Government challenges hardliners’ repression of environmental activists


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Iran’s Environment Department head says environmental activists detained since January on espionage charges have not committed any offense.

Isa Kalantari said on Tuesday that the conclusion had been reached by a panel including the Justice, Interior, and Intelligence Ministers and President Rouhani’s legal deputy.

“This four-member group has come to the conclusion that these detained individuals are in custody without having done anything and naturally they must be freed soon,” Kalantari said.

At least seven environmentalists and wildlife activists — some reports say the number is higher — were seized. Judiciary officials claimed that the activists were gathering sensitive information for foreign governments, but some observers speculate that they were imprisoned over research into the extent of Iran’s damaged environment amid years of drought and erosion.

Iranian-Canadian professor Kavous Seyed-Emami, the head of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, died in Evin Prison in suspicious circumstances after he was detained on January 24. Iranian authorities say he committed suicide, but his family disputes the claim.

The deputy head of the Environment Department, Kaveh Madani, was briefly detained and reportedly kept under surveillance after his release. He left Iran last month.

Madani, an academic at Imperial College London, said last year he had returned to Iran “to create hope” and pave the way for the return of other expatriates.


US Sanctions 5 More Iranians, Over Support of Yemen’s Houthis

The US Treasury has sanctioned five more Iranians, this time over support of Yemen’s Houthi insurgency.

The Treasury claimed that four of the five, either for their own purposes or on behalf of the Qods Force of the Revolutionary Guards, provided “ballistic missile-related technical expertise” to the Houthis, who control the Yemeni capital Sana’a and much of the country. The fifth target, Sayyed Mohammad Ali Haddadnezhad Tehrani, allegedly helped finance the Revolutionary Guards.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement:

Their actions have enabled the Huthis to launch missiles at Saudi cities and oil infrastructure. They have also disrupted humanitarian aid efforts in Yemen, and threatened freedom of navigation in key regional waterways.

The United States will not tolerate Iranian support for Huthi rebels who are attacking our close partner, Saudi Arabia. All countries in the region should be on guard to prevent Iran from sending its personnel, weapons, and funds in support of its proxies in Yemen.

The Houthis took control of Sana’a in late 2014.In March 2015, Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a military intervention to try and take back territory on behalf of the Yemeni Government, now based in the southern port city of Aden. Since then, thousands of civilians have been killed while millions are at risk from shortages of food, medicine, and other essentials, accentuated by Saudi-led blockades.