Iranian Girls Burned in 2012 School Fire Protest for Aid in Tehran

07/20/18

By Shahram Bahraminejad & Michael Lipin, VOA

A group of Iranian girls who suffered severe burns in a 2012 school fire have staged a protest in Tehran to draw attention to what they say are broken promises of government aid.



Read Article by Aftab Yazd daily

An Iranian lawyer representing the 11 girls sent VOA Persian several images showing them and their supporters gathered outside the compound of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday. One sign held by the girls said they were "fed up" with waiting for authorities to pay for medical treatment that they still need for injuries sustained in the December 5, 2012, accidental fire at an elementary school in the northwestern town of Shinabad. Another sign said the girls, who are from a predominantly ethnic Kurdish part of Iran, consider medical treatment to be an inalienable right.

The girls' Tehran-based lawyer, Hossein Ahmadiniaz, told VOA Persian that they have been in the capital for a week while seeking meetings with Iran's education and health ministers but have been turned down. He said they decided to rally near President Rouhani's office on Wednesday to protest the apparent ministerial snubs.

WATCH: Iranian school fire survivors voice their complaints outside President Rouhani's compound in Tehran

In a video clip sent by Ahmadiniaz, a girl who identifies herself as Ameneh Raad holds the camera, pointing it at the other girls with the signs and saying: "We, the Shinabad students are gathered near the doors of the presidential office because our medical treatment has stopped and our only request is to meet with the president. The authorities did not fulfill their promises."

There was no immediate government reaction to the protest in Iranian state media.

The Shinabad school fire broke out in a faulty oil stove being used during winter to heat a classroom of girls ages 6 to 10. A staff member attempted to remove the stove while the students were still in the room and it exploded, causing injuries that killed two girls and left 26 other children suffering burns. Some of the surviving girls still need reconstructive surgery more than five years after the incident.

In December 2017, overseas rights groups published reports quoting Ahmadiniaz as complaining that the Iranian government was not providing a full blood money payment known as "Diyah" to the surviving girls or to the families of the two girls who died. Under Iran's Islamic laws, Diyah is paid as financial compensation to victims or heirs of a victim in cases of murder, bodily harm or property damage. But Iran's Diyah for women is half the value of that provided for men.

In an interview with the U.S.-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, Ahmadiniaz said the government was offering only half of a blood money payment to the Shinabad school victims because they were girls and called that "discriminatory and unfair."

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA's Persian Service.

About the author: Michael Lipin covers international news for VOA on the web, radio and TV, specializing in the Middle East and East Asia Pacific. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Lipin</s>The Trump administration had requested a meeting with Iran's Hassan Rouhani eight times, but was turned down by the Iranian side, Rouhani's chief-of-staff has said. Experts say a meeting would be a loss of face for the Iranians.A Trump-Rouhani meeting might have happened on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in September last year, had the Iranians been willing. The fact that Iran had refused the meeting was long-known, but the number of times US requests were rejected was not - until Mahmoud Vaezi mentioned it after an Iranian cabinet meeting on Wednesday."During Rouhani's last visit to New York for the UN General Assembly session, Trump asked the Iranian delegation eight times to have a meeting with the president," he told reporters as cited by Iran's Mehr news agency.If true, it may indicate the sheer scale of Iran's animosity towards Trump -. The US has since withdrawn from a multiparty nuclear deal with Iran against the wishes of other participants and introduced harsh economic sanctions. It's currently lobbying its allies to cut all business ties with Iran, a development which is likely to push Iran into abandoning the 2015 agreement as well.During his speech before the UN General Assembly, Trump lashed out at Tehran, branding it a "corrupt dictatorship behind the false guise of a democracy" and an "economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos.", Zeinab Ghasemi Tari, assistant professor of American Studies at the University of Tehran, told RT.: no sovereign country would like to be seen backing down to open threat and bullying," she said.Fellow Iranian academic, professor of political science Hamed Mousavi agreed with Tari. "Why should Iran negotiate and engage with an administration that is so hostile and irrational in its approach towards the country? We also have to consider the fact that there is a lot of mistrust regarding the US within Iran due to American foreign policy in the Middle East during the past seven decades.."Trump's requests, however many there were, could hardly be accepted by the Iranian side, coming out of the blue, Thierry Coville, research fellow at the French research organization IRIS told RT. A meeting with any US president would be regarded as a very sensitive subject in Iran, considering the long record of hostility between the two, and would require careful preparation and negotiation between stakeholders in Iran to ever come true, he explained."Everyone who knows Iran knows they could not have accepted. In Iran such a decision needs consensus," he said."Meetings between heads of states must be prepared in advance, from Iran's point of view. Agendas and ways to deescalate possible conflict should be discussed in advance. I believe no preparatory work of this kind happened," said Irina Fedorova, senior fellow with the Institute of Oriental Studies. "The Iranian leadership would not want an empty meeting that boils down to taking a lecture from the US."</s>TEHRAN, July 19 — The chief of staff to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said yesterday that his US counterpart Donald Trump asked for a meeting eight times during the UN General Assembly last year.

“During Rouhani’s last visit to New York for the UN General Assembly session, Trump asked the Iranian delegation eight times to have a meeting with the president,” Mahmoud Vaezi told reporters yesterday, according to the conservative Mehr news agency.

He said the Iranian team had not responded to the requests, which came just after Trump announced he would no longer certify Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal — setting the scene for his eventual withdrawal from the pact in May.

“We have a transparent policy and clear position with regard to our relations with the US... that (we) will not yield to pressure,” Vaezi said.

Tehran said back in October that Trump had requested a sit-down with his Iranian counterpart during the UN meeting, but the claim of numerous requests had not previously been made.

Trump has said he is open to talks on a new deal with Iran that goes beyond its nuclear programme to include its regional behaviour and missile defences.

Iran has said there is no chance of a renegotiation and is working with European and Asian partners to find ways around US nuclear-related sanctions that will be reimposed in the coming months as part of Washington’s withdrawal from the 2015 agreement.

A Trump-Rouhani meeting would have been the first between the presidents of the two countries since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution. — AFP</s>TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s chief of staff claims the president rejected eight requests from President Donald Trump last year for one-on-one talks.

It’s the latest comment from Tehran suggesting Iran isn’t prepared to embark on bilateral negotiations with Washington.

Trump earlier this year pulled America out of the international deal meant to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. He said last week that with increased American sanctions, “at a certain point they’re going to call me and say ‘let’s make a deal.”‘

State-owned IRAN newspaper quoted Rouhani’s chief of staff Mahmoud Vaezi saying Thursday that “it’s been the reverse, so far,” with Trump seeking to initiate talks.

He says Iran rejected the requests from the U.S. for the two presidents to meet at last year’s UN General Assembly meeting.</s>Iranian President Hassan Rouhani received eight requests from his US counterpart for a meeting, presidential chief of staff Mahmoud Vaezi announced on Wednesday.

Vaezi said US President Donald Trump’s requests were made during Rouhani’s visit to New York for a United Nations General Assembly meeting in September 2017, according to Xinhua.

He did not elaborate, however, about Rouhani’s response to Trump’s meeting invitation.

In September 2013, Rouhani and former US President Barack Obama talked over the phone during the 68th annual session of the UN General Assembly. It was the highest-level contact between the two countries in more than three decades.</s>On June 30, several European authorities thwarted an attack on the annual Free Iran rally organized by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Considering that Assadollah Assadi, the intelligence station chief at the Iranian embassy in Vienna, was arrested along with two would-be bombers, it is abundantly clear that the plot was masterminded in Tehran. While Tehran tried to depict the foiled plot as a "false flag" operation by the opposition, the claim was rejected as ridiculous by a senior US State Department official. In fact, the opposition's intelligence from inside the Islamic Republic determined that the decision to undertake an attack on the rally was made months earlier by the highest Iranian authorities, including both Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani.

The foiled plot was the most significant Iranian terrorist undertaking in recent years, but not the only one. In March, another plot was thwarted in Albania, where there is a sizeable presence of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the main Iranian opposition group and leading constituent of the NCRI coalition.

Terrorist attacks by Iranian operatives and their proxies date back to the 1980s and 1990s. Tehran's behavior has not changed in any meaningful way over the years. Over roughly the past two years, there have been multiple reports of German authorities disrupting efforts by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force to spy on individuals and groups with links to Israel as well as on MEK activists.

The unraveling of the plots in Albania and France, coming just three months apart, strongly suggest that Iran is stepping up its operations in Europe. This is unsurprising in light of the domestic conditions inside the Islamic Republic, especially when one considers that both plots targeted the NCRI and MEK. The Paris attack would have set off 500 grams of TATP explosive within a crowd of roughly 100,000 and in the presence of hundreds of European and American dignitaries. Its planning began very soon after Iran experienced a mass uprising that took the clerical regime by surprise with explicit calls for regime change.

The larger protest movement was given a boost in March when NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi marked the Iranian New Year holiday of Nowruz by praising the nationwide uprising and urging pro-democracy activists to turn the year ahead into "a year full of uprisings." This statement came right around the time that Albanian authorities made their arrest of would-be terrorists operating on behalf of the Islamic Republic. Protests have continued in different shapes and forms throughout 2018.

The regime's authorities, including Supreme Leader Khamenei, have variously acknowledged the leading role of the MEK since the protests began. These statements leave little doubt about Tehran's desperation to disrupt the pro-democracy movement both at home and abroad.

In pursuit of that goal, they are even willing to awaken sleeper cells and put their major diplomats at risk. The foiled plot in France came at a time when Tehran was trying to woo Europeans to stay in the nuclear deal as a last ditch effort to prevent the Iranian economy from collapsing as a result of new US sanctions. It vividly illustrated the ayatollahs' paranoid towards Mrs. Rajavi's movement as a viable, democratic alternative to the regime in Tehran.

The new spate of terrorism also undermines the false distinction, pushed by some in Europe, between Supreme Leader and Rouhani and his foreign minister Zarif when it comes to use of terrorism to advance their objectives.

Of course, the perception of their differences will not be much disrupted if European authorities remain generally quiet about the plots they have foiled in recent months. Unfortunately, this is just what they have done so far. It is an unconscionable decision, and one that threatens to shield terrorist masterminds from justice and from public scrutiny. In the first place, it puts lives at risk by downplaying the terror threat and by avoiding public pressure for a more serious political response. And in the second place, it represents the nations of Europe turning their backs on the democratic principles that are embodied by the targets of the most recent would-be attacks.

Iran's malign behavior in Europe clearly validates the tough American approach to Iran policy. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was spot on last week when he accused Iran of using its embassies to plot terrorist attacks in Europe.

The NCRI and its constituent groups are sure to be targeted on European soil once again in the future, unless European governments break their silence and take serious action to disrupt the years-old terrorist networks operating under diplomatic cover in Austria, Germany, France, and perhaps the entirety of the European Union.

In the face of that threat, EU member states should seriously consider shutting down Iranian embassies or expelling diplomats who may well be associated with the IRGC Quds Force or the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence. In discussing the disruption of the Paris plot, a spokesperson for the Belgian judiciary acknowledged that "practically all employees of Iranian embassies are part of the Iranian Secret Service." Yet political figures throughout Europe remain wary of saying such things out loud. This pattern of silence must come to an end, lest the threat grows still worse for European citizens as well as Iran's pro-democracy opposition movement.

Ken Blackwell was a Domestic Policy Advisor to the Trump/Pence Presidential Transition Team. He is a Senior Advisor to Securing America's Future Energy.

Engaging views and analysis from outside contributors on the issues affecting society and faith today. 

CP VOICES do not necessarily reflect the views of The Christian Post. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s).</s>TEHRAN: The chief of staff to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that his US counterpart Donald Trump asked for a meeting eight times during the UN General Assembly last year.

“During Rouhani’s last visit to New York for the UN General Assembly session, Trump asked the Iranian delegation eight times to have a meeting with the president,” Mahmoud Vaezi told reporters on Wednesday, according to the conservative Mehr news agency.

He said the Iranian team had not responded to the requests, which came just after Trump announced he would no longer certify Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal — setting the scene for his eventual withdrawal from the pact in May.

“We have a transparent policy and clear position with regard to our relations with the US... that (we) will not yield to pressure,” Vaezi said. Tehran said back in October that Trump had requested a sit-down with his Iranian counterpart during the UN meeting, but the claim of numerous requests had not previously been made.

Trump has said he is open to talks on a new deal with Iran that goes beyond its nuclear programme to include its regional behaviour and missile defences. Iran has said there is no chance of a renegotiation and is working with European and Asian partners to find ways around US nuclear-related sanctions that will be reimposed in the coming months as part of Washington’s withdrawal from the 2015 agreement.

A Trump-Rouhani meeting would have been the first between the presidents of the two countries since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution. On Tuesday, Iran called on the UN’s top court to order the United States to immediately lift sanctions re-imposed by President Donald Trump in May claiming they are causing “irreparable prejudice,” the tribunal said Tuesday.

Tehran filed its case with the International Court of Justice on Monday arguing that the renewed sanctions, which had been lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal, violate a decades-old treaty between the two old foes.</s>The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, has warned that time is running out for negotiating a permanent agreement on his country's nuclear programme.

Mr Rouhani told a news conference in New York that courageous decisions would be needed if a deal was to be struck by the deadline in late November.</s>On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter that Iran had filed a complaint against the U.S. with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to "hold [the] US accountable for its unlawful re-imposition of unilateral sanctions.”

"Iran is committed to the rule of law in the face of US contempt for diplomacy & legal obligations. It's imperative to counter its habit of violating int'l law," his tweet read. Zarif didn’t provide more details, but Iranian officials have repeatedly claimed that renewed U.S. sanctions against the country are illegal.

President Trump made the controversial move in May to withdraw the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), usually referred to as the Iran nuclear accord.

One of Trump’s campaign pledges during the 2016 presidential election was to pull out of the accord, which he blasted as being one of the worst deals the country has ever made. The deal for Iran to scale back its nuclear enrichment program was spearheaded and reached under President Obama’s administration in 2015, and included the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Russia, China and the EU.

Not only will the U.S. renew sanctions against Iran, but Washington claiming it will up the ante even more. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in May that sanctions were “just the beginning. The sting of sanctions will be painful… These will be the strongest sanctions in history when complete."

Soon after Trump’s announcement at the time, Iran sought help from all quarters, but with scant success. Moreover, it also found little respite with OPEC due to long standing geopolitical tensions with OPEC defacto leader Saudi Arabia. Iran and Saudi Arabia have taken opposing sides in Syria as well as conflict in Yemen. Related: World’s Biggest Oil Trader Launches Renewables Fund

Iran’s EU moves, however, initially gained traction but ultimately fell apart since EU members have waffled under threat of also being shut of the US financial system. Since the US dollar is the world’s reserve currency, the US still carries tremendous power by both sanctions and even the threat of sanctions.

Iran has long downplayed Trump's remarks that renewed US sanctions would zero Iran's oil exports, saying such bombastic rhetoric presents a dream which may never come true. "Mr. Trump has talked a lot and has many wishes but certainly, this claim and attempt to stop and zero exports of Iran's oil is bombastic and impossible," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi told reporters in Tehran on Monday.

At the end of the day, it appears that Tehran may be right. Amid ongoing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, China looks like it will increase its procurement of Iranian oil to offset the impact of U.S. sanctions and to also push back against U.S. tariffs against Chinese imports.

Two days after Iran said that it started ICJ proceedings against the U.S., a high-ranking Iranian official said that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had rebuffed eight requests from Trump to meet at the United Nations in New York last September, after Trump made a critical speech against Tehran at the UN General Assembly. Related: Is The U.S. Overly Dependent On Russian Oil?

"During the previous round of his visit to New York for the UN General Assembly (conference), Trump extended 8 requests to the Iranian team for talks and meeting with President Rouhani," Iranian President's Chief of Staff Mahmoud Vaezi told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Tehran.

Iran is OPEC’s third largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia and Iraq, producing around 3.8 million barrels of oil per month, according to some estimates. Re-imposed sanctions could remove as much as 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian oil from global markets, even up to 1 million bpd, depending on whose forecast you use.

The clock for renewed sanctions against Iran started ticking on May 8 when Trump signed the executive order. The presidential memo kicked off a 180-day countdown timer for the White House to re-impose all of the sanctions on Iran that were relaxed under the Obama-era deal.
• None Oil Prices Slip As OPEC+ Compliance Falls To 120 Percent In June</s>Iran may block oil tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz in response to possible US sanctions over the country's nuclear programme.

US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of a 2015 deal signed by President Obama.

The international accord allowed experts to inspect Iranian nuclear sites. Tehran also agreed to reduce its stocks of enriched nuclear material.

Trump has threatened to impose sanctions on Iran. In response, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said Tehran could block oil tankers using the narrow Strait of Hormuz - cutting off supplies from the Gulf.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei backed his president and said: 'If Iran's oil is not exported, no regional country's oil will be exported.

Rouhani's apparent threat earlier this month to disrupt oil shipments from neighbouring countries came in reaction to looming US sanctions and efforts by Washington to force all countries to stop buying Iranian oil.

Iranian officials have in the past threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route, in retaliation for any hostile US action.

Khamenei used a speech to foreign ministry officials to reject any renewed talks with the United States after President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from a 2015 international deal over Iran's nuclear programme.

Khamenei added: 'The word and even the signature of the Americans cannot be relied upon, so negotiations with America are of no avail.

He claimed it would be an 'obvious mistake' to negotiate with the United States as Washington was unreliable.
Outside President Hassan Rouhani's office in Tehran, a group of Iranian girls severely burned in a 2012 school fire protest unequal diyah by the government toward their medical bills, which some say is an inalienable right. Their lawyer says Iran's policy of paying half diyah to women is "unfair and discriminatory".