The line is crackly. But the voice of Mehrab Abdollahzadeh is clear and, given the circumstances, surprisingly steady.
He’s on death row in western Iran. He speaks quickly – as if time is running out. And his message is desperate.
“You are hearing my voice from Oromiyeh Central Prison, and this may be the last time you hear it,” he says in a voice note obtained by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network.
An Iraqi national charged in the United States with terrorism offences has been linked by prosecutors to the March shooting outside the U.S. consulate in downtown Toronto back in March.
U.S. prosecutors allege Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi and others were behind the Toronto attack, as well as a second attack targeting a synagogue in Canada, while also coordinating nearly 20 attacks across Europe tied to an Iranian-backed militant network.
Another instance of the US informing Canadians of Muslim terror activity in our country.
WASHINGTON — A senior commander for Kata’ib Hizballah — the Iraqi proxy militia of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — directed a sprawling international terrorist campaign that included an attack on the United States consulate in Toronto, paid operatives across Europe and Canada to carry out bombings and arsons against Jewish and American targets, and attempted to hire what he believed was a Mexican cartel operative to set fire to synagogues in New York, Los Angeles, and Arizona, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed Friday in the Southern District of New York.
On the first day of his recent deportation hearing, Abbas Omidi found himself at loggerheads with the government lawyer arguing for his removal from Canada.
At issue was not his loyalty to the repressive Iranian regime, his employer for nearly 27 years. And no one was suggesting he was involved in violent crackdowns on protesters.
At their joint press conference on Thursday, President Trump said that he and Xi were “united” when it came to Iran: no nukes, open the Strait of Hormuz without Iranian blackmail, and no Chinese weapons sales.
And while President Trump said before the summit he didn’t need Chinese help with Iran, after their initial meeting, he told Sean Hannity that China will help “in any way it can.”
If all of this comes true, it is very bad news for Tehran.
Iran’s regime must be understood for what it is: a heavily armed group of thugs and, according to the US government, “the largest state sponsor of terrorism” 39 years in a row. Iran’s regime holds power through a brute force that terrorizes not only its neighbors and the broader world through proxies, ballistic missiles, and imminent nuclear capability, but also its own population of roughly 93 million. Decades of repression, of “exporting the revolution,” and ideological extremism have defined its identity, firmly rooted in anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism and contempt for its own citizens.
In a Vatican ceremony this week 13 ambassadors to the Holy See received a prestigious honorific distinction. News that the recipients included Iran’s Mohammad Hossein Mokhtari caused eyebrows to be raised.
After the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) brutally clamped down on protests this year, killing 30,0000 people according to some estimates, an Iranian official might seem like an unlikely recipient of the Grand Cross of the Pontifical Order of Pius IX, which Iranian media claimed was awarded for efforts to “promote peace”.
European intelligence agencies are investigating a growing wave of attacks on Jewish and Israeli-linked sites believed to be connected to a shadowy organisation known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI), which security officials suspect may operate as a proxy for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The group, which emerged shortly after the start of the Iran war in late February, has claimed responsibility for a series of low-level attacks across at least seven European countries, including Britain, Belgium, Germany, France, and the Netherlands.
The incidents have largely involved arson, vandalism, and small improvised explosive devices targeting synagogues, Jewish charities, and Iranian opposition organisations.
OTTAWA/WASHINGTON — Canada’s intelligence service has, for the first time, named the Iranian-linked cyber operator at the center of a U.S. federal criminal case that exposed Iran’s issuing a $250,000 bounty death threat directing Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel to behead a high-profile former Ontario politician at her Ottawa home.
OTTAWA – A scholar researching transnational repression says he’s seeing an uptick in Iran’s regime threatening diaspora in Canada.
University of Ottawa professor Thomas Juneau said at the start of the U.S. war on Iran that Tehran tends to target dissidents abroad when it feels threatened.
The Liberal Party has regime toadies sitting in Parliament.
Iran has expedited executions of protesters and alleged Israeli agents, announcing three hangings on Monday, as the regime consolidates it grip on the country amid the war with the US.
The three men were executed over protests that took place in January, when Iranian security brutally quashed a nationwide uprising, killing thousands.
Mehdi Rassouli, Mohammad Reza Miri and Ebrahim Dolatabadi were convicted over unrest in the eastern city of Mashhad, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency said.
OTTAWA – A senior executive with Public Safety Canada says federal officials have ramped up their monitoring of Tehran’s threats against members of the Iranian diaspora in Canada.
Sébastien Aubertin-Giguère, who oversees Canada’s response to foreign interference, says Iran and other countries have intensified their pressure tactics targeting their critics abroad.
Given the Islamist make-up of the LPC the fox is guarding the hen house.
US authorities have arrested an Iranian woman for trafficking arms to Sudan on behalf of her country, prosecutors have said.
Shamim Mafi, 44, who has an American green card, was arrested at Los Angeles airport on Saturday and is accused of “brokering the sale of drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition manufactured by Iran and sold to Sudan”, First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said on X.
The alleged sales were to Sudan’s defence ministry, including a €60m ($70m; £52m) drone contract, court documents show.
The day after the Liberals secured their majority in the House of Commons there was a sense that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
In this case, it was the reminder that at 2:15 p.m. in the House, it is still “question period,” not “answer period.”
On Tuesday, Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong rose to ask the government why it had voted in favour of Iran’s membership to the United Nations Committee for Program and Coordination, which shapes UN policy on women’s rights, human rights, disarmament and terrorism prevention.
On March 6, the body of Masood Majoody, a mathematics professor at Simon Fraser University and a vocal critic of the theocratic Iranian regime, was found in Mission, B.C. He went missing on Feb. 2, a victim of suspected foul play.
Police have now arrested and charged two individuals, Mehdi Razavi and Arezou Soltani, alleged to have ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of Iran’s military responsible for internal repression and overseas operations, with his murder.
