A group of Iranian lawyers has added its voice to international criticism of Tehran for sentencing a female colleague to additional years in prison in relation to her work in defending Iranian rights activists.

In an open letter to the Iranian people dated Tuesday and sent by one of the authors to VOA Persian, the group of 16 lawyers said the multiyear sentencing of lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, announced by Iranian state media Monday, violates the Iranian constitution’s commitments to human rights and fair trials.

“It is a source of shame and shows a lack of tolerance in dealing with lawyers who are critical of the system, a sign of the weakness of the judiciary,” said the letter, also published online by Iran’s Human Rights Activist News Agency.

“We praise Sotoudeh’s integrity, passion and independence in fighting for justice and human rights, and call for her unjust sentence to be overturned,” added the lawyers.

Sotoudeh was arrested at her home last June after she defended women detained earlier in the year for staging street protests against Iran’s compulsory hijab law. In reports published Monday, Iranian state media quoted judge Mohammad Moghiseh as saying Sotoudeh was sentenced to seven years in prison: five years for “crimes against national security” and two years for “insulting” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

At the time of her 2018 arrest, Iranian authorities informed Sotoudeh that she also had been found guilty in absentia of espionage and sentenced to five years in prison in that case.

London-based rights group Amnesty International posted a Monday report saying authorities at Tehran’s Evin prison, where Sotoudeh is jailed, informed her this week that her new sentence was 33 years and 148 lashes for a case involving seven security-related offenses.

Amnesty said it was not clear if Moghiseh’s announcement of a seven-year prison term for Sotoudeh was related to the case involving the seven charges. “If [Moghiseh’s] report was referring to the same case, Amnesty International cannot currently explain why the information appears to contradict that provided to Sotoudeh by the office for the implementation of sentences in Evin prison,” the group said.

In a Facebook post Monday, Sotoudeh’s husband Reza Khandan wrote that his wife has been sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison and 148 lashes, with five years for a first case and 33 years for the second. His reference to a “first case” appeared to match the five-year sentence for espionage, handed down to Sotoudeh in absentia last year. Khandan told the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) that he got the figures from Sotoudeh in a phone call that lasted only a few minutes without time to get into details.

​International backlash

U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesman Robert Palladino criticized the latest sentencing of Sotoudeh, sarcastically asking Khamenei whether it marks the “new era of justice” that he talks about.

In a Tuesday statement, the EU described Sotoudeh’s sentencing as a “worrying development.”

“The EU expects an immediate review of her sentence as well as the conviction of her husband Reza Khandan, who was sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment in January 2019,” an EU spokesperson said. “The European Union also expects Iran to ensure that both Khandan and Sotoudeh’s right to appeal their sentences is protected.”

Amnesty denounced Sotoudeh’s sentencing in stronger terms.

“It is absolutely shocking that Sotoudeh is facing nearly four decades in jail and 148 lashes for her peaceful human rights work, including her defense of women protesting against Iran’s degrading forced hijab [veiling] laws,” said Philip Luther, the group’s Middle East research director. “Sotoudeh must be released immediately and unconditionally and this obscene sentence quashed without delay.”

There was no immediate response by the Iranian government to the international backlash against Sotoudeh’s new sentence. Sotoudeh previously served three years in prison from 2010 to 2013 for security-related charges relating to her human rights work, which has won her several international accolades.

This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Shahram Bahraminejad contributed from Washington.
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U.S. Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook, blasted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Iraq and accused his government of trying to control Iraq by fueling sectarian conflict in the country.

In an interview with Alhurrha TV, Hook said Rouhani’s visit is not in the best interest of the Iraqi people, adding that Iran does not support the security and sovereignty of Iraq. 

“When President Rouhani comes into Iraq, you have to question the motive,” Hook said Monday. “I think what Iran would ultimately like to see happen is Iraq turn into a province of Iran so that they can create a military highway across the northern Middle East that the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps can use to ferry missiles and weapons.”

Hook said Iran is “the last revolutionary regime on earth,” and it is trying to further destabilize the Middle East by reinforcing the sectarian divide. 

“The Iranian regime wants to replace a national identity. They want to dissolve it and replace it with a Shi’ite identity. This has been the core of their foreign policy to create sectarian divisions. They want to do that in Iraq, as well.” 

The U.S. official’s comments come as Rouhani arrived in Baghdad Monday and met with his counterpart, President Barham Salih, as a part of his three-day state visit to Iraq aimed at bolstering Tehran’s influence and increasing commercial ties with Iraq. 

According to Iraqi and Iranian officials, Rouhani and his delegation of 32 business people have signed several preliminary trade deals with Iraqi officials, including a major plan to build a railway linking the neighbors and easing visa restrictions.

“At a time when the United States is seeking to pressure the Iranian nation with its unjust sanctions, we need to develop and deepen our relations to stand against them,” Rouhani said.

Rouhani claimed “world powers” were behind terrorism in the Middle East, adding that “Zionism and those who want to dominate the wealth of the countries of the region” were the root causes of instability.  He said his country played a key role in helping Iraq defeat the Islamic State, but more work was needed to achieve regional stability.

“Today, Iran and Iraq are enjoying the closest relations with each other,” he stressed.

The Iraqi government, which is now trying to eliminate IS insurgents after regaining control of all its territory under the group, says good relations with Iran is key for accomplishing full stability. 

While hosting Rouhani Monday, President Barham Salih thanked Iran for its support during Iraq’s fight against IS and stressed the need for future cooperation.

“The victory that was achieved against IS in Iraq was an important and huge victory, but incomplete, as the eradication of that sick, deviated line of thought and extremism requires more sustainable regional efforts and cooperation,” Salih said.

​Iran-Iraq relations

Some experts see Rouhani’s visit as an attempt by Iran and Iraq to take their relations to the next level as the fight against IS calms down in the region. 

Randa Slim, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told VOA that Iranian officials hope the visit can accomplish three goals: strengthening and deepening Iran-Iraq relations; sending a strong signal to the U.S. and Iraq’s neighbors about the scope and breadth of Iran’s relations in Iran; and messaging Iranian audiences about the success of Iranian foreign policy in the Middle East.

“Iran’s influence in Iraq has so far been mainly deployed through military means, either by offering direct assistance to Iraqi forces in their fight against ISIS, and mainly by training and assisting Iraqi militias. This visit might be the beginning of shifting this relationship to a state-to-state level, hopefully introducing some checks and balances on what has so far been unrestrained and unaccountable action by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard,” Slim said.

Other experts, however, say deepening relations between Iran and Iraq face some challenges. Iraqi officials will ultimately find themselves between two countries with great influence but conflicting interests. 

Naysan Rafati, the Crisis Group’s Iran analyst, told VOA that Iran could try to extend its influence in Iraq from the military to other areas such as culture, a move that might threaten U.S. interests in the region.  

“Iran is certainly playing the long game in Iraq, which is what you’d expect, given their history and the fact that they’re neighbors,” Rafati said.  

“But as the U.S. tries to check Iran’s regional influence, Iraq could increasingly emerge as a theater for rivalry between Tehran and Washington,” he added.
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Israeli officials closed Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, revered by Jews and Muslims, after a firebomb was thrown at a police station on the compound.

Police on Tuesday clashed with dozens of Palestinians at the compound revered by Jews as Temple Mount, and by Muslims as Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary. All worshippers were evacuated from the compound. Police said it would reopen to worshippers and visitors Wednesday.

Israeli police also took the unusual measure of closing all gates to the Old City, allowing only residents access to the Muslim and Christian quarters. 

The incident further heightened tensions at the flashpoint site, home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and gold-topped Dome of the Rock.

Firas Dibs, spokesman for the Waqf, the Jordanian-appointed Islamic body that administers the site, said at least six Palestinians were arrested and 10 injured in the clashes. But Israeli police would only confirm three arrests.

The closure of the compound drew quick rebuke from leaders around the Muslim world.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the “dangerous Israeli escalation” and warned of “serious repercussions.”

Abdul Nasser Abul al-Basal, Jordanian minister of Islamic affairs, told state-run Al-Mamlaka TV that the closure was an “attack on religious freedom.”

The United Nations Middle East envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, called for calm.
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A U.N. humanitarian agency warned in a report Tuesday that thousands of Yemeni civilians caught in fierce clashes between warring factions are trapped in an embattled northern district.

The number of displaced in the district of Hajjah has doubled over the past six months, said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA.

The impoverished governorate is home of Yemen’s most recent flashpoint district of Kusher where “thousands of civilians are reportedly trapped between conflicting parties,” it said.

“It is outrageous that innocent civilians continue to die needlessly in a conflict that should, and can be solved,” said Lise Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Yemen.

Over the past two days, airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition, which is fighting on behalf of Yemen’s internationally recognized government, have killed 22 people, including women and 14 children in the area.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels imposed tight control over Kusher after powerful local tribesmen took up arms against them.

The district’s tribes, in a deal with the Houthis, had remained neutral in Yemen’s civil war, which erupted in 2014, and were in return left in peace on their lands. But after the Houthis tried to use the district to send weapons and reinforcements to a coastal area where they have been fighting Saudi-backed forces, the deal collapsed.

The Houthis subsequently shelled the district — home to 100,000 people — and killed and wounded scores of civilians. Thousands were displaced. As the Houthi siege strangled the area, the Saudi-led coalition airdropped food and medicine to the tribes.

Yemen’s civil war has killed over 60,000 people — both civilians and combatants — and displaced 3 million, pushing the already impoverished nation to the brink of famine.
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Iranian construction companies are to build thousands of residential units in the suburbs of Syria’s capital, Damascus, an Iranian state-run news agency has reported.

Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) recently quoted a business official with the country’s investment association, who announced that Iran would build 200,000 residential units near Damascus.

Iraj Rahbar, vice president of Iran’s Mass Construction Society, said the massive housing project has come about after the Iranian and Syrian governments signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in January 2019.

Tehran has been encouraging prominent Iranian developers to buy property in Damascus, analysts and construction industry sources in Iran said.

“This is not the first time that officials encourage developers to invest in Syria,” Amir Reza Masoumi, a Tehran-based architect, told VOA.

Masoumi, who has knowledge of ongoing discussions, said that instability in Syria has dissuaded many Iranian developers from investing in the war-torn country.

“Even now, details on how to protect the interests of Iranian investors in Syria are still unclear,” he said.

Since the beginning of Syria’s civil war in 2011, Iran has been a major supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in battling Syrian rebels across the country. Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terror group, and other Tehran-backed Shiite militias have played a major role in recapturing Syrian cities and towns from rebel forces.

Foothold in Syria

As the war is waning, Iran wants to keep a strong footing in Syria by urging Iranian construction companies to invest in the war-torn country.

“The projected location of these buildings is several parts of Damascus suburbs, where massive destruction has taken place,” a Syrian journalist, who requested anonymity because of fears from the Syrian regime, told VOA.

“The Syrian regime doesn’t make such things public,” he added. 

He said that he has witnessed some Iranian business groups exploring destroyed parts of Damascus, adding that Tehran has already been involved in several other housing projects in Homs and Latakia provinces.

Syrian regime troops, supported by allied Iranian forces and Russia, regained full control of eastern Damascus in 2018 after nearly five years of fighting with rebel groups.

Iranian officials say that more investments in countries like Syria would help ease some financial pressure on Iran from the international sanctions imposed on the government.

“This is a great way of increasing international turnover and benefiting from our capabilities in terms of construction overseas,” said Rahbar, of Iran’s Mass Construction Society.

Experts said Iranian companies would shift their focus to places like Syria since a large number of Iranian investors have been barred from working in the U.A.E. and other Gulf countries, due to inability to transfer money using international banks after recent U.S. sanctions on additional Iranian entities.

“There are quite many methods Iranians have learned to subvert sanctions,” Masoumi said. “But a big project like this needs a great banking support between both [Syrian and Iranian] governments.”

During several visits by Syrian officials to Tehran, including a recent one by Assad, large investments and increased financial cooperation between the two allies have been one of the major points of discussion, local news reports said.

The role of cleric

In Damascus, Iran has reportedly relied on a prominent Shiite cleric, Abdullah Nazzam, to arrange its real estate dealings. Using his religious authority in Damascus and ties with the Syrian government, he has persuaded residents to sell their properties to Iranian businessmen.

While Iran — a Shiite-majority country — continues to build itself as one of the major players in Syria’s future reconstruction, it also wants to carry out a systematic demographic change in many parts of Damascus and elsewhere in Syria, some experts charge.

“Iran is exploiting the fact that many Syrians, who are mostly Sunnis, have become extremely poor because of the war, and so it is offering them high prices for their properties that they can’t refuse,” said Musallam Talas, a professor of economics at Mardin Artuklu University in Turkey.

Talas told VOA the reason Iran is largely focusing on the housing sector in Syria is the fact that Iranian officials are well aware of how significant rebuilding that sector would be in the future.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the cost of reconstruction in Syria is almost $400 billion. Nearly 65 percent of that amount would go to the housing sector, according to IMF data.
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