Iran’s police chief on Saturday accused the Voice of America (VOA) and the BBC of being the arms of US and British intelligence agencies and warned of severe repercussions for journalists and activists caught having contacts with them, state media reported.
General Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, whose police forces have played a key role in the government crackdown on protesters since Iran’s disputed presidential election, was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying opposition activists have cooperated with the BBC and the Voice of America “with the aim of weakening and overthrowing the [ruling] system.”
“The BBC is the arm of MI6 [Britain’s foreign intelligence agency] and VOA belongs to the CIA,” IRNA quoted Moghaddam as saying. “Those who cooperate with foreign services through transmitting photos, reports, news and anti-revolutionary actions ... should know that all their actions are monitored.”
“We will settle accounts with them when the time comes,” Moghaddam said.
Tehran has repeatedly accused the US and Britain of fueling the country’s post-election unrest in a bid to oust Iran’s clerical rulers. It also frequently accuses its opponents of being in league with the country’s enemies and Moghaddam’s comments appear to be part of Tehran’s efforts to discredit the opposition by linking them with foreign powers.
The Voice of America and the BBC, which are funded by the US and British governments respectively, have their own Persian radio and TV services, which many Iranians tune in to despite a ban on satellite dishes and government attempts to jam the airwaves.
Last month, a top Iranian Intelligence Ministry official banned Iranians from having any contact with 60 foreign news organizations, Iranian opposition Web sites, human rights groups and non-governmental organizations. The official accused the media of provoking street riots in Iran.
The intelligence official, who was not identified by name, specifically mentioned VOA and BBC as well as a dozen other Persian-language opposition radios and news Web sites, saying the government would consider cooperation with the news outlets as collaboration with the nation’s enemies.
Moghaddam also vowed to crush possible opposition protests during celebrations for the Persian New Year next month.
Iranians regard the holiday as a chance to purify the soul for the new year, or Nowruz, which begins on March 21. Opposition supporters say they may hold street protests to coincide with the event.
Iran’s opposition used a religious holiday in late December to rally its supporters, holding massive demonstrations in the streets of Tehran. On that day, at least eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and demonstrators in the worst bloodshed since the height of the unrest last summer.
The turmoil erupted last June after Iran’s disputed presidential election. The opposition claimed that its leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, was the rightful winner and that hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s win was fraudulent.
The opposition says more than 80 protesters were killed in the post-election crackdown, although the government puts the number of confirmed dead at less than 40.
Also on Saturday, the personal Web site of a senior opposition figure, Mahdi Karroubi, appeared to be hacked by a group calling itself the “Sun Army.” Instead of the page’s regular content, the group posted its name and a photo of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as well as his successor — now Iran’s current leader — Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A text posted on a black background called Karroubi a “puppet sheik and traitor to Islamic Iran.”
Iranian authorities have blocked Karroubi Web sites and those of his party in the past. The Internet is the opposition leaders’ main form of communication with their supporters.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
RSS