Swiss foreign minister confirmed in an e-mail to RFE/RL's Radio Farda that Switzerland had been informed of the situation and is seeking further details.
"The FDFA (Swiss Foreign Ministry) confirms the death of a Swiss citizen in Iran. The Swiss Embassy in Tehran is in contact with the local authorities to clarify the circumstances of the death in an Iranian prison," said ministry spokesman Pierre-Alain Eltschinger.
"The FDFA is providing consular protection to the relatives. At this stage, the FDFA cannot provide any further information."
Mizan quoted Mohammad Sadeq Akbari, the chief justice of Semnan Province, as saying the individual was being held in a cell with another prisoner and took his life when the cellmate was not present.
Akbari did not name the Swiss citizen or provide further details, saying an investigation is being conducted and so far "suicide is certain" as the cause of death.
No details of the charges against the Swiss citizen were revealed.
Several European countries and the United States have characterized the Islamic republic's arrest of Western citizens as "hostage diplomacy," claiming Tehran uses such detentions as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.
Three years earlier a Swiss diplomat died under mysterious circumstances.
Iranian media said the person died from a fall from a high-rise building just outside of Tehran. Swiss authorities did not identify the victim, nor did they give details on the incident.
In December, the Swiss Attorney General's Office said the case of the diplomat's death had been closed and that an investigation had not proven any "criminal interference by a third party."
The investigation reportedly was complicated by the absence of organs in the victim after an initial autopsy was performed in Iran.
Switzerland has represented the United States diplomatically in Iran since Washington and Tehran cut ties in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
- By RFE/RL
Italian Podcaster Held By Tehran Released, On Way Home
Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who was held by Tehran police for almost three weeks for her "journalistic activities," has been released and is headed home.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced in a post on X that Sala, who was detained on December 19, was on a plane to Italy on January 8.
"Thanks to intense work on diplomatic and intelligence channels, our compatriot has been released by the Iranian authorities and is returning to Italy," Meloni said.
The 29-year-old, who has a podcast called Stories that covers life in places around the world, was held for over a week before Iranian authorities confirmed her detention.
No details of the charges were made public, but they came after Sala posted a podcast from Tehran on December 17 about patriarchy in the Iranian capital.
Three days before Sala's detention, Mohammad Abedini, an Iranian-Swiss businessman who is wanted by the United States for his alleged involvement in a deadly drone attack on an American base in Jordan, was arrested in Milan, Italy.
Iran called Abedini's arrest "illegal" and subsequently summoned the Italian ambassador to Tehran over the issue.
The United States called Sala's detention "retaliatory," while media watchdogs Reporters Without Borders and the International Federation of Journalists described her arrest as "arbitrary" and aimed at "extortion."
Iran is routinely accused of arresting dual nationals and Western citizens on false charges to use them to pressure Western countries.
Reza Valizadeh, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen and former journalist for RFE/RL's Radio Farda, was handed a 10-year sentence by Tehran's Revolutionary Court in December on charges of "collaborating with a hostile government."
Valizadeh resigned from Radio Farda in November 2022 after a decade of work. He returned to Iran in early 2024 to visit his family but was arrested on September 22.
His two court sessions, held on November 20 and December 7, reportedly lacked a prosecution representative, with the judge assuming that role.
Sources close to the journalist claim he fell into a "security trap" despite receiving unofficial assurances from Iranian security officials that he would not face legal troubles upon returning to Iran.
Iran is among the most repressive countries in terms of freedom of the press. Reporters Without Borders ranked Iran 176th out of 180 countries in its 2024 World Press Freedom Index.
The Paris-based media watchdog says Iran is now also one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists.
Jump In Iranian Executions In 2024 Prompts UN Outrage
Iran executed at least 901 people in 2024 -- including 31 women, some of whom were convicted of killing their husbands while fighting off a rape or other cases of domestic violence -- a nine-year high that has sparked outrage at the United Nations.
About 40 of the total executions came in the last week of December alone, the UN high commissioner for human rights said in a report published on January 7.
"The increase in the number of people executed in Iran over the past year is very worrying," High Commissioner Volker Turk said, adding that the total had climbed from 853 in 2023.
“It is high time Iran stemmed this ever-swelling tide of executions,” he added.
The UN said that most of the executions were for drug-related offenses, but it added that dissidents and people connected to protests in 2022 were also executed.
Protests erupted across Iran in 2022, triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who was arrested for allegedly violating the hijab law, while in police custody.
During the protests, women and girls removed and burned their head scarves.
The authorities waged a brutal crackdown on protesters, killing hundreds and arresting thousands.
In the latest report, Turk called on Tehran to halt all future executions.
“It is incompatible with the fundamental right to life and raises the unacceptable risk of executing innocent people. And, to be clear, it can never be imposed for conduct that is protected under international human rights law,” Turk said.
UN spokeswoman Liz Throssell told reporters in Geneva that the number of women executed in Iran was the highest figure in at least the past 15 years.
"The majority of cases involved charges of murder. A significant number of the women were victims of domestic violence, child marriage, or forced marriage," she said.
Throssell told Reuters that one of the women executed for murder had killed her husband to prevent him from raping her daughter.
The conservative Islamic state has a long history of violating the rights of citizens, especially women and girls.
Masud Pezeshkian, who many labeled as a reformist, won Iran’s presidential election in July, vowing to better protect the rights of women and minorities, but many rights activists and international observers remain skeptical pending substantive actions.
With reporting by Reuters
After Degrading Hamas And Hezbollah, Israel Intensifies Attacks On Yemen's Huthis
Israel has degraded the fighting capabilities of its chief adversaries over the past year, including Lebanon's Hezbollah and the U.S.- and EU-designated Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
But Yemen's Huthi rebels, who continue to fire missiles and drones at Israel, have proven a resilient foe despite Israeli attacks.
"Deterring the Huthis presents significant challenges," said Ahmed Nagi, a Yemen analyst for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. "Israel lacks sufficient intelligence about the group and its operational capabilities."
Israel's success hinges on its ability to locate and destroy the Iranian-backed group's weapons facilities, a task that has "proven difficult so far," Nagi said.
Another challenge is geography. Yemen is located some 2,000 kilometers from Israel. The Huthis also control large swaths of the country, including their stronghold in the mountainous northwest and the Red Sea coastline.
Even so, Israel has intensified its air strikes in recent weeks against the Huthis, despite the armed group posing a limited direct military threat to Israel. The escalating Israeli attacks have threatened to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Escalating Attacks
On December 26, Israel said it conducted air strikes on the main airport in Sanaa as well as power stations and "military infrastructure" at several Yemeni ports.
The head of the World Health Organization narrowly escaped death in the Israeli strikes on the airport that killed at least six people.
Israel's allies, including the United States and Britain, have also carried out strikes in Yemen.
The U.S. military said that it carried out air strikes against Huthi targets in Sanaa and along the Yemeni coast on December 30 and 31, including a "command and control facility and advanced conventional weapon production and storage facilities."
The Huthis have fired on U.S. naval forces and attacked international shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting a key global trade route.
The Israeli strikes came amid almost daily missile and drone attacks by the Huthis on Israel. Most of the attacks have been intercepted by Israel's air defenses and have caused little material damage. But they have triggered constant air raid sirens in many parts of Israel and disrupted everyday life.
The Huthis launched their attacks on Israel and international shipping in late 2023. It came soon after Israel began its devastating war in the Gaza Strip. The rebels have vowed to continue their attacks until a cease-fire is reached in the Palestinian enclave.
Farzan Sabet, a senior research associate at the Geneva Graduate Institute, said Israel is largely operating against the Huthis in the dark. Israeli attacks, he said, have mainly targeted "civilian and strategic infrastructure rather than the military assets."
Civilians have borne the brunt of the violence in Yemen, where two-thirds of the population of some 35 million people need humanitarian assistance.
"We, the people, are paying for it, not the Huthis," said Mustapha Noman, a former Yemeni deputy foreign minister. "This helps them."
Iran's Trusted Allies
The Huthis are part of Iran's so-called axis of resistance, its loose network of proxies and militant groups against archfoe Israel.
Israel has severely weakened the axis over the past year. Israel's ground invasion and devastating air campaign in Lebanon decimated the military capabilities of Hezbollah, an armed group and political party in Lebanon.
Israel's ongoing war in the Gaza Strip has devastated the Palestinian territory and diminished the fighting power of Hamas.
Meanwhile, in early December, longtime Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, another member of the axis and a key ally of Iran, was ousted from power by Islamist rebels.
That has heightened the importance of the Huthis for Iran. The rebels are armed with highly capable ballistic missiles and are the least affected by the Israeli strikes.
"Without the Huthis, Israel would likely shift its full focus towards targeting and weakening Iran directly," said Nagi.
Arrests Spark Diplomatic Clash Between Iran And Italy
The Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Italian ambassador over the arrest of Mohammad Abedini, who is wanted by the United States for his alleged involvement in a deadly drone attack on an American base in Jordan.
Abedini was detained at Milan's Malpensa Airport on December 16, 2024, at the request of U.S. authorities who have accused him of defying sanctions and transferring sensitive drone parts to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The components were used in a drone strike in Jordan in January 2024 that killed three U.S. service members, according to U.S. justice authorities. Iran has denied being involved in the attack.
Iran's diplomatic move on January 3 came a day after the Italian Foreign Ministry summoned Iran's ambassador to Rome to protest the arrest of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who was detained in Tehran on December 19, 2024.
Italy's Foreign Ministry has said Sala, who has a podcast called Stories that covers life in different places around the world, was in Iran to carry out "journalistic activities."
In a January 3 meeting with the Italian ambassador, Majid Nili Ahmadabadi, director-general for Western Europe in Iran's Foreign Ministry, said Abedini's arrest was "illegal" and called for his immediate release, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.
Ahmadabadi also reportedly said that the United States was attempting to "take Iranian nationals hostage all over the world."
The Iranian authorities have remained silent about Sala's case since her detention in December 2024. After Italian media reported her arrest, Iran's Culture Ministry announced only that she had "violated the laws of the Islamic republic," without providing further details.
The United States has called Iran's detention of Sala, who was arrested three days after Abedini, "retaliatory." Media watchdogs Reporters Without Borders and the International Federation of Journalists have described her arrest as "arbitrary" and aimed at "extortion."
According to the website of the Il Foglio daily, where Sala works, the Milan Court of Appeal will hold a hearing into Abedini's case on January 15.
Several European countries and the United States have characterized the Islamic republic's arrest of Western citizens as "hostage diplomacy," claiming that Iran uses these detentions as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.
In December 2024, a Tehran court sentenced Reza Valizadeh, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen and former journalist for RFE/RL's Radio Farda, to 10 years in prison for "collaborating with a hostile government."
After working for Radio Farda for 10 years, Valizadeh left the company in November 2022. He visited his family in Iran in early 2024 before being taken into custody on September 22.
- By RFE/RL
U.S. Announces Sanctions Against Russian, Iranian Entities Accused Of Election Interference
The United States on December 31 imposed sanctions on entities in Iran and Russia that it accused of attempting to “stoke socio-political tensions” through disinformation campaigns during the 2024 U.S. elections.
The U.S. Treasury Department said its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on a subsidiary of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and an organization affiliated with the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).
“As affiliates of the IRGC and GRU, these actors aimed to stoke socio-political tensions and influence the U.S. electorate during the 2024 U.S. election,” the Treasury Department said in a news release.
The governments of Iran and Russia have targeted the U.S. election processes and institutions and have sought to divide Americans through targeted disinformation campaigns, said acting Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith.
“The United States will remain vigilant against adversaries who would undermine our democracy,” Smith said in the news release.
The Russian Embassy in Washington denied the accusations.
"Russia has not and does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, including the United States," an embassy spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters.
"As President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stressed, we respect the will of the American people. All insinuations about 'Russian machinations' are malicious slander, invented for use in the internal political struggles in the United States," the spokesperson added.
Former President Donald Trump of the Republican party defeated Democratic party candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump is to be inaugurated on January 20.
The Treasury Department’s announcement named Cognitive Design Production Center, a subsidiary of the IRGC, for allegedly planning influence operations since at least 2023.
It also singled out Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise (CGE) as the newly sanctioned Russian entity, saying it circulated disinformation about candidates and directed and subsidized the creation of deep fakes.
CGE also manipulated a video to produce "baseless accusations concerning a 2024 vice presidential candidate," the department said. It did not specify which candidate was targeted.
The center used generative AI tools to create disinformation distributed across a network of websites that were designed to look like legitimate news outlets, the department said.
It accused the GRU of funding the CGE and a network of U.S.-based facilitators in order to build and maintain its AI-support server and maintain the network of websites.
CGE director Valery Korovin was also designated for sanctions in the announcement on December 31.
The latest action builds on sanctions previously imposed on the IRGC, GRU, and other proxy groups. The sanctions freeze any assets the entities hold in U.S. jurisdiction and generally bar Americans from dealing with them.
Earlier this year, the U.S. government said that Iranian authorities sought to stoke discord and undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions using “social engineering and other efforts to gain access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both parties.”
The Treasury Department announced a round of sanctions against an Iranian national and employees of an Iranian cybersecurity company following that disclosure.
- By RFE/RL
Carter's Troubled Presidency Turned Into Decades Of Service (Video)
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has died at age 100. His turbulent single term as U.S. president was marred by the 444-day Iran hostage crisis but was followed by decades of global philanthropy, diplomacy, and the Nobel Peace Prize.
- By RFE/RL
Jimmy Carter, Nobel Laureate Whose Presidency Was Marred By Iran Hostage Crisis, Dies Aged 100
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, whose presidency was marred by the 444-day Iran hostage crisis, has died at age 100 after receiving hospice care for almost two years.
"Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States and winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, died peacefully Sunday, December 29, at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family," the Carter Center in his home state of Georgia said in a statement.
U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that "America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman, and humanitarian."
Biden declared January 9, the day Carter's funeral will be held in Washington, D.C., as a national day of mourning.
Though his presidency was marked by his failure to rein in rampant inflation, revive the economy, and his inability to free dozens of Americans held captive at an embassy in the Iranian capital, Tehran, his life after office was celebrated for his humanitarian work around the world.
"God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes -- and we must," Carter said in his speech upon accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the first former U.S. president to win the award.
Former President Barack Obama praised Carter's "decency," saying in a tribute the onetime peanut farmer who was raised in poverty "taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice, and service."
President-elect Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that "the challenges Jimmy faced as president came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans."
The iconic Empire State Building in New York City was lit up in red, white, and blue to honor Carter.
Carter, a one-term leader, is remembered for having brokered a peace deal between Israel and Egypt and later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work and efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts.
But it was the Iranian hostage crisis that would come to define Carter's presidency from 1977 to 1981.
The Islamic Revolution in 1979 toppled the U.S.-backed shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and brought to power a group of clerics led by exiled Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Carter granted the ailing shah political asylum, to the anger of many Iranians.
In late 1979, a group of hard-line Iranian students who were believed to have had the tacit support of Khomeini stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage. They demanded the return of the shah and an apology for past actions by the United States in Iran.
444 Days: Looking Back At The U.S.-Iran Hostage Crisis
Carter said the United States could not give in to the hostage-takers, and the crisis dragged on for over a year.
"It's vital to the United States and to every other nation that the lives of diplomatic personnel and other citizens abroad be protected, and that we refuse to permit the use of terrorism, and the seizure and the holding of hostages, to impose political demands,” he said.
“No one should underestimate the resolve of the American government and the American people in this matter."
With negotiations with the Iranians proving fruitless, Carter ordered U.S. Special Forces to try to rescue the American hostages in April 1980. The mission ended in disaster, and eight U.S. soldiers died in an accident caused by equipment failure.
Carter announced the failed rescue mission to the nation: "I share the disappointment of the American people that this rescue mission was not successful. And I also share the grief of our nation because we had Americans who were casualties in this effort to seek freedom for their fellow citizens who have been held hostage for so long.
"But I also share a deep pride in the commitment and courage and the integrity and the competence and determination of those who went on this mission."
The Iranian hostage crisis -- and Carter's inability to resolve it -- dominated the news in the United States throughout 1980, a presidential election year.
He was easily defeated in his reelection bid by Ronald Reagan, a former Hollywood actor who had energized the Republican party with his smooth appearance and supply-side economic policies.
In a final insult to Carter, Iran decided to release the hostages on January 20, 1981, the day Carter left office and Reagan was inaugurated as president.
One of Carter's first goals after becoming president was to work on a second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, known as SALT II, with the Soviet Union. The treaty was designed to further limit the number of nuclear weapons held by both countries.
Negotiating the treaty with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was difficult because of Carter's persistent criticism of Moscow's human rights record. But in June 1979 the two leaders signed SALT II. The U.S. Senate did not ratify the treaty following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, but its terms were honored by both sides.
In response to the Soviet invasion, the president announced what came to be known as the Carter Doctrine -- that the United States would defend its interests in the Persian Gulf with military force if necessary. The United States also boycotted the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.
"I have given notice that the United States will not attend the Moscow Olympics unless the Soviet invasion forces are withdrawn from Afghanistan before February 20,” said Carter at the time. “That deadline is tomorrow, and it will not be changed."
Though his term in office is often characterized as a failure, Carter's presidency had its share of triumphs.
He established an effective national energy policy and encouraged the creation of 8 million new jobs, although at the cost of high inflation. He also improved the operation of the U.S. federal government through reform of the civil service.
Carter's greatest achievement as U.S. president was the 1978 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, brokered at the Camp David presidential retreat. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.
Carter's wife, Rosalynn, died in November 2023, at age 96.
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